'Broad constitutional powers to direct and reorganize'

Borelli tore into comments Tanden made in 2017

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News The Last of Us The Last of Us Game Creator Steps Away From HBO Show Neil Druckmann stated he’s moving his focus to overseeing Naughty Dog, the developer behind The Last of Us and other games. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on July 2, 2025 Image: Liane Hentscher/HBO Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Liane Hentscher/HBO The Last of Us television series adaptation came to HBO with Chernobyl alum Craig Mazin and the video game’s creator, Neil Druckmann, serving as co-creators. The show has done well, with HBO picking up the show for a third season before the second season even aired, but it looks like Druckmann will not stay on and see the series through. “I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in The Last of Us on HBO,” Druckmann said in a statement published on Naughty Dog’s Instagram, the company that developed the video game, which Druckmann serves as studio head for. “With work completed on season 2 and before any meaningful work starts on season 3, now is the right time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects, including writing and directing our exciting next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, along with my responsibilities as Studio Head and Head of Creative.” Druckman added, “Co-creating the show has been a career highlight. It’s been an honor to work alongside Craig Mazin to executive produce, direct and write on the last two seasons. I’m deeply thankful for the thoughtful approach and dedication the talented cast and crew took to adapting The Last of Us Part I and the continued adaptation of The Last of Us Part II.” Mazin had a statement as well, as printed in Variety: “It’s been a creative dream to work with Neil and bring an adaptation of his brilliant work to life on HBO. I couldn’t have asked for a more generous creative partner. As a true fan of Naughty Dog and Neil’s work in video games, I’m beyond excited to play his next game. While he focuses on that, I’ll continue to work with our brilliant cast and crew to deliver the show our audience has come to expect. We are so grateful to Neil and Halley Gross for entrusting the incredible story of The Last of Us Part II to us, and we’re just as grateful to the millions of people around the world who tune in.” The second season of the show ends on what could be called a cliffhanger (or an incomplete ending), leaving significant story from the Part II video game for season three. No news on when the third season will go into production, though Druckmann’s note suggests they’re starting the pre-production work now.[end-mark] The post <i>The Last of Us</i> Game Creator Steps Away From HBO Show appeared first on Reactor.

News activism Strange Horizons and DragonCon Among Groups Launching Project to Fight Copaganda and Surveillance Tech Activists and authors are uniting to make a difference. By Molly Templeton | Published on July 2, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share EMBARGO 12 NOON PACIFIC TIME / 3 PM EASTERN JULY 2 Surveillance is everywhere—from security cameras to smart doorbells, trackers in our phones to alarming databases. A group of privacy activists and human rights experts have now put together a toolkit for writers who “want to write more dynamic stories that challenge fascist repression via surveillance tech,” as a press release puts it. The Stop Surveillance Tech Copaganda Toolkit was created by privacy activists and human rights experts, working with a fascinating group of collaborators: the Decentralized Web (DWeb), DragonCon, RightsCon communities, and Strange Horizons. The kit itself is a collection of stories, analyses of the stories, reactions, “and incitement.” The toolkit’s appendices include everything from guidelines on contacting experts to a list of relevant books, movies, and films. The stories were selected by a panel of judges and include work by Christine Phan, Cecilia Ananías Soto, Rich Larson, Christopher R. Muscato, and Corey Jae White and Maddison Stoff. They appear both in a special issue of Strange Horizons and as a special issue of COMPOST Magazine. In a statement, project editor and producer Lia Holland, who is also campaigns and communications director at Fight for the Future, said: A lot of surveillance tech is snake oil—but when it works, it’s even worse for human rights. Decisions about whether these technologies come into our communities are being made by the rich and powerful—and with the complicity of storytellers