First briefing: assault on Cornell; Christa Brochet; Renee Good; Jobs: NPR

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Today’s best stories

A sexual assault case at Cornell University that resulted in no criminal charges is now under state scrutiny. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed Attorney General Letitia James’ office as special prosecutor after new information raised questions about what campus police shared with the local prosecutor. NPR confirmed that the woman who reported the assault gave police a detailed account, including that she had been raped.

Students walk on the Cornell University campus Wednesday in Ithaca, New York

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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Spencer Platt/Getty Images

• 🎧 NPR’s Brian Mann reports First the case has student confidence broken at Cornell. Hundreds of people gathered Thursday evening, some sobbing as they spoke. One student told Mann that the woman at the center of the case “could have been any of my friends or a classmate.”

Tennessee attempted to execute Christa Pike on Wednesday. She survived. Pike, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, remains in critical condition after receiving two doses of the deadly injectable drug pentobarbital. Gov. Bill Lee has now suspended executions for the remainder of his term and ordered an independent investigation into what went wrong.

• 🎧 This is the second failed execution in Tennessee this year. WPLN’s Marianna Bacallao says one botched execution could be a fluke, but two of them suggest a pattern. Lee previously suspended executions from 2022 to 2025 after a study found problems with execution drugs used by the state. The current protocol grew out of that review, but the state is once again investigating what went wrong.

The monthly employment report will be released this morning. For many Americans, the math is getting harder and harder: Prices are rising, wages aren’t keeping pace, and borrowing is getting more expensive.

• 🎧 Forecasters expect today’s report to show that employers added between 80,000 and 90,000 jobs. in September, says NPR’s Scott Horsley. It would be slower than in August but stronger than in early summer. Horsley says wage growth is another key metric, and that wage increases are not keeping pace with prices.

Renée Good’s family filed two civil lawsuits against the federal government yesterday following his death last January. The 37-year-old man was fatally shot by a federal agent during an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota. The first lawsuit alleges that ICE officer Jonathan Ross used excessive force. The second alleges that federal officials conspired to interfere with the civil rights of individuals in Minnesota.

Listening of the day

Journalist and filmmaker Rachel Szor and Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham attend the photocall for Naza presented in competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, at Venice Lido on September 10, 2026.

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Stefano Rellandini/AFP via Getty Images

NAZA features 24 anonymous Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers describing the surveillance and targeting systems they used in Israel’s war in Gaza – including AI – and the civilian deaths they say these systems enabled. Palestinian and international journalists have long documented this toll; the film provides testimony from inside the Israeli military system. Its title loosely translates to “collateral damage.” The film transforms this abstraction into human lives. NAZA hits U.S. theaters this week after receiving praise abroad, while in Israel it has sparked protests, accusations of treason and threats to revoke the filmmakers’ citizenship.