News Fantastic Four Fantastic Four Villain Will Be Galactus, Played by Ralph Ineson; John Malkovich Also Joins Cast Who’s excited to see some planets get eaten? By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on May 10, 2024 Screenshot: 20th Century Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: 20th Century Studios The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Fantastic Four film is gearing up for production, and we now not only have confirmation on who the Big Bad of the movie will be, but also who will be playing them. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news yesterday that Ralph Ineson—whose credits include The First Omen, The Green Knight, and the upcoming films Frankenstein and Nosferatu—has joined the Fantastic Four cast and will be playing the villain, Galactus. Galactus is a major Marvel bad guy created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. While he used to be a mere human, circumstances made him a giant cosmic being who likes to scarf down planets in order to stay alive and thriving. He had an appearance as a CGI monstrosity in 2007’s Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, and we can only hope (and I’m optimistic) that Ineson’s portrayal will be a vast improvement. Deadline had more casting news for the upcoming MCU movie yesterday: None other than John Malkovich has also joined in the cast in an unknown role. The two join previously announced cast members Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby (the titular Fantastic Four) as well as Paul Walter Hauser and Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal. The film is directed by WandaVision’s Matt Shakman and takes place in the 1960s. Fantastic Four is set to start shooting sometime this summer in England and is currently scheduled to premiere in theaters on July 25, 2025. [end-mark] The post <i>Fantastic Four</i> Villain Will Be Galactus, Played by Ralph Ineson; John Malkovich Also Joins Cast appeared first on Reactor.

News Locus Awards Here Are the Finalists for the 2024 Locus Awards Congratulations to the finalists! By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on May 10, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share We now have this year’s top ten finalists for the Locus Awards! The Locus Science Fiction Foundation announced the list, which was the result of an open public ballot from February 1 to April 15 of this year. The winners will be announced at the Locus Awards Ceremony in Oakland, California on June 22, 2024. See below for the full list of recipients. Congrats to all the finalists! Science Fiction Novel The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport, Samit Basu (Tordotcom) A Fire Born of Exile, Aliette de Bodard (Gollancz; JAB Books) Red Team Blues, Cory Doctorow (Tor; Ad Astra) Furious Heaven, Kate Elliott (Ad Astra; Tor) Translation State, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK) The Terraformers, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK) Starter Villain, John Scalzi (Tor; Tor UK) Lords of Uncreation, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit US; Tor UK) System Collapse, Martha Wells (Tordotcom) The Road to Roswell, Connie Willis (Del Rey) Fantasy Novel To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, Moniquill Blackgoose (Del Rey) The Keeper’s Six, Kate Elliott (Tordotcom) Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Heather Fawcett (Del Rey; Orbit UK) Dead Country, Max Gladstone (Tordotcom) The Water Outlaws, S.L. Huang (Tordotcom; Solaris UK) Paladin’s Faith, T. Kingfisher (Argyll) He Who Drowned the World, Shelley Parker-Chan (Tor; Mantle) My Brother’s Keeper, Tim Powers (Baen; Ad Astra) City of Last Chances, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Ad Astra) Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom) Horror Novel Vampires of El Norte, Isabel Cañas (Berkley) The Reformatory, Tananarive Due (Saga; Titan UK) A Haunting on the Hill, Elizabeth Hand (Mulholland; Sphere) Starling House, Alix E. Harrow (Tor; Tor UK) How to Sell a Haunted House, Grady Hendrix (Berkley; Titan UK) Don’t Fear the Reaper, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga; Titan UK) A House with Good Bones, T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK) Lone Women, Victor LaValle (One World) Silver Nitrate, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher) Black River Orchard, Chuck Wendig (Del Rey; Del Rey UK) Young Adult Novel Promises Stronger Than Darkness, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Teen; Titan UK) The Making of Yolanda la Bruja, Lorraine Avila (Levine Querido) Damned If You Do, Alex Brown (Page Street) A Song of Salvation, Alechia Dow (Inkyard) The Library of Broken Worlds, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Scholastic; Magpie UK) The Sinister Booksellers of Bath, Garth Nix (Tegen; Gollancz) Into the Light, Mark Oshiro (Tor Teen) Divine Rivals, Rebecca Ross (Wednesday; Magpie UK) The Siren, the Song, and the Spy, Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Candlewick) The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, Andrew Joseph White (Peachtree Teen) First Novel Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Pantheon) The Strange, Nathan Ballingrud (Saga; Titan UK) The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom) Threads That Bind, Kika Hatzopoulou (Razorbill; Penguin UK) These Burning Stars, Bethany Jacobs (Orbit US; Orbit UK) Godkiller, Hannah Kaner (Harper Voyager UK; Harper Voyager US) The Marigold, Andrew F. Sullivan (ECW) Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Wole Talabi (DAW; Gollancz) Some Desperate Glory, Emily Tesh (Tordotcom; Orbit UK) Ink Blood Sister Scribe, Emma Törzs (Morrow; Century) Novella The Crane Husband, Kelly Barnhill (Tordotcom) The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar, Indra Das (Subterranean) “Linghun”, Ai Jiang (Linghun) The Salt Grows Heavy, Cassandra Khaw (Nightfire; Titan UK) Thornhedge, T. Kingfisher (Tor; Titan UK) Rose/House, Arkady Martine (Subterranean) Lost in the Moment and Found, Seanan McGuire (Tor) The Mimicking of Known Successes, Malka Older (Tordotcom) The Lies of the Ajungo, Moses Ose Utomi (Tordotcom) Mammoths at the Gates, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom) Novelette “What I Remember of Oresha Moon Dragon Devshrata,” P. Djèlí Clark (The Book of Witches) “John Hollowback and the Witch,” Amal El-Mohtar (The Book of Witches) I AM AI, Ai Jiang (Shortwave) “The Year Without Sunshine,” Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny 11-12/23) “Prince Hat Underground,” Kelly Link (White Cat, Black Dog) “At Every Door a Ghost,” Premee Mohamed (Communications Breakdown) “The Rainbow Bank,” Uchechukwu Nwaka (GigaNotoSaurus 8/23) “One Man’s Treasure,” Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 1-2/23) “Six Versions of My Brother Found Under a Bridge,” Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 9-10/23) “On the Fox Roads,” Nghi Vo (Tor.com 10/31/23) Short Story “A Soul in the World,” Charlie Jane Anders (Uncanny 3-4/23) “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub,” P. Djèlí Clark (Uncanny 1-2/23) “The Mausoleum’s Children,” Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny 5-6/23) “Suppertime,” Tananarive Due (New Suns 2) “Window Boy,” Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 8/23) “Reckless Eyeballing”, N.K. Jemisin (Out There Screaming) “The Sound of Children Screaming,” Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare 10/23) “Those Hitchhiking Kids,” Darcie Little Badger (The Sunday Morning Transport 4/2/23) “Stones,” Nnedi Okorafor (Clarkesworld 9/23) “There’s a Door to the Land of the Dead in the Land of the Dead,” Sarah Pinsker (The Deadlands 6/23) Anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 7, Neil Clarke, ed. (Night Shade) Christmas and Other Horrors, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Titan UK) The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2022), Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki & Eugen Bacon & Milton Davis, eds. (Caezic) Never Whistle at Night, Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., eds. (Vintage) The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023, R.F. Kuang & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Mariner) Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Random House; Picador) New Suns 2, Nisi Shawl, ed. (Solaris UK) The Book of Witches, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK) Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology, Wole Talabi, ed. (Android) The Best of World SF: Volume 3, Lavie Tidhar, ed. (Ad Astra) Collection The Essential Peter S. Beagle, Volumes 1 & 2, Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon) Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and Other Stories, Tobias S. Buckell (Apex) The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, Tananarive Due (Akashic) White Cat, Black Dog, Kelly Link (Random House; Ad Astra) No One Will Come Back For Us, Premee Mohamed (Undertow) Jackal, Jackal, Tobi Ogundiran (Undertow) Skin Thief, Suzan Palumbo (Neon Hemlock) Lost Places, Sarah Pinsker (Small Beer) The Best of Michael Swanwick, Volume Two, Michael Swanwick (Subterranean) The Best of Catherynne M. Valente, Volume One, Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean) Magazine Analog Asimov’s Beneath Ceaseless Skies Clarkesworld F&SF FIYAH khōréō Strange Horizons Tor.com Uncanny Publisher Angry Robot DAW Gollancz Neon Hemlock Orbit Small Beer Subterranean Tachyon Tor Tordotcom Editor Neil Clarke Ellen Datlow Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki Arley Sorg & Christie Yant Jonathan Strahan Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas Sheree Renée Thomas E. Catherine Tobler Ann VanderMeer Sheila Williams Artist Brom Rovina Cai Kinuko Y. Craft Julie Dillon Bob Eggleton Abigail Larson John Picacio Charles Vess Michael Whelan Alyssa Winans Non-Fiction The Fiction Writer’s Guide to Alternate History, Jack Dann (Bloomsbury Academic) 42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams, Kevin Jon Davies, ed. (Unbound UK) Wish I Was Here: An Anti-Memoir, M. John Harrison (Serpent’s Tail; Saga 2024) All These Worlds, Niall Harrison (Briardene) 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered, Sadie Hartmann (Page Street Publishing) Space Crone, Ursula K. Le Guin (Silver) Ex Marginalia: Essays on Writing Speculative Fiction by Persons of Color, Chinelo Onwualu, ed. (Hydra House) A Traveller in Time: The Critical Practice of Maureen Kincaid Speller, Maureen Kincaid Speller (Luna Press Publishing) Owning the Unknown: A Science Fiction Writer Explores Atheism, Agnosticism, and the Idea of God, Robert Charles Wilson (Pitchstone) Being Michael Swanwick, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Fairwood) Illustrated and Art Book The Culture: The Drawings, Iain M. Banks (Orbit US; Orbit UK) Home to Stay! The Complete Ray Bradbury EC Stories, Ray Bradbury, adapted by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis, Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Wallace Wood, et al. (Fantagraphics) The Pen & Ink Drawings of Tony DiTerlizzi, Tony DiTerlizzi (self-published) Spectrum Fantastic Art Quarterly, Volume Three, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Spectrum Fantastic Art) The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta, Dian Hanson, ed., art by Frank Frazetta (Taschen) The Last Count of Monte Cristo, Ayize Jama-Everett, art by Tristan Roach (Megascope) Voyaging, Volume One: The Plague Star, George R.R. Martin, art and adaptation by Raya Golden (Ten Speed Graphic) Thalamus, Volumes 1 & 2: The Art of Dave McKean, Dave McKean (Dark Horse) Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s, Adam Rowe (Abrams) Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures, Kevin M. Strait & Kinshasha Holman Conwill, eds. (Smithsonian) [end-mark] The post Here Are the Finalists for the 2024 Locus Awards appeared first on Reactor.