in writing free propaganda for the corporations and governments intent on Orwellian control of every moment of our lives. It is untrue that most surveillance tech actually works as its marketers say it will, or that only the so-called good guys will use it. It’s well past time that creative people put our minds to disrupting these false narratives. This is our clap back to surveillance tech’s capitulation to fascism, and we’re calling for every storyteller to get on board. Writer Christopher R. Muscato said, “As creators, we bear responsibility in the narratives we enforce, propagate, or choose to dismantle. There is no such thing as a passive story, nor an apolitical one. Every word we commit to paper is an act of either acquiescence or defiance. As an author, I encourage my peers to more actively engage in the impact of the futures they are imagining, and I’m proud to be a part of a toolkit that offers a great place to start.” You can explore the toolkit here.[end-mark] The post <i>Strange Horizons</i> and DragonCon Among Groups Launching Project to Fight Copaganda and Surveillance Tech appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts Epic Fantasy Read an Excerpt From Birth of a Dynasty by Chinaza Bado We shall not forgive. We shall not forget. We will have our vengeance. By Chinaza Bado | Published on July 2, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Birth of a Dynasty by Chinaza Bado, the start of a thrilling epic fantasy trilogy centered around three families’ fight for power in Ahkebulin, a land where magic is feared, giants are real, and prophecy holds sway. Birth of a Dynasty published with from Harper Voyager on July 29th. After witnessing the massacre of everyone he’s ever known and loved, M’Kuru Mukundi, the sole surviving member of the High Noble House Mukundi of Madada, vows revenge. M’kuru flees to a small village where he hides under the guise of farm boy Khalil Rausi… unaware that the real Khalil’s father is the bloodthirsty General of Zenzele army, and under the direction of the King’s scheming son, Prince Effiom, was responsible for the murder of M’kuru’s people. When an imposter claiming to be M’kuru shows up in the village, the real M’kuru—now Khalil—must bide his time amongst his enemies, pretending to be everything that he hates in order to get vengeance.In another part of the country where giants roam free, young Zikora Nnamani, the only daughter of Lord Nnamani, knows nothing of political intrigue—she wants little more than to be a fierce Seh Llinga warrior. But a well-known prophecy places too much potential power on her small shoulders, and—as far as Prince Effiom and the King know—she is the only living threat to their dynasty ruling forever. However, when a messenger arrives to “invite” Zikora to stay at the palace, her family is not in a position to refuse. Before she is taken away, she begins The Rite of Blessing, a magical inheritance that she will need to learn how to use, but that may also bring the world one step closer to the completion of the prophecy that Prince Effiom so fears.Between scheming ladies at court, backstabbing princes on the prowl, and paranoid kings, M’kuru and Zikora must do what they can, no matter how terrible, to save their people and claim vengeance for their families. But they are just two young people against an entire kingdom—and a prophecy destined to thwart their dreams—and the last thing they can do is trust anyone… even each other. “Who are you?” his mother asked with a wide smile. There was no fear or tears, just joy, something he could not understand, not with the sounds of screams from their maids and servants outside, not with the roars of the soldiers as they struck them down. There was so much blood that it produced a stench in the air that made him sick. How could anyone still keep a smile on their face? And yet, his mother, Lady Mukundi, found a way. “Who are you?” she asked again, but he could not answer. Instead, he flinched as he heard another shriek for help outside the door. “I am Neema Mukundi of Madada, the one born in prosperity,” his elder sister, who looked like their mother, spoke instead. Everyone said they looked almost identical, with the same round face and birthmark under their right eye. And although their mother was slightly shorter, and her hair held wisps of gray, her skin had not a single wrinkle. His mother’s dark eyes shifted to him, and she squeezed his shoulders once again before repeating her question softly. “Who are you?” “I am M’kuru Mukundi of Madada, the one who climbs over fear and death,” he answered softly, his voice barely above a whisper. Despite the