Human vs humanoid robot cage fight goes viral



Fox News
Kurt Knutsson, CyberGuy Report
Mon, October 5, 2026 


We've watched humanoid robots play soccer, run races and even fight other robots. Now, content creator Frankie LaPenna has taken things in a much wilder direction by stepping into a cage to fight them himself.

The event was staged by REK, a robotics entertainment company that puts remotely controlled humanoids into live combat events. In San Francisco, LaPenna faced three robots in a series of bouts, including two full-size EngineAI T800s, as part of what REK billed as the first human-versus-humanoid robot cage fight.

The viral footage getting most of the attention comes from one of those T800 fights. LaPenna moves toward the robot and throws several punches. The machine fires back with punches and kicks before one shot sends him flying across the cage. And if the robot looks like it walked straight out of "The Terminator," that was clearly the point. But the bigger story here is what these machines can actually do, who was controlling them and how much of the fighting was really driven by AI.


Content creator Frankie LaPenna faced a modified humanoid robot in a cage fight in San Francisco.

After facing a smaller Unitree G1, LaPenna went up against two modified EngineAI T800s, built by Chinese robotics company EngineAI. EngineAI lists the standard T800 at about 5 feet 8 inches tall and roughly 165 to 187 pounds, depending on the version. REK describes the modified machines used in its fights as about 6 feet tall. For the event, REK also gave the T800 a much more intimidating look. The mechanical head and glowing red eyes lean heavily into "The Terminator" theme. Put a machine that size inside a fighting cage and you can see why the video grabbed so much attention.

Here's the big thing to know about this fight: there was a human behind the controls. REK's technology partner Reflex Arc says pilots operate the humanoids in real time using VR gear or a gamepad. AI helps with balance and trained movement, while the human pilot directs the action. So when you see a T800 throw a punch or launch a kick, the robot is carrying out the pilot's commands. It is not independently deciding how to fight LaPenna. That still leaves plenty to be impressed by because the machine has to stay upright, recover from contact and turn those commands into real physical movement inside the cage.

Humanoid Robot Videos Show Machines Lashing Out

Frankie LaPenna squares up with the humanoid robot during REK's human-versus-robot fight in San Francisco.

The viral clip getting most of the attention only shows part of what happened that night. According to REK CEO Cix Liv, LaPenna faced three robots during the event. He reportedly started against a smaller Unitree G1 before moving on to two modified EngineAI T800 humanoids. REK says its modified T800 machines can kick with up to 850 pounds of force, which helps explain why the footage looks so intense.

LaPenna was knocked down during one of the T800 bouts, but Liv said he recovered, knocked the robot off balance and ultimately ended the fight with the robot's head coming off. REK has continued teasing more footage, and the short clips circulating online still do not show the full sequence of all three bouts. So what most people are seeing online is only one part of the event.

The physical side of the fight became pretty clear once LaPenna started trading punches with the robots. Liv said LaPenna originally wanted to fight without protective equipment, but REK insisted that he wear it. He ultimately entered the cage in motorcycle-style protective gear and gloves. According to Liv, LaPenna injured his hand while punching one of the robots but otherwise avoided a serious injury. Even with a human controlling the machine remotely, LaPenna was still trading blows with a heavy metal robot capable of putting real force behind its movements.

REK has been building toward this kind of event for a while. The company stages live fights where people remotely control humanoid robots against other humanoid robots. It also has a simulator that lets players learn the controls before some get the chance to pilot the real machines. Reflex Arc says REK's first simulator championship generated 3,670 matches, with the winners flown to San Francisco to pilot real robots at REK2 in August. The simulator uses the same basic controls and trained balance system as the physical robots. That helps explain where REK is going with all of this. The idea is to take something that feels like a video game and put it into a real fighting cage with actual humanoid robots. Then LaPenna stepped inside and raised the stakes by putting a person on the other side.

Let's Look Back On The Best Moments (Read: Crashes) From The World Humanoid Robot Games

The modified EngineAI T800 stands inside the REK cage as the action gets underway.

Robot combat itself is nothing new, and we've been following that evolution closely. In 2025, four Unitree G1 humanoids fought in a boxing-style tournament in China. Those machines were also controlled by human operators, and the matches included punches, kicks and knockdowns. We have also watched humanoid robots play soccer without human control, rally on a tennis court and kick soccer balls hard enough to leave visible dents in a wall. REK's event takes that progression in a different direction. This time, the person sharing the cage with the machine can actually feel what happens when that robotic strength comes back at them.

Strip away the Terminator head and the social media theatrics, and there is a pretty remarkable robotics demonstration underneath it. The larger T800s weigh as much as about 187 pounds, yet they can stay balanced in a confined fighting area, absorb contact and execute punches and kicks under human control.

The hardware is clearly becoming more capable. Compare today's humanoids with the awkward walking robots we were watching only a few years ago, and the change is dramatic. And something tells me Frankie LaPenna will not be the last person crazy enough to climb into the cage with one.

I've watched humanoid robots do some pretty wild things, but seeing one kick a person across a cage definitely got my attention. The big thing to remember is that there was still a human pilot behind the controls. These robots were not independently deciding how to fight LaPenna. AI helped with balance and trained movement while a person directed the action in real time. What stands out to me is how quickly the physical side of this technology is advancing. These machines can stay upright through contact, recover and put some serious force behind their movements. REK even required LaPenna to wear protective gear before sending him into the cage. It makes for a viral video, but there is a more serious side to this, too. As humanoid robots become stronger and more capable, we are going to have to think carefully about who is controlling them, what safeguards are in place and where this kind of power should be used.

Copyright 2026 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.

Original article source: Human vs humanoid robot cage fight goes viral

ABOLISH THE DEATH PELNALTY

Tennessee’s dark history of botched executions

"Tennessee now is competing... for the title of the most incompetent executing state."

David Millward
Sat, October 3, 2026 
THE TELEGRAPH


Christa Pike was the fifth death row inmate in Tennessee since 2009 whose execution went awry

On Wednesday, the first woman in Tennessee in 200 years was set to be executed.

