News 28 Years Later Sony Greenlights Third 28 Years Later Movie as The Bone Temple Earns Rave Reactions And a familiar face from the first film is likely to star By Molly Templeton | Published on December 11, 2025 Screenshot: Sony Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Sony Pictures The 28 Years Later films have been arriving at an impressive rate: the first film was released just six months ago, while the second one, The Bone Temple, is due in January. A third film was likely but not definite, but Deadline has the news that Sony Pictures has made its decision to proceed with the third film “following the electric fan reaction from recent screenings of the second film.” The Hollywood Reporter has a roundup of social media responses to early screenings of The Bone Temple; responses include words like “brilliant” and “audacious.” Where 28 Years Later was directed by Danny Boyle, who directed the original 28 Days Later, Nia DaCosta took the helm for The Bone Temple. The film stars Ralph Fiennes as Dr. Ian Kelson, who is looking for a cure for the virus, and Alfie Williams as Spike, who joins a gang led by Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell). Cillian Murphy, who starred in 28 Days Later, returns to the role of Jim, though he told the Observer that he only appears in The Bone Temple “for a little bit.” That little bit, though, positions him as a main character in the third film. According to Deadline, writer Alex Garland is currently working on the unnamed third film, while Murphy is “in talks” to star. Boyle has previously said that he’d like to direct the third, unnamed film in the trilogy, and really, who’s going to turn him down? 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple premieres January 16th, 2026.[end-mark] The post Sony Greenlights Third <i>28 Years Later</i> Movie as <i>The Bone Temple</i> Earns Rave Reactions appeared first on Reactor.

Lists Mysteries An Infallible Ranking of Crime-Solving Clergy There’s a surprising amount of crossover between sleuthing and pastoral care. By Leah Schnelbach | Published on December 11, 2025 Credit: Netflix Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Netflix I am a simple person: Rian Johnson releases a new Benoit Blanc mystery, and I see it as often as possible during its theatrical window, and then stream it on Netflix. Wake Up Dead Man is one of my favorite films of the year, and its main character—Father Jud Duplenticy—has inspired me to round up some of the best holy sleuths I could find. As always this is subjective. Be assured that Father Jud is #1 in my heart if not on this list. #15. Father Michael William Logan — I Confess! This is a Hitchcock movie in which Montgomery Clift plays a young hot priest in Quebec City who is framed for murder by his church’s groundskeeper. I’m including it here because Father Michael William Logan becomes very glancingly involved in the investigation of the murder before he himself is too much of a suspect. I expected a taut thriller, but this movie is a bit bumpy—the plot is extremely convoluted, there are multiple subplots about the priest’s former girlfriend and blackmail, so there are only a few sections that really dig into what to me is the most interesting part: since the groundkeeper confessed his murder, the priest is bound by the seal of the confession and can’t clear his own name. There is one sequence that I think really takes the film to the level it needed, where Clift wanders through Quebec City framed by religious iconography. He starts outside a cemetery. Later, as he walks up a hill, Hitchcock shoots him from across the street, where there’s a statue of Jesus carrying the cross up Golgotha flanked by Roman soldiers. A few minutes later, Clift seeks refuge in a different church, walks in, and fixes his eyes on the crucifix which is, after all, a graphic record of a body broken by state violence. There’s no escape for him, and he knows that. #14. Assorted Priests — Death in Holy Orders by P.D. James Fathers Martin, Sebastian, Peregrine, and John don’t actually do too much investigating in P.D. James novel Death in the Holy Orders, as they leave most of it to DCI Adam Dalgliesh. But they do try to assist as they can. And then, in the adaptation of the book for the Channel 5 series Dalgliesh, Father Martin is cut out entirely and his actions divided among the other three. But I still wanted to include them as the book itself is an interesting take on a religious mystery. In both the book and television versions, DCI Dalgliesh is the son of a rector with “a stubborn streak of rationality”, whose history with religion bubbles under the surface of his stoic exterior. While the plot is pretty convoluted, the book gets into some interesting shades between the Church of England, starker Protestantism, and Anglo-Catholicism, but in both cases I think the story could have done with a bit more theology and church details to hammer home how St. Anselm’s, the site of the murder(s), was a unique site for the crimes that occur, and how those crimes would have affected the faculty and students’ faith and livelihoods. #13. Lady Lupin — Who Killed the Curate? by Joan Coggins Lady Lupin is the bubbly, adorable, scatterbrained new wife of Canon Andrew Hastings. I have to assume she’s a slight parody of Agatha Christie’s Griselda Clement (who appears a little further up the list), as she’s a gorgeous blonde 21-year-old, straight out of London society, who is about as unprepared for the vicarage as anyone could be. But, on the night her longterm society boyfriend was going to propose, she met the 38-years-old, silvering-at-the-temples Canon Hastings at a dinner, and by the end of the night the two were completely twitterpated. When Andrew’s pompous young curate, Andrew Young, dies from poison on Christmas Eve (so inconvenient!) Loops takes it upon herself to investigate, with help from her London friends Duds and Tommy, and Andrew’s nephew Jack. Lupin is… well, now, in our technology-addled world, her miniscule attention span and talent for non-sequitur would seem perfectly normal, but at the time author Joan Coggins was writing a gentle parody of un-upperclass woman, kindhearted, but flighty and always focused on exactly the wrong details—until those details turn out to be useful in a murder investigation. It’s easier to just show you what we’re dealing with, so here’s a brief excerpt of Lupin trying to speak with her nephew about a certain Miss Oliver, who might be a murder suspect: “She is a tiresome woman, I hate people who wriggle, and she was rather nasty about June and Diana.”