'acting like they're victims of the situation'

News Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Wake Up Dead Man Plot Details Reveal How the Next Knives Out Mystery Returns to the Genre’s Origins Wake Up Dead Man is coming this fall to theaters and Netflix. By Molly Templeton | Published on September 3, 2025 Image: Netflix © 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Netflix © 2025 Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is headed back to movie theaters. Wake Up Dead Man, writer-director Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out mystery, is getting a brief theatrical release before it shows up on Netflix in December, and what’s more, Netflix has finally, finally revealed just a few details about the film. We know the important stuff, sure: Benoit Blanc shows up someplace to solve a murder. But Wake Up Dead Man sounds quite different than the second film, Glass Onion, and Johnson says it’s drawing more from the past than the future for inspiration. “It’s more similar to the first Knives Out in that it gets back to the real origins of the genre, which predate Agatha Christie, going back to Edgar Allan Poe,” Johnson told Netflix’s Tudum. “It’s still a Benoit Blanc mystery, so it’s funny and fun, but it’s set in an old stone church, there are lots of graveyards.” It’s set in a church because this film’s new central character is “an eager young priest” with the unlikely name of Jud Duplenticy, played by Josh O’Connor. Duplenticy has come to a small town in upstate New York to work alongside Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), who is described as a “charismatic firebrand.” Wicks’ congregation includes Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church), Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), and Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny). That’s a lot of suspects for the “impossible murder” Blanc hopes to solve. There’s one more player in this game, too: local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis). “Themes of guilt, mystery, morality, and fallible humanity all feel right at home in a church, with a man of God in the center of the mix,” Johnson told Tudum. “I have strong feelings about faith: both my own personal experience and how it intersects with our country’s cultural and civic life, and the ways that intersection touches all of us differently. So it felt like rich ground for a good story.” Wake Up Dead Man will be in select theaters November 26, and on Netflix December 12.[end-mark] The post <i>Wake Up Dead Man</i> Plot Details Reveal How the Next <i>Knives Out</i> Mystery Returns to the Genre’s Origins appeared first on Reactor.

Column Science Fiction Film Club Europa Report: Stress and Sincerity in Space Exploration The rare sci fi movie that’s not cynical about the risks we take in the name of science. By Kali Wallace | Published on September 3, 2025 Credit: Start Motion Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Start Motion Pictures Europa Report (2013). Directed by Sebastián Cordero. Written by Philip Gelatt. Starring Christian Camargo, Anamaria Marinca, Michael Nyqvist, Daniel Wu, Karolina Wydra, and Sharlto Copley. When I was in college, some twenty-five years ago, I took a geology class about Mars. On the first day of the class, the professor asked who in the class would go to Mars if they got the chance. Everybody raised their hands. He then asked who would go if they knew they wouldn’t be able to come back. All of the students put their hands down—but the professor kept his raised. With the amusement of somebody who had asked that question before and knew exactly what the answers would be, he went on to talk about the challenges of studying planetary bodies from a distance and the assumptions we make because we have such a limited data set. I recall that professor’s question whenever I watch or read something about the possibility of manned missions to other planetary bodies in our solar system. There was no question in his mind—as somebody who spent his life studying planetary surfaces from afar—that it was worth it. Not for the glory, not to reinvent society, not to escape Earth, but to learn more about how the universe works. The knowledge gained would be worth it. I think that’s a pretty common opinion among scientists actively studying our solar system. Beneath all the cyclic noise about research funding and billionaire egos and jingoistic pride, there are always people quietly working away in their labs, counting impact craters on high-res photos or staring at spectrographs until their eyes cross, and they are always going to want more accurate and more effective ways to figure out all the things we don’t know. Where that opinion isn’t very common is in sci fi cinema. The skepticism that sci fi movies have toward science is nothing new, and it’s a topic well beyond the scope of this column. The underlying theme of quite a lot of sci fi films can be summed up in Jeff Goldblum’s famous line from Jurassic Park: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.” As an audience member who likes sci fi movies about terrible things happening and a writer who knows that terrible things happening make for exciting stories, I do very much understand where this comes from. But as a person who also knows that scientific discovery and knowledge are fundamentally important to humanity, I do often roll my eyes at movies that—intentionally or not—take on a scolding, puritanical tone toward science. Europa Report is notable for being a movie that doesn’t share that skepticism. It’s a movie about terrible things happening to people who go out to explore space, yes, but the point isn’t that they shouldn’t have gone exploring. The possibility that humanity could just not try to explore space isn’t even entertained. The film is instead saying: Exploring space