News The Nightmare Before Christmas What’s This? The Nightmare Before Christmas & Hocus Pocus to Return to Theaters Time to get into that spooky spirit! By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on September 12, 2024 Screenshot: Touchstone Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Touchstone Pictures Halloween is right around the corner! (Or here already, if you live in my household.) To celebrate the season, Disney is re-releasing the beloved holiday movie The Nightmare Before Christmas this October for your viewing pleasure. This announcement of course brings up the question on whether the iconic stop-animation film from Tim Burton and director Henry Selick is a Halloween or Christmas movie. Before you break up into small groups to discuss, however, here are details on when you can rewatch the beloved 1993 feature. According to Walt Disney Studios, Jack Skellington, Zero, Santy Claus and the rest of the gang will be returning to theaters on October 11, 2024. How long it will remain in cinemas remains unclear, though odds are good it will run through at least that weekend. The Nightmare Before Christmas isn’t the only spooky Disney classic returning to the big screen next month either. The company also announced that 1993’s Hocus Pocus, which stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy as three resurrected witches, will also be in theaters on October 18, 2024. Note that this is the first film in the franchise, not the less-embraced Hocus Pocus 2 or the previously announced Hocus Pocus 3. It will be nice to see these two films on the big screen once more especially when one wants to get in the mood for spooky season! (Or, depending on what camp you’re in with The Nightmare Before Christmas, getting ready for that other year-end holiday.) [end-mark] The post What’s This? <i>The Nightmare Before Christmas</i> & <i>Hocus Pocus</i> to Return to Theaters appeared first on Reactor.

News The Batman Matt Reeves Confirms Two More The Batman Films Are “Still the Plan” The events of The Penguin will serve as a bridge between parts one and two. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on September 12, 2024 Credit: Warner Bros. Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. HBO’s The Penguin is set to come out next week, and in the lead up to that, Matt Reeves hit the press circuit to promote the spinoff series from his movie, The Batman. In his interview with Collider, he also confirmed that we will see more of Robert Pattinson’s emo Caped Crusader, and not just in the previously announced The Batman 2. “Yes, that is still the plan,” Reeves told Collider when asked if three movies were still mapped out. He added that “it’s sticking very closely to the path we envisioned,” although The Penguin series shifted things. “I had always intended to continue Penguin’s story, and wanted to tell this story of his beginning of rise to power. Because we know that he’s introduced in The Batman as a kind of mid-level, sort of overlooked, mocked figure, who’s not yet in anyone’s eyes the kingpin we come to know him as in the lore,” Reeves said, going to on explain that Oz Cobb’s journey was originally meant to kick off The Batman 2. “It’s still the same kind of trajectory of story,” he explained, saying that we now just see Oz’s rise in crime in The Penguin rather than in the upcoming movie. The Penguin starts a week after the end of The Batman and serves as a bridge between that movie and its sequel. The good news for fans of the franchise is that The Penguin is set to premiere on HBO on September 19, 2024. That’s next week! The bad news is that The Batman 2 is currently slated to come out in October 2026. That’s right, two years from now! If/when Reeves’ third planned film comes out remains to be seen. [end-mark] The post Matt Reeves Confirms Two More <i>The Batman</i> Films Are “Still the Plan” appeared first on Reactor.

