By COLLIN BINKLEY, AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is freezing $108 million in research funding to Duke University as the federal government accuses the school of racial discrimination in the form of affirmative action, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Related Articles

Dissent emerges at Federal Reserve among Trump appointees, but a rate change remains unlikely

Texas Republicans propose new US House map with more winnable GOP seats

Medicaid was signed into law 60 years ago. Trump’s big bill is chiseling it back

FDA vaccine chief leaving agency after less than 3 months

Trump, in another break from the norm, interviews 4-star general candidates

The National Institutes of Health halted the funding to the private university in North Carolina, said the person who spoke Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Education Department sent a joint letter alleging racial preferences in Duke’s hiring and admissions.

Duke is the latest institution to have its federal funding held up as the government investigates allegations of antisemitism and diversity, equity and inclusion policies the administration says are unlawful. It follows other probes including at Harvard, Columbia, and Cornell.

Duke did not immediately comment.

In Monday’s letter to Duke, leaders of HHS and the Education Department accused the university of “vile racism.” It alludes to allegations of racial preferences at Duke, its medical school and its health system that, if substantiated, would make Duke “unfit for any further financial relationship with the federal government.”

The letter accuses Duke of providing racial preferences in recruiting, admissions, scholarships, hiring and more. It refers to allegations of discrimination without offering specific examples.

“Racism is a scourge when practiced by individuals, but it is especially corrosive when enshrined in the nation’s most eminent and respected institutions,” according to the letter, signed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

It’s part of a broader campaign to eradicate DEI practices the Trump administration describes as discrimination against white and Asian American people.

In their letter, the agencies order Duke to end any practices at its health system that give “benefits or advantages” based on race.

Saying Duke is unlikely to be capable of an “honest and trustworthy review,” the letter takes the unusual step of requesting a new Merit and Civil Rights Committee that would be approved by the government and authorized by the school’s board of trustees. The panel would be tasked with identifying and ending any racial preferences. If problems remained after six months, the administration would pursue legal enforcement, the letter said.

The Education Department separately opened an investigation into the Duke Law Journal on Monday over allegations that it gave advantages to prospective editors from underrepresented groups.

The Trump administration has used federal research funding as leverage in its effort to reshape universities that President Donald Trump has described as hotbeds of liberalism. It has presented a crisis for universities that rely on federal grants as a major source of revenue, spurring some to take on debt and find other ways to self-fund research.

Duke University spent $1.5 billion on research last year, with nearly 60% coming from federal sources, according to the university’s website.

Even before the latest funding freeze, Duke faced financial turmoil. Last week, university leaders said almost 600 employees had accepted voluntary buyouts but that layoffs would still be needed. Officials said they needed to reduce costs amid uncertainty around federal research funding and a hike to the university’s federal endowment tax.

The Trump administration has been ratcheting up pressure on universities in hopes of striking deals like one that Columbia University signed last week. The Ivy League school agreed to pay $200 million and make changes to admissions, hiring, student discipline and more in exchange for regaining access to federal funding. The administration has described it as a template for other universities including Harvard, which has been in talks with the administration even as it battles the White House in court.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By RENATA BRITO

MASERU, Lesotho (AP) — The deafening roar of hundreds of sewing machines has gone silent. Spools of thread in every color are covered in dust. The warehouse is dark and empty.

Related Articles

Pope marks 50th anniversary of Cold War-era deal on security and human rights

Dozens of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in Gaza, officials say, as hunger crisis grinds on

Birmingham gives an emotional farewell to Ozzy Osbourne as tearful family lead tributes

Tsunami warnings fading after one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded. Here’s what to know

Some facts about the strongest earthquakes ever recorded

In the tiny African nation of Lesotho, clothing manufacturer Tzicc’s business has dried up in the face of tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. A few months ago, work was steady. The factory’s 1,300 employees have made and exported sportswear to American stores, including JCPenney, Walmart and Costco.

But when Trump announced sweeping new tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners in April, Lesotho found itself topping the list, with a rate of 50% — higher even than that of China, where the economy is 8,000 times larger. Officials here and economic experts said they were baffled.

Since then, Trump backed off — temporarily. During a monthslong pause for trade talks, the U.S. has charged a baseline 10% tariff and announced new rates for dozens of countries starting Friday. Lesotho’s rate will be set at Trump’s whim, with aides suggesting that tariffs charged on goods from smaller African countries could top 10%.

