Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran.  The meeting is expected to focus on Israel’s position that any deal must include limits on Iranian ballistic missiles and an end to support for Iran’s regional proxies. The upcoming meeting will mark their seventh meeting during Trump’s second term, underscoring the continuation of a year of tensions with Iran that have necessitated close coordination between the United States and Israel.  In recent weeks, Trump ordered a significant buildup of American forces in the region, including numerous aircraft, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, and additional warships as part of what he described as a powerful “armada” positioned to respond if Tehran refuses to negotiate.  Trump initially threatened military intervention in early January, not over stalled negotiations, but to deter the Iranian regime from harming protesters. Iran ignored the warning and proceeded to kill demonstrators in the streets, with some estimates as high as 36,000 dead. After the massacre, Trump pivoted, claiming the regime had not executed the protesters it detained and now warns that Iran’s Islamic regime will face severe “consequences if they don’t make a deal.” United States-Iran talks concluded on Friday, with additional rounds expected. Trump described the meeting as “very good.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told journalists that the talks took place in “a calm atmosphere, without tension and without threats.” Araghchi also said the “missile issue,” a key concern for Israel, is “in no way negotiable, neither now nor at any time in the future.” He added that if the United States does attack, the regime will retaliate by striking American bases in the region. While Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has led U.S. delegations throughout the past year, this session included President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, known for brokering deals once thought impossible, including the agreements behind the Abraham Accords. Also attending for the first time — and in his full military dress uniform — was U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, head of Central Command (CENTCOM) and overseer of the current buildup of American assets in the Middle East, including Trump’s armada. Ahead of the negotiations, the U.S. military said it downed an unmanned Iranian drone as it “aggressively approached” the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday. U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said the Iranian Shahed-139 drone was shot down by an F-35C fighter jet from the USS Abraham Lincoln “in self-defense and to protect the aircraft carrier and personnel on board.” Hours later, forces with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated foreign terror organization, harassed a U.S.-flagged and crewed oil tanker, Stena Imperative, that was passing through the Strait of Hormuz. According to Hawkins, two Iranian boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached the American vessel “at high speeds and threatened to board the tanker.” Taking questions prior to his sixth meeting in December with Netanyahu this term, a reporter asked Trump if he would support Israel striking Iran if the latter country continues advancing its missile or nuclear programs. “The missiles, yes. The nuclear, fast,” Trump said. “One would be yes, absolutely, the other was, we’ll do it immediately.” 

'Starmer’s position is untenable'

'Do not otherize us'

Must charge a fare

'FakeNews'

'This mess has got to be dealt with'

'Bad Bunny hit a grand slam home run!'

News The Talisman The Third Book in Stephen King and Peter Straub’s Talisman Series Has a Name and Release Date Other Worlds Than These arrives in October By Molly Templeton | Published on February 9, 2026 Photo: Scribner Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: Scribner In 1984, Peter Straub and Stephen King published The Talisman, a novel about a 12-year-old boy on a journey to find an object that will save his dying mother. Seventeen years later, in 2001, they published a sequel, Black House, which ended on a cliffhanger. And now, at long last, there’s a third book. Straub died in 2022, but according to Esquire, King “found an old email from his friend that included a tantalizing suggestion for another novel, partly involving the real-life teenage spree killer Charles Starkweather, who terrorized the Midwest in the late 1950s.” When King started working on book three, “So far as it was possible, I wanted to collaborate with Peter. The seed was there, and I channeled Peter throughout like crazy,” he told Esquire. (You can read an excerpt from the novel at that Esquire link.) Other Worlds Than These will arrive October 6th from Scribner. The publisher’s page about this book claims that it works as a standalone read as well as the trilogy’s conclusion. The synopsis says: Other Worlds Than These is the story of Jack Sawyer, whom readers first met when he was twelve, crossing America and “the territories” to save his mother’s life, and met again in Black House, where Jack faces a child killer and the Crimson King (among other evils). In Other Worlds Than These Jack must stop a rampaging gang of infected teenagers from America-side, and the forces of the mysterious Gullet at the edge of Mid-World, before it destroys our world and all worlds. Jack is older now; his Ka-tet (echoing the world of Roland) is fraying; and his task, nearly impossible. The Talisman has never been adapted for TV or feature film; Stranger Things creators the Duffer brothers were attached to a series adaptation for Netflix, but that fell apart last year. Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin Television would have co-produced that series, has had the adaptation rights for decades; according to Entertainment Weekly, “he got Universal Pictures to buy him the rights forever — not just an option to adapt, which would have expired after a few years.” Maybe now’s the time, with the series finally about to wrap up.[end-mark] The post The Third Book in Stephen King and Peter Straub’s Talisman Series Has a Name and Release Date appeared first on Reactor.

