For those old enough to remember September 11, 2001, we can likely tell you exactly where we were when we heard the horrific news that terrorists had attacked the United States. Once the tallest buildings in the world, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were struck by two separate airplanes and later crumbled to the ground. Two additional hijacked planes crashed, one into the Pentagon and another into a field in Pennsylvania. No one on board any of the flights survived. On Sept. 11, 2001 at 8:46 a.m, Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. #momentofsilence https://t.co/p0lb8cn5tB pic.twitter.com/hQBmAMNQf6— ABC News (@ABC) September 11, 2024 On that fateful morning, thousands of men and women went to work with no indication it was the last time they would ever see their families again. Today, 23 years after life as we knew it changed, we remember those who died. On Sept. 11, 2001 at 9:03 a.m., Flight 175 struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center. https://t.co/12HBkYMRtK#momentofsilence pic.twitter.com/NMIeL14Uxf— ABC News (@ABC) September 11, 2024 New York City Officials Held A Moment Of Silence To Remember Those Who Died On 9/11 Crowds gathered in the city streets in silence as a bell tolled at 8:46 a.m., recalling when Flight 11 stuck the North Tower. The bell rang again at 9:03 a.m., the moment Flight 175 struck the South Tower on 9/11. At 9:37 a.m., the bell rang to symbolize Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon. At 9:37 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, Flight 77, which had been headed to Los Angeles, crashed into the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. https://t.co/12HBkYMRtK#momentofsilence pic.twitter.com/iFbkyHugdI— ABC News (@ABC) September 11, 2024 The bell rang a fourth time at 9:59 a.m., in remembrance of the moment 2 World Trade Center collapsed on 9/11. At 10:03 a.m., the bell tolled in memory of Flight 93 crashing in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers launched a counterattack against the terrorist. The final bell rang out at 10:28 a.m. to signify the North Tower’s collapse. On Sept. 11, 2001 at 9:59 a.m., millions watched on TV as 2 World Trade Center collapsed. https://t.co/12HBkYMRtK#momentofsilence pic.twitter.com/rPtTtwCQ9j— ABC News (@ABC) September 11, 2024 In total, 2,977 people died during the terrorist attacks on September 11, not including the hijackers. It is sobering to recall that day and how innocence and evil collided in such a profound way. At 10:03 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers launched a counterattack against the hijackers. https://t.co/12HBkYMRtK#momentofsilence pic.twitter.com/DgRdjurBnP— ABC News (@ABC) September 11, 2024 We will never forget the victims and their families and will forever be grateful to the first responders who helped save thousands of lives. At 10:28 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, the North Tower collapsed. The World Trade Center, with the tallest buildings in New York City, and for a brief period upon their completion, the tallest buildings in the world, was gone. https://t.co/12HBkYMRtK#momentofsilence pic.twitter.com/LB9r3MfUHW— ABC News (@ABC) September 11, 2024 You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post Watch As Bells Ring For Those Lost During 9/11 Attack appeared first on InspireMore.

'This ain't C-SPAN, Bryan'

'We cried a lot, this music is meaningful for us'

'Allowing these immigrants to come in'

Every year, 300 million tennis balls are manufactured for the beloved sport, and almost all are throw out. A Belgian eco-designer has begun to repurpose some of these into bespoke furniture in a circular way that ensures the rubber and felt balls don’t end up in landfills. Mathilde Wittock and her team can hand carve […] The post Artist Makes Furniture Out of Tennis Balls That Otherwise Would Take 400 Years to Decompose in Landfills appeared first on Good News Network.

