7 years ago, a Mexican fine art auctioneer submitted their upcoming auction catalogue to a database of stolen art as part of a due diligence process that’s pretty standard in the industry. Analysts flipped through the pages of paintings and portraits, clearing each one in turn, before coming to a 6-foot-tall work of Saint Francis […] The post Stolen 18th-Century Painting of St. Francis Returned to a Mexican Church appeared first on Good News Network.

Books Wind and Truth Reread Wind and Truth Reread: Chapters 128 and 129 Reunions! Confrontations! And a sneaky secret mission to the throne room… By Paige Vest, Lyndsey Luther, Drew McCaffrey | Published on November 17, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Greetings and salutations, Sanderfans, and welcome to another installment of your Wind and Truth reread! This week we spend some time with Szeth and Kaladin, who finally arrive at the monastery to find Ishar waiting. We witness Dalinar and Wit chatting before the contest, and Dalinar’s reunion with Navani. We peek into the Spiritual Realm where Shallan finds Renarin and Rlain again, and we follow Adolin and Yanagawn as they sneak into the palace to reach the throne room, hopefully undetected. (Only we know that’s not going to happen!) Let’s dive in! The book has been out long enough that most of you will hopefully have finished, and as such, this series shall now function as a re-read rather than a read-along. That means there will be spoilers for the end of the book (as well as full Cosmere spoilers, so beware if you aren’t caught up on all Cosmere content). Paige’s Commentary: Plot Arcs Chapter 128, “The Price of Survival,” opens on a Szeth POV. It’s now early morning as he, Kaladin, Syl, and Nale continue on toward the Bondsmith monastery. Szeth tells Nale that it would help if he would tell them why Ishar came up with this plan and what he thought it might accomplish. Nale recollects that it started when Ishar told him he foresaw pain in the future. This was after Taln had already held for thousands of years. Several of the Heralds had grown weaker, and Ishar was afraid that one would die and be sent back to Braize. Further, Ishar would visit the Spiritual Realm where he “foresaw future threats,” and said he needed time to prepare for them. That’s why he sent Nale to “stop the return” and kill anyone showing signs of bonding spren. While he stalled the Return, Ishar looked for ways to bolster the Herald’s strength, eventually taking some of Odium’s power from the Well of Control. That’s when he started trying to make spren physical. Nale says that Ishar created something terrible. “Human Fused,” Szeth guessed. “Like my father and my sister. You made their souls able to be recalled to new bodies, so they can be reborn each time they are killed.” Which is rather horrifying, in my opinion. Nale says they did it to each Honorbearer, save Sivi, who refused. Ishar had been planning to make an army of human Fused, but they needed a new body each time; they can’t manifest a body like a Herald can do. He said it takes a few days and is very painful. Kaladin says the cost is not worth paying and Szeth ponders that, saying it might protect them and give them warriors who can fight the Fused. Kaladin argues that they can already fight the Fused. Nale says this Return is worse because of the Everstorm, because the Fused can’t be locked away. They argue over the issue for a couple of pages and Szeth asked, what if they lose? And Kaladin replies that then they lose—and maybe even die—but they lose as themselves. Nale mentions some Skybreaker dissenters and Szeth asks about them. Nale says that sometimes a group of them will refuse his leadership, and one claimed to have found old Skybreaker oaths. He doesn’t share any more info about this, but I can’t help but wonder where these rogue Skybreakers are? Have they just abandoned the fight altogether and gone off to do their own thing, as the listeners did? POV Shift! Wit and Dalinar are still headed to the lifts to ascend to the roof while Wit continues his story of Jerick, the nobleman’s son. He tells Dalinar the story, which I won’t repeat here, but the bottom line is that Jerick ran away to war rather than take the last test, which was to create poetry that Wit would judge (and Wit admits he would have passed Jerick no matter what he presented). “The lumberman’s son found the only way to lose an unlosable contest. He didn’t show up.” Dalinar reflects on how Tanavast ran instead of facing Odium because it would have destroyed the world if he hadn’t. Dalinar says he won’t run from the contest and, here, Wit utterly surprises me. “I don’t know what comes next, Dalinar,” Wit said. “But I’m glad you are the one who will walk up to meet Odium. Because while you might not know the secret to defeating him, you have learned something more important. We’re not sending as soldier up those steps. We’re sending a king.” Oh, my feels. Especially knowing what happens in the contest. My feels hurt… POV Shift! Adolin’s stump needs healing before they head out to sneak into the palace. The doctor gives him a tincture of firemoss to help his pain and give him a little pep in his step, but warns that he’ll crash hard later. Adolin is fine with that as long as “later” is after the contest, which is approaching very quickly. Several teams head out, two to look for more human troops and Adolin’s group, who follow Yanagawn. Adolin talks in his mind with