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There are some great what-ifs in Duke Basketball history. What if Bob Verga hadn’t gotten sick just before the 1966 Final Four? What if Duke had played Texas Western instead of Kentucky? Could Mike Lewis have dealt with Big Daddy Lattin? We’ll never know. What if Bob Bender hadn’t had appendicitis during the 1980 NCAA tournament? Again, we’ll never know. Here’s one of the best: would Duke have gone undefeated and won back-to-back championships if Kyrie Irving hadn’t gotten hurt in his one-and-done year? Duke was loaded. Irving was in the backcourt with Nolan Smith and Seth Curry along with Irving. Up front they had Mason and Miles Plumlee, Kyle Singler and an emerging Ryan Kelly. But Irving was amazing. He was limited to seven games after his foot injury but we got a hint of things to come with his performance against Michigan State. Irving shredded Michigan State. At one point, the Spartans triple-teamed him and he just destroyed that attempt. You began to get the idea at that point that this guy was…different. Take a step into the way-back machine and enjoy Irving’s brief Duke brilliance. Truly an amazing player.

Feb 3 : A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Elon Musk's bid to dismiss a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that claimed he waited too long to disclose his purchases of Twitter shares in 2022. U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C., said none of Musk's arguments warranted a dismissal, including his claim that the SEC overreached in order to punish him for criticizing the agency. Lawyers for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. An SEC spokesperson declined to comment. The SEC sued Musk in January 2025, saying his 11-day delay in revealing his initial 5 per cent Twitter stake in late March and early April 2022 let him buy more than $500 million of shares at artificially low prices. It wants Musk to repay the $150 million he allegedly saved at the expense of unsuspecting investors, plus a civil fine. Musk has called the delay inadvertent. He also said the SEC case amounted to "selective enforcement" of federal securities laws, designed to target him for criticism of "government overreach” that is protected speech under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. Musk also called a $150 million payout an excessive fine that violates the Constitution's Eighth

Last week X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, made an allegation of enormous consequence with remarkable casualness: China controls millions of spam accounts used to censor the platform during periods of political unrest. Responding publicly to user complaints that Chinese-language search on X had become unusable, Bier alleged that the Chinese government flooded the platform with pornographic advertising content during periods of political unrest, deliberately drowning out real-time information. He added that X believed Beijing controlled a pool of 5 million to 10 million accounts, created before the company tightened sign-up controls. Such a pool would give Beijing a ready-made capability to manipulate search results at scale. It was a striking claim, not only because of its scale but because of how it arrived—not via a transparency report, technical briefing, or regulatory filing, but in a reply post. For many Chinese-language users, it marked the moment when a daily experience of interference, long suspected to be state-directed, was acknowledged by the platform itself. We should not have to rely on the occasional tweet from X executives, however candid, to understand how one of the world’s most important information ecosystems is being manipulated. Casual executive pronouncements are replacing formal transparency mechanisms—a

Business Published: Feb. 02, 2026, 3:07 p.m. This financial boost is one Americans won’t report on federal tax returns. The Internal Revenue Service and the Department of the Treasury have confirmed that the $1,776 “Warrior Dividend” payments distributed to approximately 1.5 million service members in December 2025 are officially tax-free. The IRS designated the one-time payment as a “qualified military benefit,” a classification that excludes the funds from gross income on federal tax returns. President Donald Trump announced the supplemental payments on Dec. 17, choosing the $1,776 figure to honor the 250th anniversary of the United States, according to CNN. The $2.9 billion initiative was authorized by Congress through the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” passed earlier that year, according to the IRS. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stated that the payments are designed to improve the living conditions of military personnel and acknowledge 250 years of national protection, according to the U.S. Department of War. “This Warrior Dividend serves as yet another example of how the War Department is working to improve the quality of life for our military personnel and their families,” Hegseth said. “All elements of what we’re doing are to rebuild our military.” Decades after Boston mall

Elon Musk during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2026. Photo by Harun Ozalp/Anadolu via Getty Images. Elon Musk once called a caver involved in the rescue mission to save youth soccer players and their coach a “pedo guy.” He’s suggested the presence of transgender characters in a Netflix show amounts to “grooming our children.” He’s launched weeks-long crusades focused only on Pakistani sex abuse gangs in the UK, and not sexual-abuse scandals that may hit closer to home. He tweeted over the summer that Donald Trump “is in the Epstein files,” and that’s why the administration wouldn’t release its trove of documents relating to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The Tesla CEO makes multiple appearances in the latest batch of the Epstein files – in emails that suggest Musk’s past claim that he had “REFUSED” to go to Epstein’s island, despite the disgraced financier’s insistent prodding, was a lie. On Friday, the Department of Justice released a trove of emails showing that Musk, a former top Trump official and the world’s richest man, repeatedly appealed to visit Epstein’s infamous private island, Little Saint James, in search of the “wildest party” he could find. Even before the

