Excerpts Young Adult Read an Excerpt From A Mastery of Monsters by Liselle Sambury August is willing to do anything to find her brother—even infiltrate a secret society full of monsters… By Liselle Sambury | Published on July 9, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from A Mastery of Monsters, the start of a new YA dark academia fantasy series by Liselle Sambury, out from Margaret K. McElderry Books on July 29th. When August’s brother disappears before his sophomore semester, everyone thinks the stress of college got to him. But August knows her brother would never have left her voluntarily, especially not after their mother so recently went missing.The only clue he left behind was a note telling her to stay safe and protect their remaining family. And after August is attacked by a ten-foot-tall creature with fur and claws, she realizes that her brother might be in more danger than she could have imagined.Unfortunately for her, the only person with a connection to the mysterious creature is the bookish Virgil Hawthorne… and he knows about them because he is one. If he doesn’t find a partner to help control his true nature, he’ll lose his humanity and become a mindless beast—exactly what the secret society he’s grown up in would love to put down.Virgil makes a proposition: August will join his society and partner with him, and in return, he’ll help her find her brother. And so August is plunged into a deadly competition to win one of the few coveted candidate spots, all while trying to accept a frightening reality: that monsters are real, and she has to learn to master them if she’s to have any hope of saving her brother. Chapter 1 Drunk girls are the best. I grin at the one next to me, who winds her elbow around mine and shouts about what sort of guy she wants to marry and why he’s very different from who she’s going home with tonight. The other girls are discussing what drinks they’re going to get and what club they want to go to after this one. They offer me hits off their vapes, and we make a joke of blowing the vapor in each other’s faces. When asked my name, I tell them August, and they laugh because that’s the month it is. I act like I lied and tell them the name on my ID instead. After five minutes together, we’re besties. When we get to the front of the line, we show our IDs together. All nineteen. Legal. The girls make high-pitched pleas to skip cover, and the bouncer rolls his eyes and waves us in for free. Inside, Stages is packed wall-to-wall with people jumping and dancing to the blaring music from the DJ, screaming over top of each other to be heard. It’s busy for a Friday night in the summer. Usually it’s slower around this time since the students aren’t back yet. But I guess this DJ is popular enough to draw a crowd. The tiled floor is sticky under my feet, and the crowd smells like too many combinations of perfume, cologne, and body spray, coalescing into one sharp, stinging scent that I can’t describe as anything other than “strong.” I tell the girls that I think I saw someone I know. They head to the bar, and I wait in a corner and scroll on my phone for a few minutes. By the time they have their drinks, they’ve forgotten me. That’s the best part about friendships with drunk girls—they’re short-lived. I head by myself to the bar, where I’m asked for my ID again, which I flash. And it passes because it is real. It’s just not mine. Another great thing about drunk girls is that they lose their IDs all the time. And no bartender is going to look too long with a throng of people pushing and shoving, trying to get served. It’s a Black girl on the card, and I’m Black too; good enough. My phone vibrates, and I fish it out of my jeans pocket. The screen lights up with Bailey’s name. I ignore the call and check a text from Jules. He’s sent me some cheesy video of a dog using a voice command system to swear at its owners. This loser. He’s wanted a dog forever, but we moved too much so our parents always said no. And now he’s in the dorms and still can’t have one. So he’s pining over other peoples’ pets. I send back a video I watched on the walk over that’s not dog related because I wouldn’t be caught dead unironically sending that shit. I accept the doubles of vodka-cran from the bartender, balancing the four plastic cups by squishing them together and holding the outsides between my fingers. I bring them to one of the small stand-up tables, where I down them all, one after the other, as fast as I can. I know it’s going to be a good night because I can taste the liquor. I order one more round before I finally go out onto the dance floor. Buy the Book A Mastery of Monsters Liselle Sambury Buy Book A Mastery of Monsters Liselle Sambury Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget I don’t recognize the song, but it doesn’t matter. I can dance to anything. I just close my eyes and move. My braids sway and brush against my shoulders and back. I’m getting used to the changes in my body, bigger hips and butt, and folds of skin that weren’t there before. When I open my eyes, I spot a guy wearing the Queen’s standard club uniform of a hoodie and jeans watching me. It’s the sort of attention I always get when I dance. I was sure that wouldn’t be a thing anymore now that I look different. There were a lot of things I was convinced I would lose that never went away. Not for that reason, anyway. I close my eyes again. Time slips and curls around me. Dancing for myself means that no one else matters. It’s like being in my bedroom when I was ten, music blasting, hairbrush in hand, feeling like a rock star. Nothing in the world could deny me that truth in that moment. I could be anything and anyone. I wasn’t pretending. I just was. I