News Tomb Raider Sophie Turner Cast as Lara Croft in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Tomb Raider TV Series After a long gestation period, the series will go into production next year. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on September 3, 2025 Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Tomb Raider series has been brewing since at least 2023 at Amazon MGM Studios. Today, after learning way back in November 2024 that Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner was in talks to star, we finally got official confirmation (via Deadline) that she’ll play Lara Croft on the upcoming show, which is set to start production on January 19, 2026. “I’m so excited to announce the formidable Sophie Turner as our Lara alongside this phenomenal creative team,” Waller-Bridge said in a statement. “It’s not very often you get to make a show of this scale with a character you grew up loving. Everyone on board is wildly passionate about Lara and are all as outrageous, brave, and hilarious as she is. Get your artifacts out… Croft is coming…” Shouldn’t we be hiding our artifacts from Lara? Since she is, indeed, a raider? But I digress… The announcement of Turner’s official involvement also came with another piece of news: Chad Hodge (Wayward Pines) is also on board to serve as co-showrunner with Waller-Bridge, while Jonathan Van Tulleken (Shōgun, Dope Thief) will serve as a director and executive producer. Hodge was reportedly brought on during the second writers’ room in an attempt to improve upon the first writers’ room scripts. He was elevated to co-showrunner from there. “I am thrilled beyond measure to be playing Lara Croft,” Turner said in the same statement. “She’s such an iconic character, who means so much to so many—and I am giving everything I’ve got. They’re massive shoes to fill, following in the steps of Angelina [Jolie] and Alicia [Vikander] with their powerhouse performances, but with Phoebe at the helm, we (and Lara) are all in very safe hands. I can’t wait for you all to see what we have cooking.” We don’t currently have a premiere date to see what’s cooking, but with production starting in January, odds are we’ll see it hit Prime Video in late 2026 or early 2027. [end-mark] The post Sophie Turner Cast as Lara Croft in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s <i>Tomb Raider</i> TV Series appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts The Roots of Chaos Read an Excerpt From Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon A story of human resilience in the face of dire circumstances, set before the events of The Priory of The Orange Tree. By Samantha Shannon | Published on September 3, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Among the Burning Flowers, a new fantasy novel in the Roots of Chaos series by Samantha Shannon, out from Bloomsbury Publishing on September 16. It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind.Marosa Vetalda is a prisoner in her own home, controlled by her cold father, King Sigoso. Over the mountains, her betrothed, Aubrecht Lievelyn, rules Mentendon in all but name. Together, they intend to usher in a better world.A better world seems impossibly distant to Estina Melaugo, who hunts the Draconic beasts that have slept across the world for centuries.And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring, and Yscalin will be the first to fall… All children of Virtudom knew the old tales—taught in every sanctuary and every household, rich or poor. How the Nameless One—a vile red wyrm—had emerged from the Dreadmount to conquer the world, only to be vanquished by an Inysh knight, known to history as the Saint. Five hundred years later, the Dreadmount had erupted again, and from its mouth had soared five more wyrms, the High Westerns, led by Fýredel. All made in the image of the Nameless One. All bent, for no discernible reason, on the utter destruction of humankind. They had brought a flock of wyverns from the Dreadmount—smaller and more agile wyrms, no less terrible. On the orders of Fýredel, the wyverns had flown across the world, using its animals to breed vicious servants: basilisks, cockatrices, ophiotaurs, and many others. For over a year, the Draconic Army—the wyrms, the wyverns, and the beasts they had spawned—had laid waste to the continents in a time known as the Grief of Ages. They had razed cities, burned crops, and spread a plague that made the victim feel as if their blood was burning. At last, the Saint’s Comet had ended the violence, stripping the creatures of their fire. The creatures had crawled into every cave and mine and pit they could find, laying down to sleep like stone. There were thought to be many thousands of sleepers, lurking in the deep forgotten places of the world. For centuries, they had not stirred unless they were disturbed. But now the Draconic Army was waking of its own accord. Estina Melaugo hiked uphill, past firs, stone pines, and cork oaks. She still had no idea if the problem extended beyond Yscalin, how long it had been going on, or if King Sigoso knew of it. The beasts were stirring unpredictably, and so far, no wyverns or wyrms had been sighted. But even one Draconic brute could devastate a settlement. And where there was fear, there was always profit. That or a bowl of gruel and a sheep. ‘What did you think he was going to offer you?’ she muttered to herself. ‘A banquet and a milk bath?’ She flexed her right hand, then her left, committing the feel of her fingers to memory. One did not confront a sleeper and not expect to lose a limb. Culling was a crime of opportunity, like housebreaking. The creature might be on the hunt, wide awake, or lying still as a boulder. Even in a drought, this forest remained green and shaded, nourished by mountain streams, but the ground was unyielding. Though Melaugo was in her early twenties, she felt as stiff and weary as a woman thrice her age. At noon, she came upon an enormous old yew, marked with the same runes she had seen when she first arrived in this region. This must be the Haytha Tree. She sat beside the stream to eat the pine nuts she had gathered. During her time in Perunta, she had loved to dance in alehouses and climb the cliffs for sport. Now less than a mile on foot was exhausting. She splashed her face, filled her waterskin, then checked her compass and turned east. After a hundred steps, she noticed a trail of animal bones and followed it away from the stream. Before long, she reached the mouth of a cave. She leaned inside, only to grimace and withdraw. It was filthy, redolent of brimstone, and she could see the telltale yellowing on the walls. The evidence of a sleeper. Buy the Book Among the Burning Flowers Samantha Shannon Buy Book Among the Burning Flowers Samantha Shannon Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Melaugo took a deep breath. It had been more than three months since she had last done this. She knelt to unpack her supplies. A tunic went over her mail, made of waxed leather to keep out blood and spittle. The way the Draconic plague spread was a mystery—some were more likely to catch it than others—but all of the monsters were thought to carry it, and Melaugo took no chances. Best to treat it like the pestilence and cover up. A hood came next, then gauntlets and steel greaves, a thick cloth for her mouth and nose, and a pair of rivet spectacles. All bought in Aperio, when she was flush with coin. Other than the bridge of her nose and a sliver of her brow, not an inch of her skin was on show. Now she prepared her weapons: crossbow, rapier, billhook, splitting maul. Even the most unsavoury cullers never used rifles; it was perilous enough to risk an open flame inside a lair, let alone gunpowder, even though it wounded sleepers. No, Melaugo could make do without powder, even if it took more sweat. She used the rusty hook on her belt to span her crossbow. Next, she took out her firesteel, lit the candle in her mining lantern, and latched it shut. It might not be enough. Each time she entered a lair, there was a chance the sulphurous air would ignite, or that her light would go out altogether, stranding her in the dark with a monster. Few cullers lasted beyond their first or second kill. She was already on borrowed time. Her palms sweated as she grasped her shield and lantern. She had lost her bear spear—her best weapon—during her last cull; her chances were even lower than usual. Still, she did not ask the Saint for protection. She took his name in vain now and then, but had not prayed since her parents had been taken from her. A few spiders darted away from her light. Her throat burned as she inched along the first passage, stopping to listen every so often. She edged around a corner, avoiding bones and smears of blood. It was thought that wyverns fed on lava, but their offspring relished flesh. As Melaugo crawled on, waiting for her lantern to blow up in her face, she thought back to the bestiaries she had read, considering her opponent. The lindworm was an engorged serpent. It could suffocate her with its coils, but at least it didn’t spit a venom that melted flesh and bone, like the basilisk. Around her lantern, all was black. It was best to lure sleepers outside for the fight, but this cave was too deep and narrow for that. At the end of another tunnel, she negotiated a small opening and slid into a crouch on the other side. Thanks to the cloth she had tied to her soles, her landing was almost silent. She held up her lantern and waited for her eyes to adjust. This cavern was larger, the air dry and hot. And there was the lindworm, surrounded by chewed bones. Once it must have been an adder or a slowworm or some other legless animal, minding its