00:00I couldn't let everybody else die, the fly Dubai captain who fought off his co-pilot, revealing what went through
00:06his mind as the plane went down.
00:09Plus, she survived two attempts to execute her.
00:12Now Krista Pike is in critical condition, and her lawyers say Tennessee can't try again.
00:17And a major shakeup in the Cornell sexual assault case.
00:21New York's governor says she's lost faith in the local DA, and she's putting Letitia James in charge.
00:29The stories that matter, the facts you can trust.
00:34From across the country to around the world, this is Unbiased Updates from Straight Arrow.
00:41Hey everybody, I'm Christian Bryant.
00:43Glad you're hanging out with us this morning.
00:45Let's get you caught up and ready for your Friday.
00:48This morning, we're hearing for the first time from the fly Dubai captain who was badly injured fighting off his
00:53co-pilot as their passenger jet plunged toward the ground.
00:57In a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi this morning, Captain Smit Machar described the moment he was
01:04on the cockpit floor, severely wounded, and still being attacked.
01:08The plane was rapidly losing altitude, and Machar said he knew he had to get back up.
01:13He told Modi,
01:14I was fighting for my life, but said he also knew he couldn't let everybody else die.
01:19Machar managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to rush in and subdue the co-pilot.
01:25Reserve pilots on board then helped regain control of the jet.
01:28The flight, headed from Dubai to Tel Aviv, made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia with 174 people on board.
01:36The suspect, Anamani National, was questioned there before being transferred to the United Arab Emirates.
01:42Investigators are still working to determine a motive and whether the attack had any connection to terrorism.
01:48President Trump was asked Thursday whether the suspect could have ties to Iran.
01:53First of all, has anybody briefed you about whether or not the guy, the pilot of the fly Dubai plane,
02:00is linked to Iran?
02:01We're working on it right now.
02:03They're being very open with us.
02:05I would say the answer, based on what I'm hearing, is yes, but we're working on it right now.
02:11This guy might have been either put in there by the IRGT or ratified some other way, and then he
02:17tries to take down the plane.
02:18It could have been, yeah.
02:20No Iran connection has been established.
02:22Machar is now recovering at a hospital in Abu Dhabi after suffering what a passenger who treated him described as
02:29massive blood loss.
02:31Convicted murderer Krista Pike is still alive, but in critical condition after Tennessee tried twice to execute her Wednesday night.
02:39Pike's lawyers say she was receiving life-saving medical care at a Nashville hospital Thursday, and they still don't know
02:46her prognosis.
02:47The 50-year-old has been on death row for decades for a murder she committed at 18.
02:51Pike survived two doses of pinto-barbital Wednesday night and is the only known person to survive after lethal injection
02:59drugs were administered during a U.S. execution.
03:03Now, her lawyers want Governor Bill Lee to commute her death sentence.
03:06The governor's call for an independent review does not go far enough.
03:10After having endured solitary confinement for more than 20 years and a full attempt to kill her by lethal injection,
03:18Krista has endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty.
03:24The governor must commute Krista's sentence now.
03:28We may never know what all she was suffering through, either because she can't remember it, she can't tell it,
03:34or it overwhelms her in such a way that, you know, sometimes pain and suffering affects people that way.
03:41So I don't think we could ever know what it was like to go through that time.
03:45But I do know that that really was her biggest fear.
03:49It was not a fear of dying.
03:50It was a fear of a prolonged, painful, traumatic death.
03:57And that's what happened, minus the death.
03:59Pike's lawyers say at least seven needles were used as the execution team tried to access a vein.
04:05They also described blistering and burning around the injection sites.
04:09One of her attorneys says it's possible the IV line wasn't properly in the vein, meaning the drug may have
04:15gone into her arm instead of her bloodstream.
04:17We still don't know what went wrong.
04:20Governor Lee has ordered an independent review and halted Tennessee's remaining execution this year.
04:27New York Governor Kathy Hochul is taking a local DA off the Cornell gang rape investigation and putting the state
04:33attorney general in charge.
04:35Hochul has appointed Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor, saying she's lost faith in Tompkins County DA Matthew Van
04:43Houten's ability to fairly oversee the case.
04:46The allegations date back to 2024, when a Cornell student says she was drugged and raped by multiple men at
04:53a fraternity house.
04:54Cornell conducted its own investigation, which led to expulsions, suspensions, and other sanctions.
05:01But Van Houten's office closed its criminal investigation without filing charges.
05:05He reopened it this week after the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit and new details
05:12about the original investigation came to light.
05:15Van Houten has since said he never saw the full transcript of Doe's 2024 interview with campus police, including her
05:21statement that she was 100% confident she had been raped.
05:25Now, James will decide whether there's enough evidence to pursue criminal charges and present the case to a grand jury.