Maya a bit, about Dalinar. He feels at peace and is no longer angry at his father; despite knowing that he may never be able to forgive Dalinar for what happened to Evi, he’s willing to love him anyway. Adolin has also let go of the idea that his father was perfect and, in doing so, realized that he doesn’t have to be perfect, either. Maya says she’s close enough to be summoned, if he needs her, and they talk about how the spren she’s bringing probably won’t be able to help. Maya says she feels like a fool because she should have stayed to fight with him. Adolin reassures her that that would have just resulted in the enemy taking her Blade. When they reach the wall around the palace complex, Adolin and the young girl Zabra are spotted by passing singers but they notice his peg and her young age and move on. *whew* So they make it to the rest of the group and Yanagawn looks for the “smuggler’s port,” a concept which offends Noura. It’s apparently manned by soldiers who let people bribe their way in “for small-scale crimes.” Maya takes this opportunity to speak to Adolin some more, telling him he needs to stop trying to do everything by himself and assuring him again that he’s a good person. She brings up his treatment of Kaladin and Shallan as examples of Adolin doing good things and helping others, then asks him about what he needs. Maybe I don’t need anything, he said. Oh, my feels again! So as Yanagawn is trying to open the door, it suddenly opens and a soldier lets them in. They convince him and another soldier that Yanagawn is the emperor and are shown the way to a tunnel that leads up to the main palace building. And they’re off, with less than an hour to go! Chapter 129, “Oaths and Light,” opens with a Kaladin POV. Nale is saying that Ishar took the power from the well about three or four hundred years ago. But it was actually a thousand. Time gets wonky when you’re practically immortal, I guess! Ishar had Connected himself to the land, becoming the spren of Shinovar, and started seeing himself as the Almighty. That power, as we know, can definitely go to your head… Szeth asks Nale if killing Ishar would end his touch on the land and free the Shin. Nale doesn’t know… but he thinks that Szeth must do more than defeat Ishar—that our heroes must do for Ishar what they did for Nale. Oh, sure, we can help him heal his mind, lickety-split, no problem! Then Kaladin says that Dalinar told him a spoken oath might restore Ishar, at least briefly. So they discuss who might speak an oath; Kaladin admits he barely lets himself think about the Words because the last oath nearly broke him. Szeth says it will have to be him—he’ll have to speak the Fourth Ideal. But then Szeth realizes that there’s a flaw in that plan. “We cannot restore him to sanity without the burst of power I might release at the Words, but I cannot say the Words until he is already defeated.” Kaladin wonders if he could talk to Ishar as he did to Szeth. Syl, silently, reminds him that he helped Nale and Kaladin counters by saying that the Wind helped him. She responds that it was Kaladin and the Wind together that helped him. Out loud, Kaladin asks Syl what the Wind is and Syl said she’s part of something very ancient. That there was more before the three gods arrived. “If a God still lives, I find him in the quiet breeze that dances with all things.” Then the Wind itself speaks to him and says that the hour approaches when the spren may need a champion. Okay… what? Has the Wind mentioned a champion before? If so, I don’t recall that tidbit. Kaladin asks what will be required of him and the Wind answers, “Everything.” Everything as in, his very life? Szeth says they’re close and Nale directs him toward a ridge where a mound marks what used to be a thunderclast corpse. He reveals that this is where Ahariethiam occurred. They reach the place where Ishar waits with an Honorblade; Szeth tells Nale and Nightblood to guard the Honorblades. Nightblood is bummed that Szeth isn’t going to use him to fight; Szeth assures Nightblood that he’s a great sword, but says that he doesn’t know if he’s going to fight. Kaladin joins Szeth and they, in turn, are joined by Syl and 12124… then the Wind joins them and they begin walking toward Ishar. Dun-dun-dunnn… POV shift! Adolin and company enter the grounds of the Bronze Palace and Yanagawn leads them to a door where Noura produces a key. Yanagawn is excited, feeling like he’s actually doing something for once, rather than staying out of the action. There’s just over half an hour left until the contest, so they start toward the throne room. Adolin has a things-are-quiet-too-quiet moment and announces that he thinks it’s a trap. The throne room is just on the other side of the wall and Adolin considers using his Blade to cut an entrance, but Yanagawn reminds him that the entire room is lined in aluminum. A hidden door is jammed shut, so they have no choice but to advance. Notum scouts back where they came from and reports that there’s a force of fifty singers approaching. They continue to a T-shaped intersection; down each corridor to the right and left, forces of singers await. But they don’t advance. Adolin walks to the throne room and opens the door. Inside, sitting on the storming throne, sits Abidi the Monarch, clad in Adolin’s own Plate with an Azish Blade. Adolin orders the group to wait in the corridor and to hold the room, no matter what happens. He enters the throne room and