“Why?” asked Jack sharply.“I don’t know, I’m sure. I suppose she was born like it. Where was I?”“You didn’t say, but I gather it was somewhere with Miss Oliver.”“Oh yes, so I was, unfortunately. We were in my sitting room. I know we were there because of the housekeeping money.”“What housekeeping money?”“The money that was stolen, of course.”“You never said anything about any money being stolen.”“Well, I suppose I had forgotten. One can’t think of everything. There was Duds cutting her hair off after telling me she had grown it, and then the carol service, and now poor Mr. Young being dead. It would seem heartless to begrudge ten pounds.” The whole book is like this! It’s great! Lupin doesn’t so much help solve the case, as much as free associate her way down the right path, so she can’t be too high on the list. #12. Merrily Watkins — Midwinter of the Spirit Here again, I’ve seen the ITV adaptation, and haven’t yet read Phil Rickman’s books. Merrily Watkins (Anna Maxwell Martin) was a promising character in an interesting premise, but the execution left her fairly low on this list. She’s already an Anglican minister, recently widowed and trying to navigate her relationship with her daughter, who’s grieving much more than she appears to be. As the series opens, she’s training to become a Deliverance Minister, the Anglican Church’s somewhat more empathetic and holistic take on the role of exorcist. The show shifts in tone between suspense, family drama, and occasionally straight-up supernatural horror. The problem is that Merrily waffles constantly about whether she should even be a Deliverance Minister. (Her “mentor”, a Minister named Huw Owen [David Threlfall], explicitly tells her she’s not cut out for it.) She allows a malevolent spirit to get its hooks in her immediately, and then ends up helping to investigate a series of deaths said spirit may have caused. She doesn’t make any friends in the police force, because the two police officers we deal with walk Merrily into the site of a horrifying occult ritual, complete with corpse and a plethora of anti-Christian imagery, with no warning whatsoever, and she’s utterly traumatized. They don’t seem to have any reason to do this, she isn’t a regular consultant. As the show continues she develops a sort of demonic stigmata (which, cool), and seems possessed at time. Her daughter gets caught up in the occult… cult… and for obvious reasons Merrily devotes more time to that than the case, so a local social worker and Merrily’s mentor end up doing far more of the investigating than she does, although she does come back into the investigation toward the end. But on top of that, aside from the one time when she possible got possessed by an evil spirit during an attempted  Deliverance, we don’t really get to see the inner workings of Deliverance Ministry, and we never see Merrily actually vicar-ing. OH and the cops continue to suck and take her to a second occult site with no warning, but she handles it better the second time. But also, why? One other thing I found interesting—there is a cross-shaped clean spot on the wall above Merrily’s bed, which the show doesn’t address, but which seemed fairly reminiscent of the similar cross-shaped clean spot on the wall of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks’ church in Wake Up Dead Man.    #11. Father Robert Koesler — The Rosary Murders Much as in I Confess!, the main drama engine here (aside from, y’know, murder) is the seal of confession. The murderer confesses to the murders, and Father Robert Koeslar (Donald Sutherland) is then unable to go to the police for protection, because telling them anything would break the seal. He tries to solve the mystery on his own, hoping to get the man to turn himself in (also as in I Confess!) but as the murderer has legitimate beef with the Catholic Church, there’s no way he’ll be so obliging. The crime directly involves priests whom Koeslar knows, and the murderer plants replicas of his dead daughter’s black rosary on each victim, ratcheting up the psychological torment for the embattled priest, who was already having doubts about continuing in his line of work. Father Koeslar does a decent job of tracking down clues, and in the end does far more to solve the mystery than any of the police do, or the journalist who shows up to do research/tempt him away from his vocation. (A really tired trope that does NOT turn up in Wake Up Dead Man!) In the end, the whole crime turns on the confession, though, and the one time Sutherland tries to hint to his superior that something’s up the man harshly rebukes him. Ultimately while it’s not always successful as a sexy thriller, the film becomes a really interesting meditation on a kind of spiritual doom, and Father Loesar proves pretty good at amateur sleuthing. Also? A pre-teen Jack White makes an appearance as an altar server! #10. Father Jud Duplenticy — Wake Up Dead Man This blurb is short because until Wake Up Dead Man hits Netflix this Friday, I am not spoiling a single thing about this movie! I will say, however, that Father Jud Duplenticy is my favorite film character of the year. For a while, he proves to be an excellent natural detective. He notices clues—even a few that elude the great Benoit Blanc—connects dots, and draws on his deep knowledge of his parishioners to weigh their potential murdery-ness. But the reason I