What A Day: Xi Blinded Me With Science
China and other countries are trying to take advantage of Donald Trump’s crusade against UCLA.
BUMMER SCHOOL
Countries around the world, including China, are taking advantage of Donald Trump’s crusade against one of America’s most prestigious public schools.
Imagine you’ve dedicated years to researching heart disease, cancer, strokes, or PTSD at a university. Then, suddenly, you can’t anymore — because President Donald Trump is mad about student activists and your school’s diversity policies. Would you stay put and hope funding is turned back on soon? Or would you accept a lucrative offer to leave the United States and keep doing the work you love overseas?
That scenario is playing out at UCLA right now, where a bunch of researchers find themselves on an unexpected — and extended — summer break. For the past month, the university has been locked in a bitter battle after the Education Department froze $584 million in research grants. (A judge ruled that Trump officials must restore some of the grants.) Negotiations between the UC Board of Regents and Trump’s team to unfreeze the rest are ongoing, but there’s still no sign of an agreement. Some prestigious schools, UPenn, Brown and Columbia, have struck controversial deals to restore funding. UCLA hasn’t said publicly what it plans to do.
If the pause continues for a long time, scientists warn, there could be drastic consequences: “I can’t tell you the number of people who are getting aggressive inquiries, many from out of the country,” Professor Tracy Johnson, UCLA’s dean of Life Sciences, told What A Day. “What we’re looking at is the potential for a serious brain drain.”
Offers are flooding in from all over the world: Europe, France, Germany, England, Australia, and several countries in Asia — especially Singapore and China, the dean said.
Because of Trump’s widespread cuts to science funding, China has worked to lure top American talent, offering tons of money, health care perks, and housing to scientists willing to jump ship. “The scientific and technological revolution is intertwined with the game between superpowers,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping said last year.
How can you convince scientists tempted to leave the U.S. to wait things out? “What we do is we try to figure out how to communicate … that there is a way of keeping research moving forward,” Johnson said. “But it is tough. Yeah, it’s tough.”
It’s a tricky dilemma for UCLA and Democrats: Cave to Trump’s whims, or risk real consequences. The path forward is murky.
UCLA’s next move could have a profound impact on the school’s future. Among Trump’s demands: scrap scholarships based on race and ethnicity, release admissions data, end programs that provide incentives for hiring diverse candidates, allow an outside monitor to oversee the school, and appoint a senior administrator to enforce anti-discrimination policies.
Top California Democrats aren’t aligned on what their prized institution should do. Sen. Alex Padilla suggested that he would support UCLA striking a deal to restore funding, as long as it’s a “minor, negligible” payment or policy change. Trump recently demanded that the university pay $1 billion to unfreeze the funds.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential contender and Trump foe, doesn’t want to see any capitulation: “How could you possibly accept the fine?” the governor told Politico, referring to Trump’s financial demand. “Fine for what?” Newsom once described the president’s demand as “extortion.”
Young students are questioning what Trump’s cuts mean for their future, Johnson said: “They see that UCLA is one institution, among many others, that is feeling like there’s an existential threat to American research.”
WHAT ELSE?
Donald Trump ended Secret Service protection for former Vice President Kamala Harris. VPs normally received protection for six months after leaving office, but former President Joe Biden had extended Harris’s beyond the July 21 expiration date. Harris, who received death threats while in office and on the campaign trail, joins a slew of other Trump foes who have had their details pulled.
Trump said he doesn’t plan to spend $4.9 billion in foreign aid funding approved by Congress. The move — known as a pocket rescission, which hasn’t been used in nearly half a century — basically cuts the budget without Congress’s approval, even though Congress famously has the power of the purse.
The U.S. ended tariff exemptions on foreign shipments worth less than $800, which will affect millions of packages every day. The decision is expected to hit small businesses the hardest and raise costs for consumers. Get ready for your Labubus to become even more expensive!
Health officials linked a seventh person’s death in New York City to the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, a deadly pneumonia that has infected more than 100 people. On a similar note, I recommend listening to The Daily’s interview today with the CDC’s former vaccine chief, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned this week in protest over HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s decision to fire the agency’s director.
Military leaders privately worried that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles could have dangerous consequences. “The very nature of domestic operations — American military forces operating in U.S. communities — has such significant implications that the mistakes of a few soldiers can have far-reaching social, political, and operational effects," warns an internal Army document. Trump is intent on sending troops to more cities across the country. What could go wrong!
A hacker who was “sipping a Venti-size hot chocolate at a South Florida Starbucks” found internal Tesla data that the company claimed it didn’t have — pertaining to a fatal Tesla Autopilot crash. In court, Tesla later admitted that it had the data on its servers the entire time. The hacker’s discovery was a key to the $243 million verdict against Elon Musk’s car company last month.
It’s the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the devastating storm that killed more than 1,800 people and shone a light on the government’s fecklessness in the face of a major disaster. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has a powerful series of stories on the hurricane’s legacy, including this fascinating piece about the role that neighborhood bars played as the city struggled to recover.
Light at the End of the Email…
A small group of “web ninjas” launched an effort to preserve key climate data that theTrump team has taken offline. The info from climate.gov will now be hosted on a privately-run site: climate.us. “It’s absurd to think that they’re going to just take it all down and hide it away,” one of the sleuths said.
Court documents revealed the bizarre affair between a top Pentagon official and Amy Tripp, an influencer who calls herself “the internet’s most notorious astrologist.” You can see why it would be handy to have a soothsayer for a lover: according to the lawsuit, Tripp told the official that “the astrological signs told her … confirmation to his position in the Department of Defense was imminent.”
A 47-year-old Florida man dressed in a Batman onesie chased down a suspected burglar and handed him over to police on Wednesday. “It was good to see Batman, you know, keeping Cape Coral safe,” said one of the local detectives. Two cops took a picture with the man, who bought the onesie to match his daughter’s pajamas. Not all heroes wear capes: some wear zip-up PJs.
A 102-year-old man became the oldest person to climb Mount Fuji — breaking a record he set six years ago. “It was tough, and it felt a lot different to the last time I climbed it. I’m amazed that I made it to the top. I couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help. I’m feeling pleased now,” Kokichi Akuzawa said after being awarded the Guinness World Record certificate. He apparently got encouragement along the way from his 70-year-old daughter.
Meet Briggs!
“When Briggs isn’t caught in a reusable grocery bag, he fights climate change with his good looks and love for returning sticks to the forest.”
— Marin
One more day in hell with donny and his minions. LABOR DAY PROTESTS ALL OVER THE US. Bring a sign and your good will:-)
With Trump it's all about the money. He doesn't believe in science [unless someone designs a better cheeseburger] and he couldn't care less if China hired all our scientists! He acts as though the money for research, foreign aid, and all the other things he has killed financing for is his money, and everyone has to leave it alone! Pretty soon he'll quit paying the military and his personal Gestapo!