Many nations have received letters laying out a new tariff. With the pause set to expire Friday, Lesotho officials say they’ve not received one and they find themselves among the countries where Trump says officials simply don’t have time for one-on-one negotiations. Leaders — and the 12,000 people employed by garment factories exporting to the U.S. market — are still waiting.

The damage has already rippled through Lesotho’s economy, where textile manufacturing comprises the largest private industry with more than 30,000 workers in 2024.

For Tzicc and its customers, the threat and apparent singling out of Lesotho were enough. Management decided to rush to deliver preexisting orders before tariffs resumed. But American buyers stopped placing new orders. With no work left, virtually all the factory’s employees were sent home — potentially permanently.

“Well, unfortunately, we finished,” factory compliance manager Rahila Omar said, pointing out the irony of the strategy as she walked among rows of silenced and covered machines. “That is why now we don’t have any work.”

Omar is one of a handful of employees left in the eerily quiet factory. A few remain in the accounting department; others empty leftover stock to a warehouse elsewhere.

Officials and workers fear this may be a sign of what’s to come for other factories in Lesotho, where poverty is widespread among the population of 2 million and most textile workers single-handedly support their families.

Lesotho’s tiny economy was threatened with giant tariffs

In March, a month before slapping Lesotho with the 50% tariff, Trump described it as a place “nobody has ever heard of,” struggling to pronounce the nation’s name in a speech criticizing U.S. foreign aid.

It’s true Lesotho is a “very minuscule economy,” as its own trade minister, Mokhethi Shelile, described it.

But its relationship with Washington dates back decades. The U.S. was the first country to open an embassy in the capital, Maseru, after Lesotho declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. The military received U.S. training, and hundreds of millions in U.S. funds were sent to Lesotho to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic via the now defunctUSAID office and the PEPFAR program.

As textiles grew to become Lesotho’s main export, some 75% of its product went to the U.S. Lesotho became known as Africa’s denim capital. If an American purchased jeans from a U.S. brand such as Wrangler or Levi’s, they may have been “Made in Lesotho,” as tags still note.

In 2000, the U.S. signed the African Growth and Opportunity Act, allowing Lesotho and other African nations to export goods to the U.S. duty free.

Shelile said he was in the process of negotiating AGOA’s September renewal when he was awakened in the middle of the night by texts from aides bearing news of the 50% U.S. tariffs.

“No, this cannot be real,” Shelile remembers thinking. “What did we do to deserve this?”

According to the Trump administration, Lesotho charges a 99% tariff on U.S. goods. The government here said it doesn’t know how the U.S. calculated that.

In theory, the tariff decision was based on trade deficit: Lesotho’s exports to the U.S. were around $240 million last year — mainly clothing and diamonds — and imports from the U.S. were only $2.8 million. But in practice, the math is more complicated than that. And in reality, Lesotho simply cannot afford to import more U.S. products. Nearly half the population lives below the poverty line.

“The trade deficit that exists between Lesotho and the U.S. is a natural trade deficit that can happen when you have these types of disparities between two economies,” Shelile said. “It cannot be breached and certainly cannot be breached by imposing tariffs.”

Lesotho declared a state of emergency over unemployment

Last year, Lesotho’s overall unemployment rate was about 30%, national data shows. For those 35 and younger, it was nearly 50%.

The threat of tariffs has exacerbated the national unemployment troubles, prompting the government to declare a state of disaster this month.

“No matter how we slice it, we’ve already had a lot of losses,” Shelile said. “People have lost quite a lot money. And to claw back and come back to where we were before this is going to take time.”

Most of the 12,000 people hired by Lesotho’s 11 factories exporting to the U.S. are women with children to feed and school fees to pay.

Of those, 9,000 jobs are directly in the line of fire and an additional 40,000 will suffer indirectly from the U.S.-imposed tariffs, Shelile said.

“We’re talking people in real estate that are leasing some rooms,” he said. “We’re talking people in transport, whether it’s long-distance haulage to the port, or it is a taxi driver taking people to work in the morning. They are going be affected.”

Mapontso Mathunya used to work on Tzicc’s cutting room floor and is now unemployed. Her husband also is out of a steady job. With two young children, Mathunya was the family’s breadwinner. She now tries to sell snacks and cigarettes on the street but finds it a daily struggle to bring home even a few cents.

“Our financial burden has been heavy,” she said. “Things are bad.”

The future of this factory and others remains in limbo

The future of the Tzicc factory depends on what happens Friday, compliance manager Omar said.

