'He leads it by double digits'

England’s coveted Tree of the Year award, on which GNN reports yearly, was won this year by a Scottish ash tree 75 feet-tall. Towering above sandstone row houses, the tree on Argyle Street, in Glasgow has survived a recent ash tree plague, as well as the Clydeside blitz, and recent urban development. It was described, […] The post The 2025 ‘Tree of the Year’ Is an Ash Growing in the Middle of Glasgow appeared first on Good News Network.

Books Wind and Truth Reread Wind and Truth Reread: Chapters 109-112 Kaladin battles a Herald, Szeth is betrayed, and Jasnah is in trouble… By Paige Vest, Lyndsey Luther, Drew McCaffrey | Published on September 29, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Greetings, Cosmere Chickens. I hope you have a comfort drink or snack prepared for this week’s reread, as we’ll be delving into some very rough stuff. Kaladin and Nale battle with weapons both physical and emotional, young Szeth faces the ultimate betrayal in his flashback chapter, and Jasnah begins to see her plans crumple in her negotiations with Taravangian. Even Venli’s facing some setbacks with her army of faithful chasmfiends. Remember, the night is always darkest before the dawn, and hope is always just around the corner. But not this week. The book has been out long enough that most of you will hopefully have finished, and as such, this series shall now function as a re-read rather than a read-along. That means there will be spoilers for the end of the book (as well as full Cosmere spoilers, so beware if you aren’t caught up on all Cosmere content). Paige’s Commentary: Plot Arcs As we continue with Day Nine, we pick back up with Kaladin and Nale in Chapter 109, “Rationalization.” Their duel has commenced, but neither attacks yet. Kaladin is assessing their surroundings and Nale watches him. The Wind tells him that he’ll be needed tomorrow, the storm is tomorrow, so he must survive this battle with Nale. As they engage, Kaladin deflects several attacks from Nale designed to feel Kaladin out, and then he lets Nale strike at him. His armor comes to his defense and forms around him. Kaladin doesn’t actually want to hurt Nale, but Nale has stated that the fight would be to the death. Nale keeps landing strikes on Kaladin and then notes that Kaladin did better without the Plate. When Nale’s Blade changes to a spear, he almost drives it right through Kaladin’s head, but Kaladin’s armor stops the spear. Barely. They start talking and Kaladin tries to find a chink in Nale’s mental armor. They speak of Heleran, who was sent by Nale to kill Amaram when he should have targeted Kaladin. Also, it turns out that Ishar sent Nale after all of those budding Radiants. That’s interesting. Nale mentions Lift and says she’s the only one to have ever defeated him in single combat, though she used a “different weapon entirely.” Maybe Kaladin should offer Nale a hug. Then Kaladin strikes, knowing he’ll land a hit but he misses as Nale blurs and dodges. Again and again, he misses. Kaladin is boggled because he knows those strikes should have fallen. Then Nale pushes Kaladin down and Kaladin begins freaking out that he’s getting beaten so thoroughly. As Nale approaches Kaladin, he admits that Kaladin’s skill has forced him to use the true skills of a Herald in the fight. He didn’t have Stormlight, but he has something equally capable of giving him the advantage over Kaladin. Szeth steps between Nale and Kaladin and tries to stop the fight, saying he’ll obey, but Nale pushes him aside and says he must execute Kaladin to end his corrupting influence. He slams Kaladin into the wall and throws him down. As he approaches to land the killing blow, Syl forms in front of him, trying to deter him. As he steps through her, Szeth’s spren forms in front of him, too, and implores him to stop. Nale tells the spren it’s a disgrace and continues to approach Kaladin. As Kaladin attempts to stand, he hears the distant sound of a flute. Chapter 110 is titled “Flute” and picks up just where the previous chapter ends. It’s the Wind, who had previously said she was too weak to help, is now trying to do just that. With her voice.