The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday it has found a potential source of the cyclosporiasis outbreak that was tied to lettuce over the summer.

The agency collected samples during its onsite inspections of Taylor Farms de Mexico facilities, it said.

Two samples tested positive for the parasite, Cyclospora, according to the FDA. One positive sample was from a tank that held outgoing wastewater from a processing facility, the agency said. The second positive sample was from a drainage ditch of an iceberg lettuce grower, it noted.

"While there is currently not enough evidence to conclusively determine how contamination occurred in this outbreak, the positive samples show that Cyclospora was present in the environment where lettuce was grown and processed,” the FDA wrote in an update on its website.

"This adds to the strong epidemiological data and traceback convergence supporting the link between this outbreak and recalled shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico," the update continued.

The FDA said its investigation has closed. Health officials say they are confident that all recalled lettuce associated with this outbreak is off the market.

In a statement, a Taylor Fresh Foods spokesperson said its facility in central Mexico remains closed as the company works with its research team to implement enhanced safety protocols.

"The independent grower where a positive sample was found is no longer part of our supplier program," the spokesperson said. "The sample FDA referenced came from discharged waste and sewer water outside of our processing facility. As FDA noted in its report, there is currently not enough evidence to conclusively determine how contamination occurred or how results for these samples relate to ongoing genotyping of clinical specimens."

The statement concluded: "We remain concerned for the people and families impacted by this outbreak. Millions of families rely on the safety of Taylor Farms produce and we take that responsibility seriously. We know trust is earned by what we do, and we will continue to learn, improve and take action to keep our food fresh and safe."

At least 12,883 people were infected with cyclosporiasis across 21 states after eating the recalled lettuce, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Thousands more cases were reported but health officials noted difficulties in tying infections to the recalled foods.

A total of 570 people were hospitalized and two people in Michigan died.

In mid-July, the FDA and the CDC announced they were investigating a multi-state outbreak of cyclosporiasis illnesses linked to shredded iceberg lettuce served at some Taco Bell restaurants.

The lettuce was supplied to Taco Bell by Taylor Farms and sourced from central Mexico.

Taylor Farms de Mexico issued a voluntary recall of all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico, with the recall affecting 27 states. The recalled products were distributed from June 29 through July 16 and have best-if-used-by dates up to Aug. 3.

Taco Bell said it is no longer using lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico at any of its restaurants.

“In my experience, people engage in political bomb-throwing when they're feeling insecure,” Cruz said in a phone interview Saturday. “So he's welcome to make whatever comments he likes. I'm going to keep focusing on the midterms and helping us win on Election Day in the next 30 days.”

Cruz’s comments came in response to an NBC News interview Thursday with Vance in which the vice president suggested Cruz was prematurely eyeing a White House run.

“It is really obvious to me that, at this very moment, Ted Cruz is running for president,” Vance said. “At this moment, I’m not. I’m trying to help elect Republicans. That’s what I’m going to keep on doing.”

Vance is widely viewed as the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, but Cruz has said he doesn’t believe Vance is the sure-fire nominee and suggested he might throw his own hat in the ring. “I’ll certainly be part of the discussion,” he told MS NOW in August.

On Saturday, Cruz told POLITICO he is dedicated to helping Republicans maintain control of both chambers of Congress. He pointed to his travel this cycle to campaign with candidates in Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina as well as in his home state of Texas as proof. He also said he has trips planned this month to campaign with Republicans in Alaska, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.

“Over the last 10 years, there's no Republican in the country who has campaigned for more Senate candidates, more House candidates, more gubernatorial candidates than I have, and this year will be no exception,” he said.

Cruz rattled off a list of a dozen GOP candidates he’s helped bolster in past years, including former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, U.S. House candidate Karoline Leavitt — and the vice president.

“Indeed, ironically, I spent a full day on the road with JD Vance, campaigning with him when he was running for Senate in Ohio [in 2022],” Cruz said. “I was very glad he won that race. I was very glad to help him.”

A spokesperson for Vance did not immediately respond to Cruz’s latest comments.

Vance campaigned in Texas and Florida this week and will hold a rally in Alaska on Monday.

The Florida Democrat may well have to test that argument.

He is confronting the same daunting predicament as other gubernatorial candidates around the country: Democrats are poised to enjoy their best midterm election in two decades, but they may fall short in a series of governors’ races because of the party’s warped donor culture.

Major Democratic contributors and small-dollar givers are flooding Senate hopefuls with cash, but in some of the most politically crucial states they could lose winnable gubernatorial races because they’re being so dramatically outspent by Republican nominees and their allied groups.

In former and future presidential battlegrounds Florida, Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada, the gubernatorial advertising gap is yawning. For the remainder of the campaign, Republicans are on track to outspend Democrats on television about 6-to-1 in Florida, more than 3-to-1 in Texas, 2.5-to-1 in Georgia, more than 2-to-1 in Wisconsin, and only slightly more narrowly in Ohio and Nevada.

That’s if current trends hold, as Democrats are largely booking week to week. So the difference in what’s already booked is even starker. As Kinetiq Political Insights data tells me, a single Republican, the Georgia gubernatorial nominee, has nearly as much advertising on the books there as Democrats do at the moment in all six of these races combined.

The public and private polling in these contests shows they’re competitive, and GOP strategists tell me that, were it not for their financial advantage, they’d lose most of them.

The Democratic Governors Association, with finite resources and 36 statehouse races on the ballot this year, is not on the air in Florida or Texas a month before the election. They’re spending in Ohio, Georgia and Nevada, where Republicans control the governorship, but are hampered in part because of their obligation to defend their own incumbents and hold those states with outgoing Democratic governors.

Liberal donors swooning over Senate races is not a new phenomenon. But it has accelerated in the age of Trump, and with decidedly mixed results.

Checking the president by controlling Congress is easy to grasp, short enough to fit on a bumper sticker with the right brevity. Nothing animates Democrats like confronting Trump, and flipping the House and Senate does as much.

Also, the attendant Washington-heavy focus of the media, along with social media algorithms that push what draws clicks, means most political hobbyists can tell you the name of big-state Senate candidates but not the party’s gubernatorial nominees (looking at you, Texas).

The problem is compounded for Democrats in capitals where they’re out of power, and have been for decades, because the transactional money from interests with business before state government will be overwhelmingly directed to the incumbent party.