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA, amended in 2008), as a whole and its Section 702 in particular have been a “gift that keeps on giving” where all manner of controversies are concerned. In late April, it was time to once again reauthorize this legislation whose privacy safeguards have been routinely bypassed by law enforcement for years, and this did happen, with persistent major points of contention being warrantless access to data belonging to Americans (and respect for their constitutional rights). The issue this time surfaced in a provision that changed the definition of electronic communications service providers (ECSPs) – in terms of which companies fall under this category, that is, which providers are obligated to give the government access to communications. As things stand, more US businesses than ever would have to provide access to phones, Wi-Fi routers, and other equipment. This in April launched a debate in the Senate around the scope of surveillance authorities – opponents were saying it significantly expanded them – yet in the end, they failed to stop the reauthorization (“Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act”). The question was left open with a “pledge” that it would be revisited down the line, and now reports say that Congress is working to “fix” the problem through the Senate Intelligence Committee’s annual intelligence authorization bill. The promise was originally made by Senator Mark Warner, who heads the committee when he assumed a major role last month in making sure the reauthorization bill passed without incorporating changes to the controversial provision. The Democrat was now speaking at the RSA security conference when he repeated that promise, saying that work is being done toward fulfilling it, and adding that he is “absolutely committed to getting that fixed.” However, Warner was rather vague about what the solution might entail, saying only that the committee is “very much in progress” and reassuring his audience that it won’t be difficult to “fix” the problem. “I don’t think it is a high hurdle” – he said, referring to addressing the secret surveillance expansion in the upcoming intelligence bill. When the extension bill passed, opponents were warned that the government had gained even more power in this space, while spy agencies would continue to evade accountability. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post The Warrantless Surveillance Bill Renewal Is Even Broader Than Many Noticed appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Why Can't It Be Both: Is It CA Electricity 'Rate' or 'Raped' Payers?

A text message alerting Hope for Paws to a dire situation set in motion a heartwarming rescue story. On a dusty construction site, an abandoned husky found herself in a precarious position. Not just alone and unsheltered, but pregnant and on the verge of giving birth. This scenario is a reminder of the vital role... The post Rescuers spot scared husky alone in construction site and then realize she’s about to ‘pop’ appeared first on Animal Channel.

Apparently, someone allowed staunchly racist and anti-Semitic ABC co-host Sunny Hostin (the descendant of slave owners) into the hush money trial of former President Trump and she reported back during Friday’s edition of The View. She said it was “shocking” to see Trump in person for the first time because his face was “radioactive orange.” She also lied about the composition of the jury and attacked one of the witnesses as “part of the Trump cult” because she had good things to say about her former boss. The liberal ladies of The View were so excited to “cross-examine” Hostin and get the “tea” of what she witnessed. Moderator Joy Behar’s first pressing was about Trump’s skin tone and since Hostin was an obsessed race baiter, she was more than happy to oblige: BEHAR: So, my first question is, what shade of orange is his face? HOSTIN: I have to tell you! I have to tell you! BEHAR: Was he like more a tangerine or more of a burnt sienna? Give us some specifics. HOSTIN: It is a burnt sienna. I have never seen him in person. I didn't realize he was that orange. Like, you know, Ana has been making jokes about how orange he is. BEHAR: Yeah. Yeah. Is it like her dress? HOSITN: You’ve said he’s orange. It’s a lot like this [points to Ana Navarro’s dress]! Yes! It's almost like a radioactive orange and it’s shocking to see in person.     Noting that “cases are won and lost with jury selection,” Hostin boasted about the jury and painted it as bad news for Trump. She claimed the jury was made up of “several lawyers” and was excited that it was a “pretty female-skewed jury.” “There are many more women on the jury than there are men,” she said. But neither of those statements were true. According to Spectrum News NY1, a local news station: “Twelve jurors tasked with deciding the outcome of former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial have been seated. The panel consists of seven men and five women.” They also note that only two had careers in the legal field. Lying about the composition of the jury meant none of Hostin’s claims about Trump’s behavior in the courtroom could be trusted. According to her dubious assertions, Trump was acting like a child: He's stretching out like this. He's like fist-bumping with attorneys. He’s like stretching. He took a little nap. Like, most defendants do not do that. They are instructed to sit there, pay attention, look with some humility. That's not Donald Trump. Hostin also lashed out at Madeline Westerhout, Trump’s former executive assistant who worked in the White House. Westerhout was supposedly “part of the Trump cult” because she enjoyed working for him and said he would wave to his wife. “She is part of the Trump cult, for sure. She described him as one of the best bosses she ever had. She described him as being very loving with Melania, that they would, like, text each other and wave to each other outside of the window. I never expected anything like that,” she scoffed. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View May 10, 2024 11:02:03 a.m. Eastern JOY BEHAR: So, yesterday Stormy Daniels got back on the stand at Trump's hush money trial and was grilled in a cross-examination by Trump's attorneys. BUT, listen to this, our own little Sunny Hostin was in the courtroom yesterday. So, we're going to – [Applause] We're going to cross-examine her. SUNNY HOSTIN: Yes. BEHAR: So, my first question is, what shade of orange is his face? HOSTIN: I have to tell you! I have to tell you! BEHAR: Was he like more a tangerine or more of a burnt sienna? Give us some specifics. HOSTIN: It is a burnt sienna. I have never seen him in person. I didn't realize he was that orange. Like, you know, Ana has been making jokes about how orange he is. BEHAR: Yeah. Yeah. Is it like her dress? HOSITN: You’ve said he’s orange. It’s a lot like this [points to Ana Navarro’s dress]! Yes! It's almost like a radioactive orange and it’s shocking to see in person. It really is, because he’s a tall person. And he’s also a little thinner now. I don't know if he’s taken the shot. BEHAR: He's on Ozempic, you know it! HOSTIN: He's actually looking thinner. But let me set the stage because I think people that haven't been in