Books new releases All the New Young Adult SFF Books Arriving in September 2024 An orphaned heiress, a witch, and a teenage clairvoyant all appear in September’s new young adult SFF titles! By Reactor | Published on September 11, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Here’s the full list of young adult SFF titles heading your way in September! Keep track of all the new SFF releases here. All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher. Release dates are subject to change. September 3 Songlight — Moira Buffini (HarperCollins)Elsa is used to hiding the most important parts of herself—her feelings for Rye, her distaste for a world ruled by men, and, most crucially, her gift of songlight. She buries that secret deep inside. In Brightland, those with songlight are called Unhumans and are abhorred. Rye is the only other person Elsa has known with songlight, and their shared bond has brought them together. Elsa’s world begins to fall apart one desperate, heart-wrenching day and she doesn’t know where to turn until a girl appears before her. But the girl isn’t really there—her songlight has been drawn to Elsa’s frantic grief. Elsa lives in a remote seaside village; Nightingale, her new friend, lives in a city hundreds of miles away with her father, a government official responsible for rooting out Unhumans. The two never expected to connect via songlight. But when they do, and when they realize the extent of their power, they’ll be thrust in the middle of a war that threatens their very existence. Fairy Godmother: An Enchanters Tale (Enchanters #1) — Jen Calonita (Disney Hyperion)A young governess with a tragic past, Renée is determined to prove that fairies are real. Yet when her young cousin follows her into the woods one night and is caught in mortal peril, Renée has no choice but to offer herself in his place. Just when she thinks this is the end, she’s saved by a mysterious duo who take Renée under their wings, and she is brought into the world of the Fée. So begins a life Renée hadn’t dared to dream of. Studying magic, forging friendships, and stumbling upon an unlikely romance, Renée is on an exciting path. But this new path is not without its own challenges. Renée longs to return to the mortal realm with the coveted title of godmother, a dream that seems just out of reach. And her tireless empathy, as well as her boundless determination might be just what she needs to become the Fairy Godmother the world will come to know. The Loss of the Burying Ground — J. Anderson Coats (Candlewick)When the Burying Ground goes down in neutral waters, it sends the delegations from two warring nations—and the peace treaty they were about to sign—to the bottom of the ocean. The only survivors are a pair of teen girls: Cora, daughter of a Duran newspaper man, and Vivienne, lady’s maid to an Ariminthian princess. Neither has known a time when war between their two countries did not rage, but now they must learn to trust each other if they are to find sustenance, avoid dangerous pirates, and have any hope of rescue from the remote island they washed up on. However, in the midst of a conflict steeped in fierce national identity, propaganda, disinformation, and radicalization, finding a common path forward seems nearly impossible, for both Cora and Vivienne and their respective countries. But when the teens’ politically charged rescue seems likely to extend the war, Cora and Vivienne realize they do have a shared purpose: peace. If only it isn’t too late. Welcome to Fear City — Sarah Dvojack (Union Square & Co)Seventeen-year-old Sylvie Stroud can see the past of any building just by touching it. Her powers have always been reliable, until one day she sees the memory of a teenage girl’s murder without touching anything at all. There’s a lot of violence in New York City, especially in 1977, but this is different. When the vision keeps repeating, Sylvie begins to investigate. But doing so accidentally awakens an old, parasitic magic lurking just beneath the surface of her beleaguered city. Now all it wants is Sylvie, and it will go through everyone Sylvie loves to have her. Shadows of Perl (House of Marionne #2) — J. Elle (Razorbill)Quell Marionne’s explosive final Rite of Induction to House Marionne sent shockwaves through the magical world, unearthing long buried secrets and her own deadly power. But she paid a steep price: her family and her love. Fleeing Chateau Soleil for House of Perl, for once Quell is celebrated instead of shunned. She has finally found somewhere to belong. But secrets lurk in every House, and Quell’s quest to find her mom threatens to lead her deeper into the shadows. Assassin Jordan Wexton, second-in command of the Dragun brotherhood, must protect the source of all magic, the Sphere. Yet the biggest threat to the Sphere is Quell Marionne—the girl he