Now, to be fair to Democratic donors, it’s easier to grasp what’s at stake for them and the country when they consider who will have congressional majorities. Particularly for Trump’s final two years, it’s understandable that that would mean more to, say, a Seattle-based contributor than who’s in the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee.

But the left should know better by now. The aftermath of 2020 and the unsubtle steps the president is taking now to seize election machinery should have underscored the importance of state and local elections, particularly for those officers counting or certifying election results.

More consequential, however, are the long-term implications of gubernatorial races this year.

If Democrats can win contests in red-tinted states next month, particularly across the Sun Belt, they’ll have a stronger infrastructure to be competitive in the 2028 presidential race. They would, in other words, have more paths to 270 electoral votes without living and dying with the fate of the blue-wall states across the Great Lakes.

“We don't have a Democratic president; we don't have the person who says, ‘If we win Florida, Texas and Georgia, the road to the White House is restructured,’” Jolly lamented. “There's nobody with that collective party interest to say, ‘We got to focus resources in these two or three states to restructure them in ’28.’ It's just a lot of individual actors at the top.”

When I brought up DGA Chair and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, whose presidential ambitions are no secret, Jolly said his victory would mean “not only does the road to the White House go through Florida, but the road to the Democratic nomination goes through Florida.”

And if his point wasn’t clear enough, he pointed out that Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois, Gavin Newsom of California and Wes Moore of Maryland had all contributed or were planning to come to Florida.

Most of the party’s most prominent figures, though, are focused on federal elections. Former President Barack Obama, for example, has raised money for House Democrats and has a fundraiser scheduled for Senate Democrats but hasn’t yet committed to help Democratic governors.

As large as the next race for the White House looms, 2030 will have a more lasting impact.

The census that year will reshape both the presidential and congressional map, moving electoral votes and House seats south because of population shifts. This will only make the Sun Belt more pivotal.

And if Democrats aren’t competitive there, they’ll not only have a hard time claiming the presidency, they’ll risk being shut out of power in the House in an era when they’ve struggled to win Senate seats in vast swaths of the country (they haven’t had more than 51 senators in their caucus for over a decade).

No, governors can’t automatically deliver states for their presidential nominees. But the chief executives can forge coalitions to demonstrate what's possible while also rebuilding the machinery in states such as Florida and Texas, where the party has atrophied. Neither state has elected a Democratic governor since the '90s. And while Georgia has elected a pair of promising senators, they’ve not elected a Democratic governor this century. And if they don’t this year, neither Sens. Raphael Warnock nor Jon Ossoff may be on the 2028 national ticket given that a Republican would appoint their Senate successor.

Most tangibly, Democratic governors can play a role in redistricting, whether it’s after the next census or in the seemingly perpetual arms race that is reapportionment today.

“If we can run point on the next redistricting, we can claw back four or six congressional seats,” Jolly told me, alluding to outgoing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) middecade redraw to suggest he’d do the same even before the census. “I call it the DeSantis Precedent: Why can't I draw new maps when I get there?"

Between just Florida, Texas and Georgia, there are currently 80 House seats. That number is expected to grow to 88 or 89 after the next census. Add in Arizona and Nevada, the two Western presidential battlegrounds of this era, and the future number could be as high as 114 — five Sun Belt states accounting for over a quarter of the entire House.

Arizona, where Gov. Katie Hobbs is seeking reelection, is likely to remain in Democratic hands — and will as long as Republicans keep nominating Kari Lakes rather than Doug Duceys. But Democrats may not have a better chance at flipping governorships in the rest of these states than this year.

To do so, they’ll have to overcome a mountain of money.

In Texas, that means state Rep. Gina Hinojosa overcoming a three-term incumbent, Gov. Greg Abbott, who entered the year with over $100 million on hand. In Georgia, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is confronting a wealthy executive, Rick Jackson, who has poured over $100 million of his own fortune into the race since the primary. And in Nevada, the gap isn’t quite as vast — but Gov. Joe Lombardo outraised Attorney General Aaron Ford about 5-to-1 in the first half of the year.

In the Midwest, Democrats are facing another self-funder in Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy, who can continue to write checks against Democrat Amy Acton, after former Sen. Sherrod Brown passed on the race in favor of another Senate bid, in part because, between national donors and super PACs, it's easier to finance. In Wisconsin, Republicans have been elevated by a sudden infusion of over $24 million from three donors. The flood of cash may not be enough to defeat Democrat David Crowley but could have downballot implications should Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany close the race to the infinitesimal margins that have marked Wisconsin elections in recent years.

“Even if he only loses narrowly, the flood of Republican money could keep the state Legislature in GOP hands, denying Democrats a once-in-a-generation shot at unified control of the Wisconsin state government and a chance to undo the GOP’s House gerrymander and address its intentionally restrictive voting laws before the next presidential race,” said former Wisconsin Democratic Chair Ben Wikler.

Back at The Floridian, Jolly conceded that part of his challenge is that Florida has, in the years after Obama carried it twice, taken on the reputation as fool’s gold for Democratic donors, much in the same way as Texas.

“We've had data for six months showing this race tied or us up, and people just struggle to accept the data because it’s Florida,” he said, as TV ads above the bar blared with political commercials. “It’s a lot of heartbreak for people.”

Jolly’s concern is that it’s getting late early — there’s no such thing as an Election Day in Florida. “I think 60% of the state has voted by Oct. 20,” he said.

But if Jolly, a former Republican House member who became a Democrat in the Trump era and whose accent evokes Matthew McConaughey, can narrow the spending gap this month, he may have a chance to spring an upset.

He’s running almost entirely on a mantra of being for housing, health care and education and against data centers.

Polls show him winning enough Republicans and unaffiliates to be close, vital in a state where Democratic registration has collapsed. And Jolly’s GOP opponent, Rep. Byron Donalds, recently took down his website’s Trump endorsement language, only to restore it after it was revealed, and Trump issued a barely veiled threat. (Stephen A. Smith, though, has surfaced on Donalds' mailers.)

Donalds also faces the challenge of overcoming a history of Black Republicans being rejected in gubernatorial and Senate races: No African American conservative has won either, without first being appointed, since Massachusetts Sen. Ed Brooke was reelected in 1972.

Jolly is careful about Donalds’ race and even made a point, at a Black church in Palm Beach County, of acknowledging to the audience that he grasped his opponent’s history-making potential.

