US Terminates $60 Million in Harvard Grants over Alleged Antisemitism

FILE PHOTO: A view of the Business School campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, April 15, 2025.   REUTERS/Faith Ninivaggi/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of the Business School campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Faith Ninivaggi/File Photo/File Photo
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US Terminates $60 Million in Harvard Grants over Alleged Antisemitism

FILE PHOTO: A view of the Business School campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, April 15, 2025.   REUTERS/Faith Ninivaggi/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of the Business School campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Faith Ninivaggi/File Photo/File Photo

The US Department of Health and Human Services said on Monday that it was terminating $60 million in federal grants to Harvard University saying the Ivy League institution failed to address antisemitic harassment and ethnic discrimination on campus.

US President Donald Trump's administration has frozen or ended federal grants and contracts for the university worth nearly $3 billion in recent weeks.

Since taking office in January, the Republican president has sought to use federal research funding to overhaul US academia, which he says has been gripped by anti-American, Marxist and "radical left" ideologies.

The administration has accused Harvard of continuing to consider ethnicity when reviewing student applications and of allowing discrimination against Jews as a result of the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled American campuses last year.

New York's Columbia University has also been targeted over alleged antisemitism.

"Due to Harvard University’s continued failure to address antisemitic harassment and race discrimination, HHS is terminating multiple multi-year grant awards ... over their full duration," the health department said in a post on X on Monday.

Harvard University did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based institution has previously said that it "cannot absorb the entire cost" of the frozen grants, and that it was working with researchers to help them find alternative funding. It is also suing the Trump administration over its decision to cut grants.

Earlier this month, the university settled a high-profile lawsuit by an Orthodox Jewish student who said Harvard was ignoring antisemitism on campus.

The settlement came four months after Harvard promised additional protections for Jewish students, as it resolved two lawsuits claiming it was a hotbed of antisemitism.



Fragile Ceasefire Holding, Witkoff Says Peace Talks with Iran 'Promising'

People attend a gathering to support Iran's Armed Forces, after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 24, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
People attend a gathering to support Iran's Armed Forces, after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 24, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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Fragile Ceasefire Holding, Witkoff Says Peace Talks with Iran 'Promising'

People attend a gathering to support Iran's Armed Forces, after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 24, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
People attend a gathering to support Iran's Armed Forces, after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 24, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

The ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump between Iran and Israel appeared to be holding on Wednesday a day after both countries signaled that their air war had ended, at least for now.

Each side claimed victory on Tuesday after 12 days of war, which the US joined with airstrikes in support of Israel to take out Iran's uranium-enrichment facilities.

Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said late on Tuesday that talks between the United States and Iran were "promising" and that Washington was hopeful for a long-term peace deal.

"We are already talking to each other, not just directly but also through interlocutors. I think that the conversations are promising. We are hopeful that we can have a long-term peace agreement that resurrects Iran," Witkoff said in an interview on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" show.

"Now it's for us to sit down with the Iranians and get to a comprehensive peace agreement, and I am very confident that we are going to achieve that," he added, according to Reuters.

Trump's administration told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday that its weekend strikes had "degraded" Iran's nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the attack had removed the nuclear threat against Israel and he was determined to thwart any attempt by Tehran to revive its weapons program.

"We have removed two immediate existential threats to us: the threat of nuclear annihilation and the threat of annihilation by 20,000 ballistic missiles," he said.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country had successfully ended the war in what he called a "great victory," according to Iranian media.

Israel launched the surprise air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders.

Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites and cities.