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Scientists worried 'about the fate reserved for them' under Trump seek protection overseas

Scientists whose research has been under attack by President Donald Trump's administration are reportedly clamoring to escape to a place where their contributions will be welcomed and respected.

The Guardian reported Thursday that France's Aix-Marseille University is now offering roughly 20 researchers a three-year position through a program dubbed "Safe Place for Science." The university was apparently inundated with hundreds of applications from scientists in multiple continents around the world for the small number of positions, which are expected to be filled in June.

298 have applied so far according to the Guardian, with 242 of them deemed eligible. 135 applicants were from the United States, and worked at prestigious and elite institutions like Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, Yale University and even the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Aix-Marseille University President Eric Berton said many of the applications were sent via encrypted messaging platforms, and that some contained "worrying, sometimes chilling, accounts from American researchers about the fate reserved for them by the Trump administration." Both Berton and former French President Francois Hollande, who is now a member of parliament, lamented that important scientific research "has become a risk for the propaganda of regimes" and called for France to create a protected status for scientists.

"[C]urrent asylum mechanisms do not take into account the specificities of the academic environment and the threats facing scientists within authoritarian regimes,” Berton and Hollande wrote in the Liberation newspaper. “This is why we are making an urgent request, one that is appropriate for the current situation: the creation of a ‘scientific refugee’ status.”

The news of the "Safe Place for Science" program comes as the Trump administration has been making steep cuts to scientific research on multiple fronts. Earlier this week, the administration announced more than $2 billion in cuts to multi-year grants for the National Institutes of Health, in addition to slashing millions of dollars in funding for Harvard University (which many Boston-area hospitals also depend on).

Recently, comedy actor Seth Rogen ridiculed some Trump-friendly billionaires in the audience during the 2025 awards ceremony for the Breakthrough Prize (deemed "the Oscars of science") including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Rogen said that it was "amazing how much good science you can destroy with $320 million and RFK Jr. very fast." Rogen's comments were eventually cut from the broadcast.

Click here to read the Guardian's full article.

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French scientist denied entry to US because 'he expressed a personal opinion' about Trump

President Donald Trump's administration is now barring international visitors from entering the United States for merely criticizing Trump in private conversations, according to a new report.

French newspaper Le Monde reported Wednesday that an unnamed space researcher attending a conference in the Houston, Texas area earlier this month was abruptly sent home after a random security check by customs officials. Philippe Baptiste, who is the French minister of higher education and research, said that when U.S. authorities searched the scientist's phone, they discovered "exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration's research policy." He was then "denied entry to the United States before being expelled."

"Freedom of opinion, free research, and academic freedom are values that we will continue to proudly uphold," Baptiste told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "I will defend the right of all French researchers to be faithful to them, while respecting the law."

The Wednesday incident prompted French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to state that while it "deplores the situation" involving the researcher, the United States is still "sovereign" and has final say over whether foreign nationals will be allowed entry. However, the ministry added that it maintains a "desire to promote freedom of expression" while also striving for "academic and scientific cooperation."

Le Monde didn't report on the actual contents of the researcher's messages, but the Trump administration has made headlines in recent months for its suspension of billions of dollars in federal grants for scientific research. Even though a federal judge compelled the administration to disburse funds it had frozen via executive order as Congress had already appropriated the money, British scientific journal Nature reported in February that researchers at the National Institutes of Health still hadn't received grants that had already been awarded.

On Bkuesky, University of Maryland biology professor Joshua Weitz responded to Le Monde's article by observing that the U.S. is scheduled to host the World Cup in 2026, and that foreign visitors may be thinking twice about traveling from overseas to cheer for their team in the United States.

"How the world will be in the summer of 2026 is pretty unimaginable now, but the fact that the World Cup will involve thousands of non-US citizens entering the US and moving between matches in the US, Canada and Mexico just sounds like a recipe for horrible things to happen to people at the border," author Chris Bertram wrote.

Click here to read Le Monde's full report.

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'Fiery Emperor Nero': French senator denounces Trump and his 'ketamine-fueled jester'

A speech attacking President Donald Trump and Elon Musk by French Senator Claude Malhuret is going viral.

It comes as the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, in a prime-time address Wednesday urged the citizens of France to discuss extending their nuclear umbrella to Ukraine in the face of what clearly is President Donald Trump’s decision to align with Vladimir Putin and Russia over Ukraine.

Senator Malhuret, who is also a physician and an attorney, is being heralded here in America.

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser heralded Senator Malhuret’s remarks.

“Powerful speech about Trump’s betrayal of the democratic world,” she wrote. “My question watching this — where is the American version? Why hasn’t US’s own opposition to Trump been able to speak out with such clarity and force? Tempus fugit.”

MSNBC’s Michael Steele, the former RNC Chairman, quoted this from Malhuret’s remarks: “Washington has become the court of Nero: an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers and a buffoon on ketamine tasked with purging the civil service.”

“Regardless the language, the Truth remains the same,” Steele commented. “THIS is worth your time.”

Former Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Anton Gerashchenko, pointed to this quote from the speech:

“The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe. The Baltic States, Georgia and Moldova are already on the list. Putin’s goal is to return to Yalta, where half the continent was ceded to Stalin.”

“Perfectly expressed,” declared The New European, which published the text in English and called it “a powerful speech setting out how the continent must deal with the twin threats from America and Russia.”

The New European reports the speech included these lines:

“The king of the deal is showing what the art of the deal is all about. He thinks he will intimidate China by lying down before Putin, but Xi Jinping, faced with such a shipwreck, is probably accelerating preparations for the invasion of Taiwan.”

“Never in history has a president of the United States capitulated to the enemy,” and added, “in one month, Trump has done more harm to America than in four years of his last presidency. We were at war with a dictator, now we are fighting a dictator backed by a traitor.”

Speaking of Trump, he said, “in the Oval Office, the military service shirker was giving war hero Zelensky lessons in morality and strategy before dismissing him like a groom, ordering him to submit or resign.”

“Our parents defeated fascism and communism at great cost,” Malhuret said. “The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarianisms of the 21st century. Long live free Ukraine, long live democratic Europe.”

The speech is of course in French, but there are subtitles.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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