Column Teen Horror Time Machine No Safety in Sisterhood: Twisted and Sorority Sister  There’s a fine line between hazing and MURDER. By Alissa Burger | Published on October 2, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share The yearning to belong is a constant theme throughout ‘90s teen horror. Characters find comfort and protection in family, friends, and romantic partners as they navigate the terrors that beset them. R.L. Stine’s Twisted (1987) and Diane Hoh’s Nightmare Hall book Sorority Sister (1994) feature young women at the start of their college journeys, who are looking for this sense of community and camaraderie in sorority life—though they discover that even within the warm embrace of these sisterhoods, they are far from safe.  Stine’s Twisted is a precursor to the larger ‘90s teen horror trend, a Point Horror book that precedes his popular Fear Street series. Abby is making the transition from high school to college and feels like she is caught between two worlds: She’s a college student but still lives at home, where she feels a bit smothered by her mother’s constant attention. She wants nothing more than to pledge Tri Gamma, the most desirable sorority on campus, but her sister Gabriella’s snarky comments about Tri Gamma and sororities in general is a sour counterpoint to Abby’s enthusiasm. And while Abby imagines that she’ll make lots of new friends through the recruitment process, two of the first people she sees are Nina, who had been her childhood best friend until they drifted apart in high school, and Leila, Abby’s high school best friend and the girl Abby’s boyfriend Gordon dumped her for, after which Abby hit a bit of an amorphously described “bad patch.”  Despite Gabriella’s negativity and the stress of being thrown into close proximity with old friends and rivals, Abby stays the course and continues with the recruitment process, even when Tri Gamma president Andrea tells them that as a bonding exercise and a test of their loyalty, “Every year, we take our pledges away from the sorority house, away from the campus, to another town. And then… to make sure you will be loyal Tri Gammas for life… we ask our pledges to commit a crime” (25, emphasis original). This extreme demand is framed as “a secret that will bind them together… an experience that will make them sisters for life” (25). Abby boards a bus with Andrea and the other recruits and they are whisked away to a sleepy off-season seaside town, put up in a creepy old house, and walked through the process of how they’re all going to commit an armed robbery of an antique store, to steal money and jewelry from the little old lady who runs it, Marie Driftwood. This is not what anyone would call a discrete operation: They park the bus on the main road outside the antique store and all tromp in together, as Andrea points out the items she wants them to steal when they come back for the real thing.  The girls are divided about whether this is a joke or the real deal. When the big moment comes, one of the girls refuses to participate, but the majority of them carry on as they head back to the antique store in broad daylight, tying Mrs. Driftwood up as they hold her at gunpoint. Everything seems to be going according to plan—or at least as according to plan as is possible with a group of poorly coordinated amateurs with no idea of what they’re doing—until Mrs. Driftwood has a heart attack and dies. The girls flee in panic, heading back to the house to debate what to do and whether they should call the police. Andrea tells them she’s going to call the cops and pin the whole thing on them; she waited outside the store as a lookout and the way she sees it, “I didn’t kill anyone… You girls went into the store. The next thing I knew, you all came running out, telling me the owner was dead” (88). It’s terrible that Mrs. Driftwood died, sure, but it’s not Andrea’s fault in any way, and the girls will just have to take responsibility for their actions. The girls feel betrayed, tempers flare, and a cooling off period is proposed to think things over before they make any big decisions. They scatter to different corners of the house, there’s a loud bang, and they find Andrea dead in her room from a gunshot. So now there are TWO murders to cover up, the bus has left them stranded at the house, and tensions between Abby and Leila continue to mount when Gordon secretly shows up at the house to see Leila, though Abby is certain that she’s the one he really wants.  Mayhem ensues, no one’s sure who they can trust, and when Abby and Leila finally have their long overdue confrontation, Abby has a gun and is telling Leila that she’s really Gabriella, there to protect her sister Abby and make Leila pay for stealing Gordon (who, to be honest, doesn’t seem like much of a prize). Gordon comes to Leila’s rescue and isn’t surprised by Abby’s behavior, telling Leila that “This is what happened to her before… This is her other personality” (150), revealing the secrets of the dark time Abby refuses to think about. Confusion ensues as Gordon tries to restrain Gabriella and Nina can’t figure out why he’s attacking Abby, and things only get crazier when Andrea and Mrs. Driftwood show up, both alive and well, revealing that the whole thing was an elaborate hazing ritual. They expect this announcement to be met with relief and laughter (as it apparently has been all the other years they’ve pulled this stunt), but Nina is outraged, telling Andrea “I’m not just disappointed that the Tri Gams would pull this stupid prank on their pledges. I’m not just hurt. I’m ashamed. I’m ashamed of the Tri Gams. I’m ashamed of myself” (162). Nina does tell Andrea that she’s not walking away, however, saying that “I’ve earned my place this weekend… I’m going to be a Tri Gam, Andrea… And the first thing I’m going to fight for is to get rid of this awful weekend you make your pledges go through every year!” (162). So after this trial by fire, Nina is headed to the Tri Gamma house, but Abby (and Gabriella) are headed somewhere much less pleasant, bundled into an ambulance and bound for another lengthy institutional stay.  