Whoopi Goldberg and her cohosts on ABC’s “The View” suggested during Tuesday’s broadcast that President Donald Trump may have started a war with Iran to keep the American people distracted from the Epstein files and the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping case. Goldberg raised the possibility first, saying it was “nutty as hell” that a major military conflict — involving a known bad actor and American interests and allies in the Middle East — was sucking up all the oxygen in the media space and arguing that it was an intentional play to redirect public focus. WATCH: Whoopi claims the conflict with Iran is a distraction from the search for Nancy Guthrie and the Epstein files: GOLDBERG: Well, I mean, it’s just nutty as hell. It’s nutty as hell and you’re right, every day is something new. And it’s — you know, I was thinking about it… pic.twitter.com/Boyu2mYouH — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 10, 2026 “I mean, it’s just nutty as hell. It’s nutty as hell and you’re right, every day is something new,” Goldberg began. “And it’s — you know, I was thinking about it yesterday, because I thought, well, okay, why haven’t we been talking about Savannah Guthrie and what’s going on there?” “And her mother,” Sunny Hostin interjected. “Why haven’t we not been — why have we not been talking about the Epstein files? Because that’s still there,” Goldberg continued. “This is meant to get us so worked up that we are unable to see anything else.” The audience and the others around the table applauded and voiced their agreement. “It’s a very wag-the-dog feeling. Very wag-the-dog feeling,” Hostin said, employing the slang term for use of a military action that is intended to divert public attention from a politically damaging issue. The panel then pivoted to claim that the Trump administration viewed members of the military as “cannon fodder.” Cohost Sara Haines said that anyone who waged war should keep the human cost in mind, and Goldberg immediately claimed that the Trump administration did not do that. “They don’t have that feeling, because to them, we’re cannon fodder,” she claimed. “They don’t care, you know? It’s how — It’s why they — it’s how they also treat our vets. It tells you a lot. You’ve heard him talk about vets.” President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and War Secretary Pete Hegseth were all on hand for the Dignified Transfer to receive the remains of the first six American service members killed during Operation Epic Fury. Vice President Vance, a Marine Corps veteran himself, attended the Dignified Transfer for the seventh. Trump referred to the ceremony as “the toughest thing I have to do as President.”

CNN attempted to do a little damage control on Tuesday after a post coddling two New York City terror suspects — both of whom swore allegiance to the Islamic State after being taken into custody — drew fierce criticism. The post, which was deleted on Tuesday amid the backlash, read, “Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could’ve been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather. But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs.” The network was roundly mocked for characterizing the pair — one of whom said his goal had been to execute an attack more deadly than the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three in 2013 — as regular teenagers who’d just happened to pick Saturday to throw improvised explosive devices (IEDs) into a crowd of civilians. “Classic Pennsylvania teenager behavior: throwing IEDs and pledging allegiance to ISIS. Boys will be boys!” The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles commented. Classic Pennsylvania teenager behavior: throwing IEDs and pledging allegiance to ISIS. Boys will be boys! pic.twitter.com/KfcMFBXdxK — Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) March 10, 2026 Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) added, “CNN got this headline wrong. It should be: ‘Two radical Islamic terrorists came to NYC pledging allegiance to ISIS with bombs meant to kill Americans’…There. Fixed it for you.” “What on Earth? CNN acts like they were sightseeing and accidentally found some bombs. NO. They bought chemicals, made the bombs and went to NYC to commit a terrorist attack,” another comment said. “CNN is an unfunny version of the Onion designed to misinform.” Another post from @honestreporting criticized the outlet for “infantilizing” the people who carry out violent crimes driven by ideology. “Wow. ISIS-inspired perpetrators commit a literal terrorist act, and this is what CNN comes up with? Oh, those poor ‘Pennsylvania teenagers,’ whose lives have ‘drastically changed’ because they made the conscious decision to throw bombs. When will the media stop employing narrative storytelling to infantilize perpetrators of ideologically motivated crimes?” After deleting the post, CNN attempted to explain it away with a follow-up: “A post regarding the two individuals arrested for throwing homemade bombs outside of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting. It has therefore been deleted.” Edits were also made to the story itself, which had initially included the same descriptions of the perpetrators. The accompanying editor’s note read, “A previous version of this story included a summary that does not reflect the gravity of the incident, thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting. It therefore has been changed.” A post from Brian Stelter’s “Reliable Sources” newsletter conceded that the X post was problematic but claimed that “the story itself was solid” — but critics pointed out that the post had been lifted directly from the story. This morning’s @ReliableSources newsletter has the context >>> https://t.co/v9NLjgs75l pic.twitter.com/S5pR7kirMB — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 10, 2026 “‘The story itself was solid. But the tweet was outrageous,'” Jerry Dunleavy quoted, adding, “The tweet in question ***was also the lede of the story*** before the article was stealth edited.”

