Tick tock: The Trump administration granted Columbia a one-day extension to implement a series of policy changes in order to enter into talks with administration officials about restoring hundreds of millions in lost grant money, our Jessica Costescu and Jessica Schwalb report. Originally, Columbia had until close of business Thursday to respond. The deadline is now the close of business today.
The extension isn’t a slam dunk for Columbia, which requested a two-day extension, the Department of Education told us in a statement. Still, the move suggests the school is scrambling to make at least some concessions as it works to claw back $430 million in federal funds and prevent more cuts moving forward.
Columbia’s agreement to the administration’s demands won’t guarantee the restoration of those funds. Instead, it will unlock what the administration calls a “conversation about immediate and long-term structural reforms that will return Columbia to its original mission of innovative research and academic excellence.” And that seems like a tall and time-consuming task.
READ MORE: Trump Admin Grants Columbia One-Day Extension To Implement Reforms
From Doha with hate: It’s no secret that Qatar and other Middle Eastern donors have funneled billions of dollars into U.S. colleges and universities—and institutions that take the money just happen to experience 300 percent more anti-Semitic incidents than those that don’t. Enter the Trump administration, which is weighing sanctions on foreign funders driving pro-Hamas campus protests.
The effort, current and former officials familiar with it tell our Adam Kredo, “seeks to build upon President Donald Trump’s January executive order authorizing the deportation of foreign students engaged in often illegal anti-Semitic demonstrations on college campuses across the country. Instead of targeting the protests’ participants, it would target their funders. The administration could, for example, slap sanctions on foreign individuals who provide groups like Students for Justice in Palestine with significant funding. In cases where those individuals enjoy U.S. visas, it could revoke them.”
Marco Rubio has made similar moves targeting other malign actors, issuing visa restrictions on foreign officials who facilitate illegal immigration to the United States as well as Chinese officials complicit in the CCP’s genocide in Xinjiang. Prominent Qatari officials known to maintain relations with Hamas—like former prime minister of Doha Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani and former Qatari emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who co-own the luxurious Maybourne Beverly Hills hotel—may be next.
READ MORE: Trump Administration Weighs Sanctions on Foreign Funders of Pro-Hamas Campus Protests
Nothing to see here: ABC News on Wednesday said its reports had a big scoop. The IDF—or “occupation forces,” as the outlet put it—had dropped leaflets throughout Gaza with “harrowing messages” warning residents of their “forced displacement” and telling them “the world map will not change if all the people of Gaza vanish.”
The use of the term “occupation forces,” which is what Hamas calls the IDF, wasn’t the only major problem with the piece. There was no evidence at all pointing to the authenticity of the leaflets, and the IDF denied dropping them. ABC said as much in an update note retracting the claim, though the note did not refer to the “occupation forces” verbiage.
A whopping four ABC reporters were listed as the authors on the original piece. Of those four, only one, Jordana Miller, routinely covers Israel. Miller has a long history of taking shots at Bibi Netanyahu, accusing him of “authoritarian tendencies” in a 2020 tweet. When ABC retracted the leaflet claim, it removed Miller’s byline from the story, as well as that of Tom Soufi Burridge, a France-based reporter. Nadine El-Bawab, who mainly reports on U.S. abortion laws, is still listed as an author, as is London-based reporter David Brennan. Curious.
READ MORE: ABC News Retracts Claim That Israeli ‘Occupation Forces’ Dropped ‘Harrowing’ Leaflet in Gaza
Not just campaign cash: Cori Bush paid her husband, Cortney Merritts, more than $150,000 in campaign funds to work as her private “bodyguard.” The DOJ launched an investigation into that arrangement last year. On Thursday, federal prosecutors charged Merritts for an entirely different grift.
Bush’s husband, the DOJ said in a press release, allegedly defrauded the federal government out of tens of thousands of dollars by filing false applications to obtain COVID relief funds. First, he said he employed 10 people and needed $10,000 to cover their salaries. A year later, he said the same business needed another $21,000. The Small Business Administration forgave the loan. Merritts used the money “for his personal benefit and enjoyment.”
READ MORE: Cori Bush’s Husband Indicted for Wire Fraud, Allegedly Submitted False Applications To Obtain COVID Relief Funds
Away from the Beacon:
- Four liberal youth groups sent a memo to Chuck Schumer giving him a “wake-up call”: “Prove you’re on our side” and “give us something to vote for” or “make way for leadership who will.” Go off, Gen Z.
- The Trump administration sanctioned another 22 individuals and entities known for helping Iran export and sell illicit oil to fund terrorism. Polaris National Security executive director Gabriel Noronha observes: “Trump has now imposed more Iran sanctions in two months than Biden did in his first 20 months.”
- Bipartisanship we can get behind: Bibi Netanyahu presented John Fetterman with a silver pager inscribed with the following message: “To Senator Fetterman, the man who stands against the current.”
- How is J.D. Vance differentiating himself from his predecessor, Kamala Harris? “Well, I don’t have four shots of vodka before every meeting,” he told Vince Coglianese.
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