Movies & TV Keeper I Might Put Keeper Back on the Shelf Strong visuals and some cool ideas never quite come together. By Leah Schnelbach | Published on November 18, 2025 Credit: Neon Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Neon There are a lot of interesting ideas in Osgood Perkins’ latest atmospheric horror, Keeper. There are some striking visuals, excellent creature design, and, unsurprisingly, a great performance from lead Tatiana Maslany. And it’s possible that if this film hadn’t come out close on the heels of Presence, Companion, Heretic—not to mention Barbarian from a couple years ago—I’d be a little more excited about it. As it is, there’s a lot of cool stuff here that never quite comes together, and a lot of strong ideas that were, I think, interrogated in more satisfying ways in a few other films. Keeper creates a fantastic atmosphere, but that atmosphere often slipped into vagueness that pushed me out of the story rather than pulling me in. Keeper was written by Nick Lepard, and directed by Osgood Perkins, whose visual style and verve I tend to love, but who doesn’t always stick the landing for me. The plot is quite simple. Liz (Tatiana Maslany) has been dating Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland) for a year. We learn pretty quickly that this level of commitment is unusual for her; we also see that Malcolm seems to enjoy her somewhat spiky personality. The two are celebrating their anniversary at Malcolm’s gorgeous modern cabin in the woods—all sharp angles and couches that are more like shelves carved out of raw wood walls and sheets of glass overlooking dense woods. A brook rushes just under the living room. The only room with a lock on the door is the single bathroom. Visually, the film is gorgeous, and creates a chilly, eerie atmosphere from the second the pair get to the cabin. The camera feels voyeuristic, peering at Liz from corners, through doorways, often creeping closer as though it’s stalking her. The light feels natural, and a lot of the scenes are lit with the glow of a phone (which, obviously, gets spotty signal at best), and even in daylight the sunshine feels dim and grey-green as it struggles through the leaves of the forest. There are noises in the walls, creaking, the sound of the brook, the rushing of the wind. The pair arrive to find a cake left by “the caretaker” who apparently “can’t keep the mice out of the walls” but must be a pro-level baker—the cake, once it’s revealed, is a glossy beautiful chocolate concoction enrobed in mirror glaze. Malcolm’s asshole cousin comes over from his house, next door, which Liz did not know about. He brings his weekend date, a model named Mika, whom he treats like a blow-up doll and insists can’t speak English. (She absolutely can.) He talks about Liz like she’s not in the room, and Malcolm does nothing to stop this. (He kind of apologizes later.) After the cousin’s finally gone, Malcolm all but forces Liz to eat a piece of cake, even though she doesn’t like chocolate—and after a year, Malcolm should know that. He doesn’t eat any himself. I’ll also note that he bought Liz a beige cardigan as a gift to bring—something she would never wear. Obviously strange shit is afoot. The cousins’ relationship is weird, Mika acts like she’s been drugged, what’s the deal with the cake??? Does Liz really know Malcolm at all? Well, no, of course not. Then Liz starts hallucinating, maybe, or maybe there are actually ghosts in the house, who’s to say? All of this is a rich stew that could turn into something really cool, a commentary on conformity, the way people construct versions of themselves for their partners, the way those partners construct versions of their beloveds to love or be mad at, the way certain types of misogyny tumble down thru the ages like the rushing water of a creek even as some aspects of society seem to improve, the way city folk moan about having to go to the country, the way sometimes being in the country is actually terrifying, the way dealing with your partner’s family can be THE WORST. (Boy could I write a whole other essay at this moment.) Layering all of this basic real-world stuff in, and having it play out against the backdrop of a house haunted by generations of women who were wronged in various ways, could have been great. What plays out instead is a plot that I figured out really quickly (which, again, could be fine—I also spotted the twists in Companion pretty quick because, you know, I’ve seen a movie before) but the problem is that the central relationship isn’t fleshed out enough, and Liz herself isn’t fleshed out enough, for the emotional beats to hit the way they need to. But the real problem here is that in our current cultural climate, I think a movie has to go way further than Keeper goes just to keep up with reality. I mention Heretic and Companion because I think they’re both mining the same vein of horror—the real hatred of women crashing into a somewhat supernatural or uncanny story. Where Companion and Heretic both soared in my estimation was that the performances of Jack Quaid and High Grant were both so nuanced that they felt like real people you could meet out in the world, and maybe not realize you’d just met a monster. Sophie Thatcher in Companion, and Chloe East, and, um Sophie Thatcher again in Heretic were so real as Iris, Sister Paxton, and Sister Barnes that there were points when I was holding my breath hoping they’d get through the movie in one piece. Keeper’s Rossif Sutherland is solid as Malcolm, but the script doesn’t give him nearly enough to do. Tatiana Maslany is great, but I don’t know what makes Liz tick, what she believes, what she wants out of life, I just know that she doesn’t like chocolate or beige, gets creeped out by the country, and doesn’t like being treated like an accessory by asshole cousins. In Heretic we had a pair of young girls trapped in an isolated cabin with a man who uhhh didn’t like women too much, it turns out! And in Companion we had a young woman going away for her first weekend trip with her partner, stuck in an isolated house in the country, wrangling his complex, tight-knit friend group who treated her like an outsider. I think both of those movies do more interesting stuff with the fact that right now, in the United States of America, in 2025, an enormous number of people who are living as functional-ish members of society absolutely fucking hate women. A lot of people want to see women suffer, they want to see them mangled, want to see them bloody