'Violent and potentially illegal'

'The financial insecurity that comes from that is tremendous'

President Donald Trump has moved to protect the Strait of Hormuz

'Most expensive refineries'

Column Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari” Mollari collapses from a heart attack and battles with his guilt in a dream state, while Lennier announces a career change… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on March 10, 2026 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 1 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by David J. EagleSeason 5, Episode 2Production episode 503Original air date: January 28, 1998 It was the dawn of the third age… Delenn gets a call from Ruell on Minbar, wanting to start the process of finding a replacement for Lennier, which is the first Delenn is hearing that Lennier won’t be her aide anymore. She confronts Lennier on the subject during their morning meeting, at which point Lennier abashedly says he was going to tell her after dinner that night and didn’t realize Minbar would be so efficient in working to replace him. He feels that Delenn no longer needs him, as she has Sheridan now, and so he feels redundant. Plus, he feels the loss of Cole deeply, and so wishes to, in essence, replace him in the Rangers. Mollari is arguing with Allan over the disposition of a case of brivari he’s had delivered. Vir takes Allan aside to try to reason with him. Mollari takes advantage of Allan not looking at him to sneak a drink from one of the bottles. A few seconds later, he collapses. Allan calls in the medical emergency, and Mollari is brought to medlab, with the bottle sent for chemical analysis. However, he was not poisoned: he had a heart attack in his left heart. Centauri have two hearts; the left one cleans the blood of toxins, and is also smaller and harder to operate on. Franklin reports to Sheridan that it’ll be very difficult for Mollari to recover from this. Sheridan and Delenn watch over the comatose Mollari, with Sheridan joking that it’s the quietest he’s ever seen the ambassador. Delenn says she’s worried about him. They briefly discuss Lennier, with Delenn saying he must find his own path. The comatose Mollari has a very vivid hallucinatory dream. It starts with him being given a tarot reading by a hooded Delenn. Mollari declares to her that no one will care if he lives or dies, and he thinks that dying now would be better than the death he saw for himself in his prophetic dreams, with him and G’Kar strangling each other. Delenn informs him that a single word can save him, but doesn’t tell him what that word is. She gives him a bloody tarot card, and then leaves him with a grate covering a large red thing that beats like a heart. Credit: Warner Bros. Television In the Zocalo, Vir and Lennier meet up for what is their final drink together as commiserating ambassador’s aides. Vir is drinking a Shirley Temple, and Lennier mentions the possibility of visiting that particular temple the next time he’s on Earth, har har. They wish each other well. In Mollari’s dream, he also is in the Zocalo, but the bottles behind the bar are all empty. Sheridan arrives, and Mollari queries him about being dead. Sheridan says he didn’t enjoy it much, and he says that his plan for the nineteen years he has left is to live the best life he can. Mollari feels he’s wasted his life. Sheridan says all Mollari has to do to live is turn around. Mollari—who knows full well that G’Kar is standing behind him—says he doesn’t want to. Sheridan disappears. In medlab, Mollari’s condition is deteriorating. Franklin does what he can, but at this point, either Mollari will come out of it or he won’t. Vir joins Franklin at the ambassador’s bedside, on what Vir refers to as a death-watch. In the dream, Vir tells Mollari that he’d miss him. Mollari admits that he’d miss himself as well, but he still won’t turn around to face G’Kar. In medlab, Mollari is crashing. Franklin works to keep him alive while Vir watches. In the dream, Mollari finally turns around to face G’Kar. In medlab, G’Kar enters to observe Franklin working on Mollari. In the dream, G’Kar and Mollari are in the Centauri throne room, with G’Kar telling Mollari that he fears the power of the throne, and