Columbia University lays off nearly 180 after Trump pulled $400M over his antisemitism concerns

• May 6, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University said Tuesday that it will be laying off nearly 180 staffers in response to President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel $400 million in funding over the Manhattan college’s handling of student protests against the war in Gaza.

Those receiving non-renewal or termination notices Tuesday represent about 20% of the employees funded in some manner by the terminated federal grants, the university said in a statement Tuesday.

“We have had to make deliberate, considered decisions about the allocation of our financial resources,” the university said. “Those decisions also impact our greatest resource, our people. We understand this news will be hard.”

Officials are working with the Trump administration in the hopes of getting the funding restored, they said, but the university will still pull back spending because of uncertainty and strain on its budget.

Officials said the university will be scaling back research, with some departments winding down activities and others maintaining some level of research while pursuing alternate funding.

In March, the Trump administration pulled the funding over what it described as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.

Within weeks, Columbia capitulated to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration as a starting point for restoring the funding.

Among the requirements was overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process, banning campus protesters from wearing masks, barring demonstrations from academic buildings, adopting a new definition of antisemitism and putting the Middle Eastern studies program under the supervision of a vice provost who would have a say over curriculum and hiring.

After Columbia announced the changes, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the university was “ on the right track,” but declined to say when or if Columbia’s funding would be restored. Spokespersons for the federal education department didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.

Columbia was at the forefront of U.S. campus protests over the war last spring. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up an encampment and seized a campus building in April, leading to dozens of arrests and inspiring a wave of similar protests nationally.

Trump, when he retook the White House in January, moved swiftly to cut federal money to colleges and universities he viewed as too tolerant of antisemitism.

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Supreme Court allows Trump ban on transgender members of the military to take effect, for now

• May 6, 2025

By MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to enforce a ban on transgender people in the military, while legal challenges proceed.

The court acted in the dispute over a policy that presumptively disqualifies transgender people from military service.

The court’s three liberal justices said they would have kept the policy on hold.

Just after beginning his second term in January, Trump moved aggressively to roll back the rights of transgender people. Among the Republican president’s actions was an executive order that claims the sexual identity of transgender service members “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is harmful to military readiness.

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An Israeli plan to seize the Gaza Strip is met with alarm

• May 6, 2025

By WAFAA SHURAFA and MELANIE LIDMAN

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli plan to seize the Gaza Strip and expand the military operation has alarmed many in the region. Palestinians are exhausted and hopeless, pummeled by 19 months of heavy bombing. Families of Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza are terrified that the possibility of a ceasefire is slipping further away.

“What’s left for you to bomb?” asked Moaz Kahlout, a displaced man from Gaza City who said many resort to GPS to locate the rubble of homes wiped out in the war.

Israeli officials said Monday that Cabinet ministers approved the plan to seize Gaza and remain in the Palestinian territory for an unspecified amount of time — news that came hours after the military chief said the army was calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers.

Details of the plan were not formally announced, and its exact timing and implementation were not clear. It may be another measure by Israel to try to pressure Hamas into making concessions in ceasefire negotiations.

The war began after Hamas-led terrorists attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, and European Union.

Israel says 59 captives remain in Gaza, about 35 of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s ensuing offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials, who don’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.

“They destroyed us, displaced us and killed us,” said Enshirah Bahloul, a woman from the southern city of Khan Younis. “We want safety and peace in this world. We do not want to remain homeless, hungry, and thirsty.”

Some Israelis are also opposed to the plan. Hundreds of people protested outside the parliament Monday as the government opened for its summer session. One person was arrested.

Families of hostages held in Gaza are afraid of what an expanded military operation or seizure could mean for their relatives.

“I don’t see the expansion of the war as a solution — it led us absolutely nowhere before. It feels like déjà vu from the year ago,” said Adi Alexander, father of Israeli-American Edan Alexander, a soldier captured in the Oct. 7 attack.

The father is pinning some hopes on U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East, set for next week. Israeli leaders have said they don’t plan to expand the operation in Gaza until after Trump’s visit, leaving the door open for a possible deal. Trump isn’t expected to visit Israel, but he and other American officials have frequently spoken about Edan Alexander, the last American-Israeli held in Gaza who is still believed to be alive.

Moshe Lavi, the brother-in-law of Omri Miran, 48, the oldest hostage still believed to be alive, said the family was concerned about the plan.