could do this for hours. And I do. I’m downing another round when the bartender makes last call, and everyone surges to the bar. I’ve already got the spins. But I’m still pressing the plastic cup to my lips and slurping the drink down. I stopped tasting the vodka a while ago. I fumble with my phone and there are dozens of messages now. Not just Bailey. Jules, too. I finally notice the time at the top: 1:45 a.m. Fuck. I missed the last ferry to the island. I tip the rest of my drink into my mouth and stare at the other three I ordered. In the crowd, I spot the girls from the line. They aren’t bothering with trying to get to the bar and are lounging against the railings that line the upper level. But they look over when I call them, squinting as they try to place me. I remind them of my fake name and recognition spreads across their faces. I say, “My friends had to leave so I have extras. Do you guys want them?” My voice is slow. It’s like everything I say is coming out on a delay. The girls share a moment of hesitation. I get it. I’m technically a stranger. But they must decide I’m trustworthy enough because they accept the drinks and continue our conversation from the line like no time has passed. I start to move away from the table when one of them grabs me. “Do you have someone to walk home with?” “I’m fine. My brother lives on campus.” Jules isn’t expecting me, but he’d never turn me away. He’ll make his “serious face,” which has never been that serious with me, and fold anyway. He always folds. Unlike Mom, who’s an iron wall. Sometimes Dad can be won over. Not anymore, though. He’s reached his limit with me. The girl bites her lip. “Shit. We’re north of Princess.” I vaguely understand that she’s talking about Princess Street, the main road that goes through downtown. Most students live south of it, closer to campus. “You’re a student, right? I can call Walkhome.” “I’m not a student,” I snap. I don’t mean to, but I do. I do a lot of things that I don’t mean to now. Everything used to be reined in so tight, but not anymore. I can’t tell if she’s too drunk to notice my tone or if she doesn’t care. “This girl went missing like a week ago walking home. You shouldn’t go alone.” “I’ll call a friend outside.” I don’t think she believes me, but she lets me go. I leave the club and start walking, trying to find my way back to campus. The streets are filled with people milling around in groups, making their own way home, their loud conversations and shouts filling the air. I’m unsteady on my feet, but I’m wearing my Docs, so it’s better than if I were in heels. I like to think that Mom would prefer it. She always asked where I was going dressed like I was grown when I wore heels and tight dresses to parties with my friends. Now Mom is gone. Has been for almost nine months. And I don’t have friends anymore. I look around, trying to remember where Jules’s dorm is. Queen’s University looks like someone took a chunk of Victorian England and dropped it in the middle of a town in southern Ontario. There are cobblestone streets and ivy crawling up brick buildings. It has winding paths through campus lined with trees and carefully manicured shrubs. But there are enough modern touches to remind you of where and when you are. Still, it’s hard for it to not feel like its own world apart from the rest of Kingston. Especially with so many of its buildings clustered in one place. And unfortunately for me, I’ve found myself on the outside of that cluster. I’m at the edge of campus next to a park. It’s basically abandoned. There are tents set up, but even those are quiet. I yank my phone out of my pocket and search for a bench. I find one and drop onto it, resting my head on my knees and squeezing my eyes shut. Even with them closed, the world is still spinning. I force them open and send a text to Jules asking where his dorm is. I want to lie down. And throw up. Actually, I can do that last bit right now. There’s a crunch behind me. Feet on grass. I don’t bother looking back. It’s a park. I doubt I’m the only person here. “Hey, you doing all right?” I turn toward the edge of campus, and a group of three guys are ambling toward me. But not from behind where I heard the sound. They’re the same white guy in different fonts. All wear jeans and hoodies. Do these guys never look at each other and think they should maybe diversify their wardrobe? “Fuck off,” I say. The guy who spoke reels back. “Wow, okay, chill. We’re trying to be nice, right?” He nudges his buddies. “She’s not worth it,” one of them says, without bothering to lower his voice. I stand to leave and sway in place. Their ringleader grins at me. His hoodie is navy blue with QUEEN’S embroidered across the chest. “Why not? She looks like she’d be down to f—” I’m not thinking about it. Not really. I reach under my shirt to the belt at my waist, pull the knife there from its holster, and throw. Mom would say, “Don’t give yourself time to doubt what you’re doing. If you have to spend time on anything, use it to make sure your aim is good.” And then I would hit the bullseye. Because I was the perfect daughter until I wasn’t. The guy screams as the blade clips his ear and embeds itself in the tree behind him. “What the fuck?! You bitch!” I’m still drunk, but the experience sobers up his friends, who start pulling him away. Though he’s fighting them. I reach behind me again. “I have more.” I don’t. But they don’t know that. The ringleader spits at me, the saliva falling short and leaving drool on this chin. He and his friends flee to campus, and I lean forward and puke like I’ve been wanting to, tasting cranberry on my lips. I spit for good measure. Mine comes out of my mouth properly because I’m not an amateur. That sound