The recent cancelation of $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University by the Trump administration's Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism was seen as a major wake-up call to the country's universities.In its press release, the task force announced that the "decisive action" is "a notice to every school and university that receives federal dollars."Leo Terrell, leader of the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, told Fox News Digital that Columbia was an initial target for funding cuts because the school has been "in my opinion, the worst of the worst when it comes to allowing this type of conduct to take place and to continue."Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive director of the Orthodox Union, told Fox News Digital that "the more dramatic action that the [Trump] administration seems ready to take … seems to be the necessary approach for something as urgent as what we have been facing." Hauer added that his community has "a lot of hope."TRUMP ADMIN WON’T TOLERATE ANTISEMITISM IN SCHOOLS, SAYS LEO TERRELL AS NYC SCHOOLS UNDER MICROSCOPEHauer added that recent protests at Columbia University and Barnard College "reminded us how alive the issue [of campus antisemitism] is." Terrell said President Donald Trump’s executive order directing increased efforts to fight antisemitism "set the tone for every single agency" involved in the task force, which includes the Departments of Justice, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and State, in addition to the U.S. General Services Administration and the FBI. Terrell said newly confirmed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon "is involved in this extensively, per the directive from [U.S. Attorney General] Pam Bondi." He says experts within his task force will be assessing schools based on about nine criteria to determine whether they are adequately protecting Jewish students. In addition to looking for evidence of hate crimes and examining schools’ tax-exempt status, Terrell said the task force will search for violations of Title VI and Title VII in the 1964 Civil Rights Act.Title VI protects Americans who engage in programs that receive federal funds from discrimination based upon race, color and national origin. Former President Joe Biden’s administration used Title VI when the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights examined hostile antisemitic environments on K-12 and college campuses. Title VII prevents federal employment discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex or color.The task force’s move at Columbia follows weeks of protests at the university and affiliated Barnard College. In January, students stormed a Columbia classroom and "allegedly threw around [fliers] filled with hateful speech." The following month, more than 50 protesters took over a building at Barnard College and were said to have assaulted an employee.COLUMBIA STUDENT DESCRIBES ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS: 'IT'S TERRIFYING'During a March 5 protest on Barnard’s campus, protesters were pictured passing out pamphlets from the "Hamas media office," in addition to pictures of former Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah and stickers featuring former chair of the Hamas terror organization Yahya Sinwar, according to the Times of Israel. In a press release, Columbia confirmed that four of its students were arrested during the Barnard "disruption." The students were subsequently "suspended and restricted from campus."The situation at Columbia has grown more complex after former student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for allegedly advocating for Hamas. Terrell said Khalil’s arrest was not conducted at the behest of the task force but explained that "all of this is coming out of the Trump executive order." TRUMP VOWS ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST MAHMOUD KHALIL WAS 'FIRST ARREST OF MANY TO COME'A Columbia representative did not respond to questions from Fox News Digital about the cancellation of its grants, its posture toward ICE on campus or whether it plans to continue employing anti-Israel professors who are accused of spreading antisemitic views. Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, released a statement on March 7 in which she said "Columbia is taking the government’s action very seriously." Armstrong sought to "assure the entire Columbia community that we are committed to working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns. To that end, Columbia can, and will, continue to take serious action toward combatting antisemitism on our campus. This is our number one priority."When it comes to demonstrating their effective efforts to combat antisemitism, Terrell said schools must "earn trust." Citing as an example "the little feeble action" Columbia has taken in response to funding cuts, Terrell asked, "Is it the money driving them or their concern for Jewish-American students?" Terrell also said there will be no special rewards for schools that have managed antisemitism without federal involvement."They have a fundamental right to protect Jewish Americans and Jewish students," he said.

