Lucky for Democrats, they picked the least-worst time to be unpopular
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CNN
32 minutes ago
- CNN
UCLA loses federal research funding in administration's ongoing fight with top universities
Race & ethnicityFacebookTweetLink Follow UCLA is the latest major institution of higher learning to see promised research funding snatched away by the Trump administration, the university's leader said in an open letter to students and faculty Thursday. 'This is not only a loss to the researchers who rely on critical grants,' wrote Chancellor Julio Frenk. 'It is a loss for Americans across the nation whose work, health, and future depend on the groundbreaking work we do.' Grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health are included in the suspensions, Frenk said, but did not provide an amount of how much funding is in peril. The Los Angeles Times reported that roughly $200 million in grants awarded to UCLA are being suspended, citing a partial list of suspended grants provided to them by a source. A spokesperson for the National Science Foundation declined to provide specific figures, saying grant awards are being suspended 'because they are not in alignment with current NSF priorities and/or programmatic goals.' 'We will not fund institutions that promote antisemitism,' said a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the National Institutes of Health. 'We will use every tool we have to ensure institutions follow the law.' The Trump administration has repeatedly cited antisemitism – especially in the context of contentious pro-Gaza protests on campuses – as a reason to deny promised funds to universities, including Harvard and Columbia. Harvard is fighting the funding decisions in court, while Columbia agreed to a settlement with the government that restored its grants. The funding cut comes days after the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced it found UCLA in violation of federal law by 'acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.' While the formal notice to UCLA said the federal government 'now seeks to enter into a voluntary resolution agreement,' Attorney General Pam Bondi sounded less conciliatory. 'DOJ will force UCLA to pay a heavy price for putting Jewish Americans at risk and continue our ongoing investigations into other campuses in the UC system,' Bondi said in a statement. It is not just the Trump administration that has tangled with UCLA over charges of antisemitism. A group of Jewish students filed suit against the university last June, saying the school allowed discrimination against Jews to flourish following Israel's military operation in Gaza in response to the October 7 attacks. The lawsuit said UCLA leaders waited days before responding to a group of pro-Palestinian protesters that refused to allow students to enter campus unless they agreed to 'a statement pledging their allegiance to the activists' views.' UCLA settled the lawsuit earlier this week for $6.45 million, with more than $2 million of the total going to designated 'organizations that combat antisemitism and support the UCLA Jewish community.' UCLA also agreed it is prohibited from 'knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students, faculty, and/or staff' from university programs and activities.
American Military News
35 minutes ago
- American Military News
Video/Pic: Trump demands drug companies lower prices
President Donald Trump sent 17 pharmaceutical companies letters on Thursday and demanded that the companies lower prices for Americans. The president warned that the 'unacceptable burden' of prescription drug prices will 'end' with his administration. During a press briefing on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, 'The president signed an executive order earlier this year to solve the problem of exorbitant pharmaceutical pricing.' 'According to recent data, the prices that Americans have been paying for brand-name drugs are more than three times the price other similarly developed nations pay,' Leavitt added. 'The president is determined to solve this problem and took further action today. He has signed 17 letters to pharmaceutical companies' CEOs.' .@PressSec reads one of the letters sent by @POTUS today to the CEOs of pharmaceutical companies: "Moving forward, the only thing I will accept from drug manufacturers is a commitment that provides American families immediate relief from the vastly inflated drug prices…" — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 31, 2025 Leavitt also shared the letter Trump wrote to the CEO of Eli Lilly and Company. In the letter, Trump warned Eli Lilly and 16 other pharmaceutical companies that the 'unacceptable burden' of brand-name drugs costing 'up to three times higher on average' for Americans than for citizens of other countries 'ends with my administration.' Trump told the pharmaceutical companies, 'Most proposals the Trump administration has received to resolve this critical issue promised more of the same shifting blame and requesting policy changes that would result in billions of dollars in handouts to industry.' The president added, 'Moving forward, the only thing I will accept from drug manufacturers is a commitment that provides American families immediate relief from the vastly inflated drug prices and an end to the free ride of American innovation by European and other developed nations.' READ MORE: Video: Trump order against 'Big Pharma' aims to reduce drug prices While Trump explained that a collaborative effort to reach 'global pricing parity' would be most effective for pharmaceutical companies, the U.S. government, and U.S. patients, he warned that his administration will 'deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families' if pharmaceutical companies refuse to take action. In addition to the letter sent to Eli Lilly and Company, Trump sent letters to AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Johnson and Johnson, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Novartis, Pfizer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and Sanofi. In the letters, Trump gave the companies 60 days to extend 'Most-Favored-Nation' pricing to Medicaid and provide 'full portfolios' of drugs for Medicaid patients, guarantee Most-Favored-Nation pricing for new drugs, negotiate with 'foreign freeloading nations' and return 'increased revenues abroad' to patients in the United States, and allow Americans to directly purchase drugs at Most-Favored-Nation prices. Today, @POTUS sent letters to 17 drug manufacturers outlining steps they must take to bring down prescription drug prices. If they refuse to step up, the Administration will use every tool to protect Americans from continued abusive drug pricing practices. Letter to Eli Lilly: — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 31, 2025
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Epstein files controversy consuming Capitol Hill has fueled less fire at first lawmaker town halls of summer recess