the courtroom don't understand the gravity of it. You know, you've got this very large courtroom and it's an older courtroom and you've got a “In God We Trust” seal next to it. The American flag – across from the American flag, the New York State flag, a judge presiding with gray hair right in between these flags. And then in front of them a former sitting president in front of all of that for the first time in U.S. history. So, that gives you a little bit of the gravity that actually I felt. But then, here's the tea. Okay? So, he is unlike any defendant sitting in a courtroom that I've ever seen. BEHAR: Because? HOSTIN: He's stretching out like this. He's like fist bumping with attorneys. He’s like stretching. He took a little nap. Like, most defendants do not do that. They are instructed to sit there, pay attention, look with some humility. That's not Donald Trump. BEHAR: So, out of all the dwarfs – the Seven Dwarfs is his Grumpy, Sleepy, or Dopey? HOSTIN: I think he’s Sleepy and Dopey combination. BEHAR: Okay. HOSTIN: That was my impression. The other think I would say – ANA NAVARRO: And allegedly farty. HOSTIN: I did not smell the farting. BEHAR: Were you sitting downwind? HOSTIN: Yeah. I was sitting downwind but I did not smell the farting yesterday. I will also say this-- NAVARRO: Windy. HOSTIN: I think that cases are won and lost with jury selection. There are several lawyers on the jury. That was very striking to me. It's a very diverse jury. There are many more women on the jury than there are men. BEHAR: Uh-oh. Not good for him. ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: I think there’s – HOSTIN: Even including the alternates. I mean, I couldn't tell which ones were the alternates but there are 18 people and the majority of them are women. So, that was interesting to me. Because if people drop out it's a pretty female-skewed jury. The other thing I will say is it's one of the most engaged juries I've ever seen. SARA HAINES: How was the testimony? HOSTIN: I'm talking notes and everything. The testimony, I wanted to ask Alyssa about something. Because something interesting to me there was a woman that testified, Madeline Westerhout and she was his executive White House assistant. Right? And she sat right outside the Oval Office. She is part of the Trump cult, for sure. She described him as one of the best bosses she ever had. She described him as being very loving with Melania, that they would, like, text each other and wave to each other outside of the window. I never expected anything like that. (…)

When MSNBC’s Joy Reid meets with former colleague Mehdi Hasan to discuss the Israel-Hamas War, it is guaranteed that the viewer will end up dumber than they were at the beginning of the segment. Yet, even by their standards, Thursday’s edition of The ReidOut was especially noteworthy because the duo somehow managed to be both incredibly outrageous and unintentionally hilarious. Reid began the segment by laughing at people who are comparing President Joe Biden’s decision to withhold weapons from Israel to Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. She also got in a historically illiterate cheap shot at Sen. Tom Cotton, “President Biden is facing blowback for saying that he will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to Israel if it launches a major invasion on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Senator Tom Cotton, of slavery was the best bad option thing, has called on the House to impeach Biden for withholding weapons to Israel, even comparing Biden's actions to the charges in Trump's first impeachment, in which Trump was accused of strong-arming Ukraine to get dirt on Joe Biden or get no military aid. Yeah, really not the same thing at all.”     First, Cotton was referencing an obvious historical fact that the Founders were presented with two options: one nation born in liberty that had slavery or multiple nations that had slavery with no such ideals to appeal to. They correctly chose the first. Second, Trump was impeached for abuse of power, defined as using American foreign policy to advance your own personal interest at the expense of the national interest. The “dirt on Joe Biden or get no military aid” was just the details. Ironically, when Hasan joined, he would hail Biden’s decision to withhold the aid precisely because it was good politics. The man who once apologized for once being pro-life declared that anyone who disagrees supports killing kids, “Look, what I would say is put aside the morality of not wanting to support the killing of kids in Rafah, put aside international law which is against this stuff. Just from a practical domestic political perspective, it would be in Joe Biden's and Democratic Party's interest to have this war end.” The idea that international law prohibits Army X from attacking Army Y simply because Y encamps itself in a dense urban environment is not only insane, it’s factually wrong (see Article 51, Section 7 of the International Humanitarian Law). Taking Hasan’s point to its logical conclusion would require freedom-loving nations to simply cede major cities to the enemy. After going through what Hasan considered to be Biden’s “good message on the domestic front,” Reid declared that “it does seem to me that what [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] wants is for the war to go on. Forever would be perfect.” Biden is demanding that Israel slow down and come up with an elaborate plan before attacking Rafah, but because Netanyahu has thus far listened to him, Reid and Hasan attack him for prolonging the war. As for Netanyahu’s motivations, Reid claimed, “for him, his fate, like Donald Trump's, in terms of staying out of prison and keeping and retaining power… So, Netanyahu has no interest in the thing Joe Biden needs, which is peace.” Reid and Hasan would go on to add that Netanyahu doesn’t care about the hostages and cited Israelis protesting as their evidence, but people like Reid and Hasan always conveniently leave out the fact that the leader of the opposition, Benny Gantz, is part of the war cabinet. Also, what “Joe Biden needs”? How about what America needs? If Reid and Hasan are the good two state solution-supporting, peace-loving progressives they claim to be, maybe they can next explain how Israel and the Palestinians are supposed to come to a peaceful solution with Hamas still in power. Here is a transcript for the May 9 show: MSNBC The ReidOut 5/9/2024 7:52 PM ET JOY REID: President Biden is facing blowback for saying that he will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to Israel if it launches a major invasion on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Senator Tom Cotton, of slavery was the best bad option thing, has called on the House to impeach Biden for withholding weapons to Israel, even comparing Biden's actions to the charges in Trump's first impeachment, in which Trump was accused of strong-arming Ukraine to get dirt on Joe Biden or get no military aid. Yeah, really not the same thing at all. … MEHDI HASAN: Look, what I would say is put aside the morality of not wanting to support the killing of kids in Rafah, put aside international law which is against this stuff. Just from a practical domestic political perspective, it would be in Joe Biden's and Democratic Party's interest to have this war end.  