own business, only for a wyvern to transfigure it. Now it was at least twenty feet long and encased in Draconic armour, as coarse and tough as volcanic rock. It was also, mercifully, asleep. Melaugo hung up her lantern. If the lindworm destroyed her only light source, she would die. Her heart was beating harder than she liked. As she put her shield down, she remembered her first kill. A foul cave in Aperio, so tight that it had trapped her twice. The chilling sight of the culebreya—a winged serpent, curled in a hollow. The stony rasping of its breath. And the realisation, terrible in its magnitude, that all the stories of the past were true. That monsters did lurk in the dark. She locked a bolt into her crossbow. According to rumour, meteoric iron was best for killing Draconic things, but nobody knew where to find it. This bolt, tipped with common steel, would only work if she hit a weak point. In absolute silence, she took aim, blinking hard as her sight blurred again. Even here, staring at a creature that might eat her alive, her own hunger felt more urgent. She waited for the beast to move, to open its accursed eyes. ‘Wake up,’ she ordered. The lindworm remained still. It was coiled in a way that might conceal gaps in its hide. If it was going to keep its eyes shut, she would have to get closer. Assuming its slumber was as deep as it seemed, she could use her bill-hook to pry off a scale, but that was a last resort. She took a few steps forward. The lindworm raised its head. Each of its fangs was as long as her face. ‘Well met, serpent.’ Melaugo bared her own teeth in a nervous grin. ‘Did I wake you?’ A rattle stemmed from its maw, raising the hairs on her nape. ‘No.’ Her smile faded. ‘Saint, you were… waiting. You sensed me, so you set a trap.’ Before the implications could sink in, the lindworm began to uncoil, its hiss echoing around the chamber. Long ago, its eyes would have blazed with the fire of the wyvern that had created it. Now they were like dying embers. More than likely, then, the sire was still asleep. Melaugo stood within striking range. As the lindworm moved towards her, she glimpsed the vulnerability she needed—a missing scale over its heart, where some brave soul had tried to kill it in the Grief. All at once, the lindworm attacked. She let the bolt spring from her crossbow, missing its eye by an inch. Then she ran. The cave was larger than she had anticipated, giving her room to avoid the lindworm. Fortunate, because the bastard thing was clearly in the mood for a chase. It followed her around a limestone column, its breath hot on her back, reeking of blood. She tossed the crossbow, snatched up her shield, and drew her rapier. Her lantern guttered by the entrance, casting bizarre shadows. Even though she was slow and weak, Melaugo let her instincts take over, trusting herself to avoid every strike. She spun with her shield, just in time to block a lunge that might have finished her. Wherever she turned, the lindworm was in close pursuit, its huge body rasping in her wake, threatening to trip and squeeze her. Those coils seemed to be everywhere, all over the ground. With a growl, she dashed after the weak spot. It was only about as wide as her fist, but that was plenty of room for a rapier. When another coil blocked her way, she took a risk and scrambled over it, feeling its inner heat as she rolled off its back. Its hide was not slick, like that of a snake, but rough enough to cut bare skin. Only her gloves and greaves kept her safe. Her body was already protesting. When she had faced other sleepers, there had always been a surge of strength, an icy rush of clarity. This time, it refused to come. The food she had forced down—the dried fish, the berries, the nuts—had not been enough for a fight like this. She stabbed, but the tip of her rapier only scraped along thick armour, making her curse. Her shield was snatched from her grasp. Somehow she slipped away once more, but her primal instincts were failing. If she did not flee now, she would have crawled into her own grave. But she was so tired, and so hungry, the weakness slowing her. Fatally slowing her. Out of nowhere, a tail whipped into her ribs, slamming her against the cavern wall. Her spectacles broke and fell off her face. She hit the ground, still clutching her rapier, head spinning. The creature loomed above her, its eyes illuminating its face. For one dreadful moment, Melaugo wanted to give up and let it drag her away. She wanted to stop fighting and sleep. As she stared into its gullet, she wondered how long she would last in its belly. The thought knocked her apathy loose. Her parents’ faces flashed before her. Liyat appeared like a waking dream, shouting at her to get up, as the lindworm prepared for the kill. That loathsome mouth yawned open, ready to eat Melaugo whole. She waited for it to unhinge its jaw— —and