reminds him of when Mollari went with Refa to bomb the Narn homeworld. Mollari insists that it wasn’t his idea, and that he’s never apologized for anything in his life. G’Kar counters that it’s because he was never sorry for what he did, only for getting caught. Credit: Warner Bros. Television They then are in the room where G’Kar was whipped, only G’Kar is now dressed as Cartagia and Mollari is dressed as G’Kar was at the time. Mollari is tied to the column and whipped as G’Kar was, with Mollari finally screaming on the 39th lash, as G’Kar did. Once again, Mollari sees the pulsing red thing, and this time Mollari not only pounds at it, but says he’s sorry. In medlab, he awakens from his coma. Upon seeing G’Kar in the observation room, he mouths an apology. G’Kar just stares for a moment, then leaves. As he recovers, Mollari complains about hospital food, because that’s always a cheap and easy joke to make. Meanwhile, Lennier tries to leave without saying goodbye, but Delenn catches him before he can depart. Lennier insists that it isn’t goodbye, that he’s still devoted to her, heart, body, and soul, and he hopes to return a better person. Delenn says that isn’t possible, and wishes him well. Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan appears in Mollari’s dream in multiple outfits: the EarthForce uniform he wore when he first reported to the station, in just the undershirt, as he was in “Severed Dreams,” then in the Army of Light uniform he started wearing at the end of “Ceremonies of Light and Dark,” then in the robes of Ranger One that Sinclair wore in “The Coming of Shadows” and the “War Without End” two-parter, then in white Minbari robes like those worn by Delenn in (among other places) “The Parliament of Dreams” and by Dukhat in “Atonement.” Then he turns glowy and disappears much like the evolved human in the framing sequence of “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars.” The household god of frustration. Garibaldi is the one who tells Vir that Mollari had a heart attack and wasn’t the victim of a poisoning. Why the director of covert intelligence for the Interstellar Alliance is delivering medical news to an ambassdorial aide is left as an exercise for the viewer, though it’s likely to justify Jerry Doyle’s place in the opening credits. If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Delenn is gobsmacked by Lennier’s departure. Credit: Warner Bros. Television In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… Apparently there is a Centauri legend about how a great and noble spirit trapped in the body of a monster will attempt to kill the body of the monster in order to be free. But if the monster subjected to the noble spirit’s trial survives, he becomes a better person. Can’t imagine why they’re discussing that particular bit of mythology… Though it take a thousand years, we shall be free. In Mollari’s dream, G’Kar says that this could be a remnant of G’Kar’s Dust-induced telepathic contact with Mollari in “Dust to Dust.” We live for the one, we die for the one. There’s always been a bit of the Foreign Legion in the Rangers, and Lennier joining them to get away from his complicated feelings for Delenn definitely goes along with that. No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Lennier insists that Delenn doesn’t need him because she has Sheridan now. Since the duties of a husband are not even remotely the same as the duties of an ambassadorial aide, it’s obvious that he’s talking about the possibility of a romantic relationship with Delenn. Welcome aboard. The only guests in this one are Ross Kettle as Ruell and Akiko Ann Morison as the medtech. William Forward also appears as Refa via archive footage from “The Long, Twilight Struggle.” Trivial matters. We see old footage of Mollari and G’Kar strangling each other from “The Coming of Shadows” and of Refa inviting Mollari to join him in the bombing of the Narn homeworld in “The Long, Twilight Struggle.” Brivari was established as a Centauri drink Mollari is fond of in “Knives.” Mollari first mentioned his prophetic dream of him and G’Kar strangling each other to death in “Midnight on the Firing Line,” and we saw it in full when Sheridan jumped forward in time in “War Without