love this movie so much is that at a certain point he quits playing detective to re-focus on his calling as a priest. And ALSO without spoiling anything, as in a few of these mysteries, the rite of confession proves pivotal to the mystery, and to Jud’s arc as a person, as does the concept of grace. Jud would have been an excellent sleuth, but I’m glad he picked the career path he’s on. #9. Canon Clement — Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie I sometimes forget that Agatha Christie is hilarious. But this book is full of zingers, deadpan wit, and smirking asides. Canon Clement is a delightful narrator, a middle-aged reverend who claims to be utterly baffled by his decision to propose to his wife, the wild, funny, entirely unsuitable Griselda. Griselda can neither cook, nor manage a household, and revels in the kind of snark that is unbecoming to a vicar’s wife—and I can only assume she inspired the aforementioned Lady Lupin. But it’s clear that Canon Clement is absolutely besotted with her, and that’s our first clue that Clement might be slightly unreliable as he describes his small parish. What’s extra fun is that as the book goes along, we get the increasing sense of Clement as a person—welcoming, non-judgmental, but with a streak of moral belief that comes out in a fiery sermon that leads straight into the book’s climax. The only reason he’s so low on the list is that, well, he’s trying to play amateur sleuth in a book that has Miss freaking Marple in it. She walks into a tea at the vicarage with seven main suspects already in mind (he’s shocked at the number) and then spends the book on the edges of the story, working through possibilities, observing human nature, and finally solving the whole thing with just enough time to help the police apprehend those responsible, and hopefully, save the life of a hapless victim. While Clement is the narrator, and a fantastic one, Miss Marple is the star. #8. Father Dowling & Sister Steve — The Father Dowling Mysteries Two things about Father Dowling Mysteries before I go any further: one episode features a disappearing dead body that a news team tries to spin into a miracle, much like Wake Up Dead Man; Father Dowling is threatened with reassignment to Alaska if he doesn’t cut out all the sleuthing, which leads me to believe that Paolo Sorrentino is a fan of the show. Now as for why Fr Dowling and Sr. Steve are here—Dowling is a good snooper. He’s great at finding tiny clues and noticing things. Sister Steve, because of her rough childhood, is good at whatever the narrative needs her to be, whether it’s being a flair bartender, picking locks, or hotwiring tractors—but rest assured she also gets super upset at the sight of a dead body, so the audience can be reassured that she’s really a sensitive girl under that tough wisecracking exterior. However, Dowling also uses his collar to straight up lie to people, to let people make assumptions that he can leverage  assume that he’s there for innocent reasons when he’s not, and there’s a fair streak of “1980s-1990s Television Miracles”—when the narrative shows us that God or whatever is micromanaging things to the extent the a phone rings just when a baddie is about to find our holy sleuths, or illicit lovers decide to hit pause on their mutual seduction just long enough for the hidden nun to escape. Father Dowling also has an evil twin brother, but to be fair every TV character had an evil twin back then.   #7. Canon Daniel Clement — Murder Before Evensong by Rev. Richard Coles The Canon Clement mysteries are written by an actual vicar, The Reverend Richard Coles, who used to be in Bronski Beat, had a hit single with The Communards (he the one on the synth), and is one of the inspirations for Tom Hollander and James Wood’s excellent BBC series, Rev. Canon Clement is a pretty good sleuth, the fun of these books is watching him balance that work against the constant maintenance of the parish, his care for his parishioners (be they murderers or no), and his own attempts have an actual spiritual life—a thing that is often not mentioned AT ALL in these kinds of books. (It’s also, obviously, a riff on Agatha Christie’s A Murder at the Vicarage, with a singular Canon Clement rather than Christie’s Canon Clements.) Where book Canon Clement seems mild-mannered and a bit hapless, in the TV adaptation (which stars Matthew Lewis as the reverend) Canon Clement is obviously reeling from family upheaval, and resentful of his mother, his bishop, and certain members of his flock. This makes the drama hit a bit harder as he tries to be a good pastor even when he feels no one appreciates it. The show also leans much more into the cultural milieu of 1988, as Canon Clements ministers to AIDs patients even though that scandalizes some people in his parish, and his bishop tries to discourage it as political activism rather than basic ministry. The fact that one of the main characters is gay is made more central to the drama, and clearly plays off the fact that Canon Clements is battling homophobia. In both cases, he takes to detective work immediately, and pieces together clues both on and his own and in tandem with Detective Sergeant Neil Vanloo, who tries to turn him into a sort of de facto assistant before realizing that their goals are not quite aligned. The initial murder is surprisingly grisly, with Canon Clement finding a body in his church because his two adorable dachshunds are, er, walking around in, and licking, the victim’s blood, and Clement reveals his own moral core by repeatedly affirming his hope that the killer finds forgiveness just as the town as a whole finds closure. But he gets this spot because in both the book and the TV adaptation, he’s the one who figures out key pieces in the mystery, even before the stalwart DS Vanloo. #6. Reverend Sydney Chambers — Grantchester Oh, Sydney Chambers. Now I have not read James Runcie’s book series yet (I understand they take a drastically different path) and I have not