loved, until she claimed the deadly, outlawed toushana. As the Sphere cracks and war brews among the Houses, can the only way to save the world be to kill his own heart? Now, these two lovers-turned enemies must confront their competing ambitions and conflicting loyalties. Or die. The future of magic hangs on their decision. Immortal Dark (Immortal Dark #1) — Tigest Girma (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad. To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and vampires and inherit their family legacies. Kidan must survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything he can to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan’s own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs. When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat—and June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love—and the blood it requires. The Monstrous Kind — Lydia Gregovic (Delacorte)Merrick Darling’s life as daughter of the Manor Lord of Sussex is better than most. Unlike the commoners, she is immune to the toxic fog that encroached on England generations earlier. She will never become a Phantom—one of the monstrous creatures that stalk her province’s borders—and as long as the fires burn to hold them back, her safety is ensured. She wants for nothing, yet she will never inherit her family’s Manor. She must marry smartly or live at the kindness of her elder sister, Essie. Everything is turned on its head, though, when Merrick’s father dies suddenly. Torn from her New London society life of ball gowns and parties, Merrick must travel back to her childhood home, the Darling estate of Norland House, and what she finds there is bewildering. Once strong and capable, Essie is withdrawn and frightened—and with good cause. A recent string of attacks along the province’s borders has turned their formerly bucolic countryside into a terrifying and unpredictable landscape. The fog is closing in and the fires aren’t holding, which makes Merrick and Essie vulnerable in more ways than one. Because the Phantoms are far from the only monsters in Merrick’s world, and the other eleven Manor Lords are always watching for weakness. Revealing her and her sister’s current state to the rest of the Manors is out of the question, but when Essie goes missing, it’s clear that Merrick needs help. Only, who can she trust when everyone seems to be scheming, and when all she holds true feels like it’s slipping right out of her grasp? Rebel Fire (Rebel Skies #2) — Ann Sei Lin (Tundra Books)Kurara has barely escaped the grasp of Princess Tsukimi. Reeling from her Crafter mentor’s grim betrayal, Kurara and her friends are desperate to catch up with their old airship, even if it means they have to do it on foot. But after everything she’s been through, Kurara refuses to give up on understanding and freeing the shikigami, origami creatures enchanted to life, nor will she stop at anything to understand her mysterious past, no matter who tries to interfere… or what dark truths about her role in the war may surface, the farther south she goes. Her goal is the Grand Stream, where Suzaku, the greatest shikigami of all, likes in furious wait. But Kurara isn’t the only one searching for Suzaku. Traveling through forests, seas and the ruins of an underground Crafter city, there is no shortage of enemies who wish to control Kurara and the shikigami of the world for their own ends. When a bloody confrontation leads to horrifying revelations about the true nature of shikigami and Kurara’s past, Kurara will need all the support she can muster just to carry on. A Sword In Slumber (Queen’s Council #4) — Sara Raasch (Disney Hyperion)Briar Rose loves her life in the small Austrian town of Hausach, where she sings, dances, and runs wild through the woods with her best friend Frieda. But with her curse broken and Maleficent slain, Briar must leave her happy enclave to take her rightful place as Aurora, princess of Austria and betrothed of Prince Phillip of Lorraine. She’s doing her best to come to terms with her new identity when the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire dies, and her father announces he will put his name forward for the position. While her days are a whirlwind of seismic change, her nights offer little respite. Mysterious dreams keep her tossing and turning, visions of queens throughout the ages, facing down conflict in their own nations. Then Bavaria launches an attack on Austria, killing King Stefan and setting up Matilda of Bavaria to become empress. To save the empire from a warmonger’s rule, Aurora pledges to take the throne herself. She’ll have to compete against the top rulers from across the empire and learn to play their political games. But there’s one more surprise in store. Hausach was home to more than one hidden princess, and Aurora must go head to