“We hope it’s merely a signal to Hamas that Israel is serious in its goal to dismantle its governmental and military capabilities as a leverage for negotiations, but it’s unclear whether this is an end or a means,” he said.

Meanwhile, every day, dozens of Palestinians gather outside a charity kitchen that distributes hot meals to displaced families in southern Gaza. Children thrust pots or buckets forward, pushing and shoving in a desperate attempt to bring food to their families.

“What should we do?” asked Sara Younis, a woman from the southernmost city of Rafah, as she waited for a hot meal for her children. “There’s no food, no flour, nothing.”

Israel cut off Gaza from all imports in early March, leading to dire shortages of food, medicine and other supplies. Israel says the goal is to pressure Hamas to free the remaining hostages.

Aid organizations have warned that malnutrition and hunger are becoming increasingly prevalent in Gaza. The United Nations says the vast majority of the population relies on aid.

Aid groups have expressed concerns that gains to avert famine made during this year’s ceasefire have been diminishing.

Like most aid groups in Gaza, Tikeya has run out of most food and has cooked almost exclusively pasta for the past two weeks.

Nidal Abu Helal, a displaced man from Rafah who works at the charity, said that the group is increasingly concerned that people, especially children, will die of starvation.

“We’re not afraid of dying from missiles,” he said. “We’re afraid that our children will die of hunger in front of us.”

Lidman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Samy Magdy contributed from Cairo.

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Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty will bypass Preakness

• May 6, 2025

Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty will not run in the Preakness Stakes, ending any chance at a Triple Crown for a seventh consecutive year.

“We received a call today from trainer Bill Mott that Sovereignty will not be competing in the Preakness,” 1/ST Racing executive VP Mike Rogers said Tuesday. “We extend our congratulations to the connections of Sovereignty and respect their decision.”

Mott told Preakness officials the plan will be to enter Sovereignty in the Belmont Stakes on June 7. Mott on Sunday morning foreshadowed skipping the Preakness in the name of long-term interests.

“We want to do what’s best for the horse,” Mott told reporters at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. “Of course, you always think about a Triple Crown, and that’s not something we’re not going to think about.”

This is the fourth time since Justify won all three races in 2018 that the Preakness will go on without a true shot at a Triple Crown. The short, two-week turnaround from the Kentucky Derby to the Preakness and changes in modern racing have sparked debate around the sport about spacing out the races.

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A tax on college endowments began in Trump’s first administration. It could soon rise

• May 6, 2025

By COLLIN BINKLEY, AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — A tax on the endowments of America’s wealthiest colleges began during President Donald Trump’s first administration, collecting 1.4% of their investment earnings. Under Republican proposals on Capitol Hill, that rate could increase by tenfold or more.

As Trump spars with prestigious colleges he accuses of “indoctrinating” students with leftist ideas, calls to raise the tax have gained momentum.

Republicans have questioned whether colleges with huge endowments — tens of billions of dollars, in some cases — should be entitled to tax breaks that are not offered to businesses. Proposals to increase the tax have come as the House looks to cut or offset $1.5 trillion in spending as part of the president’s sweeping tax bill.

Colleges say the proposed increases would take money that otherwise could go to financial aid and other support for students. The American Council on Education, which lobbies on behalf of college presidents, calls it a “tax on scholarships.”

What is the endowment tax?

In 2017, Congress passed the 1.4% tax on wealthy colleges’ investment earnings. It applies to colleges with at least 500 tuition-paying students and endowments worth at least $500,000 per full-time student.

Before that, colleges weren’t taxed on their endowment income.

The tax reflected a sentiment that some colleges were too concerned with generating investment income, with huge endowments that operate like hedge funds. Critics pointed to colleges like Harvard, Yale and Stanford, with tens of billions of dollars.

Harvard and dozens of other schools opposed the tax, calling it “an unprecedented and damaging tax on the charitable resources” of universities.

How does the tax work?

Those hit by the tax include big Ivy League schools along with smaller liberal arts colleges that have accrued large endowments.

Endowments are made up of donations that are invested to maintain the money over time. Colleges often draw about 5% of their investment earnings every year to put toward their budgets. Much of it goes toward student financial aid, along with other costs like research or endowed faculty positions.

The 1.4% applies to those investment earnings. In 2024, Harvard was taxed more than $40 million. For some smaller schools, the bill was closer to $1 million.

A relatively small number of schools are subject to the tax. In 2023, the tax generated $380 million from 56 colleges.