The Jeffrey Epstein files saga at times all but ground Capitol Hill to a halt last month — driving a wedge between Republicans in the House as Democrats went on offense to press President Donald Trump's Justice Department to release more investigative material. But since returning to their districts for summer recess, lawmakers aren't hearing much about Epstein at public town hall meetings they've hosted so far. The debate that's dominated Washington in recent weeks didn't come up at all in some town halls Republican and Democratic House members have held — including a raucous event Thursday hosted by Wisconsin GOP Rep. Bryan Steil and two more mild-mannered affairs held by Wyoming Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman. During others, it's been the topic of just one or two questions. In Wisconsin on Thursday, Rep. Mark Pocan — a Democrat who hosted a town hall in Prairie du Chien, in neighboring Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden's district — brought up Epstein himself, as part of a response to a question about whether Trump might declare martial law and cancel elections. 'It's a step too far to say you're going to release something and then say, 'No, there's nothing there to look at,'' he said. Only one questioner raised the topic of Epstein — and she did so to call it a distraction. Pocan kept his comments focused largely on the Republican tax and cuts spending bill that Trump signed into law on July Fourth — repeatedly warning that cuts to Medicaid could gut Wisconsin's public health insurance programs and force the state to spend tax dollars filling holes left by the federal government. The Democratic congressman said afterward that's why he mostly avoided talking about Epstein. 'I keep it to economics. I'm an economic, progressive populist. I think that's how most people make decisions when they go to elections. That's how Donald Trump won the election. That's why Donald Trump's doing poor in the polls,' he said. The woman who'd brought up Epstein, Krista Brown, a 38-year-old stay-at-home mother from Viroqua, said she has bigger concerns than Epstein — such as whether steep cuts in staffing at the Department of Education will delay action on a Title IX complaint she'd submitted on behalf of her children, or whether National Weather Service offices will be staffed. 'It has more to do with the things that people need as a foundation than it does about arguing over things that the administration wants us to spend our oxygen on. I'm just not interested in that,' Brown said. 'When you live rural, you care about who's going to plow your goddamn roads — when it's going to get plowed, if the buses can get through, how cold it is, if the weather's going to be reported,' she said. 'That's what matters. And the rest is just going to float away, because pretty soon it's going to get so hard in real life that there's not even going to be time to talk about that.' The relative lack of focus on Epstein at town halls reflects the broader priorities of Americans. A recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS found that the economy and immigration-related concerns are the issues Americans consider most important. The poll also found increased Democratic attention to government spending, concerns about separation of powers and the rule of law, and Trump himself. The amount of information the federal government has released on the Epstein case was an issue that didn't rise to prominence, with just one respondent mentioning it as the most important problem. Still, even if Epstein isn't Americans' top priority, half of respondents said they are dissatisfied with the amount of information released about the Epstein case after the Justice Department released a memo saying there is no evidence the convicted sex offender kept a so-called client list or was murdered. That includes 56% of Democrats, 52% of independents and 40% of Republicans. Democrats, in search of an advantage against Trump and administration officials who pledged prior to taking office to release Epstein-related files, have sought to force the issue. In the Senate this week, ahead of its own recess, Democrats are using an arcane procedural tool to try to force the Justice Department to release all of the files related to Epstein, including audio, video and any other relevant documents. Republican leadership, meanwhile, is eager to stay away from the topic of Epstein. House Speaker Mike Johnson cut legislative business short and sent members home early last week to avoid being forced to hold votes on releasing Epstein-related files. The National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP's campaign arm, encouraged House Republicans in a memo to use the August recess to focus on selling Trump's agenda. 'With the One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law just a few weeks ago, this is a critical opportunity to continue to define how this legislation will help every voter and push back on Democrat fearmongering,' the NRCC memo said. Some House Republicans who have held town halls have been asked about the Epstein files. Utah GOP Rep. Mike Kennedy compared the unreleased Epstein files to 'a festering oil-infected wound with pus underneath' in response to a question about whether he would vote in favor of releasing the documents during a virtual town hall last week. Kennedy pledged to push for 'full transparency' in the matter and that he would 'vote immediately to get all that released,' permitted that the identities of victims are concealed. As Republican Rep. William Timmons of South Carolina fielded questions at a telephone town hall last week, one caller shared his 'outrage' over the Epstein files – asking why the House adjourned 'when this hasn't been dealt with.' 'If there's a group of pedophiles out there who are just getting away with it, this is an outrage, and I don't care who they are. I don't care if they're the president of the United States,' the caller said. Timmons responded that 'there is evil in this world, and we have to protect the innocent, so we need to get to the bottom of it.' 'The president and the attorney general are doing the work necessary to release all of the information,' he said. 'The Republican Congress should not be attacking the president,' the GOP lawmaker said. 'The president has earned our trust, has earned the right for us to defer to him on issues at the executive branch.' But other issues have dominated town halls so far this summer — including the GOP's 'big, beautiful bill,' border security and deportations and federal funding cuts. At a Hageman town hall earlier this week, Jane Sanderson, 75, of Worland, who voted for the congresswoman, asked her why the Department of Government Efficiency's spending cuts hadn't put a dent in the United States' national debt. Timmons, the South Carolina congressman, was asked about health care, tariffs and aviation safety. Trump's golf habits came up as often as Epstein. At the same time Pocan held court in Prairie du Chien, Steil, a three-hour drive away in Elkhorn, was accused of doing Trump's bidding too frequently. 'President Trump seems to run Southeast Wisconsin through you,' one audience member told him. Steil faced criticism over the Trump administration's treatment of undocumented immigrants. He was shouted down as he defended Trump's implementation of tariffs on imports from a host of trading partners. And the town hall ended amid shouting after he began to answer a question about starvation in Gaza — an issue that is splintering the right, as Trump pushes Israel to address the humanitarian crisis as its military actions there continue. 'To me, the easy answer to address this crisis is for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages. That ends the war tomorrow,' Steil said, in a comment that was met with a mix of cheers and shouts of disagreement. 'Israel was unfairly, unjustly attacked, their civilians were killed and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.' CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi, Sarah Davis, Jenna Monnin and Betul Tuncer contributed to this report.