watched the two vicars who succeed Sydney in his post. But in Series 1-4 of the show, Sydney is a good natural detective who gets into the game because he’s unsatisfied by his life as a vicar. For whatever reason, his flashbacks to his WWII service have gotten worse, and he craves distraction—or, I should say, a new distraction, to add to the jazz, whiskey, and revolving door of women that are already distracting him. It’s astonishing that he ever finishes a sermon. After being glancingly involved with a police investigation, he pitches himself to grizzled, cynical Detective Inspector Geordie Keating as a sort of assistant: between his collar and his charm, he can get people to tell him things they won’t tell anyone else. Geordie is skeptical but tries it, and soon Sydney is solving cases alongside him all the time. Where in a lot of these stories, confession is seen as absolutely sacrosanct, and the priest can’t divulge anything their told even at the risk of their own life or freedom, Sydney pops his collar on and listens really hard, and you soon start to wonder If Geordie ever solved any crimes before he acquired his own personal vicar.   The reason Sydney is so high on the list is because when his season are at their best, they dig into the basic clash between someone who’s supposed to help the guilty find reconciliation with God and society, and someone who’s supposed to catch the guilty and hand them over to a secular justice system. A good example of this is threaded through Series Two. Sydney and Geordie are at loggerheads because a young man is set to be executed for causing the death of a school friend. Geordie thinks executing the boy will be “justice”, while Sydney thinks it’s the state taking “vengeance” after a tragedy. The two men argue over it repeatedly, but come back together when Geordie is implicated in a (really great) locked room murder that he and Sydney solve together. But their sense of unity is immediately shattered when the young man is given his execution date, Sydney goes with him to witness his death at the gallows, and Geordie then approaches Sydney at his church ostensibly to invite him for a drink, but really to needle him about why he aways sides with the “bad ones”. This leads to a knock-down fight that turns the altar into a brawltar It perfectly exemplifies what this weird subgenre can do, interrogating the idea of justice, asking whether forgiveness is possible, setting the conversation up between a person whose job is just…religion, and one whose job is policing. But then it ends with Sydney’s now-pregnant ex-girlfriend turning up to say she’s left her husband and has nowhere else to go and I’m like GET BACK TO THE ETHICS. UGH this show. #5. Reverend Clare Fergusson — In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming Clare Fergusson is an ex-Army helicopter pilot who came to the priesthood in her early 30s. In her first real posting, she’s now the first female Episcopal priest of Millers Kill, an upstate New York town that, like a lot of towns in America, is seeing a divide between the corporate people who can afford picturesque Americana, and the families who are falling through the cracks each time another mill or factory closes. Reverend Fergusson’s new parish is run by a well-heeled board who are clearly in the former camp, and clearly are clearly planning to keep her on a tight leash. But then a poor mother abandons a baby on the church doorstep, and Clare realizes she’s going to have to fight back to include people from all sides of the tracks. In an effort to get to know the town, she goes out on patrol with police chief Russ Van Alstyne, and almost immediately finds a dead body. Over the rest of the book, she applies her empathy and listening skills to find clues that Russ would never spot, and the two essentially work the case in parallel lines, with, once again, the seal of confession causing one or two stumbling blocks along the way, Over the course of the series, Clare and Russ have to deal with their attraction to each other—which is first complicated by the then-married Russ finding out that Episcopal priest are not, in fact, celibate—Clare has to cope with conservative higher-ups, and the two of them deal with various “controversial” issues in a small town—teen motherhood, generational poverty, immigrant communities, gay-bashing—with Clare being the voice of inclusion and good faith, and Russ sometimes being more close-minded. But the series lets them argue it out, and points out Clare’s occasional naivety as well as Russ’ need to be more flexible. #4. Rabbi David Small — The Rabbi Small Mysteries by Harry Kemelman The blurb on one of Harry Kemelman’s David Small Mysteries goes as such: “Why is this Rabbi different from all other rabbis? Because he’s a detective.” Like several of the other clergypeople on this list, Rabbi David Small ends up investigating a murder because he wakes up a suspect. When a murdered girl is found in the yard next to his Temple, and her handbag is found in his car, he gradually works through his congregation, and much of the small town of Barnard’s Crossing, Massachusetts, learning everything he can about her life to try to understand its ending. Along the way he forms a friendship with Police Chief Hugh Lanigan and resolves half a dozen skirmishes within his congregation. But the best bit of the first book, for me, is when Rabbi Small and his wife drop in on Chief Lanigan and his wife, and the quartet spend a quiet afternoon discussing religion over Tom Collinses. (This is while Rabbi Small is still a major suspect, by the way.) Again and again Kemelman stops the plots for human moments, for arguments between neighbors, for inside jokes and longstanding feuds, until the reader understands just how horrible the crimes have been, to disrupt the vibrant life unfolding in Barnard’s Crossing. Rabbi Small applies his Talmudic training and analytical mind equally to every problem, with an attention to granular detail that