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Harvard University president to remain in office -student media
Harvard University’s governing board will publicly declare support for the Ivy League school’s president on Tuesday, a day after meeting to weigh the public backlash following remarks she made last week at a congressional hearing on antisemitism.
White House’s Sullivan will speak with Israelis about Gaza war timetable
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday he will discuss with Israeli officials their timetable for the war in Gaza during a visit to Israel.
Democrats running for US president in 2024
U.S. President Joe Biden, who took office in early 2021, faces little opposition in his bid for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2024 presidential election.
Harvard president ‘definitely’ plagiarized in peer-reviewed academic papers, scholars say: report
Harvard University has been rocked in the news cycle after its president Claudine Gay’s congressional testimony on antisemitism last week sparked national outrage. Now, a look at her academic work has scholars saying Gay “definitely” plagiarized almost 20 authors in four of her 11 peer-reviewed academic papers, including her doctoral dissertation. The Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo and Karlstack’s Chris Brunet published the initial report alleging plagiarism by Gay on Sunday. ‘SNL’ MOCKING STEFANIK INSTEAD OF COLLEGE PRESIDENTS WAS ‘A COMPLETE BREAKDOWN OF COMEDY’ Rufo and Brunet lay out several instances of alleged plagiarism by Gay, including taking a full paragraph from Franklin Gilliam’s and Lawrence Bobo’s paper “Race, Sociopolitical Participation, and Black Empowerment,” which Gay used nearly verbatim in her 1997 Harvard political science doctoral dissertation, “Taking Charge: Black Electoral Success and the Redefinition of American Policies.” The pair noted that while Gay referenced both Bobo and Gilliam in the paper, she did not use quotation marks for the language she pulled and only changed a few words. The Washington Free Beacon analyzed 29 potential instances of plagiarism in Gay’s work that appeared to be lifted from almost a dozen scholars. In at least 10 instances, Gay used complete sentences and paragraphs from sources with minor changes to only a few words, the report states. The majority of the scholars told the Free Beacon that Gay not only went against her university’s policy on plagiarism but also a basic principle of academic integrity. Former Boston University associate provost Peter Wood told the Free Beacon that if “this were a stand-alone instance, it would be reprehensible but perhaps excused as the blunder of someone working hastily.” “But that excuse vanishes as the examples multiply,” Wood, the director of the National Association of Scholars, continued. “This is definitely plagiarism,” Rutgers University social psychologist Lee Jussim said. “The longer passages are the most egregious,” Gay appeared to lift a full paragraph in her 1997 thesis from then-Harvard political science professor Bradley Palmquist and her Ph.D. classmate Stephen Voss, with minor alterations to the text. One of the few changes that Gay made was changing the word “decrease” to “increase” when analyzing different data, according to the report, and Gay also took two paragraphs from Palmquist and Voss unchanged without quotations or citations. Gay took barely modified passages and historical details from scholars David Covin and George Reid Andrews for her 1993 essay, “Between Black and White: The Complexity of Brazilian Race Relations,” without citing Covin, the report states. In another piece, Gay appeared to take words from a 2003 Department of Housing and Urban Development report written by eight researchers, including three Harvard economists, for her 2012 piece, “Moving To Opportunity: The Political Effects of a Housing Mobility Experiment.” The Free Beacon report also alleges that Gay used passages from Alex Schwartz’s 2010 book, “Housing Policy in the United States,” and from the 2011 paper “Low-Income Housing Development and Urban Crime” by Matthew Freedman and Emily Owens for another piece titled “A Room for One’s Own? The Partisan Allocation of Affordable Housing.” Schwartz and the eight researchers were cited in the piece, the report states, but not where their work was allegedly taken. Gay cited neither Freedman nor Owens, but the Harvard president thanked the pair for using their data. Fox News Digital reached out to Harvard University and Gay for comment. Harvard released a statement Tuesday regarding the decision to keep Gay as president, which referred to the allegations of plagiarism as “a few instances of inadequate citation.” “With regard to President Gay’s academic writings, the University became aware in late October of allegations regarding three articles. At President Gay’s request, the Fellows promptly initiated an independent review by distinguished political scientists and conducted a review of her published work,” Harvard wrote. “On December 9, the Fellows reviewed the results, which revealed a few instances of inadequate citation. While the analysis found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct, President Gay is proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications.” Fox News Digital asked the university when the corrected pieces would be published, but did not receive a response. Gay, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth each faced intense backlash after they appeared before Congress last week and were grilled about their handling of antisemitism on their respective campuses following the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel in October. Gay responded to House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik’s question during the antisemitism hearing on whether calls for Jewish genocide on campus violated Harvard’s code of conduct. “It can be, depending on the context,” Gay responded. Gay will keep her job after telling Congress that calls for Jewish genocide may not violate the Harvard code of conduct, but Magill has resigned her post at Penn. On Tuesday, the Harvard Corporation, announced that Gay would stay in her position, the Harvard Crimson reported. Fox News Digital’s Chris Pandolfo contributed reporting.