and gouged and humiliated. A lot of the people who want to see that are also women! A lot of them think all the pain and degradation would make those women better people, and a lot of them don’t consider women people at all. In that context, and in the context of a year of extraordinary horror, Keeper never felt like the knife in the gut I wanted it to be. This is a very vibe heavy film. When the supernatural horror element finally hits, it’s great—but it doesn’t really get going until halfway through the film, and even then, a lot of the action is so vague and atmospheric that it’s never as frightening or as emotionally satisfying as I think it needs to be. The apparitions are fantastic. They start out really creepy, and becomes increasingly endearing as the film rolls along. They were the best part of the film, but in order to talk about why I liked them—and I liked them quite a bit—I’ll need to get into some spoilers. The film opens with a montage of women, clearly in different decades, moving from the joyful early days of a relationship to fighting and recriminations. The camera stands in for the man they’re responding to, so they act their happiness and their frustrations straight into the camera, at us. This sequence ends with shots of the women screaming and covered in blood, flipping along like frames in a film strip. Because of this montage, we know going in that Liz is in danger—and that’s where the film swerves a little, but not enough. In her first moments in the cabin, already a bit disoriented and feeling distant from Malcolm, she breathes on a window and draws a heart in the condensation. Later, as she takes a bath (in the one room in the house that has a lock on its door) we see a heart appear in the condensation on the window just above her head. And that’s where it becomes a different movie than I expected—a movie I wish it had leaned much further into being. Yes, the apparitions have fed on all those other women, for complicated reasons that aren’t explained well enough, but the apparitions love Liz, and take her side against the machinations of Malcolm and his asshole cousin. Which is what I meant by “endearing”. On first sight, the apparitions are actually scary, viscerally upsetting, but then they don’t do anything to Liz, because they like her. They gather around her like kids and ask for attention. So the Creature with Smoke for a Head and The Creature with Vile White Goo Dripping Down Its Face become… adorable. The problem is that we don’t meet the apparitions until the last third of the film, and their actions up to then range from “vague” to “slightly creepy”, which doesn’t make much sense after they literally drew a heart for Liz, and also means that we don’t get nearly enough of a comeuppance for Malcolm and his asshole cousin. The movie where Liz and the creatures are on the same team for three-quarters of the runtime would have been a lot stronger I think, and a much more interesting take on the ideas the film investigates. Here endeth the spoilers! On a more positive note, because I wanted to love this film and I hate to end on a negative: I think that if you’re looking for a particular type of sick glee from the mind of Osgood Perkins, The Monkey is fun as fuck, a great time, sheer joy from start to finish if you like that sort of thing, and I recommend that one wholeheartedly.[end-mark] The post I Might Put <em>Keeper</em> Back on the Shelf appeared first on Reactor.

News The Witcher The Witcher Season 4 Showrunner Reveals the Reasons Behind Those Surprising Deaths Several characters died in the show who don’t die in the books. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on November 18, 2025 Credit: Susie Allnut/Netflix Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Susie Allnut/Netflix Warning: this post contains spoilers for season four of The Witcher. It’s no surprise that a lot of people died in season four of The Witcher. A lot of people die in Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels, after all. But some of the deaths in Netflix’s latest episodes were of characters that very much didn’t die in the books, much to fans’ surprise.  Perhaps the biggest unexpected death was of Vesemir, Geralt’s Witcher mentor and father figure. This season saw Peter Mullan playing the character, taking over the role from Kim Bodnia. Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich recently shared in an Instagram comment (via Redanian Intelligence) the decision for Vesemir’s death, as well as the decision for other deaths, specifically Lodge members Keira Metz (played by Safiyya Ingar) and Margarita Laux-Antille (played by Rochelle Rose). (Istredd, played by Royce Pierrson, was also killed off, presumably for similar reasons.) “The first aspect is actor availability,” she wrote. “Not every actor is available to us exclusively, so sometimes, they’re already committed to another project when we need them. Schedules in TV are the biggest Tetris game EVER — you’re looking at the schedules of all of your actors, your director, location availability, when sets can be ready, etc. It’s actually a wonder anything gets made! Sometimes, we end up killing (or writing off) a character simply because they’re tied up in something else.” Image: Netflix Schmidt Hissrich went on to specifically talk about adding two new Lodge members who don’t show up in the books, and who effectively replaced Keira and Margarita. “For the Lodge, every character is from the books except two: Ximer and Alaina. Ximer was easy: we wanted to show sorceresses from other parts of the Continent, with different magical skills, which we’d never done. In Alaina, we wanted to give Yen a mirror to when she was a novice, so she could recognize some parts of herself but also so she could see how much she’s grown.” Vesemir’s death, however, seems to be more driven by story than logistics, which is not surprising given they went to the effort to recast the role. “I’ve talked a lot about character death that doesn’t occur in the books, as it relates to Vesemir this season. It’s not about the *audience* shock value — it’s about shock value to the *character.* How a death changes a character’s path or motivation — which we know from real life is quite a force.”  