WASHINGTON (AP) — The president of Haverford College was berated by Republican lawmakers in a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism Wednesday, with some suggesting the school should lose federal funding because of her refusal to discuss student discipline in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests.

Wendy Raymond appeared alongside two other college presidents on Capitol Hill but was singled out as the only one who would not detail punishments for students and faculty accused of anti-Jewish bias. Asked repeatedly, Raymond said her institution does not publicize the outcomes of disciplinary processes.

“I suppose it’s your First Amendment right to be evasive, but it’s also our right to decide that such institutions are not deserving of taxpayer money,” said Republican Rep. Bob Onder of Missouri.

Also appearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce were Jeffrey Armstrong of California Polytechnic State University and Robert Manuel of DePaul University. It was the latest in a series of hearings scrutinizing university presidents over their responses to allegations of anti-Jewish bias in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and a wave of protests that swept the nation’s campuses.

Unlike others that featured leaders of Harvard, Columbia and other elite institutions — with stumbles that later contributed to their resignations — this one intentionally focused on lesser-known schools. Republicans sought to look beyond the Ivy League to underscore the pervasiveness of antisemitism on U.S. campuses.

The committee’s leaders aimed to choose a diverse mix of colleges. Haverford is a small liberal arts school outside Philadelphia, founded by Quakers. DePaul is a Catholic university with an urban campus in Chicago. Cal Poly is a campus of 22,000 students in San Luis Obispo.

For more than three hours, Republicans grilled the presidents over reports of anti-Jewish harassment on their campuses, ranging from social media posts to the physical attack of two Jewish students at DePaul. Democrats denounced the hearing, calling it political theater that does little to fight discrimination.

The trio of presidents mostly struck a deferential tone, acknowledging some missteps while highlighting work to make students feel safer. Raymond and Manuel apologized for shortcomings, while Armstrong said “we have to do better” holding people accountable for prejudice.

But while the presidents of Cal Poly and DePaul shared information on disciplinary action against antisemitism, Raymond refused.

“We do not talk about those numbers publicly,” she said when pressed on the question. She acknowledged some action had taken but declined to go further.

It drew a searing rebuke from Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., known for orchestrating fiery exchanges with former presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania that contributed to their resignations last year.

“Respectfully, president of Haverford, many people have sat in this position who are no longer in their positions as presidents of universities for their failure to answer straightforward questions,” Stefanik said.

Stefanik questioned Raymond over a professor’s social media post describing the Hamas attacks as “imprisoned people breaking free from their chains.” Raymond called it repugnant but refused to discuss individual cases.

DePaul’s president faced scrutiny over his handling of a pro-Palestinian encampment. Protesters took over a campus quad at the Chicago university for 17 days, causing $180,000 in property damage, according to the school. Police cleared the encampment and said they found knives, a pellet gun and other weapons.

“My question is, if there is another encampment, are you taking it down that next day?” asked Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill.

“Yes,” Manuel said.

Other Republicans endorsed the idea of funding cuts for schools that refuse to disclose punishments, saying Congress should explore the issue. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania said it should be a baseline for receiving funding.

Republicans began the series of hearings in late 2023 and have routinely called education leaders to Capitol Hill to testify. Those called include chiefs of Harvard, Columbia, Penn, Northwestern University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Trump administration has separately frozen billions of dollars in grants to colleges targeted by a federal antisemitism task force. Those targeted include Columbia, Penn and Harvard, which is suing to restore $2.2 billion in grants. The Education Department doubled down last week, saying Harvard is no longer eligible for new grants.

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Collin Binkley, The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration, which has fought to dismantle or hollow out government-run outlets that provide news to other countries, has agreed to use the conservative media network OAN’s feed on Voice of America and other services.

Voice of America hasn’t operated since mid-March because of funding cuts ordered by President Donald Trump, who has criticized it and similar services like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as promoting a news agenda with a liberal bias.

That has triggered court fights that are still unresolved. But Kari Lake, Trump’s representative at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the funding arm for these services, said she had reached out to OAN, which has offered to provide its news and video free of charge.

In an announcement, Lake called it “an enormous benefit to the American taxpayer.” She said she initially reached out to OAN at the suggestion of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. It was unclear on Wednesday how or when the OAN material will be used.

The One America News Network is pro-Trump in its outlook. Recently, the network promoted an “investigation” of Trump’s early days in office, titled “100 Golden Days.” Its White House correspondent, Daniel Baldwin, said that “President Trump has ushered in a new era of American prosperity in just 100 days — the closed border, inflation eradicated, women protected, investments galore.”

Baldwin has also endeared himself to the president through questions asked at press availabilities. In one Oval Office meeting, Baldwin said that previous American leaders lacked the conviction to begin talks with Russia. “What gave you the moral courage and conviction to step forward and lead that?” he asked Trump.

“Oh, I love this guy!” Trump said.

How OAN is used on Voice of America is in VOA’s hands, Charles Herring, OAN’s president, told The Associated Press. “We simply wished to help when asked,” he said.

