2/2/26: Why Trump’s focus on Harvard’s foreign students matters to other schools (Politico) Harvard and the Trump administration are waging a court battle over the school’s right to welcome international students on its campus. A Harvard loss in this case could mean big trouble for other colleges, education experts say. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-education/2026/02/02/why-trumps-focus-on-harvards-foreign-students-matters-to-other-schools-00759388
1/30/26: Court orders OMB to publish more info about how federal funding is distributed (Government Executive) A federal judge on Wednesday directed the Office of Management and Budget to publish certain information about how federal dollars are spent after a government watchdog nonprofit accused officials of contravening an earlier court order. https://www.govexec.com/management/2026/01/court-orders-omb-publish-more-info-about-how-federal-funding-distributed/411092/
1/30/26: Trump slump? Attendance plummets at some science meetings, but others hold steady (Science) Conference organizers saw more cancellations than usual, most of them coming from federal employees. But the meeting still drew more than 3400 attendees—only a few percentage points lower than in 2024. A few months earlier, the society had been projecting the meeting would be its largest since before the COVID-19 pandemic, but its staff were satisfied with their final tally. “We still consider it a healthy turnout,” says Chris Stelzig, the society’s executive director. https://www.science.org/content/article/trump-slump-attendance-plummets-some-science-meetings-others-hold-steady
1/30/26: House Panel Urges CFIUS Scrutiny of China Pharma Firm Investment (Bloomberg Law) Select Committee on the CCP Chair John Moolenaar writes to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, urging CFIUS action regarding a Chinese pharmaceutical company’s investment in FastWave Medical, according to a statement from the committee. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/pharma-and-life-sciences/house-panel-urges-cfius-scrutiny-of-china-pharma-firm-investment?context=search&index=14
1/29/26: China turns the tables in biotech (Science) For at least a century, major scientific research initiatives have reliably occurred in the United States, usually in response to geopolitical competition. This helped establish the country’s status as a global scientific power, enabling the US to set the standards for new technologies and pave the way forward. That edge began to erode around 20 years ago with the success of Chinese universities in engineering and materials science. Most recently, the rise of China’s success in medicine and biopharmaceuticals has happened so quickly that the US risks losing its position of leadership in the life sciences. One would normally expect the US to react vigorously. But these are far from normal times. Saddled with an administration’s apparent indifference, the US has responded not with a bang, but a whimper. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aef7757
1/29/26: Basic Experimental Studies in Humans (BESH) Will No Longer Be Considered Clinical Trials by the NIH (NOT-OD-26-032) https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-26-032.html