GOP infighting blows up plans for controversial surveillance tool’s renewal this week
House GOP leaders have been forced to punt the battle on renewing a key surveillance tool of the federal government into next year amid widespread disagreements on the contentious authority. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) has been both credited with preventing terror attacks on U.S. soil and accused of being a vehicle for spying on U.S. citizens. It lets the government keep tabs on specific foreign nationals outside the country without first obtaining a warrant to do so, even if the party on the other side of those communications is an American on U.S. soil. Without Congress taking action, it expires at the end of this year. The House began the week with plans to hold votes on two dueling FISA renewal proposals — one by the House Intelligence Committee, which makes minor changes, and another by the House Judiciary Committee that is vastly more restrictive. The plan was to send whichever got more support to the Senate. That plan, dubbed “queen of the hill,” came after both conservatives and progressives raised alarms over an extension of the program being included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which Congress also must pass by the end of this year. CONGRESS FEELING HEAT FROM GROUPS DEMANDING BAN ON CONTRACTS WITH CHINESE FIRM TAKING AMERICANS’ DNA However, that proposal quickly fell apart after a closed-door House GOP conference meeting to discuss FISA on Monday night. “This is not an appropriate time for queen of the hill,” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told reporters on Monday night. Issa argued that the House should take up the Judiciary bill given the committee’s purview over the Patriot Act, which created Section 702. “We’re being asked in the NDAA to extend until April. That inherently gives us the time over the Christmas holiday into early January to work out these details,” Issa said. “I don’t believe in bringing two very different bills after nine months of the committees working together and agreeing on quite a bit, and then, at the end, have this big a difference.” WHO IS JACK TEIXEIRA, THE AIR NATIONAL GUARDSMAN BEHIND LEAKED CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS? Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., a member of the Intelligence Committee, argued that the Judiciary bill’s severe restrictions on the program would leave the U.S. more vulnerable. “We can’t cannibalize this tool. We can’t neuter it to the point where it’s not an effective way to protect us. But we’ve got… to get the reforms. We’ve got to get the accountability, especially on the FBI,” Garcia said. A plan to advance the two bills via “queen of the hill” on Tuesday was seemingly abandoned overnight, with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., denying that he changed his mind on strategy during a press conference that morning. “This isn’t some minor policy or law. This is about keeping Americans safe. And so we take the responsibility seriously. As recently as last night, we were in a room with all the interested parties and House Republicans there, and there’s still some disagreement about a couple of those key provisions,” Johnson said. FBI PAINTS GRIM PICTURE OF AI AS A TOOL FOR CRIMINALS: ‘FORCE MULTIPLIER’ FOR BAD ACTORS “I am not one who wants to rush this. I don’t think we can make a mistake. I think we’ve got to do it right. And so we’re going to allow the time to do that.” However, Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., a conservative who supports the Judiciary bill, said he opposed the clean FISA extension in the NDAA and would have preferred the House solve the issue before the new year. “I’m not a fan of it. I’m not going to support a clean extension of FISA,” Burlison said of the plan to punt to 2024. “I’ve heard the arguments from the Intel Committee, and they’re being pretty hostile towards the [Judiciary] bill. But the end of the day, the Judiciary committee’s position is more about the rights of the individual and the rights of Americans.” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a moderate Republican, said he sees “the pros and cons” of waiting to fight the battle until next year. He added, “I do think [Intel Committee Chair Mike Turner’s] bill offers reforms that protects citizens but it still allows us to click on our enemies. I fear that [Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan’s bill] goes too far.”