Christa Pike, now 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for the brutal murder of a classmate when she was 18. It took seven needles and two doses of the chemical sedative pentobarbital before the execution was eventually called off.

Pike was left barely alive, unconscious, breathing with a ventilator and severely brain damaged, her lawyers said.

According to campaigners, this was the fifth execution to have gone awry in the state since 2009.

Lethal injections were first adopted in the US by Oklahoma in 1977, but it was Texas which was the first to administer a fatal dose in 1982.

By 2009, every US state that retained the death penalty had adopted lethal injection as a method of execution.

Lethal injection was seen as a more humane alternative to traditional methods such as the electric chair and gas chamber. It was also cheaper.

The original cocktail of choice was sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride. Drug shortages meant other chemicals were used.

Christa Pike left barely alive with severe brain damage after seven needles and two doses of sedative failed to kill her - Getty Images

According to one study by Austin Sarat, a professor of political science at Amherst College, more than 7 per cent of lethal injections carried out across the US were botched – often inflicting horrendous and prolonged agony on the prisoner.

This percentage was more than double the average for other modes of execution.

Prof Sarat said: "I've studied every execution in the United States since 1890. Lethal injection has been botched more frequently than any other method of execution."

Pike is not the only death row inmate to have survived. Tony Carruthers's execution was abandoned in May after staff could not find a suitable vein in which to inject the pentobarbital.

Carruthers was put to death for his part in the kidnapping and murder of two men. The execution was abandoned after more than an hour of trying to find a vein.

Bill Lee, the governor of Tennessee, granted a reprieve after a court banned using the same method to execute Carruthers again.

Carruthers suffered a stroke and was left partially paralysed by the procedure.

Tony Carruthers' execution was halted in May after staff were unable to find a suitable vein to administer the pentobarbital - Tennessee Board of Correction

Maria DeLiberato, Carruthers's lawyer, said: "If the state of Tennessee is going to execute its own, there has to be full and complete transparency.

"The stories coming out of Tennessee today put me right back in that room with Tony, watching the state put him through a torturous execution attempt last May. Tennessee has been on notice for years about serious problems with its execution protocol.

"We called for an independent review after Tony's botch. Our calls were ignored, and now Christa has also paid the price for Tennessee's failures. Enough is enough."

Others did not survive, but death did not come quickly or painlessly.

Byron Black, who had a heart defibrillator, cried in agony, "It's hurting so bad," during his execution in August last year.

A court had been told the device, which kick-starts a heart when it fails, would prolong the execution.

The trial judge agreed and ordered the device to be switched off. But Tennessee's Supreme Court reversed the decision.

Byron Black, who had a heart defibrillator, cried in agony during his execution attempt

Then there was the case of Oscar Smith, whose execution was halted 30 minutes before it was due to take place on April 21, 2022, after it emerged that the drugs had not been tested according to the state's protocol.


He was finally executed on May 22 last year after Tennessee decided it would only use pentobarbital to put prisoners to death.

Oscar Smith's execution was halted in April 2022 after officials discovered the lethal drugs had not been tested according to state protocol - Tennessee Department of Correction

Stacy Rector, the executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, witnessed the execution of Steve Henley in 2009.

She said: "It was horrific; the whole point of lethal injection execution is to present a very sanitised, medical-looking procedure.

"When it goes wrong, the reality of what you're doing starts to make itself known.

"There had been concern about whether or not this cocktail that was being used at that time was going to anaesthetise Mr Henley properly.

"At that time they used a paralytic that would literally trap you. You couldn't move at all and so if the anaesthesia wasn't working you couldn't show any sign that you were awake because you were paralysed in your own body."

Steve Henley was executed via lethal injection and died in 2009

Death was neither instantaneous nor humane. It took 13 minutes, during which time he turned blue, and veins protruded from his head.

Even Republican legislators said they wanted executions put on hold in a letter to the governor.

"We raise these concerns," they wrote, "not in opposition to the death penalty but in defence of it – out of respect for the rule of law, the verdicts of Tennessee juries and the families still awaiting justice."

The Tennessee Department of Correction said it followed "established execution protocol" in the case of Christa Pike. It declined to comment on the other cases raised by The Telegraph.

Prof Sarat was hardly surprised by the latest developments in Tennessee.

He said: "Botched executions have happened everywhere. They've happened in Oklahoma, they've happened in Texas, they've happened in Arizona, they've happened in Ohio.

"Tennessee now is competing... for the title of the most incompetent executing state."

GOP Official Implies Christa Pike May Have Deliberately Made Her Veins Hard To Find Before Botched Execution

Jennifer Bowers Bahney
Mon, October 5, 2026 
Mediaite.

Key takeaways

Tennessee's Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton suggested that death row inmate Christa Pike may have dehydrated her veins before her botched execution.

Tennessee's Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton implied Monday that death row inmate Christa Pike may have deliberately dehydrated her veins before her botched execution.

Pike, who was convicted of the torture and murder of college classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995, remains hospitalized in critical condition after two doses of pentobarbital failed to stop her heart. Tennessee Correction Commissioner Frank Strada announced he was stepping down in the midst of the grim situation.

"Do you think there's enough training not just for finding a vein, but just knowing if they've found a vein?" Keilar asked Sexton.

"Well, I mean, I'm not a physician and I'm not in health care. But, you know, whenever I go to the doctor's office, they don't have a problem finding a vein and poking me," Sexton said.

"But I think the other issue is, look, you have people on death row. This is the second one where they have refused food and they have tried to dehydrate their body to make it very tough to find a vein or what you need," Sexton said. "That's why maybe you start looking at putting in a central line somewhere else a little earlier than the last meal or as they go in. But you know, we're going to look at it, we're going to see — "

"So, I just want to be clear," Keilar interrupted. "Do you think it's entirely because of the behavior of the inmates in these cases, or do you think there could be a training issue?"

"I mean, it could be both," Sexton said. "I mean, both things could be right, right? You could have people who are trying not to —"

"Do you…have evidence to believe that was the case in for Christa Pike, that she was purposely doing this?"

