Microsoft said on Wednesday it is “slowing or pausing” some of its data center projects, describing the move as a show of flexibility as the artificial intelligence (AI) industry evolves.
“In recent years, demand for our cloud and AI services grew more than we could have ever anticipated and to meet this opportunity, we began executing the largest and most ambitious infrastructure scaling project in our history,” Noelle Walsh, president of Microsoft cloud computing operations, wrote in a Wednesday post on LinkedIn.
“By nature, any significant new endeavor at this size and scale requires agility and refinement as we learn and grow with our customers. What this means is that we are slowing or pausing some early-stage projects,” she said.
The announcement comes as AI companies pour unprecedented amounts of funding into infrastructure to meet the computational and energy demands of the emerging technology.
Microsoft is still on track to spend more than $80 billion on infrastructure, a company spokesperson confirmed.
Still, the company has revealed changes to a variety of its data center plans, including the halt of projects in central Ohio’s Licking County.
A Microsoft spokesperson told The Hill these projects were halted “after careful consideration” and that two of the three sites will be used for farming.
“We plan our datacenter capacity needs years in advance to ensure we have sufficient infrastructure in the right places,” the spokesperson told The Hill. “As AI demand continues to grow, and our datacenter presence continues to expand, the changes we have made demonstrates the flexibility of our strategy.”
The Trump administration has pushed for more data center development to assist in the acceleration of AI technology. These centers house rows of servers that provide the processing capacity for machine learning, cloud storage and AI systems.
Last week, the administration identified 16 sites for data centers on land owned by the Department of Energy, with Secretary Chris Wright describing the “global race for AI dominance” as the “next Manhattan project.”
The department said it hopes operations at the center could begin by the end of 2027.
During his first week at the White House in January, President Trump announced a private sector investment of up to $500 billion to build AI infrastructure.
Mangione’s lawyers said Bondi has violated the defendant’s due process rights and the government’s actions have “corrupted” the grand jury process, arguing the U.S. government “intends to kill” to Mangione as a “political stunt.” It points to Bondi’s previous statement that the death penalty would “carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
“We appreciate, and will address, the province and discretion of the Executive Branch of government, and how, in the usual course, courts defer to the Executive’s established procedures,” Mangione lawyers Karen Agnifilo and Avi Moskowitz wrote in a motion filed Friday in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York.
“But the Attorney General’s actions and public statements in this case have not followed the usual course,” they said in the court filing. “Because the Attorney General has chosen to proceed in this way, Mr. Mangione’s Due Process rights have already been violated and the manner in which the Government has acted has prejudiced the grand jury pool and has corrupted the grand jury process.”
Bondi directed federal prosecutors earlier this month to seek the death penalty against Mangione, who is accused of shooting Thompson, the health care company executive, on Dec. 4 in Manhattan.
Mangione was arrested five days later in Altoona, Pa., and is staring down two murders cases. One was brought by federal prosecutors and the other by New York City authorities.
Mangione could be eligible for the death sentence if he is convicted in one of the four federal charges he faces, murder through use of a firearm.
“Ultimately, any mitigation would have fallen on deaf ears in any event, as the Attorney General was plainly concerned only with ‘the President’s directive’ and with the ‘Make America Safe’ policies of the administration instead of the facts of this case,” Mangione’s attorneys wrote in the filing.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is urging states to not use Medicaid funds for gender-affirming care for minors, specifically gender reassignment surgeries or hormone treatments.
“As a doctor and now CMS Administrator, my top priority is protecting children and upholding the law,” Mehmet Oz, the recently confirmed agency head, said in a statement Friday.
“Medicaid dollars are not to be used for gender reassignment surgeries or hormone treatments in minors—procedures that can cause permanent, irreversible harm, including sterilization,” he continued. “We have a duty to ensure medical care is lawful, necessary, and truly in the best interests of patients.”
The CMS sent a letter to state Medicaid agencies Friday notifying them of their responsibility to make sure program payments are “consistent with quality of care” and that covered services are in the best interest of the patient.
The letter, signed by CMS Deputy Administrator and Director Drew Snyder, claims both surgery and hormone treatments lack evidence to support that they offer long-term benefits for transgender minors and that these interventions can cause “long-term and irreparable harm.”
It adds that some developed countries like the United Kingdom, Sweden and Finland have issued restrictions on the use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments on children.
However, every major medical association in the U.S. supports gender-affirming care, including gender reassignment surgery and hormone treatments, for transgender adults and minors.
The American Medical Association also supports public and private health insurance coverage for the gender-affirming care to treat gender dysphoria and opposes the “denial of health insurance based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”
At least 10 states — Kentucky, Arizona, Idaho, Missouri, Florida, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas — have introduced legislation to prohibit Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care for adults and minors, according to nonprofit think tank the Movement Advancement Project.
