News From Knowledge Comes With a Cost in From’s Season 4 Teaser Trailer We also now know when the new episodes will premiere on MGM+ By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on February 4, 2026 Screenshot: MGM+ Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: MGM+ Where does the time go? The fourth season of MGM+’s From is set to premiere in mere months, and today we got a teaser trailer and an official release date for the upcoming episodes. The show stars Lost’s Harold Perrineau and takes place in a town where those who enter it can’t seem to leave, no matter how hard they try. The teaser today suggests that the town’s inhabitants might finally get answers: Who is the Man in Yellow, and what does he want? Will Jade and Tabitha’s revelation be the key to finally going home? How much longer can Boyd hold the town together, even as his body and mind are falling apart? And what role will the town’s most recent arrival play in the events to come? The teaser also makes clear, however, that those answers will cost something… something bad, no doubt.   In addition to Perrineau, the show stars Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace, The Affair), Eion Bailey (Band of Brothers), Hannah Cheramy (Under Wraps, Van Helsing), Simon Webster (Strays), Ricky He (The Good Doctor), Chloe Van Landschoot (Charity, Skin), Corteon Moore (Utopia Falls), Pegah Ghafoori (The Perfect Wedding), David Alpay (Castle Rock), Elizabeth Saunders (Clarice), Avery Konrad (Honor Society), Scott McCord (East of Middle West), Nathan D. Simmons (Diggstown, This Hour Has 22 Minutes), Kaelen Ohm (Hit & Run, Eumenides Falls), Angela Moore (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Maid), A.J. Simmons (Reacher), Julia Doyle (Astrid And Lilly Save The World), Robert Joy (CSI: NY), and Samantha Brown (Y: The Last Man). It’s showrun by Jeff Pinkner (Lost, Alias, Fringe) and has episodes directed by Jack Bender (Lost, Game of Thrones, The Institute). The fourth season of From will premiere on MGM+ on Sunday, April 19, 2026, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Check out today’s teaser-trailer below. [end-mark] The post Knowledge Comes With a Cost in <i>From</i>’s Season 4 Teaser Trailer appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts Science Fiction Read an Excerpt From After The Fall by Edward Ashton Humans must be silent. Humans must be obedient. Humans must be good. By Edward Ashton | Published on February 4, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from After The Fall, the new novel by Edward Ashton that’s part alien invasion story, part buddy comedy, and part workplace satire—publishing with St. Martin’s Press on February 24. All his life, John has tried to live by those rules. Most days, it’s not too difficult. A hundred and twenty years after The Fall, and a hundred years after the grays swept in to pick the last dregs of humanity out of the wreckage of a ruined world, John has found himself bonded to Martok Barden nee Black Hand, one of the “good” grays. Sure, Martok is broke, homeless, and borderline manic, but he’s always treated John like an actual person, and sometimes like a friend. It’s a better deal than most humans get.But when Martok puts John’s bond up as collateral against an abandoned house in the woods that he hopes to turn into a wilderness retreat for wealthy grays, John learns that there are limits to Martok’s friendship. Soon he finds himself caught between an underworld boss who thinks Martok is something that he very much is not, a girl who was raised by feral humans and has nothing but contempt for pets like John, and Martok himself, whose delusions of grandeur seem to be finally catching up with him.Also, not for nothing, something in the woods has been killing people.John has sixty days before Martok’s loan comes due to unravel the mystery of how humans wound up holding the wrong end of the domestication stick and find a way to turn Martok’s half-baked plans into profit enough to buy back his life, all while avoiding getting butchered by feral humans or having his head crushed by an angry gray. Easy peasy, right? Chapter One “John!” Martok bellows as he bursts through the door. “I have news, my friend—wondrous, wondrous news! You’ll not believe what fell to me in the markets today!” John turns away from the window, the only one in the bare boardinghouse room he and Martok have shared for the past two months, where he’d been passing the afternoon watching the machinations of a murder of crows as they attempted to scavenge the carcass of a dead rat from beneath the wheels of the passing trundlecars in the street below, to see his patron hanging his formal sash on the hook by the door. Martok’s three-fingered hands are trembling with excitement, so much that it takes him two tries to get the sash to stay, and the crest that runs down the center of his broad bald scalp is flushed a happy pink. “John!” Martok says again, then crouches so that his head is nearly level with John’s and spreads his arms wide. “Come to me, my friend! This has been a truly wondrous day!” John hesitates a bare moment, then sighs, crosses the tiny room in three strides, and steps into the gray’s crushing embrace. Martok lifts him, thick hands pressing John against the hairless, wrinkled skin of his chest, spins him half-around, and sets him down again with his back to the door. “Ask, John! You must ask!” John takes a deep breath in and lets it out