By Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — Not long after his teenage son’s deadly rampage at a Georgia high school, Colin Gray explained to police why he bought the boy an AR15-style rifle, despite his son’s increasingly aggressive behavior and need for mental health counseling.

Colin Gray said he wanted to get his son Colt into deer hunting as a hobby to help him cope with his tumultuous family life. He said Colt shot a deer in their first outing, leading Colin Gray to believe he had “turned a corner” with his son.

“In my mind, I swear to God, I thought he was gonna be perfect from then on,” he said.

But the rifle Colt was using jammed, so Colin said, “We keep doing good, you’re doing good, maybe Santa Claus will bring you one.”

He then bought his son a rifle as his “big Christmas present” and gave him “the whole speech and everything” about gun safety, he said.

Colin Gray’s comments were part of a 1.5-hour interview with Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent Kelsey Ward shortly after the shooting, a recording of which was played in court at Colin Gray’s murder trial on Tuesday.

The recording offered key admissions about Colin Gray’s actions and knowledge of his son before Colt Gray, then 14, brought that AR-15-style rifle to Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, and opened fire on September 4, 2024. Four people were killed and nine were injured, before the teen surrendered to police.

Colin Gray has pleaded not guilty to nearly 30 charges, including two counts each of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

Prosecutors allege he allowed Colt Gray access to the firearm despite previous warnings that his son was a danger to others, actions that constitute criminally reckless conduct.

His defense attorney said in opening statements Colin Gray was unaware his son was planning the shooting and had taken steps to try to get him help. It’s not clear if he will testify in his own defense, so the recording could fill in that gap.

Colin Gray’s trial is part of a broader push to hold more people accountable for a school shooting, including the shooter’s parents and responding law enforcement officers. This case bears close similarities to the trials of James and Jennifer Crumbley, whose then-15-year-old son killed four students in 2021 at his high school in Oxford, Michigan.

The trial began last week and has featured emotional testimony from students and teachers who survived the shooting, police interviews with Colin Gray, Colt Gray’s spotty school attendance, photos showing unsecured firearms and ammo in the home and testimony from the teen’s mother and grandmother about their unsettled family life.

Colt Gray has admitted to the shooting, according to authorities. Now 16, he has pleaded not guilty to 55 felony counts, including four counts of mal

By Hadas Gold, CNN

(CNN) — Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today, as the Pentagon threatens the AI company with what could amount to a government blacklist.

At issue is the guardrails Anthropic placed on its AI models. The Pentagon, which has a $200 million contract with Anthropic, wants the company to lift its restrictions for the military to be able to use the model for “all lawful use,” according to a source familiar with the discussions.

But Anthropic has concerns over two issues that it isn’t willing to drop, the source said: AI-controlled weapons and mass domestic surveillance of American citizens. According to a source familiar, Anthropic believes AI is not reliable enough to operate weapons and no laws or regulations yet that cover how AI could be used in mass surveillance.

The negotiations have been ongoing for a couple months, the source said, but in recent weeks the spat became public as reports began surfacing about the tensions between the two sides.

Then last week, Axios reported Hegseth was close to cutting the Pentagon’s contract with Anthropic and designating the company a “supply chain risk”. That designation, usually reserved for companies seen as extensions of foreign adversaries like Russia or China, could severely impact Anthropic’s business, because any of its enterprise customers with government contracts would have to make sure their government work doesn’t touch Anthropic’s tools.

“We are having productive conversations, in good faith, with (the Department of War) on how to continue that work and get these complex issues right,” an Anthropic spokesperson said.

“Anthropic is committed to using frontier AI in support of US national security,” the spokesperson said. “That’s why we were the first frontier AI company to put our models on classified networks and the first to provide customized models for national security customers.”

A Pentagon official confirmed to CNN the meeting with Anthropic was taking place, but did not comment further.

Anthropic has long positioned itself as the AI company most concerned with AI safety. Its founders were all former OpenAI employees who left the company over disagreements about the ChatGPT maker’s direction, approach to safety and pace of AI development. Anthropic also recently announced it is giving $20 million to a political group campaigning for more regulation of AI.

CNN’s Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.