meaning of his name, all he felt was fear, and all he sensed was death. “So, you can talk softly.” His mother giggled, pinching his ear gently as she always did when he was in trouble or would not listen or when he went around their home yelling. From the day his cries were first heard throughout Madada to this very moment, M’kuru had never once whispered. “Are you afraid, M’kuru? Is that why your voice has become so? I cannot have that. Tell me again. Who are you? Say it with all the air in your chest.” He stood straighter, held his head high, and spoke louder this time. “I am M’kuru Mukundi of Madada, the one who climbs over fear and death.” “Yes. Exactly.” His mother nodded proudly and shook him vigorously. “You are Neema and M’kuru Mukundi, high nobles of Madada, the daughter and son of M’Deba and Esha. You are fierce, steadfast, strong, and born with the wisdom of ages. That is who you are. That is who you will always be. They can never take that from you because it is in your blood!” She squeezed his shoulders tighter than ever, and M’kuru lifted his much smaller hand to hold on to her wrist, squeezing it in return. “My lady!” Four maids rushed in. On their uniform was their family emblem, the Liabrein—the now-forgotten bigger and stronger sister of the lion—with long, curved, saber-shaped canine teeth that protruded from its mouth even when closed. But on their emblem, the Liabrein’s mouth was wide open and its head turned upward. So ferocious—and yet it couldn’t seem to protect them now. The maids slammed the doors closed behind them as they gripped their blood-covered swords. Lady Mukundi did not answer them, never looking away from her son and daughter, not even as the two maids began to pour oil onto the ground and the walls. Buy the Book Birth of a Dynasty Chinaza Bado Buy Book Birth of a Dynasty Chinaza Bado Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget “Break it down!” a voice outside the doors hollered as the other two maids stood before them, lifting their swords. Only then did Lady Mukundi let go of her son, but M’kuru grabbed her hand again. “Come with us, Mother.” “A lady stays with her lord to the very end,” she said, and drew her hand back. She rushed to the end table, tossed it aside, and lifted the floorboards to show them the way down the stairs. “Go, and do not stop for anyone!” she hollered at them. Without a second thought, Neema grabbed her brother’s hand, took the sword entrusted to her by her father, and ran down the stairs. “Mother!” M’kuru yelled back as he was dragged into the darkness. Lady Mukundi’s smile as she watched them go never fell or wavered, and the light from her room was the only thing M’kuru could see as it began to go up in flames of red and orange, the heat from the fire so hot he could feel it on his face. Goodbye was the last thing she mouthed to him before the hidden door shut. They ran, hand in hand, in the darkness, and soon that darkness felt like hell even though there was no fire in the passage, because the walls themselves warmed, growing hotter and hotter the farther they went. “We are almost there, Six!” Neema called out to him. She called him Six for the same reason she called her other brothers One, Three, Four, and Five—to tease them, knowing they hated it, and because as the only daughter of the Mukundi family, their baba would allow her to get away with it. He didn’t complain now, glad she was there with him. So focused were both of them on running, and because it was dark—and everything else that lived in darkness sensed the danger and the heat—she did not notice the snake also trying to make its escape until it was too late, and it bit her. “Ugh!” “Neema?” M’kuru called out when she let go of his hand and fell to her knees. “Neema, are you okay?” She unsheathed the sword, stabbing it into the head of the snake. He was unsure how she could see clearly, even in the dark, but Neema always had the best vision of them all. “I’m fine. We need to keep going,” she lied. She didn’t feel fine at all, but nothing could make her feel fine, not in this oven masquerading as a tunnel, so she dragged the sword along the ground with one hand, hoping to scare anything else away, and led her brother with the other. “Don’t worry, M’kuru. We are going to make it out of here. We’ll go south to Winneba. You’ve always wanted to go to Winneba to see the giants, right? Just don’t be scared when we meet them. Apparently, they are a very sensitive people, which makes sense, for their hearts are three times as big. The stories of them eating children aren’t true. They aren’t scary. The giants don’t even eat meat. They are vegetarians.” “How