That was before the verse-quoting Democrat, the son of a Baptist pastor, laid out a detailed indictment about Donalds' record on race-related issues and brought the audience to their feet by saying Florida schoolchildren must know about the state’s Rosewood massacre.

Jolly said he saw similarities between himself and James Talarico, the Senate candidate in Texas and another devout Christian Democrat.

To compete as a Democrat these days in Florida and Texas, it does take faith. But it also requires cash. And unless Jolly finds more of it, he may wind up coming up just short.

Isn’t the most likely scenario, I argued, that he benefits from an extraordinary Democratic year but ultimately loses by a percentage point and a half or so because the state has just become so Republican and the financial gap is so vast?

“It's always a possibility,” he conceded.

But, sipping his tea, Jolly said Trump’s crushing win here in 2024 didn’t tell the whole story and that a series of special elections pointed to considerable Democratic enthusiasm and Republican apathy.

His conclusion: “Donalds has spent over $80 million, and this race is tied, or we're ahead.”

A provocative, sexually suggestive ad by GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is drawing heat from his fellow Republicans while drawing millions of viewers online.

Two young women sit on a bed, with an LGBTQ+ flag in the background, with one urging the other to try a new experience.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” one woman says, and the other replies. “Don’t be nervous. It’s not that bad ... Just try it. Look, give me your hand. Close your eyes, and I’ll do all the work.”

She leads the hesitant woman’s hand to mark her ballot for Hilton rather than Democrat Xavier Becerra, the front-runner in the race, and says, “Now lick it,” referring to the mail ballot envelope.

Fellow Republicans as well as several Democrats denounced Hilton over the messaging.

Two members of Hilton’s GOP “Golden Ticket” on the Nov. 3 ballot lashed out about the ad’s content.

“I emphatically denounce the use of young women as a political tool,” Michael Gates, the Republican candidate for attorney general who has frequently appeared alongside Hilton at campaign events, wrote on X. “California families deserve better, and as AG, I will fight every day to protect our girls, young women, and parental rights.”

Sonja Shaw, who is running to be the next state superintendent of schools, castigated Hilton, the state Republican party and its chairwoman for promoting the ad, which had been viewed by nearly 5 million people as of Saturday afternoon.

“Shame on you ... for reposting and cheering this creepy, weird, disturbing garbage,” Shaw wrote on X. “This is a clear example of exactly why good people are walking away from the Republican Party. As a mother and someone who has fought to protect the innocence of children, this crosses a line. We have lost our way. Embarrassing.”

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), an openly gay member of Congress, and state Democratic Party chairman Rusty Hicks also condemned the ad.

“This is a bizarre and desperate ad from a person who has attacked the LGBTQ+ community and stands with Donald Trump,” Garcia said. “Hilton is losing and more interested in AI slop than actually talking about issues Californians care about.”

Hilton acknowledged the ad has provoked strong reactions, but it underscored the foundation of his campaign — that many Californians may be put off by his party affiliation but want change given the state’s myriad problems, such as growing unaffordability, that have taken place under a Democratic lock of every statewide office and the state Legislature.

“We’re just saying, you know, just try it,” he said in an interview. “It’s a provocative and humorous way of making a point, right? Which often the best communication does.”

He also said the ad does not conflict with his beliefs about restrictions on gender-affirming care and on youth sports because those would only apply to people who are not adults.

A spokesman for Becerra, who led Hilton 58% to 33% in a recent UC Berkeley/Los Angeles Times poll, was gleeful about the rift the ad was creating among Republicans.

“MAGA is melting down over Steve Hilton’s creepy ad because they’re finally seeing him for the sellout he really is, willing to abandon his own twisted values to get ahead,” said Jonathan Underland.

Read more: High cost of living tops voter concerns, Becerra remains front-runner in governor's race, new poll shows

However, some conservatives who were dismayed by the message stood by Hilton’s side.

Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, a Christian nationalist, called the ad “grotesque” and said it promoted lesbianism among young women, on a Facebook Live post Saturday. However, he said he still supports Hilton over Becerra. He did not respond to requests for comment.

Hilton is scheduled to speak on Monday to a chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBTQ group, at a brewery in Palm Desert. The organization did not respond to requests for comment.

Former California GOP chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson said that while the ad wasn’t for her, she understood the campaign’s desire to expand its reach to different voters.

“Does the ad speak to me? No. He’s not going after my vote. He already has my vote. He’s trying to think of new and creative ways to make people who wouldn’t normally feel like voting for a Republican feel safe to do so,” she said. “He’s going out of his comfort zone and going for people that wouldn’t normally feel comfortable voting for him.”

Californian Fred Karger, who made history in 2012 as the first openly gay person to run for president, had mixed views about the ad, calling it shrewd yet hypocritical. And he questioned its effectiveness.

“The audience that he’s targeting there — the hipster, young hipster, lesbian audience — probably has a 1% chance of voting for him,” Karger said. “So it’s kind of a long shot. But it is a clever ad.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

A father and son who worked at a Mississippi smoke shop were charged by federal prosecutors in connection with one of the two Ole Miss student deaths that took place last week.

U.S. Attorney Scott F. Leary for the Northern District of Mississippi announced Friday that a criminal complaint was filed against Yahya Mohamed Mosleh, 51, and Islam Yahya Mosleh, 18, on charges with possession with the intent to distribute controlled substances in connection with the death of Aidan Hamilton.

The father and son, who were arrested last week, worked at the smoke shop that allegedly sold illegal substances to Hamilton, investigators allege.

Hamilton, a freshman from Englewood, Colorado, was found dead on campus on Sept. 21, and investigators found "packages, some with missing tablets, of suspected kratom derivatives," according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

"The cause of death appeared to be consistent with a drug overdose," the U.S. attorney's office said.

An hour later, a second Ole Miss student, Robert Strang, a junior from Atlanta, was found dead in a different location, and investigators also found "packages of suspected kratom derivatives," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Strang's death was also consistent with a drug overdose, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Kratom products contain chemicals that can increase alertness, physical energy, and talkativeness. At higher doses, users may experience sedating effects.

The FDA has warned that kratom and especially concentrated synthetic 7-OH products can carry risks, including addiction, mental health concerns and other serious adverse effects.

Some jurisdictions in the country have banned the sale of kratom. Oxford, Mississippi, has banned the sale, possession and consumption of Kratom since 2019.