Alina Habba, theacting U.S. attorneyfor the District of New Jersey, said Thursday that she would launch an investigation into theGarden State’stop Democrats who reportedly refused to issue arrest warrants for immigrants illegally living in the country.
Habba’s comments, made during an appearance on Fox News’s “Hannity,” came after a local outlet reported that law enforcement agents in New Jersey were instructed by Gov. Phil Murphy (D) and Attorney General Matthew Platkin (D) not to enforce the Trump administration’s civil immigration statutes.
“Unfortunately, I will announce on your show tonight, Sean — and I want it to be a warning for everybody — that I have instructed my office today to open an investigation into Gov. Murphy, to open an investigation into Attorney General Platkin, who has also instructed the state police not to assist any of our federal agencies that are under my direction, the FBI, the DEA,” Habba, who previously served as counsel to President Trump, told host Sean Hannity.
She argued they were trying to press individuals “who are trying to clean up our streets” not to cooperate with the Trump administration.
Murphy and Platkin’s instructions for New Jersey law enforcement follow the state’s 2018 Immigrant Trust Directive, which limits the types of assistance that New Jersey state and local law enforcement officers may provide to federal immigration authorities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Habba didn’t reference the standing New Jersey law in her responses on air, but suggested Attorney General Pam Bondi’s orders superseded the state’s authority.
“Pam Bondi has made it clear, and so has our president, that we are to take all criminals, violent criminals and criminals out of this country and to completely enforce federal law,” she said.
“And anybody who does get in that way in the way of what we are doing — which is not political, it is simply against crime — will be charged in the state of New Jersey for obstruction, for concealment,” Habba added. “And I will come after hard.”
Murphy and Platkins’ offices did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
The governor, however, did push back against the Trump administration’s efforts to reopen a 1,000-bed New Jersey detention center in February for federal immigration processing with a private global lender.
“We are extremely disappointed by the Trump Administration’s new contract with a for-profit prison company to open an ICE detention center in Newark, one of New Jersey’s most populous and diverse cities,” Murphy previously told The Hill.
“Our Administration has previously fought to limit such entities opening in our state and will continue to do so,” he added.
TheSocial Security Administration (SSA)unveiled Thursday that it would use thesocial platform Xto make announcements going forward, instead of traditional press releases or memos typically posted to the agency’s website.
“The agency will be using X to communicate to the press and the public — formerly known as Twitter,” Linda Kerr-Davis, SSA Midwest-West regional commissioner told employees in a call Thursday, according to Federal News Network (FNN).
“This will become our communication mechanism,” she told reporters.
The shift comes as communications staff at the agency has dwindled due to reassignments in front-facing roles at field offices across the country. Officials announced that regional SSA offices would no longer have fully staffed public affairs offices as a result.
“If you’re used to getting press releases and Dear Colleague letters, you might want to subscribe to the official SSA X account, so you can stay up to date with agency news,” Kerr-Davis said, as reported by FNN.
“I know this probably sounds very foreign to you — it did to me as well — and not what we are used to, but we are in different times now,” she added.
The SSA’s last press release, which was posted March 27 on the website, denied reports that local field offices may be closing. It also features a link to an inactive social media account for the agency that encouraged website viewers to follow the press office on X, which is owned by close Trump adviser and donor Elon Musk.
The past few months have seen considerable changes at the agency under the Trump administration, which announced new verification standards that were later walked back by officials who said they were evaluating policies to prevent fraud.
The updated policies have caused some concerns for rural communities and people who require assistance to travel to the in-person offices or those who have trouble logging in to their accounts online for help. The final memo on its website said the agency would work with the public to address the issues.
“SSA works closely with local congressional delegations before closing any office permanently,” the last release reads. “The agency also reassigns employees from an affected office to other locations to help communities access in-person services.”
Officials noted that while no field offices have been permanently closed, some buildings may have their leases terminated as the department has turned mostly to virtual hearings.
North Carolina’s Supreme Court ruled Friday that most of the contested ballots challenged by the Republican candidate must be counted in the high court’s recent seat race.
The Tar Heel state’s top court said in a 4-2 ruling that a majority of ballots cast by around 60,000 voters, who had some of their information missing, such as Social Security numbers or numbers on their driver’s licenses, have to be counted in the still-uncertified election.
The state’s Supreme Court, which has a Republican majority, held the state board of elections responsible in the Friday decision, which in part overturns the lower court’s ruling from last week that sided with Republican state Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin.
“Under this Court’s longstanding precedent, mistakes made by negligent election officials in registering citizens who are otherwise eligible to vote will not deprive the citizens of their right to vote or render their vote void after they have been cast,” North Carolina’s highest court said.
