The Pentagon announced Friday it is cutting all military training, fellowships, and certificate programs with Harvard University, marking the latest escalation in a protracted standoff between the Trump administration and the Ivy League school.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement that Harvard “no longer meets the needs of the War Department or the military services.” He argued that the university’s ideological environment was undermining military readiness.
“For too long, this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class,” Hegseth said.
“Instead, too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard — heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks.”
In a separate post on X, Hegseth added: “Harvard is woke; The War Department is not.”
The new policy, effective with the 2026-27 academic year, will discontinue graduate-level professional military education, fellowships, and certificate programs at Harvard. Personnel currently enrolled will be allowed to complete their courses.
A body believed to be the 27-year-old son of rapper Lil Jon has been found in a pond north of Atlanta, police said Friday.
Nathan Smith, a disc jockey known professionally as D.J. Young Slade, was reported missing earlier this week after leaving his home in Milton “under unusual circumstances” on Tuesday morning.
Police said he “ran out of his house” on foot without his phone and may have been disoriented, prompting significant concern from family and friends.
In a statement posted to his Instagram, Lil Jon confirmed the loss alongside Smith’s mother, Nicole Smith.
“Nathan was the kindest human being you would ever meet,” the statement read. “He was immensely caring, thoughtful, polite, passionate, and warmhearted — he loved his family and the friends in his life to the fullest.”
Authorities have not yet released an official identification or a cause of death. The investigation is ongoing.
A Colorado funeral home owner was sentenced to 40 years in prison Friday for stashing 189 decomposing bodies in a building over four years and giving grieving families fake ashes.
At his sentencing, Jon Hallford was denounced by heartbroken families as a “monster.” Relatives told Judge Eric Bentley they have suffered recurring nightmares about decomposing flesh and maggots since discovering what happened to their loved ones.
They urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence of 50 years.
Bentley told Hallford his crimes had caused “unspeakable and incomprehensible” harm.
“It is my personal belief that every one of us, every human being, is basically good at the core, but we live in a world that tests that belief every day, and Mr. Hallford, your crimes are testing that belief,” the judge said.
Before his sentencing, Hallford apologized, saying he would regret his actions for the rest of his life. “I had so many chances to put a stop to everything and walk away, but I did not,” he said.
“My mistakes will echo for a generation. Everything I did was wrong.”
Alberto Castañeda Mondragón’s memory is fractured. The beating he says he received from immigration officers last month was so severe that afterward, he could not remember he had a daughter. He still struggles to recall treasured moments, like the night he taught her to dance.
But the violence of his arrest is seared into his consciousness.
He remembers Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulling him from a friend’s car on Jan. 8 outside a St. Paul shopping center, throwing him to the ground, and handcuffing him.
He remembers being punched and struck in the head with a steel baton, then dragged into an SUV and taken to a detention facility, where he says the beating continued.
He remembers, too, the emergency room and the intense pain from eight skull fractures and five life-threatening brain hemorrhages.
“They started beating me right away when they arrested me,” the Mexican immigrant told The Associated Press this week. His case, recently detailed by the AP, has fueled mounting friction between federal immigration agents and a Minneapolis hospital.
As President Donald Trump’s second term unfolds, Democrats are presented with a range of political openings—from immigration crackdowns and lingering inflation to institutional clashes and diplomatic friction.
Yet many in the party are sharpening their focus on one issue in particular: health care. Once a political liability, it has now become a foundation of Democratic strategy, one they believe can help them regain control of Congress in the midterms rather than chasing the daily headlines from the White House.
Republicans last year cut roughly $1 trillion over a decade from Medicaid and allowed COVID-era subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans to expire—moves that Democrats are turning into the centerpiece of their campaign message.
Across the country, Democratic candidates are filming ads outside struggling rural hospitals, spotlighting families facing spiking insurance premiums, and sharing personal health care stories. The party aims to frame the election as a choice over pocketbook security and access to care.