Tuesday night’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump has been touted as either a draw or a Harris victory by mainstream media pundits, but independent and undecided voters saw the evening differently. Multiple polls are showing that a majority of undecided voters either decided on backing Trump or leaned toward that decision following the debate. Reuters conducted interviews with a focus group of 10 undecided voters, six of whom said that they would support Trump following the debate. Only three said they would back Harris, while a final voter was still undecided. “Harris and Trump are in a tight race and the election will likely be decided by just tens of thousands of votes in a handful of battleground states, many of whom are swing voters like the undecided voters who spoke to Reuters,” the news agency noted. “The Trump converts said they trusted him more on the economy, even though all said they did not like him as a person. They said their personal financial situation had been better when he was president between 2017-2021,” Reuters continued, adding, “Four of those six also said Harris did not convince them she would pursue different economic policies than Democratic President Joe Biden, a Democrat they largely blame for the high cost of living.” Most of the undecided voters interviewed by Reuters said that Harris spent too much time attacking Trump and was “vague” on her own policies. “I still don’t know what she is for. There was no real meat and bones for her plans,” 61-year-old Floridian Mark Kadish told Reuters. Robert Wheeler, a 48-year-old Nevadan, told Reuters that he had been leaning toward Harris prior to the debate but decided on Trump after watching the vice president’s performance. “I felt like the whole debate was Kamala Harris telling me why not to vote for Donald Trump instead of why she’s the right candidate,” Wheeler commented. The New York Times also interviewed a slate of undecided voters, most of whom were unimpressed with Harris’ showing on debate night. Most voters said that Harris “did not seem much different from Mr. Biden,” and while they acknowledged that Harris “laid out a sweeping vision to fix some of the country’s most stubborn problems,” she offered no details or “fine print” regarding how she would achieve that vision. While most undecided voters named by The New York Times simply remained undecided following the debate, a number skewed in favor of Trump. Keilah Miller, a 34-year-old black woman living in Milwaukee, said she had been leaning toward Harris but was disappointed by the vice president’s debate performance. “Trump’s pitch was a little more convincing than hers. I guess I’m leaning more on his facts than her vision,” Miller said. “When Trump was in office—not going to lie—I was living way better. I’ve never been so down as in the past four years. It’s been so hard for me.” Voter analysis from Fox News also found that independent voters supported Trump’s positions, expressed in the debate, on immigration and the economy. Even Democrats liked what Trump had to say about taxes, jobs, and inflation. Pollster Lee Carter told Fox News, “Independents are tracking very much with Republicans. They’re looking for a couple of things. They’re looking for answers on immigration, they’re looking for answers on the economy. They want to hear that things will get better for them and they also want change from what is happening right now.” Carter continued, “One of the most important things they were looking for last night from Kamala Harris is, how are you going to make it different?” A postdebate poll from CNN found that while a majority (63%) of voters said that Harris did better overall, Trump performed better on issues of the greatest importance to voters. Trump garnered a 20-point lead (55% to 35%) over Harris when voters were asked who would do better on economic issues, and an even-wider 23-point lead (56% to 33%) on immigration issues. Trump was also ranked a better “commander-in-chief” (49% to 43%) than Harris. As polling data comes trickling in, Harris has requested a second debate against Trump. So far, the 45th president has refused to commit to a second debate, posting on Truth Social, “In the World of Boxing or UFC, when a Fighter gets beaten or knocked out, they get up and scream, ‘I DEMAND A REMATCH, I DEMAND A REMATCH!’ Well, it’s no different with a Debate.” Trump added, “She was beaten badly last night… so why would I do a Rematch?” Originally published by The Washington Stand The post Independent and Undecided Voters Largely Aligning With Trump Postdebate appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A 14-year-old boy with a history of troubling behavior used a semiautomatic rifle to shoot and kill two fellow students and two teachers Sept. 6 at a high school in Georgia, police say. The teen faces criminal charges, as does his father—who police say recklessly gave his son “unfettered access” to the gun despite knowing he’d been investigated previously for threatening to carry out a school shooting. Such events, while rare, are devastating. The media spotlight shone on them can make well-meaning people question whether the grave consequences of the criminal abuse of firearms outweigh any positive impacts the Second Amendment might have on society. In reality, it’s far more common that peaceable Americans rely on their right to keep and bear arms to successfully defend themselves and other innocent victims from imminent harm. And every day, countless numbers of Americans are rendered safer by their ability to put up an armed defense. Almost every major study has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times annually, according to the most recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the subject. In 2021, the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the issue concluded that roughly 1.6 million defensive gun uses occur in the United States every year. For this reason, The Daily Signal publishes a monthly article highlighting some of the previous month’s many news stories on defensive gun use that you may have missed—or that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. (Read other accounts from past years here.) The examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use during crimes that we found in August. You may explore more using The Heritage Foundation’s interactive Defensive Gun Use Database.  