By Laura Alviž and Paula Doenecke, Bloomberg News

Universities on both sides of the Atlantic were under intense pressure to deal with campus conflict over political issues long before the Trump administration started cracking down on higher education.

In the past three years, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war on Gaza, prompted by a Hamas attack, have led to student protests around the world and put university administrators in the uncomfortable position of having to take political positions – or try their best not to.

“These days, there is hardly a crisis that doesn’t hit the campus with unbridled force,” said Ulrich Rüdiger, rector of RWTH Aachen, one of Germany’s top research universities.

Pro-Palestinian activists sit in front of tents set up at the university campus of the Free University of Berlin, Germany, on May 7, 2024, as they demonstrate against Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip which was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack. According to local media reports, activists set up a protest camp with tents in a courtyard of the… (Tobias Schwarz/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS)

In countries like Switzerland and Germany, universities have generally tried to stay neutral, which has in turn raised questions about whether that’s a realistic goal, and what such neutrality might be in service of.

At the beginning of March, ETH Zurich received a questionnaire from the Trump administration asking whether a research project that receives US funding was in line with new government policies on diversity, equity and inclusion. The university, which has received about $2.5 million on average over the last 10 years from the US government, decided not to respond, according to ETH Zurich spokesperson Vanessa Bleich. Later in March, the university announced that it would not make official statements on geopolitical issues.

Switzerland guarantees freedom of research and teaching. At the same time, Swiss universities have to abide by laws restricting the export of technologies that can have both civil and military applications, including those designed in universities. As a result, ETH Zurich announced last year that it would increase scrutiny in the admission of foreign students, especially from China. The decision was denounced by students and researchers, including some who described the policy as in conflict with the country’s geopolitical neutrality.

In Germany, where the most universities are financed by the government, institutions have to be politically neutral when it comes to party politics, and follow German law. But that’s the extent of it – universities are free to take stands when not doing so would threaten their functioning, and they are allowed to uphold values enshrined in the country’s constitution, a policy that allows for broad interpretation.

Often, these actions are relatively uncontroversial. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, universities in Constance, Halle and Cologne, among others, issued statements expressing solidarity with Ukraine. The following year, the Technical University of Dresden campaigned for their research fellow, economist Gubad Ibadoghlu, to be released from prison in Azerbaijan. In early 2024, the HRK, an organization that represents Germany’s university rectors, called on the country’s scientific community to stand against discrimination in response to a secret meeting between members of the far-right AfD party and neo-Nazi sympathizers.

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Israel’s war in Gaza, however, has complicated matters. As universities around the world have erupted in protest, German institutions have been influenced by the so-called reason of state doctrine, which mandates that the country defend and preserve the state of Israel. Consequently, many German universities have held fast to partnerships with Israeli universities, and in some cases, doubled down on them.

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, a German research university that considers itself politically neutral, said in March it was going to intensify its relationships with Tel Aviv University, the University of Haifa and Hasoub, an Arab-Israeli innovation center. KIT does not want to “exclude or separate itself,” but rather foster dialogue, the university said.

German society at large is more critical of Israel’s actions. A ZDF Politbarometer survey, one of Germany’s most important opinion polls, indicates that already in early 2024, only 18% of respondents still believed Israel’s military activity in Gaza was justified and 87% wanted Western governments to increase pressure on the Jewish state to ensure that aid reaches civilians.

As the government has taken additional steps to defend Israel under the banner of fighting antisemitism, questions have been raised about how far is too far. Last November, the HRK pushed back against news that Germany’s parliament intended to call out the country’s higher education sector for failing to act more decisively against antisemitism. The rectors’ organization called the move “objectively not necessary” and “not useful against the backdrop of university autonomy and academic freedom.” Three months later, the Bundestag passed a resolution calling on universities to take stronger stands against antisemitism.

While she thinks universities should try to steer clear of taking geopolitical positions, Jutta Günther, the rector of the University of Bremen, believes no one should be prevented from standing up for Germany’s constitution, the Basic Law. “We are not neutral towards the Basic Law, we are committed to it. It is the foundation that guarantees freedom of research and teaching in the first place,” she said. In an article Günther wrote for a German science and education website, she appealed to the scientific community to fight for democracy at a moment in which it is under attack.