Shortly before stopping operations in mid-March, Voice of America canceled contracts with news services like the AP, Reuters and AFP. By law, VOA is obligated to provide a balanced news diet to countries where it operates, said Steve Herman, former long-time correspondent there. Lake’s Agency for Global Media is also not supposed to dictate its content, he said.

“VOA is not to be the voice of left America nor the voice of right America,” Herman said.

In a message on social media, Lake acknowledged that she doesn’t have editorial control over what is aired on Voice of America. “But,” she said, “I can ensure our outlets have reliable and credible options as they work to craft their reporting and news programs.”

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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social

David Bauder, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is withdrawing the nomination of a former Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat for U.S. surgeon general, marking at least the second health-related pick from President Donald Trump to be pulled from Senate consideration.

The withdrawal was confirmed by two people familiar with the matter. Nesheiwat had been scheduled to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Thursday for her confirmation hearing. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm a decision not yet made public.

Nesheiwat is a medical director for an urgent care company in New York and has appeared regularly on Fox News to offer medical expertise and insights. She is a vocal supporter of Trump and shares photos of them together on social media. Nesheiwat is also the sister-in-law of former national security adviser Mike Waltz, who has been nominated to be Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.

But she has recently come under criticism from Laura Loomer, a far-right ally of Trump who was instrumental in ousting several members of the president’s National Security Council. Loomer posted on X earlier this week that “we can’t have a pro-COVID vaccine nepo appointee who is currently embroiled in a medical malpractice case and who didn’t go to medical school in the US” as the surgeon general.

CBS News reported last week that Nesheiwat earned her medical degree from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in St. Maarten, despite saying that she has a degree from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine.

The surgeon general, considered the nation’s doctor, oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Health Service Corps members and can issue advisories that warn of public health threats.

In March, the White House pulled from consideration the nomination of former Florida GOP Rep. Dave Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His skepticism on vaccines had raised concerns from key Republican senators, and he withdrew after being told by the White House that he did not have enough support to be confirmed.

The withdrawal was first reported by Bloomberg News.

Seung Min Kim, The Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina elections board ousted its widely respected executive director Wednesday in a partisan move that will put Republicans in control of election operations in the political swing state, which includes the certification of results.

The removal of Karen Brinson Bell, who had held the job for nearly six years during a time when the board had Democratic majorities, came after Republicans took away the authority to appoint election board members from the Democratic governor late last year, overriding a veto while they still held a supermajority in the legislature. Republicans handed that power to the elected state auditor, a Republican.

Meeting for the first time with its new GOP majority, the North Carolina State Board of Elections agreed in a party-line vote to replace Brinson Bell with Sam Hayes, the top lawyer for the Republican House speaker. The board declined to consider her request to speak at the end of the meeting, adjourning instead.

“While I would have liked to have continued to serve the county board of elections and the voters of North Carolina in this capacity, the state board has made a different decision,” Brinson Bell said after the meeting to those remaining in the audience.

Brinson Bell led the board during the voting difficulties of the early COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and through last year’s presidential balloting after a devastating hurricane hit the state.

Democratic board member Siobhan O’Duffy Millen told her Republican colleagues before the 3-2 vote to hire Hayes that how they parted ways with Brinson Bell was “a shabby way to treat a nationally admired executive election director.”

Nonetheless, her removal was not surprising, given that there’s precedent for a new director to get hired with a changing partisan majority, and Republican legislative leaders have clashed over the years with Brinson Bell. Still, the circumstances are extraordinary.

Republicans have sought board changes for years

The board’s partisan composition was altered just last week through the state law enacted by Republican lawmakers in December over the veto of then-Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat. It stripped the governor of his appointment powers not only to the state election board, but also to the chairs of county election boards. Republicans are also expected to install new GOP majorities on the local boards next month.

The GOP has tried several times since 2016 to remove the governor’s authority to choose members of the election board, whose duties include carrying out campaign finance laws, certifying election results and setting rules on a host of voting administration details.

New Democratic Gov. Josh Stein sued over the law, and some trial judges ruled that it had to be blocked. But the appointment switch took effect after a state Court of Appeals panel ruled the law could still be implemented starting May 1. The executive director is chosen for a two-year term set to begin May 15.

Election leaders praise outgoing director

Brinson Bell received high marks from colleagues for helping administer elections during the pandemic and when a photo identification requirement was carried out in the first general election in 2024.

She also oversaw the effort to hold the presidential election in the state last year after Hurricane Helene laid waste to numerous counties when it struck in September. The storm and subsequent flooding knocked out power and damaged water treatment systems across western North Carolina. Nonetheless, election officials managed to open nearly all of the 80 voting sites initially planned for the hardest hit areas on the first day of early in-person voting, just weeks later.

Some Republican officials complained about long lines at early-vote sites in some counties, and with mixed results lobbied to get more open.

Brinson Bell was selected recently to serve as the incoming president of the National Association of State Election Directors — a position Brinson Bell said she can no longer hold after losing her job.

