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Van Epps wins Tenn. special election, NBC News projects

admin - Latest News - December 3, 2025
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Republican Matt Van Epps has won a hotly contested special election for a deep-red congressional seat in Tennessee, NBC News projects, turning back a Democratic challenge for the longtime GOP district. Steve Kornacki breaks down the results at the big board.



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Dec. 2, 2025, 5:03 PM ESTBy Chloe Melas and Minyvonne BurkeRapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s four-part documentary on embattled hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was released Tuesday on Netflix. “Sean Combs: The Reckoning” chronicles his rise to become one of the most powerful men in hip-hop to his downfall amid a wave of accusations involving sexual assault and abuse. Jackson, who executive-produced the project, told NBC News in a recent interview that he had worked on the documentary for over a year with director Alexandria Stapleton. Below are some of the key moments from the series. The murders of Tupac and Biggie Smalls The documentary dives into the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. (real name Christopher Wallace), a catalyst of the East Coast and West Coast feud in the 1990s. Shakur died on Sept. 13, 1996, six days after he was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. 50 Cent speaks on new Netflix docuseries about Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs04:05The Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in a drive-by shooting on March 9, 1997, after leaving a Soul Train Awards afterparty in Los Angeles with Combs. Combs discovered the rapper and had signed him to his label Bad Boy Entertainment. Stapleton told NBC News that the documentary includes “a lot of new information” about the murders and that “no one had ever really put it together like that before.” “Biggie is a foundational piece of Bad Boy and that relationship. I mean, you don’t have Puff Daddy without Biggie Smalls, right? … We had sources and were able to procure more intel and information, and I think that it was the first time that you could really tell this story,” she said.For more on this story, watch “Top Story with Tom Llamas” on NBC News Now.Singer Aubrey O’Day reveals Combs may have assaulted herAubrey O’Day, a member of the former girl group Danity Kane, revealed in the documentary that she may have been sexually assaulted by Combs. She said a lawyer representing an alleged victim reached out to her about an affidavit the lawyer had received. “I was told it was an assault,” O’Day said. She said she has no recollection of the alleged assault. In the series, O’Day read from the affidavit, which said that the alleged victim was at Bay Boy studios when she walked into a room. The woman, according to the affidavit, said she saw Combs and another man assaulting O’Day. The woman said that O’Day seemed to be “out of it” and was not fully clothed, according to the affidavit. It was unclear from the documentary if the affidavit was ever filed in court.”Does this mean I was raped? Is that what this means? I don’t even know if I was raped, and I don’t want to know,” O’Day said in the documentary. Stapleton told NBC News that they spent hours on the phone with O’Day to make sure she was comfortable sharing her story. “I think what you see in the film is her struggling to digest, ‘Did this happen to me or not?’ And I think it’s a very real moment,” Stapleton said. “I think matters of sexual assault, allegations like this, are very complex and very complicated. And I think that she’s a very real person who is walking you through why this feels so complicated.”O’Day, who appeared on Combs’ “Making the Band 3,” also shared sexually explicit emails she said Combs sent to her while she was a member of Danity Kane. “This is your boss at your work sending you that email,” she said. “What happens in real life to anyone else? Your boss gets fired. Six months later, I was fired.” O’Day said she “absolutely felt that I was fired for not participating sexually.” When asked for comment on O’Day’s remarks in the documentary, representatives for Combs said in a statement to NBC News, “We’re not going to comment on individual claims being repeated in the documentary. Many of the people featured have longstanding personal grievances, financial motives, or credibility issues that have been documented for years.”