| Thursday, August 13, 2026 |
| Settler siege of Palestinian homes in the West Bank a 'horrific act of terror,' US ambassador says | |
 | The U.S. ambassador to Israel on Thursday condemned a siege by Israeli settlers of a Palestinian American family's home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, calling it a "horrific act of terror." Mike Huckabee's remarks on X represented an unusually sharp rebuke from the Trump administration of the latest episode in a surge of settler violencein the region. Starting Sunday, settlers gathered around three houses in the village of Qusra, including one belonging to Palestinian American Loui Ridi, according to local officials, Ridi and Ridi's brother. At times numbering dozens, the settlers threw stones, attempted to bring down a stone wall nearby, and prevented the occupants from leaving as their food and water dwindled. On Thursday morning, Ridi's brother, Qusai Abu Rida, who had holed up in the house with his own teenage son to defend it, said they were moved by Israel's military to another home but still cannot leave the area. Palestinians and the Israeli opposition accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line government of turning a blind eye to attacks by settlers against Palestinians as clashes have surged in the last few years. |
| UM Faculty, First Amendment Law Firm File Briefs Supporting Lauren Stokes' Lawsuit Appeal | |
 | The University of Mississippi has a long history of selective viewpoint discrimination, University of Mississippi employees argued in an amicus brief submitted to a federal court on July 24. That brief is one of two submitted in favor of former UM employee Lauren Stokes, whom the administration fired last year after she reposted a social media message critical of conservative activist Charlie Kirk following his assassination. The briefs submitted by the UM employees and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression come after Stokes and her legal team appealed a federal judge's dismissal of her wrongful termination lawsuit against the university. The former executive assistant to the university's vice chancellor was one of several public employees throughout the United States who were fired following backlash over social-media posts following the Sept. 10, 2025, assassination of Kirk while he spoke at a Turning Point USA event at a university in Utah. Stokes' case is the only of its kind to be dismissed in the nation, FIRE senior litigation attorney Greg Greubel told the Mississippi Free Press. Sociology professor James Thomas, senior composition and rhetoric lecturer Wendy Goldberg, and history and international studies assistant professor Graham Pitts worked together to write the brief in support of Stokes' appeal. |
| USM history professor plays major role in Netflix's 'The American Experiment' | |
| University of Southern Mississippi professor and military historian Andrew Wiest is among the star-studded cast of Netflix's "The American Experiment" documentary. The five-part series chronicles the history of the American Revolution, coinciding with the nation's 250th birthday. It features commentary, voice-overs and interviews with academics, political figures and more. Wiest can be heard reading lines throughout the series, including parts of the Declaration of Independence and playing founding father Patrick Henry. He described what it was like to hear himself in the documentary. "The narrator says right before you hear us read it that these are some of the most important lines ever written in the English language, and I was like, 'Wow, and I got to read one of those,'" he said. Wiest recorded his lines in the sound booth at USM's Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. |
| LSU hazing victim's mom tells parents how to prevent, spot hazing | |
 | Rae Ann Gruver brought a message about hazing to Shreveport on Tuesday, at the same time many parents are sending a child off to college for the first time. Gruver spoke at a Rotary Club meeting downtown, and she urged parents to do two things: seek information and know the signs. Her son, Max, died in 2017 following a night of hazing involving LSU's Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He was a freshman pledging the organization, and Gruver said Tuesday he was made to chug at least 32 ounces of 190-proof liquor. Gruver encouraged parents to investigate clubs their children consider joining, and she directed them to hazinginfo.org. The site provides information about hazing, and it documents which American universities are in compliance with federal regulations for campus transparency and ease of reporting incidents. Forty-four of 50 states have laws against hazing, and it is a felony in 16, including Louisiana. The Stop Hazing Act, which Gruver supported, passed Congress in 2024 and requires universities to provide information online regarding violations of hazing policies, listing those policies as well as educational programs available. |
| It's an 'entirely different ecosystem' with this many U. of Tennessee students back in town | |