slowly, mostly to make sure Martok hasn’t cracked his ribs in his exuberance, then says, “Please tell me, Martok. What wondrous thing did you find in the markets today?” He’s expecting to hear something about a new sash, or a refurbished handheld, or perhaps a particularly ripe piece of fruit. Consequently, he has no idea how to react when Martok says, “A home, John! I have found us a home!” *** The intricacies of the grays’ economic system have never been remotely clear to John. What education he received in the crèche was mostly structured around learning ways to serve a future patron in practical ways. He was taught to cook, to clean, and to shoot (small-caliber weapons only, sufficient for hunting native game, but not remotely suited for penetrating the leathery, three-centimeter-thick hide of a gray). He knows there are some humans at work in the markets. He’s seen them there from time to time, has even seen Martok forced to barter with one of them on a few occasions. Whatever arcane knowledge of debit and credit that those humans have gained, however, did not come from the crèche, and Martok has never shown the slightest interest in passing along to John any small understanding of economics that he might have. Buy the Book After The Fall Edward Ashton Buy Book After The Fall Edward Ashton Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget John has seen enough, though, to know one thing for certain: He and Martok are poor. If he’s being honest with himself, that much was clear to him even on the day Martok took him away from the crèche. John was not one of the children who lined up eagerly to show off their skills for the grays who came by shopping for a bond. He was small for his age, with a high, piping voice and a slight stammer that came and went, with timing seemingly designed to maximize his embarrassment. Awkward with his peers and mostly terrified of the grays, John hung back as far as the nursemaids would let him when visitors came to the crèche—and as a consequence, he was passed over, time after time after time. He still remembers the moment when he realized that he was dooming himself. He was twelve, and a girl named Tila had just aged out without a bond and been unceremoniously put down in the alley behind the crèche. As one nursemaid heaved her body into the refuse bin and two others herded the children back into the building, it struck him suddenly, with the force of a physical blow: That’ll be me someday. By the time Martok came by, John was, strictly speaking, already past the age where he should have been declared permanently un-bonded. The only reason he was still there, the only reason that the nursemaids kept shoving him out in front of every gray who came by, was that he was still small enough to pass, and the nursemaids in his crèche, despite their general indifference and occasional cruelty, didn’t actually enjoy putting humans down. Martok has never said exactly how the two of them wound up walking out of that place together, but John strongly suspects that when the nursemaids realized that Martok was just window-shopping, that he didn’t have enough credit for the processing fee, let alone for the purchase of a bond, they offered up John for precisely what he was worth—which is to say, for nothing at all. *** “I don’t understand,” John says. “A home? Isn’t this our home?” “This? A home?” Martok crosses over to the pantry in two short strides, reaches inside to pull out a protein brick, and tears off a bite half the size of John’s head. “This squalid hovel?” He gestures broadly with the hand holding the brick, spraying crumbs from both his hand and his thick, wrinkled lips in an arc half the size of the room. “This cramped, wretched hole? No, John. This is no home. This is a place of bare subsistence, sufficient only to keep our heads dry and our bodies warm as we wait for the gods of fate to hand us the opportunity that we have been awaiting.” He takes another bite, chews, and swallows. “And now, my friend? Now they have.” Martok drops onto the big bed that takes up a quarter of the room’s floor space, pops the remainder of the protein brick into his mouth, and then flops backward with his hands folded behind his head. “We leave this place tomorrow. I shall settle accounts with our twice-cursed landlord once we’ve had our breakfasts—it wouldn’t do to tell him before he’s fed us one last time, of course—and we shall be on our way. I have already secured a trundlecar to take us as far as the central terminal. From there, I’ve booked passage to the terminus at Lake Town.” John waits a beat for him to go on, then says, “Lake Town? That’s where we’re going?” John has never seen Lake Town. He’s never seen much of anywhere, honestly, other than the bits and pieces of Farhome, the city that still houses nearly eighty percent of the grays on the planet, that Martok has seen fit to show him. He’s heard of Lake Town, though. It’s the farthest western extension of the grays’ footprint on this world, a barely populated outpost on the southern shore of a mostly frozen freshwater sea. He’s not sure what sort of home Martok might have found there, but he’s hard-pressed to imagine that it could be any better than this place. “Oh no,” Martok says, his chest rumbling with laughter. “Lake Town is a terribly depressing place, John—a refuge for miscreants and ne’er-do-wells who have been driven from the more polite society of Farhome, mostly for perfectly good reasons. I