05:32Hochul says the woman at the center of the case deserves to know every fact will be examined and justice
05:37pursued.
05:39Hochul and James are set to hold a news conference at 9.30 Eastern this morning with an update on
05:44the investigation.
05:46Renee Good's family is taking the federal government to court nine months after an ICE officer shot and killed her
05:52in Minneapolis.
05:53Good's partner, Becca, and her brother filed two civil lawsuits Thursday, one against the U.S. government, the other against
06:00the ICE officer who shot her, and several current and former Trump administration officials.
06:06Good was shot January 7 while driving away from federal agents during an immigration enforcement operation.
06:12Federal officials said at the time, the officer, Jonathan Ross, acted in self-defense.
06:17The family's lawsuits accuse him of using unjustified and excessive force.
06:22Thursday was also the first time Becca Good has spoken publicly since Renee was killed.
06:27Every morning, she is my first thought.
06:31I think about how the kids are growing up without their mama.
06:34And I'll grow old without the love of my life.
06:38I think about how we should have had 40 or 60 more years together.
06:44But I also think a lot about what she would have wanted after all of this.
06:49We are here today not out of anger and not out of hate.
06:52We are here because Renee's love and legacy demand a better world for her children, for this community, and for
06:59this country.
07:00What happened to our family should not happen to any family, regardless of who you are, who you voted for,
07:07or what you believe.
07:08The family's attorneys say the cases go beyond what happened on the street that day.
07:12The second lawsuit names officials including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem,
07:20and White House Border Czar Tom Homan.
07:23It alleges a conspiracy to violate civil rights as part of the administration's immigration crackdown.
07:28Today's filings are not about immigration policy.
07:33We are focused on the extraordinary overreach of the federal government and federal agents who used aggressive tactics
07:41that ignored well-established protocols and training for law enforcement officers
07:46and used excessive and unnecessary force, causing countless U.S. citizens and legal residents to become collateral damage.
07:56The lawsuits come just days after Good's mother and brother testified before Congress about fatal shootings involving federal immigration officers.
08:05Another U.S. citizen, Alex Preddy, was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis just weeks after Good.
08:11The Justice Department has not responded.
08:1411 jurors were ready to find Lindsay Clancy not guilty.
08:19One wasn't.
08:20Now a judge has rejected her attorney's bid to end the case without another trial.
08:25Clancy is accused of killing her three young children at their Massachusetts home in 2023.
08:31Her first trial ended in a mistrial last month after seven days of deliberations.
08:36The jury was deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of acquittal based on insanity.
08:41Clancy has admitted to killing the children.
08:43Her defense argues she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and was not criminally responsible.
08:49After the mistrial, her attorney, Kevin Reddington, asked the judge to enter a not guilty verdict, arguing prosecutors hadn't proven
08:57their case.
08:58Thursday, the judge said they had presented enough evidence for a jury to consider whether Clancy knew what she was
09:04doing was wrong.
09:05Prosecutors called three expert witnesses during the six-week trial who said Clancy was capable of understanding the wrongfulness of
09:13her actions.
09:14The defense had its own experts who disagreed.
09:18The judge said when experts conflict on that question, it's up to the jury to decide.
09:23Thursday's ruling keeps the case alive after last month's mistrial.
09:26Prosecutors allege the killings were premeditated.
09:29Finally this morning, SpaceX had a very busy Thursday, and it ended like this.
09:36Three, two, one, mission, and liftoff.
09:42Go Falcon, go NROL-97.
09:49That was launch number three in less than 13 hours.
09:53SpaceX pulled off something it had only done once before.
09:56The NROL-97 mission lifted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center just before midnight.
10:02And here's what makes it interesting.
10:04We don't know what was on board.
10:07The Falcon Heavy was carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office,
10:12the U.S. agency that operates the country's spy satellites.
10:16And that was just launch number three.
10:18Earlier Thursday, SpaceX sent Crew-13 to the International Space Station.
10:22The four-person crew arrived nearly eight hours after liftoff.
10:26Then came Transporter-18, what SpaceX calls a small-sat rideshare mission, carrying 180 payloads into orbit.
10:35All told, SpaceX has now launched more than 100 missions this year.
10:39And just in case you're interested, SpaceX is offering so-called rideshare missions as low as, wait for it, $350
10:48,000.
10:50Folks, we are the fastest, fairest few minutes in news.
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11:02We're glad to be a part of your morning routine.
11:04And don't forget, feel free to get in touch.
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11:08Leave me a comment.
11:10Unbiasedupdates at san.com.
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11:14Let me know what you think or just say hello.
11:16That's Unbiased Updates for this Friday.
11:18We'll see you here next week.
11:20For the Unbiased Updates team and all of us here at Straight Arrow, I'm Christian Bryant.
11:24Have a great day and a fantastic weekend.
11:27We'll see you next time.
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