prepares to call Maya. Abidi pulls a lever and the door clicks closed, locks engaging. Adolin tries to summon Maya but Abidi gloats that the room is lined with aluminum, which means he can’t summon his Blade. Abidi raises the stolen Azish Blade and gleefully announces that he stays sane by bathing in the blood of Radiants. (Sane. Sure, buddy. You’re totally sane.) Then he attacks. POV Shift! Shallan overcomes the temporary paralysis that the visions have instilled in her. After all, she knows she wouldn’t kill Wit, or Jasnah, or Navani. She’s accepted the truth, and the visions can no longer hurt her. The visions fade and she’s back in the usual Spiritual Realm again. She senses Pattern and then encounters a black expanse where she’s joined by Pattern and Testament, and they find Renarin and Rlain waiting. Renarin says: “We will find her prison not in a place, but in a mindset. Her mindset. Which she’s been embedding into the visions we see.” So they all start trying to find Mishram’s mindset, comparing their experiences with hers, as they’ve seen in the visions. As each of them speak, Shallan comes to the conclusion that Mishram feels that she deserves her suffering. Then she steps forward and a corridor appears before her, which opens into a small room with a glowing light. They enter the stone room lit with torches and find a desiccated corpse in the corner. The corpse is Melishi, the ancient Bondsmith who had died there alone. There’s a yellow heliodor in the center of the room; it bears a crack and wisps of smoke are escaping it. Pattern tells her they’re not alone and she turns to see Mraize in the corridor. She leaves Mishram to the men and goes to deal with Mraize. POV Shift! Navani catches her breath as she sees Dalinar, neither the Bondsmith nor the Blackthorn, and he takes her into his arms to kiss her. They’re not alone; there are others in the room including guards and Sebarial and Palona (who are storming married! Woo-hoo!). Following their uncomfortable public display of affection, Dalinar and Navani talk for a bit. She’s sorry for leaving him but he says she cannot leave him. He asks after Gav and she says he’s safe. He tells her of seeing Tanavast’s history, which both haunts and inspires him. We do see Jasnah among the observers; she’s kept to herself since her return, it seems. Poor Jasnah. Navani asks if his time in the Spiritual Realm was a waste and he says it wasn’t, that he’s more confident now. Dalinar parts with Navani and thanks the observers for their strength, prayers, and trust. He speaks with Sebarial for a moment, then takes up a copy of The Way of Kings and heads up the stairs. Aaaaand—that’s all for this week! *evil chuckle* Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs Nale I killed so many… with no cause…” I find it difficult to have sympathy for him. That poor cobbler from the interlude in Words of Radiance keeps coming back to me. Just a sweet old man, who did absolutely nothing wrong… his life snuffed out in violence. Nale thought he was performing a necessary evil in order to stop many, many more deaths. I know this. But I still have trouble forgiving him. Sivi “We did it to each Honorbearer, save one. Sivi rejected him.” This tracks, for her. Sivi was always one of the most interesting of the Honorbearers to me. She was strong of will and went her own way. Dalinar “But I am not pointless. My life. People’s lives. The meaning comes from us.” This entire story that Wit tells is convoluted and difficult to decipher. It’s meaningless… but it’s not. The boy loses… but he wins. It’s difficult, and complicated, and convoluted, and that’s life, isn’t it? There are no easy answers. There’s no set “right” way to do things. Even ethics and morality are a morass of choice and consequence and uncertainty. Philosophers have tried for millennia to make sense of it all. The best we can do, just as Dalinar gleans here, is to take the next step, and to try to make it the best step we can, and hope that it leads us in the right direction in the end. Navani puts it best: “Do what is right in the moment,” she whispered. Adolin “Tincture of firemoss.”He handed the cup to Adolin. “This will mute the pain, maybe even put a bit of a spring in your step. Until you crash tonight, Brightlord. When you do, it will be bad.” I have a bad feeling that the next time we see Adolin, he’ll be dealing with an addiction to this. I hope that I’m wrong. I’m not sure I’ll ever fully forgive him for killing my mother, but I’m willing to love him anyway. As someone with a… similarly problematic relationship with my father (though thankfully not as extreme), I really respect Adolin for this. I’m not sure if I could find it within myself to forgive as he has here. I guess the difference is that Adolin’s father is actively trying to atone, to be better. I wish I could say the same about my own. I felt, for some reason, that since he had proven to be flawed, I had to take his place and be perfect instead. It’s not logical, but how often are our feelings logical? Adolin’s realization that his father isn’t perfect is such a beautiful late coming-of-age moment. I think we often fall into the trap of thinking of Adolin as an older adult, because he’s an accomplished soldier, and married, and a leader. But he was only about 24 (26 in Earth years) at the beginning of The Way of Kings. Not a child anymore, but clearly not fully mature in some ways as well. This realization, as I discussed last week, is one of the final steps that Adolin makes in his journey to true adulthood, in my opinion. His father is a peer now, and no longer a paragon to be worshipped. That’s always how you are, Maya said. I’ve been watching a long time now, Adolin. Watching you give everyone whatever they need. What about what you need? There’s a saying I heard once that really seems to encapsulate this: “Stop lighting yourself on fire to keep others warm.” While it’s commendable to be always thinking of others, you won’t be able to help anyone else if you’ve completely spent all your energy on them. Just like when you’re on a plane, right—put on your own air mask before you try to help others. Yanagawn “They’re thieves.”