00:00A case back under scrutiny. Why a prosecutor is reopening the Cornell gang rape investigation two years later.
00:08Plus, Jack Smith heads to the Hill. The former special counsel faces Republicans today over his investigations into President Trump.
00:16And AI's biggest names head to the White House. The tech leaders warning AI could outsmart humans, now sitting down
00:23with a president who calls those fears a hoax.
00:28The stories that matter. The facts you can trust. From across the country to around the world. This is Unbiased
00:37Updates from Straight Arrow.
00:40Hey everybody, I'm Christian Bryant. Hope your morning is off to a great start. Let's get you caught up with
00:45what you need to know right now.
00:46We begin at Cornell University, where a New York prosecutor is opening an investigation into allegations that a student was
00:54gang raped at a fraternity house in 2024.
00:57The move comes after the woman filed a civil lawsuit earlier this month.
01:01The woman, identified as Jane Doe, says seven members of the Chi-5 fraternity sexually assaulted her in October of
01:092024.
01:09Her lawsuit alleges she was pressured to snort ketamine, smoke weed, and drink alcohol, eventually becoming incapacitated.
01:18The case is now drawing new scrutiny over how both Cornell and local prosecutors handled the allegations.
01:25The woman did go to campus police at the time, but Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten says her
01:31initial sworn statement did not include allegations that she had been gang raped or drugged.
01:37He says she reported having consensual sex with two men, but had trouble remembering parts of what happened after other
01:43men entered the room.
01:45Van Houten is now defending his office's decision not to pursue criminal charges in 2024.
01:50The question that we analyzed was, did Jane Doe consent to what happened?
01:56And the law in New York State is clear that if you are voluntarily intoxicated or under the influence of
02:04drugs such that your judgment is impaired, that does not legally, under the penal law, constitute your inability to consent.
02:14Van Houten now says his office will present evidence to a grand jury this fall.
02:18Cornell says it supports the decision to reopen the investigation.
02:22The university says its own Title IX investigation led to a range of sanctions, including expulsions and suspensions.
02:30Cornell also closed the Chi-Fi chapter in 2024 and says it remains barred from campus.
02:36And in announcing the new investigation Monday, Van Houten said, quote,
02:40Seeking justice sometimes requires us to reconsider or reopen cases when we are provided with additional evidence.
02:48Today, some of the biggest names in tech are heading to the White House.
02:52President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson are meeting with top AI executives as Washington debates how, and how much,
03:00to regulate the technology.
03:01Expected at the meeting, Open AI President Greg Brockman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Palantir CEO Alex Karp, Meta CEO Mark
03:10Zuckerberg, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.
03:14Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown is also expected to attend.
03:18Johnson says the goal is to find what he calls the right balance between regulation and innovation.
03:24Instead of just smothering this with red tape, which is always the government's reflex and I think would be wrong
03:29and, frankly, dangerous to national security if we did it here,
03:32we want to continue the innovation.
03:33We want to keep America's lead over China and all of our other competitors,
03:36but we want to make sure that it's being done in a safe way.
03:39So a little oversight, a little transparency, I think would go a long way here.
03:42The meeting comes just two days after Trump had a private dinner with Anthropic CEO Dario Amadei.
03:47Amadei has been pushing for a slowdown in AI development and more safeguards.
03:52Trump is taking a very different view, rejecting calls to slow development and calling fears that AI could threaten humanity
04:00a hoax.
04:01A few hours from now, former special counsel Jack Smith will be back on Capitol Hill sitting across from some
04:08of the Republican senators who say his investigation targeted them.
04:13Smith is the only witness at this morning's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
04:16He led the two federal investigations that resulted in charges against President Trump,
04:22one over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the other over classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
04:28Both cases were dismissed after Trump won re-election.
04:32Republicans are expected to focus on how Smith's team gathered information during those investigations.
04:38Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley calls it, quote,
04:44Reports released by Grassley and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan back in July say Smith's investigation obtained texts and messages
04:53involving 44 lawmakers.
04:55A separate House Judiciary report says investigators subpoenaed phone records from more than a dozen Republican members of Congress.
