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Straits Times
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
US Justice Department opens inquiry into University of California hiring practices
The University of California plans to build a university system that more closely reflects the state's racial and ethnic diversity. PHOTO: ALISHA JUCEVIC/NYTIMES WASHINGTON – The Trump administration on June 26 targeted California's education system for the second time in two days, announcing a new Justice Department investigation into whether a plan to build a university system that more closely reflects the state's racial and ethnic diversity violates civil rights laws against discrimination. The investigation was made public just 24 hours after the US Education Department declared that California was breaking federal law by allowing transgender girls to compete on female sports teams. The federal government gave the state 10 days to reverse its policies or face 'imminent enforcement action'. On June 26, the Justice Department's top civil rights attorney Harmeet Dhillon said in a letter to Michael V. Drake, president of the University of California system, that she was focused on the 'University of California 2030 Capacity Plan,' which she said might discriminate against some employees, job applicants and training programme participants. The government's news release about the inquiry said that the university plan required campuses to meet quotas for race- and sex-based employment. The 44-page plan is a three-year-old planning document aimed at expanding enrolment in the University of California system while also 'reflecting California's diversity'. It makes no specific mention of quotas, but does note that future growth of faculty and students should result in campus populations that 'better reflect and tap the talent of underrepresented populations who represent the majority of Californians'. The plan offers parameters on how to achieve that while also meeting Governor Gavin Newsom's goal of 70 per cent of working-age Californians earning post-secondary degrees or certificates by 2030. One goal includes ramping up recruitment efforts so that, by 2030, more than 40 per cent of the University of California system's doctoral students would come from University of California and California State University undergraduate campuses that are diverse enough that the federal government has designated them as 'minority-serving institutions'. Graduates from historically Black colleges and universities and tribal colleges and universities would also count toward that 40 per cent goal. 'We recognise the demand for a UC education is great,' Dr Drake and the university system's 10 chancellors wrote in the introduction of the plan. 'And we know the university needs to tap the talent of students across our state, increasing educational attainment levels and economic opportunities for Californians who have not had the same access to our university in the past.' Ms Rachel Zaentz, a spokesperson for the University of California, said the school would 'work in good faith' with Justice Department investigators. 'The University of California is committed to fair and lawful processes in all of our programmes and activities, consistent with federal and state anti-discrimination laws,' Ms Zaentz said. Since President Donald Trump took office, California has had to contend with multiple threats from his administration to withhold federal funding. The federal targeting of the state education systems also comes as the administration ramps up efforts to realign the political balance of higher education, which the administration views as hostile to conservatives. It has opened investigations into civil rights, foreign funding and other issues at Columbia University, Harvard University and other elite colleges. The Justice Department said in March that it was investigating whether several California universities were complying with the Supreme Court's 2023 decision banning the consideration of race in admissions. That investigation targeted Stanford University but also three schools in the University of California system – Berkeley, Los Angeles and Irvine. California public colleges and universities have been prohibited by state law from using affirmative action in college admissions since 1996. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Trump will make Iran war decision ‘within next two weeks'
US President Donald Trump said in a statement that he wanted to give negotiations a chance. PHOTO: NYTIMES WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump on June 19 said he will decide whether to attack Iran within a fortnight, as Israel and its regional rival continued to trade fire for a seventh day. 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,' Mr Trump said, in a statement read out by his press secretary, Ms Karoline Leavitt. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
07-06-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Buildup to a meltdown: How the Trump-Musk alliance collapsed