 | As Knox County anticipates 75,160 new residents by 2040, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville will temporarily increase the local population by nearly half that number as students return for the fall semester. At a time when Knoxville ranks among the nation's top moving destinations, the university continues to build its enrollment while bringing tens of thousands of students to the city each academic year. "It is palpable when the students come back to campus," said Don Bruce, economic professor and director of the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at UT. "It is an entirely different ecosystem." The university projects 42,600 students will take classes in the fall 2026 semester beginning Aug. 17 and is pushing to enroll students from in-state high schools, especially in Knox County. Meanwhile, the university's plans to enroll 55,000 students by 2030 would include 14,000 online students as UT expands its virtual learning options. |
| How 2 Texas Lawsuits Could Tee Up a National Fight Over Academic Freedom | |
 | The American Association of University Professors sued Texas A&M University officials and the system Board of Regents last week to block a policy that limits discussion of "race or gender ideology" in class unless preapproved by the institution's president. The policy, implemented last November, resulted in a systemwide course review and several canceled courses. The lawsuit followed another, brought by the AAUP in July against Texas Tech officials, which similarly argues that Chancellor Brandon Creighton's memos preventing faculty from teaching content related to ill-defined concepts of sexual orientation and gender ideology violate the First and 14th Amendments. At both institutions, faculty resorted to self-censorship, unsure what material might violate the vague rules and put them at risk of discipline, including termination. Together the lawsuits are poised to bring the issue before the Fifth Circuit. "The Fifth Circuit is a very unusual circuit," said Robert Post, a professor at Yale Law School and co-author of For the Common Good: Principles of American Academic Freedom. "It's unpredictable and tends to extremes, so you never know where the Fifth Circuit is going to go." |
| Utah Valley University cancels classes on anniversary of Charlie Kirk killing | |
| Utah Valley University won't hold classes on Sept. 10, the anniversary of the killing of Charlie Kirk on campus. Kirk, a conservative political activist, was shot and killed while speaking at UVU on Sept. 10, 2025. "Healing continues in different ways for each member of our university community as we approach Sept. 10, the one-year anniversary of the tragic events surrounding Charlie Kirk's death," states an email sent to the campus community. "To provide time and space for reflection, service, and connection, UVU will close operations that day." Additionally, the email invited UVU students, faculty and staff to United Way's annual Day of Caring service day on Sept. 10, an event the school regularly participates in, including breakfast and a service project in the community -- this year, at Trailside Elementary in Vineyard. "This long-standing tradition of service is an opportunity to come together and continue healing through helping others," the institution said. |
| Finish degrees for less: Schools overseas pitch US community college students | |
 | Unlike her friends and classmates, Sloan Hull didn't want to attend a four-year college after high school. She knew she wanted to be a chef and chose Orange Coast College, a public community college near Los Angeles, for its culinary arts associate degree. She graduated in December, and had planned to transfer to a top U.S. culinary school, until she realized the school would not accept her transfer credits, meaning she faced four years of about $40,000 annual tuition. The Transfer Abroad Network, a new business based in California, offered another option. It helps U.S. community college students transfer to international schools to finish bachelor's degrees. Ms. Hull saw a more economical path to a higher degree and the opportunity to study abroad. TAN's founders, Ashley Warmington and Emma Schwartz Lara, told her about a short summer program at the Business and Hotel Management School in Lucerne, Switzerland. There Ms. Hull cooked with chefs, met students from around the world, and decided to enroll in a fast-track, one-year bachelor's degree program. She is scheduled to start school near the end of August. "I really never considered going abroad just because I had no idea that my credits could transfer," she says. Tara Zirkel, director of strategic research with education consultant firm EAB, says that TAN could appeal to community college students because the pathway is predictable and clear |
| Education Department Says It Plans to Spend Millions in Expiring Research Dollars. Concerns Remain | |
