In the aftermath of the deadly 2023 shooting at Tennessee’s Covenant School, in which a transgender-identifying shooter killed six at the Christian school, Democrat Aftyn Behn said that her sympathies were with the transgender community. Behn, now running to represent the Nashville area in Congress, said the aftermath of the shooting was “incredibly upsetting” for her family — because of the anger directed at the “trans communities.” “So, for those of you who don’t know, my partner has a trans son, and the month of April and the final week of March was incredibly upsetting for us,” Behn said in a July 31, 2023, candidate forum, just months after the massacre. “In the wake of the Covenant shooting, and the disclosure that the Covenant shooter was trans, I was pulled into a chat with other trans organizers and activists across the state that were fearful of their lives.” Behn said the shooting inspired her to run for office to fight “every day” for “protections for trans kids and our trans communities.” She said she was specifically inspired to fight back against The Daily Wire, and specifically Daily Wire host Matt Walsh, because the company is based in Nashville. “Every legislative session, I promise to carry a ‘trans bill of rights’ so that we can push back against the far-right narrative that is being emanated by Matt Walsh and The Daily Wire, who have set up their home in Nashville,” Behn said. “I promise to do that, and I promise to fight for the trans community.” WATCH:  WATCH: This is how Democrat Aftyn Behn responded to the Covenant shooting, when a trans-identifying woman killed six at the Christian school. It inspired Behn’s first run for office…so she could fight to protect “trans communities” and against Daily Wire and @MattWalshBlog. pic.twitter.com/th13e1v6dW — Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 24, 2025 Behn, who is running against Republican Matt Van Epps in a special election next Monday, has indeed fought for far-left positions since she was elected that year, especially on transgender issues. For example, Behn opposed a parental rights law that would make schools notify parents about their child’s “trans identity.” She called it an attack on “vulnerable kids” who are “just trying to make it out of middle school alive.” The Democrat is also on record opposing a law that would protect minors from drag shows. Behn insisted the law “isn’t about protecting kids” but about “spreading fear and division.” READ MORE: Why Creating A New Terrorism Category For Transgender Violence Matters Behn and Van Epps are fighting for the congressional seat vacated by House Homeland Security Chair Mark Green earlier this year. Democrats are loading money into the district, in hopes of flipping a reliably Republican district. Her leftist views, many of which she’s been forced to run away from, are emerging as a serious impediment. Even on MS NOW, the liberal network formerly known as MSNBC, Behn was called out this weekend for her past policy positions, including that the Nashville police department should be disbanded and that burning down a police station is justified. She declined to back away from either statement. Holy crap, the Democrat nominee for Tennessee’s 7th district — parts of Nashville, Franklin & beyond, my congressional district — called for shutting down Nashville’s police department & burning down police stations. Go vote for Matt Van Epps on Monday: pic.twitter.com/lNaR30e91N — Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) November 24, 2025 Behn has also taken heat for trashing Nashville, which she supposedly wants to represent in Congress. “I hate the city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music, I hate all of the things that make Nashville apparently an ‘it’ city to the rest of the country. But I hate it,” she said in an unearthed podcast clip posted this past week. Related: Music City Fumble: Dem Candidate Said She Hates City She Wants To Represent In Congress

Most Americans are skeptical about potential military action against Venezuela, according to new polling. A CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday night found that 70% of American adults oppose potential military action against the Venezuelan regime while just 30% of respondents approve. The survey comes as President Donald Trump has ramped up the military’s presence in […]

'He grabbed his hands around my neck'

He first appeared in European films before breaking through in Hollywood

Stephanie Dilyard was working alone when the incident occurred

'All happened pretty quickly'