Column Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Rising Star” The civil war is over, but there are consequences for Sheridan… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on February 9, 2026 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “Rising Star”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by Tony DowSeason 4, Episode 21Production episode 421Original air date: October 20, 1997 It was the dawn of the third age… We open with an ISN special report showing that Clark is dead by suicide, that Susanna Luchenko of the Russian Federation is the acting Earth Alliance President, and that Sheridan has turned himself in. ISN also sends condolences to Ivanova, dying on B5. We then cut to Franklin, rushing back to B5 in a White Star hoping to stop Cole from sacrificing himself to save Ivanova. In that, he fails, as by the time he arrives, Cole is dead and Ivanova is alive, the former having used the Great Hit Point Rearranger to save the latter. Ivanova is sitting on the floor crying, and Franklin joins her on the floor and they talk for a bit, Ivanova expressing her frustration with Cole and her regrets about how she treated him. In the end, she sadly laments that all love is unrequited. On Earth, Sheridan is waiting in a meeting room. Bester arrives, and the pair of them trade quips and insults, before Bester gets down to the nitty-gritty: he wants to know if his lover Carolyn was one of the telepaths he used against the EarthForce fleet. Sheridan says that he made sure to only use ones who had no families. Bester angrily points out that Carolyn had no family, but then Sheridan drops the other shoe: he has been in a situation where he lost someone he loved, then got her back just long enough to lose her again, and he wouldn’t wish that on anyone—not even Bester. Carolyn is back on B5. Sheridan also says that he knows what Bester did to Garibaldi and Sheridan suspects that Garibaldi is going to want payback at some point. On Mars, Garibaldi interrogates an underworld accountant named Max. Lise has been taken by criminals she went to try to get a new ID to get off Mars, and instead are holding her for ransom. Max is who the bad guys would launder the money through, and Garibaldi violently persuades Max to give the location up. He is then able to free Lise, with the help of some Rangers. Mollari and G’Kar meet with Delenn on a White Star. Delenn has a proposal for them that she will also be presenting to the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. Mollari greets her proposal with laughter, not because he thinks it’s funny, but because it’s so revolutionary that it’s leaving him light-headed. When the other League representatives arrive, Mollari cautions them to have a change of underwear handy. On Earth, General Foote enters the conference room and informs Sheridan that a decision has been made with regard to his fate. Luchenko then enters, Foote and Sheridan standing at attention. She excuses Foote and then gets down to business. Sheridan has left a bit of a mess. B5 being so far removed from Earth actually made things easier for him, as he could act with less supervision and surveillance than they could back home. That was why he was able to move more overtly than anti-Clark forces on Earth could. But he also committed acts that could be construed as treasonous. She gives him two alternatives: resign his commission, he’ll get his full captain’s pension, and his crew will receive amnesty; or be dishonorably discharged, and everyone under him will be open to prosecution. Sheridan insists on the amnesty being in writing, and agrees to the former. On the White Star, Lennier informs Delenn that the League has unanimously agreed to her proposal. Lennier is sad that Cole wasn’t here to see this historic occasion, but Delenn is more philosophical about it, feeling that he’s here in spirit. Lennier quotes what Ivanova said about all love being unrequited, and Delenn—showing either remarkable insight or remarkable cluelessness—cups Lennier’s cheek and says that that’s not true. Credit: Warner Bros. Television ISN broadcasts the press conference, which starts with Luchenko and continues to Sheridan announcing his resignation. Then G’Kar announces the new Interstellar Alliance, which is in part inspired by the humans’ unique ability to form communities. Delenn then takes the podium and explains what the Interstellar Alliance is (an economic and political alliance, not a military one), what the Rangers’ role will be in it (a peacekeeping and support force), and that they’d love Earth to join. There’s a flyby by the White Star fleet which, amazingly, doesn’t trigger an interstellar war… Luchenko meets privately with Delenn, G’Kar, and Mollari. She was caught off-guard by this, and has some misgivings. Mollari says he has misgivings, too, but also the Centauri Republic is tired of war. Delenn also sweetens the pot by saying that they will share artificial gravity tech with Earth, which means they won’t have to be reliant on big rotating ships to create gravity. Then Luchenko asks with whom they negotiate, and Delenn says they have a president: John Sheridan. Sheridan is back in that same damn conference room, feet up, smugly remarking to Foote on how you barely have time to pick a vacation spot after retiring when you get another job offer. For his part, Foote angrily says he planned this all along—which he did, but he wanted to make sure his crew was immune from prosecution. To that end, he gave copies of the certificate of amnesty to the reporters and has the original someplace safe, just in case they decided to rescind it. Sheridan then stands and waits for the general to open the door for him to leave. Foote reluctantly does so, as that’s the protocol for a head of state… Sheridan meets with Delenn and also his father, who has been freed. He assures Sheridan that they never got near his mother, and that they’ve been treating him a lot nicer. David is also happy to meet his future daughter-in-law. Another ISN report, this time announcing that Earth has come to an agreement with President Sheridan to join the Interstellar Alliance, pending Senate approval. Sheridan also says that a condition of joining is to allow worlds that vote to be so get to be independent—which means that Mars will be independent from Earth. Garibaldi and Lise are watching the news report from the latter’s bed, in which they are both in a post-coital snuggle. Lise asks if and when he’s going back to B5, and he’s not sure. (Why he even thinks there’s a job available to him is unclear.) Lise says she can use his help running Edgars Industries, which she now owns as Edgars’ widow. The report continues: Sheridan’s last act as a member of EarthForce was to approve Ivanova’s promotion to captain. She’s taking command of a new Warlock-class destroyer, having personal reasons for not wanting to stay on B5. Credit: Warner Bros. Television In addition, Sheridan and Delenn were married in a private ceremony on a White Star en route to B5, which will be the temporary seat of the Interstellar Alliance government until an appropriate spot can be found in Tuzenor or Minbar for it. Mollari and G’Kar are also watching the news report, with G’Kar eating bits of rice left over from the wedding ceremony. Mollari castigates him for eating the rice—if it was edible, why were they throwing it?