A lengthy power outage at the Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, resort where a missing American college student had been vacationing for spring break could potentially impact authorities' investigation into her disappearance.Sudiksha Konanki, a 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student from Loudoun County, Virginia, was last seen walking on a beach outside the five-star RIU Republica Resort in the early morning hours of March 6. She has yet to be located.The resort lost power beginning on Tuesday, March 4, around 1:30 a.m., and 70% of power was restored by 3 a.m. By 2 a.m. on Thursday, March 6, power had been fully restored, RIU Resorts & Hotels told Fox News Digital in a Wednesday statement.AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENT DISAPPEARS IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: TIMELINEThe hotel company added that "in response to publications linking the electrical failure experienced at the Riu Republica hotel with the tragic disappearance of guest Sudiksha Chowdary Konanki, RIU Hotels & Resorts wishes to firmly clarify that both events are completely unrelated."The hotel added that security cameras around RIU Republica "were operational and, in fact, recorded quality images during that day and night as there was sufficient lighting."Security camera footage captured Konanki walking from a hotel bar to the beach with friends, including a young man with an arm wrapped around her shoulders, around 4:17 a.m. on March 6. She was apparently last seen on the beach outside the resort at 4:50 a.m. Just before 6 a.m., her friends returned to the hotel, but Konanki was not with them.WATCH THE SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE:Loudoun County authorities have named a fellow tourist as a person of interest, as he was the last person to be seen with Konanki. The American man, in his 20s, has not been accused of any crime.Experts say that while the power outage likely will not prevent the collection of surveillance video footage or cellphone data, it may complicate authorities' investigation into Konanki's mysterious vanishing. HOTEL HORROR STORIES EMERGE AFTER AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENT GOES MISSING AS RESORT INSISTS NO CONNECTION"It does have an impact on everything in the investigation if they've lost complete power," The Lake Forest Group founder and CEO Michael Verden, a former Secret Service agent and director of security for the NBA, told Fox News Digital.Without power, security cameras in certain areas of the hotel may have lost connection even if others retained connection. In other words, full power may have presented a fuller picture of Konanki's last movements before she vanished, though it is unclear if any cameras did lose connection during the electricity outage.MISSING AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENT'S HOMETOWN SHERIFF NAMES PERSON OF INTEREST FIVE DAYS INTO SEARCH"It's all evidentiary evidence," Verden explained. "With the power outage, how much of that is impacted? Do some of the cameras stay active? Do all of them stay active? Because if they lose power, that could affect the investigation."He added that the power outage could also prevent guests from entering hotel rooms and, therefore, prevent investigators from determining when Konanki and her friends last entered their rooms before her disappearance. AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENT MISSING IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC DIDN’T DROWN, NATALEE HOLLOWAY PRIVATE EYE BELIEVES "The electronic system gives you evidence ... and that could be significant to show access prior to her disappearance," Verden said, because the hotel room keycard information could be useful in corroborating guests' statements about when they were with Konanki versus when they arrived back at their rooms. This information would help authorities build timelines for those present during her last movements, he said.Tom Slovenski, a digital forensic expert and founder of Cellular Forensics, told Fox News Digital that despite the electricity outage at the resort, investigators will still be able to track down cellphone tower data to determine where and when Konanki was before she disappeared. "They actually got a lot of good leads there, especially with her not coming back. She was arm in arm with the [person of interest]. And then the man comes back. He doesn't have her. So, I'd be looking at [him] big time. And then where did he go? You could find him on those tower dumps. But if you know who he is, you get hold of his phone. You can easily then use the call detail records and find out where he was, who he was talking to. That sort of thing," Slovenski explained.He also said that the cellphone towers could provide location and time data despite a power outage at the resort and even despite getting wet if Konanki and her friends went swimming, as some newer smartphones are waterproof. Phones have to be powered on for cellphone data to ping, but the phone's user does not have to be making calls or texts. "Timing data is still going on in the background" so long as cellphone data is being used, even in the background, Slovenski explained."They could obviously pull the call detail records for her particular phone. They can also do a tower dump with each of the providers of that on that island … and then they can go through that to see if they find someone that looks plausible. … They can go ahead and get what's the timing advance records. What they do is what's called the timing advance dump," Slovenski said. He described the timing advance as the way phones get "pings" from cellphone towers, which shows "the amount of time it takes from the signal to go from the tower to the phone back to the tower.""They are able, we are able to look at that area where that phone was approximately in … and so from that, you're able to track then how that phone is moving," he said.POLICE REVEAL MALE FRIEND IS UNDER INVESTIGATION FOLLOWING KONANKI’S DISAPPEARANCE The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office (LCSO) said in a Tuesday statement that "[t]here has been considerable public speculation about what may have happened to Konanki and who may be involved.""We caution anyone from drawing any unsubstantiated conclusions and are committed to ensuring that a thorough investigation is conducted before any conclusions are reached," they said in a news release. "The LCSO is hopeful for the safe return of Sudiksha Konanki, and we are committed to supporting this investigation and her family in every way possible."Authorities are asking anyone with information to contact the LCSO at 703-777-1021. To remain anonymous, call the Loudoun Crime Solvers at 703-777-1919. 