REID: Yes. HASAN: Right? Joe Biden has a good domestic record to run on. He has record falls in crime, you know, record low unemployment. He’s taken a good move on marijuana. He’s got a good message on the domestic front.  REID: Yeah. Yeah. HASAN: It’s getting blotted out because he wants to stick with Netanyahu and I am glad there is now some distance between him and Netanyahu. It needs to increase. REID: Let's talk about Netanyahu because it seems to me— HASAN: Do we have to? REID: —We must talk about him. It does seem to me that what he wants is for the war to go on.  HASAN: Yes. REID: Forever would be perfect, because for him, his fate, like Donald Trump's, in terms of staying out of prison-- HASAN: Yeah. REID: -- and keeping and retaining power-- HASAN: Yeah. REID: -- it is all tied to the war continuing. So, Netanyahu has no interest in the thing Joe Biden needs, which is peace. HASAN: Netanyahu’s counting down the days to a Trump presidency.  REID: That’s it. HASAN: Where he knows he’ll have much more freedom. He knows he has a trial coming up. This is about him personally— REID: Absolutely. HASAN: Like Trump, he cares about himself more than anything else. He’s got a coalition that will collapse if he agrees to any kind of ceasefire and he’s abandoned the hostages, Joy. Like, I always hear people saying “you don't care about the hostages.” You know who doesn't care about the hostages? Benjamin Netanyahu.  REID: And their families say so because they’re literally protesting— HASAN: Their families are getting assaulted by Israeli police.  REID: Absolutely. Absolutely.  HASAN: Their families stood outside Netanyahu’s house earlier this week and said "there's blood on your hands." So, when I hear people in America saying “oh, you don’t care about the hostages” go to Israel-- REID: Yeah. HASAN: -- see what the hostages are saying, they want a deal. They want an end to the conflict, they want their people home, as we all should want.

In an hour-long primetime special Thursday night called Crisis on the Border, NewsNation did something the liberal media — and TV news in general — needed to emulate, which was a more accurate, consistent, and raw depiction of the Biden border crisis from the side of law enforcement and the dangers unfettered illegal immigration posed to the public.  Hosted by Dan Abrams, it featured three different reporters live in the field, new reporting, facts about the border, and interviews with four police chiefs on how open-border policies have harmed their communities. Abrams opened by declaring this won’t be “about politics.” Instead, NewsNation’s goal was to inform viewers “about what is actually happening at our southern border and maybe — maybe — even spur some change.”     From there, the special took on the feeling of an episode of his other show, Reelz’s On Patrol: Live (and its predecessor in spirit, A&E’s Live PD) as Abrams immediately tossed to indefatigable correspondents Ali Bradley and Brian Entin (click “expand”): ABRAMS: But we have some — some breaking news because just, as we’ve been preparing for the show, Ali Bradley NewsNation’s border correspondent on the front lines has been there when they just found three migrants trying to hide there and they’ve been arrested in Hidalgo County, Texas. Ali, what just happened? BRADLEY: Yeah, hey, Dan. So we’re out here, we’re actually embedded with an elite brush team with Texas DPS. They are working in conjunction with Border Patrol, so we’ve got state and federal partners working together and we have the chopper in the air. Let me show you what we just witnessed. So, we pulled three people out of this, look at how hard it is down here. This is what they’re up against, so they had to get down in there. That’s basically a canal, a drainage ditch of sorts, pulled these three individuals out, one young man from Honduras, telling us that he was on the hook with the cartel to pay $16,000 to get to Virginia. And guess what Dan? They’re actually working another two people that are in the canal further up. So, we’re gonna go up there, I’m going to send it back to you here. We’re going to keep our feet on the ground. And we’re gonna go after these other two people that are in the water up there.” ABRAMS: Alright, so remember. This is just happening live down there. And we’re going to be staying with Ali Bradley. We’re going go back to her in — in a moment. Ali, thank you for that reporting. You know what? Let’s go now to Pinal County in Arizona. Our senior national correspondent Brian Entin is live patrolling there, what they call smugglers highway Brian, what are you seeing? ENTIN: Yeah, it’s I-10 the nickname — Smugglers Highway. Just a minute ago, we pulled over a semi with Sheriff Lamb here — a semi that’s been reported stolen. I’m not sure exactly — he’s been talking to the driver. Figure out what’s going on. Sheriff Lamb, have you — is this immigrant involved? What have you been able to figure out? PINAL COUNTY, ARIZONA SHERIFF MARK LAMB: We’re going check the back right now. It’s a stolen — it’s stolen trailer. So, we’re going to check the back. We’ve seen ‘em in — in trailers before. (....) ABRAMS: I mean, look, you can just tell based on what we just showing you, right? We have two correspondents at the border who, in the last 10 minutes, have seen major activity related to migrants and the border. That’s why it’s important to be there and to be there live. You don’t get that sense without actually watching the stuff as it happening? All right. So we were just with Ali Bradley. Alright? And she said — she is — she’s going to be going back out to that scene following that story that we were just watching, but she’s the one who got this exclusive interview with this current border agent. And again, that is the video — oh, actually that video is just coming in, ok?  