She added, circling back to the Lodge deaths, “If we killed characters that Yen has never directly interacted with, for instance, it doesn’t have the same value. It doesn’t push Yen forward in the same way. Killing Margarita is an epic loss for Yen and the Lodge — it changes how Yen behaves for the rest of the episode (and series), it changes the level of vitriol and anger she has. Just how badly she needs Vilgefortz to pay for his crimes — to die.” We’ll see how that all plays out whenever season five makes its way to Netflix sometime in the near(?) future. [end-mark] The post <i>The Witcher</i> Season 4 Showrunner Reveals the Reasons Behind Those Surprising Deaths appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts paranormal romance Read an Excerpt From Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi A journey of magic and fantasy, from the whispering creeks outside the city of Salvation to the very depths of Hell itself. By Akwaeke Emezi | Published on November 18, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi, a steamy paranormal romance set in the Black South, available now from Avon Books. Tenderhearted Galilee was raised by the Kincaids, a formidable clan of Black women sequestered deep in the weeping willows and dark rushing creeks of their land. Galilee has always known that she’s different—that there is an old and unknowable secret around her very existence. It has been a hollow ache inside her since her childhood, something she assumes she will always have to live with.Until she meets Lucifer Helel. He’s fronting as the head of security for her wealthy friend Oriaku’s family, protecting a mysterious, ancient artifact, but from the moment she lays eyes on him, Gali knows he’s not human. From her first incendiary touch, Lucifer knows something even Gali herself doesn’t—that she isn’t human either. Enter: Leviathan. As Lucifer’s most trusted prince of Hell, Levi is ruthless and determined to eliminate the intolerable danger that is Galilee before she brings death and disaster to those he loves. While unseen battles rage between Hell, Heaven, and earth, Lucifer and Galilee’s attraction threatens to bring all the structures of their existence crashing down around them.Soon, loyalties will be shattered and reformed as Kincaid secrets clash with the princes of Hell, driving even the most powerful to their knees. Galilee Kincaid must decide if she will step into herself and embrace the consequences of power. Oriakụ was about to snap out another order when someone melted out of the shadows on their right, startling them all. Bonbon squeaked, and Gali did a double take because she could have sworn there was nothing there—no door, no hallway—just pools of darkness splashed on the walls and floor. She looked up at the stranger, and her brain nearly short-circuited. Her migraine squeezed at her skull. God, he was beautiful. His skin was a pristine dark walnut that seemed to almost glow, and when he turned his head to glance at the guards, Gali saw the hooked jut of his nose in profile. The stranger lifted a hand to brush a shadow off his black shirt, and he had those damn piano hands that were always Gali’s weakness, with the long, articulated fingers and singing tendons right under the skin. Coarse dark curls fell into his face and around his ears, kissing the collar of his black shirt, and his mouth was unforgivably wide and lush. He wasn’t visibly armed, but there was something about him that seemed intrinsically wrong, like he wasn’t really supposed to be here, like he was one step sideways out of this reality. Gali knew that feeling quite well. Her entire family had that strangeness to them, but it was much louder in this man and much, much more dangerous. He was displaced and he wasn’t happy about it. Gali knew she was staring, soaking him up with her eyes, but she didn’t care. Bonbon leaned in. “Who the hell is that?” she whispered. “He’s fucking delectable.” Oriakụ glanced over at her friends. “This is Helel,” she said. “He’s the head of the artifact security team.” The stranger’s eyes flicked in Gali’s direction, and her knees almost gave out. He had the longest lashes she’d ever seen, and his eyes were so dark they seemed black. Shards of gold splintered in his irises, shifting in the light, and she thought she saw a glimpse of violent power before it was shuttered away. Her skin skittered over her body. He really did seem illuminated from within, radiating a light that animated the dim hallway they stood in. It wasn’t something Gali could ask the others to confirm, because she would sound crazy and she was trying very hard not to be that, not in Salvation, not this far from the Kincaid house. “Can I help you with anything, Ms. Onyearugbulem?” the stranger asked Oriakụ. “Have your companions been cleared for this wing?” Gali exhaled as the rolling heat of his voice curled around them. He sounded like a herald—the kind who sang down falling civilizations, who stood mad on a mountain as children burned. That voice… it scorched like both magma and a cold that could sear flesh off the bone, iron bleached soft at an unfathomable temperature. It licked against her like a spell. “They don’t need clearances,” Oriakụ snapped. “They’re with me.” The stranger’s face didn’t change in the slightest, but a haze of contempt oozed out from him. A faint smile curved Gali’s lips, and she couldn’t help herself. “You’d like us to get on out of here, wouldn’t you?” she said, amused. She wanted him to hear her voice, to look at her. She was Galilee Kincaid, and he was some kind of creature, and she wasn’t afraid. Her head was splitting apart, but she felt reckless and close to laughter. Gali gave in to it—“normal” was going to have to hold on for a second. The stranger’s gaze swung to her and he narrowed his eyes, angling his body slightly in Gali’s direction. The stinging ache inside her made a leap for her bones and clawed through her marrow as it bloomed into wanting. Gali cursed silently, biting down on her lip. No, no, no, not now! She didn’t want her worlds to overlap, not like this. Her foreboding yelled that something heavy hung behind those carved wooden doors, and the damn migraine in her head wouldn’t stop. Gali took a step backward, clenching her hands to will them dark. The stranger’s eyes tracked to her mouth, and far away in the Kincaid forest, Celestial Kincaid giggled, standing shin-deep in water. Did you find a toy to play with, Galilee? This was what Nana Darling had warned her about, this treacherous amplification of her wanting, and if Gali had any sense, she would run far and fast away from anyone who could set this cascade off within her. She’d done it once before, years ago, when a girl with silver eyes had visited the Kincaid house from another powerful