Column SFF Bestiary The Lore and the Weird Magic of the Jellyfish Even as sea creatures go, the jellyfish is especially alien… By Judith Tarr | Published on November 24, 2025 Photo by Katarzyna Urbanek [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo by Katarzyna Urbanek [via Unsplash] Even as sea creatures go, the jellyfish is weird. It’s 95% water. It has no bones, no brain, no blood, no heart. It’s been swimming through the sea for hundreds of millions of years. At the rate it’s going, it may be the last thing left after everything else has succumbed to climate change and plain old entropy. I’ve talked about the jellyfish that may be immortal, but that’s only one of hundreds of different varieties across two phyla, Cnidaria and Ctenophora. They come in all sizes from a tiny pinprick to a monster almost three meters across. What they all have in common is their general shape: a bell or a box with trailing tentacles, nearly always equipped with stinging cells that stun and capture prey. Jellyfish stings are a notorious problem for humans. Most jellies are not lethal, but their stings can hurt like fury, and it’s often impossible to know they’re there until you step or swim into them. Even if you can see the bell, the tentacles can stretch far beyond it. The most venomous animal in the world is the Australian box jellyfish. Unlike most jellies, which aren’t particularly strong swimmers and mostly drift on the currents, this jellyfish can swim against the tide, and it has eyes. It can see you. It’s not just scary, it’s deadly. And it’s big: its tentacles are up to 3 meters (10 feet) long. What we recognize as a jellyfish, or a sea jelly as they’re more properly called, is only one of several life stages: the medusa. That’s the pulsing, graceful, sometimes deadly creature that’s found in every ocean. Under the right conditions it can congregate in groups as small as a meter across and as large as hundreds of meters: a phenomenon called a bloom. This is a supremely simple animal with a complex life cycle. It consists of a bell or box with an orifice that serves as both mouth and anus, a nerve net that’s capable of detecting levels of light, temperature, and chemical changes in the water (i.e., a sort of sense of smell), and the tentacles I mentioned above, which can trail for many meters behind the bell. They eat plankton and small sea creatures and sometimes fellow jellies. They are eaten in turn by other animals including sea turtles, whale sharks, and humans—some species are a delicacy in Asia. Jellies reproduce in two stages, one sexual and one asexual. The medusa releases either eggs and sperm into the water. They fertilize there (or sometimes in the mouth of the female) and develop into free-swimming larvae, which eventually attach to a surface and grow into polyps. These polyps in turn reproduce asexually by budding off ephyrae or infant jellies. Those that survive to adulthood become medusae. And so the cycle begins again. Medusae tend to be short-lived, as little as a few months, but polyps can live for years or even decades. And then of course there’s that wonder of the world, the immortal jellyfish, which can reverse the aging process and transform back into a polyp. Then, when conditions are right, it matures again into a medusa. It’s a complicated process, but it works. Jellies have outlasted most other species that have existed in the world. They’re invaluable to science not just for their longevity and persistence, but for what they can tell us about conditions in the ocean. Jellyfish blooms serve as indicators of climate change, as the water temperature rises and their reproductive cycle speeds up. Warmer water, more jellies, bigger blooms. This affects shipping and fisheries, as well as swimmers and beachgoers. Jellies have been ringing another set of alarm bells for the scientists who study them. As they feed, they accumulate microplastics. When other animals prey on them, the plastics move further on up the food chain. They’re a clear indicator of a growing problem. But there is a possible upside to this. Jellies, and the mucus some of them generate as a means of trapping prey, can actually trap microplastics. It may be possible to use them as a filter, to help clean up the ocean. That would be a serious benefit to the whole planet, not just to humans. While I’m contemplating the strangeness and possible usefulness of the jellyfish, I’m trying to remember where I’ve read of jellyfish-like aliens in science fiction. Anne McCaffrey’s Thread, for example is a kind of medusa-less jellyfish tentacle: all sting, no pretty. Where else do we see this particular kind of beautifully weird alien?[end-mark] The post The Lore and the Weird Magic of the Jellyfish appeared first on Reactor.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced on Monday the conclusion of its emergency mission. The humanitarian group, which received significant financial backing from the U.S. and support from President Donald Trump, delivered 187 million meals to the people of Gaza since its launch at the end of May. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is leaving its aid mission in the hands of the recently established Civil-Military Coordination Center, headquartered in Israel, and other humanitarian groups. “From the outset, [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s] goal was to meet an urgent need, prove that a new approach could succeed where others had failed, and ultimately hand off that success to the broader international community. With the creation of the Civil-Military Coordination Center and a rejuvenated engagement of the international humanitarian community, GHF believes that moment has now arrived,” John Acree, executive director of the organization, said in a statement Monday.   The organization stood up operations in Gaza following growing reports of Hamas terrorists looting aid trucks. The aid group ran four main distribution sites in Gaza built on a model of using local people to help staff the sites and focused on security, disciplined operations, and delivering food directly to civilians to prevent Hamas interference.   During its operation, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation came under intense scrutiny from the U.N. and criticism from world leaders following multiple violent incidents near its distribution sites, some of which resulted in civilian deaths.  U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation “inherently unsafe,” and even claimed the group was “killing people.”  Despite the criticism, and the security risks to its own team, the group continued its work in Gaza until the ceasefire went into effect in October following Hamas and Israel agreeing to a peace plan based on Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war and release the remaining hostages.   “We have faced enormous challenges. Our workers have been attacked and killed. Our integrity has been unfairly questioned. We have operated without the resources and recognition given to others. But we have not stopped,” Rev. Johnnie Moore, the group’s executive chairman, told The Daily Signal during an interview over the summer.   During its roughly five months of operations, the group delivered more than 5,600 metric tons of potatoes and supplied over a million packs of ready-to-use supplementary food for malnourished children. Additionally, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation partnered with the Christian humanitarian group Samaritan’s Purse to provide medical care mothers and infants at its sites, and created dedicated distribution lanes that prioritized women, children, and the elderly.  Women receive food at an aid site in Gaza operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. (GHF) “What our team will miss the most are the friendships and camaraderie developed with thousands of Gazans, especially the women and children we served,” Acree said. “In early July, as the food security situation in Gaza improved, our operations stabilized and we experienced a major shift in winning over the trust of aid seekers to the point where our aid sites became local hangout spots for women and children interacting with our team on a daily basis. We will miss them dearly.”   The group is maintaining its NGO status and will remain prepared to step up and help again should the need arise in Gaza, according to the group.   The post After 187 Million Meals Delivered, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Announces End to Mission  appeared first on The Daily Signal.