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By Matt Egan, CNN

New York (CNN) — Former US Senator Bob Kerrey has resigned from the board of directors of a Nebraska clean-energy startup amid controversy over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Kerrey, a Democrat who also served as Nebraska’s governor in the 1980s, joins a growing list of business leaders who have decided to step down due to scrutiny over their links to the disgraced financier.

In a phone interview on Tuesday, Kerrey confirmed that he decided to resign from the board of Monolith to avoid damaging the clean energy company’s fortunes.

“I don’t want to mess up this company’s capacity to be successful. So, I resigned,” Kerrey told CNN.

Kerrey has come under fire after the millions of Epstein files the US Justice Department released revealed the former US Senator arranged to meet with Epstein on at least two occasions in the summer of 2013 for lunch and dinner.

Those meetings occurred years after Epstein pled guilty in 2008 to procuring a minor for prostitution. Kerrey hasn’t been accused of criminal wrongdoing related to Epstein.

The correspondence with Epstein occurred when Kerrey was wrapping up his tenure as president emeritus of The New School, a progressive university in New York, where he was president from 2001 until 2010. Student newspaper The New School Free Press first reported Kerrey’s meetings with Epstein.

“Did I have a meeting with Jeffrey Epstein in 2013? The answer is yes, I did,” Kerrey told CNN.

Kerrey explained he met with Epstein at the time for the purpose of supporting The New School.

“I am willing to accept it was a lack of moral judgment. But the stories and files are misleading,” Kerrey said, adding that any suggestion he did Epstein a favor “isn’t true.”

In a statement to CNN, The New School spokesperson Amy Malsin said the university has reviewed information related to Kerrey’s correspondence with Epstein.

“Those interactions appear to have been limited and were unrelated to the activities of The New School,” the spokesperson said. “We regret that any member of our community had any association with Mr. Epstein, whose crimes were reprehensible.”

A Monolith spokesperson confirmed Kerrey resigned but offered no further details because it was “an internal governance matter.”

The Nebraska Republican Party last week called on all Nebraska political candidates and organizations to immediately return contributions received from Kerrey.

“Kerrey’s repeated presence in these records, including multiple documented meetings, reflects a staggering failure of judgment and moral responsibility,” Mary Jane Truemper, chairman of the Nebraska Republican Party, said in a statement last week.

Kerrey said he embraces the idea of candidates returning his donations to charity and urged Republicans to do the same.

“We need moral clarity. There’s almost an absence of moral clarity – especially in conversation about the so-called Epstein files,” Kerrey said. “If Republicans are morally outraged by what I did, they need to be morally outraged at others who met with Epstein and might be in their party.”

“There were crimes against these chi

By Radhika Marya, CNN

(CNN) — For Donald Faison, stepping back into the shoes of Turk — the lovable surgeon who for about a decade was one half of the zaniest bromance on television — was like riding a bike.

“By the time I got to the end of the block, I’m already doing wheelies and all of that stuff again,” Faison said.

Faison is back — along with Zach Braff as J.D. and Sarah Chalke as Elliot — for a revival season of “Scrubs,” right when a lot of viewers could use a good laugh.

Premiering Wednesday on ABC, the new season features more familiar faces, including John C. McGinley as Dr. Cox and Judy Reyes as Carla. Even creator Bill Lawrence, whose recent hits include “Shrinking” and “Ted Lasso,” is back as executive producer.

Like the original “Scrubs,” which premiered in 2001 and began by chronicling J.D.’s journey as a medical intern, the revival serves up a healthy dose of comedic and heartfelt moments interspersed with J.D.’s signature wacky daydream sequences and voiceovers.

But not everything’s the same. The characters have grown and medicine has changed since “Scrubs” went off the air in 2010 (Lawrence and revival showrunner Aseem Batra confirmed the new series ignores the ninth season, effectively a spinoff that featured little of the original cast).

“I was just trying to figure out what the 50-year-old father, excellent teacher version of J.D. is and have it be real, while still being a guy who’s sort of goofy and silly like I think I am in real life,” Braff said.

The celebrated bromance between Turk and J.D. remains a key part of the show. Braff and Faison are famously good friends offscreen, and have appeared together in T-Mobile commercials and also collaborated on the podcast, “Fake Doctors, Real Friends.”

“I think that’s one of the reasons ‘Scrubs’ worked is that Donald and I just instantly clicked. And then obviously with Sarah as well, we loved each other,” said Braff.