The long-awaited breakup between President Donald Trump and Mr Elon Musk was as personal and petty as anticipated, and yet it's a sign of something much more than a conflict between two of the world's most powerful and mercurial men. PHOTO: ERIC LEE/NYTIMES WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump was peeved. Just minutes before he walked into the Oval Office for a televised send-off for Mr Elon Musk last week, an aide had handed him a file. The papers showed that Mr Trump's nominee to run Nasa - a close associate of Mr Musk's - had donated to prominent Democrats in recent years, including some who Mr Trump was learning about for the first time. The president set his outrage aside and mustered through a cordial public farewell. But as soon as the cameras left the Oval Office, the president confronted Mr Musk. He started to read some of the donations out loud, shaking his head. This was not good, Mr Trump said. Mr Musk, who was sporting a black eye that he blamed on a punch from his young son, tried to explain. He said Mr Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur who was set to become the next Nasa administrator, cared about getting things done. Yes, he had donated to Democrats, but so had a lot of people. Maybe it's a good thing, Mr Musk told the president - it shows that you're willing to hire people of all stripes. But Mr Trump was unmoved. He said that people don't change. These are the types of people who will turn, he said, and it won't end up being good for us. The moment of pique was a signal of the simmering tensions between the two men that would explode into the open less than a week later, upending what had been one of the most extraordinary alliances in American politics. This account of the crumbling ties between the president and Mr Musk is based on interviews with 13 people with direct knowledge of the events, all of whom asked for anonymity to describe private discussions. While the relationship had been losing steam over the past several months as Mr Musk clashed with Trump officials, people close to both men said the disagreement over Mr Isaacman accelerated the breakup. Mr Musk had been planning to exit the White House relatively quietly - before Mr Isaacman's ouster left him feeling humiliated. Now the two men, who seemed inseparable at one point, are on opposite sides. Mr Musk suggested Mr Trump should be impeached. Mr Trump has threatened to cancel government contracts with Mr Musk's companies. And in recent days, Mr Trump has been telling people close to him that he believes Mr Musk is acting 'crazy' and must be doing drugs. A tanked nomination For Mr Musk, there were few positions across the thousands in the federal government that mattered more to him than the head of Nasa, because of its critical importance to SpaceX, his rocket business. So it was of great personal benefit to Mr Musk when Mr Trump chose Mr Isaacman, who has flown to space twice with SpaceX, to oversee the agency. Mr Isaacman's donations to Democrats had not always been a problem. While Mr Trump privately told advisers that he was surprised to learn of them, he and his team had been briefed about them during the presidential transition, before Mr Isaacman's nomination, according to two people with knowledge of the events. But by May 30, when Mr Trump went through the file containing details of the donations, he clearly had changed his mind. Mr Musk barely mounted a defence of his friend. He was anxious about doing so with other people around, including Mr Sergio Gor, director of the presidential personnel office, who had clashed with Mr Musk over other staffing matters. Mr Musk believed that he would be able to talk to the president at some point after the gathering, privately. But Mr Musk never got a chance to make his case. In the hours after the Oval Office farewell, Mr Trump decided he would withdraw Mr Isaacman from consideration. Mr Musk was stunned by how fast it all happened. Mr Musk's allies have argued privately that Mr Isaacman's recent donations to Democrats were nonideological and made at the encouragement of Senator Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a former astronaut. A spokesperson for Mr Kelly declined to comment. As Mr Musk dealt with the fallout from the tanked nomination, he spent part of the weekend outside Missoula, Montana, as a guest at 'Symposium', an event for tech executives, investors and startup founders thrown by Founders Fund, the venture capital firm founded by Peter Thiel. After spending a day in Montana, he turned his attention in earnest to assailing the top domestic priority of Mr Trump: the Republican Bill making its way through Congress that would slash taxes and steer more money to the military and immigration enforcement. Privately and publicly, Mr Musk stewed over the Bill, believing that its spending would erase the supposed savings of his Department of Government Efficiency and add to the federal deficit. Some Republican lawmakers had tried to assuage Mr Musk's fears. On June 2, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., walked the billionaire through the Bill and said that Congress would try to codify the work done by Doge. After the call, Mr Johnson told associates that he felt Mr Musk was uninformed about the legislation and the congressional process, but that he had been able to reason with the world's richest man, according to a person familiar with the conversation. On June 2 evening, Mr Musk still had concerns. He hinted at them on his social platform X, reposting a chart apparently showing the yearly increase in the national debt. 