Wednesday Briefing: A Trump-Harvard Showdown

Trump escalated a feud with Harvard

After freezing $2.2 billion in funding to Harvard University, President Trump turned up the pressure yesterday and threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status.

The fight between the Trump administration and the nation’s oldest and most elite university was headed for a showdown that could affect other American institutions.

Harvard has rejected the administration’s demands that it make changes to its policies and programs related to diversity hiring and the tolerance of anti-Israel protests.

Details: With an endowment of $50 billion, Harvard is uniquely positioned to withstand the funding freeze. Its strong refusal of Trump’s demands has injected energy into other universities fearful of the president’s wrath.

Ripple effects: Columbia University, which has faced criticism for not striking a more defiant stand, showed signs of adopting a tougher tone yesterday. The acting president pledged that the university would not allow the government to “require us to relinquish our independence and autonomy.”

For more: Critics say the administration’s demands are an attack on academic freedom. Here’s what to know about Trump’s targeting of universities.

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Scenes from Ukraine, where a truce seems far away

Two of our reporters and a photographer traveled to Sumy, a city in eastern Ukraine, a day after Russian airstrikes hit a central neighborhood on Palm Sunday, killing 34 people. They witnessed another Russian attack on Monday.

The Palm Sunday attack has become an argument that peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv are failing. In Sumy, it has set off preparation for a possible new Russian ground assault in the region.

The feeling in Sumy “is of fear, ceaseless tension and frayed nerves,” our reporters wrote. For residents, there are no signs of a cease-fire.

Autopsies showed some Gaza medics were shot in the head

The paramedics and rescue workers killed in an Israeli shooting in Gaza last month died mainly from gunshots to the head or chest, according to autopsy reports obtained by The Times.

The autopsy reports said 11 of the men had gunshot wounds and that most had been shot multiple times. Three others had shrapnel wounds. Israel’s military said it was investigating.

Related: An Israeli strike killed a security guard and wounded 10 patients at a field hospital, the hospital’s director said.

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The small Finnish city of Rovaniemi has branded itself as “the Official Hometown of Santa Claus,” with a tourist season that runs from October to March. Local residents are anything but jolly, with many complaining of out-of-control development.

Our reporter traveled to the city, where tourism brings in more than 400 million euros a year. “The people who benefit are happy,” a man in a red suit and a long white beard told him. “Those who don’t — they’re jealous.”

Lives lived: Elsa Honig Fine, an art historian who published textbooks on Black and female artists, died at 94.

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The fight over Van Gogh’s roots

Auvers-sur-Oise, a village near Paris, is where Vincent Van Gogh spent his final days. There, art experts in 2020 identified some gnarled tree roots on a hillside as those depicted in his final painting “Tree Roots.” There has been strife in the village ever since.

The owners of a property near the roots have been locked in a fight with the municipality, which has claimed part of their land for a historic site. The knotty dispute has unsettled residents just as the new tourism season heats up.

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