A 26-year-old man was arrested Monday after he allegedly attempted to break into the Cincinnati home of Vice President JD Vance by shattering windows with a hammer.  William Defoor was detained after midnight after the Secret Service said they found him trespassing at Vance’s Walnut Hills neighborhood home. He has been charged with vandalism, obstructing official business, criminal damaging, and criminal trespass.  Neither Vance nor his family was at the home at the time of the incident.  “I appreciate everyone’s well wishes about the attack at our home. As far as I can tell, a crazy person tried to break in by hammering the windows. I’m grateful to the secret service and the Cincinnati police for responding quickly,” Vance posted on X. “We weren’t even home as we had returned already to DC.” Vance added that he was skeptical of the news value of posting pictures of the broken windows at his home.  “One request to the media: we try to protect our kids as much as possible from the realities of this life of public service. In that light, I am skeptical of the news value of plastering images of our home with holes in the windows,” he said.  Defoor was allegedly able to make it all the way to Vance’s home undetected before Secret Service agents heard the glass windows breaking, the Associated Press reported. A Secret Service vehicle was also vandalized.  Defoor is being held at the Hamilton County Detention Center and is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. He could face additional federal charges, authorities said. “The U.S. Secret Service is coordinating with the Cincinnati Police Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office as charging decisions are reviewed,” said the Secret Service.  Defoor’s criminal history includes prior arrests for trespassing and vandalism. In November 2023, a judge dismissed a criminal trespassing case after determining that he was not competent to stand trial.  In a vandalism case earlier this year, Defoor was sentenced to receive mental health treatment. WXIX reported that the case involved Defoor causing more than $2000 worth of damage to an interior design company.

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Column Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “The Exercise of Vital Powers” Garibaldi finally meets his new employer, while Dr. Franklin discovers that Lyta can influence the modified telepaths… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on January 5, 2026 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “The Exercise of Vital Powers”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by John LafiaSeason 4, Episode 16Production episode 416Original air date: June 2, 1997 It was the dawn of the third age… The rebel fleet has moved on from liberating Proxima to liberating Beta Durani colony and the Mid-Range Military Base. In a personal log, we hear Garibaldi lamenting that Sheridan is really doing this. This concerns him sufficiently that he has gone against a long-ago-taken oath to never return to Mars. He and Wade are in a transport tube, heading to Edgars’ Mars home. Wade insists that Garibaldi put on a blindfold, as Edgars values his privacy. Garibaldi thinks that’s absurd and that he’ll look silly. Along the way, they babble about various things, including Wade surprising Garibaldi with the revelation that he has a Masters Degree in English Literature. On B5, Franklin is continuing his efforts to free the telepaths from Shadow influence, but nothing is working. Allan, who is there on other business, asks for an update. After Franklin tells him, and expresses his frustration, particularly with the fact that Sheridan has yet to tell him what, exactly, is the hurry. Alexander arrives, Allan having asked her there to scan the victim of an assault, who’s having trouble remembering his attacker and wishes some psionic assistance in doing so. While there, Alexander makes telepathic contact with Franklin’s patient, who gets up and walks toward her and doesn’t go crazy or try to destroy everything or reach out to control the equipment. Credit: Warner Bros. Television It only lasts a moment, and as soon as it’s over, Alexander buggers off. Franklin tracks her down, and she apologizes for messing up his experiment, but Franklin gleefully explains that this is the first progress he’s made in ages, and asks her to come back when she’s done with her current job. She reluctantly agrees. On Mars, Garibaldi arrives at Edgars’ palatial home—Edgars apologizing for how small it is, saying his place on Earth is way bigger. But domed space is at a premium on Mars. However, because he owns businesses on Mars, Edgars has to live on the red planet for half the year to make use of the tax benefits. Edgars wants to know why Garibaldi was so eager for a face-to-face right now, and Garibaldi explains that he’s concerned about Sheridan. Yes, Clark’s bad news, but Sheridan’s military attack will just tear Earth apart. Garibaldi also seems to think that Sheridan has designs to take over Earth himself. But Garibaldi absolutely does not want to turn him over to Clark. He’d rather Edgars do it. He’ll be seen as a hero, and that will be capital that will be useful to him. Over the course of the next few days, Garibaldi and Edgars have several conversations. It’s clear that Edgars doesn’t trust Clark, and is especially concerned at how much power he’s given to Psi Corps. He makes it clear that the megacorps have really been running things, and they suspected that Clark had Santiago assassinated long before B5 released the footage proving it. One of those conversations happens in the middle of the night, with Garibaldi forcibly taken from his bed and brought to a room with a telepath (Edgars wants him frazzled and out of sorts so he’s less likely to hide his thoughts). Edgars asks him several pointed questions, with the telepath showing with a nod whether or not Garibaldi is telling the truth. Garibaldi says he doesn’t trust telepaths. Credit: Warner Bros. Television On B5, Alexander is able to help Franklin find a way around the Shadow implants, though Alexander also has to stop the patient from