Such actions are important, said Jonathan Dreusch, the political secretary at the German National Union of Students, but he cautioned that political stands must be taken organically, and not in response to outside pressures. “Universities must not become pawns. And this also includes instrumentalizing them for short-term political purposes, even with the best of intentions,” he said.

©2025 Bloomberg News. Visit at bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By JILL LAWLESS

SCUNTHORPE, England (AP) — Tucking into tea and cake in the spring sunshine, Nigel Farage glows with anticipation and big ambitions.

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The man who helped drag Britain out of the European Union wants to displace the Conservatives as country’s main party on the right, challenge left-of-center Labour for power and ultimately reach the prime minister’s office.

That seems like a longshot for the hard-right politician whose Reform UK party holds just four of the 650 seats in the House of Commons. But Reform has surged in opinion polls, and sees Thursday’s local elections in England as a pivot point in its quest to transform British politics.

“This is one of the big hurdles that we have to clear en route to the next general election,” Farage told The Associated Press about the upcoming vote at a cafe in the steel town of Scunthorpe. And when that national election comes, “we intend to completely change British history and win it.”

Reform on the rise

Reform got about 14% of the vote in last year’s national election, but polls now suggest its support equals or surpasses that of governing Labour and the opposition Conservatives.

The party blends Farage’s longstanding political themes — strong borders, curbing immigration — with policies reminiscent of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. Farage says he plans “a DOGE for every county,” inspired by Elon Musk’s controversial spending-slashing agency.

“We have a plan,” Farage said. “You bring the auditors in, find out why all this money is being spent on consultants and agency workers, end work from home — boom, gone, done, over.”

The party appeals to many working-class voters who once backed Labour, and to social conservatives long drawn to the Tories. Some Conservatives are already suggesting an electoral pact between the two parties on the right for the next national election, due by 2029.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Reform UK mayoral candidate Andrea Jenkyns look towards the media as they have a cream tea break during their election campaign in Scunthorpe, England, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)

Farage laughs off the idea, saying that the Conservative Party “will be so small by then it won’t matter.”

The party has momentum, and it showed during Farage’s election walkabout in the Scunthorpe suburb of Ashby with Andrea Jenkyns, Reform’s candidate for mayor of the Greater Lincolnshire region of east-central England. Reform hopes to win the race and also gain hundreds of local council seats and a House of Commons lawmaker on Thursday.

High school students stopped to ask for selfies, while a passing van driver honked and shouted, “Go on, Nigel lad!” Farage has a level of recognition most politicians can only dream of. He also has a phalanx of security guards that is strikingly large for a British politician. In the past, he has been doused with a milkshake and pelted with cement on the campaign trail.

Economic insecurity

Farage found support from local businesspeople, including bakery owner Andrea Blow.

“The last six months has been really hard for small businesses. Everyone’s feeling the pinch,” Blow said, citing the rising cost of ingredients like chocolate and butter, a hike in payroll taxes for employers imposed by the Labour government and hard times in Scunthorpe, a town trying to shake off decades of post-industrial decline.

Scunthorpe’s fate is tied to a hulking British Steel plant that was long the town’s main source of jobs and still employs about 3,000 people. It was under threat of closure by its Chinese owner, Jingye Group, until the Labour government stepped in to pay for supplies of raw materials to keep the steel furnaces running. The plant’s long-term future remains uncertain.

Farage, a lifelong free-marketeer, now advocates nationalizing British Steel on the grounds of protecting jobs and national security. Critics say that’s evidence his views shift with the political winds.

Rival parties are concerned

The rise of Reform worries both Labour and the Conservatives.

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said a strong result for Farage’s party on Thursday might scare both Labour and the Conservatives into toughening their stance on immigration and other issues to try to “become Reform-light.”

He said that would be a mistake.

“If we look all around Europe, the idea that you are best off tackling these radical right insurgencies by copying some of their policies and some of their rhetoric isn’t borne out by reality,” Bale said. “If you present people with a copy, they tend to prefer the original.”

A divisive politician

Farage is Reform’s biggest asset, but he also is a divisive figure who has said many migrants come to the U.K. from cultures “alien to ours.”

Critics say Farage stoked tensions by inaccurately suggesting police were withholding information about a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three children dead in July. False claims that the attacker was an asylum-seeker sparked days of rioting across England.

Reform has also been dogged by some of the infighting associated with the previous parties Farage led, UKIP and the Brexit Party, though it has sought to become a slicker and more professional organization.