“So was I,” Yanagawn said, with a smile. I love our little Aladdin-emperor. Who better to understand and sympathize with the governance of the lower class… than someone from the lower class? Shallan So, as the visions continued, she rejected the lie that she would inevitably hurt people she loved. She recognized it for what it was.Because she, Shallan Davar, was an expert in lies. I love this. Classic Plot Turn Two, in story structure terms (or if you’re more partial to the monomyth, “the ultimate boon”). She’s using the lesson that she’s learned on this journey to defeat the final evil. This is the culmination of her character arc. Overall Thoughts: “But what if someone has to make the difficult choices, and do terrible things, so that others may have peace?” In story structure terms, I would consider this to be the primary theme of this book. This question comes up time after time after time. We as readers analyze it from several different perspectives; Kaladin’s, Taravangian’s, Jasnah’s, Dalinar’s. What price is one willing to pay for peace? How many lives are “acceptable” to be lost in the pursuit of that goal? It’s the trolley problem played out on a cosmic scale. […] the Knight of Wind and the Knight of Truth […] I feel like an idiot for not realizing earlier that the title of the book was specifically naming Kaladin (Wind) and Szeth (Truth). Szeth specifically. I think I had just sort of assumed that they were both knights of “wind and truth” combined, not that one was wind, and one truth. But it makes so much sense now, in retrospect. Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories “They need a new body each time. We do not. Our substance is rebuilt from the essence of Honor when we return. Ishar was not able to access that power, so each rebirth of the Honorbearers requires a body.” I will always find it fascinating that Cognitive Shadows exist and function in so many different manners. The reproduction of physical bodies seems so easy in certain circumstances, and horribly challenging in others—just look at Kelsier. Situations like the shades on Threnody and the Returned on Nalthis add more into the mix. I’d guess that Returned work closer to the Heralds, with bodies fashioned directly from Endowment’s Investiture… but the shades are just a big mess. What would happen if a Threnodite shade actually got a new body? It feels like the kind of thing that the Night Brigade would be interesting in experimenting with, to be honest. Imagine armies of corporeal Threnodite shades. Kill the body? Whoops, now you’ve still got the shade to deal with, and its eyes are definitely gonna be red at that point. Billid claimed… to have found old Skybreaker oaths. We’ve touched on the various groups of Skybreakers at a few points in this book, but this note is particularly important. The impression given up till Wind and Truth is that each of the Orders of Knights Radiant shares a First Ideal, and then they have their own sets of oaths from the Second to the Fifth Ideals (with only the Lightweavers as outliers, using personal truths instead of oaths after the First Ideal). Sure, each individual Radiant might have some slight deviations—Kaladin’s Third Ideal was “I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right,” while Teft’s was “I will protect those I hate. Even… even if the one I hate most is… myself.” But at the core, those are the same oath. The idea Nale brings up here, that there are wholly different oaths for different groups of Skybreakers, seems pretty crazy to me. At what point do you just call yourself something different? Presumably Billid’s Skybreakers use the same Surges of Gravitation and Division as Nale’s, but in my mind the Surges are just decoration. The core of what it means to be a Radiant of one Order or another comes down to the Ideals. So if we have two (or maybe more?) sets of Skybreaker Ideals… “He ran away,” Wit said. “Off to war. He was cajoled into it, convinced to run. The lumberman’s son found the only way to lose an unlosable contest. He didn’t show up.” At this point, it’s pretty common knowledge that Dragonsteel Prime was the first appearance of the Shattered Plains and Bridge Four (and even some characters, like Rock and Gaz). Sanderson took them all out, made some tweaks for worldbuilding purposes—instead of Dragonsteel wells, they’re fighting over gemhearts—and rebuilt the whole thing with Kaladin at the heart of it, rather than Jerick. But the fact that Hoid is still telling this story means that, to some extent, the events of Dragonsteel Prime are remaining canon. So I have to wonder, what war did Jerick go off to fight in? Is this going to be covered in the reimagined Dragonsteel trilogy, years and years from now? In the original