But the court also said that some ballots could end up being tossed out, giving Griffin, who is challenging the outcome of the November election, an opportunity to overturn Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs’ narrow win.
Therefore, thousands of overseas and military ballots could be thrown out if the voters do not prove their identity in the next month.
The Friday ruling drew rebuke from some Democrats in the state along with a Republican judge who sits on the Tar Heel state’s highest court.
“I expected that, when the time came, our state courts surely would embrace the universally accepted principle that courts cannot change election outcomes by retroactively rewriting the law. I was wrong. The Court of Appeals has since issued an opinion that gets key state law issues wrong, may implicate a host of federal law issues, and invites all the mischief I imagined in the early days of this case,” GOP Judge Richard Dietz wrote in his dissent.
“By every measure, this is the most impactful election-related court decision our state has seen in decades,” the GOP justice added.
Riggs, the incumbent in the race who has recused herself from the court’s deliberations, is ahead of Griffin by less than 1,000 votes.
With chronic illnesses soaring across the United States, a group of doctors and nutrition researchers say it’s time to reconsider the foundation of American dietary advice—starting from the bottom up.
In a peer-reviewed paper published in Nutrients, the authors contend that the traditional carb-heavy diet has not only failed to safeguard public health but may be contributing to rising rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. They propose a new low-carbohydrate food pyramid designed for the vast majority of American adults showing signs of metabolic dysfunction.
Their model—built on protein, full-fat dairy, and healthy fats—challenges decades of federal guidance and reignites a long-simmering debate about dietary fat’s role in chronic disease.
Rethinking the Pyramid
The original food pyramid, introduced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1992, stacked grains at the base, fruits and vegetables in the middle, and fats and oils at the top.
Though replaced in 2011 by MyPlate—a graphic that uses a dinner plate divided into five food groups (fruits, vegetables, grains, protein foods, and dairy)—the original pyramid’s grain-centric emphasis still lingers in public messaging and perception.
The paper calls that framework outdated and potentially harmful. Its 24 authors, including physicians, dietitians, and metabolic researchers, say the traditional model overlooks growing evidence linking high carbohydrate intake to obesity, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses.
In its place, they introduce a striking alternative: the first low-carbohydrate food pyramid. At its base are foods once discouraged—meat, eggs, full-fat dairy, and healthy oils. Non-starchy vegetables and low-sugar fruits occupy the middle tier. At the top are starchy vegetables, higher-sugar fruits, and nuts, recommended only in limited amounts. Foods high in carbohydrates—such as grains, rice, beans, and added sugars—are excluded entirely.
The authors describe the model as both low-carbohydrate and ketogenic—terms they use interchangeably in the paper. A ketogenic diet typically restricts carbohydrate intake to between 20 and 50 grams per day, shifting the body into a fat-burning state called ketosis.
But some experts caution against treating all carbohydrates as equal. “Whole grains are associated with better health outcomes, while refined grains are the opposite,” said Alex Leaf, a nutrition writer with a master’s degree.
Current guidelines, he noted, blur that line by suggesting only “at least half” of grains be whole. “This framing dilutes what could be a clearer public health message.”
Supporters of the new model argue that most Americans already show signs of metabolic dysfunction and need dietary guidance that reflects that reality.
“This pyramid is for the 88 percent of American adults with metabolic diseases,” Nina Teicholz, the study’s lead author, told The Epoch Times. “The USDA food pyramid was created based on flawed scientific evidence and, when tested in clinical trials, has never been shown to prevent any chronic disease.”
Teicholz and her co-authors assert that the low-carb model aligns more closely with today’s science and better suits the nutritional needs of most Americans.
A Model With Deep Roots
For its advocates, the low-carb approach isn’t new—it’s a revival of therapeutic diets with deep roots in medical history.
“We have a long tradition in Western medicine for neurological conditions such as epilepsy (and both type 1 and type 2 diabetes treatment since the late 1700s) to be successfully treated without medications with ketogenic diets,” wrote Dr. Anthony Chaffee, a physician and nutritional medicine expert, in an email to The Epoch Times.
He also cited a 2005 Institute of Medicine report, which found no minimum requirement for dietary carbohydrates as long as protein and fat needs are met.
Chaffee pointed to early human history, noting that Arctic populations during the last Ice Age survived entirely on meat and fish, with no access to plant-based carbohydrates. “People live harm-free without carbohydrates generationally,” he said.
A Therapeutic Case for Cutting Carbs
The paper references thousands of clinical trials suggesting that low-carb, high-fat diets can improve insulin sensitivity, reverse Type 2 diabetes, and reduce reliance on medication.
Major health organizations—including the American Diabetes Association, Diabetes Canada, and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes—now endorse low-carb diets as one option for managing Type 2 diabetes.