head against her best friend to win the title of emperor, not just for herself but for all of Austria. Celestial Monsters (Sunbearer #2) — Aiden Thomas (Feiwel & Friends)Teo never thought he could be a Hero. Now, he doesn’t have a choice. The sun is gone, the Obsidian gods have been released from their prison, and chaos and destruction are wreaking havoc on Reino del Sol. All because Teo refused to sacrifice a fellow semidiós during the Sunbearer Trials. With the world plunged into perpetual night, Teo, his crush Aurelio, and his best friend Niya must journey to the dark wilderness of Los Restos, battling vicious monsters while dealing with guilt, trauma, and a (very distracting) burgeoning romance between Teo and Aurelio. Determined to rescue the captured semidioses and retrieve the Sol Stone, the trio races against the clock to return Sol and their protective light. With it, order can be restored. The future of the whole world is in their hands. Repeat After Me — Jessica Warman (Entangled Teen)In retrospect, I probably should have passed on the ceviche. It was already a weird Friday. My class is stuck on an eerily remote island for our senior trip, I’m pretty sure Mr. D (“call me Max”) is hiding something from us, my ex–best friend turned nemesis keeps stealing my candy, and tonight’s plan for my boyfriend and me to finally lose our virginity to each other is going hellishly. I mean, ceviche is delicious, don’t get me wrong. But a dish made from a supposedly immortal octopus should really come with a warning label.Caution: consuming a telepathic sea creature of unknown origin may result in immortality, no consequences to any actions, and getting stuck in a time loop for all of eternity. Now every morning I wake up, and it’s the same Friday all over again. Same annoying classmates. Same island suspended in time by an evil oyster farmer with a God complex. Same outrageous candy theft. The only person I can count on to keep me from losing my grip on this new reality is Louis, my best friend who knows me better than anyone else in this world. This should be a cephalopod-induced nightmare but somehow—in some ridiculous way—I feel like I’m experiencing the extraordinary, the gift of endless opportunities to get things right. But when I wake up every morning and it’s Friday again, sometimes it feels more like a never-ending prison sentence. They say some things are worse than death… guess I’m about to find out. September 10 Till the Last Beat of My Heart — Louangie Bou-Montes (HarperCollins)When you grow up in a funeral home, death is just another part of life. But for sixteen-year-old Jaxon Santiago-Noble, it’s also part of his family’s legacy. Most dead bodies in the town of Jacob’s Barrow wind up at Jaxon’s house; his mom is the local mortician, after all. He doesn’t usually pay them much mind, but when Christian Reyes is brought in after a car accident, Jaxon’s world is turned upside down. There are a lot of things Jaxon wishes he could have said to his once best friend and first crush. When he accidentally resurrects Christian, Jaxon might finally have that chance. But the more he learns about his newfound necromancy, the more he grasps that Christian’s running on borrowed time—and it’s almost out. As he navigates dark, mysterious magics and family secrets, Jaxon realizes that stepping into an inherited power may also mean opening up old family wounds if he wants to keep the boy he may be falling for alive for good. Tiger’s Tale (Tiger’s Curse #1) — Colleen Houck (Blackstone)Anastasia and Verusha Stepanov are the tsar’s only children, heirs to the prosperous and sprawling Kievian Empire. Headstrong and fierce, the twins have long scorned their father’s opulent palace and the diplomatic obligations that come with it, preferring to train with the Royal Guard and dream of a soldier’s life beyond the palace walls. But with their father lost in the recent war and their once indomitable mother succumbing to illness, the young women know that one of them must soon ascend the throne, make a politically advantageous marriage, and begin producing heirs. Yet, the succession is far from clear as both would prefer the path of the second born: head the Royal Guard, travel the far reaches of the empire, and seek out a destiny of her own making. As their beloved mother’s condition worsens, the sisters grow more desperate, seeking any healer who might give her more time. But when a stranger arrives offering another option, the sisters refuse his proposal and banish the strange man. As he departs, the stranger unleashes a devastating curse that sends Veru and Stacia fleeing their home on an adventure beyond anything they ever imagined. The Unfinished — Cheryl Isaacs (Heartdrum)When small-town athlete Avery’s morning run leads her to a strange pond in the middle of the forest, she awakens a horror the townspeople of Crook’s Falls have long forgotten. The black water has been waiting. Watching. Hungry for the souls it needs to survive.  