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Northwestern University has agreed to pay $75m to the US government in a deal with the Trump administration to end a series of investigations and restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding.

Donald Trump’s administration hahttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/29/northwestern-university-agreement-us-governmentd cut off $790m in grants in a standoff that contributed to university layoffs and the resignation in September of Northwestern’s president, Michael Schill. The administration argued the school had not done enough to fight antisemitism.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/29/northwestern-university-agreement-us-government

Under the agreement announced on Friday night, Northwestern will make the payment to the US treasury over the next three years. Among other commitments, it also requires the university to revoke the so-called Deering Meadow agreement, which it signed in April 2024 in exchange for pro-Palestinian protesters ending their tent encampment on campus.

During negotiations, the interim university president, Henry Bienen, said Northwestern refused to cede control over hiring, admissions or its curriculum. “I would not have signed this agreement without provisions ensuring that is the case,” he said.

The agreement also calls for Northwestern to continue compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws, develop training materials to “socialize international students” with the norms of a campus dedicated to open debate, and uphold a commitment to Title IX by “providing safe and fair opportunities for women, including single-sex housing for any woman, defined on the basis of sex, who requests such accommodations and all-female sports, locker rooms, and showering facilities”.

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The Trump administration on Thursday said it would reexamine green cards linked to 19 countries after two National Guard members were shot outside of a metro station blocks from the White House.

“At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow wrote in a post on the social platform X.

"The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies. American safety is non-negotiable,” he added in a follow-up post.

A June memo from the Trump administration listed 19 countries of concern with entry restrictions. The nations highlighted include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

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The historic Georgia criminal case against President Trump and more than a dozen of his allies for their efforts to try to overturn the 2020 election result has officially come to an end.

"The case is hereby dismissed in its entirety," Fulton Superior Judge Scott McAfee ordered Wednesday.

Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia, moved to end the prosecution against the remaining defendants after he assumed the case from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was disqualified by a court late last year.

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"The criminal conduct alleged in the Atlanta Judicial Circuit's prosecution was conceived in Washington, D.C., not the State of Georgia," Skandalakis wrote in his motion to dismiss. "The federal government is the appropriate venue for this prosecution, not the State of Georgia."

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Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, has said it is “surprised and disappointed” by a report that the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, could sever all military ties to the organization for being “genderless” and failing to “cultivate masculine values”.

In a draft memo to Congress obtained by NPR, Hegseth criticized Scouting America, which began admitting girls in 2018, for purportedly attempting to “attack boy-friendly spaces”.

“It is no longer a meritocracy which holds its members accountable to meet high standards,” Hegseth wrote.

The US military has provided support to the Scouts for more than a century. But in the memo, Hegseth said: “The organization once endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt no longer supports the future of American boys.”

His proposal, which has not yet been sent to Congress, calls for the Pentagon to pull medical and logistical aid to the National Jamboree, a gathering of up to 20,000 Scouts at a remote site in West Virginia about every four years. It also looks to prohibit Scouting troops from meeting at military installations in the US and abroad.

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A federal appeals court over the weekend declined to lift a lower court order barring the Trump administration from using expedited removals to rapidly deport migrants without a court hearing.

The administration earlier this year looked to expand the use of such proceedings, which were previously only used for recent arrivals encountered close to the border. The White House aimed to broaden the use of expedited removals to those who crossed the border at any point in the last two years, anywhere in the country.

In a 2-1 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the panel declined to lift an August ruling that barred the administration from implementing the policy as the legal battle plays out.

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In October, President Trump proposed a compact for higher education, a federal takeover of state and private institutions thinly disguised as an offer of preferential funding consideration. Most of the initially targeted universities rightfully have rejected Trump’s unlawful and unconstitutional compact, but some schools, including the University of Virginia and Cornell, have since signed separate agreements with the federal government.

Initial media coverage largely portrayed the deals as compromises that allowed the universities to preserve institutional autonomy and resolve outstanding federal investigations. But subsequent revelations about the coercive ouster of UVA’s former president underscore how, in fact, “deals” like these represent a dangerous new front in the Trump administration’s war on higher education.

UVA’s settlement, announced on 22 October, appeared to focus narrowly on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, to safeguard academic freedom, and to avoid external monitoring or monetary penalties. Cornell paid $60m and made various promises related to admissions, DEI, antisemitism and foreign financial ties in exchange for a restoration of federal funding. UVA’s leaders hailed “a constructive outcome” that “uphold[s] the university’s principles and independence”, while Cornell’s declared that federal funding would be restored without sacrificing academic freedom. But the reality is very different.

UVA’s deal is not a deal at all. It provides that if UVA makes unspecified changes on “DEI” to the federal government’s satisfaction and provides it with data through 2028, the administration will close currently open investigations into the university. The federal government can open new inquiries at any time.

What the agreement does do is contractually bind UVA to the Trump administration’s definition of discrimination. That definition outstrips anything the law requires and, in fact, may force UVA to violate statutory and constitutional law. Far from extricating the university from government oversight, the agreement subjects UVA to federal monitoring and the risk of draconian financial penalties if the federal government decides, at its sole discretion, that the university has not complied.

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