is dangerous, and there will be times when the worst-case scenario happens, but we should do it anyway. That was the goal of the film from its earliest conception. Screenwriter Philip Gelatt has spoken about how he set out to write hard science fiction that centers the science, and that meant getting as much of it right as possible. He did a lot of research into the science and technology of human space travel in general and exploring Europa in particular. He mentions using Mary Roach’s delightful book Packing For Mars as a starting point, but he went a lot farther than popular science writing about the topics. He talked to folks at NASA about keeping people alive and healthy on a long space journey; he talked to scientists at JPL about the current state of our knowledge about Europa; he talked to a marine biologist about looking for life in another world’s oceans; he talked to scientists about the radiation shielding necessary to protect astronauts that close to Jupiter. There are a couple of details he mentions that I really like. One is that they were well aware in the production when what they put on-screen was not quite realistic, such as when the practical and budgetary requirements of simulating zero gravity—the eternal bugbear of all sci fi filmmakers!—meant they had to handwave some details of the spaceship design. Another is that he asked experts in deep space travel about the psychological pressures of going into space, and they told him what everybody who looks into real-life space travel knows and everybody who writes science fiction cheerfully ignores: It’s not actually that bad. Astronauts are people doing a high-pressure job, so they have problems like anybody else, but they are well-trained professionals. That’s an important element of how Europa Report plays out. The story is told non-linearly, but the premise is this: A private corporation sent a crew of six astronauts to Jupiter’s moon Europa to investigate the possibility of there being life elsewhere in the solar system. Six months into the mission, Earth lost contact with the ship, and they didn’t hear from the mission again until they received a final data transmission several months later. That data has been edited and compiled into a documentary, complete with commentary from three experts who worked on the mission (played by Embeth Davidtz, Dan Fogler, and Isiah Whitlock, Jr.). We don’t learn immediately what happened six months into the mission, but eventually it’s revealed that a solar flare damaged the ship, knocking out their communications. While trying to repair the damage, crew member James (Sharlto Copley) died in a spacewalk accident. The rest of the crew continued the mission. They were struggling emotionally—especially Andrei (Michael Nyqvist)—in mourning and demoralized, but they didn’t stop doing what they set out to do. Gelatt rightfully identifies this as one of Europa Report’s key characteristics: in places where characters in a different movie might lose their cool, or lash out emotionally, or begin acting irrationally, the Europa One astronauts just keep doing their jobs. It’s an interesting approach from a writing standpoint, because it requires asking, “What can go wrong even if they don’t make boneheaded mistakes?” Sebastián Cordero and cinematographer Enrique Chediak came on to the project after Gelatt and producer Ben Browning had developed the story and script pretty thoroughly. Both Cordero and Chediak are Ecuadorian, and they had first worked together on Crónicas (2004), a crime thriller set in rural Ecuador. In a 2013 interview, Cordero talks about how he had always been a sci fi fan, but making movies in Ecuador meant he was always aware of the pressure to stick with gritty realism. Europa Report offered him a chance to do sci fi realism without the grit, and to do it in an American production (meaning: filmed in the U.S. with American money) with a multinational cast that deliberately echoes the multinational nature of modern space travel. And it is indeed very free of grit, because the setting is designed to mimic the International Space Station. It’s a pointed contrast to so many other cinematic spacecraft, from those that are highly stylized (which I love) to those that are intensely industrial (which I also love). Europa One looks like what real spacecraft look like in the early 21st century: strictly functional, crowded with equipment, but extremely clean and well-maintained. They mimicked those scenes of the astronauts hanging out in zero gravity with a little wire work (wire work is awkward, time-consuming, and actors hate it), opting instead to have the actors recline on yoga balls or be propped up by film crew members, with the various supports being removed in post-production. Visual effects supervisor John Bair has talked about the kind of research that went into making the ship look right. For the outside shots, that included figuring out how much light there would be that far from the Sun and what Jupiter and Europa would look like as the ship approached. For the interiors, in addition to modeling the design on the ISS, they carefully worked out where cameras would plausibly be placed in a situation designed to document an historic human achievement. Europa Report is described (even by the filmmakers themselves) as a found footage film, but it’s really more of a mockumentary. Toward the end of the film, when Andrei and Rosa (Anamaria Marinca) realize they aren’t getting off of Europa alive, they sacrifice a few extra minutes or hours of survival to transmit the data back to Earth. Because what they have discovered is the entire purpose of their mission! The characters know that what they have discovered is valuable data, because they set out knowing that anything they discovered would be valuable data. Earlier in the film, mission commander William (Daniel Wu) mentioned