Advocates have called on the Food and Drug Administration for stricter regulations on the products and bans.

Toxicology reports on both deaths are still ongoing, according to investigators.

The Lafayette County Metro Narcotics Unit was able to track Hamilton's bank records and found that he made several purchases from Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store in Oxford, Mississippi, the federal criminal complaint said.

After an undercover informant was able to purchase pills that were advertised as 7 O Kratom pills, Lafayette County Metro Narcotics Unit officers executed a search warrant on Sept. 24 of the store and seized over 500 units of kratom, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Mississippi investigators arrested the father and son that day and charged them with possession of Schedule I controlled substances with intent to distribute.

Attorney information for the defendants wasn't immediately available.

The Lafayette County Metro Narcotics Unit also tracked Strang's financial records and found he made purchases at Express Mart #7, a gas station convenience store in Yalobusha County, according to the criminal complaint.

Officers were able to go to the store and purchase similar pills to the ones found and have sent them off to crime labs for analysis, the criminal complaint said.

No one from that business has been charged as of Friday.

The investigation is ongoing.

The Sunshine Protection Act passed the House in July, but it faces roadblocks in the Senate where some Republicans are strongly opposed. Proponents, including the White House, argue that the change would provide more daylight during the times that Americans are most active. Detractors said permanent daylight saving time would lead to darker and potentially more hazardous winter mornings when children will be waiting for school buses and parents will be driving to work in darkness.

It was a remarkable escalation on Trump's part of a longstanding fixation shared by both men — with Trump supporting making daylight saving time permanent, and Cotton vociferously opposed — at a time just weeks before the midterms, when Republicans would prefer that the president focus on talking about affordability issues and the party's achievements. Cotton is also up for reelection this November, although that race is not expected to be competitive.

Trump calls daylight saving time ‘depressing’

Daylight saving time is that period between spring and fall when clocks in most parts of the United States are set one hour ahead of standard time. Not all states observe it — and under the bill, states can opt out of the change if their respective legislatures act to do so before the bill’s enactment.

“It’s a lot of work for a lot of people, running around for two days, changing all the clocks in the house,” Trump told reporters as his left the White House on Saturday for a rally in Vandalia, Ohio. “It discombobulates everybody," he said.

Trump said the time change gives golfers less time on the greens and tennis players less time on the courts. He blamed Cotton for stopping the bill. “So, everyone in Arkansas, a State I love, and won 3 times, the last by by 34 points, tell Tom to, GET IT DONE! It will be appreciated by all,” Trump said on social media on Saturday morning, kicking off the fight.

Trump included a phone number with an Arkansas area code. The Associated Press called the number, but no one answered and the voicemail box was full.

Cotton, a member of Republican leadership, reiterated his opposition to permanent daylight saving time in a social media post of his own Saturday afternoon. He is not the only GOP senator who opposes the policy, though he has been among the most vocal opponents.

“No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” Cotton wrote. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”

The fight over changing the clock went on all Saturday

Trump promptly fired back in another post. “If Tom Cotton were putting Arkansas first, he would give them an extra hour of daylight and, more importantly, they wouldn’t have to run all over their houses, farms, work places, and everywhere else, twice a year, having to change their Clocks, and often forgetting to do so,” Trump said, adding that “that is really putting Arkansas FIRST.”

As his motorcade was rolling back to the White House from his golf course, Trump added that “a table full of very distinguished people just told me that they HATE, immediately after a mandatory time change, going home at night – and it’s DARK.”

“It’s depressing!" Trump continued. "One of the gentleman stated that, ‘I just hate going home in darkness.’ It’s also, in Crime Ridden Blue States, a lot more dangerous to be walking home in the dark!”

A 2025 poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that if forced to choose, most Americans would prefer to keep that extra hour of daylight in the evening. Only 12% of U.S. adults favor the current system of daylight saving time, which requires people in most states to change their clocks twice a year, while 47% oppose it and 40% are neutral.

Members of Congress have long been interested in the potential benefits and costs of daylight saving time since it was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942. The Senate passed a bill four years ago to make daylight saving time permanent, but it stalled in the House.

This is not the first time Trump has released personal information about a senator

While competing for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina described Trump as “unfit for office” after Trump denigrated the military service of Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Trump then released Graham’s personal cellphone number. That prompted a viral video in which the senator dramatically destroyed a series of flip phones.

Graham later became a close ally of Trump. In contrast, although they share many of the same policy positions, Trump and Cotton are not known to be close.

Cotton, one of the Republican Party's most prominent national security voices, has advocated for a more hawkish approach on Iran, particularly as Trump entertains pauses in military strikes amid the seven-month war. In Trump's first term, Cotton was a critic of the president's attempts at overhauling the nation's sentencing laws, calling the proposal a “jailbreak."

Earlier this year, Cotton had temporarily defied Trump's attempts at stalling the confirmation process for his own nominee for director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton. The president had wanted to ensure his interim pick for the intelligence job, Bill Pulte, would be able to serve in that role at least briefly when the former director, Tulsi Gabbard, left the job.

But the appointment of Pulte, who had no known national security credentials, drew bipartisan condemnation from Capitol Hill and Cotton had tried to expedite Clayton's confirmation process, which could have prevented Pulte from being installed as acting director.

But Trump ultimately ordered Clayton to not appear before Cotton's committee for his confirmation hearing, and Pulte served in the job for several weeks this summer. Clayton was eventually confirmed by the Senate in late July.

___

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.

Cornell University police spoke to witnesses and received anonymous tips about an alleged gang rape at a fraternity house in the first weeks of its investigation two years ago, but the local prosecutor did not review the additional information before deciding not to bring charges.

Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said he based his decision not to pursue charges on the accuser’s initial six-page statement given to police.

Investigators from the campus police department documented those witness interviews and other steps taken to determine whether Jane Doe, a 20-year-old woman who reported the incident, was the victim of sexual assault during a party at the Chi Phi house from Oct. 19 to 20, 2024, according police records obtained by NBC News.

Documents reviewed by NBC News offer the most thorough look to date at how police handled the allegations from Jane Doe, who last month filed a lawsuit against Cornell University and seven Chi Phi brothers who she alleges sexually assaulted her over the course of hours while she was under the influence of ketamine, alcohol and marijuana.