Aug. 1, Las Vegas:  Police said a man who’d just been fired from his job for showing up to a work site “in an unfit condition” got into his SUV and chased down his former boss, ultimately ramming him into a wall and seriously injuring him. A nearby witness ran outside armed with a shotgun. The driver also attempted to run over the witness, police said, but the witness fired several rounds into the SUV, killing the assailant. Aug. 5, Albuquerque, New Mexico: A disabled Vietnam War veteran awoke to the sounds of someone using a knife to open his bedroom window, police said. The veteran grabbed a pistol from a nightstand and, as the intruder raised the window, fired a single shot that killed him.   Aug. 7, Cypress, Texas: Police said three men approached bank technicians as they performed routine maintenance on an ATM and demanded money from the machine, warning that they had a gun. One technician was armed and shot at the would-be robbers, sending them fleeing. Police said they quickly arrested one. Aug. 8, Norwood, Pennsylvania: A dog walker with a concealed carry permit shot and wounded a dog that charged at him and attacked his dog. Police issued an arrest warrant for the loose dog’s owner, saying he had threatened to kill the dog walker and screamed racial epithets before fleeing. Aug. 13, Cape Coral, Florida: During a fight with her boyfriend, a woman called her brother to come help defuse the situation, police said. When her brother arrived, however, her boyfriend assaulted him outside with a wooden rod and brass knuckles. The woman’s son, a minor, feared for his uncle’s life and retrieved a gun. After warning his mom’s boyfriend to stop beating his uncle, the child fired multiple shots at the boyfriend, killing him. Police said he would not be charged for defending his uncle and mother. Aug. 15, Brookhaven, Georgia: Police said that a woman called a neighbor for help after her home surveillance system detected four armed men had broken in. The neighbor confronted the men and, according to witnesses, exchanged 15 to 20 rounds until police arrived and the suspects fled in a car. After a chase and a second exchange of fire with officers, three of the four were taken into custody, police said. Aug. 19, Albany, Georgia: Police said a man broke into his ex-wife’s house intent on burning it down with himself inside, but changed his plan when the woman unexpectedly returned home with her three children and boyfriend. The ex-husband attacked the woman, doused her with gasoline, grabbed her in a “rear chokehold,” and tried to set her on fire before her boyfriend shot and wounded him, police said. Aug. 21, Liberty Hills, Texas: As a homeowner surveyed his backyard with a contractor, he saw a machete-wielding man climb a fence, enter his property, and try to get into his residence, police said. Afraid for his wife and two young children, the homeowner locked up before getting his gun and confronting the man on a deck of the residence. Seeing the gun, the intruder began to walk away and was arrested by police. He was charged with criminal trespass. Aug. 23, Falls Mills, Virginia: Police said a would-be carjacker assaulted a female driver at a rural gas station, telling her child in the back seat: “I’m going to rape your mommy.” Bystanders, one with a handgun, heard the woman’s screams and came to her aid. The carjacker charged at the armed good Samaritan, who shot and wounded him. Police said that the assailant was wanted on outstanding criminal charges. The local sheriff publicly praised the bystanders who intervened, telling reporters, “This could have been a very different outcome.” Aug. 24, Medford, Oregon: An armed resident fatally shot an intruder who forced his way into an apartment and threatened another resident with a knife, police said. Aug. 30, Muncie, Indiana: Police said a man approached a group of people he didn’t know, waved a gun, and threatened to kill everyone before opening fire. Two witnesses retrieved their own guns and shot back, wounding the assailant. He was charged with criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm by a violent felon. Yes, sometimes otherwise law-abiding people abuse the right to keep and bear arms, and to devastating effect. It’s undeniable that any person who’d give a mentally and emotionally troubled 14-year-old unfettered access to a firearm has little interest in upholding his or her duties as either a reasonable parent or a responsible gun owner.  Gun owners who recklessly or intentionally facilitate criminal violence should be punished. But their failures constitute the exception to the general rule, not the norm. Although we should strive to make our schools and communities safer, we must ensure that we don’t do so at the expense of the millions of peaceable gun owners who, every single day, act prudently and reasonably with their firearms. The post Defensive Gun Use Shows Second Amendment Remains Necessary, Even After Tragedies appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If Kamala Won the Debate, Why Is Trump Gaining Ground?