—and lewdly comments that he wishes he could look in on their honeymoon suite. Then he notices that G’Kar’s prosthetic eye is missing. It is, in fact, in Sheridan and Delenn’s honeymoon suite, which is kinda creepy, but okay… The episode ends on Delenn’s voiceover talking about how 2261 ended historically, the end of one chapter, and the start of another. The next twenty years would bring a great deal of hardship, but the Alliance would endure—as will B5. Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan gambles that Delenn would be able to pull the Interstellar Alliance together and elect him president—but if he didn’t, at least he gets to retire with his crew safe from legal retaliation. He also gets to be reunited with his father, marry Delenn, and stick it to Bester. Good day for him… Ivanova is God. Ivanova had resigned herself to the fact that she was going to die, but then she felt herself pulled back to reality with the words “I love you” from Cole. She’s completely devastated by what he did, and she refuses command of B5, preferring to take another assignment to get away from there. The household god of frustration. When he frees Lise, Garibaldi opens with a flashbang that’s disguised as a kids’ toy that plays a recording of Porky Pig saying, “Th-th-th-th-th-that’s all, folks!” If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Delenn pulls the Interstellar Alliance together with completely unconvincing speed. In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… Vir announces to Mollari that he is to be made emperor when the Regent dies, as was predicted as a vision in “The Coming of Shadows” and by Lady Morella in “Point of No Return,” and which was seen in the jump forward in the “War Without End” two-parter. Though it take a thousand years, we shall be free. G’Kar and Mollari have settled into a weird kind of brotherly banter, which Mollari himself describes as strange. We live for the one, we die for the one. The Rangers are established as a kind of peacekeeping force for the Interstellar Alliance. The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. Sheridan makes it clear to Bester that he’s going to be keeping an eye on the Psi Corps to make sure they don’t try to keep or worse, expand on all the power Clark gave them. Credit: Warner Bros. Television No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Oh, goodness, where to start…. Ivanova belatedly realizes the depth of Cole’s feelings for her, and she regrets that she didn’t at least boff him once so he wouldn’t have died a virgin. (Franklin then, justifiably, questions her use of the verb “to boff.”) Garibaldi rescues Lise and they get back together, what with her husband being dead and all. Sheridan and Delenn finally get married, and their honeymoon night is spied upon by G’Kar, which is not at all creepy, really. (It’s totally creepy…) Looking ahead. In her voiceover at the end, Delenn makes reference to both the Telepath War and the Drakh War. Sheridan also foreshadows the Telepath War in his conversation with Bester. J. Michael Straczynski intended to dramatize both, but was only partially successful: the movie A Call to Arms and the spinoff series Crusade showed the beginning of the Drakh War, but the latter’s cancellation kept it from being shown in its entirety, and the Telepath War was never shown. Welcome aboard. Recurring regulars Rance Howard as David (back from “Interludes and Examinations”), Maggie Egan as ISN anchor Jane (back from “Endgame”), Walter Koenig as Bester, and Denise Gentile as Lise (both back from “The Face of the Enemy”) all appear. It’s Howard’s final appearance; Gentile will return in “Darkness Ascending,” Egan will return in “Objects at Rest,” and Koenig will return in “Strange Relations.” Michael Potter plays Foote, Joey Dente plays Luko, and the great Beata Pozniak is simply magnificent as Luchenko. Trivial matters. When this episode was filmed, it was not known if there would be a fifth season or not. In terms of production, the next episode to be filmed was “Sleeping in Light,” designed to be the series finale in case a fifth season didn’t happen. Then TNT picked up the series, and so “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars” was written and filmed and made into the season four finale, with “Sleeping in Light” held over until the end of season five. Claudia Christian wound up not returning for season five due to an inability for the two sides to come to terms on a contract. She will next be seen on the show in “Sleeping in Light,” which was filmed as part of season four originally, and will also appear in the movies In the Beginning and Thirdspace. The original intent was for Ivanova to be promoted to captain and made commanding officer of B5. After it was clear that Christian wasn’t returning, the news report voiceover at the end of this episode was re-recorded to state that Ivanova was taking a ship command. This is Jason Carter’s final appearance on the show, and he only appears as a corpse laying alongside Ivanova. The short story “Space, Time, and the Incurable Romantic” by J. Michael Straczynski, appearing in an issue of Amazing Stories, tried to manufacture a happy ending for the Cole-Ivanova couple by having Cole resurrected by advanced science three hundred years later and he winds up trapping himself on a planet with a clone of Ivanova that has had her memories from up to the events of “Between the Darkness and the Light.” They live out their lives with Cole lying to the Ivanova clone about what year it is and what happened, which doesn’t feel like any kind of happy ending to me… While this is Luchenko’s only appearance, she will be referenced several more times, having