“I return your song to you, Kaladin,” she whispered. “As I once returned it to Cephandrius.” Nale stops, noting the song, the rhythm. Kaladin thinks how he can’t win this battle with a spear but that the song had always moved something in him. He retrieves his flute and holds it before him as Nale raises his Blade. Kaladin starts to tell Nale that he needs to hear a story but Nale punches him, breaking bones. He drops his flute and Szeth catches him and tells him to take the Stormlight from his pouch of spheres. He does so but as he reaches for more, Nale reminds him that they agreed not to use Stormlight and he crushes Kaladin’s flute beneath his heel. Tears in his eyes, Kaladin reaches for the flute and Syl says she doesn’t understand why it matters. “Nale knows this song,” Kaladin whispered. “He knows this story. He understands, deep down, what it means to care for people more than rules. I know it, Syl. We have to remind him. We have to make him remember.” Then Syl forms as a flute and Kaladin stands as the Wind continues imitating the sounds of Kaladin’s flute. Nale recognizes it as the notes that led them to Roshar. Wind blows into the monastery and touches the Syl Flute, sounding a note and causing the flute to vibrate. Outside, the notes grow stronger and it sounds as if numerous flutes are playing. Nale dismisses the noise as “offworlder magic” and raises his sword again. Kaladin plays a few notes and Nale stops again. Kaladin tells him that it’s the story of Derethil and the Wandersail. Kaladin eludes Nale and begins telling him the story. Nale growls at him but stops again as the sound of flutes outside increases. Kaladin asks him why he became a Herald, if he can remember how he felt. Nale shouts that emotion can’t be trusted and Kaladin suggests that perhaps he can’t trust his mind. Nale said he used to see clearly but then his mind changed. Kaladin guesses that this is why Nale fell back on trusting only the law. He continues with the story of the Wandersail, and between that and the swelling sound of music that the Wind has returned to Kaladin from all of his practicing, Nale finally seems to break. Szeth approaches and tells Nale that he and Kaladin can help. Even those I hate, Kaladin thought. “Yes, we can help, Nale. We will help.” Chapter 111 is titled “The Flag of Rebellion” and it’s a Szeth flashback chapter. At the end of the last flashback, he was heading to the Stoneward monastery to find a real army. Only General Lumo, one of the men that had been with Szeth on his raid of the intruder ships, doesn’t believe him and won’t commit troops to him. Pozen has warned them of Szeth and his explanation that they all hear the voice of the Unmade doesn’t help his cause. Suddenly, an Elsecalled portal opens and an army many times the size of Szeth’s begins to emerge carrying banners of all of the other monasteries. Szeth proclaims it is time to fight but Lumo says he cannot join him. “Then,” Szeth said, meeting his eyes, “you shall instead have to watch them slaughter me.” As Szeth leads his army to fight the armies of the other Honorbearers, he doesn’t join in, just directs the battle. It’s a desperate fight as they are vastly outnumbered, but finally the army of the Stoneward monastery joins them. Then Szeth goes to face the other Honorbearers, first Moss and then Sivi. Moss flees and Sivi, after insisting that it had not been an Unmade that Szeth had seen, reveals that he’s let himself get distracted by a duel. He turns to see the army from the Stoneward monastery turn against his troops, who are now trapped between the larger forces. Szeth flies to them and lands between his forces and Lumo’s, and then Neturo steps out. He reveals that he carries the Bondsmith Honorblade and that he has met the Voice and it is not what Szeth thinks it is. He tells Szeth that he has answers and Szeth, feeling like a child again, begs his father to tell him what to do. Chapter 112 is titled “The Song of Renunciation” and we rejoin Jasnah in Taln’s Temple. Taravangian has asserted that Jasnah will help persuade Fen to join Odium and Jasnah disagrees that she will do any such thing. Taravangian argues that he and Jasnah have the same philosophy, how they both want to do the most good possible for the most people, and how they both know that there will be greater peace with him ruling. He refers to how he is immortal and can keep the peace long after they’re gone, but Jasnah successfully deflects this attempt to sway Fen. POV Shift! Venli is riding a chasmfiend, preparing to attack the humans. A femalen Husked One approaches and tells her that they and the chasmfiends will be the second assault. Venli is surprised, thinking that they would be attacking first—she thinks that this will require a change to the plan. But the Fused says that El wants to soften the humans by killing some spren first. How pleasant. And so Venli watches as Heavenly Ones streak towards the human defenses. Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs Nale/Kaladin Syl sought me out because she felt the storm moving through Shadesmar. Taln Returned, finally breaking. Your killing all those Radiants accomplished nothing.”Nale froze, and Kaladin saw something: a flash of emotion, a chink in his armor. This entire scene is so, so powerful. I find it difficult to separate my notes on Kaladin’s character progression and that of Nale, because they’re so intrinsically linked, so I’m combining them and making notes on them both as the scene progresses. New Kaladin still protected, but accepted he might fail. He controlled his sense of loss. Not through callousness, as his father had tried to teach him. But through love. Here we see Kaladin at his most powerful. When the spear fails him, he falls back on love, and empathy, and connection. And this proves to be the superior weapon. He forges a connection with Nale through music and memory, and reminds Nale why he became a Herald to begin with. Those memories, buried beneath millennia of trauma and attempts to find something new to cling to as his sanity faded, are what ultimately saves them both. “I feared the others, highborn save Taln, would forget the little people of the lands. I knew it, Kaladin. I fought on their behalf, for centuries. Oh … my god … What has happened to me? What has become of me?” Nale’s empathy and humanity returning to him here is so painful. To look back on what you have become, with eyes open… I can’t imagine how hard this revelation must have been for him. Even if an emperor makes the laws, when we uphold them, the laws become ours. The responsibility ours. And every action those people took … that blood was on their hands.” This part in particular is, I think, the culmination of five books’ worth of progress on Kaladin’s part. He begins as a simple soldier, doing as he’s told. He begins to question in his Bridge Crew, and to make decisions contrary to his superior officer’s demands. He forms connections with the enemy, and begins to realize that perhaps they aren’t the “enemy” after all. And finally, he recognizes that the responsibility for orders obeyed also lies with him, and that the lives he took were also his own responsibility. It’s even worse, of course, for Nale, who had spent lifetimes allowing the law to be his guiding force. Responsibility taken from him, or so he thought, for the awful things he was “forced” to do. Exactly what Szeth wanted—the weight of the terrible things taken from their shoulders. But that weight needed to be addressed, not pawned off on another. It was their own to bear, and Kaladin has opened their eyes to this. Only by facing their trauma and their guilt can they move past it; otherwise it would remain buried, poisoning the wells of their souls. Past!Szeth He opened his mouth to demand answers… and a figure stepped out from among them.A stout man with a short beard, thinning hair, a friendly smile. Neturo. His father. Ouch. The one person who always had Szeth’s back, who stalwartly protected him through thick and thin… I can think of no worse betrayal. “He’s not a Voidbringer, son,” Neturo said. “I’ve met him. I don’t know what he is. A god perhaps, as he says—but he’s not one of them.” The worst part is… he’s right. Ishar isn’t a Voidbringer. But the desolation has begun and Ishar certainly is not a friend to the Shin. Suddenly, the horror of what Szeth had done overwhelmed him. He’d killed dozens with an Honorblade. He’d raised an army to fight his own people. If he was wrong…Why had he thought he could trust his own judgment? He was a fool, and a child, and he always had been. And so we see the extent of the trauma that Kaladin has been fighting against this whole time. No wonder Szeth doesn’t want to make his own decisions! Jasnah “Dalinar’s covenant will enforce peace,” Fen said.“Between my empire and the kingdoms of humankind,” Taravangian said softly. “Not between humans themselves.” Oh dear. And here we begin the awful spiral of logic that Taravangian uses to flush Jasnah down the proverbial toilet. Without the ability to rise up and take weapons, my people would lose a fundamental right. I did not predict that I’d come across a Second Amendment corollary in my medieval fantasy book, but here we are… Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories It is rare that I must use the true skills of a Herald against a mortal. We… do not deploy them frivolously. With the hints of Taln’s capabilities shown earlier—and maybe even more importantly Shalash’s—it was neatly foreshadowed that