family and touched Gali so tenderly that Gali had wept from the force of the ache inside her. She’d avoided the girl for the rest of her visit and Celestial had scolded her for it, but then again, Celestial had no problem living madly with overlapped worlds. Gali wasn’t like her cousin. Gali could be exactly like her cousin. Possibilities swung in front of her like falling blades as she looked into the stranger’s fractured eyes. “I don’t want you here,” he confirmed, his voice clipped. “The artifact is not on exhibition—” “The artifact,” Oriakụ interrupted, a beatific smile on her face, “is not yours. I will show it to whomever I please, and if you have any issues with that, Helel, I suggest you take it up with my father. Are we clear?” Everyone fell silent as the man turned his gaze toward Oriakụ. Gali flinched at the way the air changed, at the unexpected malevolence that suddenly swarmed around them, thick enough to block her throat and lungs. “I don’t work for you,” he snarled. “Unless your father stands before me himself, the decision is mine. The artifact is not a toy you can show off to impress your entourage. If you have a problem with how I do my job, I suggest—as you recommend—that you take it up with your father.” Buy the Book Son of the Morning Akwaeke Emezi Buy Book Son of the Morning Akwaeke Emezi Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget His lips were curled to bare his sharp white teeth and his eyes were glittering. Gali impulsively pulled her arm away from Bonbon. Oriakụ was bluffing; like she said, her father would never give them permission to see the artifact, but Gali could help. Pain sang under the skin of her face as the migraine coated her skull. This man reminded her of things outside the city, things she never wanted her friends to find out about, secrets that needed to be kept secret. Gali had been raised in the work, but there was so much more that was just her, humming in her blood like her swarm. Her family would never recommend what she was about to do. The girls would be surprised, but they wouldn’t actually see anything, just like they couldn’t see the light stored inside him. It would be safe. She could pull it off. Gali stepped between Oriakụ and the suddenly lethal stranger, placing her hand on his chest. She wanted to touch him, and the contact rocked her even through the crisp cotton of his shirt. Gali hissed in a breath and raised her head to meet his gaze. Oriakụ and Bonbon were staring at her in shock, and the stranger was just a breath away from her now. He smelled of live ash and bitter spices. The gold in his eyes was flaring, but the malevolence in the air had drained away. Gali took a deep breath. When she was a child, the Kincaids had taught her not to gamble with certain things and especially not to take chances in the woods. Her cousin Celestial, on the other hand, taught her that sometimes you didn’t need dice to roll. Sometimes other things were enough, like rocks or small bones. Maybe if she was a better or more obedient Kincaid, she would starve her ache instead of feeding it, or walk away instead of looking for trouble, but the stinging was in her bones, her head hurt, and her ears rang. Maybe the panting mouth of danger had been her all along. Maybe it was him. Maybe it was this moment when she touched him for the first time and watched his eyes blow wide. Gali couldn’t feel his heartbeat under her hand, and that was a sure sign of nothing good. “I’ll barter with you,” she said. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Celestial snapped her neck up from the bank of a creek and searched the wind with wild eyes. Kincaids did not make barters like other people, but in that moment, Gali didn’t care. “If I give you a dance back at the gala, you’re gonna let us see the artifact.” Oriakụ made a sound of protest, but Gali barely heard it. He was looking at her now, really looking at her, and she found herself desperately wishing to be seen. She was so many things and not even sure of all of them. She was wild and barefoot under old trees; she was painted and polished in a mansion; she was nothing decided and everything desired. She wanted to be seized, and he had so many teeth. His mouth softened from its disapproving lines, and the weight of his attention felt like a thousand touches on her skin. Gali tried to smile, and he dropped his gaze to her feet in the crystal stilettos, then worked his way up her oiled legs, her wide hips and soft belly, her breasts under the soft singing glass and the column of her neck. By the time his eyes stopped and stayed at her mouth, he might as well have stripped her bare, and Gali knew for a certainty that he wanted her. Unfortunately, thanks to the blatant hunger in his face, everyone else around them knew it as well. The man with the gray eyes frowned and took a half step forward. “Boss…?” The stranger’s eyes didn’t move from Gali’s. She held her breath, and it felt like the hallway had vanished into the shadows, along with the people in it. Say yes, she willed him with all her want. Say yes. A corner of his mouth curled up. “Yes,” he said. “A dance for a viewing, but I’ll take the dance right now.” Relief washed through Gali that he’d agreed, but she pouted at the condition. “Damn, I don’t get to see the artifact with my friends?” “I’ll show it to you later myself.” “Hold the fuck up—” Oriakụ started, but Bonbon elbowed her sharply in the ribs. “Y’all go on ahead,” she said, grinning at Gali with pure evil delight. “We’ll catch up.” The rest of the security team looked uncertain, and the one who had spoken up before tried again. “Boss. What do you want us to do?” “Show them the artifact. Show them out afterward.” He was still staring at Gali, and the tension between them threatened to incinerate the air. “I’m going to take my dance.” He slid his hand over Gali’s, and her breath gave out at the hot touch of his skin, air escaping her lungs in a soft gasp. It felt like a world was closing in on her, the jaws of a trap encircling gently, enough to coax her into letting it hold her in place. Her wanting laughed and shouted inside her as he tugged at her hand, leading them away from the others and the carved door with expensive secrets behind it. Gali didn’t look back. Excerpt from Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi. Copyright © 2025 by Akwaeke Emezi. Used with permission by Avon Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>Son of the Morning</i> by Akwaeke Emezi appeared first on Reactor.

