The Biden administration filed an appeal on Monday in an attempt to stop state prohibitions on what it refers to as “gender-affirming” healthcare. As a result, the Supreme Court decided to take on the case.

An American captured by the Taliban a year after President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in August of 2021 remains a hostage, and his family is growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of action from President Joe Biden as his health deteriorates.  Ryan Corbett’s wife, Anna Corbett, has been fighting for his release, appearing before Congress and on major news networks to call on Biden and lawmakers to act. Since he was taken hostage, Corbett’s family has managed to secure nine brief video calls with him, and see that his condition is worsening. His wife told The Daily Wire that the last call came this Sunday and says the call only “heightened” her concerns, learning that he has new health issues. “My latest call with Ryan only heightened my concerns about his mental and physical health following more than 22 months in a basement cell without access to sunlight or nutritious foods,” Anna Corbett said. “My once healthy husband now faints without warning, experiences constant ringing in his ears, and is losing faith that this nightmare will ever end.” “I continue to call on President Biden to meet with me to discuss how we can bring Ryan home before it’s too late,” she added. A spokesman for Biden’s State Department would not specify any steps that had been taken to bring Corbett, a father of three, back to the United States, only telling The Daily Wire that it “will continue to work securing his immediate release.”  “We are in contact with the UN Special Rapporteur’s office and welcome their efforts to call for more humane conditions Ryan and others held by the Taliban,” a State Department spokesman told The Daily Wire in an email. “We consider Ryan’s detention to be wrongful and we will continue to work securing his immediate release.”  The United Nations official referenced by the State Department warned earlier this month of Corbett’s deteriorating health and called on the Taliban to give him “medical treatment in a civilian hospital without delay.”  “The conditions in which this humanitarian worker is being detained are utterly inadequate and substantially below international standards. This is having a significant impact on his physical and mental health, which is declining rapidly. Without adequate medical care he is at risk of irreparable harm or even death,” said Alice Jill Edwards, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Corbett and his family first moved to Afghanistan in 2010 and started Bloom Afghanistan, an enterprise focused on improving the war-torn country’s private sector. The Corbett family safely evacuated from Afghanistan when the United States withdrew under Biden’s orders in August 2021, creating a vacuum that the Taliban quickly seized to take power.  About five months after U.S. forces left Afghanistan, Corbett returned to the country by himself to renew his visa and train more staff for his enterprise. He was initially welcomed back to Afghanistan and remained there until August 10, 2022, when he, along with two Afghans and a German colleague were detained by Taliban forces. While the Afghans were released a month later and Corbett’s German colleague was let go in December 2022, Corbett is still being held hostage, likely for political leverage.  Corbett’s 18-year-old daughter Ketsia — who is set to graduate from high school on June 28 — recorded a video last week describing her dad’s situation and asking President Biden to act soon to save her father.  “It feels like the last two years of my childhood have been stolen from me. Every day I get out of bed, put on a smile, and push forward,” Ketsia says in the video. “But my dad’s suffering is constantly on my mind and in my prayers. We’ve talked to him only eight times, but the calls have become more and more terrifying. My dad’s being tortured and abused and he feels forgotten and alone.”  “He has no idea what’s being done to bring him home and why it’s taking so long” she continued, adding, “President Biden, if you see this or read my letter, I’m asking you to do everything you can to can to bring my dad home. I hope you can meet him one day because he is an amazing man.”  Former President Donald Trump’s campaign told The Daily Wire that Corbett would be a free man if Trump was in office. “President Trump brought more Americans back home and reunited them with their families because other countries knew not to test him,” said Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung. “With Biden in office, America is no longer respected on the world stage and has made Americans across the world more vulnerable.” “There is only one person who can negotiate the safe return of hostages like Ryan Corbett back to his family — President Trump,” Cheung added.  Republican Congressman Mark Green (R-TN), who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called on Biden to “make it clear that we will not tolerate the wrongful detainment of Americans.”  “President Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal was saddled with grievous error after grievous error despite being warned repeatedly that the return of the Taliban was not a question of if, but when,” Green told the The Daily Wire. “Just because the War on Terror has wound down does not mean our commitment to safeguarding American lives is over. President Biden must make it clear that we will not tolerate the wrongful detainment of Americans. I pray for Ryan’s family and his safe return home.”

