Edith Olmsted

Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesA professor at Columbia University said he was the victim of targeted harassment from campus security officers after the school beefed-up safety protocols in response to the ongoing pro-Palestinian encampment.Dr. Carl Hart, a psychology professor at Columbia University, spoke to The Daily Beast about an “explosive interaction” he had with security personnel on Thursday, which he also briefly described on X.Hart and his wife were entering campus on Thursday afternoon, when a security guard chased him down, claiming he hadn’t properly checked in. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty ImagesSeveral pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested by law enforcement on Wednesday at the University of Texas at Austin, as they gathered to oppose Israel’s brutal military campaign in Gaza, with more arrests likely to follow.Local police, alongside state troopers in riot gear, were dispatched to the South Lawn at UT Austin, where hundreds of students gathered to call on the school to cut ties with weapons manufacturers that have continued to arm Israel. At least 10 protesters have already been arrested by police after they were told to disperse, according to the Texas Tribune. Troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety threatened to arrest any protesters who remained on the South Lawn for trespassing, according to KXAN’s Ryan Chandler. The arrests quickly turned violent, with one video of the protest showing police pushing into the crowd of protesters, shoving them to the ground, and handcuffing them.Read more at The Daily Beast.

David Levenson/Getty ImagesBestselling author Sophie Kinsella, who penned the popular Shopaholic book series, announced on Wednesday that she has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.Kinsella posted the announcement to X, saying, “I’ve wanted for a long time to share with you a health update and I’ve been waiting for the strength to do so.”The author wrote that she had been diagnosed with glioblastoma at the end of 2022, but had been waiting to share the news until her family could adjust to their “new normal.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Melanie Fidler/NBAE via Getty ImagesCaitlin Clark is making how much?!On Monday, Clark was selected No. 1 overall in Monday’s WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever, a celebratory moment for the star which has now been punctuated by the proclamation of a pitiful paycheck.Clark will be paid a base salary of $338,056 over the next four years, a number which is easily dwarfed by even the one year salaries of her male counterparts.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Raymond Boyd/Getty ImagesMusic producer Rico Wade, a pioneering member of the legendary Organized Noize production team, has died at the age of 52. A representative from Wade’s team confirmed his passing to AllHipHop, but did not say when or where he died, or give a cause of death.As a part of Organized Noize, Wade worked closely with The Dungeon Family, an Atlanta-based hip hop music collective known for crafting the funky sound of Southern hip hop. The big-name group included both members of Outkast, CeeLo Green, Janelle Monae, to name a few.With Organized Noize, Wade co-wrote and produced TLC’s iconic R&B anthem “Waterfalls.” He also helped to produce En Vogue’s “Don’t Let Go,” and Ludacris’ “Saturday (Oooh! Ooooh!).”Read more at The Daily Beast.

JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty ImagesThe body of a missing Israeli teenager was discovered in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Saturday, only hours after a mob of Israeli settlers stormed a nearby village, killing one Palestinian and injuring 25 others.Enraged settlers were searching for 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair when they tore through the village of al-Mughayir on Friday night, according to Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, The settlers set homes and vehicles on fire, fired live ammunition, and left graffiti as they went, the group said, calling the acts “hate crimes.” Israeli forces were present during the rampage, and reportedly fired on residents who threw rocks at soldiers.Read more at The Daily Beast.

David Gray/AFP via Getty ImagesSeven people were killed, and multiple others injured in a mass stabbing incident on Saturday at a shopping mall in Sydney, Australia. Witnesses at the Westfield Bondi Junction mall described “pandemonium” on Saturday afternoon as a man in a green shirt appeared to indiscriminately stab shoppers, sending people running in search of safety. Shops locked their doors, and many of the shoppers struggled to find cover. “It was just carnage,” one witness told ABC.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesDonald Trump has called the widespread turmoil inflicted on states in the aftermath of overturning Roe v. Wade a “very, very beautiful harmony.”The former president made several statements on the issue during a press conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday, each more obscuring than the last.The harmony Trump references seems at odds with his statement earlier this week that Arizona’s state Supreme Court had made a mistake in not repealing a highly restrictive Civil War-era abortion ban. Even Trump agreed that the ban went too far. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesA pair of Republican lawmakers in Maine were ruled out of order on Thursday after one of them tried to suggest that a horrific mass shooting last October was God’s retribution for a state bill which expanded abortion access, and the other heartily agreed.During a debate Wednesday night over a new bill which would extend the right to gender-affirming care to people from out of state, Rep. Michael Lemelin voiced his trepidation by making a wildly offensive connection between the two discrete incidents. “When (L.D.) 1619 passed and went into law on Oct. 25, you told God life doesn’t matter,” he said, referring to the abortion bill.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Megan Varner/Getty ImagesDonald Trump wants Democrats to vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—making the bizarre pitch in a new contradictory video announcement shared to Truth Social on Thursday. He called the independent 2024 candidate a “radical left candidate,” but insisted that he was “a better man” than his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.“If I were a Democrat, I’d vote for RFK Jr. every single time over Biden, because he’s frankly more in line with Democrats” the former president said. Read more at The Daily Beast.