thrust her blade into the roof of its mouth. A deafening screech. A shudder of sinew. Thick dark blood splattered her front and seeped along her sleeve. In one desperate movement, Melaugo wrenched her sword back and dived out of reach. A pair of iron fangs clanged down an inch from where her boots had been. Melaugo smelled victory. More importantly, she smelled food. With the last of her agility, she plunged her rapier into the weak spot. The lindworm thrashed as gouts of its blood spurted out. With a heaving chest, Melaugo took her maul and hacked off its appalling head. Her lantern flickered out. She blindly groped out of the cave. Outside, in the daylight, she took off her left vambrace and shoved up her sleeve to check her arm. No sign of a scratch or graze. With a laugh, she dropped to her knees, and then vomited. Excerpted from Among the Burning Flowers. Used with the permission of the publisher, Bloomsbury. Copyright © 2025 by Samantha Shannon-Jones The post Read an Excerpt From <i>Among the Burning Flowers</i> by Samantha Shannon appeared first on Reactor.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—A federal appeals court declined Tuesday to allow President Donald Trump to fire a Federal Trade Commission member. In a 2-1 ruling, the panel left in place a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Loren AliKhan, a Biden appointee, reinstating Democrat FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, who Trump fired along with the other Democratic commissioner in March. “The government has no likelihood of success on appeal, given controlling and directly on-point Supreme Court precedent,” Judges Patricia Millett and Cornelia Pillard, both Obama appointees, held. Ninety years ago, the Supreme Court affirmed protections that prevent removing leaders of “independent” agencies such as the FTC without cause in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. The ruling, which the panel cited, has been challenged by the Trump administration through several decisions to fire federal officials.  “President Trump acted lawfully when he removed Rebecca Slaughter from the FTC,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “Indeed, the Supreme Court has twice in the last few months confirmed the President’s authority to remove the heads of executive agencies. We look forward to being vindicated for a third time—and, hopefully, after this ruling, the lower courts will cease their defiance of Supreme Court orders.” The Supreme Court let Trump move forward with firing members of the Merit Systems Protection Board and the National Labor Relations Board in May, as well as members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in July. Trump fired on Aug. 25 Federal Reserve Board Gov. Lisa Cook amid mortgage fraud allegations. Cook sued shortly after. “To grant a stay would be to defy the Supreme Court’s decisions that bind our judgments,” the panel found on Tuesday. “That we will not do.” Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, suggested in a dissent that her colleagues were actually ignoring the Supreme Court’s recent emergency docket rulings, noting the justices stopped lower court orders from taking effect in “two virtually identical cases.” “Following the Supreme Court’s direction, the district court’s far-reaching injunction must be stayed,” Rao wrote. “An injunction ordering reinstatement of an officer removed by the President likely exceeds the Article III judicial power and encroaches on the President’s exercise of the Article II executive power.” In its July decision allowing Trump to fire Consumer Product Safety Commission members, the Supreme Court majority wrote that its emergency docket decisions should inform the lower courts, though they are not “conclusive as to the merits.” Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a concurring opinion, suggested the Supreme Court should have taken up the case on the merits to consider reversing Humphrey’s Executor and avoid confusion. “When an emergency application turns on whether this Court will narrow or overrule a precedent, and there is at least a fair prospect (not certainty, but at least some reasonable prospect) that we will do so, the better practice often may be to both grant a stay and grant certiorari before judgment,” Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post Obama-Appointed Judges Block Trump From Firing FTC Commissioner appeared first on The Daily Signal.