spent two thoroughly unpleasant years there when I first made landfall on this world, and I have no interest in ever returning. Lake Town is not our destination. It is simply the farthest extent of the transport network. I intend to stay there for the shortest time that we can possibly manage.” “Oh,” John says, then reaches up to scratch the back of his head. “I’m confused.” Martok sits up again, and his lips fold back from his thick, square teeth and two stubby upturned tusks in a parody of a grin. “As well you might be. You would not know this from our time together, John, but I was not always the soft city dweller that you see now. Years ago, I was considered quite the adventurer, and I expect that experience will serve us well now. Upon reaching Lake Town, we shall strike out southward, away from the lakeshore. Our destination is some fifty kilometers along, over hill and bramble, across rill and stream, and through trackless wilderness.” He leans back, and the bed groans as his weight settles onto his elbows. “As I have already implied, I had a most fortuitous meeting in the markets today. In particular, I met a worthless scion of the Greatfoots, a distant descendant of the Chief Administrator himself—Daro Lia née Greatfoot by name. It seems this wretch had acquired a great deal of property beyond the reach of polite society, south and west of Lake Town in what was once an agricultural region of sorts. He purchased this property not because he had the slightest idea what to do with it, of course, but merely as a speculative investment. Such follies are common among the more useless members of the wealthier clans, you know. They have abundant credit, but they lack the wit to imagine how to invest it usefully. It seems he had some idea that Lake Town was due to expand greatly, and that when it did, he would be in a position to profit massively.” With that, Martok gets to his feet again and begins pacing—a singularly unsatisfying thing to do in such a tiny space, but John knows by now that when Martok is excited about something, he has a great deal of trouble holding still. “This ignorant Greatfoot has such an impoverished imagination that he could see no use for land such as this beyond the construction of more of what we already see around us. When it became clear, as it should have been from the outset, that no expansion in the direction of Lake Town was in the offing, he had no ability to see other possible avenues of progress.” He stops pacing then and turns to face John, arms spread wide. After a moment’s hesitation, John hazards, “But… you did see some such opportunity?” “Yes!” Martok says, and starts pacing again. “Of course! I am no failed third nephew of a wealthy clan, John. All my life, I have had to earn my way by my wits, and as this dullard poured out his tale of woe over a half-full tankard, I could already see what he could not. I let him ramble on for an hour or more, and then, my voice dripping with sympathy and fellow-feeling, I offered, strictly as a favor to both him and his noble clan, to relieve him of the burden of his misbegotten investment.” Martok seems about to burst with self-satisfaction. John, though, is beginning to feel a familiar, gnawing unease. This isn’t the first time that Martok has had a brilliant idea, one sure to bring him the wealth and acclaim that he clearly deserves. A quick glance around their squalid room tells the tale of how those other opportunities ended. “So…” John says. “This Greatfoot, he just… gave you the title to this property?” That stops Martok’s pacing again, and when he turns to face John, his face has lost some of its smugness. The gnawing in John’s belly turns abruptly into a sharp, stabbing pain. “Well, no. Of course not. Even a decadent Greatfoot dandy would not be foolish enough to simply hand over an opportunity like this to one he’d just met, would he?” John closes his eyes and breathes in, then out slowly. When he opens them again, Martok’s gaze has dropped to the floor between them. “Martok?” John says. “What did you give him?” “Well,” Martok says. “Nothing, really. A pledge, only. He was in such desperation to be rid of the property that he lent me the credit to take it from him. I had only to pledge him collateral.” Collateral? John’s eyes sweep the room. Everything Martok owns is here. What could he have… Oh gods. “Martok?” John says, slowly, evenly. “Did you… no, you couldn’t have. Please tell me you didn’t pledge him my bond?” Martok turns away, flops back onto the bed, and covers his face with his arms. “What does it matter what I pledged? I tell you truly, John. At the rate he offered me, this property will pay for itself a thousand times over.” John drops back into his seat by the window and buries his face in his hands. His heart seems to be trying to pound its way out of his chest, and when he speaks again, his voice is trembling. “When is the first repayment due to him, Martok?” “Sixty days,” Martok says. “An eternity, really.” John knows the answer to his next question, but he asks anyway. “And do you have it? Do you have enough credit even to cover the first payment?” Martok doesn’t answer. Outside the window, the crows have given up on what remains of the carcass in the road and have fallen to fighting among themselves over a hunk of protein brick that’s been dropped by a passing gray. John closes his eyes again and breathes in, breathes out. After the Fall. Copyright © 2026 by Edward Ashton. All rights reserved. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>After The Fall</i> by Edward Ashton appeared first on Reactor.

