Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Thursday.
Tennessee halts executions after a botched lethal injectionChrista Pike, who was convicted of murder three decades ago, is in critical condition after Tennessee failed to execute her, her lawyer said this afternoon. Pike was transported to a hospital last night after surviving two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital. Pike remained alive, breathing and snoring for nearly an hour before she was taken to a hospital. Randy Spivey, a lawyer for Pike, described the botched execution as “cruel and torturous,” and urged Bill Lee, the state’s Republican governor, to reduce her sentence to life in prison. Lee, who previously denied such a request, suspended all other executions in Tennessee until the completion of an independent review. Pike’s was the state’s second failed execution this year. Pike would have been the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. She was found guilty of torturing and murdering a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995, when Pike was 18. After years in prison, Pike said she had grown to regret her actions. Slemmer’s mother has been adamantly in favor of Pike’s execution; she was at the prison yesterday. The execution team went through at least seven needles trying to find a suitable vein to execute Pike, her lawyers said. She was left with blistering and burning. That suggests that the lethal drug probably poured into tissue surrounding the insertion sites instead of entering her bloodstream.
Cornell police report omitted student’s claim she was rapedA trove of documents obtained by The Times showed that the campus police at Cornell University sent the local district attorney a condensed statement about what happened at a fraternity party in 2024. At the time, a woman told an officer: “I can say with 100 percent confidence I was raped.” But that comment was omitted from the document received by the prosecutor, who then declined to bring charges. The case has ignited shock and anger about sexual misconduct on college campuses. Additional documents showed that the men accused in the sexual assault gave varying, frequently disjointed accounts to investigators.
Justices will review Trump’s migrant detention policyThe Supreme Court announced today that it would review the Trump administration’s policy of indefinitely detaining immigrants who crossed the border illegally years ago. Previously, many migrants were allowed an opportunity to seek release after a hearing before a judge. The case is one of two major aspects of President Trump’s immigration agenda that the justices will scrutinize during their new term, which begins next week. They will also consider the legality of deporting immigrants to countries where they have no ties.
Investigators seek motive behind the FlyDubai attackMany questions remain unanswered about yesterday’s bloody stabbing inside the cockpit of a flight to Israel, including what motivated the attack, whether the pilot-assailant acted alone and how the weapon got on board. The U.A.E. said today that it was leading the investigation. Follow here for the latest updates. Israeli officials have said the attacker is an Omani citizen, and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination,” though Netanyahu did not elaborate. The pilot who was stabbed, Smit Machchhar, is now in good health, the Indian Embassy said. He is being hailed as a hero, along with the Israeli passengers who assisted him. More top news
The new Tom Cruise film is strange and ponderousOn paper, “Digger” looked promising. It has an original script, a talented cast, a hefty budget and one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Tom Cruise, standing front and center. But before you head to the theaters to see it, read this review from our critic Manohla Dargis. The film, Manohla writes, “is such a lumbering white elephant of a movie that it almost makes you sorry for everyone involved.” Cruise certainly works hard, but he’s sunk by the movie’s half-baked ideas. Also opening this weekend: “Verity,” starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, is a batty, hilarious melodrama.
A bodybuilder who competes against herselfAt 3 feet 11 inches tall, Allison Warrell has become accustomed to a world that’s not built for an adult her size. But she has made a habit of focusing on solutions. So in order to avoid back issues, which are common for people with achondroplasia dwarfism, she began lifting weights, using a child’s chair for leg extensions. After years of hard training, Warrell started competing in bodybuilding. She has competed in events for a decade, and nearly always placed at the bottom. But that wouldn’t deter her. When Warrell decided to compete in one final event this summer before retiring, we followed along.
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