End, Part 2.” Mollari first mentioned a dancer he married in “A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 1,” which seemed to contradict the arranged marriage to three wives mentioned in “The War Prayer,” with those wives seen in “Soul Mates”; Mollari’s dialogue in this episode reconciles the two, establishing that his family forced him to divorce the dancer and go ahead with the arranged marriages. Cartagia had G’Kar whipped in “The Summoning.” Vir and Lennier were shown to be drinking buddies in “The Fall of Night.” J. Michael Straczynski had intended to do an episode in the fifth season entitled “The Very Long Night of Susan Ivanova,” but Claudia Christian’s departure meant he had to abandon that notion, but he recycled the title for this episode (which had a plot that was nothing at all like the Ivanova one). The echoes of all of our conversations. “Do you know what this is? No, I can see you do not. You have that vacant look in your eyes that says, ‘Hold my head to your ear, you will hear the sea’.” —Mollari ranting at Allan. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “Prophecy is a guess that comes true—when it doesn’t, it’s a metaphor.” I really really really really really dislike stories like this where a person’s remarkably specific psychological issues also resolve their physical medical issues at the exact same moment. The notion that Mollari’s heart would heal itself at the exact same moment that he decides to finally apologize to G’Kar is just too damn precious and ridiculous. Getting there is only worth watching because, no matter how good, bad, or mediocre the material, Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurasik can generally make it work. Which they kind of do here? Honestly, Jurasik’s best material comes at the beginning of the episode when he’s ranting and raving about his brivari shipment to Allan. His dream sequences are perfectly adequate, but there’s something lacking in these scenes. This show has generally been good at showing the disconnected, surreal nature of dreams and visions, but this is all very linear and straightforward. The closest it comes is Sheridan’s ever-changing outfits, but even that feels more like a cute trick than the bit of surreality it wants to be. The best part of it all is the re-creation of G’Kar’s torture in “The Summoning,” and that’s entirely on Katsulas’ back, as he provides us with a delightful Wortham Krimmer impersonation, absolutely nailing Cartagia’s mannerisms and speaking style, while still very much being G’Kar. It’s still, ultimately, a very bland dream sequence that barely carries any weight, mainly thanks to Katsulas. The Lennier B-plot has a similar issue. There have been plenty of stories that have shown the weight of Lennier’s dedication to Delenn (probably the best is “Rumors, Bargains, and Lies”), but his actions in this episode just seem, I dunno, pathetic? Weak? Unconvincing? I particularly was rolling my eyes at the line about how Delenn doesn’t need him because she has Sheridan now, and that didn’t even work as a bullshit justification, as Sheridan’s contribution to Delenn’s existence is not the same as Lennier’s. Of course, we know what Lennier really meant, but if he’s trying to do this with dignity, he’s failing. I think that’s the biggest problem I have with this storyline. Lennier is one of the most dignified and respectable people in the cast, and to see him acting like a doofus rankles. I get that the characters are supposed to be complicated, but getting this on top of Cole being a doofus because of his love for Ivanova and it stops being complex characterization and starts becoming a lazy trope. What’s funny is that Cole’s death actually provides us with a much more interesting reason for Lennier joining the Rangers: guilt. Lennier’s the one who set Cole on the path to finding out about the Great Hit Point Rearranger, which is what led to him abandoning his post in the middle of a war to sacrifice his life for Ivanova’s. But all Lennier can talk about is mooning over Delenn and how he wants to, in essence, replace Cole because he feels the latter’s absence. Next week: “The Paragon of Animals.”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari” appeared first on Reactor.