University professors are suing the Trump administration over a “Gold Card” visa program that expedites alien entry for those who can pay $1 million.  The American Association of University Professors filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging the program violates the Immigration and Nationality Act by prioritizing applicants’ wealth over merit.  The lawsuit calls for the court to declare the Gold Card program unlawful and to halt its enforcement. The complaint says the program effectively sells U.S. residency to the wealthy, even though federal law calls for prioritizing scientists, researchers, engineers, and other professionals based on merit.  “The Gold Card, which privileges wealthy immigrants over others, is part of a larger attack on immigrants, research, and higher education,” said AAUP President Todd Wolfson said in a statement. “This unlawful program directly harms our members and the public. We stand firmly against it.” President Donald Trump signed an executive order last September to make individuals eligible for EB-1 and EB-2 employment-based visas based solely on payments of at least $1 million by individuals or $2 million by corporations. The visas are slated for high-skill applicants such as researchers and those with advanced degrees. The Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, and State administer the program, which focuses on individuals or businesses that can provide a “substantial benefit to the United States” to expedite the process.  “A $1 million gift upon completion of the individual’s vetting is evidence that the individual will benefit the United States. An individual may also need to pay small, additional fees to the U.S. Department of State depending on his or her circumstances,” the program’s website says.  When contacted by The Daily Signal, the Department of Homeland Security referred to the Commerce Department, which did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this story.  The complaint contends that only a limited number of visas and agency resources are available, and the paid-for expedited visas will push out the merit-based visas. The lawsuit contends this will increase wait times and deny opportunities to qualified professionals. A foreign alien wanting to use the program has to pay a $15,000 processing fee for the Department of Homeland Security to conduct a thorough background check. If a background check passes, the foreign national would qualify to pay a $1 million contribution to the federal government for a Gold Card. An EB-1 visa is an employment-based immigrant visa for individuals with “extraordinary ability” that could include professors or researchers that allows them to live permanently in the United States. An EB-2 visa is an employment-based immigrant visa for professionals with advanced degrees or experience in the sciences, arts, or business. The post Professors Sue Over Trump ‘Gold Card’ Visa Program appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the new California congressional maps drawn to favor Democrats. In November, California voters approved Proposition 50 to temporarily scrap the redistricting commission, allowing the Democrat-controlled legislature to draw maps that could net Democrats another five House seats in the 2026 midterms. Mid-decade redistricting in states could affect which party wins control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November. California Republicans sued over the redrawn maps, alleging they relied mostly on race to create districts in violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments. The Trump administration urged the high court to block the redistricting plan. Solicitor General John Sauer argued in a brief that California’s recent redistricting is “tainted by an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.” “Of course, California’s motivation in adopting the Prop 50 map as a whole was undoubtedly to counteract Texas’s political gerrymander,” Sauer wrote. “But that overarching political goal is not a license for district-level racial gerrymandering.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, heavily pushed the redistricting as a means to retaliate against new maps in Texas that favored Republican congressional candidates. The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the Texas redistricting effort as well. The post Supreme Court Won’t Hear Challenge to California Gerrymandering appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A committee room on Capitol Hill has become an unlikely vantage point for observing a transformation underway across the Atlantic. Lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee convened on Wednesday to examine how European speech regulation now travels far beyond national borders, reshaping the conditions under which Americans speak, publish, and innovate. The hearing’s title, “Europe’s Threat to American Speech and Innovation: Part II,” suggested a continuity of concern rather than a single dispute, one rooted in the growing reach of law and bureaucracy into the domain of expression. Witnesses presented a consistent account. European governments, they argued, have refined a system that avoids the blunt instruments of overt bans while still achieving compliance. Pressure is shifted onto intermediaries, reputations