Van Houten, along with police and university officials, has come under intense fire for their handling of the matter. Jane Doe’s attorney has argued that she was failed by authorities who did not conduct a thorough investigation and who prejudged the events based on her earlier statement that she consented to parts of the night.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday announced the appointment of Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor to consider whether charges are appropriate.

“In what world does the district attorney not even interview her or anyone else involved, or even request the full transcript” of the victim’s interview, Hochul asked Friday at a news conference announcing James’s appointment.

On Nov. 25, 2024, a police investigator approached Van Houten’s office to tell them about interviews they’d done.

An investigator in Van Houten’s office, according to the documents, replied that “he and several [attorneys] at the District Attorney’s Office had read [Jane Doe’s] statement … [and] stated that they all agreed that, based on [Jane Doe’s] statement, criminal charges would not be pursued in this case.”

Van Houten defended his decision Monday and said that Jane Doe’s statement did not allege criminality. He also agreed to reopen his inquiry before that role was assigned to the attorney general.

When reached for comment by email Friday, Van Houten argued “there was nothing to review” in that discussion with police because the interviews flagged “were each of the frat members declining to speak on the advice of their attorney.”

Van Houten did not respond to a follow-up request asking whether he was told about interviews with other fraternity members in addition to tips from callers.

The records also show that police received a portion of a larger Snapchat thread where one member of the group announced there was “free p----” in the alumni room of the house, where Jane Doe engaged in what she said was initially a consensual threesome.

“Similarly there was no material obtained by CUPD from Snapchat (what was provided came from a witness),” Van Houten added. “So again nothing to review.”

It was unclear whether Van Houten was aware that on Nov. 26, 2024, police made a request to Snapchat for a more complete data history.

That request was answered on Dec. 23, when police said they obtained 1,665 pieces of data from five Snapchat accounts.

“After reviewing all of the data returned from Snapchat, there appeared to be only 3 snapchats that included [Jane Doe] or mentioned this incident,” a CUPD investigator wrote. “None of these 3 snapchats show anything that can be construed as being criminal in nature. No further action taken.”

Jane Doe was only notified by Cornell police about the district attorney’s Nov. 25 determination not to pursue charges nearly two months later on, Jan. 21, 2025.

Van Houten added that his office had “no part in the timing” of conveying his decision to Jane Doe, who was never interviewed by his office.

Thomas Giuffra, the attorney representing Jane Doe, learned about that delay from NBC News’ request for comment Friday. He said that his client — during that two-month window — believed “they were still investigating.”

“I was unaware that they had made the decision to not prosecute in November,” Giuffra said. “If so, that is worse than I thought.”

On Nov. 7, 2024, two weeks after the incident at Chi Phi, Jane Doe submitted to a sexual assault examination and evidence collection process, according to the police records. She had gone to the university health center shortly after the alleged assault to get treatment for a urinary tract infection, but was not offered a rape kit at the time, Giuffra said. He called it “the first failure post assault when she was trying to get help.” Cornell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The attorney called it “a code or cry for help to say something bad happened” when Jane Doe told them that she “has a UTI of a traumatic origin.” Giuffra said the medical staff should have asked her: “What kind of trauma do you think caused this UTI?”

He noted that had the health center referred Jane Doe to an outside facility for an examination, there might have been recoverable DNA because she was there within 48 hours.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. The hotline, run by the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN), can put you in contact with your local rape crisis center. You can also access RAINN’s online chat service at rainn.org/get-help.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will leave this month. In a statement, he said resigning was "in the best interest of Tennesseans" while an independent review examines what happened Wednesday, when Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital.

Strada said he still believes the state "carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol."

Pike survived two doses of lethal injection drugs in Tennessee's death chamber Wednesday and was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996, was unconscious, intubated and breathing with help from a ventilator at a Nashville-area hospital as of Thursday night, her lawyers said in a court filing Friday. Hospital staff were trying to save her life and flush the pentobarbital from her system, the filing said.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has paused executions in the state in response.

Pike, 50, remained alive and snoring loudly after being given two doses of pentobarbital, her attorneys and other witnesses said. She was subsequently taken to a hospital.

Both of Pike's arms were "swollen, burned, and blistered" when she arrived at the hospital, her lawyers wrote. They believe the IV lines were placed incorrectly or her veins burst, so that some or all of the drug went into the tissue of her arms instead of her bloodstream.

The filing asks a state court to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve all evidence from the execution attempt.

"Last night was not just inefficient, it was cruel, and it was torturous," attorney Randy Spivey said Thursday. "It was also predictable."

Spivey said Pike's legal team warned the state of Tennessee and the courts that her medical condition of thrombocytosis "would cause her to suffer an agonizing death." They said it could increase clotting and pain during the execution process and that her veins are difficult to access. Pike's attorneys said the state and the court dismissed their client's concerns.

"She was not seeking to delay her execution," attorney Stephen Ferrell told reporters Thursday. "She was seeking to have that execution performed humanely and as quickly and as painlessly as possible."

Lee ordered "a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred" and said that another scheduled execution later this year had been paused.

"There are very few answers this morning. It's very early," Lee told reporters Thursday morning. "There are a lot of questions. The people of our state deserve to have those questions answered.

"This is a tragedy. There is no one who wanted what happened last night to happen. It's deeply disturbing to me that this has happened in this state."

Pike's attorneys said Thursday that the governor's independent review doesn't go far enough after being in solitary confinement for more than 20 years and the botched execution attempt.

"Christa has endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty," Spivey said. "The governor must commute Christa's sentence now."

Spivey said the execution team tried to establish an IV line for over an hour and that he counted at least seven needles used in her left arm alone, one of which appeared to be bent when it was pulled after an unsuccessful attempt.

May Martinez, the mother of Pike's victim, Colleen Slemmer, told NBC News the execution attempt had been a "mess," adding, "They didn't say anything, and then, all of a sudden, they asked all the victims to leave. We didn't know anything until we got up to the office and saw the commissioner. And he said that it didn't work ... and she's on her way to the hospital."

In a statement posted on Facebook, Sen. Marsha Blackburn called for the state to return to the electric chair as a means of execution. "This situation is tragic," she said. "Christa Pike should have been executed long ago. Now, this botched process is extending the pain for the family of Colleen Slemmer. While there should be a thorough review of what happened and why the process failed, the answer is simple: bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly."

Lee said he had paused another execution scheduled for Dec. 3 this year. "Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the state's most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective," he said.

What happens next?