The American Heart Association has similarly acknowledged that very low-carb diets, compared with moderate-carb diets, “yield a greater decrease in A1c, more weight loss and use of fewer diabetes medications in individuals with diabetes.”
Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is a blood test that reflects average blood sugar levels over the past two to three months and is commonly used to monitor diabetes control.
The underlying biology is well known: Cutting carbs shifts the body into burning fat for fuel, a process called ketosis. This metabolic state also supports weight loss, as fat and protein increase satiety and often reduce overall calorie intake.
The authors say low-carb diets supply all essential nutrients—often in more bioavailable forms than fortified grains. They also cite evidence that the body can generate glucose on its own through gluconeogenesis.
“Many studies have established that people with chronic diseases suffer from carbohydrate intolerance,” the paper states. “Thus, in the same way that people with gluten intolerance avoid gluten, those with carbohydrate intolerance must limit carbohydrates.”
A Question of Fit—and Food Itself
While the study makes a strong case for low-carb eating, some experts warn against treating it as a one-size-fits-all solution.
“Many different kinds of diets support good health,” Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, told The Epoch Times. “The preponderance of evidence supports minimally processed foods that balance calories and include both plants and animal products.”
Nestle noted that nutrition studies are notoriously difficult and often reflect idealized eating habits. In reality, few Americans follow the food pyramid—or MyPlate. Most diets are dominated by ultra-processed foods high in added sugar, refined grains, and industrial fats.
Others question the long-term effects of cutting carbs so drastically. Anna Herby, a registered dietitian with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, said that the low-carb pyramid lacks fiber, a key nutrient for digestion, weight management, and blood sugar control.
“All of these foods are high in saturated fat and cholesterol, two components of foods that are linked with heart disease, diabetes, dementia, and stroke,” she told The Epoch Times.
While low-carb diets can help manage Type 2 diabetes, some experts argue that the real driver is weight loss—not carb restriction alone. “A low-carbohydrate diet can be an effective tool,” said Leaf. “But it isn’t intrinsically superior. What matters most is finding something that a person can sustainably stick with.”
Nestle also raised environmental concerns, noting that low-carb diets often emphasize animal-based foods. “Beef cattle are the largest food contributors to greenhouse gas emissions,” she said.
The authors argue that low-carb diets don’t require heavy red meat consumption. They point to regenerative agriculture as one way to reduce the environmental footprint of animal-based foods. The EPA estimates livestock accounts for 3.9 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, though experts disagree on whether that figure overstates or understates the true impact.
Nestle emphasized that dietary advice should serve broad public health goals. While low-carb diets may help some people, she said, they shouldn’t overshadow a more inclusive message focused on whole, minimally processed foods.
Will Guidelines Change?
Despite a growing body of research on low-carb diets, it’s unclear whether it will impact the U.S. dietary guidelines.
In its latest report issued in December 2025, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) ranks legumes, beans, and seafood as preferred protein sources—placing red meat, poultry, and eggs lower on the list. It maintains support for low-fat dairy but stops short of taking a position on ultra-processed foods despite mounting evidence linking them to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Supporters of low-carb diets call the DGAC’s advice outdated. Critics, meanwhile, argue it reflects the best available science.
“I’ve seen large amounts of evidence supporting this approach,” said Nestle. “The diet proposed in this paper is not aimed at healthy people; it is aimed at people with metabolic diseases. Avoiding rapidly absorbed carbohydrates is a good idea for such people.”
Leaf also questioned the usefulness of a one-size-fits-all food pyramid. “It tries to cram everyone into a single box,” he said. “I’d like to see it recommend several healthy options geared towards different dietary preferences—standard, low-carb, vegan, etc.”
That raises a broader question: Should national dietary guidelines prioritize those already dealing with metabolic conditions—or aim to serve the general, healthy population?
“My one concern is that it will be interpreted as advice for everyone,” Nestle added. “The evidence still greatly supports diets that replace animal foods with plants—in variety—as a good approach. This does not change that.”
Teicholz sees it differently. She cites a University of North Carolina study estimating that 88 percent of Americans show signs of metabolic dysfunction.
“It should be the USDA-HHS food pyramid for people with metabolic diseases,” she said.
Chaffee argues that science isn’t the barrier—visibility is.
“No big company profits from people cutting carbs and getting healthy,” he said. “We don’t have multimillion-dollar ad budgets, drug reps in hospitals, or sponsored conferences to promote the data.”
He pointed to Australia, which recently designated ketogenic diets as “best practice” for managing Type 2 diabetes—proof, he says, that change is possible when the evidence is acknowledged.
With Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. overseeing this year’s federal dietary review, whether the recommendations will change remains to be seen.
However, as chronic disease rates rise, so does pressure to revisit long-held dietary assumptions. Whether or not the guidelines shift, the low-carb food pyramid has reignited the national conversation about what Americans should eat—and why.
