News Wrap: Cornell reaches $60M deal with Trump administration to restore funding

Amna Nawaz:

In the day's other headlines: Cornell University announced a $60 million deal with the Trump administration to restore federal funding and stop investigations into the school.

The Ivy League university will pay $30 million directly to the government and another $30 million toward research to support American farmers. Earlier this year, the administration withheld $250 million in federal research funding amid claims of civil rights violations. Cornell joins a handful of other schools to make deals with the Trump administration, including Columbia, Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Virginia.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says his country has received an exemption from U.S. sanctions on Russian energy, though the White House has not commented. Orban is a reliable advocate for Russia in the European Union and his landlocked country relies heavily on Russian oil.

Orban announced the exemption after meeting with President Trump at the White House today. The two men are longtime allies. And earlier today, Trump acknowledged the realities of Hungary's reliance on Russia.

Donald Trump, President of the United States: Because it's very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas. As you know, they don't have the advantage of having sea. It's a great country. It's a big country, but they don't have sea. They don't have the ports. And so they have a difficult problem.

Amna Nawaz:

The White House meeting comes a day after a bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a resolution to urge Hungary to stop using Russian oil and gas.

Sudan's ambassador to the U.S. says his government is studying a humanitarian truce put forward by the U.S. and other countries aimed at ending the country's civil war. The paramilitary group known as the RSF agreed to the truce yesterday. But Ambassador Mohamed Abdalla Idris says the group is not serious about the deal.

Instead, he claims the RSF targeted Sudan's capital of Khartoum today, nearly two weeks after it seized the provincial capital of elf El Fasher in North Darfur. Those who were forced to flee El Fasher described horrific killings carried out by the RSF.

Mubarak, Displaced Sudanese (through interpreter):

Fifty or 60 people in a single street, 10 or 20 people, they kill them, bang, bang, bang. That's the massacre I saw in front of me.

Amna Nawaz:

Sudan's military has said it will agree to the proposed cease-fire only if the RSF withdraws from civilian areas and gives up its weapons.

In Vietnam, Typhoon Kalmaegi left at least five people dead and thousands of homes damaged before weakening into a tropical storm.

Ngo Thanh Diep, Storm Victim (through interpreter):

This storm was a very strong one. I have lived here all my life, and I have never been so scared like last night.

Amna Nawaz:

Locals were left searching for basic supplies, with some using a small waterfall to collect drinking water. Heavy winds and rain brought down trees and power lines, leaving more than 1.6 million households without power.

Earlier this week, it ripped through the Philippines, where the death toll has risen to at least 188. Another 135 people are still missing, and the country is bracing for another typhoon due early next week.

Denmark's government announced a plan today that would ban social media access for anyone under the age of 15. It's one of the most dramatic steps taken by a European country to address concerns about the impact of harmful content on kids. But officials haven't laid out exactly how the plan would be enforced, and they acknowledge it could take months to get the relevant legislation passed.

Denmark's announcement follows Australia's ban on new social media accounts for anyone under 16, which takes effect next month.

On Wall Street today, stocks crawled back from earlier losses to end the day mixed. The Dow Jones industrial average added about 75 points on the day. The Nasdaq slipped by about 50 points. The S&P 500 closed out the week with a modest gain.

And the world's tallest teenager is setting new records, becoming the tallest player in college basketball history; 7'9" Olivier Rioux took the court last night to thunderous applause for the defending national champion Florida Gators. The towering red shirt freshman from Canada played the last two minutes of his team's blowout win against North Florida.

He received more attention than action, though, never even touching the ball. And, by the way, the players in this photo next to Rioux are as tall as 6'9", just to put that into perspective.

And from sports now to science and the passing of James Watson, who helped to discover the double helix shape of DNA. Watson shared the 1962 Nobel Prize with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for discovering that DNA is shaped like a gently twisting ladder. That breakthrough led to genetic engineering and gene therapy, along with techniques for identifying human remains and tracing family trees, among others.

But Watson was also a controversial figure, ruffling feathers among his peers and shocking many with his racist comments later in life. His passing was announced by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he worked for many years. James Watson was 97 years old.