again. Footsteps on grass, but not from the direction the guys went. I shuffle back to avoid my puddle of sick and look around the park. There’s an empty children’s playground, tents, and trees, spaced out enough that you can see most of the area from wherever you stand. It’s how I spot the person hunched against the shadow of a tree, their head bowed. Slowly, they look up at me, a black bandanna wrapped around the lower half of their face. In the dark, it’s too hard to see their features, but there’s no mistaking the careful way they close one eye, lowering the lid with perfect precision, and then open it. A wink… as if the two of us are sharing a private joke. “There she is!” a voice shouts, and I jerk toward the sound. The guys from before are coming back, and this time they’re followed by a man in a bright yellow vest that says CAMPUS SECURITY. That is less than ideal. I sprint across the park to the baseball diamond, trying to put as much space as possible between us, then dart toward the residential area, spying a house whose white barn-style doors are cracked open. I take the opportunity, slipping between them and ducking into the small garden area, shutting the doors behind me. The walls around it are stone, so I can’t see what’s happening, but hopefully that also means they can’t see me. I turn around, meaning to try to sneak out via another entrance, but the motion throws me off balance, and I vomit again. “You’re trespassing. We have you on the cameras.” I jerk my head toward the boy leaning against the side of the house. He stands with his hands tucked into the pockets of what I think are actual silk pajamas. His skin is a smooth and rich brown, and he towers over me, his curls short and lined up with a fade that looks fresh. Meticulous, even. The guy’s built like a football player—stocky in the arms and thick in the chest and stomach. Perched on his nose are a pair of oversized circular glasses. His whole look is manicured. Like even in the middle of the night, he’s considered his whole ensemble. The worst part is that it’s working for him. He’s like a hot librarian jock hybrid. And I just threw up in front of him. In a bid to leave with whatever dignity I have left, I return to the barn doors, peeking through them. The guys and security have disappeared as far as I can see. My phone vibrates, and I fumble to get it out of my pocket. Jules sent me a pin. I open it and realize I’m on the other side of campus from where he is. I push against the gate. “Did you seriously come in here, casually expel the contents of your stomach, and now you’re leaving without saying anything?” He waves at the cranberry-colored puddle soaking into the spaces between the patio stones. I shrug. “Sorry?” He rolls his eyes, then glances over my shoulder. “You shouldn’t throw knives at people.” “You shouldn’t throw knives at people,” I repeat in a mocking voice. His jaw drops. “Obviously! It’s too late now. How did you even see that?” He points at the cameras mounted on the side of the house. “We have monitoring. They saw you and sent me outside in case you proceeded toward the property. Also, why are you acting like you couldn’t have just not thrown a sharp projectile at someone?” I thought security cameras could only see things at short range. What sort of high-tech 50x zoom shit does this guy have? Fucking rich people. “Are you going to report me or something?” He blinks several times. Finally, he shakes his head. “I would suggest avoiding the park.” “Planning to.” If security decides to come back, that’s where they’ll go, and so that’s the last place I want to be. “Be careful,” he adds as he turns back to the house. “You can keep your concern.” I leave, letting the white barn doors slam shut behind me. Excerpted from A Mastery of Monsters, copyright © 2025 by Liselle Sambury. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>A Mastery of Monsters</i> by Liselle Sambury appeared first on Reactor.

Flooding over the Independence Day weekend in Texas’ Hill Country caused devastation throughout the state and even affected the Virginia governor’s family. Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Tuesday that his wife, Virginia first lady Suzanne Youngkin, and other family members were vacationing at the Youngkins’ property along the Guadalupe River in Hunt when the flood occurred Friday. Youngkin was in Virginia at the time and flew to Texas later Friday afternoon to be with his family and to thank rescuers. “By the grace of God, my family was safe,” the governor said. “I have to say there was moments when they weren’t. They ended up being safe during the day.” When it became evident the flood did not pose a threat to his family, Youngkin declined an offer from Texas officials to airlift them from the property. On Friday evening, rescue teams and the National Guard retrieved the family from the property. In a statement Sunday, the governor announced that he was deploying two Virginia swift water rescue teams to help with Texas flood relief efforts. “Our hearts go out to the families and communities in Texas who have been devastated by these historic floods,” Youngkin stated. “We stand in solidarity with the people of Texas, and we are committed to offering any and all support requested during this critical time.” The Youngkins purchased the $6.7 million property, formerly a girls’ camp that Suzanne Youngkin attended as a child, around 2010. The property sits about four miles from Camp Mystic, where at least 27 campers and counselors died. Search and rescue operations continue as dozens of people in the Texas Hill Country remain missing. The post ‘By the Grace of God’: Virginia Governor’s Family Survives Texas Floods appeared first on The Daily Signal.

