Saturday Night Live has drawn backlash after turning the high-profile Cornell sexual assault lawsuit into a joke during a Weekend Update segment, with co-host Colin Jost becoming the target.

A woman identified in court documents as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit last month accusing seven students at the Ivy League university of gang-raping her. The case has since been widely referred to as the “Cornell seven” scandal.

According to the lawsuit, Doe alleged that she was given excessive amounts of alcohol, pressured to use ketamine and sexually assaulted multiple times over several hours at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.

The allegations were addressed on the latest episode of Saturday Night Live during Weekend Update, the news-focused segment hosted by Michael Che and Colin Jost.

“Of course, one of the big stories in the news this week is the sexual assault case at Cornell, and obviously we don’t want to make light of anything that happened,” Che said as he introduced the topic.

“But it is a good time to talk about men holding other men accountable. And look, we all have that one friend that seems like a nice guy,” Che continued, just as the camera shifted to Jost, who was looking down at the desk while holding a pencil.

Jost appeared to pretend he had no idea why the camera was on him. When the audience erupted in laughter, he looked up with a puzzled expression.

“But you know they’re definitely not,” Che added, laughing along with the crowd.

“And it could be someone you’re close to or someone you work with,” Che continued, prompting another cut to Jost.

“Maybe you can’t prove anything, but you could just look at him and tell those weird privileged Ivy League types always got some messed up stuff going on,” Che said, as the broadcast alternated between shots of him and Jost.

Che then turned to his co-host and asked, “And Colin, did you want to add anything?”

“What?” Jost replied with a grin. “No, stop cutting to me,” he said.

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“All right, don’t want to help women. Cool,” Che responded sarcastically.

The studio audience responded enthusiastically, breaking into laughter each time the camera returned to Jost.

Reaction online was far less unanimous. While some viewers considered the exchange a carefully delivered joke, others said the subject was too serious to be treated humorously and criticized the segment as offensive.

“Using Cornell as a lead-in to joke about rape was so disgusting and disrespectful and dismissive to women and SA victims everywhere,” one person wrote. “Apologizing isn’t enough — corrective action needs to be taken.”

Another commenter on YouTube offered a more mixed reaction: “I didn’t know where Che was going with the Cornell joke, but admittedly, I did chuckle a bit. He never fails to take a dig at Colin.”

‘“……wh…what? Stop cutting to me!” I genuinely have no idea if this was rehearsed or not, but dammit I laughed!’ another user on YouTube said.

‘Weekend Update remains the best part of SNL. Michael and Colin continue to be a great duo. “Stop cutting to me”,’ a third YouTube commenter chimed in.

Much of the negative reaction was posted on X, where one user tweeted: ‘I think the reason this was so upsetting is the fact that they have handled serious issues in a non offensive way before… 

‘But two men joking about a horrific rape case is just not funny! At all!’

Another user tweeted: ‘I don’t think Michael wrote that failed Cornell joke.’ 

‘SNL sucks,’ a third user simply said in response to a tweet about the SNL clip. 

WASHINGTON — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz pushed back after Vice President JD Vance suggested the Republican senator was already positioning himself for a 2028 presidential campaign, calling the vice president “insecure.”

Vance, broadly viewed as an early Republican favorite for 2028, took a swipe at Cruz last week by implying that the Texas lawmaker was looking beyond the upcoming midterm elections.

“In my experience, people engage in political bomb-throwing when they’re feeling insecure,” Cruz said in a Saturday interview with Politico.

“So he’s welcome to make whatever comments he likes,” Cruz, 55, added.

“I’m going to keep focusing on the midterms and helping us win on Election Day in the next 30 days.”

Cruz finished second to President Trump in the 2016 Republican primary after a bitter and bruising contest.

In August, Cruz told MS NOW that he would “certainly be part of the discussion” surrounding the 2028 race while arguing that Vance had not secured the GOP presidential nomination.

