Trump freezes $175m in federal funding to main college in dispute over trans swimmer: Live

The Trump administration has frozen $175 million in federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) over a transgender swimmer’s participation in its training program, the White House said on Wednesday.

Ivy League UPenn is currently under investigation by the Department of Education after the president signed an executive order aimed at banning transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports.

A similar threat has also been made against the state of Maine.

“UPenn infamously permitted a male to compete on its women’s swimming team, overturning multiple records hard-earned by women, and granting the fully intact male access to the locker room,” an unnamed Trump official said in a statement yesterday, apparently referring to a trans woman who won the highest U.S. national college swimming title in 2022 while competing for the Philadelphia-based university.

But UPenn itself said it was “aware of media reports suggesting” that the funds have been suspended but that, as yet, it has “not yet received any official notification or any details” from Washington.

The Independent’s Sam Kiley reports from Odesa, Ukraine:

Seizing the opportunity to drive a wedge between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s president has moved swiftly to usher the American president back towards his corner.

By respecting, vocally, Trump’s efforts to get a ceasefire with Russia, Ukraine has exposed Putin’s deep reluctance to agree to any lowering of hostilities until he can be sure of permanently mangling Ukraine’s sovereignty.

According to a briefing on a call between Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump, the US president has calmed down, stopped calling him a “dictator,” and come up with an agreement to supply some badly needed air defences for Ukraine.

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Murkowski delivered her annual joint address to Alaska’s legislature on Tuesday and during her address, she criticized the indiscriminate firing of federal workers by DOGE.

Eric Garcia reports.

A couple of hours after journalist Jacqui Heinrich pointed out that one of Donald Trump’s favorite Fox News legal experts believed the law wasn’t entirely on his side regarding deportation flights, the president railed against the Fox News White House correspondent on social media.

Justin Baragona has the story.

Chris Stevenson, The Independent’s international editor, reports.

John Bowden writes:

The aftereffects of Senate Democrats’ decision to help Republicans pass legislation to avert a government shutdown without securing any concessions are still being felt. Having won nothing — including assurances that congressionally approved legislation would not be touched by DOGE cuts — voters are furious with the Senate minority leader.

His allies are doing absolutely nothing to throw him a lifeline.

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Amy Gleason, the government worker the Trump administration has said is actually in charge of Elon Musk’s signature Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) program, has a second role at a separate agency, according to court documents.

Since February, Gleason has been detailed to the Department of Health and Human Services, and on March 4 she signed a document formally accepting a role as “expert / consultant” at the agency, which oversees marquee government efforts like Medicare and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Josh Marcus reports.

Right-wing commentator Tudor Dixon has said she is considering running for office in Michigan in 2026 but has yet to decide whether to opt for the battleground state’s open Senate seat or governor’s office.

Dixon, 47, was previously the Republican nominee for governor of the Great Lakes State in 2022 but lost to Democratic incumbent Gretchen Whitmer.

Joe Sommerlad reports.

The White House on Wednesday said America’s intelligence community would continue to share information with the Ukrainian government to bolster Kyiv’s defensive efforts and provide Ukraine with more Patriot missile defense systems from European stocks.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a daily press briefing that Trump had “fully briefed” Zelensky on his 90-minute conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin and relayed the “key issues” discussed during the Tuesday morning conversation, the second call between the two leaders since Trump returned to the presidency in January.

Andrew Feinberg reports from the White House.

Katie Hawkinson has the story.