In the wake of the recent Texas flash flooding that has claimed at least 119 lives and left scores of others still missing, two of President Donald Trump’s nominees to weather-related posts are defending the administration’s budget cuts from Democrats’ criticism. At a Senate commerce committee hearing Wednesday, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., went on the offensive, questioning Neil Jacobs, Trump’s nominee to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on whether budget cuts harm preparedness for natural disasters. Markey has long been a major player in the Democrats’ climate politics, having chaired the now-defunct House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming from 2007 to 2011 and served as the Senate sponsor of the “Green New Deal” resolution drafted in 2019. The Massachusetts Democrat also was a vocal opponent of Lee Zeldin’s appointment as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. “The Trump administration wants to cut NOAA’s budget by 27%,” said Markey. “Yes or no: Do you support these cuts?” Trump NOAA Pick Says Budget Cuts Will Not Hamper America’s Weather Readiness During his confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation, Dr. Neil Jacobs, President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as the NOAA Administrator, received… pic.twitter.com/KUFN5FRX3o— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) July 9, 2025 “Yes, I support the president’s budget,” Jacobs replied.  Asked by Markey whether he thought the cuts would harm readiness, Jacobs defended the administration’s work, arguing that it was restructuring departments, not cutting disaster-response resources. “A lot of that work is being transitioned in from the research side to the operation side, so the National Weather Service, the National Ocean Service, their mission-essential functions will continue,” he said. But Markey squarely rejected this answer, arguing any such cut would harm readiness. “I have to disagree with you,” he replied. “A 27% cut is going to have an impact, because there’s a definite ripple effect that occurs when that kind of funding is slashed. Weather readiness without funding is a hallucination.” Markey also sparred with Taylor Jordan, Trump’s pick to be assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction, chiding him for “adopting the social media handle ‘@thegreatesthoax,’” a reference to global warming. “It was a young man’s attempt at wit,” said Jordan. “There’s really no deeper meaning.” Sen. Ed Markey hassles Taylor Jordan, pick for assistant secretary of Commerce for environmental observation and prediction, on a screen name he used when he was younger referencing "The Greatest Hoax," a book claiming global warming is a conspiracy."If you wanna be a comedian,… pic.twitter.com/2oMPi1AZAM— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) July 9, 2025 Markey was not amused. “If you want to be a comedian, you should go to open mic night at a local club, because this is serious business. The greatest hoax is not in any way a joke. It’s an attempt to undermine legitimate climate science,” he said. The post Green New Deal Democrat Spars With Trump’s Weather-Related Nominees appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A new report shows a 50% decline in the number of law enforcement officers’ deaths in the line of duty since the start of 2025, compared with the same period last year.   The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund released its 2025 midyear fatalities report this week. The report found that 42 federal, state, or local law enforcement officers have died in the first six months of 2025, representing a 53% decline from the 89 officer fatalities in the first half of 2024.  While reluctant to decisively declare a specific reason America is seeing a decline in law enforcement officer fatalities, Bill Alexander, the CEO of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, said he suspects there are three factors driving the trend.   First, the law enforcement community has recently been very focused on furthering “officer safety and wellness,” Alexander, who served in law enforcement for nearly 30 years, told The Daily Signal.   The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund has dedicated “quite a bit of resources” into looking at data and trends to determine “where, how, why are men and women in uniform facing too many fatal and tragic outcomes,” the CEO said. The group then takes that information and assesses “how can we use that data to potentially implement new programs or practices to try to make it safer for the men and women doing the job,” he added.   Efforts to improve safety can’t fully explain the dramatic year-over-year decline in law enforcement officers’ fatalities, Alexander said.   In the five years since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, “the tone, the tenor, the rhetoric surrounding law enforcement was almost universally negative,” he said. The negative rhetoric came from “popular media, social media, mainstream media, and even worryingly from, at least I would argue, too many of our elected officials.”   The negative rhetoric about law enforcement in recent years has been “so slanted,” Alexander contends, that it may have not only affected the dialogue around men and women in uniform, but may have also influenced “public behaviors as they were interacting with law enforcement.”   “My argument here is that over the last six to eight months, and we are not a political organization so I don’t mean this in any political way, but … there has certainly been a change in that tone and tenor and rhetoric about law enforcement,” Alexander said. President Donald Trump returned to the White House a little less than six months ago. Third, and on a related note, Alexander says, “coinciding with the same civil unrest and the negative dialogue about law enforcement, there was a lot of talk across the country, not universally, but a lot talk about defunding and marginalizing police officers.”   “I don’t currently hear that song being sung in terms of defunding the police,” Alexander said.   The tide “seems to be turning in terms of communities, cities, states, towns, recognizing that police are a force for good in their communities,” he said. “And I think that has led to police agencies and police officers generally feeling supported and to some degree reengaging in the fight on crime, and that has resulted to some degree in pretty substantial drops in violent crime all across the country.”   Firearms-related incidents represent the highest single-issue cause of death among law enforcement this year, accounting for 22 fatalities so far in 2025, down from 28 in the first part of 2024.   Traffic-related incidents resulted in 13 law enforcement fatalities so far in 2025, compared with 26 in the first half of last year.   Seven officers died from “other” causes in the line of duty, such as health-related issues, the report found, again a significant decline from the 35 officers who died from non-firearm or non-traffic-related incident in the first half of 2024.   Among the 42 officer deaths in the line of duty in 2025, 39 have been male and three were females. On average, officers were 43 years of age at the time of their death, had served for 13 years, and left behind two children, according to the report.  While Alexander says he is encouraged by the decline in officer deaths and hope the trend continues, he is “hesitant to rely on this as some definitive, specific trend that is either repeatable or expandable,” adding: “It just worries me that to some agree this might be random chance, throwing out a data point which is not actually reflective of the real-world danger out on the streets.” The post 3 Possible Reasons Law Enforcement Officer Deaths Are Way Down appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Jobs for Americans Up, Jobs for Immigrants Down

The system was trained on videos of the procedure and performed eight flawless operations without human help.

Credit: theancientconnection.comSatellite scans conducted by Merlin Burrows, a UK-based company specializing in advanced imaging, have revealed what could be the fabled Labyrinth of Egypt—a sprawling underground complex described by the ancient historian Herodotus as containing 3,000 chambers. The scans, first presented in a private briefing in Harrogate, UK, in 2015, pinpoint a vast subterranean structure, complete with a mysterious 40-meter-long metallic object at its core, raising questions that challenge conventional archaeology. The scans, led by Tim Akers, a former officer at RAF Menwith Hill with expertise in satellite imaging, uncovered a multi-layered complex beneath the Hawara site, near the Pyramid of Hawara. This pyramid, built during Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, has long been associated with the labyrinth described by Herodotus in the 5th century BCE. His accounts spoke of an immense structure, partly above and partly below ground, with intricate passages and chambers. Until now, much of his description was considered exaggerated or lost to time. However, Merlin Burrows’ technology, originally developed for military applications like tracking submarines and detecting bunkers, has brought new clarity to the site. At the heart of the discovery is a massive hall, measuring 40 meters wide and 100 meters long, containing a freestanding object Akers nicknamed “Dippy” after the Diplodocus skeleton in London’s Natural History Museum. Unlike the surrounding stone and mudbrick, this object appears metallic, its shape likened to a tic-tac mint or possibly an ancient Egyptian Shen ring—a symbol of eternity. Its material and purpose remain unknown, prompting speculation about its origins and function. Black specks marked surface artifacts, while deeper layers appeared in yellow, red, green, and blue, revealing a structured underworld. Credit: Tim Akers / Merlin Burrows © Cosco, 2025 The scans reveal four distinct underground layers, separated by 20 to 50 meters, aligning with earlier geophysical surveys like the 2008 Mataha Expedition. These layers form a complex the size of ten football fields, with a central corridor connecting them like an atrium. Surrounding the site is a moat-like feature, shaped like the Greek omega or Shen ring, hinting at a deliberate design tied to ancient symbolism. The scans also confirm two chambers beneath the Hawara Pyramid, one matching the burial chamber found by archaeologist Flinders Petrie in 1888, and another, previously unknown, beyond a “blind passage” he dismissed as a dead end. This passage, potentially obscured by groundwater from the nearby Bahr Wahbi canal, may lead to the labyrinth itself. Groundwater has long complicated exploration at Hawara, with shallow flooding affecting the pyramid’s entrance and surrounding areas. Yet Akers’ scans indicate that the deeper structures remain unaffected, their hollow interiors preserved below the mother rock. This finding counters earlier concerns