are quietly destroyed, and the costs of dissent are distributed across professional and personal life rather than imposed through a single visible sanction. The erosion of tolerance behind formal guarantees Comedy writer Graham Linehan, who you’ll remember was arrested over a tweet after arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport, framed the issue in biographical terms, tracing the collapse of a three-decade career to his refusal to accept prevailing claims about gender and medicine: “These were not extreme positions. But for holding them, I became the target of a series of harassment campaigns that cost me my career, my marriage, and eventually drove me from my home.” His testimony sketched a system in which the appearance of liberal legality masks an informal architecture of enforcement. “In the UK, police record ‘non-crime hate incidents’ against citizens who have broken no law…When employers fire workers for protected speech, when banks close accounts, when publishers drop authors, when platforms suspend users; the government’s hands stay clean. The censorship happens. The state didn’t do it.” The danger, Linehan suggested, lies not in the abolition of rights on paper but in their hollowing out through administrative and social means. “In Britain, we have discovered that you can have formal free speech and no free speech at all.” When ideology gains the power to define moral legitimacy, he added, even foundational concepts such as sex become subject to enforcement. His appeal to lawmakers was direct: defend open debate and insist that allied governments respect their own court rulings. Linehan also suggested that the police are targeting people to relieve pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “Basically the UK police are now in this situation where they are trying to contain every problem that Keir Starmer doesn’t want to talk about,” Linehan siad. “And that’s all they do.” Regulation as export policy Where Linehan spoke as a casualty, Irish barrister Lorcán Price spoke as an analyst of law. As counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom International, which has done good work on this issue, he detailed how the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act now operate extraterritorially. Enforcement actions against American firms, including a massive fine on X, were presented as “part of a broader campaign of fines and investigations…designed to compel US companies to become little more than a censorship squad.” Under Articles 34 and 35 of the DSA, platforms designated as systemically important must assess and mitigate vaguely defined “systemic risks.” Price noted that what qualifies as “illegal content” varies sharply among member states and routinely includes categories such as hate speech or disinformation that enjoy constitutional protection in the United States. He added that the EU’s censorship campaign is “about imposing European laws globally” and that “hate speech has no real meaning other than speech they hate.” Global companies, seeking uniform compliance, respond by suppressing lawful American speech. As he put it, “speech considered legal in the US” is erased in order to satisfy European regulators. The enforcement model deepens this leverage. Parallel investigations by the European Commission and national bodies such as Ireland’s Coimisiún na Meán allow regulators to demand access to algorithms, conduct inspections, and impose penalties large enough to alter corporate behavior worldwide. Price summarized the implicit bargain bluntly: “Drop your commitment to free speech and the harassment will end.” His criticism extended to Britain’s Online Safety Act, which empowers the Office of Communications to levy fines reaching ten percent of global revenue for failures to address loosely defined harms. Provisions addressing messages that cause “non-trivial psychological harm,” he warned, open the door to policing foreign speech merely because it is accessible within the United Kingdom. The endpoint of this system, in his words, is unmistakable: “The EU wants to transform successful American companies into a free speech Stasi, making those businesses the censorship enforcers for the ruling elite of Europe.” Criminal law and sacred text The most stark illustration of these dynamics came from Finland. Legislator Päivi Räsänen described how a 2019 social media post quoting scripture, written in response to her church’s involvement in the Helsinki Pride event, triggered a prolonged criminal process. “For this exercise of my free speech, I was investigated by the police and interrogated for more than thirteen hours,” she told the committee. Prosecutors charged her with three counts of “agitation against a minority group” for a pamphlet, a radio interview, and the tweet itself, offenses categorized under Finland’s statute on war crimes and crimes against humanity. Although acquitted twice by lower courts, she now awaits a final ruling from the Finnish Supreme Court following renewed appeals. Räsänen emphasized that the state’s theory of harm dispensed with intent. Prosecutors argued that only the subjective interpretation of readers mattered, alongside demands for fines and censorship of her writings. “A court has no business judging the Bible’s teachings and our right as Christians to uphold and express them,” she said. Her account highlighted how duration and uncertainty themselves function as penalties. “We have faced