Tennessee officials have not said whether they will try to execute Pike again, or explained what went wrong.

Her condition could complicate any future attempt. Under Supreme Court precedent, a person can't be executed unless they have a "rational understanding" of why they are being put to death, the New York Times reported. Dr. Joel Zivot, an Emory University anesthesiologist retained by Pike's defense team, told the BBC it is "very possible" she suffered a brain injury because resuscitation was delayed.

Pike's lawyers have asked Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison. Lee had denied her clemency before the execution attempt.

President Trump questioned how the execution could have failed, telling reporters it "shouldn't be very difficult," according to AFP. United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk urged Tennessee not to try again.

What happened during the execution attempt?

Pike had been scheduled for execution at 10 a.m. Wednesday for killing Slemmer in 1995, at the age of 18. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

An appeals court stopped the lethal injection just an hour before it was to start, a stay that was subsequently overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Media witnesses said officials raised the curtains to the execution chamber at 7:27 p.m., showing Pike strapped to a gurney. "I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that is in love," she said in her "last" words.

However, Pike remained conscious after the first dose. Nashville Banner reporter Steven Hale said she lifted her head off the gurney at 7:54 p.m. She also reportedly asked prison officials if her arm was supposed to feel that way.

Tori Gessner, a journalist with WKRN News 2 in Nashville, said Pike was seen pointing at her arm and asking, "Does this happen like that?"

By 8:26 p.m., witnesses reported that the second dose of pentobarbital had been administered.

Pike continued to be heard snoring behind the closed curtain until the microphone was cut off at 8:53 p.m. At that time, an announcement was made to escort media witnesses out of the area.

Tennessee Department of Correction via AP

Pike's legal team said in a statement to the Tennessean newspaper on Wednesday night, "We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy."

Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said what Pike experienced was "singular and unparalleled."

Seven other people have survived medical problems caused by an execution team's failure to access a vein to administer lethal injection drugs, but no one has remained alive after receiving the drugs used in such executions, she said.

"I've witnessed, I believe, five executions in Tennessee," Gessner said. "Nothing about today was normal, typical at all, and the court delay was just the tip of the iceberg."

A source told NBC News that there was no medical oxygen or mask in the execution chamber, meaning they had to be brought in from a prison clinic. Some of the medication had worn off by the third time staff checked on Pike, the source added.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said that it "followed every step of the state's lawful, established execution protocol approved by the attorney general's office."

The state's execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered "if the inmate is not deceased" after the first set. It does not specify what happens if the subject is still alive after the second set.

Lawyers for Pike filed an emergency motion late Wednesday with the Tennessee Supreme Court seeking to immediately halt and stay the execution, saying she was in "unnecessary agony" and that the execution was violating her right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. They also filed motions in the Sixth Circuit and a district court.

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 after being convicted of first-degree murder of Colleen Slemmer the previous year on the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus.

According to legal documents filed with the Supreme Court, Pike "tortured, and killed Colleen Slemmer" on Jan. 12, 1995 because Pike "just felt mean that day." Pike is reported to have cut Colleen's throat multiple times and crushed her skull with a piece of asphalt.

Pike was also convicted of attempted first-degree murder after trying to strangle fellow inmate Patricia Jones in 2001.

Who is Frank Strada?

Strada took over Tennessee's Department of Correction in January 2023 after serving as deputy director of Arizona's prison system. In late 2024, he announced Tennessee would switch to a single execution drug, pentobarbital.

Death penalty lawyers told the Guardian that Pike's was the fifth "botched" execution Strada has overseen in two states since 2022. That count includes Tennessee's failed attempt to execute Tony Carruthers in May, when staff couldn't find a vein, and three 2022 executions in Arizona in which teams struggled to place IV lines.

Kit Thomas, a death row attorney, told the Guardian that training requirements for execution teams were loosened under Strada. "He reduced the training requirements and we've seen disastrous results," Thomas said.

A day before announcing the resignation, Lee defended the department, telling reporters, "So far as we know, the department of correction followed exactly the protocol that was outlined."

How common are botched executions?

According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), there were 75 botched lethal injections between 1982 and 2010. Compared to other methods, lethal injections face complications at a significantly higher rate. There have been a number of botched executions since 2010 that don't appear in the DPIC's tally.

Most of these were executions that went wrong in some way, but still ended in death. But there are seven known instances in which an execution failed entirely. One of them was earlier this year in Tennessee, when staff were unable to find a vein to administer the lethal drugs to inmate Tony Carruthers.

Tennessee Department of Correction via AP

More than 20 pharmaceutical companies have also refused to have their products used in executions, which has left states struggling to find the drugs they need to perform lethal injections. In some cases, they have experimented with unproven alternatives, with disastrous results.

An Oklahoma prisoner named Michael Lee Wilson said he could feel his "whole body burning" as he was being executed using a controversial drug cocktail in 2014. There have also been instances of prisoners gasping for air, heaving and coughing, convulsing and being subjected to "three hours of pain" before finally dying.

In April 2022, Tennessee called off the execution of Oscar Smith about an hour before it was scheduled to begin after the state discovered that its lethal injection drugs had not been properly tested. An independent investigation found that the state had repeatedly failed to follow its own drug-testing protocols between 2018 and 2022.

Tennessee then revised its protocol, resuming executions in May 2025 and using a single, lethal drug: pentobarbital.

There's also growing evidence that lethal injection may not provide a peaceful death even when everything appears to go right.

Difficulties with lethal injections have led some states to revive previously discarded execution methods. South Carolina carried out three executions by firing squad last year. There had been three total firing squad executions in the U.S. in the previous half-century combined.

There were 47 executions in 2025, according to the DPIC, higher than the recent average of fewer than 30 per year. These included the lethal injection of South Carolina inmate Marion Bowman, who received twice the intended drug dose, and Tennessee inmate Byron Black, who reportedly showed sustained cardiac activity for nearly two minutes after prison staff pronounced him dead.

Donald Trump’s White House expanded its press team Friday, tapping Real America’s Voice correspondent Beni Rae Harmony to be assistant press secretary.

The 24-year-old Harmony, who has served as Real America’s Voice’s White House correspondent since joining the conservative network in September 2025, confirmed her appointment on X Friday evening. TMZ reported earlier that day that she had been scooped up to work for Trump.