“Sean Combs will continue to address legitimate matters through the legal process, not through a biased Netflix production,” the statement said.Representatives for O’Day did not immediately respond to requests for comment on her appearance in the documentary. Secret video shows Combs days before arrestThe documentary includes never-before-seen footage of Combs discussing his legal troubles days before his arrest at a New York City hotel in September 2024. Jackson declined to say how he got the video.He was charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation for purposes of prostitution. He was acquitted in July of racketeering and sex trafficking, but was convicted on two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.In October, he was sentenced to 50 months in prison.Combs’ publicist said that the video was never authorized for release and that it includes private moments and “conversations involving legal strategy” from an unfinished project.”The footage was created for an entirely different purpose, under an arrangement that was never completed, and no rights were ever transferred to Netflix,” Juda Engelmayer said in a statement. “A payment dispute between outside parties does not create permission for Netflix to use unlicensed, private material. None of this footage came from Mr. Combs or his team, and its inclusion raises serious questions about how it was obtained and why Netflix chose to use it.”Combs’ legal team sent Netflix a cease and desist letter Monday.Netflix said it obtained the video legally and has the necessary rights for it.Jurors from sex trafficking trial speak outTwo of the jurors spoke out in the documentary about the trial and verdict. Juror 75 recalled being “confused” by Combs’ relationship with Casandra “Cassie” Ventura. Ventura filed a civil lawsuit against him in 2023, accusing him of repeated physical abuse, rape and forcing her to have sex with male sex workers. The suit was settled privately one day after it was filed, with Combs denying any wrongdoing. “If you don’t like something, you completely get out. You can’t have it both ways. Have the luxury and then complain about it. I don’t think so,” Juror 75 said.He said he “100%” thinks justice was served in the end.”We saw both sides of it, and we came with our conclusion,” he said. Juror 160 recounted how Combs would often nod. “That’s pretty much all it was. It wasn’t nothing crazy or like, it wasn’t like he was trying to sway us,” she said. When asked about the verdict, she said: “When we were in the deliberation room, and we’ve come to an agreement, and we’re only saying that he’s guilty for these two counts, my words exactly were, ‘Oh, s—.'”Chloe MelasChloe Melas is an entertainment correspondent for NBC News. Minyvonne BurkeMinyvonne Burke is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News.
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Sept. 23, 2025, 5:16 PM EDTBy Curtis Bunn and Tyler KingkadeIn 2016, Charlie Kirk wasn’t yet a household name. The young activist had co-founded Turning Point USA four years earlier to help spread conservative ideas on college campuses. But shortly after President Donald Trump’s first election, the group launched an ambitious new project — the Professor Watchlist — aimed at highlighting what it saw as left-leaning bias in higher education. The list, easily available online, now has more than 300 professor names, listed under categories like “Terror Supporter,” “LGBTQ,” “Antifa” and “Socialism.” Once dismissed by critics as a fringe culture war stunt, education experts say the list helped kick off a movement that continues today to monitor and expose perceived ideological opponents. Since Kirk’s assassination earlier this month, that movement has accelerated, with conservative activists systematically outing people in what critics have decried as a right-wing version of “cancel culture.” The backlash has led to the removal or resignation of dozens of teachers and professors who allegedly disparaged Kirk or celebrated his death online.“If you make statements that right-wing politicians don’t like, then you can lose your job. Period. That is chilling,” said Isaac Kamola, director of the American Association of University Professors’ Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, who runs a project called Faculty First Responders that helps professors who have been targeted by Turning Point or other groups. “The Professor Watchlist planted that seed.”NBC News interviewed six professors on the watchlist, added between 2016 and 2023. Some are on it for work they published and others for outspoken social media posts. Once added, they received negative messages and comments; two said it escalated to death threats.This atmosphere, which intensified as social media culture evolved, changed how students and professors interact, said Peter Lake, director of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University College of Law. The watchlist was part of a shift that made “what had been a semi-private space — the classroom — into a place where statements or discussions could get national attention,” Lake said. Knowing a stray comment could go viral stifles free speech, he added.“When you step in the classroom, you might as well be in the studio,” he said. “People are going to record what you’re saying, they may publish it, they may take it out of context, they may share it with your enemies — anything can happen now and it frequently does.”Charlie Kirk near the campus of Georgia State University in Atlanta in 2024.Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP via Getty Images fileThose forces were at work earlier this month, for instance, when conservatives circulated a video of a Texas A&M student confronting a senior lecturer in the English department for teaching about gender identity, citing Trump’s executive order recognizing only two genders. The lecturer, who was not on the Professor Watchlist, was fired and two administrators were removed from their posts. Last week, university president Mark Welsh also resigned amid the controversy.Some conservatives argue the watchlist was a necessary antidote to left-wing bias on campus and helped counter-balance the criticism of right-wing professors. It was “part of changing the way the right engaged with higher ed,” said Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank. “The problem is not with the list,” he said. “The problem is that the list was ever necessary.”Turning Point USA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.Charlie Kirk himself defended the project as “an awareness tool” in a 2018 interview with “The Opposition,” a Comedy Central TV show.“It’s not ‘Professor Blacklist’ and it’s not ‘Professor Hitlist,’” Kirk said at the time. “We’re not calling for the termination of these professors — let the schools make their own decisions.”Some professors targeted by the watchlist said it sparked a campaign of harassment against them.Shawn Schwaller, an assistant history professor at California State University, Chico, was added to the list in 2021. His profile includes a long list of allegations, including that he had disparaged conservatives. In one article Schwaller wrote, he offered a defense of protesters at a right-wing Christian event who used flash bombs and bear spray, arguing that they were responding to the “intensely violent rhetoric of a white Christian supremacist.”Schwaller said he was surprised by the response he received online once his name went public. “I hope the professor gets some lead,” one post read. Another said, “He better get a third eye behind his head because its gonna get serious for him.”Preston Mitchum, a former Georgetown Law adjunct professor, found himself on the list after writing on X, formerly Twitter, in 2017, “All white people are racists. All men are sexist. Yes, ALL cis people are transphobic. We have to unpack that. That’s the work!” Mitchum had also appeared on a Fox News panel alongside Charlie Kirk to discuss issues around race after President Trump met with Kanye West in 2018. He said he had been receiving backlash from his tweets but the vitriol increased after the segment aired.He received unwanted calls and emails, Mitchum said, including death threats. “I’m a Black, queer man. I don’t scare often,” he said. He said he finds it hypocritical that Kirk is hailed as a champion of free speech yet created a tool he believes has been used to silence people. “The entire goal is censorship, like fundamentally, the goal is to get you to stop talking,” he said.Preston Mitchum said he received death threats after appearing on the Professor Watchlist and on a panel with Charlie Kirk.Kollin BensonFor some professors, being put on the list was a badge of honor. Charles Roseman, an associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was added after co-authoring an article on sex and gender in Scientific American in 2023. “I’m quite glad to draw their ire,” he said. “I’m glad that they disapprove of me. That’s quite the compliment.”Kirk, in a 2016 interview with Time magazine, said the list was not meant to intimidate or “make these professors feel any less secure.” “The inspiration was just to shine a light on what we feel has been an unfair balance toward left-leaning ideas and biases in our universities,” he said.In the years since its inception, the watchlist seems to have inspired other groups. Right-wing influencers like Libs of TikTok now regularly spotlight individual faculty they believe want to indoctrinate students, while conservative parent groups like Moms for Liberty have advocated for state laws limiting what can be discussed in classrooms or shared in libraries. These activists are close allies of the MAGA movement.Republican governors, such as Ron DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbott in Texas, have also made fights over “wokeness” in colleges a core component of their legislative agendas. Death of Charlie Kirk raises questions about future of free speech in America02:00John Wesley Lowery, an expert in higher education law who advises universities on compliance with federal regulations, said it’s simpler to share details about professors today than when the watchlist was first launched. “It is so much easier to crowdsource information now,” he said. And that’s not the only change, he said, noting that past activism targeted individuals. “What we’ve seen over the last week instead is far more concerted efforts to immediately place pressure on institutions to take action.”Lake, of Stetson University, said the watchlist was a catalyst in changing the way professors work. Among professors writ large, he said, there is an “air of fatalism — do the job long enough, and you could step on a land mine and that could be it.” It’s not only professors who limit what they say in class now, he said. The same is true among students. Lake brought up Kirk’s assassination a couple times in class recently, and there was “no reaction,” he said. “They don’t want to get caught up in a whirlwind.”Curtis BunnCurtis Bunn is a reporter for NBC BLK.Tyler KingkadeTyler Kingkade is a national reporter for NBC News, based in Los Angeles.Melissa Chan and Jo Yurcaba contributed.
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