The Trump administration is prioritizing the critical role of artificial intelligence in creating and upholding freedom. Just three weeks in, Vice President JD Vance declared at a global AI summit in Paris that AI "will make people more productive, more prosperous, and more free. The United States of America is the leader in AI, and our administration plans to keep it that way."To achieve this, the White House is working toward an AI action plan and calling on leading American AI companies to submit our best ideas. OpenAI is pleased to submit proposals today on a range of important considerations for AI from national security, to infrastructure and energy, to the federal government’s own use of AI.Human history is the history of human innovation of technologies that create and scale new freedoms. From daylight to firelight to lamplight, to electricity providing light and power at all hours – we scaled the freedom to produce, think and create. From word of mouth to the stylus and tablet, to the printing press, telegraph, phone, computer, smartphone – we scaled freedom of learning and knowledge. Now, with AI, innovation is poised to scale human ingenuity itself – the sum of our freedoms to learn and know, think, create and produce. As OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has written, we are at the doorstep of the next leap in prosperity, the Intelligence Age. But we must ensure that people have freedom of intelligence, by which we mean the freedom to access and benefit from AI as it advances, protected from both autocratic powers that would take people’s freedoms away, and layers of laws and bureaucracy that would prevent our realizing them. AI IS ALL BRAIN AND NO ETHICSMore than 400 million people around the world are using ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI's most advanced research, to ideate, discover and break through beyond what we’re currently capable of doing on our own. Globally, the vast majority of these users are young; in the U.S., one-third of our users self-report to being between ages 18 to 24. Both young people and their parents see the economic opportunities AI can create, and the Trump administration's AI policies can make these opportunities reality:AI CAN’T WAIT: WHY WE NEED SPEED TO WINIn recent weeks, OpenAI has struck partnerships with a dozen U.S. universities, including one with the California State University system, to put ChatGPT in the hands of its 500,000 students and educators across its 23 campuses. With the help of forward-thinking school systems, the scaling of human ingenuity can happen not just one young person at a time, but tens of thousands of young people at a time.Provided, that is, that we continue to ensure that people have the freedom to access and benefit from AI – which is no longer as certain as it once was, now that America is competing with a People’s Republic of China (PRC) determined to overtake us as the global leader on AI by 2030. The PRC has a number of strategic advantages, including:As an authoritarian state, its ability to quickly marshal resources – data, energy, technical talent and the enormous sums needed to build out its own domestic chip development capacity. AI IS RESHAPING BUSINESS. THIS IS HOW WE STAY AHEAD OF CHINAIts preexisting Belt and Road initiative. As with Huawei, the PRC will scale the adoption of PRC-based AI systems like DeepSeek’s by coercing countries needing AI tools and nation-building infrastructure funds.  Its ability to benefit from regulatory arbitrage being created by individual American states seeking to pass their own industry-wide laws, some of which are modeled on the European Union’s regulation of AI. These laws are easier to enforce upon domestic AI companies than PRC-based companies and could impose burdensome compliance requirements that undermine our economic competitiveness and our national security. They also may weaken the quality and kinds of training data available to American entrepreneurs. Its ability to benefit from copyright arbitrage being created by democratic nations that don’t clearly protect AI training by statute, like the U.S., or that reduce the amount of training data through an opt-out regime for copyright holders, like the EU. The PRC is unlikely to respect the IP regimes of any such nations