“Scrubs” is far from the first show to be revived in recent years, but bringing it back felt right to much of the cast and crew, who said there’s always room for a tribute to medical professionals. Plus, the cast still has chemistry.

“Now more than ever, we need to laugh,” said Faison.

The new “Scrubs” Season 1 works hard to bring the show into 2026, while also capturing the essence of classic “Scrubs” episodes that balanced comedy with heart, Batra said. To help accomplish this, Lawrence wrote the revival’s first episode, and weighed in on the rest of the season where he could. The appeal of Lawrence’s shows, Chalke noted, is that he “always writes with a real element of hope.” It’s a large part of why Lawrence is glad to see the story revisited today.

“A lot of TV I do right now has an undercurrent of hopefulness and optimism in humanity,” Lawrence said. “If anyone’s working in a teaching hospital, they’re doing it because they want to be of service, and they’re doing it because they think there’s a greater good out there. And stories like that mean more to me right now than ever.”

‘Oldies’ and newbies

For the younger cast members, being the new “newbies” could have been intimidating — some of them admitted to being around a year old when “Scrubs” first premiered. But series veterans made a point of welcoming everyone into the fold. Braff, for example, hosted Saturday night dinners for the cast every week.

“We’d go to set, do our work and every Saturday, we’d bond and have a drink and laugh, and the director of the episode normally would come and join us,” said Layla Mohammadi, who plays surgic

By Fiona Sinclair Scott, CNN

London (CNN) — February in London is a complete misery of a time. The days are still short, the ground is wet and vitamin D levels are low. Hunkering down at home is surely the best course of action. At the Burberry show on Monday night, the brand’s creative director Daniel Lee had other ideas: Suck it up and get out there.

Designed for a night out in bad weather, the new collection is about “celebrating” Britain in the winter, said Lee backstage, as those of us who haven’t seen the sun since September laughed at the idea of finding joy in February.

The show was staged in the darkened former site of London’s 19th-century Old Billingsgate, once home to the world’s largest fish market. Inside, models walked around a replica Tower Bridge (the real one looming large outside) and through resin-made “puddles” for added authenticity.

The soundtrack, a booming composition by British musician FKA Twigs, loudly propelled models into the night on what locals would call “a mission.”

The mission called for leather – lots of it, in a collection that offers up a glam but distinctly hardy wardrobe for city living. Leather coats, skirts, suits and snoods were punctuated with hints of partywear including sequin details, long silky tassels, crushed velvet and ruffles – this season’s twist on the classic trenchcoat.

“It looks like we’re at a convention of flashers,” joked actor Stellan Skarsgård who was one of the many celebrities on the front row in various adaptations of the signature Burberry trench. Other stars included model Kate Moss, Thai actor Bright and musicians Olivia Dean and Skepta. Romeo Beckham walked the show in a faux fur-lined bomber.

The sultry new designs mostly appeared in an inky color palette of black, grays, midnight blues and deep purples – a tone teased by Teyana Taylor the previous night when she wore a sweeping Burberry gown with a dramatic ruffled collar to the BAFTAs.

“London offers such a breadth of life at night,” Lee said, noting he was thinking about clothes that could carry from daytime to wherever an evening may take you.

The collection was about rising to a challenge in many ways – something Burberry has been doing for the last few years after losing its footing between periods of creative and leadership transitions. Lee, now in his third year at Burberry, seems to be successfully edging it back into popular consciousness by offering a modern, wearable take on the 170-year brand without losing sight of its cornerstones: Britishness, outerwear and the Burberry check. At the end of the last year, Burberry made it into the top 10 of Lyst’s “hottest brands” index and reported sales growth for the first time in two years last November.

As is typical, the show marked the end of London Fashion Week but this time it also served as the closing party during a surprisingly festive 24 hours in the city. Erdem’s show on Sunday at the Tate Britain museum was a celebration of twenty years of the independent brand – a remarkable milestone in this economy. Choosing to steer clear of a traditional “retrospective,” the designer, instead presented a stunning fever dream of his world and past references. Actress Glenn Close wore Erdem twice that day, once at the show before presumably dashing across town to change into a second look and walk the BAFTAs red carpet along with more A-list stars than we