"Well, I do know that for the one before Christa Pike, that is absolutely what happened. Um, and we're going to investigate —"

"Okay, but that's not Christa Pike," Keilar countered.

"Well, my understanding is, they had a hard time finding the vein. My understanding is, she did not eat the last meal. And so, we're going to take a look and someone can dehydrate their body. We'll take a look. But you know, we're going to go back and investigate this and put in alternatives. And maybe we keep lethal injection, maybe we don't in the state of Tennessee, and move in another direction," Sexton said. "But all those things are on the table."

"But you know, other countries have an easier capability of putting people to death than what we do for some reason. So we're going to evaluate that, as well," Sexton added.

Just under five months before Pike's scheduled execution, Tennessee failed to establish IV access for triple-murderer Tony Carruthers. The execution was called off and Gov. Lee granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve. No official evidence supports Sexton's claim that Carruthers purposely dehydrated himself before the execution attempt.

TRUMP WAR ON LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

Trump uses anti-trans slur against Democratic Senate candidate in South Carolina

Raquel Coronell Uribe

Mon, October 5, 2026 


Democratic Senate candidate Annie Andrews speaks at the Spratt Issues Conference in Florence, S.C., on Aug. 22. (Sean Rayford / Getty)

President Donald Trump used an anti-trans slur Monday to attack the Democratic nominee for the Senate in South Carolina as he urged voters to back Republican Sen. Darline Graham.

In a Truth Social post, Trump referred to Democratic candidate Annie Andrews three times as "trannie." He said Andrews, who is not transgender, is "not for South Carolina."

"And South Carolina must show, in the upcoming Election, that it is not for her," Trump added

Andrews responded by largely ignoring the insult, saying in a statement first shared with NBC News that she will "work with anyone to put South Carolina first."

"As a mom and a pediatrician, I'm in this race to fight for my patients, my three kids, and South Carolina," Andrews said, adding that "lowering costs and making life better for families across our state is going to take all of us working together."

"If you care more about your bills than the politics in Washington, this campaign is for you," she said.

Graham's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the post by Trump, who often uses insulting nicknames for politicians and officials he dislikes.

Reached for comment on why Trump used the slur, the White House referred NBC News to his social media post.

The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, blasted Trump's remarks, calling them "the sad, disgusting, pathetic diatribes of a lame duck president with record-low approvals."

"So low, in fact, he's having to campaign in deep red territory in a desperate attempt to shore up support ahead of the midterms," Ramiro Sarmiento, a spokesperson for the organization, said in a statement.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., condemned Trump's words Monday night, calling his attacks on Andrews "despicable."

"Annie Andrews is a mom and pediatrician who's always put her community first — and she's exactly who South Carolina needs representing them in the Senate," Schumer said on X.

Andrews, a physician, has previously said she does not support gender-affirming surgery for minors or transgender athletes' participating in women's sports.

Former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, a Republican, criticized the president for his attack on Andrews, asking voters to "reject politics based on division and hate."

"This is abhorrent. Elections don't have to be about cruelty and lies. South Carolina deserves better," Beasley wrote Monday night on X.

Graham is running to keep her seat after Gov. Henry McMaster appointed her to fill her late brother's seat after Lindsey Graham died in July.

Graham won the Republican primary in a runoff against Rep. Ralph Norman by nearly 5 percentage points. She has leaned heavily on Trump's endorsement to make her case to South Carolina.

While South Carolina has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly three decades, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted its rating of the race toward Democrats last month, moving it from "Solid Republican" to "Likely Republican."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Student protests erupt at Cornell over mishandling of gang-rape allegations

Sam Levin, Keely Aouga and Edward Helmore
Mon, October 5, 2026 
THE GUARDIAN

Thousands of students and faculty gathered for a demonstration at Cornell.Photograph: Olga Fedorova/EPA

Mass protests erupted at Cornell University on Monday, with students criticizing officials' handling of gang-rape allegations, demanding the president's resignation and painting "SMASH THE PATRIARCHY" on an administration building.

Thousands of students and faculty gathered for a demonstration, sparked by the high-profile case of a former student known as Jane Doe, who said in a recent lawsuit that she was plied with drugs and raped at a fraternity house in 2024. The case has prompted international outrage and intense scrutiny of college fraternities and sexual violence on US campuses.

Protesters shouted, "Ban the frats" and held signs saying, "At Cornell, rapists are safer than women" and "Stop rape culture." Some demonstrators directed their anger at Michael Kotlikoff, Cornell's president, arguing he had failed to keep students safe and chanting, "Kotlikoff, resign!"

The demonstration took place after some students had smashed a glass door at the entrance of Day Hall, a building that houses the president's office, and painted messages on the facade at approximately 3am on Monday, the Cornell Daily Sun reported.

The messages in red paint read "SMASH THE PATRIARCHY" and "AT CORNELL RAPISTS ARE PROTECTED PROTESTORS ARE EXPELLED". The security camera above one of the messages was also painted over.

The students who graffitied the building said in a statement to the student newspaper that they were protesting "the global systems of power that allowed this to happen in the first place".

Related: Before Cornell turmoil, successive US administrations seesawed in attitudes towards campus assaults

"We wanted to ensure that Day Hall, the center of Cornell's administrative function, was not able to continue business as usual," the statement added. The students' painted message was a reference to arguments that campus officials had treated pro-Palestine protesters more harshly than students accused of sexual misconduct, with four student demonstrators suspended in 2024, according to the Cornell Daily Sun.

Kyle Kimball, a Cornell spokesperson, condemned vandalism in a statement on Monday.

"We understand the frustration and strong emotions being expressed across our community. Those concerns deserve to be heard, but damaging property is not the answer," Kimball said. "We are investigating the vandalism at Day Hall and will address it in accordance with University policy and applicable law."

The student activists defended their actions in a manifesto obtained by the student publication. "We reject the dogma that would condemn our actions this morning as violent while excusing rape," they wrote. "Property damage is not violent; condoning rape is."

The demonstrations escalated as Cornell faces widespread backlash for its handling of Jane Doe's case, with critics saying the university had been too lenient with the accused men and had failed the victim.

