News briefs

Tribune News Service on Apr 14, 2025

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Trump tees off on '60 Minutes' again, threatens CBS broadcast licenses

NEW YORK — The CBS news-magazine "60 Minutes" is not going easy on President Donald Trump and the commander-in-chief is noticing.

Trump went after the program Sunday in a social media post after seeing two critical stories regarding his handling of the Russia-Ukraine war and his proposal to annex Greenland.

"Almost every week, 60 Minutes, which is being sued for Billions of Dollars for the fraud they committed in the 2024 Presidential Election with their Interview of Failed Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris, mentions the name 'TRUMP' in a derogatory and defamatory way, but this Weekend's 'BROADCAST' tops them all," Trump wrote.

Trump sued CBS for $20 billion, claiming the edits of a "60 Minutes" interview with then-Vice President Harris that aired in October amounted to election interference. The president and other conservatives chided CBS after it was revealed that "60 Minutes" producers had edited Harris' jumbled response to a question about the Biden administration's handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

—Los Angeles Times

Harvard rejects Trump administration’s demands, as feds threaten to cut billions of dollars

BOSTON — Harvard University is standing up to the Trump administration, as the feds pressure the Cambridge school to end DEI programs and “audit” the viewpoints of its student body, faculty, and staff.

Harvard on Monday announced that it’s rejecting a list of demands from the Trump admin. This comes as the feds threaten to cut more $8.7 billion in multiyear grant commitments to Harvard and its affiliates amid an antisemitism investigation.

“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Harvard’s lawyers wrote to the Trump admin in a letter. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms as an agreement in principle.

“Harvard remains open to dialogue about what the university has done, and is planning to do, to improve the experience of every member of its community,” the attorneys added. “But Harvard is not prepared to agree to demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.”

—Boston Herald

All-female Blue Origin crew with Bezos’ fiancee, Katy Perry, Gayle King launch to space

Jeff Bezos’ fiancee Lauren Sánchez led an all-female crew including pop singer Katy Perry and CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King for a short trip to space this morning.

Riding on Bezos’ Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard rocket, the six women, which also included Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen and Kerianne Flynn, lifted off from the company’s West Texas launch site at 9:30 a.m. EDT.

This was the 11th human spaceflight for New Shepard, and 31st mission overall. The flights have sent the capsule on short 10- to 12-minute trips that lets passengers experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth before their capsule returns for a parachute-assisted landing.

They traveled above the Karman line, about 62 miles high, the internationally recognized altitude of having reached space. Screams of excitement and raucous laughter could be heard over the live stream of the launch on both the way up and on the way down. While experiencing weightlessness, though, it became quieter.

—Orlando Sentinel

Trump goes easy on Putin even after bloody new Ukraine attack

President Donald Trump took a soft line Monday on Russia’s Vladimir Putin even after a bloody Palm Sunday attack that killed dozens of innocent Ukrainians.

Conceding that the Russian strongman was “no angel,” Trump refused to directly criticize Putin for the rocket strike in the city of Sumy that killed 35 days on one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar.

“You take a look at Putin. I’m not saying anybody’s an angel,” Trump said during an unrelated Oval Office meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. Trump backpedaled from his initial claim that the Russian attack was a “terrible mistake” to say the real mistake was allowing the war to start in the first place.

He also repeated his claim that Ukraine bears a big share of the blame for the war. “(Ukraine President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy could’ve stopped it, and Putin should’ve never started it,” he said. “Everybody’s to blame.”

—New York Daily News