plan, back when Sanderson wrote Prime, the series was going to be five books, with two Hoid-origin-story prequels (The Liar of Partinel and The Lightweaver of Rens). Most information now indicates that, with the Shattered Plains yoinked out for Roshar, the story is now mostly focusing on Hoid and the Shattering. But I’m gonna be sitting here, wondering about Jerick, for a long time… And speaking of obscure, unpublished Cosmere works: Seven millennia later, I still couldn’t tell you why Ashyn burns. I doubt we’ll ever see The Silence Divine at this point, but I do really hope we get some more info about Ashyn and the disease-based magic and the floating cities. He never finished a whole draft, but Brandon did read from the work-in-progress draft back during the Words of Radiance signing tour. From Q&As over the years, we know that the story was planned to be set somewhere around Book 8 on Roshar, so maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll show up as something tied to the Heralds or in an interlude or something. We’ll be keeping an eye on the comment sections of posts about this article on various social media platforms and may include some of your comments/speculation (with attribution) on future weeks’ articles! Keep the conversation going, and PLEASE remember to spoiler-tag your comments on social media to help preserve the surprise for those who haven’t read the book yet. See you next Monday with our discussion of chapters 130 through 132![end-mark] The post <i>Wind and Truth</i> Reread: Chapters 128 and 129 appeared first on Reactor.

Progressives insist that you read, watch, and listen to what is obviously left-wing propaganda and “bear it” as unbiased commentary. So much so, in fact, that in my book, “The Ten Woke Commandments (You Must Not Obey),” the Seventh Commandment is “You Shall Bear False Witness (Trust the Media).” There, I broke media bias down into nine categories and gave examples for each. While my book only references U.S. media like ABC, CBS, and NPR, it would have been easy to include the British Broadcasting Corporation, the United Kingdom’s state-owned media juggernaut.  Recently, the Daily Telegraph, a conservative-leaning British newspaper, obtained a copy of an internal BBC report produced by Michael Prescott, a former external advisor to their Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee. Informed by this report, President Donald Trump has called out the BBC for glaring bias in coverage of his first administration. As British establishment wagons circle to defend the “Beeb” against this assault on its imagined integrity, let’s take a look at the broadcaster’s recent record.  Trump’s specific complaint is that the BBC news program Panorama, which is a bit like CBS’s 60 Minutes, spliced together two clips of him speaking on Jan. 6, 2021, to make it look like he was encouraging people to commit violence and possibly insurrection.  Previously, Trump successfully sued CBS for editing then-candidate Kamala Harris’s answer to a question before the election. Harris’s original answer was lengthy and confusing, and 60 Minutes edited her response to make her appear (slightly) more cogent. That’s unprofessional. But deliberately splicing two videos to make it appear Trump said something he didn’t is worse—and it appears to have been deliberate deceit by Panorama to vilify Trump.  What other kinds of more subtle bias does one regularly find at the BBC? Here are a few.  Editorial Bias As part of the British government’s export of “soft power” to influence foreign audiences, the BBC operates services in foreign languages. The BBC Arabic service has a reputation for bias against Israel and for hiring or citing journalists who, at best, are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause at best and, at worst, are downright antisemitic. The Prescott report claims that 215 of BBC Arabic’s stories about the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas on Israel and the ensuing war “were found to be biased, inaccurate or misleading,” and over 100 of them had to be corrected. In one instance, a documentary about children in Gaza commissioned by the BBC was narrated by the son of a Hamas official and had to be pulled. In another instance, in October 2023, a BBC reporter immediately speculated that Israel was responsible for an explosion at the al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, as Hamas had claimed. The AP news agency and others later concluded that the damage was caused by a “failed militant rocket.”  Appeals to Experts One way media outlets bring in bias is by selectively citing so-called experts from one side only. That’s a practice the BBC is no stranger to. For example, the outlet was recently criticized for its sympathetic coverage of claims that the “milk” produced by males given drugs to induce secretions from the breast is comparable to mother’s milk. They interviewed a supposed expert from University College, London who “stated that there was persuasive evidence to support the nutritional value of trans women’s milk and dismissed any health concerns about the potential presence of male hormones in milk produced by trans women.” In response to a complaint, the BBC agreed that “it should have been made clear to audiences that more research is needed before such conclusions can be drawn with confidence.” Indeed.  