Nale would be untouchable to Kaladin. And in typical Sanderson fashion, he had Kaladin think over and over, leading up to this fight, about how Nale is just a man without Stormlight. Because of course he isn’t. He’s not even a man at all, not anymore. He’s a Cognitive Shadow, and more than that, a Herald. The Honorblades are not the only things that make them special. They use the powers of Roshar itself to move with supernatural speed and strength. But… how? Like many things in Wind and Truth, this is one of those magical revelations that occurs, and we’re given a vague explanation for it, but there is no real mechanism shown for it. What are “the powers of Roshar” that they can tap into? Is it the Wind, Stone, and Night? That would be the logical assumption, that it’s some sort of Connection to the pre-Shattering entities and Investiture of Roshar (though that is another tangle of knots to unravel, given the Word of Brandon that all Investiture was assigned to a Shard at the moment of the Shattering…). But if so, why does the Wind tell Kaladin in this very scene that it can’t help him? Kaladin has built a Connection with the Wind at this point, becoming its champion for the final days. Perhaps this remains to be explained in more detail in the last five books, along with so many other aspects of the Heralds, but it does feel a bit underwhelming to have it handwaved in such a manner despite being an important aspect of such a major scene. He stepped forward and slammed a booted heel on the flute, crunching the wood, shattering it. RIP to the Lord Ruler’s flute. …What’s that? Oh yeah, so this flute was totally the Lord Ruler’s. I mean, yeah, it’s not confirmed. It’s quite possible that this is a flute from Yolen, a special trailman’s flute that Hoid used thousands of years ago during his time as a simple jesk. But I know how Brandon Sanderson thinks, and that answer is way too simple. It does seem like a bummer that it got destroyed here. Unless one of the things that makes this flute so special is that it can reform? And, perhaps, find its way back to its owner? And so Kaladin uses the Wind and a Shardflute to tell the story of Derethil and the Wandersail. I do not know the ultimate result of their voyage, but I do know that they wrecked on an island called Uvala, near a mighty whirlpool. A tall people lived there, who wore shells in their hair unlike any that grew on Roshar. So maybe it’s just the recency of Isles of the Emberdark lurking in the back of my mind, but I feel like I can’t be the only one who assumes that the Wandersail went through a perpendicularity, and Uvala is either in Shadesmar or on another world entirely. Anyone else? Bueller? The detail of shells “unlike any […] on Roshar” is the sort of thing that initially feels like just some mythical flavor to a story, but in the Cosmere these stories are very often based in truth, and those details, once ignored, tend to be clues pointing to the truth at the heart of the story. And a whirlpool? Could that not be a Shardpool beneath the waves? And then there’s the thematic resonance with Rysn, the Dawnshard, the Sleepless, and her new ship—coincidentally named the Wandersail—and her plan to flee Roshar. It lines up too neatly. One last, teasing point in Chapter 112: “Be grateful El leads this battle,” she said. “I would gladly send you traitors to die.” El led the final assault on Narak from the front lines. El, the Fused of indeterminate brand, who has a Shardblade and who implants metal to replace the carapace he tore out. What the heck is his deal? He almost seems like an anti-Taln, at this point, built up to the point of being mythically threatening without actually showing us readers what he’s capable of. Getting answers about El might be the single thing I’m most looking forward to when Sanderson resumes this series. We’ll be keeping an eye on the comment sections of posts about this article on various social media platforms and may include some of your comments/speculation (with attribution) on future weeks’ articles! Keep the conversation going, and PLEASE remember to spoiler-tag your comments on social media to help preserve the surprise for those who haven’t read the book yet. See you next Monday with our discussion of chapters 113 through 116![end-mark] The post <i>Wind and Truth</i> Reread: Chapters 109-112 appeared first on Reactor.

Tell Us What You Really Think, Washington Post

True blue pigment is very hard to find, but people have been trying since the Ice Age.

Geomagnetic storms don’t just cause blackouts and auroras.