In Georgia, one of the most closely watched Senate battlegrounds, Sen. Jon Ossoff is expected to highlight those challenges at a campaign rally Saturday in suburban Atlanta. His race is seen as a test of whether the party’s health care-centered strategy can hold in a competitive state.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday reapproved the weed killer dicamba for use on genetically modified soybeans and cotton, extending the use of a pesticide known to drift from its target and damage neighboring crops.
The agency described the decision as critical for farmers battling fast-growing weeds, and said it had imposed “strong protections and limits” to ensure safe application.
Dicamba has been used for decades but saw a dramatic increase in use after crops engineered to resist it were introduced.
While it kills weeds without harming the modified plants, its volatility has sparked years of legal battles and widespread complaints from farmers whose orchards, vineyards, and vegetable fields have been injured.
The move drew sharp criticism from environmental and public health advocates.
They argue that reauthorizing the chemical for two of America’s most common crops will lead to a vast expansion in its use and increased harm, defying recent court rulings that blocked similar EPA approvals in 2020 and 2024.
“To see the administration move forward with this is disheartening,” said Kelly Ryerson, an activist with the group Make American Healthy Again, which has forged a fragile political alliance with the Trump administration on other issues.
“This decision directly contradicts their promises to listen to farmers and protect public health.”
A racist social media post by President Donald Trump featuring imagery depicting former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as primates was deleted by the White House Friday following a swift, bipartisan backlash.
The deletion marked a rare public retreat for an administration that had initially defended the video.
The post, which appeared on Trump’s Truth Social account Thursday night, sparked immediate condemnation from civil rights leaders, Democratic lawmakers, and veteran Republican senators alike.
Critics denounced the video’s treatment of the nation’s first Black first couple as deeply offensive.
In a reversal, the White House attributed the post to a staffer who had acted “erroneously.” This explanation came hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt had dismissed the controversy as “fake outrage.” The video was removed only after prominent Republicans joined calls for its deletion.
Asked about the incident later Friday, Trump refused to apologize. “I didn’t make a mistake,” he said.
The post was part of a series of overnight updates to Trump’s account that amplified his baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen—assertions repeatedly rejected by courts across the country and by his own former Attorney General, who found no evidence of widespread fraud.
This development continues one of the most protracted and consequential environmental conflicts in the American West.
The core tension remains unchanged: balancing the region’s clean energy and agricultural infrastructure—represented by the hydropower system—against the survival of iconic salmon species and the treaty rights of Native American tribes.
The Trump administration’s withdrawal from the 2023 agreement has not only reignited legal hostilities but also underscored the deep political divide over how to manage these shared resources.
The plaintiffs’ requested operational changes, like increased spill and lower reservoirs, are immediate mitigation measures, but the underlying debate often circles back to the more radical and permanent solution of breaching the four lower Snake River dams—a move with profound economic and energy implications.
Judge Simon’s “déjà vu” remark perfectly captures the cyclical nature of this litigation, suggesting that without a durable political or legislative settlement, the courts will remain the default arena for this battle.
The outcome of this latest chapter will significantly impact the region’s energy grid, river commerce, and the future of species that are central to both ecosystems and tribal cultures.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been left out of the Al-Nassr squad for the second game in a row amid doubts over his future at the Saudi Arabian club.
The 41-year-old also missed the club’s 1-0 Saudi Pro League win against Al-Riyadh on Monday.
Portuguese outlet A Bola, external reported Ronaldo refused to play, having grown dissatisfied with how the club was being run by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
The Saudi Pro League told BBC Sport that Ronaldo has played an important role in the club’s growth and ambition but added “no individual – however significant – determines decisions beyond their own club”.
The club, who have won 10 Saudi Pro League titles, called the signing “history in the making” but Ronaldo has only won the Arab Club Champions Cup in 2023 since the move.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner signed a new two-year contract in June 2025.
Both Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal – the country’s most successful club with 19 league titles – are among the teams controlled by the PIF, which also backs Newcastle United.
