May 17, 2025 - PBS News Weekend full episode

The Trump administration's feud with major American universities escalated this week as a federal antisemitism task force notified Harvard that $450 million of the school’s research grants are being cut. That’s on top of the $2.2 billion it had previously frozen. Laura Barrón-López spoke with one of the affected researchers, Joan Brugge, director of Harvard’s Ludwig Cancer Center.

This week marked the 40th anniversary of one of the worst tragedies in Philadelphia’s history. In May 1985, the city’s police department dropped an improvised bomb on a residential home that housed the Black revolutionary organization MOVE. The bomb and ensuing fire killed 11 people, including five children, and destroyed more than 60 nearby homes. Ali Rogin reports.

The Hmong are an ethnic group living primarily in China and Southeast Asia. There are communities of Hmong migrants across the globe. For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Isabella Jibilian of Rhode Island PBS Weekly spoke with a Hmong family about their history and their journey to America.