January 24, 2026

Hold Fast, Harvard

Since 2025 the Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has engaged in battles with major American institutions of higher education and research. Using the Trump administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, McMahon demands strict adherence to “educational principles” that include elimination of ‘DEI’ programs to quality for ‘preferential federal funding.’ In the case of Harvard University, this funding is on the order of $2.2 billion annually. Lawyer Kyle K. Courtney unravels the litigation at the heart of Harvard’s effort to preserve academic freedom and deny the administration another huge payoff with no transparency as to where the exortion money actually ends up.

Subjects: Economy, Education, Financial System, Free Speech, Healthcare, Legal Research, Medical Research, United States Law

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 24, 2026

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: AI Fools Itself: Top Chatbots Don’t Recognize AI-Generated Videos; FBI’s Washington Post Investigation Shows How Your Printer Can Snitch on You; SCOTUS to Hear Case on ‘Geofence’ Warrants; Confusion and fear send people to Reddit for cybersecurity advice; and AI-Powered Surveillance in Schools.

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media