that the labyrinth might be entirely submerged, offering hope for future expeditions. The scans also detected vertical shafts, likely Persian-era tombs from around the time of Herodotus’ visit, adding another layer of historical significance to the site. Louis De Cordier, a key figure in the project, had faced repercussions in 2008 after sharing results from the Mataha Expedition, earning a spot on Egypt’s archaeological blacklist. To avoid similar obstacles, the team enforced strict non-disclosure agreements, prioritizing a future expedition over public fanfare. Past experiences showed that premature announcements often led to media hype and bureaucratic roadblocks, including scrutiny from figures like Dr. Zahi Hawass, former head of Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities. The Harrogate briefing, held in the Montpellier Suite of the Crown Hotel, was a pivotal moment. Attendees, including project patron Andrew Barker and researcher Michael Donnellan, reviewed the scans in a room swept for surveillance, reflecting the sensitivity of the discovery. Akers’ presentation highlighted the scans’ complexity—multiple overlapping images compressed into a single view, with colors indicating depth and material. Black specks marked surface artifacts, while deeper layers appeared in yellow, red, green, and blue, revealing a structured underworld. As plans for a new expedition take shape, the team remains cautious, aware of the political and cultural sensitivities surrounding such a find. The post Satellites scans may have revealed the location of the ‘Labyrinth of Egypt’ appeared first on Anomalien.com.

Former MSNBC host Tiffany Cross delivered an unhinged rant on CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip, also known as “Thunderdome” around these parts, wherein she compared ICE detention facilities to concentration camps. To be more precise, she was ALLOWED to deliver her rant with no pushback whatsoever.  Watch the entire rant in its full context (click “expand” to view transcript): WATCH: former MSNBC host Tiffany Cross delivered an insane rant to Kelly Jane Torrance of the NY Post on immigration, making multiple comparisons of ICE detention facilities to CONCENTRATION CAMPS and accusing the admin of "disappearing" people. This as Antifa tries to lure ICE… pic.twitter.com/ZCtzH3U3N4 — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 9, 2025 CNN NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP 7/8/25 10:36 PM ABBY PHILLIP: I guess what I'm saying, like, if you show up at a park and all you see are kids, why would you go forward with the operation? And the people that you, maybe they were, I don't know, they haven't actually said, to your point, they've said virtually nothing about this. The ICE spokesperson told CNN the agency is not commenting on ongoing operations. We don't know if they were looking for someone. We don't know if they arrested anybody. But clearly, whoever they were looking for, there was no one there but kids. TIFFANY CROSS: I think this is the challenge I have with even talking about this. We are normalizing a government agency disappearing people. We are normalizing, we're talking about it like it's no big deal that they are kidnapping people and transporting them to concentration camps, both domestic and foreign. KELLY JANE TORRANCE: I find that- I think that's kind of insulting to Jewish Holocaust survivors.  CROSS: I think it’s insulting what they’re doing. It is not insulting to Jewish -- I find it insulting that you could even fix your mouth to defend this disgusting behavior. TORRANCE: Are there gas ovens at these camps?  CROSS: It doesn't matter. It's a concentration camp what they're doing. And they are disappearing people claiming that these are people who have committed the most harsh crimes. But according to the reporting, less than 10 percent of these people have committed harsh crimes. So to do the Victim Olympics and decide who had it worse, I can tell you, I can participate in that too. And everybody who says, oh, this is not the America I know, I can guarantee you it is the America I know. TORRANCE: Let's be absolutely honest.  CROSS: The fact that we're presenting this like it's political fodder that a government agency is disappearing people, it is not a political point. It has nothing to do with Jewish people because despite the fact that 20 percent of immigrants in this country are white, we do not see white people getting carted off to concentration camps. So if we can just focus on the most people, the people who are harmed the most by this and not make yourself or somebody else the center of attention when that's not who's being impacted by this --  TORRANCE: I'm not Jewish, but I'm saying that kind of language-- CROSS: -- or anyone else, the center of attention, they don't heighten using that kind of language. I think it's not because this BS administration is kidnapping people. It has nothing to do with my language. It has to do with the actions that are being taken by this administration.  TORRANCE: And how many people have been disappeared that you've never heard from again? And we don't know anything about them or where they've gone. (CROSSTALK) CROSS: Thousands of people are never heard about them. Where they're going. (CROSSTALK) CROSS: Are you a reporter? Are you not a reporter? Yes. Thousands of people, thousands of people  TORRANCE: -- in El Salvadoran prisons who, you know --  CROSS: I'm sorry. I just want to be clear. Are you defending what's happening?  