years of investigation, public scrutiny, and legal uncertainty. This creates a chilling effect…all must be careful what they say because the police could come knocking at their door too.” She linked her experience to the broader regulatory framework now emerging across Europe, warning that the Digital Services Act extends similar pressures internationally. “Censorship is one of the greatest existential threats to today’s democracies in Europe…When the state controls which ideas and beliefs may be expressed, democracy becomes fragile.” Selective free speech During questioning, lawmakers turned their attention to the American Civil Liberties Union, pressing what they described as a selective understanding of speech rights. Committee members challenged the organization’s representative, Deepinder Mayell, to address evidence that senior officials within the Biden White House had urged social media companies to remove posts, including commentary and satire related to COVID-19. Asked directly whether the Biden administration had engaged in censorship of Americans, Mayall declined to give a clear answer, responding instead that he was “here to talk about what’s happening on the streets” and about “the most significant threat to free speech,” referring to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The exchange provoked visible irritation among several members, who argued that the ACLU’s historical identity rested on its willingness to defend expression regardless of popularity or political alignment. A narrowing ocean The testimonies described a regulatory order that relies less on explicit prohibition than on diffuse coercion. The DSA, DMA, and Online Safety Act were presented as pillars of a system that transfers the burden of enforcement to private actors while reserving the power to punish noncompliance with fines capable of reshaping global markets. For American speakers and companies, geography offers little refuge when a single platform policy governs billions of users. Linehan’s arrest, Räsänen’s prosecution, and Price’s account of regulatory pressure form parts of a single narrative about authority, legitimacy, and speech in liberal democracies. The witnesses did not argue that Europe lacks constitutions or courts. They argued that rights survive only when backed by a political culture willing to tolerate dissent. The warning offered to lawmakers was therefore strategic rather than sentimental. As Linehan concluded, “The Atlantic is not as wide as you think.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Capitol Hill Hears the Cost of Speaking Freely Online in Europe appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Apple News continued its defiant stance against offering news from right-leaning outlets through the end of January 2026.  Apple News stubbornly refrained from using any right-leaning outlets in the top 20 articles of its morning editions between Jan. 1 and Jan. 31, 2026. Of the 620 top stories featured by the news app in the first month of the year, not a single one was from a right-leaning media outlet.  Rather than promoting news stories from notable right-leaning media sources such as Fox News, the New York Post, Daily Mail, Breitbart or The Gateway Pundit, Apple News has relentlessly pushed articles from elitist media outlets that amplify the left’s narrative, like: The Washington Post, The Associated Press and NBC News as well as center outlets like The Wall Street Journal and Reuters. For the month of January, Apple News published 440 stories from left-leaning outlets. Its favorite leftist outlets were: The Washington Post (72) The Associated Press (54) NBC News (50) The Guardian (34) The New York Times (30) Apple (27) NPR (25) Politico (19) USA Today (16) Bloomberg News (15) Apple News featured headlines in January that broadly focused on President Donald Trump’s foreign policy and immigration policy in negative ways. For example, the news app used a headline from NBC News that read, “Unnerved by Trump, U.S. allies are making nice with China.  Apple News editors turned to The Washington Post more than any other news source, selecting provocative headlines that raised doubts about Trump’s actions. On Trump’s foreign policy, a Washington Post story Apple News promoted had the following headline and subheadline: “Trump weighs imminent Iran strikes, but what’s the mission? The president has sent an ‘armada’ to threaten Iran, but the rationale for a possible military strike keeps changing.” On Trump’s immigration policy, Apple News pushed another piece from The Post, which framed it as, “The powerful tools in ICE’s arsenal to track suspects — and protestors.” Another headline addressed Trump’s response to ICE protests, with Apple News choosing a Post piece explaining the cost of ICE enforcement by proclaiming: “National Guard deployments cost taxpayers almost half a billion dollars.” While other news aggregators rely on algorithms to compile news from various sources into a single news feed, Apple News editors select stories to compile each day. While a Reuters Institute report noted that the use of online aggregators like the Big Four News Apps (Apple News, Google News, MSN and Yahoo News),  is growing, an Enders Analysis report underscored the potential growth for Apple News in particular as the use of artificial intelligence continues to surge.  Methodology: During the time period Jan. 1 - Jan. 11, 2026, MRC researchers examined the top 20 AllSides-rated news stories featured on Apple News each day at approximately 10:00 AM ET and the top 20 AllSides-rated news stories between Jan. 12 - Jan. 31, 2026 at approximately 8:30 AM ET. MRC researchers used the AllSides media bias ratings, which categorize an outlet as “left,” “lean left,” “center,” “lean right” or “right” to determine the overall bias presented by Apple News and analyzed the results. Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.  

