Governor Gavin Newsom urges schools not to sign ‘radical agreement’ to cuts to departments, students and speech

Any California universities that sign the Trump administration’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” will “instantly” lose their state funding, California governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

The Trump administration on Wednesday offered nine prominent universities, including the University of Southern California, the chance to sign a “compact” that asks the universities to close academic departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas”, limit the proportion of international undergraduate students to 15% , accept the administration’s definition of gender and ban the consideration of race or sex in hiring and admissions, in exchange for “substantial and meaningful federal grants”.

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Shut-out of Nottingham Post and its website reversed after threat of legal action over damaging freedom of expression

A Reform UK council has ended its ban on journalists from the area’s biggest local newspaper after being threatened with legal action over damaging the outlet’s freedom of expression.

Nottinghamshire county council, which has been led by Reform since the local elections earlier this year, said it was “committed to the principles of openness” after lifting the sanctions it had placed on journalists from the Nottingham Post and its website, Nottinghamshire Live.

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