As delegates at the 2025 United Nations Climate Conference in Brazil enter their final week of negotiations, the global climate regime finds itself at a crossroads: Growing rifts between developed and developing nations are colliding with a visible decline in U.S. engagement.   At the heart of discussions are ongoing conversations about regulating greenhouse gas emissions to avert climate change. One number that has long kept these policies alive is the “social cost of carbon,” or SCC. Defined as the economic damage associated with a ton of carbon dioxide emissions across 300 years, the SCC undergirded energy regulatory policy during both the Obama and Biden administrations. But any calculation is only as reliable as its underlying assumptions. At The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, we examined both the Obama and Biden administrations’ SCC estimates based on their key assumptions. What we found? Minor, reasonable adjustments led to drastically different SCC values—meaning these estimates can be easily manipulated, as both administrations had done for years. Read Heritage Foundation Analysis about the Obama Administration’s SCC Modeling Read Additional Heritage Foundation Analysis about the Obama Administration’s SCC Modeling The deregulatory actions launched by @epaleezeldin and @EPA are amongst the best in modern times. They should indeed overhaul the social cost of carbon – For years at Heritage we have advocated the danger of using these models in policy. @Heritage pic.twitter.com/p3PCi9TUIT— Kevin D. Dayaratna, Ph.D. (@kdd0211) March 14, 2025 Cutting CO2 emissions is essentially an investment decision, one option among many competing uses of limited resources that could improve future well-being. To judge whether emission cuts are worthwhile, policymakers should compare their expected returns to the returns from alternative investments—a comparison made possible only through proper discounting. Using an unrealistically low discount rate artificially inflates the value of climate benefits and risks diverting resources away from higher-value investments that would leave future generations better off.   The Obama administration intentionally ignored advice from the Office of Management and Budget that required a 7% discount rate to be used in its cost-benefit analysis when determining the SCC. If this intentionally ignored discount rate had been used, the estimated social cost of carbon could decrease by 70% or more, according to Heritage estimates. Another key assumption in these calculations is the number of years of projected benefits. As noted earlier, the social cost of carbon calculations sum damages over a 300-year time horizon. When George Washington took office, he couldn’t have imagined modern GPS, smartphones, or artificial intelligence. Likewise, we have no way of predicting what society will look like even 50 years from now, let alone 300. But economists relying on these calculations make such projections to skew the cost-benefit analysis towards greater benefits. Upon re-estimating the benefits of the social cost of carbon using a 150-year time horizon, which is still too long, we found that benefits decline by as much as 20%. Indeed, the largest purported damages due to climate change reported by these models occur even further into the future, consequently ratcheting up the SCC reported by lawmakers. A third critical assumption in these models is climate sensitivity, i.e., how much the Earth’s temperature will rise in response to carbon dioxide emissions. Most agree that some warming will occur but disagree about the extent of that warming. When different warming scenarios are adjusted to align with observation-based evidence, estimates of the social cost of carbon drop by as much as 70%. That’s just according to our study of Obama-era models. The Biden administration brought additional SCC models into the picture as an attempt to ratchet up the numbers even further. We examined those models as well, and the story was nothing but the same. Read Heritage Foundation Analysis about the Biden Administration’s SCC Modeling Read Additional Heritage Foundation Analysis about the Biden Administration’s SCC Modeling Our critical analysis of the models was also published in peer-reviewed academic and industry journals and submitted in testimony before congressional committees. Read Heritage Foundation Peer-Reviewed Research on the SCC Read Additional Heritage Peer-Reviewed Research on the SCC Read Kevin Dayaratna’s Congressional Testimony on the SCC Yet another critical assumption is agricultural productivity. Although viewed by some as a pollutant, carbon dioxide is a fundamental component of photosynthesis and agricultural yield. As a result, under reasonable assumptions about agricultural productivity, the social cost of carbon can even go negative, meaning carbon dioxide emissions could yield net benefits such as longer growing seasons and increased agricultural productivity. Both the Obama and Biden administrations’ analyses acknowledged the possibility of benefit from carbon dioxide, but their reports conveniently omitted any detailed discussion of it. At its core, the regulatory regime built around the social cost of carbon restricts Americans’ access to affordable, reliable energy. President Donald Trump recognized this problem immediately and, on his first day in office, issued the executive order “Unleashing American Energy,” which directed federal agencies to fully tap America’s vast energy resources and charged Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin with re-examining the SCC. Several months later, Zeldin, in consultation with Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, instructed agencies to use the SCC only when their governing statute explicitly requires doing so, and to otherwise minimize or eliminate its use. Zeldin’s guidance is an important step toward restoring regulatory discipline and preventing agencies from imposing costly, unjustified climate assumptions on the economy. Nevertheless, state and foreign policymakers may still try to lean on the social cost of carbon. They shouldn’t. The SCC’s defenders use seemingly complex and sophisticated models as cover to push their preferred energy agenda—hoping no one looks closely enough to see how flimsy the underlying assumptions really are. Although the SCC is based on an interesting class of statistical models, the assumptions used to generate it can be manipulated to give lawmakers virtually any estimate of the social cost of carbon, thereby predicting essentially anything, ranging from little warming and continued prosperity to catastrophic warming and immense disaster.  