05:03Democrats say Republicans are using the hearing to defend Trump and attack the investigation.
05:08Senator Peter Welch told Roll Call, quote,
05:11Well, they're in denial.
05:12They think that President Trump won the 2020 election, and it is consistent with that fiction.
05:17Smith has defended his decision to prosecute Trump, saying he would have brought the same cases regardless of whether the
05:24president was a Republican or Democrat.
05:27For the first time in more than 200 years, Tennessee is set to execute a woman.
05:33Krista Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, is set to die by lethal injection for the 1995 torture
05:40and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slimmer tomorrow, unless the Supreme Court halts it today.
05:47Pike was 18 at the time.
05:49She and two other teenagers lured Slimmer into the woods in Knoxville, where she was tortured and killed.
05:55Pike was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to death.
06:00In the decades since, her attorneys have pointed to evidence of severe childhood abuse, sexual assault, and mental illness, arguing
06:08the jury did not hear the full extent of that history.
06:11They've pushed to stop her execution, but Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has now denied her request for clemency.
06:18Pike still has an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court.
06:21Unless the court intervenes, she will be executed tomorrow morning.
06:25Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is stepping away from a major climate change case just one week before the justices
06:33are set to hear it.
06:34The court announced Alito's recusal Monday, but didn't say why.
06:38The letter is just one line, saying Alito, quote,
06:41has determined that he will not continue to participate in this case.
06:45The case pits ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy against Boulder, Colorado.
06:50Boulder sued the companies in 2018, accusing them of contributing to climate change, while concealing or misrepresenting the dangers of
06:58fossil fuels.
06:59The city and county are seeking billions of dollars in damages.
07:03Alito does not own stock in Exxon or Suncor, according to CBS, but his 2025 financial disclosure shows investments in
07:11two other energy companies, ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66.
07:15In May, a coalition of left-leaning watchdog groups urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate Alito's involvement in this
07:23case, citing his oil and gas holdings.
07:26At the time, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said Alito had no financial interest in any party and had been advised
07:33by the court's legal counsel that recusal was not required.
07:36The court is still set to hear arguments next Monday, the first day of its new term.
07:42Finally this morning, while a lot of you were watching Monday Night Football, the Senate was making a big move
07:48on the future of college sports.
07:50The Protect College Sports Act passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, 77 to 22.
07:56Supporters say the bill is designed to bring some order to a college sports system reshaped by player pay and
08:02the transfer portal.
08:03If it becomes law, it would set a five-year eligibility window, put new limits on transfers, and further regulate
08:10name, image, and likeness deals.
08:12The bill's sponsor, Senator Ted Cruz, says the changes would protect college athletes while preserving the future of college sports.
08:20President Trump and the NCAA both push for the bill.
08:23Opponents argue it goes too far, restricting players' ability to make money and limiting their leverage with schools and conferences.
08:31Now it heads to the House, but there's a timing problem.
08:35The House isn't scheduled to return until after the midterms, leaving the bill's next steps unclear.
08:41Before we head out, here's what we're tracking today.
08:43This morning, the Maha Summit kicks off in Washington.
08:46Vice President Vance and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. close out the day.
08:51At 9, Lindsey Clancy returns to court for the first time since her murder trial ended in a mistrial.
08:58Her attorneys are pushing to block a second trial.
09:01Also at 9, former Special Counsel Jack Smith faces the Senate Judiciary Committee.
09:06And at 12.30, President Trump meets with those tech leaders for a closed-door lunch focused on what the
09:12White House now calls superintelligence.
09:15By the way, have you signed up for the Unbiased Updates newsletter?
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09:27And before we go, get in touch, folks.
09:29Email me.
09:30Leave me a comment.
09:32Unbiasedupdates at san.com.
09:34And I actually read them, and I want to hear from you.
09:37Let me know what you think, or just say hello.
09:39That's Unbiased Updates for this Tuesday.
09:42We'll see you here tomorrow.
09:44For the Unbiased Updates team and all of us at Straight Arrow, I'm Christian Bryant.
09:49Have a great one.
09:49We'll see you again soon.
09:53We'll see you again soon.
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