| Higher education advocates warned for months that hundreds of millions in federal funding for education research could expire Sept. 30 if the Education Department didn't start sending it out the door. In late June, some of them filed a lawsuit. They argued that while public records show the White House appeared to have released most of the IES funds in May, ED still had about $316 million "that have not been obligated, and for which IES has not publicly indicated any plans to obligate." That's out of the $768 million Congress originally allocated to IES for fiscal year 2025, which the department had two years to spend down. (It also still remains unclear exactly how and when the White House released the money shown in the report.) Now, IES Acting Director Matthew Soldner is saying the agency will spend all the remaining money Congress set aside for education research in "a timely manner," according to court records released last week as part of the suit. |
| Survey Shows Students Trust College Leaders More Than Politicians | |
| College students are roughly split on whether they think institutional leaders have their best interests at heart, according to new survey data from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation published Thursday. Fifty-five percent of students said they felt administrators act in students' best interest most or all of the time, while 45 percent said they thought leaders made decisions in their best interest sometimes, rarely or never. The survey, which examined students' perceptions of who influences their college experience, found that state and federal officials also played a role. With policy shifts affecting research funding, curriculum, diversity initiatives and more, 58 percent of undergraduate students reported that federal or state policies contributed to at least a moderate change on campus. And although students were divided on trust in campus leadership and the effects of federal and state policies, survey data showed that students from all political parties reported higher approval of campus-led policies compared to state and federal policies. While 79 percent of respondents approved of decisions made by their institution's leaders, only 56 percent said they approved of such policies made by state leaders and 45 percent approved of federal policy decisions affecting their campus. |
SPORTS
| Soccer: Newcomers Shine In Season-Opening Shutout Of South Alabama | |
| Mississippi State opened the 2026 soccer season with a 3-0 victory against South Alabama in head coach Kevin O'Brien's debut at the helm. Freshman Kati Anne Shepherd opened the O'Brien era early with a goal in the first five minutes of play. Shepherd pounced on a loose ball after a misplayed pass backwards from South Alabama. She beat the intended recipient to the free ball in the box and slotted it into the bottom left corner of the net with one touch. "It gave us confidence, and I think their team, their heads are spinning like, 'Holy cow, we didn't have it scripted like that.'" O'Brien said. "So in two ways, it's beneficial for the Bulldogs. It was awesome and for her to get that. I think she just grew into the game with confidence. I mean, she could be in high school right now as a senior. She's 17 years old and started her first college game and scored in the first five minutes. Probably couldn't have scripted it better for her." State controlled the remainder of the first half, outshooting the Jaguars, 15-2, with an 8-0 edge in shots on goal. The Bulldogs earned seven corners in the first 45 minutes alone. |
| SEC commissioner urges caution in approach to fifth-year eligibility court orders | AP News | |
| Commissioner Greg Sankey wants everyone in the Southeastern Conference to move carefully when adding players suddenly allowed by court rulings to seek a fifth year of eligibility. Sankey sent a memo to league members on the landscape created by court filings and rulings being "highly dynamic," a person familiar with the memo told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Wednesday because of the volume of lawsuits, motions and courts involved. The memo, sent Tuesday, was first reported by CBS Sports. ankey reminded SEC members that they should operate under existing NCAA rules, interpretations and applicable league rules until advised otherwise. He told them each school's compliance office should work with SEC staff before making any commitments on a player's eligibility. |
| Higher-income families more likely to enroll kids in organized sports, an AP-Ipsos poll finds | |
| Americans overwhelmingly see major benefits to children playing organized sports, a new poll finds, but higher-income families are more likely to participate. Learning teamwork and reducing screen time are among the perceived benefits of youth sports, according to the AP-Ipsos survey. About half of U.S. parents with K-12 school-aged children say their kids play a structured sport, but participation is higher among more affluent families. About 7 in 10 K-12 parents with a household income of at least $100,000 annually say their children play organized sports, compared to about 4 in 10 parents with a lower household income. The findings point to a key problem in youth sports: parents almost universally see participation as an important part of kids' childhood, but the out-of-pocket expenses can be significant, particularly for lower-income families. |
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