WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

Universities, especially public universities that have seen billions of dollars in federal research funding already get canceled or cut this year, are now losing a really critical source of labor, basically, of research talent to actually power these labs.

A purge of postdocs might be coming to academia after the Trump administration said foreigners coming to study in the U.S.

are going to have to have their social media accounts inspected by the government, and that it wants to kick out some students from China.

It's Thursday, May 29th, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBOR. I'm Chris Bentley.

Today on the show, recipients of President Trump's latest round of

pardons include a rapper and a pair of reality TV stars, as well as

former politicians and donors to his campaign.

Also, summoning Mount Everest is a feat of endurance and a time-honored way

for people to prove their medal by climbing the world's tallest mountain. It takes a lot of guidance

and specialized gear, but is it a step too far for hikers to huff xenon gas to make the trek

faster?

There are people that believe is cheating.

Then there's other people that say this is very similar to using supplemental oxygen,

which has been going on for 100 years.

Then there's those to say, it's not for anybody else to judge what anybody does on the mountain.

We'll get to that in about 15 minutes.

But first, Chinese students in the U.S. are worried about their future after Secretary

of State Marco Rubio said he'd, quote, aggressively revoke visas of Chinese students with ties to

the Chinese government and Chinese students studying in what he called critical fields.

A spokeswoman for China's foreign ministry, Mao Ning, called the move politicized and discriminatory,

and said it, quote, lays bare the U.S. lie, that it upholds so-called freedom and openness.

...