Would the new tax affect other nonprofits?

Not directly. The proposed tax increase applies only to certain colleges and universities and not other nonprofit organizations. But in the past, some colleges have argued that any endowment tax threatens the tax-exempt status of other charitable groups.

Some say a tax increase would chip away at the idea that colleges provide a public benefit that deserves to be protected from taxation — a principle that applies to other tax-exempt groups.

What’s being proposed?

House Republicans already were considering a hike in the tax on college endowments’ earnings from 1.4% to 14% as part of Trump’s tax bill. As the president raises the stakes in his fight with Harvard and other Ivy League schools, lawmakers are floating raising the rate as high as 21% in line with the corporate tax rate. It appears no decisions have been made.

A separate proposal being looked at would expand the number of schools subject to the tax. It would change the calculation used to determine if a school has $500,000 per student, counting only U.S. citizens and residents. If approved, roughly a dozen additional colleges would be subject to the tax.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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Ukraine drone attacks briefly shut down Moscow’s international airports

• May 6, 2025

By The Associated Press

All four international airports around Moscow temporarily suspended flights Tuesday as Russian forces intercepted more than 100 Ukrainian drones fired at almost a dozen Russian regions, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.

Nine other regional Russian airports also temporarily stopped operating as drones struck areas along the border with Ukraine and deeper inside Russia, according to Russia’s civil aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, and the Defense Ministry. The Moscow region was later attacked for a second time, with the capital’s major airports of Vnukovo and Domodedovo forced to ground flights again, while the city’s air defenses intercepted three drones, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

The drone assaults threatened a planned unilateral 72-hour ceasefire in the more than three-year war announced by President Vladimir Putin to coincide with celebrations in Moscow marking Victory Day in World War II.

The day celebrating Moscow’s defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 is Russia’s biggest secular holiday. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and others will gather in the Russian capital on Thursday for the 80th anniversary and watch a parade featuring thousands of troops accompanied by tanks and missiles.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry urged foreign countries not to send military representatives to take part in the parade, as some have in the past. None is officially confirmed for this year’s event.

Ukraine will regard the participation of foreign military personnel as “an affront to the memory of the victory over Nazism, to the memory of millions of Ukrainian front-line soldiers who liberated our country and all of Europe from Nazism eight decades ago,” a statement on the ministry’s website said.

Security is expected to be tight. Russian officials have warned that internet access could be restricted in Moscow during the celebrations and have told residents not to set off fireworks.

Putin last week declared the brief unilateral truce “on humanitarian grounds” from May 8. Ukraine has demanded a longer ceasefire.

Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting by insisting on far-reaching conditions. Ukraine has accepted that proposal, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the brief truce “doesn’t sound like much, but it’s … a lot if you knew where we started from.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that ceasefire orders had been issued to Russian troops, but soldiers would retaliate if fired upon.

Meanwhile, Ukraine and Russia swapped hundreds of captured soldiers in one of the largest exchanges since Moscow’s full-scale invasion started in February 2022. The last exchange was on April 19.

Zelenskyy and Russia’s Defense Ministry said they each received 205 soldiers in the swap. Both sides said the United Arab Emirates had mediated the exchange, as on previous occasions.

The long-range strikes by both sides continued, however. Ukraine has used increasingly sophisticated, domestically produced drones to compensate for having a smaller army than Russia along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, and to take the war onto Russian soil with long-range strikes.

Russia has used Shahed drones as well as 3,000-pound (1,300-kilogram) glide bombs, artillery and cruise and ballistic missiles against Ukraine.

Two people were injured in Russia’s Kursk region, according to local Gov. Alexander Khinshtein, and some damage was reported in the Voronezh region.

The Russian reports couldn’t be independently verified.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 136 strike and decoy drones overnight.

Russian forces fired at least 20 Shahed drones at Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city near the border with Russia, injuring four people, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.

The drones started a fire at the biggest market in Kharkiv, Barabashovo, destroying and damaging around 100 market stalls, he said.

Seven civilians were hurt elsewhere in the Kharkiv region by Russian glide bombs and drones, Syniehubov said.

Three people were also killed when a Russian ballistic missile hit the Ukrainian city of Sumy Tuesday evening, acting Mayor Artem Kobzar said. One woman died at the scene, while two more people died due to injuries at a hospital, he said.

In Kramatorsk, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russian Shahed drones killed one person and injured two others, Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko wrote on Facebook. The drones targeted residential and industrial areas of the city, he said.