“It is really obvious to me that, at this very moment, Ted Cruz is running for president,” Vance said in response during an interview with NBC News.

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“At this moment, I’m not. I’m trying to help elect Republicans. That’s what I’m going to keep on doing.”

For many Republicans, the 2028 presidential campaign represents a chance to reshape the GOP after Trump. Traditional conservatives such as Cruz want the party to move back toward free markets and fiscal restraint.

MAGA Republicans, by contrast, want to preserve the party’s populist course and renew its emphasis on avoiding foreign entanglements.

Cruz, who has occasionally reflected on his previous White House campaign, has already taken part in some of the GOP’s internal arguments over its future. Last year, he held a fiery discussion with Tucker Carlson, the nicotine-pouch salesman and podcast giant, in June.

Carlson and Vance have maintained a close relationship, although the vice president has acknowledged recent political disagreements with the pundit, who has turned against Trump.

The Texas Republican also highlighted his work supporting GOP candidates ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, as his home state faces a competitive Senate race.

“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,” Cruz told Politico.

“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],” the senator said. “I was very glad he won that race. I was very glad to help him.”

The Post contacted Vance’s team for comment.

A woman wanted for 17 years in connection with the death of a Georgia mother following an illegal silicone injection inadvertently helped authorities track her down when she asked officials to renew a driver’s license obtained with a stolen identity, authorities said.

Tamaira Angell Smith, 52, is facing a felony murder charge in the death of Eyanna Moore, 29, of Loganville. Smith was extradited from Texas to Georgia and remains held in the Gwinnett County Jail.

According to a Gwinnett County criminal arrest warrant, Smith injected silicone into Moore’s left buttock inside a Holiday Inn Express room near Stone Mountain on May 30, 2009.

Moore died the next day.

Yolanda Hammond, Moore’s maternal aunt, told News Media that her niece carefully researched providers before agreeing to the procedure. Hammond said Smith and another woman claimed to be sisters, with one presenting herself as a doctor and Smith as a physician assistant.

“Eyanna did extensive research,” Hammond said. “The website looked legitimate and had reviews. But we later learned there was a real cosmetic location, only they were not the people they claimed to be.”

“They used someone else’s credentials to pose as those people.”

Shortly after the procedure, Smith called Moore’s husband, David, and told him to come to the hotel with yogurt and Gatorade, Hammond said. When he arrived, he found Moore in distress and called 911.

Hammond said Smith later called David to ask about Moore’s condition. He told her that Moore had died.

“He said she [Smith] was screaming ‘no,’ and then hung up the phone,” Hammond said. “Nobody ever heard from her again.”

Gwinnett police obtained an arrest warrant in June 2009, initially accusing Smith of practicing medicine without a license. By the time the felony murder warrant was issued months later, Smith had already fled.

Driver’s license renewal leads to an arrest

In November 2018, Smith obtained a South Carolina driver’s license using the stolen identity of another woman, according to a Sept. 25 news release from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, or SLED.

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In July 2026, Smith contacted the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles for help after an alert on the license blocked her from renewing it online.

SLED assigned the identity-fraud case to Special Agent Shawn Ludwig in August. Using facial-recognition technology, Ludwig identified Smith and discovered the outstanding murder warrant.

Renée Wunderlich, SLED’s director of public information, told News Media that Ludwig and Senior Special Agent Bridgette Lott worked together on the investigation. The investigators identified another alias Smith had used in McKinney, Texas, and provided local police with information about her vehicle.

McKinney police found Smith’s vehicle and arrested her in August.

Hammond said she was shocked by the way investigators ultimately located Smith.

“You ran for 17 years and then you call and ask for help under an alias—like, really?” she said.

A bond hearing has been set for Smith on Oct. 22 at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center. News Media reached out to her attorney.

Moore’s family hopes for justice

Moore’s death left her four children — Tatiyanna, Faith, Fantasia and Tristan — to grow up without their mother. Two of the children were so young that they have no recollection of Moore. Now, the family plans to attend court hearings and hopes for justice.