Avery can smell the water, see it flooding everywhere; she thinks she’s losing her mind. And as the black water haunts Avery—taking a new form each time—people in town begin to go missing. Though Avery had heard whispers of monsters from her Kanien’kéha:ka (Mohawk) relatives, she has never really connected to her Indigenous culture or understood the stories. But the Elders she has distanced herself from now may have the answers she needs. When Key, her best friend and longtime crush, is the next to disappear, Avery is faced with a choice: listen to the Kanien’kéha:ka and save the town but lose her friend forever…or listen to her heart and risk everything to get Key back. Old Wounds — Logan-Ashley Kisner (Delacorte)Erin and Max are two transgender teens trying to get to California. Max is desperate to finally transition, and Erin is longing to understand why she’s on this trip to begin with. The last she spoke to Max was when he suddenly broke up with her two years ago. But when they find themselves stranded in the middle of the woods in a small Kentucky town, they realize they have much bigger problems. The locals need a female sacrifice for the monster that lives in the woods—according to them, the sun won’t come up again until the monster eats a girl… and it only eats what it kills. Fighting back is futile; no one selected as the offering has ever survived the night. When the two strangers show up, the locals believe they have the perfect candidate. The irony of the situation is almost too much to fathom. The thing is, the locals don’t know who they just trapped as their sacrifice. They don’t know Erin’s and Max’s secrets, which could be a death sentence on a good day. And the monster that lives in their woods has never faced prey who have already fought so hard to live. September 17 Spells to Forget Us — Aislinn Brophy (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers)Luna is a powerful witch. Known for her skills and feared for her temper, she’s set to preserve her family’s legacy by becoming the head of Boston’s Witch Council—a job she does not want. Aoife is a non-magical girl. Raised under the lens of her influencer family, she’s grown up in the public eye. Now she yearns for privacy—but knows her parents won’t oblige. Just when they are at their lowest, Aoife and Luna find each other and start dating. As decreed by magic law, Luna casts a spell that will erase Aoife’s memories of their history together if they ever break up. But when Aoife and Luna end things, it’s both of them who forget… that is, until they meet again, fall for each other, and recover all the memories of their last attempt at dating. So begins the story of two star-crossed lovers who keep finding their way into each other’s orbits, even as the universe pulls them apart. When they set out to break the cycle, will they be strangers forever or together at last? Warrior of Legend (Heromaker #2) — Kendare Blake(Quill Tree Books)The cost was steep, but Reed is officially an Aristene. And not just any Aristene, but a Glorious Death, guiding only those heroes whose glory costs them their lives. It is a heavy burden, but to forget the prince she left behind, Reed throws herself into it, harvesting heroes at what some say is a reckless pace. So when Lyonene is summoned to guide a princess to a glorious marriage, Reed sees an opportunity—a hero who isn’t fated to die—and they secretly arrange for Reed to go in her place. But instead of an easy mission, she arrives to find chaos: an old enemy is rising to threaten the Aristene, and one of the princess’s suitors is Hestion, whom Reed still loves, and who may yet love her. Reed has already given everything to the order. As oaths are broken and lives are lost, what more must she give to save her sisters, and herself? Fear the Flames (Fear the Flames #1) — Olivia Rose Darling (Delacorte)As a child, Elowen Atarah was ripped away from her dragons and imprisoned by her father, King Garrick of Imirath. Years later, Elowen is now a woman determined to free her dragons. Having established a secret kingdom of her own called Aestilian, she’s ready to do what’s necessary to save her people and seek vengeance. Even if that means having to align herself with the Commander of Vareveth, Cayden Veles, the most feared and dangerous man in all the kingdoms of Ravaryn. Cayden is ruthless, lethal, and secretive, promising to help Elowen if she will stand with him and all of Vareveth in the pending war against Imirath. Despite their contrasting motives, Elowen can’t ignore their undeniable attraction as they combine their efforts and plot to infiltrate the impenetrable castle of Imirath to steal back her dragons and seek revenge on their common