Josh McDaniel PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — Paced by a 2-under-par scorecard from individual leader Joshua Hong, UTSA seized the day-one lead at the Compadres Collegiate, which teed off Sunday at Iberostar Playa Paraiso Golf Club (par 71/6,701 yards). Hong fired a 70 to grab the individual lead and help the Roadrunners build a seven-shot lead in the team standings. UTSA posted a 4-over 292 to shoot to the top of the leaderboard, seven strokes ahead of North Texas and host UTRGV, who are tied for second at 11-over par. Western Carolina (+16) and ULM (+17) round out the top five in the nine-team field with 36 holes remaining over the next two days. Hong has a one-shot lead in the individual race ahead of Western Carolina’s Tyler Jones (+1). Playing in his native country, the freshman from Guadalajara, Mexico, started on No. 5 and proceeded to write down birdies on his first three holes. He made four on the 489-yard fifth, two on the 144-yard sixth and four on the 547-yard seventh to get to 3-under for the day. He then moved to 4-under with a birdie on the 424-yard, par-4 10th before settling for a pair of bogeys

Pep Guardiola was announced as Manchester City manager on February 1, 2016, in unusual circumstances. 06:00, 01 Feb 2026 On the day Manchester City announced Pep Guardiola as their next manager, a look at their social media would not have given the game away. The club's official Twitter account posted 39 times on February 1, 2016 but there was not one mention of the generational coach typed out. Where any signings today are not complete without an enormous package of photos, videos, graphics and AI-generated content, the closest City came to announcing a coup that would change world football was a link to a club statement that was accompanied by a corner flag picture that usually points to a sacking - and the statement in full later that day on a blue background with the club crest. If that points to the leap in social media and club content over the last decade, it also reflected the fact that City hadn't in fact sacked a manager - he had just been told his time was up. As part of his arranged farewell, he got to decide how it was announced. FOLLOW OUR MAN CITY FACEBOOK PAGE! Latest news and analysis

(Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images) President Donald Trump’s administration is in need of prosecutors to help his “anti-crime agenda” and they’re being mocked for taking to X to fill the positions. “If you are a lawyer, are interested in being an AUSA, and support President Trump and anti-crime agenda, DM me,” Chad Mizelle, acting general counsel for Department of Homeland Security and former Department of Justice chief of staff under Trump, wrote on X on Saturday. “We need good prosecutors. And DOJ is hiring across the country. Now is your chance to join the mission and do good for our country.” The first problem is Mizelle called for applicants to direct message him, but the function was shut off on his X account, something he fixed after users pointed it out. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller seconded Mizelle’s call for prosecutors to reach out through X. “Patriots needed,” he wrote. Many mocked the officials for asking for applicants through X, jokingly suggesting they try billboards and Craigslist ads next. “Because all the best lawyers are on Twitter,” former Washington Post court reporter Tom Jackman wrote. Others, mostly lawyers, noted that prosecutor jobs at DOJ

Troy University has achieved a groundbreaking accomplishment in higher education and healthcare training. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) has granted approval for the University’s new Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) program. This regional accreditation milestone completes the necessary approvals following the earlier green light from the Alabama Commission on Higher Education (ACHE) in September 2025, allowing Troy University to officially launch this innovative doctoral offering. “This historic achievement represents Troy University’s continued commitment to expanding access to quality healthcare education,” said Dr. Jack Hawkins Jr., Chancellor of Troy University. “The program not only breaks new ground but also addresses critical needs by training the next generation of chiropractors dedicated to serving their communities.” A Pioneer in Public Chiropractic Education Troy University now stands as the second public university in the United States to offer a Doctor of Chiropractic program—the first public university in the South to do so. This distinction highlights TROY’s leadership in making high-quality, affordable doctoral education more accessible. “Becoming the first public university in the South to offer a Doctor of Chiropractic program positions Troy University as a leader in expanding access to this vital profession,” said Dr. Kerry Palmer, Senior Vice

Photo by Lucinda Pope Foster on January 20, 2026. May be a Twitter screenshot.