Statistical models can indeed shape public policy. But their authority is predicated entirely on the assumptions on which they are based. When those assumptions are stretched, selectively chosen, or hidden, the entire structure becomes a house of cards—appearing solid until the slightest scrutiny makes it collapse. The SCC is precisely such a construction: a sophisticated mirage built on malleable inputs that can be tuned to justify almost any outcome, including inflated claims of future harm. Policymakers who rely on it aren’t relying on science; they’re relying on a model whose outputs can be engineered to block access to the affordable, reliable energy Americans depend on. In the case of the SCC, what looks like rigor is really just a carefully crafted illusion. The post The Social Cost of Carbon: Legitimate Cost-Benefit Analysis or a Statistical Mirage? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced that the agency’s sunset is in view, releasing detailed plans to collaborate with other federal agencies. Instead of “throwing federal education programs into chaos,” as critics of efforts to downsize the federal bureaucracy have claimed, federal officials spelled out a roadmap for offering services to children from low-income areas and on tribal lands while ultimately downsizing the department. During the recent government shutdown, families using education savings accounts, public charter schools, and even traditional public schools did not need the U.S. Department of Education. Students attended class in assigned schools, and parents in states such as Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and more than two dozen others still had access to a variety of public and private education options. Now, the education agency is partnering with other departments to shrink the federal footprint, consistent with The Heritage Foundation’s recommendations and a White House Executive Order. Research has found time and again that the Education Department has created additional administrative work for state departments of education and local school districts, and no amount of additional federal taxpayer spending has helped students learn to read or reach proficiency in math. Rather, the federal education bureaucracy has pushed additional paperwork on state departments of education and even local districts, to the tune of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in terms of manhours each year. Earlier this year, Education Department officials entered into an inter-agency agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor to coordinate adult education programs and other workforce-related education initiatives. Now, the Education Department has launched additional agreements with the Labor Department, State Department, Department of Health and Human Services, and Interior Department to manage federal education responsibilities. Crucially, the largest federal K-12 program, Title I of federal education law, will continue in partnership with the Labor Department. This agreement allows the agencies to align federal job training programs with federal programs for children in low-income areas. And the partnership is evidence that federal policymakers are paying attention to these students’ needs even as the agency downsizes. The Education Department also has plans for another persistently low-performing student group—children living on tribal lands. Native American students, including American Indian and Alaska Native students, score well below their peers on reliable comparisons of core subjects. The agency is partnering with the Department of the Interior for Office of Indian Education programs, as well as Career and Technical Education programs. The Education Department’s announcement noted that this inter-agency agreement will result in tribal authorities only having to talk with representatives from department—Interior—for education services. Currently, the Interior Department manages Bureau of Indian Education programs, while Education manages the Office of Indian Education. The new agreement between Education and Interior streamlines the activities. But federal lawmakers should take additional steps and create private learning options for these children as the agencies coordinate existing work. Education officials are simplifying still more federal operations by moving certain college grant and fellowship programs to the U.S. Department of State. The State Department already maintains the Fulbright Scholarship program, and the new agreement will help manage the Fulbright-Hays grant for foreign education. Considering the evidence that countries of concern, such as China and others, are using foreign exchange programs to conduct espionage through universities in the U.S., higher education policy has distinct national security elements. State Department officials should work with elected officials to protect Americans when foreign scholarship programs become a liability to national security. The White House has appropriately drawn attention to some of these grant programs already. The Education Department announcement included still more agreements with Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services. Taken together, the news should encourage state policymakers and local educators who have watched federal services balloon over the department’s 45-year history. These agreements answer the claims from teacher unions and other special interest groups that the White House and Education Department are taking a “wrecking ball” to public schools. The only “system” in need of a shakeup is the federal bureaucracy, a bureaucracy that has resulted in more paperwork, not student success. The post Education Department Silences the Critics appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Epstein files are one step closer to being released after the House of Representatives voted to pass legislation releasing them to the public on Tuesday. The House passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act by a vote of 427 to 1. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., did not support the measure. “I have been a principled ‘NO’ on this bill from the beginning. What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today. It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America. As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc,” Higgins posted on X Tuesday. “If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt,” he added. [Emphasis in original.] I have been a principled “NO” on this bill from the beginning. What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today. It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America. As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses,…— Rep. Clay Higgins (@RepClayHiggins) November 18, 2025 Five members did not participate in the vote. There are currently two vacancies in the House. “Today’s vote to finally force the release of the Epstein files is a major victory for the survivors who’ve waited decades for the truth,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X. Today’s vote to finally force the release of the Epstein files is a major victory for the survivors who’ve waited decades for the truth.I stood with them this morning, the survivors who told the FBI, told law enforcement, begged for help, and were ignored.This vote should’ve… pic.twitter.com/kcTo5EH0dv— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene?? (@RepMTG) November 18, 2025 Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., also posted on X, writing, “We must deliver justice for the victims.” I just spoke on the floor before the imminent House vote on the release of the Epstein files. We must deliver justice for the victims. pic.twitter.com/sEMwVaFO83— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) November 18, 2025 The bill as currently written would require Attorney General Pam Bondi to release to the public “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 the notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The bill allows for the withholding of information under a few circumstances such as the privacy of victims and national security concerns. The legislation now heads to the Senate. President Donald Trump has said he would sign the bill if it made it to his desk and had encouraged House Republicans to support the legislation last Sunday in a social media post. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., has said that he has discussed some modifications to the legislation in the upper chamber with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. “I’m very confident that when this moves forward in the process, if and when it is processed in the Senate, which is no certainty that it will be, that they will take the time methodically to do what we have not been allowed to do in the House,” Johnson told the press on Tuesday.  At a Tuesday press conference, the speaker had expressed concerns that the legislation as written could violate the privacy of innocent people, undermine national security, and reveal the identities of some of Epstein’s victims against their wishes. This is a breaking news article and it may be updated. The post BREAKING: How House Members Voted on Epstein Files Release appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced that his country will increase its U.S. investment from $600 billion to almost $1 trillion. The White House highlighted at an event Tuesday an American factory leader who thanked President Donald Trump and the crown prince for an increase in thousands of manufacturing jobs as a result of the investment. David Broomwell of Marlton, New Jersey, is the factory leader at GE Vernova for three factories critical to producing the world’s most advanced and reliable gas turbines in America. Broomwell oversees facilities in Parsippany, New Jersey, and Allentown, Pennsylvania. “David shared a powerful story of how these historic foreign investments secured by President Trump are GOOD deals for the American people that are improving lives and fueling new opportunities,” White Hosue spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told The Daily Signal. “President Trump is putting America First by creating good-paying jobs, improving our economy, and ensuring the world’s biggest companies invest directly in our communities.” GE Vernova announced in May during Trump’s state visit to Saudi Arabia it would export gas turbines and energy solutions worth up to $14.2 billion to Saudi Arabia. “If you look at the landscape for GE Vernova investment, over $750 million in the U.S. focused on true manufacturing jobs here stateside,” Broomwell said at the White House event. “We’re looking at tripling the output of our Greenville, South Carolina facility, where we make the gas turbines that are supporting U.S. needs as well as the Saudi Arabia needs.” David Broomwell, Manufacturing Technology Manager at energy equipment manufacturer GE Vernova, discusses what the Saudi investment in the United States means for American jobs:"We're looking at tripling the output of our Greenville, South Carolina facility where we make the gas… pic.twitter.com/2SRMYMnQXd— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 18, 2025 Broomwell said $300 million in gas investment resulted in over 500 pieces of new equipment being installed in the Greenville facility. On May 14, GE Vernova announced initiatives worth up to $14.2 billion during the state visit to accelerate Saudi Arabia’s energy transition with U.S. technology and expertise. “That translates into roughly 1,800 jobs across the board for GE Vernova, as we try to scale capacity to be able to meet this demand,” he said. “Along with that, we’re partnering with local communities to build the skill set that’s required to meet these capacity needs. So that talent pipeline is incredibly important. So it’s real jobs in the manufacturing space.” Thanks to Broomwell, GE Vernova is on track to triple capacity of the turbines produced in America since the inauguration, a White House official said. The post Trump Touts Manufacturing Jobs Created by Saudi Investment appeared first on The Daily Signal.