Stefanik shreds Harvard over ‘complete moral failure’ after allowing Claudine Gay to remain president
House GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., slammed Harvard’s decision Tuesday to stand behind Harvard President Claudine Gay despite her testifying last week at a congressional hearing that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews require “context” before they would violate the school’s code of conduct. Taking a point of personal privilege at the top of the House Republican Conference press conference, Stefanik ripped the “complete moral failure” of Harvard’s leadership, saying that in allowing Gay to remain as president, the “only update to the code of conduct” that the Ivy League school has made after the hearing, “is to allow a plagiarist as the president of Harvard.” HARVARD BOARD STANDS BY EMBATTLED PRESIDENT CLAUDINE GAY, ADMITS ‘INADEQUATE CITATION’ IN SOME WRITINGS “There is a reason why the testimony at the Education Workforce Committee garnered 1 billion views worldwide, and it’s because those university presidents made history by putting the most morally bankrupt testimony into the Congressional Record, and the world saw it,” Stefanik said Tuesday. “As a Harvard graduate, I’m reminded of Harvard’s motto, Veritas, which goes back – and it’s older than the founding of our country, it goes back to the 1640s. In addition, the motto was Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae – Truth for Christ and the Church.” “Larry Summers, who was president of Harvard when I was an undergrad, talked about the meaning of Veritas is divine truth, moral truth. Let me be clear. Veritas does not depend on the context,” Stefanik said. “This is a moral failure of Harvard’s leadership and higher education leadership at the highest levels, and the only change they have made to their code of conduct, where they failed to condemn calls for genocide of the Jewish people, the only update to the code of conduct is to allow a plagiarist as the president of Harvard.” Harvard’s board went through extensive deliberations over the weekend and into Monday regarding calls from 74 House members from both sides of the aisle demanding Gay, as well as the presidents of MIT and UPenn, be removed. More than 500 Harvard faculty members, however, had written the board demanding the university support Gay and “defend the independence of the university and to resist political pressures that are at odds with Harvard’s commitment to academic freedom.” ELISE STEFANIK SAYS SHE WAS LEFT ‘SHAKEN’ BY UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS’ ‘PATHETIC’ ANSWERS ABOUT ANTISEMITISM Billionaire Harvard alum Bill Ackman also sent a letter demanding Gay’s ouster, claiming her “failure to condemn the most vile and barbaric terrorism the world has ever seen” following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the university losing billions in donations. Ackman, a hedge fund manager, later said Harvard resisted removing Gay to avoid the perception they were “kowtowing” to him. Earlier Tuesday, the Harvard Corporation reaffirmed their support Gay as the “right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing.” “In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay,” the Fellows of Harvard Corporation wrote. “At Harvard, we champion open discourse and academic freedom, and we are united in our strong belief that calls for violence against our students and disruptions of the classroom experience will not be tolerated. Harvard’s mission is advancing knowledge, research, and discovery that will help address deep societal issues and promote constructive discourse, and we are confident that President Gay will lead Harvard forward toward accomplishing this vital work.” The Corporation also addressed Gay’s academic writings, saying the university “became aware in late October of allegations regarding three articles.” “At President Gay’s request, the Fellows promptly initiated an independent review by distinguished political scientists and conducted a review of her published work,” the Harvard Corporation said. “On December 9, the Fellows reviewed the results, which revealed a few instances of inadequate citation. While the analysis found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct, President Gay is proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications.” Amid intense criticism, UPenn President Liz Magill resigned on Saturday. By contrast, just two days after the fiery hearing, MIT’s executive committee had pledged “full and unreserved support” for MIT President Sally Kornbluth, issuing a statement that championed “her outstanding academic leadership, her judgment, her integrity, her moral compass, and her ability to unite our community around MIT’s core values.”