presumably been made permanent president rather than acting as she is in this episode. The Great Hit Point Rearranger was introduced in “The Quality of Mercy.” Sheridan and Franklin used it to save Garibaldi in “Revelations.” Cole found out about it last time in “Endgame.” Franklin mentions that Cole must have hacked the medical logs, as they were supposed to be classified and encrypted. Sheridan promised the Mars Resistance that he would free Mars when this was all over, in exchange for their cooperation, in “Lines of Communication.” His wife Anna died some time prior to his arrival on B5, as seen in “Revelations,” and he thought he got her back in “Shadow Dancing,” only to lose her again in “Z’ha’dum.” The echoes of all of our conversations. “Half of EarthForce wants to give you a kiss on the cheek and the Medal of Honor—the other half wants you taken out and shot. As a politician you learn how to compromise, which by all rights means I should give you the Medal of Honor, then have you shot.” —Luchenko making a funny. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “You do not make history, you can only hope to survive it.” Back in 2004, I wrote a Star Trek novel called A Time for War, a Time for Peace, in which we witness a presidential election in the Federation; the following year, I wrote a novel that focused on the first year in office of President Nan Bacco, the winner of that election, Articles of the Federation; in 2009, I wrote another novel in which President Bacco plays a large part, A Singular Destiny; and in 2023, I wrote “Work Worth Doing,” a story detailing the backstory of Star Trek: Discovery’s Federation President Laira Rillak for Star Trek Explorer magazine. I mention all this to say that presidents in space operas are kind of a thing with me, which is part of why I was so critical of how Santiago and Clark were portrayed on this show, and it’s also why my absolute favorite parts of this episode are the scenes with Beata Pozniak’s magnificent President Luchenko. (If we had had just one scene with Santiago like this when he visited the station in “Survivors,” I might have actually given a shit when he was blown up in “Chrysalis.”) Pozniak is superb, and J. Michael Straczynski writes her brilliantly, a lovely combination of ruthless practicality and friendly understanding. She knows her job is impossible, but she’s navigating it with aplomb. Her speech during the press conference is excellent, her scenes with Sheridan sparkle, and she holds her own in a scene she has to share with Mira Furlan, Peter Jurasik, and Andreas Katsulas, which is quite the accomplishment. But this isn’t the President Luchenko show, and other stuff happens in the episode as well, some of it really good. Let’s start with where the episode starts, which is also one of the parts that isn’t really good: Cole’s sacrifice to save Ivanova. Actually, the scene with Ivanova and Franklin sitting on the floor of medlab talking about it is a great scene. It’s one of Biggs’ better bits (of which there aren’t many), as he just sits there and lets his friend word-vomit for a while. And Claudia Christian is superlative, showing the massive range of emotions that Ivanova is going through. But I hate this entire plotline. The Great Hit Point Rearranger has been established as being something that can be daisy-chained, as it were. Several people could have helped Cole bring Ivanova back to life without sacrificing his life. True, it’s in character for Cole to be all martyr-y and be the only one to sacrifice himself (we saw this writ large in “Grey 17 is Missing”), but it just feels so constructed. And if you’re wondering who he could have asked, how about all those Minbari who crewed the White Star that he brought back to B5? They were all willing to desert their posts in the middle of a major military engagement purely on Cole’s say-so. So why couldn’t they also be drafted to donate a bit of life energy? (It doesn’t help that Straczynski’s short story followup to the Cole-Ivanova relationship, the morally repugnant “Space, Time, and the Incurable Romantic,” was a wrongheaded piece of nonsense that proved to be more of a character assassination of Cole than it was a happy ending for him and Ivanova.) The Interstellar Alliance gets pulled together with totally unconvincing speed. The notion that there’s an entire alliance with a president and an infrastructure in place in the time it takes to fly from B5 to Earth is patently absurd. Supposedly, Delenn and Sheridan had it in the works before Sheridan turned himself in to authorities on Earth, and I have to ask, when? Delenn was off on Minbar when Sheridan first headed to Proxima, and they were together for all of half a second after Garibaldi, Franklin, and Alexander rescued Sheridan from Mars before Sheridan led the fleet to take Earth. When exactly was all this put together? And it’s not like ambassadors make policy—they just represent their governments. All the ambassadors from the now-former League of Non-Aligned Worlds would have to report back to their governments before any kind of decision could be made. Yet somehow, it’s all a fait accompli by the time Delenn, G’Kar, and Mollari arrive on Earth, despite the latter two not even knowing about it until they left B5. Sure. And yes, I know that a lot of this is due to Straczynski having to rush the storyline in case season five didn’t happen, but it really creates some believability issues. (Also the flyby of White Stars was a spectacularly bad idea, and should have resulted in a mess of Starfuries being launched against an invasion…) Having said that, the moment when Foote walks in on Sheridan, sitting calmly with his feet up, is epic. So is the scene with Bester, which both Bruce Boxleitner and Walter Koenig absolutely nail. You’ve got two smart, powerful people in that room, and it’s an impressive case of both of them having the upper hand to one degree or other, and neither side backing down. Garibaldi’s rescue of Lise feels remarkably perfunctory, which is disappointing, and their happy reunion is nice to see, though why Garibaldi thinks going back to B5 is even an option strains credulity. (See my rant on that subject in last week’s rewatch.) Having said all that, this works very nicely as the series finale it was written to be in case of the lack of a fifth season, with the coda coming next week… Next week: “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars.”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Rising Star” appeared first on Reactor.