'Scary,' Mr Musk wrote as a caption. Mr Trump did not respond to Mr Musk's criticisms of the Bill and maintained a light public schedule. Meltdown The Trump-Musk alliance fully ruptured on June 5, six days after the two men put on the collegial display in the Oval Office. Mr Musk, who had largely focused his attacks on Republicans in Congress, had started directing more ire at the president. So when Mr Trump was asked about Mr Musk's comments during a meeting with Mr Friedrich Merz, the new German chancellor, the president finally let loose. He said he was 'disappointed' in Mr Musk, downplayed the billionaire's financial support for his presidential campaign and posited that Mr Musk developed 'Trump derangement syndrome' after leaving the White House. Mr Musk fired back in real time. Using X, he unleashed a torrent of attacks. He claimed there were references to the president in government documents about Jeffrey Epstein, the sex offender, and indicated his support for the president's impeachment. He also said Mr Trump's tariffs would cause a recession by the end of the year. Later, Mr Trump, using his own social media platform, threatened to cut billions of dollars in federal contracts with Mr Musk's companies. By June 5 evening, Mr Musk signalled he would be open to de-escalating the fight, while the president seemed to have little interest in an immediate reconciliation. White House officials said Mr Trump had no plans to call Mr Musk. 'President Trump is the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party, and the vast majority of the country approves of his job performance as president,' Ms Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. 'Inflation is down, consumer confidence and wages are up, the jobs report beat expectations for the third month in a row, the border is secure and America is hotter than ever before.' A spokesperson for Mr Musk did not respond to a request for comment. White House officials said on June 6 that Mr Trump was considering selling the bright red Tesla he got in March as a show of support for Mr Musk. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
The Washington Post plans an influx of outside opinion writers
The Washington Post plans an influx of outside opinion writers in a new programme, known internally as Ripple. PHOTO: ERIC LEE/NYTIMES WASHINGTON - The Washington Post has published some of the world's most influential voices for more than a century, including columnists such as George Will and newsmakers such as the Dalai Lama and President Donald Trump. A new initiative aims to sharply expand that lineup, opening the Post to many published opinion articles from other newspapers across America, writers on Substack and eventually nonprofessional writers, according to four people familiar with the plan. Executives hope that the programme, known internally as Ripple, will appeal to readers who want more breadth than the Post's current opinion section and more quality than social platforms such as Reddit and X. The project will host and promote the outside opinion columns on the Post's website and app but outside its paywall, according to the people, who would speak only anonymously to discuss a confidential project. It will operate outside the paper's opinion section. The Post aims to strike some of the initial partnership deals this summer, two of the people said, and the company recently hired an editor to oversee writing for Ripple. A final phase, allowing nonprofessionals to submit columns with help from an AI writing coach called Ember, could begin testing this fall. Human editors would review submissions before publication. A spokesperson for the Post declined to comment. Mr Jeff Bezos, the founder and owner of the Post, has been trying to turn around the news organisation's struggling business. He has told confidants that he wants to broaden the publication's reach beyond its traditional audience of coastal elites. For years, Mr Bezos has also urged leaders at the Post to embrace aggregation, the practice of summarising and linking to journalism published by other outlets, to attract additional readers. Ripple would be a big step in that direction. Executives involved with the project believe that it could reach a potential audience of 38 million US adults, based on internal research, and that some of them would join a 'talent network' to submit their own writing, two of the people said. The company is also planning to explore subscription bundles with partner publishers, one of the people said. The Washington Post's traditional opinion section has undergone a significant shift in recent months. Mr Bezos decided shortly before the November election that the Post would no longer endorse a presidential candidate. That decision stopped the publication of the section's endorsement of Vice-President Kamala Harris. In February, Mr Bezos ordered the Post's opinion section to embrace 'personal liberties and free markets', prompting the section's editor, Mr David Shipley, to resign. Both decisions have drawn scrutiny from readers and inside the company. Ripple is the result of a research and development process that began more than a year ago. The Post's opinion section experimented in 2024 with local content from Kansas City, Missouri, and began brainstorming sessions to expand the idea that spring. Executives approved the plan for Ripple in January, and the Post started the project in April. Mr Will Lewis, the