The dangers come from within the sorority in Stine’s Twisted, while in Hoh’s Sorority Sister, when terrible things begin happening to the young women of Omega Phi Delta, all signs point to someone on the outside, and as the sisters draw together to protect themselves and one another. Maxie McKeon is a recent pledge and new to the house, though she really feels that she has found where she belongs, much to the chagrin of her best friend Jenna and her boyfriend Brendan. Then odd things start happening in the sorority house: Some of the girls’ valuable possessions, including a jewelry box and a ring, go missing, though both are soon returned anonymously, delivered by a messenger and with nothing missing or damaged. The point of these thefts is to let the girls know that someone is able to come and go from the house at will and undetected, which means the home they share is no longer a safe haven.  Many of the girls in the house are legacies, including Tinker Gabrielle, Erica Bingham, and Candie Barr (seriously), with mothers who were Omega Phi Deltas at Salem University during their own college careers. When the mothers come to the house for a luncheon, the event is sabotaged, as someone takes all the catered food and fills the refrigerator with rotting garbage. The catering team’s presence in the house highlights how easy it is for someone who means the girls harm to infiltrate this private space: When Maxie sees a woman she doesn’t know in the pantry, she assumes she’s with the caterers, but this isn’t the case. Later, a man claiming to be a doctor has some car trouble near the house and Maxie lets him in to use their phone, and when an exterminator shows up to do some work around the house, the girls check his identification and invite him in. Of course, neither of these people are who they claim to be and the girls suffer as a result: The “doctor” fills the pantry with ants and while the exterminator may have taken care of the ants, he also sprayed insecticide on the dinner plates, which sends several girls to the hospital. A woman claiming to be Candi’s mother’s stylist, Tia Maria, shows up to do Candie’s hair and offers to give Maxie a makeover while she waits for Candie to get home. Maxie nearly breaks her ankle trying to get away from Tia Maria when she realizes mid-makeover that this woman is not who she claims to be. The exterior of the house is being painted and the girls can’t quite decide whether the presence of the painting crew is a comfort (lots of people around, safety in numbers) or just another danger (the person who wants to hurt them could pose as and blend in with the painting crew).  While the girls’ attempts at keeping the house secure are far from effective, their assumption is that the threat is coming from outside the house, with their top suspects being pledges who were not accepted into Omega Phi Delta. As Maxie tries to balance her new sorority life with her other friends and commitments, she begins to suspect those closest to her: She and Jenna used to be roommates and she wonders if Jenna may be behind it all, in the hope that Maxie will get fed up with sorority life or be too afraid to stay in the house and move back to the dorm with her. Maxie’s boyfriend Brendan isn’t super happy about having to share her time and attention with Maxie’s new sisters either, as she keeps canceling their dates for sorority commitments and events.  But that’s not the case and in the end, the threat is one of their own: Candie resents how much the sorority means to her mother, in whose footsteps she is following in Omega Phi Delta. As Candie tells Maxie, she “Never stopped talking about it, never stopped wanting it back, never loved anything as much as she did those four years. Not my father, not my brother, not me. Especially not me” (195, emphasis original). Even as an alum, Allison Barre’s life revolves around Omega Phi Delta; she has never been around for her family and has missed all of Candie’s plays. Candie apparently crushed it in these theatre performances, because she dressed up and convincingly played all of the outsiders who got into the house, from the fake caterer to Tia Maria. Driven by this simmering resentment, Candie’s great plan is to set the sorority house on fire with all of her sisters inside, so her mother will have nothing to yearn for, go back to, or prioritize above her daughter. As she tells Maxie, “No house, no sorority. No sorority, no fixation, period. She’ll get over it. And she’ll come to me for comfort when it’s all gone” (200, emphasis original). This is a flawed plan, to say the least, and Maxie tries to explain to Candie that “Omega Phi is more than a house… What your mom wants back is in her head, in her memory, not in this house” (201, emphasis original). But Candie is so fanatical in her commitment that she can’t see reason and the equation seems straightforward to her: no house, no sorority, problem solved. Maxie keeps Candie talking, subdues her with a paint sprayer that the painters have left behind, saves her sisters, and saves the house.  