Trump freezes $175m in federal funding to major university in dispute over trans swimmer: Live

The administration has sparked a fresh diplomatic spat with France after it was accused of denying entry to the U.S. to a French research scientist after immigration officers searched his phone at an airport and found messages critical of the president.

The individual in question had been en route to an academic conference in Houston, Texas, at the time, according to Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister of higher education and research, who made the allegation in a statement published by Le Monde.

“I learned with concern that a French researcher, who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled”, Baptiste said.

“This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy.

“Freedom of opinion, free research, and academic freedom are values ​​that we will continue to proudly uphold. I will defend the right of all French researchers to be faithful to them, while respecting the law.”

The AFP has reported that the incident took place on March 9 and the scientist concerned was accused of writing “hateful and conspiratorial messages” relating to Trump.

Baptiste himself has been critical of the administration and has personally invited American scientists to relocate to France if they feel their work could be placed in jeopardy in the U.S.

He recently warned on French television that Elon Musk and his DOGE officials had “chainsawed” health, climate, energy and AI research since Trump returned to the White, an extract of which you can see below.

The Trump administration has frozen $175 million in federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) over a transgender swimmer’s participation in its training program, the White House said on Wednesday.

Ivy League UPenn is currently under investigation by the Department of Education after the president signed an executive order aimed at banning transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports.

A similar threat has also been made against the state of Maine.

“UPenn infamously permitted a male to compete on its women’s swimming team, overturning multiple records hard-earned by women, and granting the fully intact male access to the locker room,” an unnamed Trump official said in a statement yesterday, apparently referring to a trans woman who won the highest U.S. national college swimming title in 2022 while competing for the Philadelphia-based university.

But UPenn itself said it was “aware of media reports suggesting” that the funds have been suspended but that, as yet, it has “not yet received any official notification or any details” from Washington.

The Independent’s Sam Kiley reports from Odesa, Ukraine:

Seizing the opportunity to drive a wedge between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s president has moved swiftly to usher the American president back towards his corner.

By respecting, vocally, Trump’s efforts to get a ceasefire with Russia, Ukraine has exposed Putin’s deep reluctance to agree to any lowering of hostilities until he can be sure of permanently mangling Ukraine’s sovereignty.

According to a briefing on a call between Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump, the US president has calmed down, stopped calling him a “dictator,” and come up with an agreement to supply some badly needed air defences for Ukraine.

Murkowski delivered her annual joint address to Alaska’s legislature on Tuesday and during her address, she criticized the indiscriminate firing of federal workers by DOGE.

A couple of hours after journalist Jacqui Heinrich pointed out that one of Donald Trump’s favorite Fox News legal experts believed the law wasn’t entirely on his side regarding deportation flights, the president railed against the Fox News White House correspondent on social media.

Justin Baragona has the story.

Chris Stevenson, The Independent’s international editor, reports.

The aftereffects of Senate Democrats’ decision to help Republicans pass legislation to avert a government shutdown without securing any concessions are still being felt. Having won nothing — including assurances that congressionally approved legislation would not be touched by DOGE cuts — voters are furious with the Senate minority leader.

His allies are doing absolutely nothing to throw him a lifeline.

Amy Gleason, the government worker the Trump administration has said is actually in charge of Elon Musk’s signature Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) program, has a second role at a separate agency, according to court documents.

Since February, Gleason has been detailed to the Department of Health and Human Services, and on March 4 she signed a document formally accepting a role as “expert / consultant” at the agency, which oversees marquee government efforts like Medicare and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Right-wing commentator Tudor Dixon has said she is considering running for office in Michigan in 2026 but has yet to decide whether to opt for the battleground state’s open Senate seat or governor’s office.

Dixon, 47, was previously the Republican nominee for governor of the Great Lakes State in 2022 but lost to Democratic incumbent Gretchen Whitmer.

The White House on Wednesday said America’s intelligence community would continue to share information with the Ukrainian government to bolster Kyiv’s defensive efforts and provide Ukraine with more Patriot missile defense systems from European stocks.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a daily press briefing that Trump had “fully briefed” Zelensky on his 90-minute conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin and relayed the “key issues” discussed during the Tuesday morning conversation, the second call between the two leaders since Trump returned to the presidency in January.

Andrew Feinberg reports from the White House.