In the Odesa region, Russian drones struck residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, killing one person, regional head Oleh Kiper wrote on Telegram.

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Key Republican says he won’t back Trump’s pick for top DC prosecutor because of Jan. 6 ties

• May 6, 2025

By MARY CLARE JALONICK and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Thom Tillis says he’s informed the White House that he won’t support Ed Martin, President Donald Trump’spick for top federal prosecutor in Washington, stalling the nomination in the Senate weeks before the temporary appointment expires.

The North Carolina Republican told reporters Tuesday that he had met with Martin and was opposing his nomination because of his defense of rioters who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Martin, a leading figure in Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 election, spoke at a rally on the eve of the violent riot and represented defendants who were prosecuted for the attack.

“We have to be very very clear that what happened on January 6th was wrong,” Tillis said. “It was not prompted. It was not prompted or created by other people to put those people in trouble. They made a stupid decision, and they disgraced the United States by absolutely destroying the Capitol.”

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington is the country’s largest and prosecuted more than 1,500 riot defendants after the 2021 attack. Trump pardoned most of the rioters the day he was inaugurated, and later appointed Martin to temporarily lead the office. That appointment expires later this month. Trump has urged Republican senators to quickly confirm him to the job.

“Ed is coming up on the deadline for Voting and, if approved, HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday.

Martin could still be confirmed after his appointment expires. But Tillis’s opposition will prevent the committee from advancing the nomination, for now, and signals that Martin might not have the votes to win confirmation on the Senate floor. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley did not list Martin on this week’s agenda for votes later in the week, indicating that Republicans are aware there are not enough votes to move forward.

Martin has roiled the federal prosecutors’ office since his appointment as U.S. attorney in January, including firing or demoting veteran attorneys who prosecuted Trump supporters for storming the U.S. Capitol.

Martin has described federal prosecutors as the “president’s lawyers” and forced the chief of the office’s criminal division to resign after a dispute over a directive to scrutinize the awarding of a government contract during the Biden administration. He also demoted several senior leaders, including prosecutors who handled or oversaw politically sensitive cases involving the Jan. 6 riot and Trump allies Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon.

Tillis said he believes that anyone who broke into the building that day should be prosecuted, a disagreement he said he had with Martin.

“Whether it’s 30 days or three years is debatable, but I have no tolerance for anybody who entered the building on January 6th, and that’s probably where most of the friction was,” Tillis said.

Dozens of former federal prosecutors in the office have raised alarm over Martin’s scant courtroom experience and his actions since taking office. In a letter to the committee, more than 100 veterans of the office described him as “an affront to the singular pursuit of justice for which this Office has stood for more than two centuries.”

His supporters have touted his record fighting for conservative causes and his efforts to tackle violent crime since his appointment. About two dozen Republican state attorneys general said in a letter to the committee that Martin has “shown conclusively that he has what it takes to serve in that role with integrity and a fearless commitment to do what is right on behalf of the American people.”

It is unclear what will happen if Martin is not confirmed by May 20, the day his appointment expires. The Trump administration could replace him with another acting head and continue to press for his confirmation.

On Tuesday morning, White House spokesman Alex Pfeiffer said on social media that “Ed Martin is a fantastic U.S. Attorney for D.C. and will continue to implement the President’s law-and-order agenda in Washington. He is the right man for the job and we look forward to his confirmation.”

Associated Press writer Michelle Price contributed to this report.

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Cardinals wrap up pre-conclave meetings still uncertain about who should follow Pope Francis

• May 6, 2025

By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cardinals wrapped up their pre-conclave meetings Tuesday, trying to identify a possible new pope who could follow Pope Francis and make the 2,000-year-old Catholic Church credible and relevant today, especially to young people.

Although they come from 70 different countries, the 133 cardinal electors seem fundamentally united in insisting that the question before them isn’t so much whether the church gets its first Asian or African pontiff, or a conservative or progressive. Rather, they say the primary task facing them when the conclave opens Wednesday is to find a pope who can be both a pastor and a teacher, a bridge who can unite the church and preach peace.

“We need a superman!” said Cardinal William Seng Chye Goh, the 67-year-old archbishop of Singapore.

It is indeed a tall task, given the sexual abuse and financial scandals that have harmed the church’s reputation and the secularizing trends in many parts of the world that are turning people away from organized religion. Add to that the Holy See’s dire financial state and often dysfunctional bureaucracy, and the job of being pope in the 21st century seems almost impossible.

