Vue lecture

Leader of DOJ’s Civil Rights Unit Spars With Harvard, the Left and Her Colleagues

Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s civil rights unit, has extracted flashy agreements and personnel moves from big universities and sought to force states to turn over confidential voter data.

© Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, via Associated Press Images

Harmeet Dhillon has waged President Trump’s war on the left through a relentless pressure campaign against 100 universities over their diversity and antisemitism policies.
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Hegseth Blocks Promotions of Four Army Officers as Purge Widens

The turmoil has left a leadership vacuum in the Army at a moment when it is trying to find ways to defend troops against the threat posed by cheap drones.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

In 2026, Mr. Hegseth has removed at least 45 officers, selected by boards made up of peers, from promotion lists. More than half of those officers have been female or Black.
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Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Uphold Ban on Transgender Troops

President Trump issued an executive order barring transgender service members from the military as part of a broader attack on transgender rights.

© Allison Robbert for The New York Times

If the justices accept the case, they could schedule oral arguments during the Supreme Court’s term that begins in October.
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Inside Afghanistan’s Secret Schools for Girls

The Taliban have banned education for millions of Afghan girls. Times journalists examined classrooms where students, teachers and parents continue to resist by defying the rules.

© Kiana Hayeri for The New York Times

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Police Chief in Mississippi Regularly Used Racist Slurs, Private Text Messages Reveal

Text exchanges obtained by reporters show troubling messages sent by the chief of a Mississippi police department facing an uproar over the fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy in June.

© Carlos Kosienski/Sipa USA, via Associated Press

A memorial for Kohen Wiley at the Walmart in Senatobia, Miss., in June.
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Targeted by an Islamophobic Provocateur, a City’s Muslims Are on Edge

Jake Lang has descended four times on Dearborn, Mich., which is majority Arab American. His rhetoric and protests have stirred fear among residents.

© Nic Antaya for The New York Times

Jake Lang, the far-right agitator, outside a City Council meeting on Tuesday in Dearborn, Mich.
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Prosecutor Reduces Charges Against L.A.P.D. Whistle-Blower After Uproar

A Los Angeles officer faced prison for secretly recording colleagues making offensive remarks. The county prosecutor is reducing those charges after critics said they would discourage whistle-blowers.

© Eric Thayer/Getty Images

Nathan Hochman, the district attorney, said that the original charges “sent the wrong message.”
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After Women in India Joined Protests, Online Harassment Followed

Widespread online abuse and visits from the police show the added risks women take standing up for their beliefs in a patriarchal society.

© Atul Loke for The New York Times

Rhiya Ahir has suffered constant online abuse from trolls after an image of her at a protest in Mumbai last month went viral.
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Professor’s Death Leaves Behind Hard Questions for Cambridge on Race and Hiring

Jason Arday, the school’s youngest Black professor, was found dead on Friday. The school ignored a series of warnings about his life story and his work.

© Joe Giddens/Press Association, via Getty Images

Cambridge University in May. Jason Arday was hired in 2023, becoming the university’s youngest Black professor.
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Afghan Women Erased From Public Life in Five Years of Taliban Rule

Decrees restricting the rights of women and girls to study, work, travel and act independently now threaten to damage Afghanistan permanently, experts say.

© Tomas Munita for The New York Times

A market in Kabul, Afghanistan, last year. Most women say they have to get a male relative’s permission to leave the house.
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