In both Twisted and Sorority Sister, the camaraderie and support Abby and Maxie hope to find among their sisters turns out to be compromised and destructive. The Tri Gammas of Twisted have systemic issues, including the traumatic hazing ritual they put their new pledges through, and while Nina vows to join the house and effect change, her follow through is far from certain. Abby’s friendships with other girls, including Nina and Leila, are complicated and the division of Abby’s personality between her own and that of her “sister” Gabriella adds another layer of toxic sisterhood to Twisted, as Gabriella vacillates between ridiculing and defending Abby. While the pledges of Sorority Sister’s Omega Phi Delta don’t have to endure the hazing the Tri Gammas experience, this wasn’t always the case, and Erica’s mother was injured in a hazing incident in her own time with the sorority, when she fell off a railroad bridge and into the river: As Erica tells the other girls, “She was in a full body cast for eight weeks and didn’t graduate with her class. Had to finish up in summer school. Her accident was responsible for some new rules about hazing” (85), including changes in Omega Phi Delta’s initiation rituals. While the recruitment and rituals of Omega Phi Delta are much less problematic than those of the Tri Gammas, they do have to contend with this history and Candie’s violence against the other girls in the sorority shows that they can’t necessarily trust their sisters even now.  Interestingly, despite the horrors of Twisted and Sorority Sister, when the dust settles, the majority of the girls choose to stand with their sisters: Leila drops out of recruitment but Nina is going to be a Tri Gamma, despite—or maybe even because of—her outrage over the initiation prank. Despite her horrific injury in her own time in the house, Erica’s mother remains devoted to the sorority, returns for the luncheon with the other mothers, and is thrilled that her daughter is the chapter president. And even though Maxie was nearly killed, once Candie is in custody, she chooses to stay in the house, surrounded and comforted by the support of her sisters.[end-mark] The post No Safety in Sisterhood: <em>Twisted</em> and <em>Sorority Sister</em>  appeared first on Reactor.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Americans’ trust in the media has slumped to an all-time low, according to a Gallup survey released Thursday. Nearly seven in 10 Americans say they don’t trust the press—a finding underscored by recent controversies over coverage of the Charlie Kirk assassination and the murder of a Ukrainian on a light rail in North Carolina. Just 28% of Americans say they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in newspapers, television, and radio to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly” compared to 31% last year, according to a  Gallup survey released Thursday. By contrast, 34% say they have no trust at all, and another 36% say they have “not very much” confidence. Confidence in the media breaks sharply along party lines. Republican trust in the media has fallen to 8%, the first time it has dropped into single digits. Among Democrats, 51% say they have a great or fair amount of trust in the media, while only 9% say they have no trust. Independents are more divided, with 27% expressing trust and 32% reporting none at all. Trust in the media also shows a clear generational divide that has widened over the past decade, according to three-year aggregated data. From 2023 to 2025, 43% of adults 65 and older said they trust the media, compared with no more than 28% in any younger age group, Gallup found. Americans’ overall confidence in the media has been declining steadily since Gallup first began tracking it in 1972. At the time, 68% said they had a great deal of trust, while just 6% said they had no faith in the institution at all. Despite the growing trend of left-wing extremist violence, between Jan. 21 and June 21, news outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS used labels such as “far right” 1,222 times compared with just 86 mentions of “far left” or similar labels, according to the Media Research Center. Moreover, corporate media outlets largely ignored the stabbing death of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina, for several days, despite news of the brutal incident going viral on social media, a Daily Caller News Foundation review found in September. CNN also faced criticism for appearing to downplay anti-fascist messages found on ammunition near the site of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination, referring to the markings as “a range of phrases related to cultural issues.” Paramount agreed to pay $36 million to President Donald Trump after he sued CBS for allegedly manipulating former Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview on 60 Minutes in the weeks before the 2024 election. Skydance Media, which is set to acquire Paramount in an $8 billion deal, has pledged to the Trump administration that it would promote “unbiased journalism” and a “diverse array of viewpoints on television” under the new merger. Gallup’s poll was conducted between Sept. 2 and 16 and surveyed a random sample of 1,000 adults from all 50 states. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post Trust in News Media Lower Than Ever Among Americans in New Gallup Poll appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The National March for Life announced Tuesday that Georgetown University Right to Life will carry the banner at the front of the 2026 March for Life in Washington, D.C.   This unique opportunity for pro-life Georgetown students builds upon the recent growth of pro-life advocacy around the university. In the past two years, Georgetown’s pro-life club has doubled in size and expanded its activities to weekly tabling, sidewalk counseling, and diaper drives and bake sales to support pregnant mothers. Not to mention, the Jesuit university hosts the largest student pro-life conference in the nation: the Cardinal O’Connor Conference.   This January, the Georgetown Right to Life chapter will lead tens of thousands of their fellow Americans to the U.S. Capitol as they march for the unborn. In the past, other Christian and Catholic colleges such as Liberty University, Christendom College, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Mary, have carried the banner at the front of the March for Life. Georgetown University stands out among these as a college few people consider particularly religious or pro-life. But Elizabeth Oliver, a Georgetown senior studying Classics and serving as president of the Right to Life, hopes that this special opportunity will remind her fellow students, and the country, that Georgetown, by nature of its Catholic founding, is still a pro-life school. She also sees it as a chance to encourage pro-life students at large, secular universities to be bold in defending the right to life.    President of the March for Life, Jennie Bradley Lichter, expressed her enthusiasm to be partnering with Georgetown Right to Life. She says, “The March for Life’s energy, its real charism, is by and about young people.” During the press conference on Tuesday, Lichter spoke about the energy college students bring to the March for Life, and the joy and hope that they inspire in older generations of marchers.   The theme for the 2026 National March for Life is “Life is a Gift.” Lichter explained that the goal of this theme is “to invite everyone, through the irrepressible joy of the March for Life, to be swept up into a movement that transcends politics, and celebrates the joy, beauty and goodness of life itself.”   For Oliver, this theme is a reminder that the heart of the pro-life movement is a message of love. She observed, “Right now, we live in a world where a lot of people are searching for meaning and searching for purpose, and the message that your life matters is a beautiful one that people need to be reminded about.”   This is the message that Oliver believes is central to her work with Georgetown Right to Life. She repeatedly emphasized the importance of personal encounters. She encourages the members of her club to “ask questions, to listen carefully, and to help that person feel heard,” and that “the beginning of our mission is that we care about people.”   Georgetown Right to Life is living this out. Last year, a young student at Georgetown University found herself pregnant and in need of help. She reached out to the Right to Life club, whose members immediately responded by raising $500 to buy everything off her baby registry, and continued to walk alongside her through her pregnancy and the birth of her child.   The increasing momentum in Georgetown University Right to Life is just one example of the way that Lichter thinks the theme “Life is a Gift” is particularly timely. She believes that to young people who are discontent and “looking for bold witness,” the March for Life offers them an opportunity to “join this band of happy warriors” and surround themselves with countless other like-minded young people.  Oliver agrees that college students have a vital role in the pro-life movement. Considering the amount of abortions among college-age women, Oliver challenges her peers at universities around America to be the compassionate voice and “ready to walk with a woman as she tells you she’s unexpectedly pregnant—to help her feel cared for and loved.” Oliver hopes that Georgetown’s witness in leading the March for Life will “inspire more people to share their pro-life views and stick up for women and children.”  The National March for Life takes place Jan. 23, 2026. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Georgetown Right to Life Will Lead the 2026 March for Life appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Last week, Virginia Democrat gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger broke her silence on the issue of boys competing as transgender athletes in girls’ sports, presenting herself as a moderate in favor of parental input and local control. This contrasts with her voting record in Congress, however. “In Virginia, we previously until very recently, had a process in place, where on an individual, one-by-one basis, schools, parents, principals, coaches were making decisions based on fairness, competitiveness, and safety where a child might be able, or might not be able, to play in a particular sport,” Spanberger said in an interview on Sept. 23. She said the policy had been in place for ten years, and that roughly 40 kids had gone through it. “I think that that was a system that was working,” Spanberger added. The Virginia High School League The Virginia High School League, which determines the rules for K-12 sports in the Old Dominion, long maintained a policy like the one Spanberger described. Until February, the league allowed boys who identify as girls to compete on girls’ teams in some circumstances. The