“She was always advancing herself for a better career for herself and her family,” Hammond added. “She’s 29 years old and she had a full life ahead of her…well educated young woman, married with children, and she just didn’t deserve that.”

Hammond now hopes Moore’s death will raise awareness of illegal silicone injections and help other families avoid the loss hers has endured.

“The thing that I would like for the world to know is just, you know, make sure you do your due diligence vetting these people. Make sure that you check the credentials.”

“No alteration of your body is worth you losing your life.”

A jury has found that a hidden network of surveillance cameras in Texas helped lead to a violation of one man’s constitutional rights, raising concerns that similar monitoring could affect other motorists.

Alek Schott was traveling on Interstate 35 near San Antonio in March 2022 when a Bexar County Sheriff’s deputy pulled him over.

What began as a routine traffic stop ultimately lasted 76 minutes and, Schott argued, violated his Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The Houston resident was placed in the front seat of the patrol vehicle and questioned by the deputy. He remained there while a drug-sniffing dog examined his truck after Schott declined to consent to a search.

The deputy initially claimed Schott had crossed the yellow shoulder line. But dashcam video showed that had not happened. In court, the officer later acknowledged that he had used the alleged traffic violation as a pretext to investigate the vehicle.

Schott complained to the sheriff’s office after the encounter. According to his lawyer, officials told him to bring a lawsuit if he believed he had been mistreated.

That lawsuit revealed why Schott had drawn the deputy’s attention. A network of surveillance cameras had recorded his one-day drive to the U.S.-Mexico border, and an unidentified law enforcement source had labeled the trip suspicious.

“Simply driving across Texas isn’t illegal,” Schott told the Daily Mail. A federal jury agreed, ruling Monday that the Bexar County deputy had violated his constitutional right to be free from an unlawful search.

“Holding the government accountable for false stops, unlawful detentions, and searches without cause is incredibly hard,” Schott told the Daily Mail.

During the lawsuit’s discovery process, Schott learned that the surveillance system had gathered unusually detailed information. The data indicated that a woman was in his vehicle when he left and identified the hotel where he later dropped her off.

Yet basic questions remain unanswered about the cameras, including who owns and operates them and who decides which activity should be classified as suspicious, said attorney Christie Hebert, who spoke to the Daily Mail.

“But we do know that there is a broader license plate reader network,” said Hebert, an Institute for Justice lawyer who represented Schott.

An officer testified that license plate readers are widespread, appearing on mile markers, tow trucks and even in residential neighborhoods.

“There’s a comprehensive network,” Hebert said. “This network would scan everyone’s plate that drives by and feed into a broader database that was being monitored, according to these officers, by people who would then say: ‘Okay, this person’s done a quick trip here. Stop them, hunt them for a traffic stop.’”

Hebert said Bexar County deputies were alerted to drivers deemed suspicious through a WhatsApp group called the Northwest Highway Group.

“They would just take whatever someone dropped in the WhatsApp chat group as truth,” the lawyer said, referring to testimony presented in court.

“They didn’t verify, they didn’t ask questions. A license plate number would be dropped in the chat, or a vehicle color and description, something as basic as that for a traffic stop.”

Deputy Joel Babb, who pulled Schott over, admitted in a pre-trial deposition that federal agencies, like Homeland Security, have ‘a lot bigger toys than a license plate reader.’ 

An artificial intelligence-powered camera had picked up Schott’s plate, according to the Institute of Justice. After that, an anonymous law enforcement agent decided his ordinary trip was suspicious. 

Babb testified he waited for Schott’s truck to appear after receiving the WhatsApp message, leading him to pull Schott over for a traffic stop. A jury decided that the deputy’s reasoning behind pulling the Houston man over was a pretext to look inside the vehicle. 

‘The beautiful thing about the Texas traffic code is there are thousands of things you can stop a vehicle for,’ the deputy said in court. 

