Hi friends!
Welcome to Local News International’s Thursday evening newsletter. Every Thursday, we’ll dive a little deeper into the news stories that Dave Jorgenson covers on his new, independent YouTube channel.
At this point, you might be wondering, “If you’re not Dave, and I’m not Dave, then who’s writing this email?” I’m Chris Vazquez. Some of you might remember me as Chris the intern. I unofficially held that title for nearly two years making short videos alongside Dave at The Washington Post.
These days, I’m Chris The Researcher And Writer On Some Of Dave’s Recent Longform Videos. (Still catchy, right?) I’ll also be in your inbox every Thursday evening, giving you more context on the news Dave spotlights in his videos — locally, internationally and everything in between.
I’ll share a few bullet points on four to five stories a week, then pass it off to Dave for some analysis at the end of each email. It’s kinda like an evening edition of The Daily Planet, except it’s an email and Superman doesn’t work here and I’m definitely not secretly Superman, stop asking.
I’d also love to know what you want to see here. Maybe we can share extended replies to video comments worth digging into, or a transcript of Dave explaining the plot of You’ve Got Mail (1998) to me, or other fun things you have in mind. Drop a reply and let me know.
And in the spirit of trying new things, one of Dave’s first videos as an independent journalist went up today. Let’s dig in.
Columbia University has agreed to pay over $200 million to the Trump administration.
The university is paying to settle the administration’s allegations that Columbia didn’t do enough to combat antisemitism on campus. It’s part of a larger deal to restore research funding from the federal government.
Columbia’s acting president disagreed with the Trump administration over whether the university had broken civil rights law, but university officials “have recognized, repeatedly, that Jewish students and faculty have experienced painful, unacceptable incidents.”
Pro-Palestinian student activists take issue with the conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. They also criticized the deal and university officials. “Imagine selling your students out just so you can pay Trump $221 million dollars and keep funding genocide,” the student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest posted to X.
The agreement also includes a review of Columbia’s educational programs focused on Israel and Palestine, bans “benefits or advantages to individuals on the basis of protected characteristics,” and reinforces a crackdown the university had already announced on pro-Palestinian activism. It also holds Columbia to providing “all-female sports, locker rooms, and showering facilities” — an obligation that comes as the Trump administration has targeted transgender athletes.
This deal fits into a larger pattern of Trump exerting control over educational institutions. Harvard took the administration to court over federal funding cuts, but is also negotiating an agreement with the administration. The University of Pennsylvania also signed a deal with the administration.
For more on the bigger picture, I’ll hand things over to Dave.
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Hi, this is Dave. Not Chris, or JD Vance. I’m typing these words. I promise! Here are my thoughts on Trump’s handling of Columbia.
If you haven’t seen The Apprentice yet, it’s worth a watch. I don’t mean the television show (now available on Amazon Prime), but the biopic that came out last year starring Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong. Early on in the film, the fictional Roy Cohn (Strong) introduces his three rules to a young Donald Trump (Stan).
Attack, attack, attack.
Admit nothing, deny everything.
No matter what happens, claim victory and never admit defeat.
Did that conversation with Cohn and Trump really happen? Probably not. But this playbook is exactly how Trump has approached punishing university students that have protested the genocide in Gaza. In Columbia’s case, it worked. He “won” and they’ve paid up, agreeing to his terms.
It’s why I included the last bit in the video about the Wall Street Journal’s revelation that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump he was named in the Epstein files. He’s attempting the same playbook in the Epstein story, with less success. For weeks now, Trump has attempted this playbook following the outrage over his handling of the Epstein files.
He’s attacked the press and fellow Republicans.
He’s denied everything, despite promoting the “Epstein List” conspiracy theory in the past.
And he has claimed victory.
Covering Trump for the last decade has been exhausting, and based on these rules, that’s clearly by design. But I’ll keep putting on an extra long tie and covering it because it’s important to stay informed.
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We’ll feature more stories next week, the first official week of Local News International — which you can subscribe to for free here! And speaking of asking you to do stuff, you should also read our weekly Monday newsletter, where Dave will give you a behind-the-scenes peek at how he and the rest of our team are building Local News International. Plus, you can support our independent journalism by signing up for a paid newsletter subscription.
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For $500 per year at the International Tier, you’ll get those same perks along with more Q&A Zooms, early access to merch, and a private Slack channel with behind-the-scenes chats. You’ll also help us afford to live, which I think is neat.
’Til next week,
Chris