Israel, Syrian leaders agree to ceasefire, U.S. envoy says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa "have agreed to a ceasefire" also backed by neighbors Turkey and Jordan, said Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey who is also point man on Syria, in a social media post.
"We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity in peace and prosperity with its neighbors," Barrack wrote on X.
Israel on Wednesday bombed locations in the Syrian capital Damascus, including on the country's defense ministry.
Israel said it was defending the Druze community after deadly clashes between the minority, which has a presence in Israel, and Bedouins in the southern Syrian province of Sweida.
Some diplomats and analysts see Israel as maximizing the damage it can to weaken its historic adversary Syria, after Sharaa's Islamist forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, an Iranian ally, in December.
The United States on Wednesday announced a deal in which Syrian government forces pulled back from Sweida.
The State Department later said that the U.S. did not support the airstrikes by Israel, its ally, which relies on U.S. diplomatic and military support.
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Education Secretary Linda McMahon says Columbia deal is a 'cultural change' for universities
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Thursday told ABC News she is "incredibly pleased" with the $220 million deal the Trump administration struck with Columbia University. "It's a cultural change for the campus," McMahon told ABC News after months of negotiations over Trump administration allegations about Columbia's handling of antisemitism amid protests against the Israel-Hamas war and alleged failure to do enough to stop the harassment of Jewish students. "We are hoping this is a template for other universities, that our universities will be returned to places where students are safe on campus," she said. McMahon noted that she believes Wednesday's deal creates room for open debate and dialogue at the New York City university, where all viewpoints and ideologies can be expressed at the school. "That's what universities are all about," she said. The secretary pushed back on criticism that the department is attempting to restrict academic freedom and the federal government has committed executive overreach in its federal funding feuds with universities. "The Education Department, and certainly the administration, is not in any way trying to dictate curriculum studies or any of that," McMahon told ABC News. "But what the administration did say is, there must be a level playing field." "There has to be both sides that, you know, are represented on campuses," she said. To fulfill one element of the deal, which will see Columbia pay a $200 million settlement to the federal government over three years, the university said it would assure compliance with admissions and hiring practices, effectively banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies at the school. However, the school said it did not violate civil rights laws for discriminating on the basis of race, sex, origin or other characteristics. "As part of the settlement, the University has not admitted wrongdoing and does not agree with the government's conclusion that it violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act," Acting Columbia President Claire Shipman wrote in a statement. The deal restores nearly half a billion dollars in education grants and contracts at the Ivy League institution that the school said funds critical research projects. The Trump administration's joint task force on antisemitism enacted the federal funding freeze in March after a task force investigation said they found inaction by the school to protect Jewish students. Despite the new deal, there's still criticism from some Jewish students who say they are disappointed it doesn't go far enough. Recent Columbia graduate Eden Yadegar told ABC News it is not as strong as the universities' "initial commitments" from earlier this year. "It's critical to keep fighting for Jewish students at Columbia and campuses across the country through all possible avenues; we have a lot more work to do," Yadegar said. Columbia did acknowledge that "Jewish students and faculty have experienced painful, unacceptable incidents, and that reform was and is needed." McMahon stressed that Jewish students will now be protected on Columbia's campus as the university has vowed to continue its efforts to combat antisemitism by submitting reports to a federal monitor twice a year. "I think that Jewish students can feel safe on campus -- that was not there before," she said. "I'm very pleased with the agreement, and I think it's a win for everyone." Taking a victory lap for the Trump administration during multiple television interviews on Thursday, McMahon said this was "quite an accomplishment" for the president's efforts to root out alleged antisemitic harassment on university campuses in the wake of widespread demonstrations protesting the conflict in Israel. "It's a great win for education and for the administration," McMahon said. "This wouldn't have happened if Donald Trump had not been elected. I truly believe that." The deal comes as McMahon has said in recent weeks that her department was "negotiating hard" with Columbia and Harvard University. Harvard's negotiations over more than $2 billion dollars in frozen federal funding are stuck in the courts, but McMahon said that discussions are ongoing concurrently. involving transgender athletes competing in women's sports.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Few seem to love Columbia's deal with Trump
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USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Where did Trump's children go to college? See which schools they attended
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has steadily escalated his administration's battles against several elite universities, threatening billions in federal funding, challenging First Amendment protections, and stoking broader conversations over academic freedoms. Columbia University said on July 23 it reached a $200 million settlement with the Trump administration to halt federal investigations into alleged civil rights violations over on-campus Israel-Hamas war protests. Meanwhile, Harvard University is embroiled in a court case in a bid to win back more than $2 billion in federal funding for research the Trump administration froze, claiming the university has failed to address antisemitism. The administration has announced pauses or threatened to revoke federal funding to other top universities as well. They include Brown, Cornell, Northwestern, Princeton and the alma mater of the president himself and three of his five children, the University of Pennsylvania. Where did Trump's children go to college? Trump's youngest son, Barron Trump, broke family tradition when he chose New York University for his undergraduate studies, where he currently attends. Trump's other children either went to Georgetown or the University of Pennsylvania. Donald Trump Jr. went to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. He graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science in economics with a concentration in marketing and real estate, according to the university paper. Ivanka Trump, the president's eldest daughter, graduated from the same college in 2004, also with a bachelor's degree in economics. She did spend her first two years of college at McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Eric Trump graduated from Georgetown University in 2006, making him the second of Trump's children to not attend his alma mater. Eric earned a degree in finance and management. Tiffany Trump resumed the family tradition when she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in sociology in 2016, before attending Georgetown Law School. She graduated in 2020 with her Juris Doctor. Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her atkapalmer@ and on X @KathrynPlmr.