News From According to the From Season 4 Trailer, Becoming What You Fear Isn’t Great An ancient force that feeds on human suffering also isn’t a great thing, if we’re being honest… By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on March 10, 2026 Screenshot: MGM+ Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: MGM+ The fourth season of MGM+’s From, an excellent show about a town that no one can escape, is set to premiere in a few weeks. The streamer released a full-blown trailer today to complement this brief teaser that came out in February, and in it we see Harold Perrineau’s Boyd Stevens changing into someone (something?) he’s not sure he likes. Before we talk more about today’s trailer, here’s the official synopsis for the upcoming episodes of From: In season four, the closer the residents of town get to the answers they seek, the more terrifying their search becomes. Who is the Man in Yellow, and what does he want? Will Jade and Tabitha’s revelation be the key to finally going home? How much longer can Boyd hold the town together, even as his body and mind are falling apart? And what role will the town’s most recent arrival play in the events to come? Season four will open doors that some in town will end up wishing had remained closed. The trailer sets up the show’s unsettling, creepy vibe and lays out how the residents know there’s an ancient evil where they live that feeds off their suffering, and that they’re losing at a game they don’t even know the rules of. We also see how Boyd is unraveling and perhaps becoming a monster himself. In that vein, today’s trailer mirrors the last line of the synopsis, where Boyd says that he’ll make sure the truth doesn’t get out, no matter the cost. (But will WE find out the truth?? I hope so!) The stakes are high! We’ll see how it plays out when From season four premieres on MGM+ on April 19, 2026. Check out today’s From trailer below. [end-mark] The post According to the <i>From</i> Season 4 Trailer, Becoming What You Fear Isn’t Great appeared first on Reactor.

Movies & TV The Bride The Bride! Can’t Decide Which Revolution It Wants to Power In the words of its eponymous character… I would prefer not to. By Emmet Asher-Perrin | Published on March 10, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share As a long-time admirer of writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s acting career, I was excited for The Bride! It has horror and romance and dance sequences (dreamed or imagined) and a character who hasn’t had enough story attached to her name. It has an absolutely phenomenal cast. It certainly promises a lot of the things I was hoping Joker: Folie a Deux would give us (which was probably a mistake on my part).  The Bride’s troubles begin in its very first frames—a strange plot device wherein the ghost of Mary Shelley (Jesse Buckley), the author herself, lets us know that she was unable to write the story she wanted to tell after Frankenstein due to dying. She’s stuck in a void/purgatory of some sort until she gets this opportunity, which is now upon us. Said opportunity involves “possessing” a young woman named Ida (also Jesse Buckley) in the year 1936 in a manner that ultimately causes her death. After all, you can’t be the Bride of Frankenstein without a resurrection. Forgive me, but… what? Okay, sure, this is clearly meant to reflect the opening of 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein—there, too, Mary Shelley is a character who appears at the opening to tell Lord Byron, husband Percy, and the viewer that she has more story to tell. But a reflection is only worthwhile if it adds something of value to your story. This feels like pieces of a first draft that should have been red-penned and summarily scrapped. Shelley’s “presence” in the narrative is by far its weakest link, and that’s rather pointed in a film that has at least a baker’s dozen worth of narrative threads it keeps failing to weave into a cohesive whole. Because Shelley occupies such an elephantine place in our cultural conscience—she kinda invented an entire modern genre at the age of twenty—writers have a tendency to project all sorts of ideas onto her as a person when she’s fictionalized in any sense. In this instance, it seems as though she exists to wag a finger at screenwriter William Hurlbut for suggesting that Bride of Frankenstein would be the next story Shelley intended to tell. This one is the real deal, The Bride! seems to whisper to us. This is the sort of story Mary would get behind. And it’s silly because there’s never a moment where Shelley’s “authorship” of The Bride! makes a lick of sense, either in theme or in content or in narrative construction. 20th and 21st century feminism are both incredibly different from 19th century feminism. The choice to set the story the year after the Bride of Frankenstein film came out is puzzling because it doesn’t take place in the universe where Bride of Frankenstein was released—this is a universe in which Frankenstein’s monster is real. Are we in the 1930s for vibes, then? Or perhaps just for copious Bonnie and Clyde references? There are tons of those. The story unfolds as such: Ida is murdered after her “possession” by Shelley because she starts shooting her mouth off, and part of her babble includes incriminating talk about the local Chicago mob boss, Lupino (Zlatko Burić). Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale), who we call Frank for the duration of this exercise, approaches Dr. Cornelia Euphronious (Annette Bening) about her work on reanimation. He’s hoping she can make him a companion because he’s so very lonely, and has been for well over a century. It’s here where I must pause and mourn for a movie that could have been, where Annette Bening gets far more screentime as our current flavor of mad scientist, with her lady maid Greta (Jeannie Berlin) serving as the best Igor replacement I ever could have wished for. The places where Gyllenhaal chooses to cast women in roles always reserved for men work are the high notes in the The Bride!, and it’s a shame that they don’t get more attention. And I should pause again because this setup is one of the first (and possibly most interesting) story threads gets swatted away in a hurry. Frankenstein says he’s needs a companion because he’s lonely, to which  Euphronious blessedly replies that everybody’s lonely. We’re in the midst of what many influencers and fearmongers are dubbing “the male loneliness epidemic,” so you’ll forgive me for expecting that The Bride! might be intentionally calling attention to this dynamic? That men expect women to offer them companionship because that is the place where they have been trained to expect all the warmth, closeness, and affection in their life to come from? There are brief glances at this thought, but no, that’s not what the film is aiming toward. Instead, Ida gets dug up and resurrected… but can no longer remember who she is. Frank and Euphronious lie, claiming she is Frank’s wife—or at least his fiancee—and she takes the name Penelope, or Penny, but she knows something is wrong. She escapes Euphronious’ institute and Frank follows, their burgeoning romance coming to the fore in queer dance halls and movies theaters—Frank is obsessed with Ronnie Reed (an utterly apropos turn by Jake Gyllenhaal), a Hollywood musical star, and shares this love with Penny. It here where I’ve got to stop again and note that the couple are promptly being hunted by the law due to Frank’s murder of two men… two men who, of course, try to rape Penny after her wild night in the dance hall. There’s a lot of attempted rape and sexual assault in The Bride! While I’m not against any depictions whatsoever as a matter of course, there’s nothing in these depictions that feels relevant or revelatory. If anything, those moments feel like a resurgence of the films of my youth, where it was shown all the time, everywhere, just to remind women and afab folks that this was the only thing waiting for them out in the world. The Bride! is a film that clearly wants to do something about that state of affairs; when Penny gets a bit of her memory back, she remembers that she had been working as part of a sting operation to expose Lupino, but all the girls kept getting murdered, their tongues cut out. (I remind you, this is supposedly the story Mary Shelley was desperate to tell before her death, according to the film.) In a fugue state at a fancy party—where a dance break just occurred, but more on that later—Penny starts spewing information as the cops arrive and surround her… and this winds up becoming fuel for a movement of woman gangs who punish men for their crimes against other women. Which sounds like it could have been a cathartic angle, were it any kind of focus in the film’s story. Oh, and there a few dance breaks, by the way. Some of them are in Frank’s head, moments where he gets to be the Ronnie Reed he so admires in his own dreams, but the one at the fancy party is set to “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” Which you might recognize from another famous Frankenstein film that Mel Brooks directed. If you don’t, the script forces poor Bale to shout “Puttin’ on the Ritz!” in a frenzy. Trying to make anyone even attempt an echo of Peter Boyle’s greatest performance is… never the move. There are points and pieces of The Bride! that are so very enjoyable. (Honestly, that dance sequence is a blast until the homage trips into usurpation.) Parts of the romance are funny and endearing. Jessie Buckley is giving an unstoppable performance (even if the occasional switching back and forth to Shelley’s “possession” and accent feels more theater than film). The bits of old Hollywood glamor we get from Reed’s movies are expertly laid out. The makeup and costumes are fantastic, and I’ll be shocked if I don’t see cosplayers go all out with it on the convention circuit this year. But there are simply too many stories to tell and not enough cohesion. I haven’t even gotten to Penélope Cruz’s effortless performance as Myrna Malloy, the cop secretary who is better at solving crimes than her boss (a droopy, ineffectual Peter Sarsgaard). Their entire wing of the story is important, in fact, but do we really have time to get around to it? In this economy? If Gyllenhaal gets a co-writer or a script editor, I think her next film could be brilliant. She’s got the eye and room to grow. She clearly has a lot of tales she’d like to tell. But The Bride! isn’t there yet. It feels like listening to the orchestra tune their instruments before the performance begins—you get hints of what you’re about to experience, but not the experience itself.[end-mark] The post <i>The Bride!</i> Can’t Decide Which Revolution It Wants to Power appeared first on Reactor.

