In the run-up to the vote in the U.S. Senate on President Donald Trump’s spending and tax bill^[1], Republicans scrambled to revise the bill to win support of wavering GOP senators. A provision included in the original bill was a 10-year moratorium on

Back in high school chemistry, I remember waiting with my bench partner for crystals to form on our stick in the cup of blue solution. Other groups around us jumped with joy when their crystals formed, but my group just waited. When the bell rang,

Reviewer 1: “This manuscript is a timely and important contribution to the field, with clear methodology and compelling results. I recommend publication with only minor revisions.”

Reviewer 2: “This manuscript is deeply flawed. The authors’ conclusions

A new court filing Tuesday shed some light on an unusual wrinkle in the U.S. government’s fight with Harvard University.

Harvard previously claimed the U.S. Department of Defense had terminated a $3.4 million grant for important research into biological threats, despite pleas from an official to maintain the grant for national security purposes — but then asked for work to continue and paid the grant anyway^[1].

A Defense Department official issued a court statement this week saying the grant — supporting research for the “AMPHORA” program^[2], which stands for Assured Microbial Preservation in Harsh or Remote Areas — wasn’t canceled after all. That’s even though it was included in a list of terminated Harvard grants released in May.

Efstathia Fragogiannis is director of the contracts management office with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA) in the Department of Defense.

Fragogiannis wrote that in the days following a May 12 letter to Harvard announcing the cancellation of that grant and many others, DARPA officials sought and received an exemption for the grant for reasons of national security.

“On May 21, 2025, May 22, 2025, and June 27, 2025, DARPA informed Harvard via email that the agreement remains active and that it should continue to perform work on the AMPHORA project,” Fragogiannis wrote. “As such, Harvard has continued to perform work pursuant to that agreement, for which DARPA has paid, including the July 8, 2025, payment for work performed from May 1 to 31.”

Harvard had claimed the request for continued work and the payment it received were evidence that “reinforces” its court argument that “the government’s categorical terminations of research funding were arbitrary and capricious.”

Harvard had said in a court filing they inquired with the federal government^[3] about whether the AMPHORA grant is in fact still active, but they haven’t received a response.

In a filing released Tuesday, the government argued that “Harvard’s grants were ultimately terminated because of Harvard’s categorical refusal to respond to the Government’s concerns” over antisemitism.

A Harvard University spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The court filings come as part of an ongoing lawsuit^[4] in which Harvard disputes cancellation of billions of dollars of funding by the U.S. government.

It’s one of two lawsuits the university has against the Trump administration, the other relating to its ability to accept foreign students^[5].

©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit masslive.com^[6]. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.^[7]

A retired Army^[1] officer and conservative commentator who could not be approved for a Pentagon job during the first Trump administration because of past Islamaphobic and conspiratorial statements has been confirmed by the Senate to be the Pentagon's personnel chief in the second Trump administration.

In a 52-46 party-line vote Tuesday afternoon, the Senate confirmed Anthony Tata to become the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, the top official overseeing the health and well-being of the more than 3 million uniformed and civilian personnel working for the Defense Department.

Tata is a retired Army brigadier general whose post-military career includes serving as a school district administrator in Washington, D.C., and North Carolina and as North Carolina's secretary of transportation, a job he abruptly resigned from.

Read Next: Here Are the 596 Books Being Banned by Defense Department Schools^[2]

More recently, he has been a steady presence on Fox News as a political and military commentator.

Toward the end of the first Trump administration, in 2020, Tata was nominated to be under secretary of defense for policy, essentially the No. 3 position in the Pentagon. But his nomination was withdrawn after Republicans who led the Senate Armed Services Committee canceled his confirmation hearing amid mounting controversy over incendiary statements, including calling former President Barack Obama a "terrorist leader."

At his confirmation hearing in May^[3] to become Pentagon personnel chief, Tata expressed regret for the comments that doomed his previous nomination and said they were "out of character."

But he also defended more recent comments that Democrats grilled him about. Those more recent statements include social media posts in which he said that all four-star officers appointed by former President Joe Biden should be fired and that the Posse Comitatus Act, the law that prohibits the military from conducting domestic law enforcement in most cases, should be "suspended."

Democrats argued that those statements, coupled with his past comments, are disqualifying.