According to lawyers for Jane Doe, who filed a civil lawsuit against the university and her alleged attackers earlier in September, only two members of the Chi Phi fraternity were expelled after the October 2024 incident, in which she said she was repeatedly raped over the course of seven hours. Jane Doe dropped out of Cornell after the incident.

A third fraternity member, who had already graduated, was barred from the Cornell campus, the New York Times reported on Saturday. Two more were reportedly given suspensions and disciplinary probation.

Two other men, the outlet said, were ordered not to contact the sophomore and required to study sexual harassment, social media use and bystander intervention, and to write "reflection papers".

The lawsuit claimed that the seven fraternity members allegedly involved in the incident were "afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays to Cornell".

Related: Cornell University to take 'serious look' at fraternities after rape allegations

The university has said that claim does not accurately reflect what occurred. The accused men have denied all wrongdoing.

One student protester who addressed the crowd on Monday said: "Too often, we are met with silence, we are met with statements, we are met with procedures, but not enough support. How much does it take for our university to stand with survivors?"

And a professor, according to the AP, said to applause: "Rape should not be inevitable."

Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins county district attorney, who is also under fire for his office's handling of the original allegations, announced last week he was reopening the case. Van Houten said Jane Doe, who was 20 at the time of the alleged assault, presented allegations in her lawsuit that were "dramatically different" from the statement she gave to police two years ago. Jane Doe's attorney has pushed back on those claims and accused the DA of failing to do a thorough investigation after the incident.

Kathy Hochul, the New York governor, said on Thursday she was appointing Letitia James, the state's attorney general, as special prosecutor to investigate the alleged gang rape at Cornell University.

Kotlikoff, the university president under fire, addressed the case in a video message on Saturday, saying the school would take steps to prevent a similar situation in the ⁠future. That included "a serious look at the role of fraternities and sororities in campus life", Kotlikoff said.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

A crowd of students protests Cornell’s response to gang rape complaint


BY LEAH WILLINGHAM AND TASSANEE VEJPONGSA

AP
October 5, 2026

ITHACA, New York (AP) — Cornell students thronged a campus plaza to protest the university’s response to allegations of sexual assault at a fraternity house, and the school’s main administration building was splashed with graffiti and damaged overnight.

At a demonstration that overflowed the large space in front of the school’s student center, students, faculty members and others wore purple ribbons and held signs with such messages as “support survivors, expel rapists” and “Justice 4 every Jane Doe” — the name by which the woman who reported the assault is known in court papers. Other people watched from pathways, windows and a nearby hill.

“Too often, we are met with silence, we are met with statements, we are met with procedures, but not enough support,” student Athena Holloway told the crowd. “How much does it take for our university to stand with survivors?”

Hispanic studies professor Julia Chang added to applause: “Rape should not be inevitable.”

Calls for Cornell president’s resignation

Speakers faulted fraternities, the university trustees and Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff, saying he and his administration have prioritized protecting the university’s reputation over students’ safety.

“Kotlikoff, resign!” demonstrators chanted, among other slogans, as they marched to the damaged administration building to present a list of demands. They included changes to how the student code of conduct defines sexual consent, an overhaul of the student discipline system and expulsions or degree revocations for all students involved in the alleged 2024 assault of the woman known as Jane Doe, among other things.

The woman’s account of being sexually assaulted by several fraternity brothers has made clear, on and beyond campus, that “for all the strong feelings about sexual assault, .... we do not do enough to prevent it, nor to support survivors after it happens,” student Madeline Gage said.

The group began disbanding with chants including “ban the frats!”

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Graffiti and broken glass at an administration building

The Ivy League school has been trying to quell a firestorm over its handling of the alleged 2024 gang rape. Early Monday, the university found signs of the anger on the very walls of its administrative headquarters.

Holes were knocked into one of the building’s glass doors, and the walls beside them were marked with red-painted messages condemning patriarchy and the Ivy League school’s handling of sexual assaults, news media photos showed. Later Monday, the graffiti was removed and the door was boarded up.

Cornell spokesperson Kyle Kimball said in a statement that the university was investigating and that “damaging property is not the answer” to Cornellians’ “frustration and strong emotions.” Campus police referred questions to his office, which declined to provide more detail on the incident.

Jane Doe alleges that she was sexually assaulted by multiple Chi Phi fraternity members in October 2024 after being pressured into drinking and taking drugs. She was a Cornell student at the time.

The woman recently sued the university, seven former students, the fraternity and others. Her lawsuit said that she became fully incapacitated as fraternity members assaulted her, and that one man sent others a message inviting them to participate

“I felt like bait. I felt like lions around me. It just was a totally debilitating place to be in,” she told Cornell investigators last year, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press.

Lawyers for two of the former students denied they participated in a sexual assault. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach the other men or their representatives have been unsuccessful. Court records show that some of the accused students, when interviewed by Cornell investigators, described the sexual activity as consensual.

Shortly before she went to Cornell police in November 2024, Jane Doe recorded a phone call with one of the men she says raped her. ABC News broadcast portions of that call Monday, containing only what it said was his voice, and recounted other parts of the conversation in writing.

“What y’all did would be classified as gang rape,” she told him at one point, according to the network, which said she had provided the recording to the university.

Students are demanding transparency, accountability

The suit has drawn national attention to what Cornell, its police force and the local district attorney did after she told the campus police in November 2024 she “can say with 100% confidence I was raped.”

No criminal charges have been filed. The Chi Phi chapter at Cornell was shut down, and the Ivy League university has said it expelled some students and suspended others. In a statement last week, the administration bristled about the “false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case.”

Students, however, have demanded more accountability and transparency, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has said Jane Doe was “failed by people and institutions” including the Cornell police and local District Attorney Matthew Van Houten.

Hochul appointed the state attorney general last week to take over a criminal investigation that Van Houten had reopened days earlier, and the governor called for an independent review of Cornell’s handling of the matter.

After the week’s developments, Kotlikoff released an apologetic video Saturday, saying that Jane Doe’s account “raises heartbreaking and troubling issues about sexual assault, dehumanization and aspects of party culture, alcohol and drug use.”