Opinion Bias The Prescott report concluded that pro-gender ideology BBC reporters did their best to kill stories and opinions from critics, thus “celebrating the trans experience without adequate balance or objectivity.” For example, the BBC uses people’s “preferred” pronouns in its coverage of contentious cases over allowing trans-identifying men into women’s spaces from changing rooms to prisons. Headline Bias A random look at the BBC online headline page shows where the editors’ hearts are. On Nov. 12, for example, the top story was about an unproven allegation linking Trump to Jeffrey Epstein many years ago, while a more recent story about major corruption in Ukraine ranked below it. Stories about Trump are generally negative. Stories about migration concentrate on the plight of illegal immigrants rather than on the hardship of the communities housing and paying for them. Stories about the Gaza war are generally more sympathetic to Palestinians than Israelis. Selective Coverage Bias Most news outlets send notifications to subscribers about breaking stories. According to the Prescott review, out of 219 “push” notifications of news stories sent to the BBC News app’s seven million users, only four were about the ongoing asylum claims crisis. Three of these alerts focused on how bad things were for migrants instead of the conditions for the communities forced to host them. Several major stories about asylum costs, including about the government renting hotels and even boats to house asylum seekers, were ignored. The BBC review politely said, “It is not clear why none of these stories were sent out as push notifications, when perhaps less significant stories were extensively covered.” But it is clear. The BBC has an obvious bias in favor of asylum seekers and suppresses voices who are opposed to mass migration.  The BBC has fierce defenders, and as the world’s oldest broadcaster, it is a British tradition. But with the decline of television and radio and the rise of podcasts and alternative video platforms, the future of the UK’s state-run media—which requires everyone to pay around $200 in license fees a year—was already in question. Trump’s well-supported accusations of bias will not help the Beeb’s cause.  The post Breaking Down the BBC’s Bias appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The federal student loan program has long been in need of reform. Now, the Department of Education has taken steps to ensure greater accountability within the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which erases student loan balances after 10 years of public service. Following months of public input, the department published a final rule on Oct. 31. Effective July 1, 2026, the rule creates processes to ensure that only individuals employed by organizations engaged in lawful activities are eligible for loan forgiveness. This marks a sharp departure from the last administration’s approach, which temporarily expanded program eligibility so broadly that even high-income borrowers qualified. That policy misstep cost taxpayers more than $57 billion. Under the new rule, organizations that engage in activities with a substantial illegal purpose, such as supporting terrorism, trafficking children, aiding and abetting violations of federal immigration law, or engaging in patterns of illegal discrimination or state law violations, will face review—and may even lose access to public service loan forgiveness eligibility. The department has also built in due process protections: Employers will have the opportunity to review and rebut any findings, and previously qualified payments made before the rule’s effective date will not be retroactively disqualified. While the Education Department’s reforms help ensure that federal benefits only support lawful organizations, Congress must still confront the larger problem. Today, the federal government originates nearly 90% of all student loans and oversees $1.8 trillion in outstanding debt. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Congress enacted some of the most significant higher education reforms in years, measures that are projected to save taxpayers $307 billion over the next decade. The law eliminates the Grad PLUS loan program and establishes new aggregate and annual loan caps for graduate and professional students. It also creates a lifetime borrowing cap on all federal student loans, both helping to curb tuition inflation and inviting the private market to play a larger role in responsibly dispersing student loans. But even with those improvements, government loan forgiveness still shifts vast sums of debt onto taxpayers and encourages students to borrow more. To date, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program has discharged $85.5 billion in student debt for 1.1 million borrowers. Approximately 2.5 million additional borrowers, collectively holding nearly $225 billion in loans, are currently eligible. The average borrower from the program has received $74,000 in cancellation, and the department expects that figure to rise, since eligible borrowers now carry an average balance of $87,700. And the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program is far from the only forgiveness program available. Medical professionals working in underserved areas can access the National Health Service Corps’ State Loan Repayment Program. Teachers may qualify for the federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program, the Perkins Loan cancellation program, or other state-sponsored programs. Attorneys and public defenders benefit from the Department of Justice and John R. Justice repayment assistance programs. Many law schools, states, and federal agencies and departments have also adopted Loan Repayment Assistance Programs to provide assistance for borrowers. Federal employees already receive up to $60,000 in loan repayment aid, while service members can have as much as $250,000 forgiven through military programs. Given these extensive alternatives, and the availability of income-driven repayment plans that are affordable, cap payments, and include loan cancellation, it’s time to wind down the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. At a minimum, Congress should cap the total amount eligible for forgiveness. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that setting a $57,000 cap, the maximum amount an undergraduate can borrow in direct unsubsidized federal loans, would save taxpayers $12.5 billion over 10 years. Better yet, Congress should phase out the program entirely. This summer’s legislative reforms were an important first step in reining in tuition inflation, holding colleges accountable, and reducing federal overreach in higher education. Lawmakers should now take the next step: Cap or eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to protect taxpayers and strengthen the long-term affordability and integrity of American higher education. The post Education Department’s Rule Advances Accountability, but Congress Must Do More appeared first on The Daily Signal.

President Donald Trump is now urging House Republicans to vote to release the Epstein files. He said “we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown.’” “The Department of Justice has already turned over tens of thousands of pages to the Public on ‘Epstein,’ are looking at various Democrat operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their relationship to Epstein,” he said, “and the House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!” All Trump does care about, he said, is getting Republicans “BACK ON POINT, which is the Economy, ‘Affordability’ (where we are winning BIG!), our Victory on reducing Inflation from the highest level in History to practically nothing, bringing down prices for the American People, delivering Historic Tax Cuts, gaining Trillions of Dollars of Investment into America (A RECORD!), the rebuilding of our Military, securing our Border, deporting Criminal Illegal Aliens, ending Men in Women’s Sports, stopping Transgender for Everyone, and so much more!” According to Trump, no one cared about Epstein before he died, and the Democrats would have released their evidence, if it existed, connecting Trump to the financier prior to the 2024 election. “Some ‘members of the Republican Party are being ‘used,’ and we can’t let that happen,” he said. “Let’s start talking about the Republican Party’s Record Setting Achievements, and not fall into the Epstein “TRAP,” which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” The House bill to release the Epstein files, which is known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, was an effort headed up by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who is facing primary pressure for his votes against the Republican conference, and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. The legislation is co-sponsored by a large number of Democrats and Republicans, ranging from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. With the newly sworn-in Rep. Adelita Grijalva’s, D-Ariz., signature, the discharge petition met the 218-signature threshold needed to force a vote on the House floor. While the Trump administration and Republican leadership previously resisted congressional efforts to release the Epstein files, Republican leaders in Congress are expecting a large portion of the GOP conference to vote in favor. If the bill succeeds, it will require the attorney general to “make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys’ Offices” related to Epstein and his wife, Ghislaine Maxwell. That includes Epstein’s flight logs and internal Justice Department communications. The post ‘Nothing to Hide’: Trump Changes Tune About Epstein Files appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A new report from the University of California, San Diego has ignited a viral conversation on social media, because it demonstrates the alarming lack of preparation among incoming freshmen for college level math courses. Produced by UCSD’s Senate–Administration Working Group on Admissions, the report found the university “has experienced a steep decline in the academic preparation of its entering first-year students—particularly in mathematics.” The UCSD employs a testing and placement system to assign incoming freshmen to the appropriate mathematics course based on their backgrounds. This process ensures that students meet the requirements for their chosen majors. In 2016, the placement test identified fewer than 100 students—approximately 1% of the incoming cohort—who needed to take a remedial math class to address gaps in their high school math knowledge. However, from 2020 to 2025, the number of freshmen failing to meet middle school math standards increased nearly thirtyfold. In response, UCSD revamped its remedial programs to focus on elementary and middle school Common Core math (grades 1-8) and introduced a new course for high school topics like Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II (grades 9-11). Consequently, enrollment in these classes surged to over 900 freshmen, representing 12.5% of the fall 2024 incoming class. In other words, UCSD, ranked as the sixth best public university in America, faces the challenge of teaching some 18-year-old freshmen math skills that they should have acquired by age eight. The report highlights the severity of this issue, noting that 25% of UCSD freshmen who took the math placement test could not correctly answer a simple arithmetic problem, such as 7 + 2 = ___ + 6. The current trend of admitting large numbers of underprepared students presents serious risks that cannot be ignored. This approach undermines their potential for success, effectively setting them up for failure. Furthermore, it places an undue burden on faculty members and stretches the university’s already limited resources. Importantly, the report highlights that this alarming math deficiency is not only an issue at UCSD but is also widespread across other campuses within the University of California system. The Significant Impact of the Woke Math Movement The report identifies three key factors behind math deficiencies: learning loss from the COVID-19 pandemic, the removal of standardized tests for college admissions, and grade inflation. However, it overlooks the significant impact of the woke math movement, which is crucial for understanding current challenges in math education. Influenced by Critical Race Theory, some argue that disparities in math scores among students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds stem from systemic racism. They claim that traditional math instruction reflects “white supremacy,” prompting a shift toward integrating social justice themes like anti-racism in math classes, and placing equity above mere academic merit. Disturbingly, some proponents advocate for an even more radical approach that involves teaching mathematics without relying on numbers or computations, which would fundamentally alter the essence of math education. The woke math movement, once a fringe idea, has garnered significant attention and traction in recent years, largely due to the activism of academics like Jo Boaler from Stanford University. Leveraging her ties to elite institutions and controversial research, Boaler has legitimized this movement while charging financially struggling school districts $5,000 per hour for consultancy on woke math reforms. With substantial funding from wealthy nonprofits like the Melinda Gates Foundation, the movement has quickly expanded into urban districts from San Francisco to Chicago. A pivotal victory for the woke math movement occurred in 2023 when California adopted a highly controversial mathematics framework for its K-12 school systems. Despite fierce criticism from educators and scientists, this framework embraced woke math initiatives, such as delaying Algebra 1 until ninth grade and promoting “data science” as an alternative to calculus. It also advocates for integrating “environmental and social justice” into math instruction while discouraging “tracking” based on student abilities. Proponents argue that these changes will help close achievement gaps for black, Hispanic, and low-income students. However, hundreds scientists and educators have raised serious concerns that “such a reform would disadvantage K–12 public school students in the United States relative to their counterparts in international and private schools. Although these reforms may appear successful in reducing disparities at the high school level, they are merely deferring the issue to college.” This warning is further validated by a recent troubling report from UCSD, which clearly illustrates how the woke math movement has compromised academic excellence and failed to deliver true equity. Even in San Francisco, one of the most progressive cities in America, voters have recognized the dangers of “woke math.” In 2024, they decisively reinstated eighth-grade algebra through a ballot measure, rejecting the district’s policy that delayed Algebra I until ninth grade. This vote repudiates the “woke math” movement and underscores the public’s desire for effective math education. Yet, organizations like the Heising-Simons Foundation continue to promote woke math nationwide, ignoring the disastrous educational outcomes and rising public dissatisfaction. The UCSD report should serve as a wake-up call for families across America. It reveals the damaging effects of the woke math movement on our children’s education. In a rapidly evolving economy driven by artificial intelligence and technological advancements, students who cannot solve basic arithmetic problems are at a significant disadvantage. It’s time to take action and eliminate woke math from America’s school districts. The election victory in San Francisco illustrates what can be achieved when communities stand up for quality education. We must restore effective, evidence-based math instruction and resources, ensuring that every student acquires the essential math skills needed to thrive in today’s digital landscape. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Thanks to the Woke Math Movement, Some Freshmen at UCSD Can’t Do Grade Level Math appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Trump to GOP: Release the Epstein Files ASAP

Alex Simpson was born with a condition called hydranencephaly. How could that happen? And how did she survive?