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Hybrid positions for federal workers have plunged since President Donald Trump’s day-one order to end most remote work arrangements for agency employees, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday. Federal employees working fully on site now totals 46%, which is more than double the national average of 21%, according to Gallup. Since Trump’s executive order, hybrid work among federal employees has dropped sharply, from 61% in late 2024 to just 28% by the second quarter of 2025, according to Gallup. “President Trump wants federal government employees to show up to work in person and to work as hard as the American taxpayers who pay their salaries,” White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Though hybrid work arrangements have not changed much across the U.S., the shift in federal employees’ work routines is noteworthy, according to Gallup. “In Washington, the hybrid era is over. After President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, his administration ended remote work for most federal employees,” Gallup wrote. “As a result, the number of federal employees working in a flexible hybrid work model plummeted.” Remote work has cratered among federal employees despite several of them protesting Trump’s order, with many legacy media outlets highlighting that some federal workers considered the commutes to be uncomfortable. One staffer told NPR in January that after her commute she was “just so brain-dead” and she “cannot imagine trying to get in the car and go in a third day.” Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst released a report on Dec. 5 that uncovered some of the problems with government employees working remotely. The report highlighted several problems linked to telework, including challenges with locality pay and the impact of largely vacant office buildings on the working environment. “Bureaucrats have been found in a bubble bath, on the golf course, running their own business, and even getting busted doing crime while on taxpayers’ time,” the report states. Ernst has been calling out the abuses of telework by federal employees for years and told the DCNF that she will continue to fight for more government efficiency. “From relaxing in bubble baths to sitting on the beach or even jail, I exposed that Biden’s bureaucrats were everywhere except the office,” Ernst told the DCNF. “I worked with the Trump administration on day one to end this nonsense and get these out of office federal employees back to serving the American people. The data is clear that the return to office order is working, but my efforts to downsize Washington and create a more efficient government is just beginning. Next, I’m working to consolidate unused office space and selling off the thousands of vacant and underutilized buildings that cost taxpayers billions to maintain.” Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post Federal Workers Flock Back to Office in Droves After Trump’s Order Respecting ‘Taxpayers Who Pay Their Salaries’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

House lawmakers backing a petition to advance a vote on releasing additional files on now-deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein gathered Wednesday at the Capitol—alongside several of his accusers. The petition’s support among Republican lawmakers has appeared to falter in recent days. “I hope my colleagues are watching this press conference. I want them to think, ‘What if this was your sister? What if this was your daughter?’ when these survivors speak,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. Massie, along with Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., has spearheaded a petition to force a vote on requiring the federal government to release additional files. Currently, the petition has three Republican signatories other than Massie: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.  In order to get the 218 votes necessary to force the consideration of Massie-Khanna bill, every House Democrat and two additional GOP representatives would have to sign on. The problem? Support for the measure appears to have dropped off over the August recess. Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told The Daily Signal on Tuesday that, due to the White House’s work on the issue, he would not sign onto the discharge petition, despite previously having been a co-sponsor. “I have agreed that I will not actually sign the discharge petition, because I believe that there are some satisfactory things moving forward,” he said, adding:  But I have also said that we are going to watch to see the transparency is still there. I have been assured that it will be, but I will be watching very carefully to see the transparency, because that’s what we need in this case, is transparency. We want to expose the criminals. We want to protect the victims and protect the innocent. That’s transparency. On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee released tens of thousands of pages of documents transferred from the executive branch in compliance with a subpoena.  Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., contended that that eliminates the need for a discharge petition, writing on the social media platform X, “I don’t think the vote to release the Epstein files will even come to the floor, being that they will all be made public.” .@GOPoversight and @RepJamesComerwill be releasing the Epstein Files to a publicly available website momentarily. They are all being uploaded right now. I don't think the vote to release the Epstein files will even come to the floor being that they will all be made public.— Anna Paulina Luna (@realannapaulina) September 2, 2025 Additionally, House leadership has scheduled a vote on a resolution directing the Oversight Committee to continue its investigation into the Epstein case. Nevertheless, the backers of the discharge petition argue that their measure remains necessary. “Now, the Speaker of the House just offered a fig leaf to my colleagues. They’re going to vote on a nonbinding resolution today that does absolutely nothing,” said Massie. He added, “I appreciate the efforts of my colleagues [Rep.] James Comer [of Kentucky] who’s leading the Oversight Committee. They may find some information, but they’re allowing the [Justice Department] to curate all of the information … . If you’ve looked at the pages they’ve released so far, they’re heavily redacted … and 97% of this is already in the public domain.” The Massie-Khanna measure also faces opposition from the White House. On Tuesday, a White House spokesperson said that “[h]elping Thomas Massie and Liberal Democrats with their attention-seeking, while the DOJ is fully supporting a more comprehensive file-release effort from the Oversight Committee, would be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration.” The post Push for House Vote on Epstein Files Release Seen as Losing Momentum appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Border czar Tom Homan says he wakes up “every day like a kid in a candy shop” because U.S. border and immigrations law are being enforced under the leadership of President Donald Trump.   “We’re finally enforcing laws in this country, and we’re going to do it without apology,” Homan said in a speech Wednesday at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C. Still, he added, one of the key components of his job remains very difficult.   Out of all the tasks Trump has tasked Homan with, “the toughest job is to find children,” the border czar said.   The Biden administration lost contact with about 300,000 migrant children who crossed the border without a parent or guardian. Those children were then released into the care of sponsors across the U.S. It was revealed later that some sponsors were not thoroughly vetted.   About “1,400 children were released to unvetted sponsors, where no home study was ever done,” Homan said. Investigations into the whereabouts of those children uncovered that some sponsors listed an inaccurate address—such as that of a parking lot, grocery store, or church—as their home address.   The challenge now is finding those children, because minors can’t be tracked in the way law enforcement tracks adults.   “You all own cars, you own a home, you got credit cards, you pay utility bills, we know how to find you,” Homan explained. “Children don’t have that digital footprint, which means we got to count on the digital footprint of the so-called sponsors.”   Still, Homan says, Homeland Security Investigations agents are working every day to find the missing migrant children and “make sure they’re safe.”   Many of the children the Trump administration has located to date are safe and living with family, according to Homan, but others “are in sex trafficking, some of the children we found in forced labor, and we rescued these children.”   Tragically, some of the missing children have passed away, according to the border czar.   “This is sickening, what the last administration did. I don’t want to hear another word about the cruelty of the Trump administration. I’ll say it again: He’s saving thousands of lives, and we’re rescuing children every day because of the incompetence of the Biden administration,” Homan said.   “I get fired up,” he added, as the crowd chuckled.   Homan’s border security career began in the 1980s, when he joined the Border Patrol before going on to serve in Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In 2017, Trump appointed Homan acting director of ICE. During the Biden administration, Homan said, “for four years, I woke up knowing how many women got raped last night, how many children died making that journey, how many women and children were sex-trafficked across the border, how many known or suspected terrorists came across the border every day—I woke up knowing all this was happening because the border was open.”   Since the start of the Trump administration, Customs and Border Protection’s encounters with illegal aliens are down 96% at the southern border, according to Homan.   