policy required students or their parents to submit documents including a written statement of gender identity; letters from parents, friends, and/or teachers confirming the gender identity; a list of all the student’s prescribed medications; and verification from a health care professional. A school district committee would review these materials and work with the league to render a decision. Mike McCall, the league’s communications director, told The Daily Signal that its executive committee voted on Feb. 10 to bring the league into compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” “I can share with you that from 2020-24, the [Virginia High School League] heard 30 appeals, granting 27 and denying three,” McCall said. “In 2021-22, the organization granted 10 appeals, a high during the five-year stretch.” “In the 2024-25 school year, five appeals were heard, four were granted and one was denied,” he added. “In other words, four student-athletes were allowed to play and one wasn’t.” The current policy forbids boys from competing in girls’ sports, with the exception of cheerleading, and allows girls who identify as boys to compete in boys’ sports, largely keeping the old requirements in place for that eventuality. From 2014 through January, 48 students applied to compete in opposite-sex sports, and the league approved 42, denied five, and issued no decision in one case where the parent did not sign the waiver request. Spanberger’s Voting Record While the Democrat candidate accurately presented the old policy, her own voting record does not suggest she holds a moderate stance focused on parental rights or local control. Spanberger has loudly supported legislation that would have enforced transgender ideology on a federal level, requiring schools to open girls’ sports to boys’ participation, so long as they claim to identify as girls. Spanberger cosponsored the “Equality Act” in 2019, 2021, and 2023. She voted for the legislation each time the House considered it. The “Equality Act” would amend federal civil rights legislation to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, inserting new language into the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which desegregated public schools. Spanberger also voted against H.R. 734, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023, which would have prevented boys from competing in girls’ sports. Not only did the Democrat vote for the “Equality Act” and against the women’s sports bill, but she also criticized Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R-Va., over his model policies bringing parental rights into discussions of transgender identity in schools. “Governor Youngkin released a plan to target LGBTQ children in Virginia schools,” Spanberger wrote in 2021. “His mandate will out kids, require their identities not be respected, and hurt them in the very places where they are supposed to learn and thrive.” As for “outing” kids, the policy states that “schools shall defer to parents to make the best decisions with respect to their children,” regarding health care, names, pronouns, counseling, and social transition at school. It seems Spanberger’s major concern is that schools would disclose a child’s stated transgender identity to his or her parents, as that is the only “outing” the guidelines suggest. Does Spanberger oppose schools notifying parents if their kids identify as transgender at school? While Spanberger did not specifically address the Youngkin policies’ suggestion that schools segregate sports based on biological sex, rather than gender identity, she reiterated her voting record on transgender issues. “In Congress, I have been a stalwart supporter of LGBTQ rights, the Equality Act, and marriage equality,” she added. The Governor’s actions will hurt children, especially LGBTQ children who already suffer higher rates of depression and are at greater risk of suicide. (2/3)— Archive: Rep. Abigail Spanberger (@RepSpanberger) September 18, 2022 Transgender activist groups such as the Human Rights Campaign have endorsed Spanberger in the gubernatorial race, in part due to these stances. The Spanberger campaign did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment about whether the candidate’s positions on these issues has changed. “It is critical that our elected officials create policies that protect the safety and privacy of young girls and uphold fairness in female sports,” Victoria Cobb, president of The Family Foundation in Virginia, told The Daily Signal. “However, Abigail Spanberger’s votes against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act and for the Equality Act, demonstrate a willingness to allow biological males to compete on girls’ sports teams and enter sex-segregated bathrooms and locker rooms, putting young girls at risk of physical and mental harm.” The post TRANS DUPLICITY: Spanberger Presents Herself as Moderate on Boys in Girls’ Sports, But Her Record Tells a Different Story appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Even the mainstream media are pushing back on the Democrats’ government shutdown messaging after they decided to vote against the Republicans’ continuing resolution that would have kept the federal government operating.  A Politico article Wednesday, “‘Gen Z Is in the House!’ and Other Cringe Moments in the Democrats’ Shutdown Marathon” lambasted the online antics of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. Jeffries, who has led the House Democratic Caucus since 2023, implemented a YouTube livestream on his channel in the hours following the beginning of the shutdown. It struggled with technical difficulties, low viewership, and hours of absent programming. At one point, Jeffries awkwardly declared “Y’all, I ain’t scared,” adding, “I’m from Brooklyn.” The Democrat leader was perhaps not worried about the consequences of Democrat obstruction, given that he and his colleagues will continue being paid during the course of the shutdown. Meanwhile, untold thousands of federal workers, including Democrat voters, are getting furloughed and potentially permanently terminated by the Trump administration. In the case of some military personnel, they will be required to come into work without compensation for the time being. Perhaps the most obvious sign of struggles by Democrats to connect with voters was the noticeable absence of consistently high audience numbers on the YouTube livestream. According to Politico, the YouTube live video by Jeffries sometimes dipped to as low as a few dozen viewers. “Are the metrics embarrassing? Yes. But the bar is in Hell, at least they’re trying,” one Democrat strategist was reported to have said to the outlet. Democrats have attempted to get the Republican majorities in Congress on board with their effort to expand Obamacare subsidies that can be used to subsidize health care plans that include abortions and transgender surgeries. Republicans have also taken issue with the Democrats’ push to repeal provisions of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act that eliminated some categories of noncitizens from receiving government benefits. Politico went on to note that 22 of the 26 Democrats in competitive congressional districts for next year’s midterms did not made appearances on the stream. Neither did the social media savvy congresswomen Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. In their place was Rep. Sarah McBride, who represents the safely blue state of Delaware and is the first trans-identifying member of Congress. Coordination was also somewhat lacking, according to the article. Jack Cocchiarella, a left-wing Gen Z YouTuber, appeared surprised when the video stream cut to him. One section of the livestream featured four members of Congress opining about Halloween and using a pineapple as a prop. Republicans swiftly took aim at the Democrats’ content with Ben Petersen, the national war room director at the National Republican Congressional Committee, posting on the social media platform X, “Just 400 people are watching, and they’re currently trying different types of candy,” adding “Also: Chat is disabled.”  Just 400 people are watching and they're currently trying different types of candy ????"I want to thank so many of you who are tuning in today"Also: Chat is disabled https://t.co/NXtrqgE5cZ pic.twitter.com/04r5BjPVyJ— Ben Petersen (@bennpetersen) September 30, 2025 White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung noted the White House’s own livestream, which has topped 100,000 viewers.  “Meanwhile, @WhiteHouse is schlonging Democrats on the viewer count,” the White House official posted on X.  Meanwhile, @WhiteHouse is schlonging Democrats on the viewer count. https://t.co/brHBgIklAH pic.twitter.com/ISVT5JmC8w— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) October 1, 2025 Rebecca Katz, a political strategist who has worked with rising Democrat star Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist running for mayor of New York City, attributed the Democrats’ messaging woes to failures by the party’s leaders.  “There are Democrats who are attracting more eyeballs and enthusiasm. The problem is party leadership is shunning many of them,” Katz told Politico. The post Left-Leaning Hill Publication Lampoons Democrats’ Shutdown Messaging appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Construction of President Donald Trump’s southern border wall is moving full-speed ahead during the government shutdown. Though 40% of the federal workforce is on unpaid leave due to the government shutdown, border wall construction isn’t taking a break. “Even during a government shutdown, the work to strengthen our defenses moves forward,” a Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson told The Daily Signal, adding: Border wall construction continues at full speed, because securing America’s border is nonnegotiable. The shutdown went into effect Wednesday after 43 Senate Democrats voted against the Republicans’ continuing resolution to keep the government funded for several more weeks while Congress hammers out a more permanent spending consensus.  Democrats are demanding an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of 2025. Republicans say Senate Democrats are trying to put controversial “extraneous issues” in the stopgap funding bill, such as public benefits for illegal immigrants. As a result, essential law enforcement officers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and other Border Patrol personnel are doing their jobs unpaid. However, they will get paid retroactively when the shutdown ends. “Thanks to the Democrats’ refusal to put security first, while miles of new wall are built, CBP agents and officers remain on duty—unpaid, but unshaken in their resolve to protect the American people, proving once again that mission comes before politics,” the spokesperson said. Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act provided more than $46 billion to enhance and modernize the border wall. CBP has awarded contracts using that funding to update existing border wall and add detection technology, such as more lighting, roads, and cameras to areas with previously contracted wall. Plus, five new surveillance towers are being installed in the Del Rio Sector in Texas to help combat smuggling operations. “With President Trump’s One, Big Beautiful Bill, America is getting the strongest border security in its history,” the CBP spokesperson said. “CBP will always put the safety of Americans first.” The post ‘NONNEGOTIABLE’: Border Wall Construction Continues Despite Shutdown appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Telegram CEO Pavel Durov made no attempt to hide his frustration with French authorities during a wide-ranging conversation on The Lex Fridman Podcast, describing the French government’s investigation into him and his company as “Kafkaesque,” “absurd,” and deeply damaging. He warned that efforts to undermine digital privacy are accelerating not just in France, but across Europe and beyond, using pretexts like child protection and election integrity to justify surveillance and censorship. Throughout the interview, Durov painted a grim picture of what he sees as growing authoritarianism disguised as public safety. “Every dictator in the world justifies taking away your rights with very reasonable-sounding justifications,” he said, warning that citizens often don’t realize the gravity of their loss until it’s too late. “Every message they send is monitored. They can’t assemble. It’s over.” Durov flatly rejected the idea that any government, including France’s, could force Telegram to grant access to users’ private conversations. “Nothing,” he responded when asked if there was any scenario in which French intelligence could gain a backdoor. He emphasized that Telegram does not and will not use personal data to power ad targeting, saying, “We would never use…your personal messaging data or your context data or your metadata or your activity data to target ads.” Despite facing legal pressure and travel restrictions stemming from the French case, Durov said Telegram remains firm in its refusal to censor political content or violate users’ privacy. “The more pressure I get, the more resilient and defiant I become,” he said, accusing French authorities of trying to “humiliate” him and millions of Telegram users through coercive tactics. Durov described encounters with French intelligence officials who allegedly tried to pressure him into shutting down Telegram channels during elections in Romania and Moldova, actions he said would have amounted to “political censorship.” He recounted being approached while detained in France and asked to disable channels that criticized preferred candidates of Western-aligned governments. “If you think that, because I’m stuck here, you can tell me what to do, you are very wrong,” Durov said he told one official. He made it clear that Telegram had only taken down content in Moldova that actually violated platform rules, refusing broader demands that lacked justification. Following that, Durov claims the intelligence agencies used his cooperation to influence his ongoing legal case in France, feeding information to the investigating judge, an action he found “shocking” and deeply suspect. Although the French government’s case against Telegram remains unresolved, Durov noted that he and his legal team have yet to be given a hearing date for their appeal. He characterized the situation as a symptom of deeper dysfunction. “The investigation itself should have never been started,” he said. “It’s an absurd and harmful way of solving an issue such as regulating social media.” More: Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Blasts EU’s Digital Services Act as Gateway to Censorship and Centralized Control According to Durov, the French judiciary’s use of investigative judges, which he compared to prosecutors in disguise, creates procedural barriers that prevent timely appeals and fair resolution. He pointed to similar experiences of other entrepreneurs caught in what he described as a paralyzed legal system. Durov accused Western governments of repeating the same patterns that led to the erosion of rights in more autocratic regimes. He warned that legislation introduced under the banner of child protection often functions as a Trojan horse for surveillance. “It often starts with well-meaning proposals… but at the end of the day, the result is the same,” he said. “People lose their right to such [a] fundamental thing as privacy.” He also called out the response to 9/11 as a pivotal moment when governments used fear to expand surveillance powers. “The cure is worse than the disease,” he said. “It ended up eroding certain basic rights and freedoms, including the right to privacy.” France is not alone, Durov warned. He pointed to what he sees as a creeping normalization of speech suppression across Europe under vague mandates to fight “misinformation” or “election interference.” Once hailed as bastions of liberal democracy, these nations are now “creating precedents” that empower authoritarian states to do the same with impunity. “It’s the norm now to restrict voices that don’t go in line with the narrative,” Durov said, warning that a global culture of silencing dissent is taking hold. Telegram may soon be banned in Russia, Durov revealed, pointing to reports of government efforts to force citizens onto a state-controlled app called MAX. Parts of Russia, including Dagestan, already face partial Telegram restrictions. Durov fears this will further isolate Russians from independent