Kotlikoff reaffirmed his support for an independent review of the university’s actions and vowed more transparency and a commitment to “finding the answers our community deserves.”

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.

TASSANEE VEJPONGSA
Vejpongsa is a video journalist for The Associated Press in Philadelphia. She was previously based in Taipei and Bangkok.

Cornell Frat Brothers Reportedly Did ‘Damage Control’ After Gang Rape Allegations

Katherine Schaffstall
Mon, October 5, 2026 

USWEEKLY


Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Key takeaways

Chi Phi fraternity brothers at Cornell University allegedly tried to contain gang rape allegations made against them by the victim, who went from believing the encounters were consensual to describing them as a "gang rape" on a phone call.


Several of the Chi Phi fraternity brothers involved in the Cornell University scandal allegedly tried to contain the gang rape allegations made against them, according to new phone calls released from the investigation.

After a student went to campus police to report that she had been gang raped by seven members of Chi Phi in October 2024, several of the fraternity brothers allegedly tried to do "damage control" to make sure the victim was "not upset about the situation," according to school records reviewed by ABC News.

The fraternity brothers' efforts came as the victim – identified as Jane Doe to protect her privacy – went from believing the sexual encounters were consensual to describing the situation as a "gang rape" on a phone call.

"The only way for me to heal is to know what happened," the woman, who was a junior at the time of the incident, told one of her alleged attackers during a phone call that took place before she reported the incident to police on November 8, 2024. "That's why I'm trying to just piece it together, you know, like I'm just like confused."

Cornell University Insists There Were 'Consequential Punishments' After Alleged Gang Rape of Student

He then invited Doe to the fraternity house, according to the police report. (The fraternity brothers denied any wrongdoing and hve not been criminally charged in the case.)

After Doe reported the incident to Cornell police, he claimed he was too intoxicated to consent and suggested that Doe assaulted him, per school records.

Campus police spoke to many witnesses to piece together what happened, with one person stating that the fraternity brothers tried to ease Doe's concerns.

"They tried to contact [Jane] almost every day after it happened to, I guess, keep them on her good side and keep her happy and not upset about the situation," the victim's friend told campus authorities in May 2025, according to records viewed by ABC News.

Despite their efforts to deescalate Doe's concerns, she still went forward and reported the incident. The fraternity members then allegedly started working on their plan to cover up the incident, according to records.

"F***," one brother wrote in a group chat on November 8, 2024, after Doe went to campus police. "Should I call [Jane]?"

"Wait a bit for me and [Executive Board] to figure out what we're doing cuz there are a couple of other things going on," the fraternity's president responded, per the outlet. "When was the last time you spoke to [Jane]?"

The records also revealed that Doe stayed in touch with some of the men who allegedly assaulted her, and she even expressed concerns about her reputation and physical health in the aftermath of the attack.

"I will also say this is f***ing RUINING my life temporarily. My reputation is destroyed and I'm utterly ashamed. I'm f***ing pissed cause this many people shouldn't know and I feel like I know who some of the rats in the room were," she wrote to the alleged attacked after he invited her to the fraternity.

Two days after she reported the incident, Doe reportedly contacted three of the alleged attackers involved in the incident so they could discuss what had happened. She told them that she had gone to the emergency room and was going through therapy.

The View's Sunny Hostin Defends DA for Not Prosecuting Alleged Cornell Gang Rapists: 'No Way'

"If I just know what happened, then I can feel a little bit better and move on and maybe be able to stay at this school," Doe told the alleged attacker in a phone call, which she recorded and gave to police.

Doe said she sustained physical harm during the incident, and said she was struggling to finish the semester and could not understand how the events transpired.

"You did tell me you were sober, by the way," he said, per the recording. "You did, you said you hadn't been anywhere."

However, Doe insisted that his claim was "not true" and she "never would have said that."

Doe then asked how so many people ended up in the bedroom, and he responded, "The door was just unlocked…the party was sort of like crowded…there was nowhere else to go."

The alleged attacker did not mention the Snapchat messages that were sent to the fraternity's group chat, in which the members advertised "free p***y" in the room. "Like you can walk in and whip it out," he wrote to the group, per ABC News. "Boys come whip it out."

Also during the phone call, Doe told the alleged attacker that what "y'all did would be classified as gang rape."

"It's possible that both of us like remember this and it's not true," he said later on in the call.

"I don't think that that's true. No, no, because I remember looking up and being like that is too many people," she responded.

Hours after Doe went to police, Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity was suspended and an investigation was launched. The school ultimately suspended two of the men that allegedly assaulted her. However, the five others that she claimed assaulted her were only suspended. No one has been pressed with criminal charges.

Nearly two years after the incident, Doe filed a civil complaint and Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced his office was reopening an investigation into the allegations.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Is it her plane? New Amelia Earhart expedition begins

Phaedra Trethan, USA TODAY
 Mon, October 5, 2026 



An expedition began on Oct. 2 as researchers left Purdue University on a mission that hopes to find the lost plane of aviator Amelia Earhart, who went missing along with her navigator Fred Noonan in 1937.

Three members of the Taraia Object expedition, a joint effort among the Indiana-based university, Purdue's Archaeological Legacy Institute and the Purdue Research Foundation, then traveled from Los Angeles to meet others in the 17-person team. Next, they'll travel to Fiji and Kiribati in the South Pacific in search of the Lockheed Electra 10-E flown by Earhart nearly 90 years ago.

On Oct. 7, the entire group will travel to Nikumaroro, a remote Pacific island between Australia and Hawaii, where a popular theory suggests Earhart and Noonan landed after failing to complete their journey to circle the globe at the equator.