BREAKING: Trump Rules Out More Debates; 'I Won'

Which Canadian-born CNN regular is more annoying: David Frum or Daniel Dale?  Frum did stop short of banging his fists or stamping his feet. But on today's CNN This Morning, the Trump-detesting pundit was more taciturn. He said thanks to the "probably stupid" rules of the Constitution, Trump could win the election with an Electoral College majority despite losing the popular vote count. Frum was responding to a statement by CNN reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere that some in the Kamala camp believe that if the election were held today, she would lose. Frum began by claiming: "We need to be more specific about what we mean by 'lose." Depends on what the meaning of is, is, David? As Frum ranted against the rules of American politics with its Electoral College, host Kasie Hunt interjected: "But that's the rules of the game." Responded Frum: "Those are the rules. They were written in 1787, maybe they're wise, maybe they're stupid. Probably they're stupid." Yes, David, if only you had been around in 1787, your wisdom would surely have prevailed over the likes of mediocrities like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin! Frum finished by claiming that Trump's 2016 victory under those rules resulted in "the most corrupt and authoritarian administration in American history." Note: The liberal media regularly trashes Trump for putting the accent on the wrong syllable in "Kamala."  But as you'll hear at 37 seconds into the video clip, guess who else said Ka-MA-la? Yup, Frum.  Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 9/12/24 6:09 am EDT MIKE DUBKE: I've got to believe that there is at least one person in the Harris campaign that thinks they're going to lose. There's gotta be. And if not -- EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE: It's not that they're going to lose. They think that if the election, right now things are still, and Bakari's right, not everybody feels that way. There's a lot of enthusiasm [inaudible.] But just that there are people who look at this and say if it were today, that she is still behind. DAVID FRUM: Can I add a footnote to that? Because I think we need to be more specific about what we mean by 'lose.' Obviously, within the rules of American politics, with the Electoral College, this is a very tight race. I don't think there's anybody, anywhere, who thinks that Donald Trump will actually get more votes than Kamala [pronounces Ka-MA-la] Harris. I mean, everyone understands that what we're talking about -- KASIE HUNT: But that's the rules of the game. FRUM: Those are the rules of the game, but it's a weird game. Where we just have to -- we all talk about this is if there's this mass movement behind Donald Trump. We need to start with our awareness that Donald Trump is a 46% candidate. Always has been, always will be. There was not a single day in his presidency when he had even a 50% approval rating in any reputable poll. Not a damn day, he had even half the country behind him. Even half. So what we're always, and of course, those are the rules. They were written in 1787, maybe they're wise, maybe they're stupid. Probably they're stupid. But  the United States has this unique situation where 46% of the country is bidding to command the entire executive branch.  That's one of the reasons why this race is so so dangerous and upsetting. Because we know, we've always known that theoretically that could happen. But in the Trump years it really happened. And then the power was abused to run the most corrupt and authoritarian administration in American history with 46% of the people. That's, that's what we're struggling with right now. Will a minority govern in an abusive way? And that when we say it's close, we mean that there are states have contact [?] where local majorities are going to be able to overwhelm the national majority.