Farage’s status as Trump’s most prominent U.K. supporter could also have a downside, since polls suggest the US. president is broadly unpopular in Britain.

Farage distances himself from some Trump policies, including trade tariffs and a desire for the U.S. to make Canada its 51st state.

“I’m a friend of his, and our interests are similar, but they’re not symmetrical,” he said.

His argument that the U.K.’s net-zero carbon emission goals are “lunacy” also could limit Reform’s appeal to younger voters.

“They’re a party that thrives on division,” said 37-year-old Joe Richards, who plans to vote Labour in Scunthorpe and claimed Reform offers simplistic solutions to complex problems. “I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them.”

But another resident, retiree Tyna Ashworth, 71, said she is “willing to give Reform a go.”

“A lot of the politicians, they don’t listen. … They couldn’t live on my pension,” she said. “I’ve worked 50 years for this country, and I’ve worked hard. And I think I deserve to be able to live a decent life.”

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said Wednesday the next round of negotiations over its rapidly advancing nuclear program it will have with the United States will be in Rome on Saturday.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made the comment on the sidelines of a Cabinet meeting, adding that Iran also anticipated having a meeting Friday with France, Germany and the United Kingdom to discuss the talks.

The talks with the U.S. again will be mediated by Oman. The sultanate has hosted two rounds of talks in Oman’s capital, Muscat, and one round at its embassy in Rome.

The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic closing in on a half-century of enmity.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.

The PWHL will expand to eight teams next season by adding Seattle as its second new franchise alongside Vancouver, and the Associated Press has learned that plans are already in the works to add two more in a year’s time.

Seattle’s addition, announced Wednesday, gives the PWHL a strong foothold in the Pacific Northwest and comes a week after the unveiling of the new team in Vancouver for the 2025-26 season. The westward move broadens the league’s reach across the continent in two markets with a history supporting women’s sports and separated by just a three-hour drive.

“Of course the geography makes a ton of sense and I think we have a built-in rivalry here that will just naturally happen,” executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer told the AP.

“But most importantly is they met all the criteria in terms of what we were looking for,” she added. “There’s just a ton of business reasons to do it. And those are the only things we’re focused on.”

The two-team expansion for Season 3 is only the beginning for a league that launched in January 2024 with five Eastern franchises — Boston, New York, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto — and one in St. Paul.

The PWHL plans to grow to 10 teams for its 2026-27 season, a person with knowledge of discussions told the AP on the condition of anonymity because the talks are private. The person said the league is accelerating its plans based on the strength of responses and feedback received during its eight-month expansion search in which the PWHL considered more than 20 markets.

Scheer didn’t entirely dispute the plan, without providing an exact timetable.

“I think we’ve been pretty clear from the outset that this is the first year of a multi-year process,” Scheer said as the PWHL closes the final week of the regular season. “It could come in Year 4. It could come Year 5. I think that those conversations are still being had.”

Neutral site stops this past season in Denver, Detroit, Quebec City and Edmonton each topped 14,000 fans.

The new team will initially go by PWHL Seattle and its colors will be emerald green and cream. The team will play out of the NHL Kraken’s Climate Pledge Arena and practice at the Kraken Community Iceplex. Vancouver also has not announced a nickname yet.

Though all PWHL teams are centrally controlled by the league, Seattle’s expansion bid was led by the Kraken and the Oak View Group, which developed and operates Climate Pledge Arena.

Oak View has longtime ties to women’s hockey and expressed interest in landing an original six franchise when the league was established in June 2023 by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter, his wife Kimbra, and tennis icon Billie Jean King.

Seattle features a growing youth hockey program, is home to the WNBA’s Storm and NWSL’s Reign, and has previously shown support for women’s hockey. In November 2022, Seattle drew a U.S.-Canada Rivalry Series record crowd of 14,551. In January, the PWHL drew a crowd of 12,608 in kicking off its nine-game Takeover Tour of neutral site games in Seattle.

The PWHL plans to announce the date of an expansion draft and how Vancouver and Seattle will be integrated into its entry draft on June 24 at a later time.

“Upon launch, you’ve got six teams and maybe if you’re not North American, you don’t know really what to expect,” PWHL executive vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford said. “Now, I think these players are seeing that this league is here, it’s thriving, it’s growing, and they are going to want to be a part of it.”