Biden to meet with families of American hostages taken by Hamas
President Joe Biden has invited families of American hostages taken captive by Hamas to the White House this week for a meeting. The families of hostages taken during the terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7 will meet with the president on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the administration confirmed to Fox News Digital. The encounter will mark the administration’s first meeting with the families since the Americans were kidnapped. Biden reportedly spoke to 14 of the families over Zoom in October while other officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, have met with them in person. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Special Counsel Jack Smith to use data from Trump’s phone in election interference trial: Court filing
Special Counsel Jack Smith plans to use data from the cell phone former President Trump used in his final weeks in office — including data revealing when Trump’s phone was “unlocked and the Twitter application was open” on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a new court filing. Smith, in a court filing Monday, notified the court that he plans to call “expert” witnesses to testify in the trial against Trump, the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner, which is set to begin March 4, one day before voters in several states participate in Super Tuesday primaries. SPECIAL COUNSEL OBTAINED TRUMP’S TWITTER DMS DESPITE COMPANY’S EFFORTS TO BLOCK ACCESS One of the experts Smith plans to call has “knowledge, skill, experience, training, and education beyond the ordinary lay person regarding the analysis of cellular phone data, including the use of Twitter and other applications on cell phones,” according to the filing. In the filing, Smith hints that the expert will be able to testify that he or she “extracted and processed data from the White House cell phones” used by Trump and one other individual. The identity of the second individual is unclear. Smith said the expert will also testify that they “reviewed and analyzed data” on Trump’s phone and on “Individual 1’s” phone, “including analyzing images found on the phones and websites visited.” Smith said the expert has “determined the usage of these phones throughout the post-election period, including on and around January 6, 2021” and has “specifically identified the periods of time during which the defendant’s phone was unlocked and the Twitter application was open on January 6.” SUPREME COURT: TRUMP MUST RESPOND TO SPECIAL COUNSEL’S PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY PETITION BEFORE CHRISTMAS Trump, in August, pleaded not guilty in federal court to all four federal charges stemming from Smith’s investigation into 2020 election interference and the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. The cell phone data Smith plans to use in the trial is in addition to Trump’s direct messages on the social media platform once known as Twitter, despite the company’s efforts to block access. Unsealed court filings in August showed that Smith’s team obtained location data and draft tweets in addition to the former president’s messages. Attorneys for the company, now named X Corp., attempted to block and delay the effort in January and February, leading one federal judge to speculate that X owner and one-time CEO Elon Musk was attempting to ally himself with Trump. The social media giant ultimately lost the struggle, however, and was forced to hand over an extensive list of data related to the “@realdonaldtrump” account, including all tweets “created, drafted, favorited/liked, or retweeted.” SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH CALLS ON SUPREME COURT TO RULE ON TRUMP IMMUNITY CLAIM The handover also included searches on the platform surrounding the 2020 election, devices used to log into the account, IP addresses used to log into the account and a list of associated accounts. Meanwhile, Smith, on Monday, asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether Trump can be prosecuted on charges relating to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. A federal judge ruled the case could go forward, but Trump said he would ask the federal appeals court in Washington to reverse that outcome. Smith is attempting to bypass the appeals court — the usual next step in the process — and have the Supreme Court take up the matter directly. The Supreme Court, late Monday, asked Trump’s lawyers to respond to the special counsel’s motion by Wednesday, December 20 — two days later than Smith had requested. The Court’s next scheduled conference day for consideration of such matters is Jan. 5, 2024. The court’s brief order did not signal what it ultimately would do.
US issues sweeping sanctions targeting Russia over Ukraine war
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on hundreds of people and entities, including in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, as it targets Russia’s sanctions evasion, future energy capabilities, banks and its metals and mining sector.