makes him one of the best sleuths on the list. #3. Brother Cadfael — Cadfael Cadfael takes small town murder mystery tropes and sends them back to a medieval village, complete with high society family drama (except sometimes it’s a literal King), plucky assistants (novitiates) and even a lovelorn, morally ambiguous policeman in the form of “deputy sheriff” Hugh Beringar. Brother Cadfael himself is a former Crusader, who has seen so much of the world and its evils that his view on society sometimes seem more 1990s than 1290s. Derek Jacobi is, obviously, fantastic. Cadfael uses his deep knowledge of plants and herbs to solve crimes. Cadfael notices everything. He uses his status as a Benedictine Brother to fade into the background, to appear harmless, to allow people to think he’s a naive, innocent man. But as fa former professional soldier, he’s seen human nature at its worst and at its most noble, and he can spot lies from a buttress away. He and the other brothers are forever finding bodies in the river, or having their Compline singing interrupted by people bursting through the church doors with news of murder, the medieval townsfolk seem surprisingly OK with modern procedural work, and it’s great. #2. Father Brown — Father Brown Mysteries by G.K. Chesterton Father Brown uses his observation, keen knowledge of human nature, and other peoples’ underestimation of him to solve crimes. Generally the police don’t want his help, and actively discourage it. He is a much more typical priest—he thinks in terms of eternity, sin, justice, judgement, repentance. While in the 2013 series he’s also a war veteran, having served in WWI as a soldier, and in WWII as a chaplain, he still holds his cards closer to his vestments. Not for him the jazz and whiskey beloved of Sydney Chambers, the high-risk shenanigans of Father Dowling (except I guess occasionally in the 2013 series, if his nemesis Flambeau show up), or the highly emotional confessions of Father Jud. The seal of confession often looms large in these stories as his aim is to reconcile criminals with God before he worries about any secular authority. Or, well, to quote a particularly dark Father Brown story, “The Chief Mourner of Marne”: “We have to touch such men, not with a bargepole, but with a benediction,” [Father Brown] said. “We have to say the word that will save them from hell. We alone are left to deliver them from despair when your human charity deserts them. Go on your own primrose path pardoning all your favourite vices and being generous to your fashionable crimes; and leave us in the darkness, vampires of the night, to console those who really need consolation; who do things really indefensible, things that neither the world nor they themselves can defend; and none but a priest will pardon. Leave us with the men who commit the mean and revolting and real crimes; mean as St. Peter when the cock crew, and yet the dawn came.” Which is also kind of what Wake Up Dead Man is about! (Also featured in the 2013 Father Brown? A very young Josh O’Connor, in Series 3’s “The Curse of Amenhotep”) #1. William of Baskerville — The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco William of Baskerville is the brilliant creation of the equally brilliant Umberto Eco. Eco’s character draws on Sherlock Holmes, which creates the fascinating situation of watching someone with a Holmes-level intellect grapple with the 14th Century. Then he sends William and his novice, the young Benedictine Adso, off to a Benedictine monastery where they’re embroiled in a web of murder, conspiracy, sexual abuse, and fanaticism. The book is nearly 600 pages of dense theological musings and deadpan wit, and it’s sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, which gives me a tiny sliver of hope for the human race I GUESS. Also? There are six different video games based on this book. If I ever update this list, I am playing all of them. William has Sherlock’s sharp perception, his deadpan wit, his occasional sharpness with those who can’t keep up, and his taste for “some herb” that he learned about from “the infidels”. When the host Abbot comes to William to ask him to investigate the murder, they first launch into an intricate debate about William’s time as an Inquisitor, in which William, gently but firmly, insists that he didn’t usually credit the Devil with the evil acts of men—because he was too busy trying to prove whether they’d committed the acts, and if so, deliver them over to human, earthly justice. This opening conversation sets the tone of William’s whole outlook on life, where he tries to pursue knowledge for its own sake, and refuses to give in to supernatural fears when natural explanations are right there. And here, too, the seal of confession hides clues that would have allowed Willaim to solve the murders much quicker. In 1986, The Name of the Rose was adapted into a film by director Jean-Jacques Annaud with Sean Connery as William, F. Murray Abraham as the real-life Inquisitor Bernard Gui, and a VERY young Christian Slater as Adso. The first twenty minutes of the film bring the core theme to the fore, as William, a Franciscan, clashes with some far stuffier Benedictines over whether knowledge for its own sake is an affront to God, whether curiosity is of the Evil One, and whether laughing is a one-way ticket to Hell.  In case you’re looking for something to pair with your next rewatch of Conclave, this movie holds up pretty well! But the real reason William comes in at Number 1 isn’t even his sleuthing, it’s that, when the monastery’s library catches fire, he risks his life to save as many books as possible. My deepest apologies if I’ve missed some first-rate detective work, or ignored some terrible investigative blunders—especially in the cases where I only covered the book and not its adaptation (or vice versa). Add them in the comments! Tell me who I overlooked![end-mark] The post An Infallible Ranking of Crime-Solving Clergy appeared first on Reactor.

