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Trump Says He Will Strip Harvard’s Tax-Exempt Status
April 20, 2025, Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University and Harvard Square scenes with students and pedestrians. Photo: Kenneth Martin/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect.
President Donald Trump said on Friday he planned to strip Harvard University of its tax–exempt status, setting up another potential legal fight with the Ivy League school amid his wider crackdown on elite universities and the US education system.
“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” Trump said in a post on his social media platform, without specifying when he might take action.
Representatives for the Internal Revenue Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump‘s post and whether it was revoking the university’s tax–exempt status.
Harvard, in a statement, said the move would be unlawful and unprecedented.
“There is no legal basis to rescind Harvard’s tax–exempt status,” the Boston-area school said. “The unlawful use of this instrument more broadly would have grave consequences for the future of higher education in America.”
It would also cut money available for student scholarships, medical research, and technological advancements that drive economic growth, Harvard added.
Since taking office in January, Trump has targeted major US universities by freezing federal funding, launching investigations, revoking student visas, and making other demands. He has said higher education has been gripped by antisemitic, anti-American, Marxist, and radical left ideologies.
Under federal law, the president cannot request that the IRS, which determines whether an organization can have or maintain tax–exempt status, investigate organizations.
Most universities are exempt from federal income tax under the US tax code because they are deemed to be operated exclusively for public educational purposes.
Trump‘s administration has escalated its fight against Harvard in recent weeks, probing its nearly $9 billion in federal funding, seeking details on its foreign ties, and threatening its ability to enroll foreign students. The administration has also demanded a ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, a crackdown on some anti-Israel groups, and a mask ban.
On Wednesday, Trump suggested he would withhold grants.
Harvard has pushed back, suing the administration over the halted US research funding and other demands, and joining more than 200 university and college presidents in protesting Trump‘s higher education policies.
Trump said he was considering an end to Harvard’s tax–exempt status in a separate social media post on April 15, when annual US tax returns are due, but did not say how he would do it.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields last month said any forthcoming IRS actions were independent of the president and that any tax status investigations were initiated before Trump‘s post.
The post Trump Says He Will Strip Harvard’s Tax-Exempt Status first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘With or Without Russia’s Help’: Iran Pledges to Block South Caucasus Route Opened Up By Peace Deal
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – Iran will block the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus region with or without Moscow’s help, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Iran International website, one day after the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Mr. Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Ali Akbar Velayati said of the so-called Zangezur corridor, the establishment of which is stipulated in the peace deal unveiled on Friday by US President Donald Trump. The White House said the transit route would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” the Khamenei advisor added.
Baku and Yerevan have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting or forcing almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
Yet that painful history was put to the side on Friday at the White House, as Trump oversaw a signing ceremony, flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The peace deal with Azerbaijan—a pro-Western ally of Israel—is expected to pull Armenia out of the Russian and Iranian sphere of influence and could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran.
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UK Police Arrest 150 at Protest for Banned Palestine Action Group
People holding signs sit during a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, August 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday it had arrested 150 people at a protest against Britain’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, adding it was making further arrests.
Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.
Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted “shame on you” and “hands off Gaza,” and held signs such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” video taken by Reuters at the scene showed.
In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.
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‘No Leniency’: Iran Announces Arrest of 20 ‘Zionist Agents’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
i24 News – Iranian authorities have in recent months arrested 20 people charged with being “Israeli Mossad operatives,” the judiciary said, adding that the Islamic regime will mete out the harshest punishments.
“The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all,” spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told Iranian media. However, it is understood that an unspecified number of detainees were released, apparently after the charges against them could not be substantiated.
The Islamic Republic was left reeling by a devastating 12-day war with Israel earlier in the summer that left a significant proportion of its military arsenal in ruins and dealt a serious setback to its uranium enrichment program. The fallout included an uptick in executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Hit with international sanctions, the country is in dire economic straights, with frequent energy outages and skyrocketing unemployment.
In recent weeks Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged during the war.
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the official told Fox News.