October 2, 2026

Brittney Melton

up first newsletter writer

Good morning. California just became the 18th state to ban child marriage without exceptions, part of a growing global push to end the practice. Here’s the news we’re following:

Today’s top stories

Students walk on Cornell University’s campus.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A Cornell University sexual assault case that produced 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 district attorney. NPR confirmed the woman who reported the assault gave police a detailed account, including that she had been raped.

🎧 NPR’s Brian Mann tells Up First the case has shattered students’ trust in Cornell. Hundreds gathered Thursday night, some sobbing as they spoke. One student told Mann the woman at the center of the case “could have been any one of my friends or a classmate.”

Tennessee tried 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 lethal injection drug pentobarbital. Gov. Bill Lee has now paused executions for the remainder of his term and ordered an independent review of what went wrong.

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

The monthly jobs report will be released this morning. For many Americans, the math is getting harder: prices are up, wages aren’t keeping pace and borrowing costs more.

🎧 Forecasters expect today’s report to show that employers added 80,000 to 90,000 jobs in September, NPR’s Scott Horsley says. That would be slower than August but stronger than earlier in the summer. Horsley says wage growth is another key measure, and pay increases aren’t keeping pace with prices.

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

Local stories from WAMU 88.5 (edit station)

If you can't get to Munich for Oktoberfest, there are plenty of ways to celebrate right here in the D.C. region.

AP Photo/Matthias Schrader

Get Out There: Celebrating Oktoberfest around the D.C. region

This week on Get Out There, we're exploring the D.C. region's most festive Oktoberfest celebrations.

Newsletter continues after sponsor message

Today's listen

Journalist and director Rachel Szor and Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham both wearing collared black shirts. They are both seen from the mid chest up.

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 those systems allowed. Palestinian and international journalists have long documented that toll; the film brings testimony from inside the Israeli military system. Its title loosely translates to “collateral damage.” The film turns that abstraction back into human lives. NAZA opens in U.S. theaters this week after winning praise abroad, while in Israel it has drawn protests, accusations of treason and threats to revoke the filmmakers’ citizenship.

🎧 Morning Edition’s Leila Fadel speaks with filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor about what they learned and the backlash that followed. Listen to the full interview here.

Weekend picks

Sheryl Crow holding an electric guitar as she performs.

Jason Kempin/Getty Images for ACM

Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:

🍿 Movies: Forgotten Island follows childhood friends Jo and Raissa, who are unexpectedly transported to a magical island just before they are about to part ways.

📺 TV: The Spanish-language miniseries My Sad Dead follows an Argentinian doctor who can communicate with ghosts. Fresh Air critic John Powers describes it as a unique blend of creepiness, sarcastic humor and political anger, unlike anything else on TV.

📚 Books: Min Jin Lee's American Hagwon is the third installment in a planned four-novel series about the Korean diaspora. It explores the complexities of immigration, the fragile promise of America and the purpose of education.

🎵 Music: Now in her 60s, singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow says she has aged out of pop music. She describes her latest album, Pick You Up, as exploring questions many of us ask about our identity at this moment in humanity.

❓ Quiz: Bears, Beyoncé, and colleges. This week's news features a mix of serious headlines and lighter moments. Test your memory with this week's quiz.

Now is your moment.

Public media is our collective right to a free and independent press in action.

Our journalism is free of corporate or political influence — we’re accountable only to you, the public.

But a free press is only sustained if we all take action. Together, we decide whether this service will merely survive… or thrive. Join the community that makes this work possible by donating now.

Donate Now ➔

3 things to know before you go

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA's Crew-13 lift off Thursday from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

1

SpaceX launched four astronauts on NASA's Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station for a six-month stay before returning to Earth.

2

Google launched a refrigerator-sized satellite equipped with AI chips as part of Project Suncatcher, its effort to put AI data centers in space.

3

The Pearly Kings w