So that is the video now of up to of the three migrants who were just arrested there hiding in that area and, literally in the last 10 minutes that came in. The reason we weren’t able to show that to you a moment ago is because we just got the video into us. It happened moments before we went on the air. And you heard that Ali Bradley had actually talked to — talked to one of them as they were as they were there. And again, you know, this is a quite common occurrence at the border. Bradley also taped a bombshell interview with an anonymous border agent, who told her what Americans don’t realize was “we do not control the border, the cartel controls the border” and “[e]verything that we do is a reaction to things that they have planned” with those apprehended merely “pawns while the kings and queens are doing whatever they want.” They added “[n]o one” from the government will be able “to protect you” since “[e]ven at the local law enforcement level, we’re seeing them be defunded and overwhelmed to where your life has to be threatened for them to make you a priority.” In part two, Bradley asked if they’re “scared to do your job.” The agent said while they are from “a more earthly” perspective with “policies changed” that endanger agents and place “illegals...before us,” they’re a Christian who knows God “has my back”. Bradley’s last question about whether they’re more scared of the government or the cartels drew a surprising answer:  Look at the way you have me presented to do an interview when I’m off-duty. I’m terrified to talk to the media because I’m sacred of what, you know, the government could do, which obviously, would be losing my job, right, which I don’t think is fair. At three different points, Abrams brought out charts about apprehensions, gotaways, and key border sectors to show “what our border patrol agents are up against” with the first showing “2.5 million encounters for the whole of last year,” “up from 1.7, just two years before” and 1.3 million already this year. Bradley came back near the bottom of the hour with a fascinating segment about a so-called “cartel kit” and how, in many places, the cartels controlled the desert:     It wasn’t just Bradley and Entin with Abrams as the NewsNation host also spoke with Border Report correspondent Salvador Rivera, who provided two liveshots from San Diego (where an allegedly Peruvian family gave themselves up to Border Patrol), the four police chiefs, and interviewed Texas DPS Lieutenant Chris Olivarez on the state role. The hour concluded with a tense chase as Bradley and Olivarez raced to catch up and assist Border Patrol with five people who’ve breached the border wall in hopes of apprehending them before they can reach a cartel/smuggler’s getaway car and thus prevent “a high-speed chase.” They arrived to find only two of the five captured, but then were dispatched to join in another pursuit seconds later (click “expand” to see a transcript from some of the key moments):     BRADLEY: [W]e just pulled over here. We’re tracking that group that we were telling you about. So there’s a couple individuals here. Some single adults here that were just picked up by border patrol. I — we just arrived on scene. Lieutenant Olivarez, let’s talk a little bit about kind of what’s unfolding here. We literally just arrived, so we have not talked to Border Patrol, so we don’t know much about these individuals. OLIVAREZ: Actually, we got to go. We’ve got some more. We’ve got to go. You’ve got to go get some more guys. All right. Let’s go! (....) BRADLEY: You actually see a Border Patrol motorcycle dirt bike over here to our left. So, we’ve got activity out here. We’re following a Border Patrol car. A lot activity here right now down, Dan. So again, out here, you have ATVs, you have horseback, you’ve got helicopters, we have different lights over here. We’ve got another law enforcement vehicle that’s searching in this area, so it looks like they kind of believe that somebody might be on foot in this area that we are — we are that we are traveling along. And we’ve got our windows down, we’re looking out we’re trying to find if there’s anybody out here, this is what we’re up against. So, like, Lieutenant Olivarez says, these individuals are reaching this wall so quickly, a matter of seconds, and it is basically off to the races for these individuals and they’re hiding in this very thick brush. And look at this, this industrial — there are buildings everywhere. There are so many places to hide before these individuals are really picked up by these load vehicles, so that’s what they’re contending with down here like Lieutenant Olivarez says, it’s a very dynamic situation. So, again, we have multiple agencies on the ground right no. We are embedded with this elite brush team that, as you can see, they have to pivot and go in the vehicles and go after individuals that are getting into these smuggling vehicles before it can become a pursuit and a bigger problem for law enforcement and also for the community. It’s very dangerous when these pursuits go through these communities. (....) BRADLEY: [This] is what they’re doing every single night down here. This is what we did last night as well. But right now, we are looking for people that are we are on foot that just breached the border wall and we’re trying to get them before they get into a loaded vehicle — a smuggling vehicle and then end up basically going north toward San Antonio and then north from there into whatever stash house or whatever other area they kind of disappear into in the interior of our country. With time having run out on the hour, Abrams summarized this as just “happen[ing] to be a Thursday”: “That’s about all that makes today special and we just decided it’s important to see what’s happening at the border on a typical day. And we’ve got a little taste of it. That’s all. That’s all we saw. Just a little bit.” By giving viewers a raw, live sense of what a day on the border looked like (as opposed to a sanitized, pro-illegal-alien perspective), it was an absolute home run by NewsNation. To see the relevant transcript from the May 9 special, click here.