for the training of its AI systems, but likely already has access to all the same data, putting American AI labs at a disadvantage and offering little protection for the original IP creators.AI SHOULDN'T DECIDE WHO DIES. IT'S NEITHER HUMAN NOR HUMANEThis is why OpenAI welcomes the chance to submit policy proposals to a Trump administration that’s moving fast to secure our nation’s lead on AI and in so doing, help secure a more prosperous future for all Americans and especially young Americans. They include:A regulatory strategy that ensures the freedom to innovate: For innovation to truly create new freedoms, America’s builders, developers and entrepreneurs – our nation’s greatest competitive advantage – must first have the freedom to innovate in the national interest. We propose a holistic approach that enables voluntary partnership between the federal government and the private sector, and neutralizes potential PRC benefit from American AI companies having to comply with overly burdensome state laws.A copyright strategy that promotes the freedom to learn: America’s robust, balanced intellectual property system has long been key to our global leadership on innovation. We propose a copyright strategy that would extend the system’s role into the Intelligence Age by protecting the rights and interests of content creators while also protecting America’s AI leadership and national security. The U.S. government can secure Americans’ freedom to learn from AI, and avoid forfeiting our lead to the PRC, by preserving American AI models’ ability to learn from copyrighted material.CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONAn ambitious government adoption strategy: Advancing democratic AI around the world starts with ensuring that the U.S. government itself sets an example of governments using AI to keep their people safe, prosperous and free. With the PRC progressing toward ambitious targets for AI adoption across its public administration, security and military, the U.S. government should modernize its processes to safely deploy frontier AI tools at the pace of the private sector and with the efficiency Americans deserve. OpenAI believes in America because America believes in innovation. This country always succeeds and prevails when it bets on the ingenuity of its people, and putting AI in the hands of our young people is the best possible way to scale their ingenuity.

Oliver Miller, known as "Big O" during his playing days, has died at the age of 54.Miller was a beefy center who helped Arkansas advance to the Final Four before playing nine seasons in the NBA.Miller had been battling brain cancer.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COMMiller, who stood at 6 feet, 9 inches and weighed nearly 300 pounds, was a standout at Arkansas from 1988-92. He averaged 12.2 points and 6.5 rebounds in four seasons, helping Naismith Hall of Fame coach Nolan Richardson's 1989-90 team reach the Final Four before losing to Duke and earning Southwest Conference Player of the Year honors in 1991.He was also a part of the Phoenix Suns team that lost the 1992-93 NBA Finals to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls.STEPHEN A SMITH BLASTS LEBRON JAMES FOR 'WEAK' APPROACH OVER BRONNY JAMES CONFRONTATIONTributes poured in from Miller's former teams."We are deeply saddened by the passing of Arkansas legend Oliver Miller," Arkansas said in a social media post. "A key member of the 1990 Final Four team, an SWC Hall of Famer, a first-round NBA draft pick and a true embodiment of the Razorback spirit. We love you Big O. Our thoughts are with his family."The Raptors, which he was on the very first roster in Toronto, said, "He holds a special place in our history as a member of our inaugural team in 1995, and we are so grateful for all his contributions. We send our deepest condolences to the Miller family."Miller was drafted by Phoenix in 1992 with the No. 22 overall pick. He went on to average 7.4 points and 5.9 rebounds for the Suns, Detroit Pistons, Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, Sacramento Kings and Minnesota Timberwolves. He also played in Europe, the Continental Basketball Association, the United States Basketball League and with the Harlem Globetrotters.The Associated Press contributed to this report.