Post's CEO, has been looking for new ways to reduce costs at the company while finding new sources of revenue. In 2024, the Post created a road map to guide its efforts, with focus areas including artificial intelligence, new products and personalisation. Executives have already considered a list of potential partners that includes The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Salt Lake Tribune, popular Substack writer Matt Yglesias and The Dispatch, a right-of-centre politics site, two of the people said. Ms Lauren Gustus, CEO of The Salt Lake Tribune, said the nonprofit publication had declined to participate in the programme, preferring to focus on 'building relationships and trust here in Utah'. Mr Andrew Morse, the publisher of the Journal-Constitution, said the Post had not contacted him about the project, adding that the plan was not in line with his company's strategy. 'We are laser-focused on growing direct relationships with customers,' he said. 'We think scale is yesterday's war.' Ember, the AI writing coach being developed by the Post, could automate several functions normally provided by human editors, the people said. Early mock-ups of the tool feature a 'story strength' tracker that tells writers how their piece is shaping up, with a sidebar that lays out basic parts of story structure: 'early thesis', 'supporting points' and 'memorable ending'. A live AI assistant would provide developmental questions, with writing prompts inviting authors to add 'solid supporting points', one of the people said. The Post's plan to publish content by contributors is a familiar tactic in digital media. Forbes and HuffPost became online destinations for opinion writing submitted by users, leading to a boom in their digital audiences. But that approach has fallen out of favor in recent years as news organisations have placed a greater emphasis on building deeper engagement with users to create paid subscription businesses. Ripple is being developed by Mr Lippe Oosterhof, a strategic adviser at the Post who previously worked for Reuters and Yahoo. According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr Oosterhof is also a strategic adviser to a tool that uses artificial intelligence to assist professional journalists and corporate communications executives. One publication initially under consideration as a potential partner for Ripple was The Contrarian, an online publication co-founded by Ms Jennifer Rubin, one of the people said. Ms Rubin resigned from the Post after Mr Bezos stopped the endorsement of Ms Harris, saying the company's leaders had abandoned values central to the Post's mission. The Post has since removed The Contrarian from consideration. When told that she had been under consideration at all, Ms Rubin burst out in laughter. 'Did they read my public resignation letter?' she said. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Trump signs order hiking steel, aluminium tariffs from 25% to 50%
US President Donald Trump signed an order doubling tariffs on imported steel and aluminium. PHOTO: NYTIMES WASHINGTON – The United States will double its tariffs on imported steel and aluminium starting June 4, according to the White House, as it published an order signed by President Donald Trump. The move marks a latest salvo in Mr Trump's trade wars, taking levies on both metals from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. But tariffs on metal imports from the UK will remain at the 25 per cent rate, while both sides work out duties and quotas in line with the terms of their earlier trade pact. Overall, the aim is to 'more effectively counter foreign countries that continue to offload low-priced, excess steel and aluminium in the United States,' according to the order, which added that these undercut the competitiveness of US industries. 'Increasing the previously imposed tariffs will provide greater support to these industries and reduce or eliminate the national security threat posed by imports of steel and aluminium articles and their derivative articles,' the order added. Mr Trump announced his decision to hike tariffs on steel and aluminium when he addressed workers at a US Steel plant in Pennsylvania last week. 'Nobody is going to be able to steal your industry,' he said at the time. 'At 25 per cent, they can sort of get over that fence. At 50 per cent, they can no longer get over the fence,' he added. The move, however, fans tensions with key US trading partners. The European Union warned over the weekend that it was prepared to retaliate against levies. It said that the sudden announcement 'undermines ongoing efforts to reach a negotiated solution' between the bloc and the US. Already, Washington is in talks with various countries after Mr Trump imposed sweeping 10 per cent tariffs on almost all partners in April and announced even higher rates for dozens of economies. While the steeper levels have been paused during ongoing negotiations, this halt expires in early July – adding to urgency to reach trade deals. Since returning to the presidency in January, Mr Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on allies and adversaries alike in moves that have shaken financial markets. He has also imposed tariffs on sector-specific imports like autos, apart from targeting steel and aluminium. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