The future of the immigration issue could now rest on one man’s shoulders—Sen. Markwayne Mullin. After President Donald Trump picked the Oklahoma Republican to replace Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary, senators are speculating on whether the move will create momentum for reopening the department. For over 24 days, Senate Democrats have almost unanimously refused to advance Republican-backed measures to fund the Department of Homeland Security. They have demanded restraints on immigration law enforcement, such as restrictions on the use of face masks and administrative warrants, as well as requirements for body cameras. This holdout has resulted in a complete lapse in appropriations for an agency that deals with the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, cybersecurity, and several other responsibilities beyond immigration. BREAKING: Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s (R-OK) first reaction to being tapped as DHS Secretary by President Trump. pic.twitter.com/QEZIzRE0pb— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) March 5, 2026 Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has argued Democrats ought to reconsider their refusal to fund the agency now that Trump has selected new leadership. “This, to me, is a huge development, I would think, in the funding conversation, and hopefully they’ll get more earnest about coming to the table and trying to get a deal,” said Thune after news broke. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told reporters Monday that Mullin’s “strong guarantee of Republican backing” will likely make the confirmation process easy, but added that Mullin will “be grilled very thoroughly” by Democrats “about what reforms he will support” for the agency. Asked by The Daily Signal if conversations with Mullin amid the confirmation process could create progress in reopening the department, Blumenthal replied, “Anything’s possible. Sen. Mullin knows how this place works and how the give-and-take is essential to getting things done. Nobody gets everything they want, and some compromise is necessary.” He continued, “Those kinds of reforms that are standard operating procedure for your police force in your town, I think Secretary Mullin would be open to them.” The process will place Mullin in an unusual position, as he navigates the dynamics of bipartisan negotiations in the Senate, as well as negotiations between the executive branch and Congress. Mullin served in the House for a decade and has been a senator since 2023. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, will consider his confirmation. Mullin, who tends to align himself closely with party leadership’s positions, has spoken harshly of Paul in the past.  “We’re shooting for a week from Wednesday,” Paul told reporters on Monday when asked when the confirmation hearing would be. “I’m going to reserve judgment now and we’ll probably find out a lot more,” Paul told a reporter who asked for his thoughts on Mullin’s nomination. Sen. Paul says he’s aiming to hold Sen. Mullin’s DHS confirmation hearing a week from Wednesday pic.twitter.com/SXAHyGfRge— Grace Kazarian (@grace_kazarian) March 9, 2026 Paul might be tough on Mullin during the confirmation process.  After the death of Alex Pretti in a shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Paul called on DHS to “pledge to reform,” subjecting top immigration officials to tough questioning by his committee. Paul, a fiscal hawk, has also been critical of the Trump administration’s budget requests for border wall construction and law enforcement. Mullin’s chances of confirmation look promising, especially since Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., perhaps the harshest Republican critic of Noem, has called Mullin “a great guy and a great choice to lead DHS.” Noem will leave her position on March 31. A spokesperson for Mullin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The post Will Markwayne Mullin End the DHS Shutdown? appeared first on The Daily Signal.