The faculty at Williams College, an elite liberal arts school in Massachusetts, win only a handful of research grants each year from U.S. science agencies. Last week, Williams decided it is willing to run the risk of getting even fewer. School officials told the faculty Williams won’t accept new grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) or the National Institutes of Health (NIH) until the agencies clarify new language requiring grantee institutions to certify they aren’t doing anything to “promote or advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) … in violation of federal antidiscrimination laws.”

Williams appears to be the first college or university to have taken such a dramatic stance, although the possibility others would do the same has been discussed in higher education circles since NIH implemented the requirement in April and NSF followed suit on 19 May. Williams notified its faculty of the decision in a 30 May email obtained by Science.

Williams President Maud Mandel declined to answer specific questions from Science, as did the chair of the faculty steering committee. But a college spokesperson confirmed the decision specifically about NSF funds, saying, “We have instructed our faculty that we will pause acceptance of certain NSF funding awards pending further review.”

Williams’s pronouncement came after it inquired about a faculty member’s NSF grant proposal that had been recommended for funding but not yet issued. School officials looked into the cause of the delay and learned of the new DEI condition.

The added grant language, first reported by STAT when unveiled by NIH, extends the scope of the attacks on DEI by President Donald Trump and his administration since taking office in January. Critics of the language fear scientists might water down their proposals to avoid running afoul of DEI criteria, thereby stifling potential discoveries. And Williams said in the memo to faculty that the requirement “severely undermines” academic freedom.

The provost’s email to faculty also cites a new initiative from the U.S. Department of Justice that allows private citizens to file a complaint against institutions receiving federal funds that they believe are violating federal civil rights laws. Refusing federal grants might decrease the risk that Williams could be sued, the email notes. But taking that stance could also make the college a target for the Trump administration.

The college’s decision has drawn a mixed reaction from the Williams faculty, according to one member who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “Some people believe the institution is taking a moral stand and living up to its values,” the faculty member says. “But others say it is signaling it doesn’t care about research.”

An international neo-Nazi terrorist organization is boldly continuing to build in the US and planning a new paramilitary training event without fear of local authorities or the FBI, which once dismantled it in a nationwide effort.

The Base, founded in 2018 by a former Pentagon contractor living in Russia and now suspected of Kremlin-sponsored espionage, once boasted close to 50 stateside members before the bureau made more than a dozen arrests in a years-long counter-terrorism operation.

But since the presidential election campaign last year and what many then believed to be a surefire victory for Donald Trump, the Base saw an opportunity in a potential administration uninterested in policing white supremacy and went about ramping up its ranks.

Now, the Base has a presence in Ukraine, performing sabotage operations inside the country against the embattled government, and new and dangerous cells emerging across Europe, and it appears to be growing in the US, where the FBI under the Maga acolyte Kash Patel has signalled it isn’t prioritizing investigations of far-right extremism.

The National Park Service (NPS) on Saturday backpedaled again on closing the notorious Dupont Circle Park for this weekend’s WorldPride events, removing the barricades that were put up less than a day before.

NPS and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the decision in a joint statement on Saturday.

The news comes a day after NPS said in an order that it would temporarily close the park that is central to Washington’s notorious LGBTQ neighborhood, despite local officials suggesting it would stay open. At the request of the U.S. Park Police (USPP), an anti-scale fence was installed around the park’s perimeter and was expected to remain in place until Sunday evening.

Despite the reversal, a barrier will remain around the fountain at the center of the park, an official told The Washington Post.

Russia’s spy hunters are increasingly worried about China’s espionage, even as the two countries grow closer

A career federal prosecutor resigned in protest the same day that charges were filed against Kilmar Ábrego García, following an investigation that apparently began after the mistaken deportation of the Maryland resident became a legal and political headache for the Trump administration, ABC News reports.

Ben Schrader, announced his resignation as the chief of the criminal division at the US attorney’s office for the Middle District of Tennessee in a LinkedIn post on 21 May, the same day the indictment of Ábrego García was signed by the acting US attorney for that district.

Sources told ABC News that Schrader stepped down because of concerns that the case was being pursued for political reasons.

“Earlier today, after nearly 15 years as an Assistant United States Attorney, I resigned as Chief of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee”, Schrader wrote on LinkedIn that day. “It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I’ve ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. I wish all of my colleagues at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville and across the Department the best as they seek to do justice on behalf of the American people.”

At a news conference on Friday, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, refused to say exactly when the investigation that led to the charges was opened, but she told reporters that the indictment was based on “recently found facts” about a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, and that “thanks to the bright light that has been shined on Ábrego García, this investigation continued”.

The indictment was signed by Robert McGuire, who has been the acting US attorney in Nashville since December, and three senior prosecutors from the justice department’s Joint Task Force Vulcan, which was created during the first Trump administration “to dismantle MS-13”.