Amelia Earhart stands June 14, 1928 in front of her bi-plane called "Friendship" in Newfoundland. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly the Atlantic as a passenger, in 1928, and followed this by a solo flight in 1932. In 1935 she flew solo from Hawaii to Califofrnia. In 1937, with Fred Noonan, they set out to fly round the world, but their plane was lost over the Pacific. (Getty Images, Getty Images)

The Lockheed Electra 'Flying Laboratory', piloted by American aviator Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan flies over the Golden Gate bridge in Oakland, California, at the start of a planned round-the-world flight, 17th March 1937. The trip had to be abandoned after the plane crashed on take off in Hawaii. A subsequent attempt ended when the aviators went missing in the Pacific and the pair were eventually presumed dead. (Keystone, Getty Images)

US aviator Amelia Earhart speaks with her navigator, Fred Noonan (R, dark shirt) and technicians near her Lockheed L10 Electra aircraft in July 1937 in Singapore, before their last flight across the Pacific during which she disappeared. US Amelia Earhart was a aviation pioneer and writer, the first woman to fly the Atlantic as a passenger, in 1928, and the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. She disappeared over the Pacific on July 2, 1937 with Fred Noonan, while they were undertaking a world tour. (-, AFP via Getty Images)


"I am feeling very confident about this," lead archaeologist Richard Pettigrew previously told USA TODAY. "I'm pumped."

The search, one of countless efforts to locate the lost aviator since her disappearance, centers around the "Taraia object," a visual anomaly discovered through satellite imagery in the island's lagoon.


The search through the years: Amelia Earhart vanished in 1937. New evidence could find her plane.

The mission, originally set for October 2025, was delayed due to weather conditions. Permission from Kiribati's government was also a factor; Kiribati is the island nation that controls Nikumaroro, and has now allowed the mission to proceed.

"My conscious focus is on the execution of our fieldwork plan," Richard Pettigrew, executive director of the Purdue Archaeological Legacy Institute, said in a news release a few weeks before the expedition. "...I feel truly lucky to be in a position to possibly solve one of the greatest mysteries of all time, whether or not that happens."
What happened to Amelia Earhart?

Earhart was already a famed pilot when she and Noonan set out from Lae, Papua New Guinea, toward Howland Island, where a U.S. Coast Guard cutter waited to refuel the Lockheed Electra 10-E. They'd begun their around-the-world journey on May 21, 1937 in Oakland, California, but disappeared on July 2 as they neared the end of the trip, which would have been the first time anyone had flown around the world at the equator.

Photo of pilot Amelia Earhart standing by her plane circa 1935.

Earhart messaged the Coast Guard to say she was almost out of fuel, but neither she nor Noonan knew Morse code, so there was no two-way contact, according to the Smithsonian Institution's analysis of government records of the incident.

Nikumaroro is about 400 miles southeast of Howland Island, where Earhart and Noonan planned to land on the third-to-last leg of their attempt to circumnavigate the world around the equator. The U.S. government conducted what was at the time its largest-ever search for a lost aircraft, but after two weeks, with no trace of either Earhart, Noonan or their plane, the search ended. On Jan. 5, 1939, both were declared legally dead.

Steve Schultz, Purdue University senior vice president and general counsel, and Richard Pettigrew, archeologist and executive director of the Archeological Legacy Institute, pose for a photograph. The two are part of an expedition seeking to locate Amelia Earhart's long lost plane.

One current theory is that Earhart and Noonan landed on Nikumaroro, but later died there. That theory is based on satellite imagery of the unidentified object in a lagoon on the island that came into view in 2015, as well as radio bearings that converge there, human bones discovered on the island that resemble Earhart's measurements and artifacts including a woman's shoe, a jar of freckle cream and a medicine vial that date to the 1930s, according to the Purdue Research Foundation.

'The discovery of a lifetime'

The expedition will start with video and still images of the site before any work on the site begins, followed by remote magnetometer and sonar. The team will then use an underwater hydraulic dredge to expose the object so it can be identified, and a walk-over survey of nearby land surfaces to check for any debris that might be washed up onshore.

Pettigrew called the possibility of finding and identifying Earhart's lost aircraft "the discovery of a lifetime," and confirming the wreckage of a plane "the smoking-gun proof" of theories that placed her and Noonan on Nikumaroro.

Amelia Earhart stands June 14, 1928 in front of her bi-plane called "Friendship" in Newfoundland. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly the Atlantic as a passenger, in 1928, and followed this by a solo flight in 1932. In 1935 she flew solo from Hawaii to Califofrnia. In 1937, with Fred Noonan, they set out to fly round the world, but their plane was lost over the Pacific.

What happens if Amelia Earhart's plane is found?

The Purdue Research Foundation originally funded the Lockheed Electra "Flying Laboratory" through the Amelia Earhart Fund for Aeronautical Research, so the institution hopes to return the plane or its remnants to Purdue, citing what it called "her intention to return it to the university."



The Purdue Archaeological Legacy Institute said in a news release that "additional work and further conversations with Kiribati would still be needed to make that a reality, but we feel we owe it to her legacy at Purdue to try to find a way to bring it home if we find it."

American pilot Amelia Earhart greeting the crowds after her solo Atlantic flight from the US to Londonderry, Hanworth Aerodrome, England, May 22, 1932.

In the same release, Purdue quoted a Kiribati official who said the island of Nikumaroro is "part of our heritage," and noted that nation's "responsibility to protect and better understand it."

"For Kiribati, Nikumaroro is much more than the possible setting for one of the world's great historical mysteries," said Mikarite Temari, head of Kiribati's Ministry of Line and Phoenix Islands Development. The nation is happy to work with Purdue, Temari added. "We also see this expedition as an opportunity to build a lasting partnership that can help support important priorities such as regenerative tourism, cultural preservation, education, advances in aviation technology and economic development for our people."

Contributing: Christopher Cann, USA TODAY

Phaedra Trethan is a national correspondent for USA TODAY, writing about history and Americana. Contact her by email at ptrethan@usatoday.com, on X @wordsbyphaedra, on BlueSky @byphaedra, or on Threads @by_phaedra.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY

A hidden asteroid crater under Oklahoma could be connected to one of Earth's major mass extinctions

Keith Cooper
Mon, October 5, 2026 

Key takeaways

An ancient crater buried underneath the Oklahoma town of Ames has been discovered to be almost 100 million years younger than previously thought, connecting it to the Late Devonian mass extinction event instead of the Ordovician Meteor Event.