The City Club of Cleveland is defying LGBTQ activist pressure to cancel or substantially alter an event featuring a conservative Christian leader next month, and Ohio’s attorney general is standing with the venue. “We’re not canceling, and we have never had any intention of canceling this,” Dan Moulthrop, the City Club’s CEO, told The Daily Signal in an interview Wednesday. “We’re gonna continue to do what we always do, and have done for 113 years, which is convene conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive and do that with the leadership of relevant organizations who are shaping our communities.” Moulthrop confirmed that he has no intention of changing the Jan. 16 forum in which he will interview Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue. The center says it “seeks the good of our neighbors by advocating for public policy that reflects the truth of the Gospel.” It advocates for religious freedom, free speech, educational freedom, and pro-life and pro-family policy. The Letter Yet more than 100 LGBTQ leaders and organizations across Ohio signed an open letter denouncing the City Club for hosting Baer and urging the venue to “cancel or modify this forum in a way that does not platform an organization that has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBTQIA2S+ hate group.” The letter makes four demands: cancel the event or include an LGBTQ activist; replace Moulthrop with a likely pro-LGBTQ “external moderator;” “disavow platforming hate speech;” or “structure the event so that diverse and impacted perspectives are not only present but also meaningfully centered.” More than 20 organizations—including HRC Cleveland, the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland, Equality Ohio, GLAAD, and Plexus LGBT & Allied Chamber of Commerce—signed the letter, which aims to “prevent extremism from going unchallenged” and suggests a distinction between “facilitating dialogue and platforming organized hate.” “Free speech is a cornerstone of our democracy,” Dwayne Steward, CEO and executive director of Equality Ohio, told The Daily Signal. Yet he argued that Baer’s message is “rooted in oppression and erasure.” “CCV is fueling the equality crisis in Ohio and across the nation,” Steward argued. He cited the LGBTQ activist Trevor Project in claiming that “anti-transgender legislation” of the kind CCV supports was “directly related to a 72% increase in suicide rates among Ohio’s transgender and gender non-conforming youth.” “I hope any public forum featuring Baer that seeks inclusive community dialogue illuminates the harmful impact of his actions and the actions of his organization,” Steward added. Steward referred The Daily Signal to Plexus, which did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. 2025-City-Club-CCV-LetterDownload Bringing Down the Temperature “This petition is the same broken playbook the Left has deployed for the last decade,” Baer told The Daily Signal on Wednesday. “They’ve lost the public debate, and all these LGBT groups have left is to try to pressure the City Club to cancel us.” “But the City Club and Dan Moulthrop deserve credit for inviting a different perspective to their stage and holding fast to this point,” Baer added. “After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, it’s going to take events like this to bring the temperature down in our country.” Kirk’s assassination came after the SPLC put his organization, Turning Point USA, on a “hate map” alongside chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. While there is no direct evidence the SPLC inspired that assassination, a terrorist used the “hate map” to target the Family Research Council—which the SPLC brands an “anti-LGBTQ hate group” alongside the Center for Christian Virtue—in 2012. The SPLC condemned both attacks but kept both groups on the map. The SPLC advocates for LGBTQ issues, and puts those who oppose that agenda on the “hate map.” The SPLC has used the “anti-LGBTQ hate group” label against Alliance Defending Freedom (which even left-leaning attorneys like former ACLU President Nadine Strossen have contested), and Gays Against Groomers, even though it consists of LGB people. The SPLC has even suggested that agreement with the Catechism of the Catholic Church qualifies one as a “hate group.” Ohio’s AG Weighs In Attorney General Dave Yost, R-Ohio, urged Moulthrop to stand by Baer in a letter Wednesday. “To land on the SPLC’s list, a group need only offend progressive orthodoxy,” Yost wrote. “The Center for Christian Virtue apparently falls afoul the SPLC in its adherence to an orthodox Christian worldview against a variety of postmodernist views about human nature, including sexuality,” he added. “The City Club has long prided itself as a citadel of free speech, and rightly so,” Yost wrote. Yet he warned that “the reason for your very existence as a forum will evaporate if you give in to the demands to cancel Mr. Baer’s talk” (emphasis original). “I believe you and your board are made of sterner