casually that even if they didn’t find life, that would be an important discovery too—and he’s right! It might be disappointing, but it would still be scientifically valuable. Either way, the mission would be obsessively documented, so the framing device doesn’t have to convince the audience there would be cameras on at all times. I like that choice because it both makes sense in the story and guides the movie’s format. The movie was filmed in a relatively short amount of time (just under three weeks) in a studio in New York. The production crew built the spaceship interiors as accurately as possible on a relatively lean budget. (That is, lean for a modern, effects-heavy American sci fi movie, so we’re talking less than $10 million.) The crew then placed cameras where cameras would plausible be placed aboard an actual spaceship, setting them to record, and left the room. I mean they literally left the room. The cameras were placed to cover nearly all angles of the set. Consider, for example, the camera coverage of the cockpit area where William and Rosa are often seated while flying the ship, which features close angles of both seats as well as a longer view down into the next chamber of the ship. Those weren’t set up separately with parts of the set being taken away to make room for the camera crew; they were all built into the set and recording at the same time. There were at times as many as eight cameras running simultaneously, and Cordero and the film crew were often not even in the room. What they had at the end of filming was footage of different takes of the same scenes from numerous cameras, all of which had to be edited and cut together. Most films, even the biggest productions, have one primary editor; Europa Report had four (Aaron Yanes, Alexander Kopit, Craig McKay, and Livio Sanchez), and it took them several months to piece it all together. The spaceship exteriors and the surface of Europa were all added digitally; according to Bair, they took photographs of rocks in Central Park, turned them into 3D models, and added textures to turn them into a landscape of icy spires. I love that interview with Bair because I think it’s the first visual effects interview I’ve read—and I’ve read many—where the guy in charge just straight-up says, “We did it in Photoshop.” But they do use some physical models in the film! I was surprised to learn that, because I assumed it was all digital. Not because it looks bad—the movie looks quite good—but because I knew it was an indie film with a relatively limited budget. The models come in at the very end, when the ship is flooded. That’s done using one-third scale miniatures of the ship section and the reveal of the alien creature. The creature is exactly what it looks like: a hybrid of an octopus and a squid, with some bioluminescence for extra pizzazz. I’m not sure how I feel about the creature reveal at the end. On the one hand, I understand the storytelling demands of having the movie build toward something, something that would give the narrative a complete arc and end on an impactful note. On the other hand, it’s the one moment in the film where it feels like the commitment to scientific realism was set aside for the drama. There are other moments that we can quibble about if we really want to be nitpicky, but none of those irk me as much as the glowy octopus guy there at the end. It doesn’t ruin my enjoyment of the film, but it does make me think about how the discovery of life on Europa would be astonishing even if it were just bioluminescent ice plankton or whatever, and how the loss of life in a space mission is tragic even if a monster doesn’t get them. In that same interview I linked above, Gelatt mentions asking scientists who study Europa if they would take a walk on the surface even if they knew they weren’t properly shielded from the radiation, and at least one of them replied that yes, of course he would. That answer clearly guided a lot of how the movie’s plot progresses. The crew argues, but they don’t fall out; they are struggling, but they don’t go crazy; they bicker and disagree, but they don’t sabotage their mission. They recognize that their new situation—down one man and out of contact with Earth—has wrecked their enthusiasm. But they don’t lose sight of what they have set out to do. They are still exploring. Reading about that is what reminded me of my Mars professor from so many years ago, and it provides a fascinating perspective on one way to write about space exploration. I think the typical Hollywood-style approach to causing fictional problems in a sci fi setting is to spin those problems out of hubris or recklessness or greed or ego. Those elements can make for good stories, with heightened emotional hooks and lots of action! And people do often make questionable decisions with unforeseen consequences, so it’s not as though it’s hard to put them in situations where things go wrong. But when we talk to scientists who spend their lives thinking about this stuff, we learn there are people willing to take risks to discover everything they can. They know the worst-case scenario is always a possibility, even if they do everything right, and they are willing to take that chance. That spirit is something Europa Report captures uniquely well, and it’s something I’d love to see more of in science fiction cinema. What do you think of Europa Report? What do you think about realistic sci fi in general or the crew’s unique way of filming the movie? It was 99ºF when I sat down to watch this film, so when the characters are gazing out at the frozen surface of Europa, I kept thinking, “God, I wish that were me.”[end-mark] Next week: We’re heading into deep space with Claire Denis’ High Life. Watch it on Amazon, Apple, or Fandango. The post <i>Europa Report</i>: Stress and Sincerity in Space Exploration appeared first on Reactor.

