US President Donald Trump announced he will be seeking $1bn (£730m) in damages from Harvard University in his administration’s ongoing feud with the institution.

The news comes after the New York Times reported that the Trump administration had to backtrack from its demand for a $200m payment in negotiations with the university.

Trump cited the story in a Truth Social post late on Monday, blaming Harvard for “feeding a lot of nonsense” to the New York Times.

Trump officials have accused Harvard of not doing enough to tackle antisemitism during pro-Palestinian protests. Harvard has rejected the accusation.

Harvard has been a central target in the White House’s campaign to stamp out what it calls “woke” and “radical left” ideologies on American campuses.

In April last year, Trump revoked around $2bn in research grants to Harvard and froze federal funding.

The university sued the Trump administration over the move, saying no government “should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue”.

A US federal court later overturned the billions in funding cuts, ruling the government had violated university’s free speech rights.

The White House vowed to immediately challenge the “egregious decision”, saying Harvard remains “ineligible for grants in the future”.

Before Monday’s announcement, the government had been in discussions with Harvard over a potential deal to unfreeze federal funding.

“We are now seeking One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University,” Trump wrote on Monday.

He accused Harvard of “serious and heinous illegalities”, but did not clarify how he believed it had broken the law.

Trump has previously threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status and take control of the university’s patents stemming from federally funded research.

Three other Ivy League universities, Columbia, Penn and Brown, struck deals with Trump to preserve funding that was at risk due to similar claims by the administration, rather than go to court.

Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s Prime Minister, said on Tuesday at the World Government Summit in Dubai that access to social media for minors under 16 would be banned.

Sanchez added that all platforms will be required to implement age verification systems.

“Our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone.

“We will no longer accept that.

He added that his government would also introduce a new bill next week to hold social media executives accountable for illegal and hateful content.

Australia in December became the first country to ban social media for children under 16.

It’s a move being closely watched by other countries considering similar age-based measures, such as Britain and France.

…Gets Support of Traders, Community Leaders

By Mike Odiakose, Abuja

Ahead of the February February 21 FCT council elections, Dr. Obinna Simon, chairmanship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), has called on residents of the Council to troop out and participate in the exercise.

Dr Simon made the called during his visit to several parts of Nyanya Ward at the weekend.

He also stated that he would make the chairmanship position of AMAC as a solid foundation for his ascension into higher positions in Nigerian polity.

Tagwaye’s campaign train visited the traditional rulers, both of the indigenous and non-indigenous, as well as the Moslem community, leaderships of Nyanya Market.

He promised to make life better for the people of AMAC, if elected, and encouraged the people to shun voter-apathy and come out in their numbers to exercise their franchise.

He said that council’s election is the most important poll among the rest because it is the government that is closer to the people hence the need for them to decide who governs them.

Addressing business people at Nyanya Market, Dr. Obinna Simon said, “I am not here to deceive anybody. AMAC is like a starting point to me and I intend to make the foundation very, very solid. And making it very solid, is by giving the people the dividends of democracy.

“I am one person that when I do good to people, I am very happy. If you ask me to list my hubbies, the first one is helping people. I have a foundation that I have been running with my money since 2017. I have never gotten a grant from anybody; how much more if it is with government resources. Be rest assured.

“I know the value of market; I know what we can do here to enhance revenue that would benefit you and also the area council. A market like this should have an edifies of microfinance bank own by the area council to enhance your businesses.

“You can obtain loan to carry out your business activities and then pay back. You can approach the bank, collect money and do business, and when you do so, N500,000 to N1,000,000 would come out of it. That is part of what we will do for the market people.

At Gbagalape community, also in the Nyanya Ward, Obinna Simon and his team were hosted by the Tiv Community including traditional rulers of the Tiv people who came from different communities within and outside Nyanya Ward.

They appreciated Dr. Obinna Simon and his political party for considering one of them, Mrs. Georgina Ngufan Jogo as his running mate, saying Tiv people, despite their numeric strength have been neglected by successive governments, and vowed that they would canvass support from all their people across AMAC to give the SDP 100 percent vote, because a vote for SDP means actualizing the chances of Tiv person to emerge as vice chairman of AMAC.

Appreciating the Tiv community, Mrs. Ngufan Jogo thanked them for standing with her and showing the SDP every necessary support and encouragement, and urged them to ensure that their effort is not in vain by coming out to vote and protect their votes on the election day.

The team also visited the traditional ruler of Gbagalape, the non-indigenes, the Hausa community, and all of them vowed to vote for SDP come February 21.

The traditional ruler decried that no indigene of Gbagalape can boast of working with the AMAC administration even though they have graduates, he also complained that the road from Nyanya to the community stopped at the entrance, and solicited that SDP candidate should intervene once he emerges.