If you’ve spent any time in politics, you know progressives contradict themselves so often that exposing their double-talk could keep conservative commentators busy for several lifetimes.At first, young conservatives may find it thrilling to point out those blunders and imagine that the liberal across from them will be persuaded. But here’s the hard lesson: Only people with integrity change their minds when they find contradictions in their own thinking.The goal isn’t to win the argument but lose your integrity. It’s to speak truth with courage and charity.Progressives don’t stumble into incoherence by accident. They wield it like a smokescreen. The confusion keeps conscientious conservatives chasing their own tails. Conservatives, by temperament, want coherence, so they expect others to want it, too. But the record shows otherwise.Take Hillary Clinton. Last week on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” she urged Americans to stop finger-pointing — before immediately blaming Republicans for the country’s problems. A Yale degree didn’t inoculate her against incoherence. As Charlie Kirk once observed at Cambridge, high IQ is no guarantee of wisdom. Clinton didn’t notice the contradiction, and even if she did, it wouldn’t matter. She is paid handsomely to talk, and truth never slows her down.Moments later in the same appearance, she called for a return to “truth-based reality,” insisting that facts and evidence must matter again. This from the same woman who affirms that a man can become a woman. Truth wasn’t invited to that party. Now, she tells us it must rule the day.The effect is dizzying, and that is the point.What should concern us isn’t simply the logic game. It’s the condition of her soul. What happens to a soul shaped for decades by falsehood and injustice?Clinton also revealed her deepest fear. She does not fear God. She fears the people of God — especially white, male Christians. She said so on national television just weeks after Kirk was assassinated by a trans-supporting terrorist who bought into rhetoric spewed by politicians like her. And yet, here she is again, pouring fuel on the fire.The irony didn’t stop there. She wondered aloud how today’s politics could be “so contrary to the founding principles and values this country was built on.” This from the same politician who treats the Constitution as a “living document” to be reshaped whenever it confounds her political prejudices. She wasn’t concerned with founding principles when Donald Trump was banned from Twitter or prosecuted by the Biden Justice Department.But pointing out contradictions only goes so far. The deeper warning is this: Hillary Clinton is what happens when you spend a lifetime saying whatever advances your career. She is willing to contradict herself publicly — and attack Christians — for money and applause. My own university, Arizona State, paid her $500,000 to host the Clinton Global Initiative.Socrates put it best: The true philosopher, the lover of the good, doesn’t chase political power, money, or fame. He wants only this — that when he leaves this life, his soul is not defiled by injustice.RELATED: Charlie Kirk thrived on truth and virtue over grievance-mongering Photo by Jon Putman/Anadolu via Getty ImagesThat’s the lesson for young conservatives. Exposing contradictions is fine. It can even be fun. But don’t forget what matters more: Never let your soul become like Hillary Clinton’s.G.K. Chesterton once wrote that the modern mind cuts down the signposts and then complains no one knows the way home. That is the progressive project in our time: Deny first principles, denounce those who keep them, and demand the comforts those principles once secured.So take this counsel seriously:Guard your soul more than your timeline. Social media glory is cheap; a clean conscience is priceless.Pursue coherence because it is true, not because it is clever. Wit is garnish; truth is the meal.Fear God more than fashion. Today’s trends are tomorrow’s embarrassments; the fear of the Lord endures.The goal isn’t to win the argument but lose your integrity. It’s to speak truth with courage and charity, to resist compromise with evil for the sake of applause, and to leave this world with a soul unstained by injustice.That victory is higher than anything Hillary Clinton will ever claim — and it is the only victory that lasts.

While leftists accuse the Trump administration of censorship after comedian Jimmy Kimmel was fired, and then promptly reinstated, for his vile commentary regarding Charlie Kirk in the wake of his assassination — the real censorship bully has been revealed.Google has finally disclosed that the Biden administration pressured the company into widespread censorship and will reportedly be reinstating YouTube accounts that were censored years ago for voicing the wrong opinions.According to the House Judiciary Committee, the company admitted that “the Biden administration pressured Google to censor Americans and remove content that did not violate YouTube’s policies.”Those opinions ran counter to the Biden administration’s official narrative surrounding COVID and election integrity.“Wow, you mean to tell me that it wasn’t just YouTube who decided to find all of these accounts of these creators, these doctors in some cases, these scientists, these experts who lost their YouTube accounts, lost their livelihoods due to COVID quote ‘misinformation’ that turned out to be true?” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says.“They admitted the Biden administration’s pressure to censor Americans was 'unacceptable and wrong' after the fact. ... Thanks for the news flash in 2025,” she continues.“Now all of a sudden they’re like, ‘Oh, actually, government pressuring a private company to censor Americans' voices is actually, as it turns out, unacceptable.’ Now, it took us five years to get there. It took us five years to formulate that opinion. It took us Donald Trump’s election,” she says. “Because remember, things didn’t really start changing until they realized there was going to be a new sheriff in town.”Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.