A WIN FOR HARVARD: A federal judge in Boston ruled that President Trump illegally cancelled half a billion dollars’ worth of funding for Harvard University in the name of fighting antisemitism on campus. It’s unlikely to be the last word in the case, but it’s a win for Harvard, the only university to sue to block Trump’s attack on research funding.

  The administration had tried to force Harvard to acquiesce to “merit-based” admissions and hiring, the shutdown of diversity, equity programs, and an examination of “programs and departments that most fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture.”

  Judge Allison Burroughs said that while Harvard may have been late waking up to antisemitism,“Now it is the job of the courts to similarly step up, to act to safeguard academic freedom and freedom of speech as required by the Constitution, and to ensure that important research is not improperly subjected to arbitrary and procedurally infirm grant terminations, even if doing so risks the wrath of a government committed to its agenda no matter the cost.”

THE ANTI-VAX: The State of Florida  plans to become the first to drop vaccine mandates that for decades have been credited with stopping the spread of infectious diseases, particularly among school age children.

  Standing alongside Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Surgeon General  Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, a vaccine doubter, asked to applause at an event outside Tampa, “Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?” He said, “Your body is a gift from God.” He further said of vaccine mandates that, “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.” 

  All the states have vaccine mandates for schoolchildren with exceptions for religious or personal beliefs. But the number of unvaccinated people is rising as medical leaders including Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attack the long-established science of vaccination.

  Kennedy faces questions before Congress today on whether he lied about his vaccine plans and beliefs in order to win confirmation. 

  In response to vaccine opposition, the governors of California, Oregon, and Washington announced plans to form a “health alliance” to bolster the faith in vaccines that has been undermined by Health Secretary Kennedy. The governors said they would protect against what they called the “politicization of science” and give the public “consistent, science-based recommendations they can rely on — regardless of shifting federal actions.”

THE DRUG WAR: Following the attack Tuesday that the Pentagon said destroyed a Venezuelan boat loaded with drugs and smugglers, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Fox News that it’s just the beginning of a campaign to shut off the fentanyl supply. “President Trump is willing to go on offense in ways that others have not seen,” he said.

  Hegseth said that Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, “is running effectively as a kingpin of a drug narco state.”

  In Mexico, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said interdicting drug boats at sea has not stopped the flow and, “What will stop them is when we blow up and get rid of them.”

  It has yet to be determined whether the attack was legal. The smugglers were not an armed force attacking the US so their killing amounted to an extrajudicial execution. Trump, however, described the 11 occupants of the boat as “terrorists.” 

THE EPSTEIN MATTER: Survivors of sex trafficking by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein spoke in front of the Capitol yesterday demanding full release of the Epstein investigation files including the names of powerful men served with the company of underage girls.

  “We are not asking for pity, we are demanding accountability,” said Lisa Phillips, one of the victims. “Congress must choose: Will you continue to protect predators, or will you finally protect survivors? Transparency is justice.”

  While some members of Congress push for a full revelation of the investigative files, Phillips said she and other victims are compiling a list of people who were “regularly in the Epstein world.” She said the work would “be done by survivors, and for survivors.”

  At the White House President Trump dismissed the push for release of more files  as a “Democrat hoax that never ends.”

THE REGIME: 

— The White House has ordered a half-dozen agencies to look for ways to thwart the country’s offshore wind industry as part of President Trump’s attack on the source of renewable energy he has criticized as ugly, expensive, and inefficient.

  Officials at Health and Human Services are studying whether wind turbines emit electromagnetic fields harmful to human health and the Defense Department is looking into whether the projects could pose risks to national security.

  Looking for a good excuse, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said on CNN; “People with bad ulterior motives to the United States could launch a swarm drone attack through a wind farm. The radar gets very distorted if you’re trying to detect and avoid if you’ve got drones coming.”

— Several Trump campaign advisers are urging the rebranding of the President’s unpopular “One Big Beautiful Bill” to something with more propaganda appeal such as  the “Working Families Tax Cut Bill” or the “Working Families Tax Plan.” That’s the bill that cuts taxes for the rich while cutting healthcare and social safety net programs.

THE SPIN RACK: Fifteen people are dead and 18 injured after a funicular popular with tourists collapsed in Lisbon, Spain. Firefighters said a cable may have failed. It’s one of three funiculars in the city. — Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is threatening his possible Democratic opponent Beto O’Rourke with jail and bankrupting O’Rourke’s voter registration campaign. O’Rourke ran for president in the 2020 cycle. 

BELOW THE FOLD:  This week a civil jury in Los Angeles found the temperamental singer Cardi B not liable for assault and battery in a lawsuit brought by a former security guard. Outside the courthouse the singer threw a pen at a reporter she accused of asking a disrespectful question.

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