stuff,” Yost concluded. LGBTQ activists are demanding the City Club of Cleveland CANCEL the January 16 speech by Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Values. (The Club hasn’t as of this writing)My letter to the City Club setting out the arguments against this totalitarian action is below. pic.twitter.com/ACNr11EIlv— Dave Yost (@DaveYostOH) December 10, 2025 “Dave Yost has always been a champion for free speech—he’s demonstrating how Christians can use their voice to engage in courageous discussion today,” Baer said in response to Yost’s letter. The SPLC did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment. The post ‘WE’RE NOT CANCELING’: Ohio Venue Stands for Christian Leader’s Free Speech Amid LGBTQ Activist Pressure appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Finally, the time has come: the end of the unlawful so-called SAVE era, an era marked by the Biden administration’s attempts to force American taxpayers to pay for college loan debts. On Tuesday, the Department of Education announced a proposed joint settlement with the State of Missouri and six other states to end the Biden administration’s Saving on A Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, an income-driven loan repayment plan that courts ruled illegal, and were clearly costly and poor policy. If the department receives judicial approval, officials will be able to eliminate the SAVE plan altogether. While the name sounds appealing, the SAVE plan delivered the opposite of what it promised. It did not “save” anything, merely transferred unpaid debts from individuals who took out loans for college to taxpayers. Had the program continued, it would have shifted billions in student debt to hard working Americans. SAVE fundamentally reimagined the Department of Education’s income-based repayment plans for the worse. The plan halved borrowers’ monthly payment from 10% to 5% of discretionary income and raised the income threshold of borrowers who are exempt from repayment from 150% to 225% of the poverty line. Borrowers could also qualify for loan cancellation in as little as 10 years instead of 20 or more, depending on their loan amounts. On top of all that, the plan also waived accrued unpaid interest. What did these overgenerous provisions mean for American taxpayers? The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School’s budget models estimated that it would cost almost half a trillion dollars over 10 years, and only 22% of undergraduate borrowers enrolled in SAVE were expected to repay their loans. The proposal would have set a dangerous precedent: Borrowers could assume that Uncle Sam would wipe away whatever debt they incurred, and colleges could continue raising tuition with little accountability, confident that taxpayers would shoulder the cost. Thankfully, in the spring of 2024, the attorney general of Missouri, on behalf of the state, filed a lawsuit along with six other states to challenge the unlawful SAVE plan. A few months later, two federal court judges issued nationwide injunctions stopping the Biden administration from administering the SAVE plan. The following year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued an injunction enjoining implementation of the entire plan and sent the case back to the district court. Now, the Department of Education and the State of Missouri have reached a settlement agreement to dismiss the litigation in exchange for taking steps to end the plan. If the courts authorize this settlement, taxpayers will not have to pay for college loans held by someone else, and the Education Department will deny any future or pending applications and begin encouraging borrowers to voluntarily transition to other legal repayment plans. The department will also undertake rulemaking over the next year to remove the SAVE plan from the federal books (“with the exception of the forbearance and deferment provisions that were included in the final SAVE Plan rule that will continue to count for Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) forgiveness purposes”), but this will not prevent it from carrying out the actions above.   In the coming weeks, the department will conduct direct outreach to affected borrowers to help them select an alternative repayment plan and get back on track with repayment. Over the past few years, roughly seven million student borrowers enrolled in SAVE have been stuck in an unnecessary limbo, uncertain about their obligations. Had the prior administration not pursued the SAVE plan unlawfully, students would not have been placed in this position, and they would have continued making payments on the loans they personally agreed to repay. Moving forward, American taxpayers should not be left to shoulder the debts of borrowers, and colleges and universities must be held to higher standards for the return on investment they deliver. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post The SAVE Plan Is Ending. Here’s Why It Matters appeared first on The Daily Signal.

