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A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit against Harvard University over its alleged failure to provide admissions records that the Justice Department had demanded to ensure the Ivy League school stopped using affirmative action in admissions. The Justice Department said Harvard had "thwarted" efforts to investigate potential discrimination. It accused Harvard of refusing to comply with a federal investigation and asked a judge to order the university to turn over the records. But US District Judge Myong Joun concluded that the Justice Department didn't take the necessary procedural steps to obtain the data before filing the lawsuit. "Before taking enforcement action under the statutory framework, the agency must advise the recipient of its failure to comply and determine that compliance cannot be secured by voluntary means," Joun wrote. But Joun also said the ruling does not end the dispute over the data. "I decide a limited question: whether the Government has adequately ...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for another wave of strikes on Iran after Tuesday's midterm elections in the United States, according to two regional officials and a third person familiar with the matter. A return to full-scale war with Iran could help Netanyahu to form an emergency government after he and his far-right allies lost their parliamentary majority in last week's elections. US President Donald Trump has alternated between threatening major strikes while pushing for a deal with Iran. The two officials said diplomatic efforts have made progress, with Qatari mediators holding two rounds of talks last week with Iranian officials. The two officials said the mediators are trying to advance a framework for Iran to cease its attacks in the Strait of Hormuz in return for the US lifting its blockade on Iran's ports. They said more talks are planned for this week. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified briefing
US Vice President JD Vance offered measured optimism on Monday that a deal can still be struck to prevent President Donald Trump from following through on his threat to potentially order new strikes on Iran after the crucial midterm elections in the United States. Vance sent a letter to Iran's security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, last week, but the White House has offered scant details about the contents of that correspondence. Trump told reporters that letter was focused on assisting Iran with "medical supplies and various things." But Vance on Monday suggested there's reason to believe that the US and Iran could still come to an agreement. "We've had a number of good conversations with the Iranians," Vance told reporters on Monday when asked about the letter. "I actually just spoke with the president of the United States about an hour ago about this. Look, the president and I both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement. We're going to keep
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a push for California to set aside thousands of mail ballots from people President Donald Trump's administration claims are noncitizens, a decision that comes on the eve of the pivotal midterm elections. The high court refused to intervene in a case involving 20,000 people the Republican administration flagged as likely noncitizens on the largely Democratic state's voter rolls. It was the latest in a flurry of election-related litigation the day before the midterm elections, which will decide control of Congress for the last two years of Trump's second term. In California, the Trump administration had asked the high court to set aside the challenged ballots until the voters' citizenship status could be verified. But officials there said that the list appeared to be filled with errors and that setting the ballots aside could effectively disenfranchise legal voters. The high court did not detail its reasoning, as is common in emergency decisions.
A consortium of American companies, backed by US President Donald Trump's administration, is seeking up to USD 4.4 billion in investment for an integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Pakistan, according to a media report on Monday. The proposed project will cover imports, storage, regasification, gas transmission and sales to large consumers on a merchant basis, the Dawn newspaper reported. LNG is natural gas that has been cooled to around minus 162 degrees Celsius, turning it into a liquid and reducing its volume by about 600 times. This makes it easier to store and transport by specialised ships. At its destination, the LNG is converted back into gas through a process called regasification and supplied to consumers. It is used to generate electricity, fuel industrial processes, produce fertilisers and provide energy for heating and cooking. It is also used as a fuel in some vehicles and ships. Pakistan currently has no LNG storage facilities, leaving its supplies of ..
The Trump administration's online accounts are circulating images of a pumpkin carved with a sombrero design and a fake Halloween-themed background around a Black man apparently accused of food assistance fraud, in social media posts slammed by critics as inflammatory rhetoric. Only days before the midterm elections, the posts coincide with the government's sweeping campaign to show its aggressive immigration enforcement, and highlight efforts to crack down on fraud to save taxpayers money when rising healthcare costs and other economic stressors have made affordability a top voter concern. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posted Saturday on the social platform X a photo of the Black man standing in front of stacks of what appear to be US currency with the headline, SNAP FRAUDSTER, an apparent reference to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. He is holding aloft what appears to be a bill set aflame. "Some costumes come with a price tag.