Footage shot inside the cop car showed Babb questioning Schott about his trip and why he went there. Eventually, the deputy told Schott his anxious behavior was enough to search the car, which the latter refused. 

Babb then summoned a police dog, who alerted officers toward the driver’s side door. Deputies caused $7,000 worth of damage to the vehicle, only to not find any drugs. A police report later said there was a ‘trace’ amount of drugs in the vehicle. 

Schott went on to request the evidence, but his lawyer said the Sheriff’s Office refused to provide it, eventually telling him to sue them if he didn’t like how they did business. 

He would go on to win his case, with a jury finding his Fourth Amendment rights were violated four years later.  

Schott was awarded $76 – $1 for every minute he was wrongfully detained by police – on Monday. It is what the Houston resident asked for. 

‘A jury looked at what happened to Alek and said what Bexar County did was not okay,’ Hebert told the Daily Mail. 

‘If law enforcement is going to access this kind of broader database, there need to be warrant requirements. Officers need to satisfy the requirements to get a warrant before they can do this kind of comprehensive surveillance on an individual.’ 

Angel Reyes, a lawyer with Reyes Law and who is not associated with the case, told the Daily Mail that ‘government has always been allowed to watch public roads.’ 

‘If the Constitution stops the government from tracking you, the government can’t just pay a company to do the tracking instead and call that something different,’ Reyes said. 

‘Nobody in Texas or anywhere else should become a suspect for driving somewhere they have every right to go, least of all to officers willing to bend the rules to justify a search.

‘Alek Schott asked for $76 to make a point, and Bexar County should count itself lucky that’s all he asked for.’ 

Hebert said Schott’s case is an ‘important win for the Fourth Amendment’ and the rights of ‘all Americans.’ 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott also blocked state agencies from spending money on Flock cameras in August. 

A Texas Tribune investigation found the Lone Star State had managed to build a surveillance network through Flock, using at least $30 million in grants to local police forces. 

The state government was able to do so by charging Texans $1 extra to their car insurance policies under the pretense that it was to combat rampant catalytic converter theft, The Tribune said. The policy began in 2023. 

The Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority and the Texas Department of Public Safety added thousands of cameras through these contracts, the outlet added.

‘It’s kind of the Wild West,’ Reyes told the Daily Mail. ‘These cameras just got deployed everywhere.

‘Texas went off and built a statewide tracking system.’ 

Nikolas ‘Nik’ Guggenberger, a law professor, said there is ‘ample reason for concern’ surrounding the cameras, and not only in Texas. 

‘This type of surveillance is just incredibly intrusive in the sense of what it enables law enforcement to do,’ the University of Houston Law Center professor said. 

Guggenberger said there is ‘ample opportunity for abuse’ with these cameras, which the nation has already begun to see, especially inside police forces. 

The professor said these cameras enable police to engage in fishing expeditions, an unauthorized search by officers looking for incriminating evidence without probable cause. 

Guggenberger worries that police could start looking for evidence and then use these cameras to follow citizens, analyze their behavior, and start digging into their personal lives until they find a crime. 

‘That is just something that we generally don’t really want the police to do,’ he said.

Kevin Harden, a lawyer with Harden Crichton, agreed, telling the Daily Mail: ‘All Americans should be worried about indiscriminate government surveillance.’

The legality of these cameras is being questioned in real-time.   

At the moment, cameras like Flock and police paying to have access to them are legal. However, conversations and protests have popped up across the country. 

It is also legal at the moment for officers to use the WhatsApp chats, Harden said. Police can use information they receive from the encrypted messaging service during their investigations. 

‘In other words, if it makes sense and leads the police to a reasonable conclusion that a crime has occurred or is occurring, they are allowed to follow the evidence to its likely conclusion,’ Harden said. 

However, the former prosecutors said: ‘Anonymous tipsters and messages are not enough to obtain a warrant absent other information that would lead a reasonable person to believe that a specific crime will or has occurred.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Public Safety for comment.  