news and perspectives, given that Telegram is one of the few platforms still carrying external news sources like BBC inside the country. Shifting users to domestic tools would give governments full visibility into all communications, eliminating one of the last avenues for dissent. “It would be a huge mistake to ban a tool like Telegram in any country,” Durov said, adding that millions rely on it not just for personal use but also for business, media access, and organizing. Despite mounting pressure, Durov said Telegram remains financially independent and sustainable through its premium subscription model, which now includes over 15 million paying users and is projected to bring in more than $500 million this year. He described this as proof that it’s possible to run a successful tech platform without harvesting personal data or giving in to state surveillance demands. Telegram has also embraced blockchain technologies, eventually allowing users to own digital identities and usernames outright. This prevents Telegram itself, or any government, from seizing user credentials. “Telegram cannot confiscate your username from you. It’s impossible,” Durov said. Throughout the conversation, Durov repeatedly affirmed that he would rather walk away from everything than compromise Telegram’s founding principles. “If they put me into prison for 20 years… I would rather starve myself to death and die there, reboot the whole game than do something stupid,” he said. With governments leaning more heavily on vague justifications to erode freedoms, Durov insists that now is not the time to yield. His message to those trying to strong-arm Telegram into compliance: “Not only I refused, I told the world about it and I’m going to keep telling the world about every instance.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Slams French Investigation, Warns of Global Crackdown on Privacy and Free Speech appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. X is urging European governments to reject a major surveillance proposal that the company warns would strip EU citizens of core privacy rights. In a public statement ahead of a key Council vote scheduled for October 14, the platform called on member states to “vigorously oppose measures to normalize surveillance of its citizens,” condemning the proposed regulation as a direct threat to end-to-end encryption and private communication. The draft legislation, widely referred to as “Chat Control 2.0,” would require providers of messaging and cloud services to scan users’ content, including messages, photos, and links, for signs of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Central to the proposal is “client-side scanning” (CSS), a method that inspects content directly on a user’s device before it is encrypted. X stated plainly that it cannot support any policy that would force the creation of “de facto backdoors for government snooping,” even as it reaffirmed its longstanding commitment to fighting child exploitation. The company has invested heavily in detection and removal systems, but draws a clear line at measures that dismantle secure encryption for everyone. Privacy experts, researchers, and technologists across Europe have echoed these warnings. By mandating that scans occur before encryption is applied, the regulation would effectively neutralize end-to-end encryption, opening private conversations to potential access not only by providers but also by governments and malicious third parties. The implications reach far beyond targeted investigations. Once CSS is implemented, any digital platform subject to the regulation would be forced to scrutinize every message and file sent by its users. This approach could also override legal protections enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, specifically Articles 7 and 8, which safeguard privacy and the protection of personal data. A coalition of scientists issued a public letter warning that detection tools of this kind are technically flawed and unreliable at scale. High error rates could lead to false accusations against innocent users, while actual abuse material could evade detection. The letter also raises concern over the potential for repurposing or leaking flagged content, increasing the risks rather than reducing them. Contrary to claims that CSS is similar to spam or malware filters, privacy advocates note a crucial difference. Existing filters are voluntary and serve the user’s interests without reporting to law enforcement. CSS, however, would be mandatory and turn communication services into instruments of state monitoring. Even if implemented, the system’s effectiveness remains questionable. Individuals seeking to avoid detection could shift to services outside the EU jurisdiction or use VPNs. Meanwhile, everyday users would be left exposed to false positives, privacy breaches, and unwarranted government scrutiny. With less than two weeks before the vote, X and others are urging EU governments to reject the regulation and seek alternatives that protect children without dismantling privacy protections for millions. The outcome of this decision will help define whether Europe moves toward preserving secure digital communication or embedding surveillance into the core of everyday online life. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post X Urges EU to Reject “Chat Control 2.0” Surveillance Law Threatening End-to-End Encryption appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

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