Cuba’s government says international airlines can’t refuel on the island nation starting Monday. Cuban authorities issued an official Notice to Airmen over the weekend, warning that kerosene shortages are affecting all of Cuba’s international airports, the Spanish news agency EFE reports. The notice is good for one month, meaning international planes won’t be able to refuel in Cuba before March 11. “JET A1 FUEL NOT AVBL,” the coded message states. The notice affected nine Cuban airports. The majority of Cuba’s international flights connect the island to destinations in Florida, Mexico, Spain, or Panama, EFE reports. Political leaders and experts predicted a fuel shortage in Cuba following the Trump administration’s capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro at the beginning of January and its move to cut off Cuba from Venezuelan oil. Until Jan. 3, Venezuela was the central financial support of Cuba, primarily through oil. After the U.S. captured Maduro, President Donald Trump signed an executive order at the end of January imposing tariffs on imported goods from nations that supply oil to Cuba. Trump has called Cuba a “failed nation,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the Trump administration “would love to see the regime there change.” “There’s no doubt about the fact that it would be of great benefit to the United States if Cuba was no longer governed by an autocratic regime,” Rubio recently said while testifying before members of Congress. ?@SecRubio on Cuba: "Regime change? Oh no, I think we would love to see the regime there change … There's no doubt about the fact that it would be of great benefit to the United States if Cuba was no longer governed by an autocratic regime." pic.twitter.com/2HZLZX4qrU— Department of State (@StateDept) January 28, 2026 President Miguel Díaz-Canel is the public face of Cuba’s dictatorship, but former President Raúl Castro retains significant power over the regime. Díaz-Canel said Thursday that Cuba is willing to engage with the U.S. in negotiations but also warned that “surrender isn’t an option for Cuba.” While Díaz-Canel told the press that Cuba is not “in a state of war,” he added that the island nation is “preparing ourselves in case we have to move to a state of war.” The post Cuba Makes Major Fuel Shortage Announcement appeared first on The Daily Signal.