“I’m excited to announce that I am joining the Trump Administration as Asst. White House Press Secretary,” she wrote. “It’s been an honor to report, travel and cover this historic administration as Senior White House Correspondent for Real America’s Voice. My goal has always been to ask the questions that matter to real Americans and make sure their voices are heard.”

“I’m incredibly grateful to President Trump for this opportunity and his trust,” she continued. “I’m looking forward to this next chapter – serving the American people and continuing to fight for the American Dream. America First.”

Harmony’s addition to the press team comes as the White House has yet to find a replacement for Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down as White House press secretary at the end of August.

Trump broke the news on Truth Social at the time, writing, “Our wonderful White House Press Secretary, and one of my most trusted aides, Karoline Leavitt, will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect!”

Leavitt welcomed her second child, a daughter named Viviana “Vivi” Riccio, in May 2026.

As Trump went on, he praised Leavitt’s work in the administration and said she would remain involved in his political operation after leaving the White House, writing, “Karoline will continue on as one of my TOP outside Advisors, and will remain an influential voice within the Republican Party as we head into the Midterms.”

Leavitt, 27, became the youngest person to serve as White House press secretary when Trump returned to office in January 2025.

Following the news of her planned exit, Leavitt wrote on X, “The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life.”

Vice President JD Vance and other Trump administration officials have stepped in to give press briefings as the press secretary position remains vacant.

The post Trump Finds New Assistant Press Secretary in Real America’s Voice Correspondent appeared first on TheWrap.

In private conversations over recent weeks, senior Hill Republicans and GOP officials have nudged President Donald Trump’s team to start spending more on the Texas Senate race before it’s too late, according to three people with direct knowledge of those conversations, who were granted anonymity to discuss them.

Those fears escalated after audio leaked of Paxton privately trashing Trump’s midterm convention, with some worrying it could impact whether MAGA Inc. continues spending after a current wave of GOP ad bookings run out Oct. 12.

A Trump operative told POLITICO that MAGA Inc. and its affiliates are expected to spend near $45 million on direct mail, TV, and digital advertising in Texas through Oct. 12, an increase from its previous $20 million to boost Paxton. But they said the team is still assessing how much more money to send in the final weeks, in consultation with Senate Republicans and their top super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund.

The Trump operative, who like others in this article was granted anonymity to speak candidly, would not commit to any plans when asked by POLITICO.

With national Democrats starting to finally spend for their Senate nominee, James Talarico, after months of holding off, and as polling of the race tightens, Republicans expect the cost of salvaging Paxton’s campaign will only skyrocket. And, they’ve started to panic.

“It’s a five-alarm fire, no doubt,” one GOP senator said. “Can we put it out? I hope so.”

“This is a slow-moving car crash that we're witnessing right now,” a Republican strategist in the state said. “And there's a 75% chance that the ultimate result here will be catastrophic from a GOP Senate majority standpoint.”

A fourth Republican, a national operative, spoke to the urgency factor: “While it’s money we shouldn’t have needed to spend, it needs to be spent now,” said a national GOP operative, describing the state as more winnable than North Carolina, Georgia and potentially Ohio.

Even with a massive war chest, Texas is turning into a huge money sink for the GOP that senators worry could hurt them in other tight races as they work to defend deep-red states and try to flip blue seats in Michigan and New Hampshire.

Trump himself nodded to some of the concerns at a rally just across the Texas border in Oklahoma Thursday night, saying those voters aren’t the ones he’s concerned about.

“We’re worried about Michigan. We’re worried about Texas,” he told the crowd. “We’re worried about a few states.”The president is scheduled to visit Texas again next week for a rally in San Antonio next Wednesday.

SLF poured another $60 million into Texas on Wednesday, bringing its total expenditure there to a record-breaking $131 million. With the MAGA Inc. money and additional GOP ad reservations, the race is already on track to top $200 million from outside Republican groups hoping to save Paxton. Paxton’s own campaign recently announced a $20 million ad buy — one of the largest single media investments in a Texas Senate race.

Some Republicans want MAGA Inc. to take over spending for Paxton in Texas in the final few weeks, so SLF can focus its resources elsewhere. MAGA Inc. could also funnel money into SLF’s recently established Texas PAC. But, according to two people with direct knowledge of that matter, that hasn’t happened.

“At some point I think the people spending that money are going to have to make hard choices and figure out where the money can have the biggest impact, and certainly Texas is the most expensive,” Sen. John Cornyn, who lost to Trump-backed Paxton in the primary, recently told POLITICO.

SLF Executive Director Alex Latcham indicated to POLITICO the group will keep spending in Texas: “Senate Leadership Fund’s investment through Texas PAC affirms our commitment to maintaining the Republican majority and defeating Far-Left liberals like James Talarico.”

But Republicans’ money concerns have been complicated by Paxton himself. A growing number of GOP senators and top operatives have been stunned by what they described as unforced errors by the Texas Senate nominee. For example, he crossed one of the brightest red lines with Trump, telling a group of donors that “everybody’s numbers dropped” after the president’s GOP convention in Dallas last month, according to the audio leak reported by The New York Times.

“There seems to be very little strategy there,” said another Republican senator, granted anonymity to candidly discuss the race. “Sometimes, I think [Paxton] wants to lose.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump, while on his way to Texas to tour a motor facility on Thursday, told reporters he hadn’t talked to Paxton about his convention comments. Later, he told a crowd in Texas that “Ken Paxton was at my side more than anybody, and I have to always remember that because he can be a pain in the ass sometimes. I’ll be honest.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told reporters this week that he hadn’t seen the audio of Paxton trashing Trump’s convention. He acknowledged the stakes in his home state were high — and that the influx of cash is key.

“The reason that it is a serious race and a close race right now is that for several months the Democrats were massively outspending us,” he said, “and I am glad now that we are seeing money invested in communicating with the voters.”

The White House has attempted to reassure concerned senators, with chief of staff Susie Wiles telling Senate Republicans this week that there will be enough money available for competitive races in the final stretch, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting.

GOP operatives in both Michigan and New Hampshire said they feel that some of the cash being shoveled toward Texas should be going to their states instead. Most polls show Republicans running narrowly behind or neck and neck in both states, even though they hold a spending advantage on the airwaves there.

“We’re focusing so much on ‘we’ve got to put this money into Texas.’ Why? We’ve never had a problem in Texas. Let’s focus on taking back a seat we haven’t had in years,” said an ally of former Sen. John E. Sununu, who’s in a tight race against Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. “There are real chances in Michigan and New Hampshire,” said the person, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the dynamics.