They rank among the finest apples.

Dozens of NYPD officers were honored this week with awards and applause from their fellow Finest at a Police Benevolent Association ceremony in Queens.

“We know there are people out there who think they can do our job better, who want to tell us how to do our jobs,” PBA President Patrick Hendry said Thursday during the Finest of the Finest Awards at Russo’s on the Bay in Howard Beach.

“But none of them ever had to face an individual who pulled out a gun, pointed at them, and started firing,” Hendry said. “None of them ever ran toward a burning car to rescue someone inside. None of them ever performed chest compressions on a baby who wasn’t breathing. All of you have done those things.”

Among the officers recognized for bravery was Officer Grant Pulgarin, who tackled a suspected homegrown terrorist after the man threw an improvised explosive device into a crowd during an ISIS-inspired attack outside Gracie Mansion in Manhattan’s 19th Precinct on March 17.

“This officer was policing a demonstration outside Gracie Mansion when he spotted a man who had just thrown a fuse-lit bomb,” PBA Treasurer Joe Strong said. “He ran toward the danger and stopped the terrorist with a perfectly executed tackle, one that any NFL coach would be proud of.”

Pulgarin could not comment because the case remains under active investigation. Strong said the officer restrained the suspect until he could be handcuffed, while the suspect’s accomplice was also taken into custody. Pulgarin received a plaque during the ceremony.

Officers Seoungjae Chung, Donglun Liu, Antonio Andreani and Lt. Michael Simmonds of Brooklyn’s 62nd Precinct were also honored after shooting and killing a man wielding a meat cleaver who had stabbed four children inside an 84th Street home on April 6, 2025.

According to the PBA, the officers forced their way through the door to reach the children, ages 8 to 16. All four survived their stab wounds.

“Upon arrival, these officers, hearing screams from inside the apartment, had to kick in the door to gain access,” PBA Recording Secretary George Winkler told roughly 150 people at the event. “Once inside, the perp charged the officers, who were forced to shoot and wound the suspect to put an end to the carnage.”

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The PBA also recognized NYPD Harbor Unit officers Christopher Kessinger and Steven Westgate, along with Sgt. Jose Figueroa, for rescuing sailors after a Mexican Navy vessel struck the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in May 2025. Two crew members died in the crash.

“If it weren’t for the expert efforts of these police officers, the toll would have been much higher,” Strong said. “Under very difficult and dangerous conditions, these officers evacuated 19 victims, carried them to safety and made sure they received the medical attention they needed.”

Police Officer Joseph Wetzel received an award for rescuing a driver and passenger from a fiery crash in Wantagh, Long Island, on Feb. 4. He was off duty and on extended medical leave at the time while undergoing radiation treatment for cancer, he told The Post.

“I had breakfast with my father, and as we were walking to the car, I heard a loud crash at the major intersection across the street. I turned and saw that there was a car flipped over,” said Wetzel, 29, who received the PBA President’s Award.

Wetzel ran across the street and saw flames coming from the vehicle’s engine. A witness told him two people were trapped inside, he said.

“I always carry a knife that has an emergency tool that can break windows and cut seat belts and what not,” he said. “So I moved everyone away from the front window and started striking the window with the instrument. I finally broke it and cleared the glass with my bare hands.”

As witnesses called 911 and threw ice onto the fire, another person retrieved a fire extinguisher from a nearby gas station and put out the flames. Wetzel then pulled the driver from the vehicle, he said.

“I crawled into the car and assessed the welfare of the second person who was trapped and determined it would be safer to wait for the fire department,” Wetzel said. Firefighters later used the Jaws of Life to remove the person.

Both people trapped inside the car were taken to a hospital and survived, he said.

“Hurry up,” Wetzel said when asked what was going through his mind. “At that moment, it’s all or nothing. Just get in there, break the window, clear the glass, get the people out.”