More than 4 in 10 names flagged as possible noncitizen voters in California by the Trump administration cannot even be found on the state's voter rolls, according to a legal filing Saturday by an immigrant rights group. It's the first outside analysis of a list that the Department of Justice has used to threaten prosecution of election officials. The analysis also found that thousands of US citizens appear to be flagged as ineligible to vote on the government's list. The contention was made in a filing by two UCLA data scientists who analysed the 20,930 names that the department demanded that California election officials treat as possible illegal voters by separating their ballots during the vote count on Election Day. Multiple judges have rejected the demand as unconstitutional and a threat to democracy, and local and state officials have said the list appears riddled with errors. The breadth of its problems was outlined in Saturday's filing. It describes an analysis by two memb
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has warned American banks, port authorities and fuel distributors that importing Russian diesel could invite legal action and congressional investigations. In letters to the heads of major financial institutions, ports and fuel distributors, the lawmakers said companies facilitating imports in violation of US law could face criminal and civil liability. The letters came amid reports that shipments of Russian diesel were headed to American shores after President Donald Trump earlier this month granted a waiver allowing Moscow to supply diesel to global markets, including the US. The lawmakers cited Section 2 of the Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act of 2022, which generally prohibits the importation of Russian-origin energy products, including diesel fuel. Such imports are allowed only after the President certifies to Congress that Russia has ceased all military hostilities in Ukraine and that it poses no immediate threat to NATO members. The .
Recent efforts to throttle Ukraine's access to satellite systems have created a blame game of sorts among Trump administration officials and their allies, who have offered mixed messages about what led to the sudden restrictions on Kyiv's ability to intercept Russian strikes. The limitations placed on Starshield -- SpaceX's military-grade version of the Starlink satellite internet service and the backbone of Ukraine's drone operations and communication -- last week alarmed the country's military and government officials, with commanders reporting lost drones and disrupted missions. After days of handwringing, President Donald Trump asserted on Thursday that the service is again running at full speed. The episode and subsequent lack of accountability have sent shock waves through Russia hawks and Ukraine's allies on Capitol Hill. Questions have percolated since last week about who ordered the interruptions to the Elon Musk-made satellite internet system that Ukraine has relied on for
The US Treasury Department proposed a rule on Thursday to crack down on American high-tech investments such as supercomputing and artificial intelligence in China, Russia, North Korea and other "countries of concern". The US government has been working for years to deny China and other adversaries investments that could help them boost their military power. That programme began in 2023 when then-President Joe Biden signed an executive order putting restrictions on outbound US investments in sectors such as semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence going into China. Treasury later established the Outbound Investment Security Programme. In December 2025, Congress passed a law that codified and expanded the programme to target more technologies and more foreign countries, including Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Russia. The inclusion of Russia in the proposed rule has come days after President Donald Trump waived sanctions on Russia following a diesel deal with Presid
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani and Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran in Mumbai on Wednesday morning before heading to Jamnagar in Gujarat to visit Reliance Industries' giant oil-refining complex, the world's largest single-site refinery, along with Vantara and giga factories being developed by the conglomerate. Rubio, who arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon, first met Adani, followed by a meeting with Chandrasekaran, sources said. Neither side released details of the meetings. Adani heads one of India's largest conglomerates, with interests spanning ports, airports, energy, logistics and infrastructure. The group has also been expanding its renewable-energy and manufacturing businesses, sectors that are central to India's ambitions to strengthen domestic supply chains and attract global investment. Chandrasekaran, who leads Tata Sons, the Tata Group's holding company, oversees a sprawling business empire with interests in automobiles, .
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Gujarat's Jamnagar city on Wednesday to visit the oil refinery complex owned by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd, a day after he described India as a crude oil refining "superpower". Rubio is on a three-day visit to India to advance bilateral ties in energy, trade and investment, defence and critical technologies, besides exchanging views on the West Asia crisis. During his visit, Rubio is scheduled to tour the Jamnagar refinery complex, which assumes significance in the context of his remarks on India's oil refining capabilities and his call for processing more Venezuelan crude in the country. According to the RIL website, its Jamnagar refinery is the "largest and most complex single-site refinery in the world with 1.4 million barrels per day (MMBPD) crude processing capacity and a complexity index of 21.1 - the highest in the world". It states that "the refinery has processed over 216 different grades of crude oil produced in
Vice President JD Vance faced tough questions from voters about the Trump administration's policies on data centres, high costs, immigration and his own rhetoric in a town hall on CBS News that aired Saturday night. The string of sharp queries, some from voters who said they had supported him and President Donald Trump, previewed the rocky path he may face trying to answer for the administration's record if he runs for president himself in 2028. Vance, who said during the town hall there's "of course" a chance he doesn't run for president, faced an especially pointed question about "a failure of leadership" posted by the widow of one of six US soldiers killed by an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait, which occurred the day after Trump started the war with Iran. "This literally is the first time I've heard of this," Vance said in response. As he went on, he said, "This job is an amazing honor, but you live in a bit of a bubble and sometimes information doesn't filter up." Questions abo