TORRANCE: I am not defending. I'm saying let's be accurate about what's happening.  CROSS: I'm being very accurate. And it is very disgusting what this administration is doing. And ten, five, six months, 20 years from now, I hope that you can look back at this very clip and realize that you are on the wrong side of history. If you're trying to remotely defend what's happening, there are fathers, mothers and young people who are being carted off to concentration camps. And less than 10 percent of these people have committed any sort of violent crime. They are coming up, people whose kids are in school, they are never to see their family again. The context within which this happened was a conversation about the presence of ICE officers and National Guard members at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, California, which appeared to trigger mayor Karen Bass. As usual, liberal framing demands that immigration enforcement operations be cast in the worst possible light- legitimate government function as authoritarian excess. And then Cross opens her mouth. Where to even begin? Cross accuses the government of disappearing people (not a peep when the Biden administration LITERALLY DISAPPEARED close to 300,000 kids but it’s (D)ifferent), of “transporting them” to “concentration camps”, indignantly says this is not offensive to Jews, doubles and triples down on the claim with Nazi-evocative language while chiding Kelly Jane Torrance of The New York Post about being on the right side of history. To be clear, that such unhinged dribble would fly out of Tiffany Cross’s mouth comes as a surprise to no one. The crack about the “Victim Olympics” was on par with the kind of stuff she’d say while hosting her MSNBC weekend show.  The issue here is that Abby Philip let Cross rant unchecked and uninterrupted for almost three minutes. Compare that to her lightning interruptions of Scott Jennings, Shermichael Singleton or any other conservative guest when they begin to say something even remotely contrary to whatever the progressive consensus is on any given issue. Compare that also to her ref stoppages whenever any of the liberal panelists is in the process of being wrecked by the aforementioned conservatives.  Cross is who she is. The issue here is the double standard, without which there’d be none at all.  

Only after Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that there was no client list linked to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, which divided elements of America’s political right, did ABC’s The View really care enough to talk about it. Of course, they used it as an opportunity to smear their favorite hate object: President Donald Trump. Far-left ABC News co-hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin used part of Wednesday’s episode to suggest, without evidence, that Trump was on the client list. With moderator Whoopi Goldberg teeing the segment out to mock and further drive divisions within the MAGA coalition, Hostin was the first to hint that Trump was involved in Epstein’s pedophile ring: HOSTIN: I'm not saying that this indicates that Trump had any involvement in Epstein's crime, but there are videos of Trump with Epstein, there are pictures with Trump with Epstein. JOY BEHAR: Photographs. HOSTIN: He was on flight logs of Epstein's plane. I think seven times, all of that has been widely reported and all of a sudden, he doesn't want to talk about Epstein and his friend is a creep or his colleague. “I don’t know. Not colleague. I don't know what to say,” she added. Behar followed up by showing off her own rhetorical conspiracy theory corkboard and telling the audience “you guys do the math”: He calls him a creep in this particular video. By the way, he seems very defensive to me in this particular thing. But besides that, in 2020 - 2002, he told New York magazine, Trump, ‘I've known Jeff for 15 years, terrific guy,’ he said. ‘He's a lot of fun to be with. It's even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do and many of them are on the younger side.’ Okay, that's Trump. That's trump in 2002. Today, he calls him a creep. You guys do the math! Okay?     This kind of guilt by association wasn't employed against former President Bill Clinton when he was on The View in June. He too had some sort of friendship with Epstein. Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin pushed back by noting that, “It's been widely reported that he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago years after that. That’s documented. Before he was in political life before people had strong feelings about Donald Trump.” “Yeah. That’s why I don’t want to call him a friend or colleague. Maybe they had a falling out,” Hostin agreed. Upset with Trump’s frustration with a reporter asking him about the list ahead of a major cabinet meeting, co-host Sara Haines bristled: And when Donald Trump asks, ‘why do people still care about Epstein?’ There have been problems with pedophilia for years in different institutions. When you even watch The Keepers on Netflix it was proven it was men in power, doctors, police officers, people with money, people in the government that were part of it, which is why it was covered up and these victims were double victimized and never found. “So, people like me care not because I care who is on -- I don't believe there's a list. I don't care who it is, we need to uncover this abuse of power in this continued victimization of young people,” she declared. Goldberg seemingly wanted to add something herself, given the grimace on her face, she stopped herself and went to a commercial break. There was no legal note after they leveled their accusations against Trump. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View July 9, 2025 11:19:28 a.m. Eastern (…) SUNNY HOSTIN: Trump saying, ‘why are we still talking about Epstein?’ He talked about Epstein endlessly! WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Endlessly. Well, that was my point. HOSTIN: Not to mention, I'm not saying that this indicates that Trump had any involvement in Epstein's crime, but there are videos of Trump with Epstein, there are pictures with Trump with Epstein. JOY BEHAR: Photographs. HOSTIN: He was on flight logs of Epstein's plane. I think seven times, all of that has been widely reported and all of a sudden, he doesn't want to talk about Epstein and his friend is a creep or his colleague BEHAR: That's my point. HOSTIN: I don’t know. Not colleague. I don't know what to say. BEHAR: He calls him a creep in this particular video. By the way, he seems very defensive to me in this particular thing. But besides that, in 2020 - 2002, he told New York magazine, Trump, ‘I've known Jeff for 15 years, terrific guy,’ he said. ‘He's a lot of fun to be with. It's even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do and many of them are on the younger side.’ Okay, that's Trump. That's trump in 2002. Today, he calls him a creep. You guys do the math! Okay? ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: It's been widely reported that he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago years after that. That’s documented. Before he was in political life before people had strong feelings about Donald Trump. HOSTIN: Yeah. That’s why I don’t want to call him a friend or colleague. Maybe they had a falling out. SARA HAINES: And when Donald Trump asks, ‘why do people still care about Epstein?’ There have been problems with pedophilia for years in different institutions. When you even watch The Keepers on Netflix it was proven it was men in power, doctors, police officers, people with money, people in the government that were part of it, which is why it was covered up and these victims were double victimized and never found. So, people like me care not because I care who is on -- I don't believe there's a list. I don't care who it is, we need to uncover this abuse of power in this continued victimization of young people. [Applause] GOLDBERG: We'll be right back.

Police bodycam video out of Georgia released earlier this week shows officers with the Cobb County Police Department responding to a June 4 report about children trapped inside a hot car."I am standing outside of the Dick's at Cumberland Mall, and there are two children in a car by themselves — small kids crying," the caller tells a 911 dispatcher. "The windows are cracked, but I don't think that's right. And we just came out of Dick's, and I heard kids crying."'A big THANK YOU to the concerned citizens who called 911.'Worse still, police video indicates that while the outside temperature reached a high of 87 degrees that day, the temperature inside the car was 117 degrees.The caller estimated that the "little girl" inside the car was about a year old while the "little boy" was about 2 years old.Police bodycam video shows officers arriving at the scene just after 1 p.m. and quickly deciding to bust a window."Break it!" one of the officers says, and that's exactly what happens:RELATED: 3-year-old girl dies after being found in hot car with unconscious mom during 104-degree day, police say Image source: Cobb County (Ga.) Police DepartmentIn a flash, the doors are unlocked, and the rescue is underway."Hey, kiddies!" one officer says, trying to keep the children calm.RELATED: 8-year-old girl dies in hot car; mom charged with manslaughter Image source: Cobb County (Ga.) Police DepartmentAs an officer reaches down to free one child from the back seat, he can't help but notice the effect the heat has had after picking up the child: "Oh, you're hot."The second child is lifted from the vehicle, too, and soon all is well.RELATED: Infant dies after being left in car 'for hours'; Daily Mail gushes about her 2 adoptive dads Image source: Cobb County (Ga.) Police DepartmentOfficials told WAGA-TV that an infrared thermometer was used to determine the 117-degree temperature inside the car.The station said officers arrested J’quawn Dixon about a half an hour after the rescue; he was charged with second-degree cruelty to children.RELATED: NYC school librarian arrested for allegedly leaving baby daughter in hot car for over 5 hours, coworker rescued trapped infant by smashing window Image source: Cobb County (Ga.) Police DepartmentDixon was booked into the Cobb County Jail, his bond was set at $10,000, and he was released the next day, WAGA reported.You can watch the complete police video below:RELATED: Video: People work together to rescue baby from hot car in Texas when heat index is over 100 degrees"A big THANK YOU to the concerned citizens who called 911," police said on Facebook. "Your quick action is the reason these kids are safe today. You saw something and did something, and that made all the difference."Blaze News on Wednesday reached out to the Cobb County District Attorney's Office to get information on Dixon's next court date, but the DA's office said no information could be shared because the case is "currently under investigation."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!