do you know?” M’kuru asked. “You’ve never been to Winneba either.” “I have a friend there. He’ll help us,” she replied, stopping to take a breath and wipe the sweat from her brow, muttering what her baba taught her, “Run north till you smell the fresh water, then push the lever in the walls.” She could smell the water, so she began to feel against the wall until she hit the lever. It burned, the fire enough to make even this metal hot, but she didn’t hesitate, and the ceiling above them cracked open. “Yes!” she cried, happy at the sight of the moonlight streaming in. Hinging her sword, she reached up and pushed as hard as she could, the earth slipping away. She pulled herself out, then turned back and pulled M’kuru out. When they both stood on the grass mound of the Bamboo Forest, overlooking their family home in the distance, they just watched as the fire raged through the house, glowing in the night and eating everything it touched. The crackling was so loud and the heat so harsh, even from where they stood on the hilltop it caused the birds to fly away. The smoke was so black it began to blanket the full moon. But to them, the fire was merciful in comparison to the soldiers, who had dragged anyone within their house out, one by one, and set them on their knees before slitting their throats. “We have to go. We have to go now, Six.” Pulling his arm, Neema tried to turn with him and escape into the forest. “Zenzele!” They both froze when they heard this roar, the hair on their hands rising as their hearts dropped to an even deeper pit in their stomachs. “Baba…” Neema whispered as they both turned back. They couldn’t speak or look away. They just stared at him, their baba, as half his body was engulfed in flames, with arrows in his arms and legs and a deep cut that sliced through his clothes into his chest. The sight of him, still gripping his swords and cutting people down, caused the other soldiers to back up, terrified of him. “Zenzele!” he roared again, with a strength that shook the heavens. Any soldier who dared to step forward was sent straight to hell as his blade cut them down one by one. “Zenzele!” Even when they managed to stab him, he did not fall. He merely removed their swords from his body and fought on. In his mind, M’kuru could not put that man and the man he’d watched only that morning, who spilled his wine over his hands and handed his mother a flower, together with the man at this moment, who no longer looked to be human. “Come!” he yelled to the soldiers. When he stepped forward, the soldiers stumbled back in fear… all but one. The man across from him sat on a large black horse, dressed in scaled red armor accented with silver spikes, one on each arm, one on each shoulder, and two upon his helmet. Upon his chest plate was the symbol of a sun with a spear in the center, and in his hands that very same spear with a crescent blade. The soldiers around him were dressed similarly—without silver but with the same red armor to tell everyone they were part of the Red Sun. M’kuru thought that man in the red and silver armor had to be the Zenzele their baba was calling out to. However, the man moved to the right, showing another man on a horse of white dressed in silver-and-gold armor, and instead of spikes on his shoulders, it was wings. “You.” Lord Mukundi laughed at seeing him. “Tell your father, Prince Effiom—for I swear by my blood that spills upon the earth and the ancestors who watch over us all—your lineage shall weep in agony. You will run to the ends of the earth in fear, and we will find you still. You will cry out for mercy and be given none! The heavens will not forgive, and Madada will not forget! The Mukundi will have its vengeance! This is our oath to you!” Prince Effiom merely waved his gloved hand, and the soldier with the armor of red and silver kicked into his horse, charging forward. “Let’s go, Six.” Neema tried to pull her brother away, but he could not and did not want to look away. He watched as their baba’s head was cut from his body with a single swing of the man’s sword. As Lord Mukundi’s body stood for a moment, part of M’kuru still expected him to fight and not surrender, even headless. But there was a limit to even his baba, and M’kuru watched as his baba fell to the ground alongside his brothers. We shall not forgive. We shall not forget. We will have our vengeance. From Birth of a Dynasty by Chinaza Bado, published by Harper Voyager. Copyright © 2025 by Chinaza Bado. Reprinted courtesy of HarperCollinsPublishers. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>Birth of a Dynasty</i> by Chinaza Bado appeared first on Reactor.