killing himself. When Sheridan checks in with Ivanova, he transfers down to medlab, at which point Franklin demands to know what he needs the telepaths for so urgently. Sheridan only tells him in private on a secure coded channel—and does so off-camera, so we only see Franklin’s devastated reaction. He then asks if Alexander is available for a long-term gig that will involve travel to Mars. On Mars, Edgars eventually reveals that he’s incredibly concerned about telepaths. Both he and Garibaldi agree that there will be a reckoning, and Edgars’ concern is that it won’t be a war in the military sense, but rather a war of information and privacy—or lack of same. Plus, Clark has given Psi Corps a great deal more power, and they won’t just give that up once Clark is out of power. They also agree that Sheridan needs to be stopped. Edgars needs Sheridan off the table to that Clark will relax and lower his guard. He’ll read Garibaldi completely in on what he has planned once he knows for sure he can trust the erstwhile security chief. And his condition for gaining that trust: to turn Sheridan over to Clark. Garibaldi initially refuses, as Clark will kill him, but Edgars assures him that he’ll want to capture Sheridan and gain the propaganda value of having him as a prisoner. Garibaldi then reveals how to capture Sheridan: through his father David. Edgars says that Clark’s been turning Earth upside down to find David to no avail, but Garibaldi knows how to do it. David suffers from a blood disease that requires a Centauri drug called tenasticin. Find a bogus prescription of that, and you’ll probably find David. We also see Edgars and Wade looking in on three patients, who are obviously dying, their bodies covered in lesions. Edgars instructs Wade to put them down, as if they were sick pets, as they shouldn’t have to suffer anymore and they have all the information they need. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan is nervous because everything is going so well. Both Franklin and Garibaldi talk about how much he’s changed since returning from Z’ha’dum. Ivanova is God. The episode opens with Ivanova’s “Voice of the Resistance” broadcast filling in the viewer on the rebel fleet’s progress. In addition, she reports to Sheridan that Clark sent two destroyers to take B5 but as soon as they arrived, they defected. The household god of frustration. Garibaldi makes it clear that he knows that Edgars is up to something more complicated and dangerous than he lets on, mostly by the very fact that he hired Garibaldi. If he just wanted to keep his shipments safe from his competitors, he’d buy a ship and keep it off the radar. He needed secrecy from everyone, which is why he hired Garibaldi. If you value your lives, be somewhere else. When Ivanova tells Sheridan that Delenn is finishing up her business on Minbar and will be returning to B5 soon, Sheridan gets this goofy grin on his face. It’s very adorable. The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. Alexander is able to telepathically help the Shadow-infested psis. Meantime, the poor telepath that Edgars hires to polygraph Garibaldi is “paid” by being shot and killed by Wade. The Shadowy Vorlons. Alexander hears the sound of a Shadow vessel when she scans Franklin’s patient. Also, according to Edgars, the Shadows’ interest in Psi Corps is what prompted Clark to keep them close and make them a bigger part of his administration. Garibaldi doesn’t bother to explain the reasons to Edgars—that the Shadows are vulnerable to telepathy—probably because the Shadows aren’t really a factor anymore. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Looking ahead. Sheridan’s use for the Shadow-infested telepaths will finally be revealed in “Endgame.” Edgars’ full plan will be revealed next time in “The Face of the Enemy.” No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. The last question Edgars asks Garibaldi while in the room with the telepath is if he’s still in love with Lise. Garibaldi lies and says no. Later, Garibaldi and Lise have a fraught conversation in which it’s clear that Garibaldi still loves her and that she needs more than a declaration, especially since it’s clear that he’s married to the job first, and any relationship is secondary. Welcome aboard. Back from “Conflicts of Interest” are Denise Gentile as Lise and Mark Schneider as Wade. Back from “Moments of Transition,” and actually appearing in front of the camera and credited for the first time, is the late great Efram Zimbalist Jr. as Edgars. All three will return next week in “The Face of the Enemy.” In addition, Shelley Robertson does excellent work with her facial expressions and actually gets credited despite having no dialogue as the telepath. Trivial matters. The episode title derives from Aristotle’s description of happiness, which Edgars quotes: “The exercise of vital powers along lines of excellence in a life affording them scope.” Edgars mentions times in history when the people of a nation let fascists take over, citing Russia in 1917 and Germany in 1939 (which actually happened, though it would’ve been more accurate to say Germany in 1933, which is when Hitler was elected chancellor), and also Russia again in 2013 and Iraq in 2025 (which didn’t happen), as well as France in 2112 (which still might). Edgars also makes reference to the Nazi party and the Communist party, as well as the “Jihad party,” which one assumes is supposed to be one in our future and the show’s past. Garibaldi mentions that three times Mars tried to kill him. One would be when he and Sinclair trekked across the surface of Mars, mentioned in “Infection” and dramatized in the “Shadows Past and Present” storyline that ran through the fifth through eighth issues of DC’s B5 comic book by Tim DeHaas & John Ridgway. The echoes of all of our conversations. “Did you know this place was named after the god of war? Its rising foretold the death of kings, the collapse of empires. It was a very bad sign. Now there are two million people living here.” “It’s still a bad sign.” —Wade and Garibaldi discussing Mars. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “Everybody lies.” As with “Conflicts of Interest,” we have Michael Garibaldi as a twenty-third-century Dashiell Hammett character, with his manly demands and his cynical voiceovers and his weepy scene with Lise and his macho posturing and his reluctant descent into betrayal. And it’s actually kind of fun. Jerry Doyle in particular sells the character’s disgust at having to return to Mars. Denise Gentile is a little too melodramatic, but given the awful dialogue she’s stuck reading, there’s only so much she can do. The episode is, however, owned by the mighty Efram Zimbalist Jr. Edgars has to deliver a lot of exposition, and the dialogue he has as written could very easily have devolved into didactic droning. But his silken voice and relaxed delivery absolutely sell it. It’s a magnificent performance. Overall, this is a very quiet, talky episode, the calm before the storm, and almost entirely setup. It sets a lot of important things in motion, many of which will pay off next time. On its own it just barely works, mainly due to the frank discussions about telepaths between Edgars and Garibaldi, which Doyle and Zimbalist Jr. make more compelling than they might be in the hands of lesser talents. Still and all, these discussions do a nice job explicating the ethical issues that would come up if a subset of humanity developed the ability to read minds. Mention should also be made of Shelley Robertson, who has a superb gift for facial expressions, conveying quite a bit without saying a word as the telepath who serves as Garibaldi’s polygraph. Next week: “The Face of the Enemy.”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “The Exercise of Vital Powers” appeared first on Reactor.

Human creativity has been a driving force behind our evolution, allowing us to adapt and thrive in a myriad of environments. From the first sparks of innovation, our ancestors have left a trail of creativity that has shaped the world we know today. This journey begins with simple tools but quickly expands into a tapestry of human ingenuity that spans arts, crafts, and communication. Source

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Britain’s independent reviewer of terrorism laws, Jonathan Hall KC, has urged the government to copy Australia’s recent decision to ban under-16s from social media. He argues such a restriction could prevent radicalization and the spread of extremist material, particularly through artificial intelligence tools. But privacy advocates say the cost of enforcing such bans would be the loss of anonymity online, a principle that has long protected political dissent, personal safety, and free expression. Writing in The Telegraph, Hall said the UK must “take back control” from major technology companies and stop “troubled young people” from being drawn into violence through AI-driven interactions. “Terrorist chatbots or avatars of celebrated mass killers, always present and eager to please, are precisely the wrong companions for disturbed teenagers like Axel Rudakubana and Nicholas Prosper,” he warned. Australia recently introduced a world-first law requiring strict age checks to block those under sixteen from accessing social media platforms such as Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. Communications Minister Anika Wells has defended the plan, saying her government “will not be swayed by legal threats.” The policy has faced immediate legal and ethical challenges. Two 15-year-olds, Noah Jones and Macy Neyland, have taken the case to the High Court, arguing that the restriction deprives them of “their right to free communication.” Reddit has also launched a legal challenge, warning that the requirement undermines privacy and political freedoms. To verify the age of every user, social media companies would need to implement dystopian identity checks. That would mean no one could open an account or access most online spaces without proving exactly who they are, typically through passports, driver’s licences, or facial recognition systems. Such mechanisms would not just exclude children. They would eliminate anonymous browsing for everyone. This would transform the internet from an open environment into a monitored identity system, allowing both governments and corporations to link every post, search, and private message to a verified individual. For many who value privacy, that represents a fundamental change in the structure of digital life. Anonymity online has long protected journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens who speak out about sensitive issues. Once identification becomes mandatory, those protections vanish. The UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA), passed last year, already forces adult sites to use strict age checks and makes social media companies legally responsible for shielding minors from “harmful” content. But unlike Australia’s law, the OSA does not require full identity verification for all users, nor does it grant the state power to remove posts directly. Hall has described this as a weakness. He says the OSA “does not grant authorities the ability to take down content,” leaving regulators powerless when American firms refuse to comply. Ofcom, the regulator enforcing the act, is currently facing a lawsuit from 4chan, which claims that the law violates the US First Amendment’s free-speech protections. Hall believes AI has transformed the threat landscape, describing 2025 as the most demanding year of his tenure. He warned that online radicalization is now “central to national security” and compared Australia’s ban to landmark public safety reforms such as seat-belt laws and smoking bans. Once anonymity is gone, it cannot easily be restored, and it has greater implications in a nation where citizens are being arrested for social media posts. And for a generation raised in digital spaces, that loss would mark a new era: one where being online no longer means being free to speak without fear of being watched. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post UK Terrorism Watchdog Calls for Under-16 Social Media Ban, Despite Digital ID Concerns appeared first on Reclaim The Net.