Sununu’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Latcham, who heads SLF, said that “Texas PAC is a dedicated effort that will not take resources from our other ongoing investments across the Senate map.”

Recent polling still shows the Texas Senate race with a razor-thin margin. Most public polling over the past two months shows Talarico with an edge, though Paxton’s campaign released an internal poll Tuesday that shows Paxton leading by three points among likely voters, 48% to 45%.

“I don't think the needle has moved in the last month,” said one Texas Republican elected official, granted anonymity to speak frankly. “Unless it's the worst polling that's ever been done in political history, all this spend hasn't changed anything, and I think people have made their mind up."

Lisa Kashinsky, Samuel Benson, Alex Gangitano and Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report. 

The co-pilot of the FlyDubai plane who allegedly attacked the plane's captain and attempted to crash a flight bound for Israel on Wednesday is an Omani national who was previously suspended from flying by Oman Air after being identified as a security risk, according to senior intelligence and law enforcement officials.

Multiple sources familiar with the investigation identified the suspected attacker as 29-year-old Hamam Al Hammami.

The officials told ABC News that Al Hammami, while working as a co-pilot trainee for Oman Air in 2024, was found to be in possession of extremist materials. The suspect was allowed to continue working for the airline in an administrative role, the sources said.

United Arab Emirates Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi on Saturday said the aircraft's co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist act and that he began executing his plan during the flight by assaulting the pilot inside the cockpit using a crash axe and attempted to seize control of the aircraft's controls, according to WAM state news agency.

This is the first confirmation by UAE authorities that the co-pilot had attacked the captain and identified the weapon used as a crash axe. Previous UAE statements had described the incident as a security incident and said an investigation was underway to determine whether it involved terrorist activity or prior planning.

The attorney general stressed that investigations are still ongoing to establish all the circumstances and motives surrounding the incident, as well as any related links. He added that technical examinations and the analysis of physical and digital evidence are also being completed, with the final findings to be announced once the necessary procedures have been concluded.

Officials investigating the incident are still trying to determine how the suspected attacker was subsequently permitted to fly for FlyDubai and how he ended up as the first officer in the cockpit of a plane headed for Israel, the sources said.

Al Hammami -- who was transferred Thursday from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates -- is said to be "cooperating" with authorities investigating the incident and has indicated that his intent was to crash the aircraft in Israel, according to sources briefed on the investigation.

"We recognise that there are many questions at this stage; however, the circumstances surrounding the incident are still under investigation," FlyDubai said in a statement obtained by ABC News on Saturday. "We are therefore not in a position to comment further beyond our published statements. We remain fully committed to supporting the ongoing investigation and are in close coordination with the relevant government authorities and regulators."

Representatives for Oman Air and the Omani Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

FlyDubai issued a statement earlier Friday, attributed to its chief executive officer, saying that, at the request of the authorities, FlyDubai had "temporarily suspended operations to Tel Aviv until further notice," and saying "a full official investigation, led by the relevant authorities and fully supported by flydubai, is underway."

A disaster was averted when the flight's captain, Smit Machchhar, fought back and a number of passengers subdued and restrained the attacker, who had sent the plane into a rapid dive.

One of the passengers, Israeli plumber Yaniv Hayoun, said he pulled back on the controls to steady the plane until a third pilot, who was traveling in the passenger cabin, took over. The flight eventually landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

One of the passengers who ran to the front of the plane, Dr. Shota Musaev, told ABC News in an interview this week that the attacker -- who was bloodied and restrained on the floor outside the cockpit -- told him he was from Oman. Musaev said that at one point the suspect asked Musaev to kill him.

"He said, 'Kill me please, kill me please,'" Musaev said.

Israeli officials are expected to be on the ground and involved in the questioning of Al Hammami, sources said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said that the suspected attacker, who he didn't name, had undergone "Islamist radicalization."

"He came to crash the plane with all passengers on board," Netanyahu said in a video released by his office. "We are investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price."

Netanyahu also again heaped praise on Hayoun and the other heroic passengers for preventing a "tragedy like 9/11."

A threadbare internet biography page believed to belong to the suspect indicated that he had studied aviation management at a British university and engineering at an Australian university.

A source at the Buckinghamshire New University confirmed that Al Hammami completed a three-year distance-learning course and graduated with a degree in aviation management in 2023. The source stressed that Al Hammami did not take any pilot training at the school.

Hammami appears to have operated an account on X (formerly Twitter). A review of over 3,000 archived posts from the now-deleted account in 2021 and 2022 pointed to intense religious conservatism and misogyny, including approving references to violence against women.

The archived posts -- a partial snapshot of online activity over two years -- do not contain any obvious calls for violence against Israel or the West.

The author of the posts claims to have spent a total of five years studying in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

Several details included in the account's posts are consistent with Hammami, including his age, his Omani nationality and his career as a pilot.

Royal Air Maroc -- Morocco's national carrier -- confirmed to ABC News that Al Hammami completed a three-month theoretical training period with the airline in 2025 as part of its pre-employment process. At the end of the training, he was not selected for employment, the airline confirmed, but it wouldn't say why.

A representative for the school in Australia declined to comment and referred an inquiry from ABC News to the Australian federal police.

- ABC News' Dragana Jovanovic contributed to this report.

This story has been updated.

The U.S. Coast Guard is searching off the coast of Nantucket for a missing medical transport jet carrying six people after it went missing the morning of Oct. 3.

The jet, a Gulfstream G100, lost contact with flight controllers early in the morning, the Coast Guard's Northeast District said. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement to USA TODAY that it issued a search and rescue alert notice for the jet at about 1:20 a.m. local time.

The six people on board were flying from L.F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda to Boston Logan International Airport, the FAA said.

Authorities are searching with air and surface crews off the coast of Nantucket, the island south of Cape Cod. Bermuda is nearly 700 miles from Nantucket.

News outlets including the New York Times and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the medical aircraft was operated by Latitude Air Ambulance, a Canada-based company.

Latitude's website says its fleet includes four Gulfstream G100s, which it says are able to travel long distances without refueling. Flights typically include two pilots, a registered nurse and a registered respiratory therapist, and sometimes a physician. Latitude provides international medical evacuation services and return flights for patients, according to its site.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coast Guard searches for missing medical jet carrying 6 off Nantucket