Former president says move is an ‘attempt to stifle academic freedom’. Plus, the people forming relationships with AI chatbotsDon’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.The US education department is freezing about $2.3bn in federal funds to Harvard University, the a gency said yesterday, a move that the former US president Barack Obama called “unlawful and ham-handed”.What did Obama say about the decision? In some of his most vocal criticism of this Trump administration, the former president praised Harvard, the country’s oldest university, for setting an example for other higher education institutions to reject federal overreach into its governance practices.What did they say? “The ruling solely stated that if this individual, at El Salvador’s sole discretion, was sent back to our country, we could deport him a second time,” said Trump’s policy chief, Stephen Miller. Continue reading... ...read more read less