“Harvard University has announced that it is making tuition free for families who earn less than $200,000 (£154,000) a year. For families earning less than $100,000, Harvard will also cover expenses like housing and health insurance. The move is aimed at making Harvard more affordable for middle-income families, and it comes as the Trump administration targets university funding as a part of a crackdown on diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. ‘Putting Harvard within financial reach for more individuals widens the array of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives that all of our students encounter, fostering their intellectual and personal growth,’ said Harvard President Alan Garber. The policy — which will begin in the 2025 to 2026 academic year — will ‘help make a Harvard College education possible for every admitted student,'” (03/17/25)
“Electricity service in Cuba was gradually restored Sunday, more than 36 hours after a substation failure left the entire island in the dark. Union Electrica, the state agency responsible for the electric grid, reported that most of the capital, Havana, and eastern parts of the country had power. It expected service to return to western areas on Sunday, too. The massive blackout that began Friday night was the fourth in the last six months as a severe economic crisis plagues the Caribbean country. The Ministry of Energy and Mines attributed it to a failure at a substation in the suburbs of Havana.” (03/17/25)
“Rwanda has cut diplomatic ties with Belgium, saying it has been ‘consistently undermined’ by the European nation during the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Brussels has been leading calls for European nations to sanction Rwanda over its support for the M23, a rebel group at the centre of DR Congo’s crisis. The authorities in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, have given Belgian diplomats 48 hours to leave the country. Belgium, which is the former colonial power, has said it will respond to these measures and labelled Rwanda’s decision ‘disproportionate.’ Despite assertions from the UN and US, Rwanda has denied backing the M23. In its statement on Monday, Kigali accused Brussels of attempting to ‘sustain its neo-colonial delusions.'” (03/17/25)
“Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in six years on Sunday and blamed fast-fashion e-tailers Shein and Temu for its demise. The retailer’s operating company is expected to cease all operations in the U.S. and has already begun liquidation sales at its more than 350 locations, but it’s still open for bids if a buyer is willing to take on its inventory and keep running its stores, court filings show. … The company’s bankruptcy comes six years after it emerged from its first filing only to face the Covid-19 pandemic, the highest inflation in decades and new competition from Chinese-founded upstarts like Shein and Temu.” (03/17/25)
“Kentucky’s Republican lawmakers have passed a measure to protect conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youths as part of a bill that also would outlaw the use of Medicaid funds to pay for gender-affirming health care for transgender Kentucky residents. The House vote occurred late Friday, less than an hour before the midnight deadline for the GOP-supermajority legislature to pass bills and retain its ability to override gubernatorial vetoes. The bill passed after the Senate version that prohibited the use of Medicaid was accepted by the House. Conversion therapy is the scientifically discredited practice of using therapy to ‘convert’ LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations.” (03/17/25)
“Paradise lost? California isn’t the only coastal oasis that’s at risk of submersion. Scientists have revealed that certain regions on the island of Oahu, Hawaii are sinking into the sea 40 times faster than predicted, which could jeopardize homes and businesses. Conditions have gotten so dire that low-lying areas in Honolulu, Waikiki and Pearl Harbor could be inundated in the coming decades with infrastructure damage projected to cost billions of dollars. ‘In rapidly subsiding areas, sea level rise impacts will be felt much sooner than previously estimated,’ said Kyle Murray, a geophysicist at Honolulu’s University Of Hawaii at Manoa who co-authored the apocalyptic study, which was published in Communications Earth & Environment, according to Earth.com. The team was investigating the effects of sinking land masses amid the surge in rising seas due to climate change, which they felt could combine to cause extreme flooding in Oahu.” (03/17/25)
“US President Donald Trump said his predecessor’s 11th-hour pardons of members of Congress who investigated the January 6 insurrection were ‘void, vacant and of no further force or effect,’ signaling his administration may attempt to upend more than a century of law and practice for presidential pardons. In a statement on his Truth Social platform just after midnight Monday Washington time, Trump said the pardons were void because Joe Biden signed them with an autopen. His comments follow similar arguments from the conservative Heritage Foundation that Biden used an autopen based on seemingly identical signatures found on several Biden documents.” [editor’s note: Will the Treasury demand all of those COVID “stimulus” checks be repaid? I doubt Trump signed them all by hand – TLK] (03/17/25)
“Calls were mounting in Serbia on Monday for an independent investigation into reports that security forces used a prohibited sonic weapon on crowds at a huge peaceful anti-corruption rally last weekend, even though authorities vehemently denied it. Serbian rights groups and opposition officials allege that such a weapon that emits a targeted beam to temporarily incapacitate people was used at the protest Saturday, even though it is banned in Serbia. They said they will file charges with international and domestic courts against those who ordered the attack. Serbia’s authoritarian and pro-Russian President Aleksandar Vucic again on Monday denied that the crowd-control device was deployed, calling it ‘a wicked lie’ aimed at ‘destroying Serbia.’ He said he will soon invite the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and also Russia’s Federal Security Service, FSB, to investigate the claims.” (03/17/25)
“Border czar Tom Homan blasted an Obama-appointed federal judge’s decision to temporarily halt President Donald Trump’s use of the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport violent illegal [sic[ immigrant street gangs, telling Fox News that the decision ‘defies logic.’ ‘Who in their right mind, whether you’re a judge or not, wants [to allow] TDA [Tren de Aragua], a recognized terrorist organization sent here by the Maduro regime, to create havoc, to unsettle the United States through the use of fentanyl to kill thousands of Americans, violence to American citizens, raping and murdering young women in this country?’ Homan asked Monday on ‘Fox & Friends.’ ‘President Trump is going to make this country safe again. He’s going to do it. One illegal [sic] alien at a time.'” (03/17/25)
“The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed four fatalities related to the fires or high winds. Those fatalities were reported in Lincoln, Garfield, Haskell and Pawnee counties. According to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, 142 injuries related to the wildfires were reported to state hospitals. … The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management confirmed at least 400 homes were damaged by the fires across the state.” (03/16/25)