After urging members of the military to refuse “illegal orders” from the Trump administration, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., admitted she is not aware of any such orders. “Do you believe President [Donald] Trump has issued any illegal orders?” ABC’s Martha Raddatz asked her. “To my knowledge, I am not aware of things that are illegal—but certainly there are some legal gymnastics that are going on with these Caribbean strikes and everything related to Venezuela,” Slotkin said. In a video posted on X, Slotkin said that “threats to the Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but right here at home.” Slotkin and five other Democrat members of Congress shared a video on X Tuesday, telling the military and intelligence community, the “American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution. Don’t give up the ship.”   “Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution. Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home,” the six Democrats say in the video message. “Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. … You must refuse illegal orders.”   Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., also appears in the video alongside Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire. All six Democrats formerly served in the U.S. military or in the intelligence community.   “No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution,” the elected leaders say. “We know this is hard and that it’s a difficult time to be a public servant. But whether you’re serving in the CIA, the Army, our Navy, the Air Force—your vigilance is critical, and know that we have your back because now, more than ever, the American people need you.”   The video earned over five million views on X in less than 24 hours and drew criticism from the White House.   “Democrat lawmakers are now openly calling for insurrection,” Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy, wrote on X.   Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called the Democrats’ video “Stage 4 [Trump Derangement Syndrome].”   The post Sen. Elissa Slotkin Admits She’s ‘Not Aware’ of Any Illegal Military Orders appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Illegal Alien Stole a Man's Identity and Made His Life Hell; New York Times Calls The Illegal a Victim