As Independence Day approaches, The Daily Signal sat down with politician-turned-Virginia’s newest “conservative influencer” Nick Freitas to talk about the nation’s founding, the internal struggles the country has had with the forces of socialism, and how his life has changed since he announced that he was not going to seek re-election to public office. >>> Sign up for our Virginia email newsletter Listen to our conversation with the “Making the Argument” podcast creator and host: The post Nick Freitas Talks Founding Principles, Fighting Socialism, and Life After Politics appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The top three Republicans on Virginia’s ballot rallied together for the first time Tuesday, presenting a united front ahead of the closely watched Nov. 4 election. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP nominee for governor, joined Attorney General Jason Miyares, and John Reid, the lieutenant governor nominee, at the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department in Northern Virginia. Pastor Rufus Bhimanapalli of Telugu Christian Fellowship Church kicked off the event with a prayer.  “Tonight’s event made it clear: The Republican Party of Virginia is fired up and united behind a winning team,” a spokesperson for the Republican Party of Virginia told The Daily Signal. “Winsome Sears, John Reid, and Jason Miyares are running on a common-sense platform of low taxes, less regulation, and more opportunity for every Virginian.” Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Stewart Whitson, the Republican nominee for the open seat in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, also came to the event and delivered remarks about the importance of the upcoming election. “Elections have consequences, and let me tell you, losing is not an option,” said Youngkin, who is limited to serving one term as governor. “Everything that we’ve accomplished, everything that we see Virginia leading and winning on all fronts today is at risk.” Other guests included the state Sen. Mark Peake, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, and Republican Delegates Michael Weber, Scott Wyatt, Mark Earley, Delores Oates, Phillip Scott, and Geary Higgins. Miyares, who is seeking re-election as Virginia’s attorney general, emphasized the stark contrast between the prior Democrat administration and the Republicans who took office in 2022. “The Virginia of 2021 was very, very different,” Miyares said. “I like to say it’s like you watch those mafia movies and the guy wakes up in the trunk of a Buick. He doesn’t know where he’s headed, but he knows it’s not a good final destination. That was Virginia.” A few early photos from the rally in Vienna tonight! Virginians are FIRED UP to elect @winwithwinsome, @JohnReid4VA, and @JasonMiyaresVA this November. This Republican ticket is unified and ready to build on the successes of the last four years under the Youngkin-Sears… pic.twitter.com/lrMwMUK8oW— Virginia GOP (@VA_GOP) July 2, 2025 Earle-Sears, who is running to succeed Youngkin, said the commonwealth has made much progress over the last four years, and that momentum should not be allowed to stall. “We want liberty in our great United States,” Earle-Sears said in her speech. “We don’t want control. We want to be free.” The Jamaican-born candidate said if elected governor, she would continue advancing policies that made Virginia a destination rather than a place people wanted to leave. Earle-Sears urged voters to support her if they wanted a leader who would not divide them based on race. “How could it be then, when things are so bad that here I am, an immigrant, a black woman, and yet I am second in command in the former capital of the Confederate States,” Earle-Sears remarked. Maggie Amjad, a spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Virginia, told The Daily Signal that Earle-Sears will put President Donald Trump’s agenda ahead of the state. “Sears has cheered on his [Trump’s] attacks on Virginia jobs and economy and refused to oppose the Medicaid cuts that put health care at risk for more than 300,000 Virginians,” Amjad said. “While Virginians deserve a governor who fights for the commonwealth, Sears is dismissing workers worried about their jobs and telling Virginians to ‘wait and see’ as their health care is at risk.” A spokesperson for the Republican Party of Virginia told The Daily Signal that the results of the past few years indicate otherwise. “Virginia Republicans are ready to build on the successes from the last four years under the Youngkin-Sears administration and chart the course for more victories in the years to come,” the GOP spokesperson said. “This Republican ticket stands in sharp contrast to the Democrat slate, which has been hand-picked by far-left progressives pushing extreme, out-of-touch policies. Virginians deserve leadership that puts families, jobs, and freedom first.” The post ‘Losing Is Not an Option’: Virginia GOP Candidates Make First Joint Appearance appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Have UFOs Always Been a PsyOp?

The energy-packed fat could've been added to stews to make them more nutritious.