A Border Patrol agent who spoke with NewsNation explained just how bad the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border really is, and to make things worse, it will not get better any time soon.The agent gave the interview anonymously, with NewsNation casting him in a shadow and changing his voice in order to protect his identity so the Department of Homeland Security does not punish him for speaking out. 'The biggest thing is that we do not control the border. The cartel controls the border.'"[What] don't ordinary Americans understand about the border?" reporter Ali Bradley asked."The biggest thing is that we do not control the border. The cartel controls the border. Everything that we do is a reaction to things that they have planned. Usually we're chasing around pawns while the kings and queens are doing whatever they want," the agent replied.Bradley then asked about the seriousness of the threat posed to Americans by so many people illegally entering the country. The agent said the threat to American citizens is "absolutely" real."These huge give up groups that we're getting, you know, the media is only reporting what they can report on, right? Which is, statistically speaking, a small percentage of the actual bad guys that we're catching. The really good ones, we will never catch. ... Our border is by no means secure," he explained."No one is coming. No one is coming to protect you," the agent further warned, pointing out local law enforcement has a hard time dealing with criminals who are U.S. citizens and the influx of illegal immigrants who are committing crimes within the country. The agent stressed Americans need to take it upon themselves to make their safety a priority. — (@) The ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border has had detrimental effects for the nation, from cities and states spending millions of dollars trying to take care of people released by Border Patrol to U.S. citizens falling victim to crimes committed by the processed immigrants.A new case out of Florida shows how releasing people into the country, with court dates years from now, has proven to be disastrous.A Guatemalan illegal alien who was caught at the border in January and then released into the U.S. with a 2027 court date was arrested for allegedly kidnapping an 11-year-old girl from in front of her home, pulling her into a van, and raping her in the town of Lake Worth Beach. The girl was saved after her mother went looking for her and banged on the van while calling for help.

That didn’t take long. Over the weekend, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) told a room of wealthy Republican donors he was going to rein the rebels in, booting them from their committees, Punchbowl reports, “if they oppose party-line procedural votes.” It took the speaker just six months to fully develop the political views of a 2012 Republican, from backing unwinnable foreign wars and border surrenders to warrantless spying and the whole anti-Semitism debacle. It took him just a few weeks longer to start thinking he’s got the power of a 2012 Republican leader to boot. But does John Boehner with a Bible have any bite behind that bark? The answer is almost certainly no. The center-left coalition Johnson has cobbled together won’t hold into a new year. Johnson knows he can’t just start kicking members off their committees in the middle of the session. That would take floor votes, and in any case, the revolt against him was too large, with a record 55 Republicans voting no on a “party-line procedural vote” for Ukraine war funding just last month. A majority of Republicans joined the “no” faction later in the process. Alternatively, he could simply decline to reassign committee positions next Congress to those members who continue to thwart him, using his sway over the Steering Committee to make it happen. If he tried it, he’d face a broader, more popular rebellion than Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has managed to spark. Finally (and most likely), Johnson can wait until the week after the November election, when House Republicans gather to vote on the rules they want to follow internally for the next Congress. When this comes along, he can write that any Republican who votes against a “party-line procedural vote” in the new Congress will be automatically stripped of his or her committee assignments. There are generally 100 or so Republican members who will do whatever the speaker tells them on any point, so if he pushes for this change, it will pass. He can also likely get rid of the single-vote motion to vacate that has pestered his speakership and ended his predecessor's. He can win the conference rules fight, but he can’t make it stick — because at the start of the new Congress in January, he’ll need to run for speaker again. And that’s when his opponents will get him (and his allies will abandon him). If Republicans expand their majority at all, it won’t be by the 30 votes that the likes of former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) once commanded. The realities of redrawn congressional maps mean Republicans might add 10 seats to their rolls in November. This means in the January leadership elections, the next speaker will have precious little room for ticking off his colleagues. The center-left coalition Johnson has cobbled together won’t hold into a new year, and he’ll find that when he really needs them, the war hawks and big spenders he’s made close company with won’t be rushing to the ramparts to recrown him. Anyone who wants to be speaker — and there are many, including Steve Scalise (R-La.), Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), and Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) — will need to negotiate with his caucus. That’s where conservatives will demand concessions in the caucus rules, just as they did with then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on motion to vacate in the first place. “You