You Have No Idea Just How Much Money Government Pours Into Nonprofits

Poland and the 'Act of Sabotage' on a Key Rail Line

The Cackling Coven of ABC’s The View were like the dumb man’s Tyrion Lannister in that they drink and just say things. During Tuesday’s episode, revisionist history was on the menu as pretend-independent Sara Haines laughably claimed that former President Biden never repeatedly blamed Republicans for anything. Additionally, co-host Sunny Hosting seemed to suggest that presidents didn’t lie before President Trump came into office. Amid back-to-back segments decrying Trump for calling out Democrats for trying to make the Epstein files about him and whining about Trump calling out the Biden economy, Haines chimed in and claimed she couldn’t remember a time when Biden had blamed Republicans for things that went wrong during his administration: The other thing I am so sick of hearing from Donald Trump is – Once you become the president – I don't remember an administration – and I could be standing to be corrected on this – that constantly talks about the left and the Democrats. Once you're president – You know, I don't remember Biden constantly saying Republicans, Republican, Republicans. She went on to insist that all “[Biden] talked about [was] what we need to do.” Hostin agreed, adding: “This is a different kind of guy.”   Sara Haines claims Biden never blamed Republicans for anything: "The other thing I am so sick of hearing from Donald Trump is, once you become the president I don't remember an administration - and I could be standing to be corrected on this - that constantly talks about the… pic.twitter.com/ctp2Xe0xyR — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) November 18, 2025   In reality, the Biden White House blamed Trump and Republicans for everything from Bidenomics to Biden’s open borders to Biden’s deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan to Biden calling Republicans an existential threat to the country. The View even blamed Trump for the rain during Biden’s presidency. Of course, faux conservative co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin was an empty suit and didn’t point out any of that. The only pushback Haines received was from fill-in moderator Joy Behar, who was trying to go to a commercial before Haines interrupted. “I got to go. No more talking. We'll be right back,” she demanded. Earlier in the segment, Hostin tried her hand at revisionist history. Hers was almost equally as laughable in that she tried to suggest it was not “normal” for president to lie, as if it didn’t happen before Trump. Even her co-hosts found her suggestion questionable: HOSTIN: I just can't believe he just lies like that. He just lies. BEHAR: Everything that comes out of his mouth seems to be a lie. ANA NAVARRO: After ten years of Donald Trump you can't believe he lies? HOSTIN: It's still shocking to see someone – But it's still shocking to me. It is. You know why, Ana? It is shocking to me to see someone that holds the office of the presidency of the United States lie to the American people over and over and over. It should not be normal! BEHAR: Politicians tend to lie. We agree on that. This is over the top. HOSTIN: Like that? BEHAR: No. This is pathological lying. It's different.   Sunny Hostin suggests no president has ever lied before Trump: Sunny: I can't believe he just lies like that. Joy: Everything that comes out of his mouth seems to be a lie. Ana: After ten years of Donald Trump you can't believe he lies? Sunny: It's still shocking to see… pic.twitter.com/7P8n2cBiLf — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) November 18, 2025   Again, in reality, Biden constantly lied about how good the economy was, that the border was closed, that his brain was fine. All of which The View defended him on. Hostin followed up that lie with a seemingly tall tale about her struggle with high prices. Despite being a multimillionaire, and previously boasting she paid others to grocery shop for her, Hostin asserted that she “literally decided not to buy salmon because of the price.” “If I can't buy it, think about the average American,” she proclaimed. “You can afford the salmon,” Behar scoffed. “But I chose not to because I thought it was too expensive,” Hostin argued in her defense. “But the point is, if I think it's too expensive, someone who has the means, imagine.” The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View November 18, 2025 11:16:44 a.m. Eastern (…) SUNNY HOSTIN: I just can't believe he just lies like that. He just lies. JOY BEHAR: Everything that comes out of his mouth seems to be a lie. ANA NAVARRO: After ten years of Donald Trump you can't believe he lies? HOSTIN: It's still shocking to see someone – But it's still shocking to me. [Applause] It is. You know why, Ana? It is shocking to me to see someone that holds the office of the presidency of the United States lie to the American people over and over and over. It should not be normal! BEHAR: Politicians tend to lie. We agree on that. This is over the top. HOSTIN: Like that? BEHAR: No. This is pathological lying. It's different. HOSTIN: He says prices are going down. When’s the last time Donald Trump, you think, went to the supermarket? BEHAR: Orange juice is up 29 percent. HOSTIN: I was at the supermarket yesterday and I literally decided not to buy salmon because of the price. NAVARRO: And one of the things -- HOSTIN: If I can't buy it, think about the average American. BEHAR: You can afford the salmon. [Laughter] HOSTIN: But I chose not to because I thought it was too expensive. [Laughter] [Crosstalk] But the point is, if I think it's too expensive, someone who has the means, imagine. [Crosstalk] (…) 11:19:00 a.m. Eastern SARA HAINES: But the other thing is – BEHAR: We got to go. HAINES: Wait, one second. The other thing I am so sick of hearing from Donald Trump is – Once you become the president – I don't remember an administration – and I could be standing to be corrected on this – that constantly talks about the left and the Democrats. Once you're president – You know, I don't remember Biden constantly saying Republicans, Republican, Republicans. He talked about what we need to do. HOSTIN: This is a different kind of guy. BEHAR: I got to go. No more talking. We'll be right back.