When we think of Ancient Egypt, our minds conjure images of colossal pyramids, golden sarcophagi, and the towering figures of pharaohs like Rameses. But what laid the foundation for history’s most iconic civilisation? In the sixth and final episode of History Hit’s series exploring the remarkable collections of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, presenter Dan Snow joins Dr Liam McNamara, Keeper of Antiquities, to journey into Egypt’s distant past – long before the pyramids in The Ashmolean Up Close: Origins of Ancient Egypt. Through extraordinary artefacts from the Predynastic period (c. 4,000–3,100 BC), they uncover how early beliefs, artistry, and power structures along the Nile laid the essential foundations for the world we recognise as Ancient Egypt. Sign up to watch The early Nile: chaos and control Over 6,000 years ago, Egypt was divided between the fertile Lower Egypt in the north and the arid Upper Egypt in the south. Yet, even in these scattered agricultural communities, a powerful culture was already forming. Regional chieftains were emerging as centralised rulers, laying the groundwork for future dynasties. While the Ashmolean’s collection features fascinating grand pieces from this era like the large limestone statue of the Ancient Egyptian fertility god Min (c. 3,300 BC), the greatest insights into the world these early gods and rulers emerged from come from smaller, finely crafted objects. In the documentary, Dan is granted special access to rare collection items dating from 3,600 BC onwards – objects that were already considered ancient by the time of the great pharaohs. Dan is shown a realistic pottery hippo as well as a model of a carved scorpion – objects that were symbols of power, reflecting the early Egyptians’ attempts to control chaos and dominate the natural landscape. Status was also shown through the materials such objects were made from, highlighting the surprising far-reaching trade connections across the ancient world. Dan examines a small blue figurine made from Lapis lazuli, a material whose nearest source was Badakhshan in Afghanistan. This highlights the surprising, far-reaching trade connections across the ancient world long before the height of the New Kingdom. Other objects, such as a ceremonial palette (a common item in high-status burials), were often carved and decorated with images associated with the rulers’ burgeoning power and prestige, including mythical creatures. Dan Snow talks to Dr Liam MacNamara about the statue of the Ancient Egyptian fertility god, Min.Image Credit: History Hit King Scorpion’s colossal macehead One of the Ashmolean’s most remarkable objects offers a rare glimpse into the emergence of Egypt’s earliest rulers and the first steps towards unification: a colossal macehead. Although maceheads were originally weapons, this stunning limestone fragment, discovered in Hierakonpolis (the capital of Upper Egypt), is thought to have been created solely for ceremonial purposes as a symbol of authority. Liam explains to Dan that this colossal macehead belonged to ‘King Scorpion’ – an actual name, not a nickname. The ruler is pictured in the centre, deliberately shown on a much larger scale than all other figures, establishing his absolute authority. Dan notes the striking familiarity of the image that looks very much like the depictions of Pharaohs such as Rameses, despite the fact this mace head was made way before the Pharaoh period. King Scorpion is wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt and the traditional royal costume, including a bull’s tail hanging behind his leg – a symbol of power and virility that persisted for millennia. Unlike later pharaohs often depicted taking on military enemies, King Scorpion is shown holding a pick, seemingly breaking open an irrigation canal he is standing upon. Liam clarifies that the idea of controlling the annual inundation of the Nile was a vital royal prerogative, demonstrating that the ‘enemy’ here was the natural world, ensuring abundance for his people. Despite living hundreds of years before the First Dynasty, Dan notes how the depiction of King Scorpion looks “like a Pharaoh in all but name.” Liam agrees, noting that he’s wearing exactly the same crown and costume as Rameses would thousands of years later – showing an extraordinary continuity that proves kingship was already fully formed in the Predynastic period, with King Scorpion being one of the earliest kings of Egypt.  Close-up of King Scorpion’s macehead, showing the image of him in a similar way to the Pharaohs, and with hanging birds visible near the top, denoting ‘subject people’.Image Credit: History Hit The dawn of empire The macehead holds further clues about the formation of the Egyptian state, including a row of little lapwing birds hanging from their necks at the top of the mace head. Liam explains that these birds in later hieroglyphs write the word for ‘subject people’. Since the King is wearing the crown of Upper Egypt (the South), these birds likely represent regions he has conquered. Furthermore, Egyptologists speculate that the missing side of the macehead may have shown King Scorpion wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt. Dan notes that this would show “pretty much all of Egypt brought under one sovereign,” confirming the theory that this object may document the initial unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, suggesting King Scorpion might have been the Alfred the Great or Charlemagne of Ancient Egypt – the singular figure who brought together the disparate territories under one banner. Nevertheless, as Liam points out, while “King Scorpion was clearly a very high status ruler, it’s important to know that there’s a long history of development before this.” This pivotal moment marks the transformation into the Egypt we recognise, hundreds of years before the first dynasty or pyramid stood. “Long before the infamous Ancient Egypt of Pharaohs and pyramids, early communities along the Nile were laying the foundations of one of history’s most enduring cultures,” concludes Dan. “These objects in the Ashmolean’s collection capture a pivotal moment, the dawn of kingship, the roots of belief, and the early unification of a land that would one day become legendary.” Join Dan Snow and Dr. Liam McNamara to journey back to the very origins of power in The Ashmolean Up Close: Origins of Ancient Egypt and discover more about the fascinating objects in the Ashmolean’s collection. Sign up to watch

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