Owned by a Taiwanese national, the factory has been open since mid-1999. In a peak month, it made up to 1.5 million pieces of clothing for JCPenney.

Key U.S. customers for Tzicc — JCPenney, Walmart and Costco — did not reply to AP to comment.

Pivoting to the neighboring South African market, one of the solutions proposed by the trade minister and industry consultants, wouldn’t be enough to even cover the employees’ payroll, Omar said.

And even if American buyers return, it’s unlikely the factory could rehire all its 1,300 workers, she added.

Today, just a few blocks away, former employees try their luck looking for work at other factories that are still operating. Most are turned away.

“Life is difficult,” former worker Mathunya said. “There is nothing, nothing at all. People don’t have money.”

Pascalinah Kabi in Maseru, Josh Boak in Washington and Anne D’Innocenzio in New York contributed.

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By CHRISTINE FERNANDO and COREY WILLIAMS, Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Kevin Huigens wipes away tears as he gazes upon the statue of Cubs’ legend Ryne Sandberg outside Chicago’s famed Wrigley Field. Flowers, Cubs caps, American flags and — of course — baseballs, litter the base and the ground beneath.

“I believed in him,” said Huigens, 68, of nearby Berwyn. “He made being a Cubs fan enjoyable.”

Sandberg, who had cancer, died Monday.

“But he’s here in sprit, and he’s going to lift up our Cubs even if he’s not here physically,” Jessie Hill, 44, said, wearing a Cubs cap and jersey.

Fans leave flowers and other items at a makeshift memorial in front of the statue of Chicago Cubs’ Hall of Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, outside Wrigley Field in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Social media is swamped with outpourings of love, regret and sadness at the death of Sandberg and other cherished celebrities who died this month.

The Cosby Show star Malcolm-Jamal Warner, 54, drowned in Costa Rica on July 20. Two days later, legendary heavy metal and reality show star Ozzy Osbourne, who had Parkinson’s disease, died at age 76. Jazz musician Chuck Mangione also died July 22 in his sleep at age 84. Then, on Thursday, former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, was pronounced dead at a hospital after a cardiac arrest. He was 71.

FILE – Chuck Mangione performs during the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles, June 18, 2006. (AP Photo/Lucas Jackson, File)

‘A loss you can share with everybody’

When celebrity deaths come in quick succession, “if nothing else, it reminds people of their own mortality,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of television and pop culture at Syracuse University.

“The people who were a central part of the culture of the 1980s are getting to that age when biology has its way,” said Thompson, 65. “When it happens in these big chunks, it becomes even more powerful.”

FILE – Wrestler Hulk Hogan prepares to slam “Rowdy” Roddy Piper down on the mat during “WrestleMania,” a wrestling extravaganza at New York’s Madison Square Garden, March 31, 1985. (AP Photo/Ray Stubblebine, File)

Hogan, Warner and Sandberg were introduced to millions of people as television’s popularity exploded during the 1980s. Mangione’s trumpet and flügelhorn were staples on smooth jazz radio stations during the 1970s and into the 1980s.

Osbourne’s career spanned multiple decades, from the 1970s, when his band, Black Sabbath, dominated the heavy metal scene, through the 2000s, when his family dominated reality TV with “The Osbournes.”

“The silver lining about celebrities is they continue to exist for us exactly as they did before” Thompson said, because we can continue to listen to their music or watch their TV shows even after they die.

“When you lose a grandparent or an uncle it’s sad and you grieve with your family,” he continued. “But it’s a private kind of thing. When a celebrity dies, it’s a loss you can share with everybody.”

FILE – Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner is seen on the red carpet of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, honoring Bill Cosby, in Washington, Oct. 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Eternal fans

Robert Livernois, 59, said he grew up an Osbourne fan. He lives in Birmingham — not the gritty city in the English Midlands where Ozzy was born and raised, but a tony city in suburban Detroit.

“I loved his music. I never subscribed to any of the theatrics,” said Livernois, a radio show host. Osbourne famously bit off the head of a bat during a live performance.

Related Articles

US stock market holds steady ahead of a Federal Reserve decision on interest rates

Radar satellite launched by India and NASA will track miniscule changes to Earth’s land and ice

Along with a strong second quarter rebound for the US economy, some red flags

Tsunami warnings fading after one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded. Here’s what to know

NTSB finds Army chopper in fatal midair crash with plane was above altitude limit

Robert West, 40, produces content for The Wrestling Shop in San Antonio. He said he lost two icons within days when Osbourne and Hogan died.

