Halestorm x I Prevail, Lamb Of God x Kublai Khan & Malevolence and Heriot are among the best new metal songs this week. Plus, vote for your favourite!

Hiding from drones, hoping to hear the voice of Mark Hamill – Within Temptation's Sharon Den Adel experiences the war in Ukraine first-hand in this exclusive diary

Bailey Anne became the first transgender to win the Miss Maryland USA contest. Anne becomes the first transgender to hold the title, along with being the first Asian-American and the first “military officer’s wife” to represent the state.  

Mike Tyson and social media star Jake Paul’s fight has been rescheduled for November 15th, according to Most Valuable Promotions, who announced the news on Friday. 

It looks like Gavin Newsom is running for president as a far-left Democrat. He has a crippling budget deficit, so his answer is to double down on climate goals and equity programs. California also has a never-ending stream of unvetted illegal aliens pouring into the state. To solve the budget problem, he will cut public […] The post Newsom to Cut $185M from Law Enforcement, Safety as Crime Surges appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

The only way to save America is to deport these illegal aliens. Democrats have recruited them and absorbed them into the party. Take this mob below demanding we abolish ICE. Many of the people coming in are communists, the same communists who are destroying California and even the country. Hundreds of illegal aliens marched through […] The post People Here Illegally March to Abolish Ice appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

“Star Wars” creator George Lucas has little to complain about these days. He’s unofficially retired and his signature franchise fattened his wallet to the tune of $4 billion. Lucas still fought back against those who said his “Star Wars” saga wasn’t woke enough while receiving the Cannes Film Festivals’ honorary Palme d’Or. They would say, ‘It’s all white men’ …Most of the people are aliens! The idea is you’re supposed to accept people for what they are, whether they’re big and furry or whether they’re green or whatever. The idea is all people are equal. He needn’t say a syllable. “Star Wars,” both the original trilogy and its lesser prequel series, gave us a diverse cast of heroes, universal themes and an underlying message of hope. Rocco Spaziani/Archivio Spaziani/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images Heck, if a desert planet farmer could free the galaxy from Darth Vader, we all can do something meaningful with our lives. That’s the point. It’s also one that’s all but forgotten since Disney handed over that $4 billion check to Lucas in 2012. Blockbusters come and go, but few sagas have inspired audiences quite like “Star Wars.” The films spawned a revolution in toy sales, endless pop culture off-shoots and who knows how many filmmakers careers. More than a few have cited “Star Wars” to this scribe as the spark behind their creative journeys. The modern “Star Wars” universe, in sharp contrast, is a culture war battlefield. The stories reek of woke messaging. The cast and crew inject diversity talking points into their media interviews, never missing a chance to proclaim the saga’s evolved agenda. I know for a lot of people it’s so significant that there are so many women in these films, and I think that’s wonderful. If that inspires people that maybe would have said ‘It’s not for me’ or ‘I can’t do that’ and [now] they say ‘I can be that’ and ‘I can do that,’ that’s even better. You want it to be not a time of change, but a time of inclusion. That’s Dave Filoni, Lucasfilm’s Chief Creative Officer. The not-so-hidden message? The “Star Wars” franchise you know and love was problematic to the core. And we fixed it. Except the only recent “Star Wars” project with a fraction of the fan devotion as the original series remains “The Mandalorian.” And that show fired one of its most popular stars, Gina Carano, for sharing the “wrong” views on social media. Apparently, the former MMA star was too empowering. We haven’t had a new “Star Wars” movie since 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker.” Since then, project after “Star Wars” project has been announced and put in dry dock. Now, Disney’s Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, pushes “The Force is Female” messaging and attacks audiences before new “Star Wars” titles even air. Operating within these giant franchises now, with social media and the level of expectation — it’s terrifying … I think a lot of the women who step into ‘Star Wars’ struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal. Right on cue, the folks behind “The Acolyte,” the latest Disney+ “Star Wars” series, accepts the label that the show is the “gayest” project yet. The messaging, both on screen and off, is relentless. So where’s the fun? “The Acolyte” features a same-sex couple prominently in the story, highlights an all-female coven of witch-like warriors and demonizes the Jedi Knights, purportedly the heroes of the saga. No one cared about the background of the original “Star Wars” creators. Films weren’t examined and re-examined for “representation” or “diverse” points of view. The Han-Leia romance mattered, but love and identity took a back seat to saving the galaxy. VALERY HACHE/AFP via Getty Images Lucas had a vision, one that a small army of artists carried out to the last, painstaking detail. It worked like a charm, if memory serves. Lucas took sizable heat following the release of the prequel trilogy. He caught more fire for tinkering with the original films, updating special effects and editing out minor moments considered canon by fans. The 2010 film “The People vs. George Lucas” by Alexandre O. Philippe captured the mixed feelings fans had for Lucas. They worship his pop culture contributions and have plenty to say about them, too. He mostly let the work speak for him. Lucas created his space saga decades before the rise of social media. The modern storytellers aren’t so fortunate. They still seem intent on mocking critics and fans alike, dubbing those who resist some of the new storytelling tics “racist” and/or “sexist.” Those barbs ricochet around social media, short-circuiting the bond between creator and fan. “The Acolyte” showrunner Leslie Headland attacked classic “Star Wars” tales to The New York Times. “As a fan myself, I know how frustrating some ‘Star Wars’ storytelling in the past has been. I’ve felt it myself.” She’s in the minority. Legions of fans reveled in the original adventures of Han, Luke and Leia. They bought the lunch boxes, slept on “Star Wars” sheets and never worried about the number of minorities in a given scene. Lucas’ tales sparked their imaginations, then and now. Fans wouldn’t mind a new generation of storytellers who can stop lecturing and start telling amazing stories from “a galaxy far, far away.” * * * Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at @HollywoodInToto. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Republican congressman Byron Donalds said it would be a “great honor” if former President Donald Trump were to ask him to be his running-mate for 2024, saying the ultimate goal is for Trump to win and he’ll do whatever he’s asked to help him do that. Donalds, who was reportedly on a short list of contenders that the Trump campaign sent vetting paperwork to, told The Daily Wire that he thinks he has assets that would be beneficial for the campaign, and “would accept” if Trump made the offer. “It’d be a great honor, but it’s his decision,” Donalds said in a Nashville interview with The Daily Wire. “He’ll decide what he wants to do and whatever his decision is, I’m going to support that.” “I just want to win,” Donalds said. “I’m a real simple dude. I just want to win and be successful. That’s it.” Though Donalds, like Trump, was born in New York City, he, like Trump, currently resides in Florida, where he’s been a member of Congress since 2021. He is widely viewed as an upcoming star in the Republican Party, and was even floated as a potential candidate for Speaker of the House after Kevin McCarthy was ousted last year. Donalds says he thinks he has three assets that would help the presidential ticket this November, chiefly his ability to communicate “common sense” politics to independent voters. “I think we’re at this point in the country where common sense is the true desire, not political ideology,” Donalds said, noting the shift away from Democrats among racial minorities. “I think it’s a good thing for America.” Donalds also said he has a knowledge of how Congress works, and is a proven force on the campaign trail. “What is an asset to the president is somebody who can make sure the wheels of Congress are moving to get the agenda done,” Donalds said. “The third part is, I think in this environment you gotta be able to go campaign and help him get across the line.” Donalds is perhaps the most surprising name on the list of VP contenders, which also includes Republican Senators Tim Scott, JD Vance, Tom Cotton, and Marco Rubio. The other names on the shortlist are North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, and Donalds’ House colleague, Elise Stefanik. The full interview with Donalds can be heard this weekend on Morning Wire.