Good morning. It’s Thursday, and I’m reading about how the FireAid concert was assembled in just 48 hours. Here are the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

It’s my favorite time of year: when student government candidates start making absolutely bogus campaign promises. See a non-exhaustive list of favorites: free shuttle to The Grove, a KFC on campus, free laundry, Zipcar discounts and free In-N-Out, promised by the same candidates who want to remove seed oils from the dining hall.

Tomoki Chien / Morning, Trojan

2.

ICE agents raided a home roughly a mile from USC and detained a father of two. The family, which does not speak English, said the feds arrived in unmarked cars with no interpreter and did not give them a copy of the deportation order. “I want them to give my dad back because I miss him so much,” said the man’s 11-year-old son.

Shane Dimapanat / Annenberg Media

3.

An alleged gang member accused of slaying a USC student in 2019 pleaded no-contest to first-degree murder charges. Police said the suspect shot Victor McElhaney, a 21-year-old jazz studies student, when he inadvertently walked in on a robbery at a liquor store near campus. Thornton offers a scholarship in his name.

Jacob Wheeler / NBC Los Angeles

4.

Donald Trump rescinded a freeze on federal grants and loans that had paralyzed academia and crucial institutions like the Medicaid system. White House sources said the budget office issued the order without consulting top administrative officials, leaving them fuming.

Jonathan Swan and Zolan Kanno-Youngs / The New York Times

5.

Silicon Valley flipped out this week when a Chinese firm released DeepSeek, an AI chatbot competitive with American models developed for a fraction of the price. Now, OpenAI claims the Chinese may have stolen its data. The irony was not lost on 404 Media, which wrote: “OpenAI furious DeepSeek might have stolen all the data OpenAI stole from us.”

Jason Koebler / 404 Media