He learned of Hogan’s death through a text from a friend.

“It’s almost like the last bits of my childhood is almost gone,” West said. “I think he was part of everyone’s life.”

Hogan was a pioneer in the wrestling and entertainment industries, having a similar impact to that of Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson in music, West added.

Twenty-three-year-old Indigo Watts is a Black Sabbath and heavy metal fan who was working at Flipside Records, a store in Berkley just north of Detroit, when he learned his hero had died.

“Some guy came in and before he left he asked ‘Have you heard about Ozzy?’” Watts said. “As soon as he said, it my heart just sank.”

He said the recent celebrity deaths remind him of a dark period in 2016 when the world lost music legends Prince and David Bowie.

“I was still young, but that hit me like a truck,” Watts said. “When you’re a celebrity and you die, you leave an impact on the world.”

By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes and gunfire in the Gaza Strip killed at least 46 Palestinians overnight and into Wednesday, most of them among crowds seeking food, health officials said.

Related Articles

What Americans think about Israel’s military action in Gaza, according to a new Gallup poll

‘Worst-case scenario of famine’ is happening in Gaza, food crisis experts warn

Starmer says UK will recognize Palestinian state unless Israel agrees ceasefire, ends Gaza suffering

Palestinian death toll in Israel-Hamas war passes 60,000, Gaza Health Ministry says

Democrats implore Trump to step up role in addressing suffering and starvation in Gaza

Israel has continued to carry out daily strikes as its military offensive and blockade have led to the “worst-case scenario of famine” in the territory of some 2 million Palestinians, according to an international authority on hunger crises.

Ceasefire talks appeared to have stalled again last week, with no end in sight to the nearly 22-month war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The Trump administration’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected in Israel on Thursday, according to a person familiar with his plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they have not yet been made public.

More than 30 people were killed while seeking humanitarian aid, according to hospitals that received the bodies and treated dozens of wounded people. Another seven Palestinians, including a child, died of malnutrition-related causes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The Israeli military didn’t immediately comment on any of the strikes. It says it only targets combatants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, because the group operates in densely populated areas. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Strikes, and gunfire at aid sites

Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said that it received 12 people who were killed Tuesday night when Israeli forces opened fire towards crowds awaiting aid trucks coming from the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza.

Thirteen others were killed in strikes in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, and the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the hospital said.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, Nasser Hospital said it received the bodies of 16 people who it says were killed Tuesday evening while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly-built Morag corridor, which the Israeli military carved out between Khan Younis and the southernmost city of Rafah.

The hospital received another body for a man killed in a strike on a tent in Khan Younis, it said.

The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp said that it received the bodies of four Palestinians who it says were killed Wednesday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, in the Netzarim corridor area, south of the Wadi Gaza.

Israel has eased its blockade but obstacles remain

Under heavy international pressure, Israel announced a series of measures over the weekend to facilitate the entry of more international aid to Gaza, but aid workers say much more is needed.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, the leading world authority on hunger crises, has stopped short of declaring famine in Gaza but said Tuesday that the situation has dramatically worsened and warned of “widespread death” without immediate action.

COGAT, the Israeli military body that facilitates the entry of aid, said over 220 trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday. That’s far below the 500-600 trucks a day that U.N. agencies say are needed, and which entered during a six-week ceasefire earlier this year.

The U.N. is still struggling to deliver the aid that does enter, with most trucks unloaded by crowds in zones controlled by the Israeli military. The alternative aid system run by the Israeli-backed GHF has also been marred by violence.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid since May, most near sites run by GHF, according to witnesses, local health officials and the U.N. human rights office. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding.

International airdrops of aid have also resumed, but many of the parcels have landed in areas that Palestinians have been told to evacuate while others have plunged into the Mediterranean Sea, forcing people to swim out to retrieve drenched bags of flour.

Deaths from malnutrition

A total of 89 children have died of malnutrition since the war began in Gaza. The ministry said that 65 Palestinian adults have also died of malnutrition-related causes across Gaza since late June, when it started counting deaths among adults.

Israel denies there is any starvation in Gaza, rejecting accounts to the contrary from witnesses, U.N. agencies and aid groups, and says the focus on hunger undermines ceasefire efforts.

Hamas started the war with its attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which terrorists killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others. They still hold 50 hostages, including around 20 believed to be alive. Most of the rest of the hostages were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.

Samy Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.