In a chart obtained Wednesday by NewsBusters (see image right), the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) will unveil a new seating chart for the Brady Briefing Room that awards seats to conservative media outlets such as the Daily Wire and new media outlets like Axios, moves up the New York Post, and preserves liberal media outlets holding a grip on the front rows. An email to members of the WHCA informed them of the changes, emphasizing “changes were made to 33 or the 49 seats,” “7 [outlets] are receiving their first ever [assigned seat],” and “any outlet that consistently fails to fill its seat could face suspension or total loss.” The email adds the chart “will take effect on Monday, February 9, 2026,” replacing the previous one that had been in place since late 2021. To see that seating arrangement, click here. The new chart shows that, for the first time, the Daily Wire will share an assigned seat in the back row with fellow first-timers The Telegraph and Black Press USA. Three of the other first-timers — Axios, NOTUS, and Semafor — will also split a seventh-row seat. iHeartMedia is the remaining debutante and will slot in the back row as well, sharing with The Boston Globe. The U.K.’s Independent — currently represented by Andrew Feinberg — will move out of the rotating seat for foreign press and join the Los Angeles Times in sharing an aisle on row four. By NewsBusters’s count, those dropping out are the defunded Voice of America (VOA), McClatchy newspapers (which shuttered its D.C. bureau), Cheddar News (RIP) Dallas Morning News, and Yahoo! News. Notable omissions include a slew of conservative media outlets that have risen to higher prominence in both the Briefing Room and press pool: Daily Signal, One America News, Real America’s Voice, and Turning Point USA’s Frontlines. The first row will remain the same as, going right to left facing the podium, will be NBC, Fox News, CBS, AP, ABC News, Reuters, and CNN. The second row will remain the same except for one change with CBS News Radio dropping back to the third row and the wire service Agence French-Presse (AFP) moving up a row. As such, row two will now read, going the same direction: AFP, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, NPR, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and USA Today. By row three is when the real deck shuffling begins as it will now read: Politico, Fox News Radio, CBS News Radio, New York Post, ABC News Radio, Daily Mail, and White House Foreign Press Group. Also in the letter to members, the WHCA said “[t]he seating review committee” was led by WHCA board member Jacqui Heinrich and “spent several months combing through the hundreds of applications” and “weighed a variety of factors including an outlet's reach, long-term commitment to White House coverage, service to colleagues through WHCA pooling, and ability to dependably fill a seat as assigned.” Stay tuned for more analysis as this post will be updated. To see the full letter sent to WHCA members, click here.

Pop star Billie Eilish got more than she bargained for when she made a charged political statement at the Grammys over the weekend.The 24-year-old "Birds of a Feather" told her fellow Hollywood elites at the award ceremony that "no one is illegal on stolen land."'We do understand that her home is situated in our ancestral land.'The statement garnered raucous applause from the obviously liberal audience and was one of many shots taken at Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the safe space that was the Crypto.com Arena in L.A.Show stealerHowever following the show, Eilish's statements — which included "f**k ICE" — seemingly backfired when viewers pointed out that her sprawling mansion should also be considered to be on stolen land.Following the singer's statements to their logical endpoint, the Daily Mail contacted the Native American tribe about Eilish's statements to confirm whether or not she indeed lives on stolen land."We appreciate the opportunity to provide clarity regarding the recent comments made by Billie Eilish," a spokesperson for the Tongva tribe told the outlet. "As the First People of the greater Los Angeles basin, we do understand that her home is situated in our ancestral land."Name checkThe Daily Mail also stated that the tribe said celebrities should "explicitly" reference the native tribes if they wish to use them for virtue signaling.RELATED: 'No one is illegal on stolen land': Grammys audience goes wild over anti-ICE speeches FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images "It is our hope that in future discussions, the tribe can explicitly be referenced to ensure the public understands that the greater Los Angeles basin remains Gabrieleno Tongva territory," the comments concluded.The tribe, which lays claim to about 4,000 square miles in California, noted that Eilish has not reached out to them herself, but they have contacted her team to express their appreciation for the comments.According to the New York Post, Eilish has millions in property in her family, including the $3 million Los Angeles home. The outlet also reported that her brother, Finneas, who accepted the Grammy Award alongside her, sold his home in Malibu for $5.66 million in 2022.RELATED: 'False and defamatory': Trump threatens to sue Grammys host Trevor Noah over Epstein snipe Border securityBen Leo, an English journalist from GBNews, visited Eilish's property after the controversy to get comment on the ordeal.While Leo was unsuccessful, he did note that Eilish seemed to believe in having a border of her own."Massive gates keeping people out. I thought Billy didn't believe in borders," he explained outside the sprawling property.