David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department lawyer who now leads the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said the GOP’s “highly partisan power grab” has “resulted in the removal of one of the most highly respected election officials in the country.”

Justin Roebuck, the chief election official in Ottawa County, Michigan, said Brinson Bell’s “departure will be a significant loss — not only for North Carolina voters but for the entire election administration community that has benefited from her leadership.”

Pandemic litigation built animosity

State Republicans have been unhappy with Brinson Bell going back years. They focused on her role in a legal settlement in 2020. The settlement extended to nine days after the November election the time for mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be received and counted. State law at the time had set the limit at three days.

Brinson Bell defended her actions and those of the board, saying they helped more mail-in ballots get counted after worries about Postal Service delays during the pandemic.

GOP leaders also have criticized the previous board for what they called errors in how election laws were carried out for the 2024 election. It led to litigation and formal protests in last November’s race for a state Supreme Court seat that dragged on for months.

After last November’s election, Brinson Bell publicly asked that Senate leader Phil Berger -– the state’s most powerful Republican elected official -– to retract a comment suggesting that results were being manipulated during the canvassing period to lead to favorable results for Democrats. She said such words could lead to threats against local election workers. Berger declined to withdraw his comments.

Republican chairman says he seeks trust in elections

Francis De Luca, a Republican who chairs the new elections board, said his goal was that “we get things so we have fair elections, make voting easy and make sure we follow the law. And make sure there is trust in the election system.”

Republican Donald Trump has won the state each of the three times he has run for president.

Hayes, the incoming election director, has been general counsel to previous Speaker Tim Moore and current Speaker Destin Hall. His career has largely been spent working for state agencies, and he has been highly involved with election-related litigation filed against GOP lawmakers.

While she was not allowed to speak during the meeting, Brinson Bell stayed afterward and addressed the audience and the two Democratic members of the election board, who remained after their GOP colleagues had left.

“We have done this work under incredibly difficult circumstances and in a toxic political environment,” she said, adding that she hoped election workers are “supported and rewarded for their work rather than vilified by those who don’t like the outcome.”

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Associated Press writer Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Gary D. Robertson, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has issued a proclamation designating Thursday as a day for the United States to celebrate victory in World War II as countries in Europe already do.

Cities from London to Moscow are holding parades, flyovers and memorials this week as the world observes Thursday’s 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, when Nazi Germany surrendered to Allied forces, including the U.S.

Here’s what to know about Trump’s plans:

What is Trump doing and why?

The Republican president is designating specific days for the U.S. to celebrate being on the winning side in World War I and World War II. He complained in recent social media posts that Americans don’t spend enough time celebrating those achievements, which he said wouldn’t have been possible without the U.S.

“Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II. I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I,” he said last week on social media. “We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything — That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!”

Can Trump rename an existing federal holiday?

No. Nov. 11 is already Veterans Day, a federal holiday in the U.S., and only Congress can create, rename or take it back. That could explain why Trump backed away from his “renaming” plan and said he’d instead be “declaring” national holidays instead.

“We won two World Wars, but we never took credit for it — Everyone else does! All over the World, the Allies are celebrating the Victory we had in World War II. The only Country that doesn’t celebrate is the United States of America, and the Victory was only accomplished because of us,” he wrote Monday on social media. “Without the United States, the War would have been won by other Countries, and what a different World it would be. Therefore, I am hereby declaring a National Holiday in celebration of the Victories of World War I, where the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, and World War II, where the Victory date was May 8, 1945.”

He signed a proclamation on Wednesday that designates May 8, 2025, as a “day in celebration of Victory Day for World War II.” He’s expected to issue a similar proclamation for World War I later this year.

Is Thursday a day off from work?

No, Thursday is not a federal holiday and therefore not a day off from work. Only Congress can create federal holidays, and Trump has complained that there already are too many of them.

What does he envision will happen around the U.S. on these days?

It’s unclear. Trump didn’t say what he envisions happening, and the proclamation didn’t include any details. But he said during an unrelated appearance Wednesday in the Oval Office that he noticed France and other countries were “all getting ready for Victory Day.”

“We don’t celebrate it and I think that’s a great disservice,” Trump said.

What happens in other countries?

On major anniversaries like this year’s 80th, Britain celebrates VE Day with parades, airplane flyovers and memorials. The British royal family traditionally watches the airplanes pass overhead from a balcony at Buckingham Palace.

Russia celebrates on Friday, and its Victory Day parades are a massive show of its armed forces, with thousands of troops, scores of heavy equipment rolling across Red Square and flyovers involving dozens of warplanes. Military parades, fireworks and other festivities are held in cities across the country.

What have veterans groups said about Trump’s plans?

Rob Couture, director of public affairs for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said they are encouraged by any steps that “bring attention to the service of veterans from that time.”

Just over 66,100 of the 16.4 million Americans who served in World War II were alive as of 2024.

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Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

Darlene Superville, The Associated Press