During Tuesday night’s debate with Kamala Harris, Donald Trump called out Tim Walz’s extremely radical and, frankly, diabolical abortion stance as governor of Minnesota, but for PBS’s Christiane Amanpour, the fact that Trump even brought it up made him “very, very extreme,” while her panel labeled it "extraordinarily stupid." Amanpour styles herself as a journalist, but when abortion comes up for discussion, she becomes a full-on activist, “So, women were front and center. That as, an issue, was, you know, really something very important. The idea that women in America have now been denied their rights over their own bodies, their own free will, because of Donald Trump's appointments to the Supreme Court was certainly on display.”     She then teed up a clip of the debate, “Donald Trump himself, you know—you know how they go, the right in the United States have a very, very extreme version of abortion, you know, their criticism. I'm going to play what Donald Trump said about it.” In the clip, Trump declared, “But her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth, it's execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born, is okay. And that's not okay with me.” Debate moderator Linsey Davis added, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born.” It is a fact that Walz signed a law that removed life-saving care requirements for babies who survived abortions. Davis and Amanpour can deny it all they want, but that is his record, and he is Harris’s running mate. Nevertheless, Amanpour reacted to the clip by tossing the conversation over to Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole, “So, that was the moderator, one of the moderators who was fact checking in real-time. But I actually want to ask you, Fintan, first. When you hear a former president of the United States saying things like that, which are extreme... What do you think when you hear the former president? What do women think around the world?” O’Toole, who has compared the Catholic Church to the Chinese Communist Party, was there to provide the echo Amanpour desired, “You know, coming from where I come from, as you say, I always thought that even though the overturning of Roe v. Wade was absolutely appalling for American women, it would also, in the end, be a huge disadvantage for the Republicans and for Trump. Because getting rid of Roe versus Wade turns the issue around from being against abortion to what are you in favor of then, you know. What do you actually think should happen to women who are in crisis pregnancies?” He also claimed that, “he resorted to the talking points of the most extreme, fundamentalist, anti-abortion people, right? Which is this claim, which is, of course, as Maria was saying, a lie, he lies, and it was, but I think for most women watching it, it was a lie too far, right? And I think Harris did very well by picking up on that, you know, and she said, this is an insult to women. You know, picking up on the fact that what he was basically saying was, women want to murder their babies, right?” Finally, O’Toole declared that,” leaving aside the ethics of this or the truth of it, just politically, it seemed to me to be extraordinarily stupid. If you really want to motivate women to turn out and vote and to protect themselves and their daughters and their mothers, I thought Trump was giving enormous ammunition to the Democrats.” Apparently PBS (and CNN International, on which Amanpour and Company originally airs) thinks speaking the truth about Democrats is “extraordinarily stupid.” Here is a transcript for the September 11 show: PBS Amanpour and Company 9/11/2024 CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, women were front and center. That as, an issue, was, you know, really something very important. The idea that women in America have now been denied their rights over their own bodies, their own free will, because of Donald Trump's appointments to the Supreme Court was certainly on display. Donald Trump himself, you know — you know how they go, the right in the United States have a very, very extreme version of abortion, you know, their criticism. I'm going to play what Donald Trump said about it. DONALD TRUMP: But her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth, it's execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born, is okay. And that's not okay with me. LINSEY DAVIS: There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born. AMANPOUR: So, that was the moderator, one of the moderators who was fact checking in real-time. But I actually want to ask you, Fintan, first. When you hear a former president of the United States saying things like that, which are extreme, and I could see Maria shaking her head in horror, and you in your country have had a major debate for years and decades. You had a referendum. It's a Catholic country. What do you think when you hear the former president? What do women think around the world? FINTAN O'TOOLE: You know, coming from where I come from, as you say, I always thought that even though the overturning of Roe v. Wade was absolutely appalling for American women, it would also, in the end, be a huge disadvantage for the Republicans and for Trump. Because getting rid of Roe versus Wade turns the issue around from being against abortion to what are you in favor of then, you know. What do you actually think should happen to women who are in crisis pregnancies? And I thought that this was an issue on which Trump ought to have been better prepared for a start. You would have thought that he would have had something intelligent to say about it. He was completely all over the place. He was unable really to give any clear answers to whether or not he would sign a nationwide abortion ban. And then, as we just saw, he resorted to the talking points of the most extreme, fundamentalist, anti-abortion people, right? Which is this claim, which is, of course, as Maria was saying, a lie, he lies, and it was, but I think for most women watching it, it was a lie too far, right? And I think Harris did very well by picking up on that, you know, and she said, this is an insult to women. You know, picking up on the fact that what he was basically saying was, women want to murder their babies, right? AMANPOUR: Right. O'TOOLE: And leaving aside the ethics of this or the truth of it, just politically, it seemed to me to be extraordinarily stupid. If you really want to motivate women to turn out and vote and to protect themselves and their daughters and their mothers, I thought Trump was giving enormous ammunition to the Democrats.