An illustration of an asteroid heading towards Earth. | Credit: Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images

An ancient crater buried underneath the Oklahoma town of Ames has been discovered to be almost 100 million years younger than thought, consequently connecting it to one of the big five mass extinction events in Earth's history.

The crater, which spans about 10 miles (16 kilometers) in diameter, is buried under 9,000 feet (2.7 kilometers) of sedimentary rock and was not discovered until seismic readings revealed it in 1991.

Initial estimates of the crater's age came from the discovery of the tooth in a rock found within the impact site. It was identified as belonging to an ancient eel-like creature called a conodont, which existed during the middle of a geological period known as the Ordovician, in a rock found within the impact site. This period was marked by a dramatic bombardment of asteroids known as the Ordovician Meteor Event 467.5 million years ago, which left nearly two-dozen craters spread around the world, all within 30 degrees of the equator. This equatorial pattern suggests there may have been a ring of material from a broken-up asteroid encircling the Earth's equator.

However, a team led by Elizabeth Catlos of the University of Texas at Austin has arrived at a different conclusion, finding that the crater is 370 million years old instead. So rather than being part of the Ordovician Meteor Event, this new dating places it around the time of the Late Devonian mass extinction, also referred to as the Frasnian–Famennian boundary extinction.

"With this research, we're basically taking a major pawn out of the Ordovician Meteor Event and dumping it into the Frasnian–Famennian event and saying, 'this is where this impact belongs'," said Catlos in a statement.

The new evidence for the age of the Ames crater comes from zircon crystals. Zircon is a silicate mineral, and zircon crystals can be dated by analyzing the amount of uranium and lead contained within them. When zircon crystals form they contain uranium and thorium, but the formation process pushes out lead atoms. A newly formed zircon crystal therefore contains no lead, but over time uranium radioisotopes decay into lead atoms, so the more lead a zircon crystal contains, the older it is.

A geological map of the Ames crater, showing the different kinds of rock and the locations where fossil fuels are being mined. | Credit: Catlos et al

The pressure of the impact that gouged out the Ames crater would have formed new zircons. Working with a team at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Catlos' group were able to image the zircon crystals using cathodoluminescence and electron backscatter diffraction. Cathodoluminescence bombards materials with electrons, which causes materials to emit photons at different wavelengths depending upon the material's composition. Electron backscatter diffraction, on the other hand, is a technique that uses a scanning electron microscope to study how electrons are diffracted at different angles by different atoms.



"No matter what technique we used, it was coming back to this younger signal," said Catlos.

So what about the fossil conodont teeth? The teeth were probably in the rock a long time before the impact, and just got jumbled in the violence that formed the crater.

While the impact alone was not big enough to cause a mass extinction, it may have contributed. Other possible causes of the extinction include a reduction in oxygen, super-volcanism or a nearby supernova, or possibly all these events operating in tandem.

When the impact occurred 370 million years ago, what is now Oklahoma was submerged beneath a shallow sea, which is how the 1.6 miles (2.7 kilometers) of sedimentary rock that today covers the crater was laid down. The impact also fractured the Earth's crust beneath it, and these fractures have allowed oil and natural gas to seep up. Wells struck oil three kilometers down inside the crater and since 1991 it has produced 17.4 million barrels of oil and a volume of 79.5 billion cubic feet (2.25 billion cubic meters) of natural gas.

Danny Stockli, who is the Dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin and a co-author of the research, is effusive in his praise of using zircon crystals to date the ages of craters.

"These small crystals allow us to go back in time and learn about the major changes to Earth's ancient landscapes," said Stockli. "It would be great to do this for more of the meteor impact sites across the continent so we could get a more accurate timeline for these major events."

The findings were published in July in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.

Off the coast of Canada, you won't see coral reefs — you'll see reefs made of actual glass

You know coral reefs, but have you heard of glass reefs?

Jacqueline Kehoe Creator•Follow
Updated Mon, October 5, 2026


A digital reconstruction of the Anji Biota, a diverse glass sponge reef from the Ordovician of China (Wikimedia Commons)


When most of us picture a reef, we picture the tropics: bathtub-warm turquoise water, clownfish, and coral in every color of the crayon box.

But off the coast of British Columbia, hundreds of feet down in cold, dark water, there's another kind of reef entirely. It's built by animals with skeletons made of glass. For decades, scientists thought reefs like these had vanished from Earth tens of millions of years ago.

They were wrong. Welcome to what conservationists call the "Sea of Glass."

What are glass reefs?

Glass reefs, or glass sponge reefs to use their full name, are built by glass sponges. These are deep-sea animals whose skeletons are made of silica: silicon dioxide, essentially the same stuff as window glass. The difference is that the sponges make it themselves.

And yes, sponges are animals. Glass sponges are rigid, lacy, and startlingly delicate. They feed by pumping seawater through their bodies and filtering out bacteria, and they're very good at it. One University of British Columbia study found they remove nearly 80% of the microbes and particles from the water passing through them.

Only a few species build glass reefs, and they do it the same way corals do. New sponges grow on the skeletons of old ones, generation after generation, adding just a few centimeters a year.

Given enough time, that adds up. The biggest known reef complex, in B.C.'s Hecate Strait, has been growing for more than 9,000 years. Parts of it stand around 80 feet tall, roughly the height of an eight-story building. It covers an area about the size of Manhattan, some 650 feet below the surface.

The discovery of glass reefs stunned scientists

During the age of dinosaurs, glass sponge reefs were everywhere. They stretched across the Tethys, an ancient ocean, and may have been the largest reef systems in Earth's history. Their fossilized remains still form rock formations across Spain, France, Germany and Romania.

But living glass reefs seemed to have disappeared around 40 million years ago. As far as science knew, they existed only as fossils.

Then, in the mid-1980s, Geological Survey of Canada scientists were mapping the seafloor off northern B.C. and kept finding strange mounds and ridges. Kim Conway, one of the geologists on those expeditions, has said it took a couple of years to figure out what they were. Every one of those features turned out to be a reef built by the same group of sponges. The discovery was confirmed in 1987.