As an Arlington, Virginia taxpayer, it’s upsetting that my taxpayer money—along with that of neighboring Fairfax, Virginia taxpayers—is being used to sue the Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Education.  Arlington and Fairfax schools want to block the civil rights of schoolgirls and boys and deny them their Title IX protections by allowing members of the opposite sex into locker rooms, bathrooms and onto sports teams.  Arlington Public Schools and Fairfax County Public Schools have decided to sue the Trump administration because they don’t believe that Title IX requirements apply to them. As a result of their intransigence, the school districts, along with the schools of Alexandria, Loudoun and Prince William counties, received “high-risk” designation, which would make it harder for the systems to receive future federal funds.  “States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional scrutiny,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, wrote in an Aug. 19 statement.  Officials have reportedly claimed that the high-risk designation means they could lose access to up to $167 million for Fairfax, the largest district in Virginia, and $23 million for Arlington.  “This lawsuit is an important step in our effort to protect the health and safety of all our students in alignment with state and federal law—to ensure that hungry children are fed and that student access to multilingual, special education, and other essential services is not compromised,” Michelle C. Reid, Superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools said in a letter. “[Fairfax County Public Schools] remains dedicated to creating a safe, supportive, and inclusive school environment for all students and staff members, including our transgender and gender-expansive community.”  In addition to the unscientific claims of “gender-expansive” students, what’s also troubling about Reid’s statement is how she’s trying to claim it’s OK to violate civil rights of some students in order to prevent other students from starving. Exploiting hungry children is using them as hostages for nonsensical polices that are unpopular and violate students’ and parents’ rights.  My colleague at Independent Women’s Voice, Julie Gunlock, is an Alexandria parent who recently posted some disturbing news about her district.  I too was sent handouts given to Alexandria City Public School students. @ACPSk12 teacher Daiga Cers gave this questionnaire to kids, asking for preferred name/pronoun then asking if she can use them w/caregivers and if not, what to use. They’re socially transing kids & keeping… https://t.co/SfECuvLg79 pic.twitter.com/EKC4uXhZcM— Julie Gunlock (@JGunlock) August 26, 2025 “I too was sent handouts given to Alexandria City Public School students. @ACPSk12 teacher Daiga Cers gave this questionnaire to kids, asking for preferred name/pronoun then asking if she can use them w/caregivers and if not, what to use. They’re socially transing kids & keeping secrets from parents!”  While in office, former President Joe Biden attempted to illegally rewrite Title IX, the landmark law signed by President Richard Nixon to ensure equal opportunities for women and girls in education and athletics.  Biden and his allies threatened women and girls’ safety nationwide, but the Trump administration’s policies are not contentious; they are overwhelmingly popular. For example, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski reported 79% of Americans oppose male athletes in female sports, including 67% of Democrats.  Case law under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause recognizes inherent differences between men and women. These legal precedents recognize that to ensure equal protection under the law, men and women (and boys and girls) sometimes must be treated distinctly. President Donald Trump preserved the Constitution through his executive orders and other policies.  Thankfully, McMahon (disclosure, I worked directly under her at America First Policy Institute), is fighting back against the Virginia lawsuits’ efforts to justify the unconstitutional violation of women and girls’ rights.  “It’s disturbing that these Virginia school division leaders are fighting harder to keep boys in girls’ sports and bathrooms than they are to improve outcomes for students,” McMahon posted on X. “The Trump Administration will proudly stand for common sense and protect our young girls. See you in Court.” See you in court, indeed.   Carrie Sheffield is a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Voice and leads the Northern Virginia chapter of the Independent Women’s Network. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Two Virginia School Districts Sue to Keep Males in Female Spaces appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Those inflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome are no longer just wishing the president were dead, they’re actually starting to hallucinate it. While the rest of us were hitting the grocery store for Labor Day Weekend goodies, the Never Trump-types were hitting resend on posts questioning whether President Donald Trump had died. It seems a whole flurry of hashtags like #TrumpIsDead” and #WhereIsTrump” went viral and conspiracy theories emerged when Trump was not seen in public for almost three whole days and his Labor Day Weekend calendar was clear. Oh, and Vice President JD Vance said he’d be ready to step in as president if a “terrible tragedy” should occur. (Right after saying Trump is in excellent health.) But who knows? Maybe if you play a recording of Vance’s interview backward, perhaps you can make out the words, “Trump is dead.” That’s about how ridiculous the hopeful speculation was getting. Never mind that Trump was on social media the whole time posting as only the president can. Or that a couple days without the president being in our face is hardly worth a fuss, especially considering former President Joe Biden only emerged from the ground as often as cicadas. I mean, Linus was more likely to spot the Great Pumpkin than we were to spot Biden most months. Here’s the sick part. It wasn’t just social media tin hats spreading this nonsense about Trump’s demise. Illinois Gov. JD Pritkzer responded to Trump’s (theory-busting Truth Social post) demanding he step up efforts to fight crime in Chicago or else, by snarking, “Why don’t you send everybody proof of life first?” Why don’t you send everyone proof of life first?(Either way, Chicago doesn’t want you here) pic.twitter.com/1hdPA6NENJ— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) August 31, 2025 Two points. First, I doubt the family of the seven people murdered and 54 shot in Chicago Labor Day Weekend would appreciate Pritzker’s response to Trump’s anti-crime plea. Second, no disrespect, but it seems Pritzker’s the last person in American politics to question another politician’s health. The morbid delusion of Pritzker and the TDS crowd collapsed Saturday morning when Trump headed out for a golf date with granddaughter Kai—though some bitterly clinging to their conspiratorial dream suggested it was a body double. These are sad, sad people. (Still, one can only imagine what Trump’s reaction to claims there was a body double. “Where they going to find another body as beautiful as mine?”) However, this whole folly does point to a fascinating truth: Nobody would blink twice if any other president had an empty schedule for a couple days around a holiday weekend. But Trump opens the door because the man takes no time off. Historically, during the summer, our presidents take a stretch of time away from the White House for an extended vacation. And no one blames them. President Ronald Reagan would head to his California ranch and ride horses. President George W. Bush would race bikes around his West Texas spread. President Barack Obama would kick back with the fabulous on Martha’s Vineyard. President Joe Biden would scarf chocolate chip ice cream and lay comatose on Rehoboth Beach. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)Trump? He treats vacations the way Biden treated a secure border wall. He wants no part of one. One suspects he’d rather slow dance with Rosie O’Donnell than take any time off. Trump does not vacation. He was supposed to go to his Bedminster resort in New Jersey for a spell but chucked that idea to keep working at the White House on Ukraine and Russia peace. His idea of a day off is negotiating trade deals while riding around the back nine. That would be a joke, except that’s precisely what he did during a recent visit to his new golf course in Scotland. The guy won’t even take time off when visiting his own resort. Heck, the guy didn’t take any meaningful time off after getting shot. Here’s another example: A few days back, when the president had nothing on his schedule … and was supposed to be dead … Trump took to Truth Social to blow up a contractor like the guy was an underground Iranian nuclear site for daring to gouge the new limestone surface of the Rose Garden. pic.twitter.com/36EHaNbPZS— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 30, 2025 Yes, Trump’s idea of R&R is DIY. Heck, what’s he doing for fun this summer? Building a ballroom … for future presidents to use, along with a Presidential Wall of Fame. (Hey, Mr. President. Got a few hours to help us with the back porch?) The president says he doesn’t need much sleep. I predict they’ll give a Pulitzer to the reporter who proves he actually does sleep. Just the other day Trump announced plans for a major comprehensive crime bill at 12:31 in the morning.His exhausting 24/7 schedule is why worn-out reporters are more likely to cry “Uncle!” than “Mr. President” when he heads off on another bit of business on behalf of the American people. Perhaps on these days after Labor Day we can pause to appreciate the man has who all the means—and all the reason—in the world to enjoy a life of leisure, but instead labors without rest to improve the life of each and every American. Even those who fantasize about his death. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Trump’s Not Dead. He’s Barely Even Taking a Moment Off. appeared first on The Daily Signal.