The Aurora Police Department recently released a statement revealing that it has identified 10 confirmed members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.On Wednesday, APD posted a bulletin about the individuals, stating that the department has been "investigating reports" that the gang has been active in the area.One of the men, Larry Medina, was arrested by authorities on July 10 in connection with a felony for alleged "menacing at Whispering Pines Condominiums." A victim accused Medina of pointing a gun and threatening to kill them.'We can also now confirm that criminal activity, including TdA issues, had significantly affected those properties.'Jhonardy Pacheco-Chirinos was detained earlier this year after he was accused of first-degree assault that reportedly took place at Fitzsimons Place, an Aurora apartment complex.Jhonnarty Dejesus Pacheco-Chirinos was also arrested in connection with a non-fatal shooting that occurred at the property.Yoendry Vilchez Medina-Jose was captured last month by the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office for his alleged involvement in an assault at Whispering Pines Condominiums in November.Earlier this year, Juan Carlos Mejia-Espana was detained following a domestic dispute at the same apartment complex.According to the APD, eight of the 10 identified TDA gang members have been arrested for allegedly "committing acts of violence against members of the migrant community."The update from law enforcement officials comes amid arguments from some politicians, including Democratic Governor Jared Polis, that claims of the gang's increased presence in the area and takeover of several apartment complexes are incorrect or overblown.Polis previously called the apartment takeovers a figment of Aurora City Council member Danielle Jurinsky's "imagination," Blaze News reported. Jurinsky has been outspoken about her concerns regarding TDA's influence in the area.Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Jurinsky released a joint statement this week with the "full enforcement" of the city manager and ADP."For some time, well before concerns about TdA in Colorado generated national attention, APD had been arresting people for various criminal activities who had suspected, but not necessarily confirmed, TdA connections. To date, APD has now linked 10 people to TdA and has arrested eight of those people," the joint statement read."Two of the eight individuals who were taken into custody were involved in a July shooting at one of the specific properties in the city that have experienced issues with TdA activity. In line with these arrests, we can also now confirm that criminal activity, including TdA issues, had significantly affected those properties," it added.The two clarified that "TDA has not 'taken over' the city," but its "presence in Aurora is limited to specific properties." In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Polis said, "Aurora is a great, vibrant city of more than 400,000 hardworking Coloradans and a wonderful place to live, work, and raise a family and the Governor hopes that there has not been reputational damage from previous, cynical statements made by certain city officials.""Colorado is a zero-tolerance state for illegal activity. The Governor and his public safety team have been in close contact with the mayor and the City of Aurora for weeks on this matter, and are active participants in the task force," the spokesperson added. — (@) Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

California police say they're investigating a disturbing incident involving a severed pig's head as a potential hate crime. The family said they found the head Monday morning outside their home on Naponee Court in Natomas, near Sacramento. The homeowner spoke to KCRA-TV about the incident. 'The head was positioned pointing to the door, and it had a nail on its nose, with what looked like blood all over it.' "It's kind of intimidating, disturbing, and a bit frightening," said the man who did not want to be publicly identified. He and his wife were leaving for work when they discovered the pig's head. "The head was positioned pointing to the door, and it had a nail on its nose, with what looked like blood all over it," he said. They called the Sacramento Police Department immediately. Surveillance video obtained by KCRA showed a hooded person putting the pig's head at their door around 10:30 p.m. Sunday. The culprit was wearing a mask and a baseball cap, according to a KTXL-TV video.The family says they have lived at the home for 20 years. KCRA said several neighbors came by to console the family over the incident. "Why would somebody take so much time in the middle of the night to go ahead and do this?" the homeowner asked. "To what end? And what was the purpose of it? You know, sometimes you can rationalize with these people, but I'd like to understand why." Sacramento police said they took a hate crime report from the family and are asking for help from the public to identify the suspect. The interview with the homeowner can be viewed on KCRA's video report on YouTube. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!