US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright speaks to the media, outside of the West Wing of the White House, in Washington, DC, US, March 19, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kent Nishimura

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Tuesday that Iran can expect tighter sanctions if it does not come to an agreement with President Donald Trump on its nuclear program.

“So absolutely, I would expect very tight sanctions on Iran, and hopefully drive them to abandon their nuclear program,” Wright said in an interview with CNBC.

Wright on Wednesday will launch a nearly two-week tour of three Middle East countries, including Saudi Arabia, marking his first visit as a US official to the de facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Wright also defended Trump’s executive order, expected later on Tuesday, to boost the coal industry as essential for artificial intelligence data centers, as well as steel production and other industrial activities.

“We need a growing supply of electricity to hit the AI boom and also for this re-industrializing of the United States. If we want to grow America’s electricity production meaningfully over the next five or 10 years, we’ve got to stop closing coal plants,” Wright said in the interview.

Asked about Trump’s comment that the European Union should buy more energy from the United States, Wright said he has had countries in Asia, in Europe and elsewhere reach out to express interest in buying more American energy.”

Wright said he does not think European countries will want to return to Russia for their energy supplies when the war in Ukraine ends.

“As I talk to European leaders, one thing they all share is a regret that they bet their energy future on Russia,” he said. “So, I don’t think there’s a huge desire right now that, when the war is over, we’re going to we’re going to re-count on Russia for a dominant share of our energy supply. I think that’s very unlikely to unfold.”

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Demonstrators take part in an “Emergency Rally: Stand With Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza,” amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Harvard University plans to borrow $750 million from Wall Street as part of contingency preparations, it said on Monday, days after President Donald Trump’s administration announced a review of $9 billion in federal grants and contracts to the Ivy League school in a crackdown on antisemitism on campuses.

In a letter to Harvard last week, the government listed conditions that Harvard must meet to receive federal money, including a ban on protesters wearing masks to hide their identities and other restrictions.

Harvard acknowledged receiving the letter but did not comment further.

“As part of ongoing contingency planning for a range of financial circumstances, Harvard is evaluating resources needed to advance its academic and research priorities,” Harvard University said in Monday’s statement.

Harvard‘s plans come less than a week after Princeton University said in a notice dated April 1 that it was also considering the sale of about $320 million of taxable bonds later this month. Princeton said last week the US government froze several dozen research grants to the school.

Harvard intends to issue up to $750 million of taxable bonds for “general corporate purposes,” a spokesperson said. The university had $7.1 billion of debt outstanding at the end of fiscal year 2024 and anticipated about $8.2 billion after the proposed bond issuance.

The university most recently issued $434 million in tax-exempt bonds in March 2025 and $735 million in tax-exempt bonds in spring 2024, its spokesperson said, adding it also issued bonds in 2022.

Harvard has a $53 billion endowment, the largest of any US university. Advocates, students, and several faculty members have called on university leadership to resist the demands from the Trump administration.

Trump has threatened to slash federal funding for US universities that his administration says have tolerated antisemitism on their campuses.

Such allegations have grown out of a wave of raucous, unsanctioned, and sometimes violent anti-Israel protests at Harvard and other schools against Israel’s military campaign targeting the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.

The Israeli campaign followed an October 2023 attack inside Israel by Hamas, which took over 250 hostages. The attack killed 1,200 people.

Protesters say the Trump administration wrongly conflates their criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza and advocacy for Palestinian rights with antisemitism and support for Hamas.

But many Jewish students on campuses have said they have felt threatened by protesters, and that some academic courses are biased against Israel.

Rights advocates have also raised concerns about Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias during the Israel-Gaza war. The Trump administration has not announced steps in response.

Last month, the government warned 60 universities that it could bring enforcement actions if a review determined the schools had failed to stop antisemitism.

Harvard‘s student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, recently reported that two leaders of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Director Cemal Kafadar and Associate Director Rosie Bsheer, were dismissed from their positions.

TRUMP CRACKDOWN

The Trump administration also planned to freeze grants to Brown University.

Last month, it canceled $400 million in federal funding for Columbia University, the epicenter of last year’s campus protests.

Columbia agreed to some significant changes that Trump’s administration demanded as a precondition for talks about restoring the funding.

Federal agents have detained some foreign student protesters in recent weeks from different campuses and are working to deport them. The government has revoked the visas of many foreign students.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a documents signing ceremony in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool

Russia‘s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, on Tuesday ratified a 20–year strategic partnership between Russia and Iran.

The strategic partnership document was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Jan. 17 and represented a deepening of military ties between the countries.

The agreement said Russia and Iran would consult and cooperate to deal with military and security threats, and take part in joint military drills on both their territories and beyond.

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