Francis named 108 of the 133 electors and selected cardinals in his image. But there is an element of uncertainty about the election since many of them didn’t know one another before last week, meaning they haven’t had much time to suss out who among them is best suited to lead the 1.4-billion-strong church.

The cardinals held their last day of pre-conclave meetings Tuesday morning, during which Francis’ fisherman’s ring and his official seal were destroyed in one of the final formal rites of the transition of his pontificate to the next.

The cardinals will begin trying to find the new pope Wednesday afternoon, when those “princes of the church” walk solemnly into the Sistine Chapel to the meditative chant of the “Litany of the Saints.” They’ll take their oaths of secrecy under the daunting vision of heaven and hell in Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment,” hear a meditation from a senior cardinal, and then most likely cast their first ballot.

Assuming no candidate secures the necessary two-thirds majority, or 89 votes, the cardinals will retire for the day and return on Thursday. They will have two ballots in the morning and then two in the afternoon, until a winner is found.

Asked what the priorities of the cardinal electors were, Goh told reporters this week that the No. 1 issue was that the new pope must be able to spread the Catholic faith and “make the church relevant in today’s time. How to reach out to young people, how to show a face of love, joy and hope.”

A pope for the future

But beyond that, there are some real-world geopolitical concerns to take into consideration. The Catholic Church is growing in Africa and Asia, both in numbers of baptized faithful and vocations to the priesthood and women’s religious orders. It is shrinking in traditionally Catholic bastions of Europe, with empty churches and the faithful formally leaving the church in places like Germany, many citing the abuse scandals.

“Asia is ripe for evangelization and the harvest of vocations,” said the Rev. Robert Reyes, who studied in the seminary with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the Filipino prelate considered a contender to be the first Asian pope.

But should the pope necessarily reflect the new face of the Catholic Church, and inspire the faithful especially in the parts of the world where the momentum of growth is already underway? Does it even matter?

Pope Francis was the first Latin American pope, and the region still counts the majority of the world’s Catholics.

Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the retired archbishop of Mumbai, said the church needs to become more Asian, culturally and spiritually.

The “center of gravity of the world is shifting toward Asia,” he said. “The Asian church has much to give to the world.”

At 80, Gracias won’t be participating in the conclave, but India has four cardinal-electors, and overall Asia counts 23, making it the second-biggest voting bloc after Europe, which has 53 (or likely 52, given that one is not expected to participate for health reasons).

One of the big geopolitical issues facing the cardinals is China and the plight of the estimated 12 million Chinese Catholics there.

Under Francis, the Vatican in 2018 inked a controversial agreement with Beijing governing the appointment of bishops, which many conservatives decried as a sellout of the underground Chinese Catholics who had remained loyal to Rome during decades of communist persecution. The Vatican has defended the accord as the best deal it could get, but it remains to be seen if Francis’ successor will keep the policy.

The church in Africa

According to Vatican statistics, Catholics represent 3.3% of the population in Asia, but their numbers are growing, especially in terms of seminarians, as they are in Africa, where Catholics represent about 20% of the population.

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, the archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo, said he is in Rome to elect a pope for all the world’s Catholics.

“I am not here for the Congo, I am not here for Africa, I am here for the universal church. That is our concern, the universal church,” he told reporters. “When we are done, I will return to Kinshasa and I will put back on my archbishop of Kinshasa hat and the struggle continues.”

Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the chatty French-born archbishop of Algiers, Algeria, lamented last week that there hadn’t been enough time for the cardinals to get to know one another, since many of them had never met before and hail from 70 countries in the most geographically diverse conclave in history.

“Every day, I say to myself, ‘Ah! Oh my God! There we have it!’” he said.

The role of the Holy Spirit

For the cardinals, there is also the belief that they are guided by the Holy Spirit.

There is a famous quote attributed to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1997, in comments to a Bavarian television station. The future Pope Benedict XVI said the Holy Spirit acted like a good educator in a conclave, allowing cardinals to freely choose a pope without dictating the precise candidate.

“Probably the only assurance he offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined,” Ratzinger reportedly said. “There are too many contrary instances of popes the Holy Spirit would obviously not have picked.”

Associated Press correspondent Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, and Silvia Stellacci, Trisha Thomas and Giovanna Dell’Orto in Rome contributed.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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