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The Minneapolis City Council has voted to delay renewing the liquor licenses of two area hotels believed to have housed federal immigration agents.On Tuesday, a committee comprising all council members voted 8-5 to delay a decision about renewing the licenses until the February 17 meeting. The committee also voted to schedule a public hearing.'Why are we setting ourselves up for another legal settlement?'The two hotels affected by the vote are the Canopy by Hilton in the Mill District and the Depot Renaissance Hotel.Some at the meeting expressed misgivings about recent actions by ICE and other immigration agents in the Minneapolis area for Operation Metro Surge, but the five who voted against the delay worry that the city has no grounds to hold up the license renewals.LaTrisha Vetaw claimed that the liquor licenses have nothing to do with a hotel's guests and that basing decisions on hotel guests could be a form of discrimination, the Star Tribune reported."Why are we setting ourselves up for another legal settlement?" Vetaw said, according to the Tribune.RELATED: Minnesota police crack down on anti-ICE protesters, multiple arrests outside hotel Photo by Scott Olson/Getty ImagesPearll Warren, who also voted against the delay, likewise claimed the decision "smells real discriminatory."Michael Rainville, another "no" vote, noted that the hotels in question have already incurred damage from anti-ICE demonstrations and are now losing "a lot of money."Elizabeth Shaffer and Linea Palmisano also voted against delaying the renewals. Jason Chavez, Aurin Chowdhury, Aisha Chughtai, Jamal Osman, Elliott Payne, Soren Stevenson, Jamison Whiting, and Robin Wonsley voted for the delay.Osman, described by the Tribune as "Somali-American," went so far as to express support for the anti-Trump and anti-ICE mobs that have caused disturbances and even violence in response to immigration enforcement."Our president called us garbage and sent troops here to terrorize us," Osman said, according to the Tribune. "Agitators are our heroes."Quinn O’Reilly, an attorney for the city, claimed that city staff have determined that the two hotels have complied with liquor laws and are eligible for renewal.Still, Chowdhury, the committee chair, indicated that she wants more time for the council to consider the renewals and to provide local residents with a chance to weigh in. Payne said the delay will allow for a "fact-based conversation."In the meantime, the hotels may continue serving liquor as usual, said Amy Lingo, the city's manager for business licenses.Canopy by Hilton and Depot Renaissance did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The man who tried to kill President Donald Trump outside his Florida golf course just before the 2024 election was given the maximum sentence on Wednesday. Ryan Routh was spotted outside the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on September 15, 2024, by a Secret Service agent who opened fire and caused Routh to flee. He was later arrested and was found to be in possession of an SKS assault rifle.'The trial was meticulously handled, and I would like to thank the Judge and Jury for their time, professionalism, and patience.' On Wednesday, the 59-year-old was sentenced to life in prison by United States District Judge Aileen Cannon, the same judge who dismissed the president's classified documents case. A shocking scene unfolded in September 2025 during the reading of the verdict against Routh, when he grabbed a pencil and stabbed himself in the neck. Four U.S. marshals dragged him out of the court and later brought him back in with his waist and ankles shackled.He was convicted of trying to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and a number of gun charges by a jury that deliberated for only three hours.Prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence of life in prison, but Routh's defense attorney requested 27 years in prison after citing Routh's age and his mental health status. "Ryan Routh's attempted assassination of President Trump was a disgusting act — mere weeks before an election and only months after a separate assassination attempt came dangerously close to succeeding," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement after Routh was found guilty.RELATED: Would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh tries to stab himself after guilty verdict Trump also responded to the verdict on social media."The trial was meticulously handled, and I would like to thank the Judge and Jury for their time, professionalism, and patience. This was an evil man with an evil intention, and they caught him," he wrote.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!