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Former Treasury Secretary ‌and Harvard President Larry Summers will resign from teaching at the end of the academic year, a Harvard spokesperson told USA TODAY.

The Feb. 25 announcement comes more than three months after the Justice Department revealed the longtime economist's ties ‌with ​the ​late ​convicted ‌sex offender Jeffrey ​Epstein.

“In connection with the ongoing review by the University of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the government, Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein has accepted Professor Lawrence H. Summers’ resignation from his leadership position as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government," said Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton in an emailed statement to USA TODAY.

Summers is also resigning from his academic and faculty appointments and will remain on leave until then, Newton added.

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Casualty counts: Over the past 24 hours, seven Palestinians were injured in Israeli attacks in Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 stands at 72,073 killed, with 171,756 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 615 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 1,658, while 726 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Israeli strikes continue across Gaza, killing one: One Palestinian was killed and several others injured in an Israeli strike on Beit Lahiya on Tuesday, in northern Gaza. Two Palestinians were injured by Israeli gunfire in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. Israeli forces launched airstrikes on areas east of Khan Younis, while Israeli artillery targeted western Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and east of the Bureij refugee camp in the central part of the Strip.

Flooding hits displacement camps in Gaza: Overnight, heavy rains flooded hundreds of displacement tents across the Gaza Strip, with submerged roads in areas like Al-Mawasi prompting urgent rescue calls, according to Civil Defense officials. Israel’s siege is blocking heavy machinery and rescue equipment needed to respond, municipal officials report. UNRWA has warned that shortages of shelter materials have left more than a million displaced people exposed to the rain and cold.

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New York City offers a contractor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Border Patrol, and the Israeli Defense Forces millions of dollars in rent and construction subsidies, according to leases obtained by Drop Site through a Freedom of Information Law request.

The company, Crye Precision, designs and manufactures “combat proven” tactical gear and clothing for military applications and has been a tenant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard since 2002, according to the website of the city-owned complex.

Incentives offered by the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Crye Precision contrast with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s policy positions. Earlier this month, Mamdani issued an executive order reaffirming the city’s “sanctuary” status and restricting local agencies from collaborating with federal immigration enforcement. The mayor also campaigned extensively against the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The Mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Publicly available federal contracts indicate that Crye Precision received its latest contract from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol and ICE, on January 19. The $40,000 contract for cold weather apparel for the Border Patrol’s Maine sector coincided with ICE’s “surge” in the state, which resulted in the warrantless arrests of more than 200 people, according to the office of Gov. Janet Mills (D).

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Overnight, Ukraine’s Defense Forces struck Russian command posts, ammunition depots, logistics hubs and a repair base in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, including with US-supplied ATACMS missiles, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Tuesday, Feb. 24.

The strikes are part of ongoing efforts to reduce Russia’s offensive capabilities by targeting critical command and supply infrastructure.
Command posts and logistics hit.

Early Tuesday, units of Ukraine’s Rocket Forces and Artillery struck an auxiliary command post of Russia’s 5th Army near Novopetrykivka in the occupied part of the Donetsk region, according to the General Staff

Additional strikes targeted an ammunition and logistics depot near Pryazovske in occupied Donetsk Oblast, as well as another ammunition warehouse near occupied Oleksandrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.

In Yakymivka, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian forces struck a Russian repair base.

On Monday, Ukrainian forces also hit Russian command infrastructure in the occupied Donetsk region, including a command-and-observation post and a drone control center near Udachne, as well as another drone command post near Pokrovsk.

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President Trump delivered the first official State of the Union address of his second term on Tuesday night. The speech gave Trump the opportunity to tout accomplishments and outline his agenda for his administration's second year.

It comes at at time when Americans are divided on whether Trump's first year has been a success. A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll shows that six in 10 believe the country is worse off than last year and that a majority think the state of the union is not strong.

Reporters from across NPR's newsroom are fact checking his speech and offer context — on topics like immigration, the economy, tariffs and trade and foreign policy. (Newest fact checks show up first below.)

By topic: Immigration | Foreign policy | Economy | Energy | Government | Health | Crime

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Francisco Galicia paced his cell at Fort Hunter Liggett, a vast army base 160 miles south of San Francisco, on a Friday evening in January. His mind raced with thoughts of his five daughters waiting for him at home.

Over several hours, immigration agents brought six more men into the frigid, cement-walled cell. As the men shared eerily similar stories of their arrests, Galicia realized they had all driven straight into a trap.

Francisco Galicia paced his cell at Fort Hunter Liggett, a vast army base 160 miles south of San Francisco, on a Friday evening in January. His mind raced with thoughts of his five daughters waiting for him at home.

Over several hours, immigration agents brought six more men into the frigid, cement-walled cell. As the men shared eerily similar stories of their arrests, Galicia realized they had all driven straight into a trap.

All seven had been driving home from fishing at a popular county lake when an official in a white truck had pulled them over along the same stretch of Jolon Road, a public, two-lane road that, unbeknown to Galicia, cuts through a corner of the military installation.

The traffic stops appeared routine at first: a light out, an open gas cap, a trunk door ajar, driving over the line. But then the officer asked for a social security number. In each case, when the men didn’t give a number, immigration agents arrived within minutes to make arrests, then drove the men to a detention site on the base where they were held overnight before being transferred to an immigration facility, Galicia said.

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A top Senate Democrat alleged on Tuesday that FBI director Kash Patel’s personal travel and decision-making have undermined high-profile investigations, citing a whistleblower report.

Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, wrote in a letter to two government watchdogs that Patel has “seemingly engaged in what amounts to irresponsible joyriding on DoJ and FBI-operated aircraft at the expense of the American taxpayer and to the detriment of ongoing bureau operations”.

A whistleblower told Durbin’s staff that the FBI’s shooting reconstruction team was delayed in responding to the Utah university where conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September because of a pilot shortage caused by Patel’s personal travel.

Pilots had to complete a mandatory rest period before flying the team of investigators, tasked with analyzing and reconstructing shooting scenes, to Utah, according to Durbin’s letter. Reuters could not independently verify the whistleblower’s claims.

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Democrats on the House oversight and government reform committee announced on Tuesday the launch of an investigation to determine whether the US Department of Justice (DoJ) purposely withheld materials that pertain to allegations against Donald Trump in the government’s release of the Epstein files.

The lawmakers pledged to look into a report that Trump had been accused by a woman of sexually abusing her decades ago when she was a minor, and that material relating to the allegation in the Epstein files has not been released to the public.

The latest report refers to documents allegedly within the official records known as the Epstein files, where more than 3 million documents have been released relating to the late sex offender and disgraced New York financier, Jeffrey Epstein.

Congressman Robert Garcia of California, a Democrat and the ranking member of the committee, said in a statement that he reviewed unredacted evidence logs at the justice department and that “Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DoJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes”.

“Under the oversight committee’s subpoena and the Epstein Files Transparency Act, these records must immediately be shared with Congress and the American public,” said Garcia. “Covering up direct evidence of a potential assault by the president of the United States is the most serious possible crime in this White House cover-up.”

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