School choice continues to be a hot topic among parents in Virginia, especially in an election year when the Governor’s Mansion and House of Delegates are up for grabs. The commonwealth has limited options and doesn’t have true choice for every student. The Virginia Education Opportunity Alliance will hold a statewide education summit in Richmond this Saturday that will include The Middle Resolution, the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, The Heritage Foundation, and leaders in the homeschooling and microschool movements. >>> Sign up for our Virginia email newsletter The daylong event will look at current school choice options open to Virginia families and discuss how to bring more choice in the future. The Daily Signal sat down with Virginia Education Opportunity Alliance President Craig DiSesa to look at those opportunities now and in the future at the State Policy Network Annual Meeting, where the growth of school choice in states around the country was a large portion of the program. Listen here: The post What School Choice Options Are Available for Virginia Families? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Graham Linehan, the creator of Father Ted and The IT Crowd, is planning to sue the London Metropolitan Police after his arrest at Heathrow Airport over comments he made on social media. His detention, which involved five armed officers as he returned from the United States, has reignited public anger over the police’s expanding role in ideological enforcement rather than the maintenance of public safety. The arrest stemmed from several posts Linehan made online. Linehan, describing his experience as surreal and oppressive, said, “This was a horrible glimpse of the dystopian clown show that Britain has become.” Backed by the Free Speech Union, he is now launching legal action for wrongful arrest and a breach of his civil liberties. Mark Rowley, head of the Metropolitan Police, acknowledged widespread public discontent and alleged that vague laws have put officers in untenable positions. He insisted that officers should avoid being dragged into “culture war” territory and that only posts posing a clear threat to public order or safety would now warrant police involvement. “Most reasonable people would agree that genuine threats of physical violence against an identified person or group should be acted upon,” said Rowley. “But when it comes to lesser cases, where there is ambiguity in terms of intent and harm, policing has been left between a rock and a hard place.” He confirmed plans to present proposals to the government for legal reforms and to begin trialling new guidelines on handling online speech. Though, Rowley defended the arrest under existing legal frameworks, citing current laws that can criminalize threats directed toward protected groups. Still, he signaled that the legal system itself is overdue for change. What makes this even more baffling is how avoidable it was. The tweets are public. They’re there, plainly visible, for anyone, including the police, to read and evaluate. So if officers felt they had to investigate, why the dramatic airport ambush? Why not a phone call? Why not an invitation to attend a voluntary interview? Or a scheduled meeting at a police station? Why are they investigating this at all? Instead, they opted for a full-scale operation, handcuffing Linehan and detaining him for 16 hours. This, despite the fact that they already knew exactly why he was returning to the UK: to attend a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. There was no risk of flight. There was no uncertainty about his whereabouts. Those supporting Linehan, including the Free Speech Union, are now looking into legal action against the Metropolitan Police for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. And part of the case will hinge on precisely this point, the sheer disproportionality of the response. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Graham Linehan to Sue Metropolitan Police Over Heathrow Arrest and Online Speech Dispute appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

The Trump Death Rumors Seemed Dumb, but Media Coverage Was Even Dumber