"I respect and I appreciate his military service, but his record of public statements and behavior toward individuals with whom he disagrees politically is disqualifying for a position of this significance," Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on the Senate floor Tuesday. "I am concerned Mr. Tata has a misguided and discriminatory view of the military and civilian workforces he would oversee."

At the hearing, Tata claimed that his reference to Posse Comitatus was meant to be a call for better border security and that he did "not know" whether the law should be suspended. Tata also maintained that his call to fire officers was about reinforcing the need to follow lawful orders regardless of politics and that he would not support a "blatant purge" of military officers.

While Republicans recoiled at Tata's comments the first time he was nominated, they dismissed his comments this time around.

"The thing I've learned about Tony is that he takes responsibility for his words and actions," Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said in May while introducing Tata at his confirmation hearing. "He learns from his past mistakes, which is a testament of a good leader."

Related: Nominee for Pentagon Personnel Chief Grilled Over Comments Calling for Purge of Generals^[4]

MP Materials, which runs the only American rare earths mine^[1], announced a new $500 million agreement with tech giant Apple on Tuesday to produce more of the powerful magnets used in iPhones as well as other high-tech products like electric vehicles.

This news comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that the U.S. Defense Department agreed to invest $400 million in shares of the Las Vegas-based company. That will make the government the largest shareholder in MP Materials and help increase magnet production.

Despite their name, the 17 rare earth elements aren’t actually rare, but it’s hard to find them in a high enough concentration to make a mine worth the investment.

They are important ingredients in everything from smartphones and submarines to EVs and fighter jets, and it's those military applications that have made rare earths a key concern in ongoing U.S. trade talks^[2]. That's because China dominates the market and imposed new limits on exports after President Donald Trump announced his widespread tariffs^[3]. When shipments dried up, the two sides sat down in London.

The agreement with Apple will allow MP Materials to further expand its new factory in Texas to use recycled materials to produce the magnets that make iPhones vibrate. The company expects to start producing magnets for GM's electric vehicles later this year and this agreement will let it start producing magnets for Apple in 2027.

The Apple agreement represents a sliver of the company's pledge to invest $500 billion domestically^[4] during the Trump administration. And although the deal will provide a significant boost for MP Materials, the agreement with the Defense Department may be even more meaningful.

Neha Mukherjee, a rare earths analyst with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, said in a research note that the Pentagon's 10-year promise to guarantee a minimum price for the key elements of neodymium and praseodymium will guarantee stable revenue for MP Minerals and protect it from potential price cuts by Chinese producers that are subsidized by their government.

“This is the kind of long-term commitment needed to reshape global rare earth supply chains," Mukherjee said.

Trump has made it a priority to try to reduce American reliance on China for rare earths. His administration is both helping MP Materials and trying to encourage the development of new mines that would take years to come to fruition. China has agreed to issue some permits^[5] for rare earth exports but not for military uses, and much uncertainty remains about their supply. The fear is that the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies could lead to a critical shortage of rare earth elements that could disrupt production of a variety of products. MP Materials can't satisfy all of the U.S. demand from its Mountain Pass mine in California’s Mojave Desert.

The deals by MP Materials come as Beijing and Washington have agreed to walk back on their non-tariff measures: China is to grant export permits for rare earth magnets to the U.S., and the U.S. is easing export controls on chip design software and jet engines. The truce is intended to ease tensions and prevent any catastrophic fall-off in bilateral relations, but is unlikely to address fundamental differences as both governments take steps to reduce dependency on each other.

___

Associated Press writers David Klepper and Didi Tang in Washington and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed.

For search and rescue, AI is not more accurate than humans, but it is far faster.

Recent successes in applying computer vision and machine learning to drone imagery for rapidly determining building and road damage^[1] after hurricanes or shifting wildfire lines^[2] suggest that artificial intelligence could be valuable in searching for missing...

Golden oyster mushrooms^[1], with their sunny yellow caps and nutty flavor, have become wildly popular for being healthy, delicious and easy to grow at home from mushroom kits.

But this food craze has also unleashed an invasive species into the wild, and new research shows it’s pushing out native fungi^[2].

In a study we believe is the first...

If you happen to find yourself in the Southern Hemisphere with binoculars and a good view of the night sky on a dark and clear summer night, you might just be able to spot the Sculptor galaxy^[1]. And if your eyes were prisms that could separate light into the thousands of colors making it up, then congratulations: After hours of...