Jamie Lee Curtis confirmed a sequel to the hit 2003 Disney movie “Freaky Friday” was not only happening but that production had already begun with an incredible picture she posted on Instagram. On Monday, the 65-year-old actress reposted a photo from Disney Studio of her sitting next to Linsday Lohan — both stars of the original mother-daughter-body-switching film — posing in front of a trailer with the other person’s names in the stars behind them. She captioned the post, “WE ARE FREAKING OUT because the Coleman’s are getting FREAKY AGAIN! @disney @disneystudios @lindsaylohan @nisha.ganatra.” In the snap, Curtis flashed a rocker symbol with Lohan just smiling.  Disney announces that production on the #FreakyFriday sequel, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, is officially underway! ? pic.twitter.com/1yNkwSIiiO — Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) June 24, 2024 A short time later, the 37-year-old actress posted a video on her Instagram of the two posing for the pictures in front of the trailers that meant fans of the classic film were finally getting a sequel. She simply wrote, “We’re Back.” In the original post from Disney, the studio shared that the sequel to the life-switching comedy was coming next year. “The Colemans are back and coming to theaters in 2025!” Disney captioned the post. “The sequel to Freaky Friday is now in production!” During Lohan’s appearance earlier this year on Andy Cohen’s Sirius XM show, the actress said she and Curtis would be reprising their roles as mother and daughter in the popular coming-of-age movie, but details were scarce. “It is [happening],” Lohan told the host about the sequel. “I don’t want to say too much.” The 2003 “Freaky Friday” movie was a reboot of the original 1976 Disney film with Jodie Foster playing the daughter who switched places with her mom, played by Barbara Harris. It was based on Mary Rodgers’s 1972 novel of the same name. “An overworked mother and her daughter did not get along,” a description of the movie on IMDb read. “When they switch bodies, each is forced to adapt to the other’s life for one freaky Friday.” The 2003 movie, with a reported $26 million budget, was a huge success after earning $160 million at the worldwide box office, Yahoo Entertainment noted.  Lohan’s 2003 film was just one of many of her appearances in Disney movies. She previously starred in the 1998 twin movie “The Parent Trap,” a remake of the hit 1961 movie with actress Hayley Mills taking on the lead role. She also starred in “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen” in 2004. Related: Lindsay Lohan Finally Shares Whether A ‘Freaky Friday’ Sequel Is Happening

Loudoun County Public Schools filed a bizarre complaint with the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) asking the federal agency to punish the D.C. market’s ABC affiliate for its Emmy-winning coverage of the district’s corruption, calling the reporting “misinformation and disinformation” that amounted to “bullying and harassing behavior.” For 35 pages, the manifesto by LCPS spokesman Dan Adams tattled to the government that journalists had not characterized things the way he instructed them to—for example, Nick Minock, WJLA’s lead Loudoun reporter, said that the school superintendant had missed a month of school (20 workdays) traveling on junkets, when Adams said it was 19.5 days. “LCPS is forced to ask itself, ‘what recourse remains?’ WJLA has demonstrated through its actions and failure to communicate that their behavior will continue unabated without some kind of external action,” the FCC complaint said. “We do not take this action lightly, as we work tirelessly to have positive and collaborative relationships with our media partners. But at this time, we can no longer stand by while WJLA and its staff consistently provide misinformation and disinformation to our community,” LCPS wrote. The censorship attempt comes as Superintendent Aaron Spence embarks on an unprecedented spree of stifling dissent and hiding problems. A Republican school board member, Deana Griffiths, also faced a closed-door attempt to formally discipline her last week for offering mild criticism of Spence, and revealing that she declined to vote in favor of giving him a bonus of more than $20,000. Adams included a chart in his complaint to demonstrate WJLA had a “disproportionate focus” on Loudoun schools, a plea for the government to punish a private media station for choosing what topics to focus on. Shortly after the complaint was sent, Minock won three Emmy awards for his Loudoun reporting, celebrating its widely-recognized accuracy and importance to the public interest. The complaint nitpicked reporting such as how after LCPS spent $11 million adding non-gendered bathrooms to its schools —after covering up a rape by a boy in the girls bathroom — Minock reported that the goal was to accommodate transgender students; Adams claimed that was “misinformation” because non-transgender students would also be allowed to use the new restrooms. Recently, Loudoun’s sheriff was forced to go public after Spence concealed the fact that there had been nine fentanyl overdoses by students of a single school, with Spence falsely claiming that even saying the name of the schools where it occurred would violate privacy laws. Adams complained to the FCC that WJLA should not have been allowed to report that it concealed the overdoses, because in one case the school disclosed that “a student experienced a medical emergency,” without saying what it was. Adams said Minock “disrupted [a] public meeting” by asking the superintendent about the topic. In response to bipartisan condemnation of the secrecy, the Virginia legislature later passed a bill requiring schools to notify parents of overdoses — a bill LCPS hired a lobbyist to try to modify. Virginia state senator Glen Sturtevant, a Republican, called for a “temporary state takeover” of LCPS in response to Adams’ screed, saying that “trying to silence a free press” that had reported on its problems shows that it is “totally out of control.” Adams is also in charge of Freedom of Information Act requests and has repeatedly violated the law, for which The Daily Wire sued him and LCPS.

'the pressure is on Biden (and his medical team) to hold it together'