One researcher compared it to finding a herd of dinosaurs still roaming on land. (Wow.)
Why glass reefs are so rare, and how you can see one

Glass sponges live in oceans all over the world. But they build reefs almost exclusively in the Pacific Northwest, overwhelmingly off B.C.

Scientists think the recipe is very specific. The sponges need cold water, doing best at about 43 to 48 degrees Fahrenheit. They also need plenty of nutrients and lots of dissolved silica, which rivers wash down from the region's mountains into the sea.

The reefs are also heartbreakingly fragile. Bottom-trawling nets and prawn traps can shatter structures that took thousands of years to build. Stirred-up sediment can clog the sponges' filter-feeding systems. Warming, acidifying oceans are a growing worry, too: a UBC lab study found both conditions weakened the sponges' skeletons and their ability to feed.

Canada made the Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound reefs a marine protected area in 2017. It has also closed a number of smaller reefs to bottom-contact fishing, but many reefs still lack permanent protection.

The good news is you don't need a submarine to see one. Howe Sound, a fjord about an hour northwest of Vancouver, is believed to be the only place in the world where glass sponge reefs grow shallow enough for recreational scuba divers. The reef off Gambier Island's Halkett Point starts around 80 feet down; dive charters out of Horseshoe Bay take experienced divers there.

Not a diver? Same. The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society's B.C. chapter has an online "Sea of Glass" story map. There's also a documentary, "Moonless Oasis," about Howe Sound's reefs.

However you see them, it's worth it. It isn't every day you get a glimpse of a world that was supposed to have ended 40 million years ago.

If you love nature as much as I do, I'd love if you could follow me on Yahoo Creators for more articles on our wild world. This shows the Yahoo team what their readers want — and the more brands that support the planet, the better.

Jacqueline Kehoe

Jacqueline Kehoe CreatorJacqueline is a travel, nature, and science writer based in Wisconsin. Follow her work on Yahoo Creators—or find it in the wild at publications like National Geographic, Smithsonian, Travel + Leisure, and more.

CRYPTOZOOLOGY

A Fish Hidden in a Museum Drawer for 150 Years Just Filled a 50-Million-Year Gap

Ashley Driggs
Mon, October 5, 2026


 Canva.com

Key takeaways

A fossil of a new coelacanth species, Macropoma gombessae, was discovered in a London museum drawer after being overlooked for over 150 years, filling a 50-million-year gap in the evolutionary history of coelacanths.

A single fossil, overlooked in a London museum for over a century, has upended what scientists thought they knew about an enduring creature of the deep. For more than 150 years, this specimen sat undisturbed amid countless other relics, its true value hidden until researchers took a closer look, armed with cutting-edge technology.

The fish in question is a coelacanth, a species so ancient and enigmatic that it earned the nickname "living fossil." Coelacanths are rare survivors, once believed wiped out alongside the dinosaurs. Yet the fossil in the Natural History Museum contained secrets that would illuminate a 50-million-year stretch of evolutionary history no one had expected to fill.

coelacanth

A Discovery Hiding in Plain Sight

The story began in the fossil halls of London, home to specimens collected before the light bulb was invented. When researchers revisited one coelacanth fossil from the Lower Cretaceous Gault Formation, using high-resolution scans and X-ray computed tomography, they found it wasn't just another ancient fish. The results revealed a new species: Macropoma gombessae.

This species is now the oldest known member of its genus. Its discovery addresses a crucial gap in the family tree of coelacanths, offering insight into how these prehistoric fish evolved into the creatures found near Africa's Comoros Islands today. For decades, evolutionary biologists puzzled over missing links in the coelacanth lineage. Here was one, hiding in a museum drawer all along.

The name "gombessae" reverberates with cultural memory. It pays tribute to the "Gombessa," which local Malagasy and Comorian communities have long used to describe coelacanths. The term means "inedible fish" or "worthless fish," a striking reminder that today's scientific treasures were once dismissed by those who lived alongside them.

Coelacanth on black background

Peering Inside with Modern Eyes

None of this would have come to light without the new imaging techniques now at paleontology's disposal. Instead of risking damage by cutting or drilling into the precious fossil, scientists used digital scans to reconstruct its bones down to the finest details.

X-ray computed tomography made it possible to see the inner structure of this ancient fish as never before, revealing features that connect it to both its Cretaceous relatives and modern coelacanths. For the researcher who first recognized the fossil's significance, the ability to digitally manipulate an object of such age and rarity was remarkable and transformative for the study of evolutionary history.

This approach is revolutionizing how museums operate. Once viewed as static storage rooms, natural history collections are being reimagined as research powerhouses, places where even centuries-old specimens can yield new discoveries as technology advances. Old fossils, it seems, still have new stories to tell.
Reshaping a Story of Survival

Perhaps no animal embodies resilience like the coelacanth. After disappearing from the fossil record more than 60 million years ago, its presumed extinction was upended in 1938, when a living specimen was hauled up off South Africa. The fish became a symbol of evolutionary stasis, seemingly unchanged by the passage of time and catastrophe

Latimeria or Coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae Smith), A living fossil, the oldest known living lineage of Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish and tetrapods).

But the identification of Macropoma gombessae reshapes this narrative. Rather than a tale frozen in evolutionary amber, the coelacanth's story is richer and more complex. The new fossil reveals subtle shifts and adaptations that bridge ancient and extant forms, showing that even so-called "living fossils" defy our expectations of biological change, or the lack thereof.

For those maintaining museum collections, the find highlights the ongoing value of these institutions. Generations may pass before a specimen's true importance emerges. But as research tools evolve, so too does our understanding of the living world's history, waiting quietly in the dark, dusty drawers of the past.

Beyond the Fossil Cabinet

The rediscovery of a single coelacanth fossil, hidden for so long, demonstrates how much is left that we do not know. As scientists revisit collections with new eyes and new tools, the boundaries of evolutionary history shift. Each specimen, old or new, offers another opportunity to see the natural world in greater detail and to appreciate the winding, unexpected paths life takes across millions of years.

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