BBC Sport has been told former Real Madrid team-mate Karim Benzema’s move to league leaders Al-Hilal from Al‑Ittihad earlier this week was the principle reason for Ronaldo’s frustration at Al-Nassr.
French striker Benzema, 38, scored a hat-trick on his debut for Al-Hilal in a 6-0 win over Al-Okhdood on Thursday.
Al-Nassr are third in the league, four points behind leaders Al-Hilal.
Snoop Dogg might have taken most of the attention in the Cortina Curling Stadium early on Friday, but Team GB’s duo delivered two big-ticket performances of their own to maintain their 100% record in the Winter Olympics mixed doubles.
The rap legend – in the high-end Italian mountain resort as a Team USA hype man and “honorary coach” – had a practice on the ice himself in front of a small crowd of bemused onlookers following the morning session.
And that came after the 54-year-old demanded a selfie with Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat, fresh from their win over Sweden.
“He’s just asked for a photo with us, so I’m feeling pretty good about myself,” Mouat told BBC Sport, before Dodds disclosed that Mr Dogg “said he’d heard about Bruce”.
The fancied Sweden – who beat them to bronze in 2022 – were beaten 7-4, before underdogs South Korea were more comfortably defeated 8-2 to leave Britain with a five wins from five.
It leaves the Scottish duo top of the standings and within touching distance of the semi-finals and, with it, a shot at a medal.
The curling cognoscenti reckon six wins in the nine round-robin games could be enough to earn a place in Monday’s last four, and the GB duo are now just one short.
They face two tough tests on Saturday against the teams closest to them in the table. Canada are first up at 09:05 GMT, followed by the unbeaten United States at 13:35 – both live on the BBC.
Relentless GB pair crush Koreans
The South Korea game was the fifth time in less than 40 hours that Mouat and Dodds had taken to the ice, but they showed no sign of relenting. And, just like in their morning game, they cleaved open an early lead.
Without a win in their first three matches, the Koreans took the hammer – the right to throw last – but Britain stole three shots in the first two ends to establish an advantage. It was one they would never relinquish.
“Jen and Bruce were fantastic again,” said BBC Sport pundit and 2022 Olympic silver medallist Vicky Wright. “They just kept putting the pressure on and there was no let up for Korea.”
Mouat has been calling himself all the bad swears during three patchy opening games amid the Dolomite mountains in the north of Italy, but one of the sport’s leading lights lifted it on Friday.
And in Dodds, he has a partner who has been consistently superb so far.
Only Sweden’s Isabella Wranaa had been statistically better across the first two days, but she was no match, and neither was Kim Seon-yeong of South Korea.
It was a brace of points secured by Dodds that opened a 5-1 interval lead, and a further three steals after Kim faltered put even more distance between the teams with two ends remaining.
At that stage, the outcome was inevitable. And when the Koreans could only take one in the penultimate end, hands were shaken and the result confirmed.
“Five out of five is really good going, but tomorrow is a really big day,” Wright added. “Canada have only lost once – to the USA – and the USA are undefeated.”
Mazet-Brown misses out on big air final
Image caption,Txema Mazet-Brown was a junior world champion in big air in 2024
ByKatie Falkingham
BBC Sport Senior Journalist in Livigno
Up in the Italian Alps, snowboarder Txema Mazet-Brown was the first Team GB athlete in action at the Livigno Snow Park.
Making his Olympic debut, the 19-year-old placed 21st in big air qualifying with a score of 151.75, with only the top 12 progressing to Saturday’s final.
“I’m happy with the riding, it could have been a bit better with the cleanliness of one [run], but not bad overall,” Mazet-Brown told BBC Sport.
“Standing up there, you realise that this is one of the biggest events in the world. I’m proud, for sure. You get a little tingling, some butterflies, but that’s a good thing – it’s really special.”
Mazet-Brown will return to action on 16 February in slopestyle qualifying, an event he says he came to Italy “more ready” for.