The number of known gotaways—illegal aliens who manage to evade Border Patrol apprehension—has also fallen sharply, down from an average of 1,800 a day during the Biden administration. On Sept. 2, there were only 16 known gotaways across the nearly 2,000-mile-long U.S. border with Mexico, according to the border czar.   Homan pledged that his work is not done, noting that more border wall needs to be built and more border buoys need to be put in the Rio Grande to prevent illegal crossings. There are still about 600,000 illegal aliens with a criminal history on the streets of the U.S., and 1.4 million illegal aliens who have been issued a final order of removal but remain in the U.S.  “But let me make it clear: We are prioritizing public safety threats and national security threats … but if you’re in the country illegally, you’re not off the table,” Homan said. “When we find you, you’re leaving.”  Despite the opposition the Trump administration has faced to its immigration enforcement efforts, a 1,000% increase of assaults on ICE agents, and even protests outside the border czar’s home, Homan says he is “not going anywhere.”   “Watch what happens in the next year, folks,” Homan told the crowd, pledging further action to secure the border and enforce immigration law.   The post Border Czar Homan: This One Part of My Job Remains Very Tough appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Patel Announces Major Push to Go After Child Predators

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The New York Times has an inglorious tradition of glorifying communists, and the latest installment in this regrettable ritual came on Wednesday from Seoul bureau chief Choe Sang-Hun. Choe penned an uncritical profile of former North Korean soldier-turned South Korean resident Ahn Hak-sop, who has the dual life goal of removing American troops from the country and returning to the North to die and be buried. Choe began by describing Ahn as a “husk of a man…worn down by life in South Korea, an enemy nation that locked him up for more than four decades.” Next came the anti-Americanism: His speech was slow and slurred because of his dentures, but Mr. Ahn was eager to explain why he so hated the United States. From the words he used — 'comrades,' 'struggle,' 'imperialism,' 'colony' and 'independence'— there was no mistaking the former North Korean soldier’s devotion to communism. ‘I am still trying to figure out this thing called capitalism,’ said Mr. Ahn, 95. Along the walls around him were papier-mâché figures mocking Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty as money-loving, machine gun-toting, bloodthirsty warmongers. ‘People in South Korea don’t realize that they are slaves in a colony and their leaders can’t do anything without American approval.’ At this point, you would think Choe would point out it was Ahn’s beloved North Korea that started the Korean War, but you would be wrong. Instead, Choe reported that Ahn “was captured by the South during the conflict and then survived 42 years and four months in prison on espionage charges, mostly in solitary confinement. Released in the mid ’90s, he stayed on in the South to continue to campaign for his life’s mission: the removal of U.S. military from the Korean Peninsula.” Then Ahn’s final wish: These days, Mr. Ahn is waging the last battle of his life: He wants to return to North Korea to die in his political and ideological home. … ‘I don’t want to be buried in the American colony that South Korea is,’ Mr. Ahn said. ‘I want to spend what little is left of my life in the North, the only free and independent Korea there is, and want to be buried there beside my old comrades.’ Before anyone could object to North Korea being called "free," Choe gave an inside look at Ahn’s home: Inside his living room was a riot of anti-American slogans and art works made by his daughter, Jeong Mi-sook, whom he adopted after he was released from prison. His doormat is the likeness of an American flag bearing the words, ‘Yankees, move out!’ Ms. Jeong, a papier-mâché artist, has recreated a scene of U.S. troops massacring Korean women and children during the war — a favorite theme in North Korean propaganda. Framed on the wall are quotes from Jimmy Carter (who once called the United States ‘the most warlike nation in the history of the world’) and Martin Luther King Jr. (who said the U.S. government was ‘the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today’). Choe then allowed Ahn to claim, “‘South Korean people may claim they live well, but how do you define ‘living well’?’ he said, as he spoke about his preference of the North Korean political system and his own eventful life.’” After recalling Japan's defeat, Choe added, “To many nationalists like Mr. Ahn, colonial rule never ended; it just changed hands from the Japanese to the Americans.” Choe then got in his own historical revisionism, suggesting the Korean War just happened, “Korea soon plunged into an internecine war. While Chinese troops streamed across the border to help North Korea, the U.S. military maintained its air superiority with a horrific bombing campaign. Mr. Ahn was about 20 at the time.” Recalling how Ahn was tortured in prison, eventually released, and recognized as a victim of torture when South Korea became a democracy, Choe asserted “but to his dismay, tens of thousands of U.S. troops were still stationed there.” Choe then got in some final anti-American propaganda: Mr. Ahn blames the Korean divide squarely on the Americans. 'The U.S. troops will never leave until you force them out,' he said. 'A feudal lord will set slaves free only when they rise up to make him fear for his life.' The only time Choe got anywhere close to criticizing Ahn was when he portrayed him as simply naïve, "His slogans sound hopelessly out of place in today’s South Korea, where most citizens want the U.S. troops to stay on their soil to help guard against North Korea and China. Korean reunification, the ideal Mr. Ahn has cherished for so long, looks more distant than ever, as even North Korea says it no longer considers South Korea a partner for reconciliation." If you are a 95-year old man who would rather live in North Korea than South Korea in 2025 and thinks North Korea is a more moral country than the U.S., you are not some anti-colonial resistance fighter. You’re a morally upside-down individual. Ever since the advent of democracy, Ahn has lived as a free man, free to talk with Choe and criticize his government and its main ally. A right no one in North Korea has ever had.

Disgraced Olympic boxer Imane Khelif has submitted an appeal to an arbitration court about being banned from women's boxing.Khelif won gold in the women's 66kg competition at the Paris Olympics in 2024 despite complaints that he is, in fact, a man. Following a dominating performance at the games in which he did not lose a single round, three different reports surfaced that claimed Khelif is a man. A fourth report revealed a medical document that showed the Algerian has XY chromosomes, seemingly putting the story to rest.'She doesn't box anymore. After what happened at the Olympics.'Even Khelif's former coach said the boxer had left his gym and the sport and had not been seen training in months following the leak of the medical report.Now, the Court of Arbitration for Sport says Khelif is requesting to compete again.Khelif has filed an appeal against World Boxing regarding a decision that prohibits him from competing in upcoming events without a preliminary genetic test, the CAS said in press release.In June, Khelif was set to defend a women's title at the Eindhoven Box Cup in the Netherlands, which is run by World Boxing. But Khelif did not compete in the event when the WBO announced it would begin implementing mandatory sex testing.Khelif was seeking to overturn that decision, which stated that he is "not allowed to participate ... in any World Boxing event until she had undergone genetic sex testing."At the same time, the appeals organization noted that Khelif made another brazen request.RELATED: Transgender boxer disappears as mandatory gender testing introduced worldwide Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images Khelif's submission also reportedly requested that the CAS declare him "eligible to participate in the 2025 World Boxing Championships from 4 to 14 September," without having to submit to a genetic test.Khelif hoped that the submission of the appeal would result in an injunction on the ban, which would allow him to compete against women in the interim before an official decision on the appeal was made. However, CAS shot that down."CAS dismissed a request to suspend the execution of the decision by World Boxing until the case is heard," the organization wrote. Khelif's side and the CAS will move forward with an exchange of written submissions and subsequently schedule a formal hearing.RELATED: Trump wins: US Olympic Committee bans men from women's sports Photo by Pierre Suu/WireImage Khelif had been thought to be retiring from boxing after his former manager, Nasser Yesfah, claimed "she has stopped everything.""She hasn't even started again. She doesn't box anymore. After what happened at the Olympics."He added, "In any case, she will be subjected to the same type of test if she becomes a professional."As reported by 3 Wire Sports, Khelif's alleged medical condition is formally described as 5-alpha reductase type-2 deficiency. He reportedly has XY chromosomes, internal testes, and a "micropenis."U.S. government website Medline Plus explains that those with such a condition are genetically male but can be mistaken to have female genitalia at birth.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!