need significantly more than a 10-seat margin to kick people out effectively and have no consequences,” one senior conservative staffer and veteran of the Boehner and Johnson fights told Blaze News. Tight partisan margins, the staffer explained, make this reality “a permanent feature of the House going forward.” Leadership might want it. The moderate and liberal Republicans might want it. Some facets of a potential Trump administration, no doubt, would like a peaceful House as well. Johnson simply cannot deliver. He almost certainly can’t even maintain his speakership for another Congress. It’s been 10 years since Boehner’s infamous crackdown on conservative Republicans helped establish the Freedom Caucus. Boehner knew his city and used this knowledge to try to crush the rebellion. He threatened fundraisers to drop recalcitrant members, revoked House dining passes, and infamously went after committee seats. In the end, one of his loyal chairmen was almost kicked off the committee he had tried to suppress, and Boehner himself ended up retiring to Florida. "He did it just enough to piss them off,” one congressman remembers, “but not enough to change their behavior.” And Mike Johnson is no John Boehner. Sign up for the Christopher Bedford newsletter Sign up to get Blaze Media senior politics editor Christopher Bedford's newsletter, launching later this spring. IN OTHER NEWS The Trump trial derailment It was a stormy day in court (sorry) when former porn star and current Trump critic Stormy Daniels took the witness stand on Tuesday in Donald Trump’s hush money trial. Prosecutors successfully pushed Daniels to recount graphic and salacious details about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. The judge, typically very deferential to the Democratic DA’s office, scolded both Daniels and prosecutors over her testimony. Trump’s lawyers moved for a mistrial over what they called “extraordinarily prejudicial” testimony that unfairly inflamed the jury against Trump. What do the sex positions Daniels and Trump may or may not have used during a one-night stand 18 years ago have to do with allegedly falsifying business records in 2016, you may also be asking. But the judge unsurprisingly did not call for a mistrial, and the defense went about attempting to undermine Daniels’ credibility during cross-examination. There are no trial proceedings on Wednesdays, so the saga was set to continue Thursday at 9:30 a.m. The campus collapse MIT officially ended its diversity, equity, and inclusion pledge this week and will no longer force prospective employees to make it. “We can build an inclusive environment in many ways," school President Sally Kornbluth said in a statement, “but compelled statements impinge on freedom of expression, and they don’t work.” That it took years for such an obvious point to be made clear speaks poorly to the state of elite education, but elsewhere, the news is darker. Farther south at New York’s Columbia University, school leaders canceled graduation ceremonies in anticipation of ongoing mob disruptions. Students at the Ivy League, meanwhile, continue to distinguish themselves, misspelling “Palestine” in graffiti across the entrance to a hall they’ve occupied. Has-been rapper Macklemore recorded a cringe-inducing song to support whatever their goals are. In it, he claims forcing the Chinese communists to sell TikTok undermines freedom. Meanwhile, UNC Chapel Hill leadership is fighting against its own radical professors, one of whom is threatening to withhold students’ grades until the university unsuspends student members of the mob. It’s amazing it has taken so long. Now that it’s here, it’s past time to clean house of the “teachers" who made all this possible in the first place. Blaze News original: Mob rules — pro-Hamas campus protesters' most disgusting behavior caught on video. The fire rises: ‘Signal’s Katherine Maher problem,’ City Journal. Here’s a good rule for a paranoid man to remember: If it’s a widely available “encrypted” messaging service or phone, you can bet a government intelligence service was involved in its creation. Paranoid or not, it’s a good rule of thumb, and with Signal, it might be true. Over at City Journal, Christopher Rufo reports: First, the origin story. The technology behind Signal, which operates as a nonprofit foundation, was initially funded, in part, through a $3 million grant from the government-sponsored Open Technology Fund (OTF), which was spun off from Radio Free Asia, originally established as an anti-Communist information service during the Cold War. OTF funded Signal to provide “encrypted mobile communication tools” to “Internet freedom defenders globally.” Some insiders have argued that the connection between OTF and U.S. intelligence is deeper than it appears. One person who has worked extensively with OTF but asked to remain anonymous told me that, over time, it became increasingly clear “that the project was actually a State Department-connected initiative that planned to wield open source Internet projects made by hacker communities as tools for American foreign policy goals”—including by empowering “activists [and] parties opposed to governments that the USA doesn’t like.” Whatever the merits of such efforts, the claim—if true—suggests a government involvement with Signal that deserves more scrutiny. The other potential problem is the Signal Foundation’s current chairman of the board, Katherine Maher, who started her career as a U.S.-backed agent of regime change. During the Arab Spring period, for instance, Maher ran digital-communications initiatives in the Middle East and North Africa for the National Democratic Institute, a largely government-funded organization that works in concert with American foreign policy campaigns. Maher cultivated relationships with online dissidents and used American technologies to advance the interests of U.S.-supported Color Revolutions abroad. You can read the rest at City Journal.