enemy. As the world tries to keep them apart, the pull between Elowen and Cayden becomes impossible to resist. Working together with their crew over clandestine schemes, the threat of war looms, making the imminent heist to free her dragons their most dangerous adventure yet. But for Elowen, her vengeance is a promise signed in blood, and she’ll stop at nothing to see that promise through. Ruin Road — Lamar Giles (Scholastic)Cade Webster lives between worlds. He’s a standout football star at the right school but lives in the wrong neighborhood—if you let his classmates tell it. Everywhere but home, people are afraid of him for one reason or another. Afraid he’s too big, too fast, too ambitious, too Black. Then one fateful night, to avoid a dangerous encounter with the police, he ducks into a pawn shop. An impulse purchase and misspoken desire change everything when Cade tells the shopkeeper he wishes people would stop acting so scared around him, and the wish is granted… At first, it feels like things have taken a turn for the better. But it’s not just Cade that people no longer fear—it’s everything. With Cade spreading this newfound “courage” wherever he goes, anything can happen. Fearless acts of violence begin to escalate in both his neighborhood and at school. With the right moves, and brave friends, Cade might have one—and only one—chance to save all he loves. But at what cost? After all, the devil’s in the details. The Lies We Conjure — Sarah Henning (Tor Teen)Ruby and her sister, Wren, are normal, middle-class Colorado high school students working a summer job at the local Renaissance Fest to supplement their meager college savings. So when an eccentric old lady asks them to impersonate her long-absent grandchildren at a fancy dinner party at the jaw-dropping rate of two grand—each—for a single night… Wren insists it’s a no-brainer. Make some cash, have some fun, do a good deed.But less than an hour into the evening at the mysterious Hegemony Manor, Ruby is sure she must have lost her mind to have agreed to this. The hostess is dead, the gates are locked, and a magical curse ensures no one can leave until they solve both her murder and the riddles she left behind—in just three days. Because everyone else at this party is a powerful witch. And if the witches realize Ruby and Wren are imposters? The sisters won’t make it out of Hegemony Manor alive. Seasons of Flesh and Flame (Shades of Rust and Ruin #2) — A. G. Howard (Bloomsbury YA)Nix Loring stepped into Mystiquel to face the Goblin King and break her family’s curse. When she found her twin, Lark, held captive for three years and forced to power the magical realm with her imagination, Nix offered herself up in her sister’s place. Now, Nix wants nothing more than to be home with the people she loves. Instead, she’s tasked to create beauty from a world fallen to desolation. She finds herself drawn to the faerie creatures under her care-and even reluctantly drawn to the Goblin King himself. But how can she rebuild the very realm that tore her family apart? Back home, her uncle and boyfriend desperately plan a rescue. But Lark, having learned Nix was meant to be the Goblin King’s captive in the first place, resents how her twin stole everything belonging to her during her absence. Worse yet, Lark harbors an unspeakable secret that could destroy what little she has left. As time draws closer to the rescue, Lark grapples with the darkness growing inside: should she help save her sister, or finally get her revenge? Serpent Sea (Spice Road #2) — Maiya Ibrahim (Delacorte)Imani is a magic-wielding warrior sworn to protect her land from the monsters that roam the desert. But an even worse enemy now threatens the Sahir. As the powerful Harrowlanders march south with their greatest weapon—spice magic—Imani knows it’s only a matter of time before their invasion of her land begins… and it will be a losing battle for her people. But Imani also knows that one way to fight magic is with monsters. If she can restore Qayn’s stolen powers, together they can summon a supernatural army to defend the Sahir from the Harrowlanders. Forming an alliance with a djinni king is risky, but Imani will do anything to save her people, even embarking on a dangerous quest beyond the sands to find the magical jewels of Qayn’s lost crown. As Imani journeys far from home, she will discover monsters that warriors have only heard about in myths… monsters that can strike at any moment. Meanwhile, her rival, Taha, has been captured and is on a dangerous mission of his own. One wrong move could cost them their lives—and everyone they love. But they may find that there is more than meets the eye crossing the Serpent Sea… and betrayal cuts deeper than any dagger. Forget Me Not (Rosenholm #2) — Gry Kappel Jensen, tr. Jennifer Alexander (Arctis)Chamomile, Kirstine, Victoria and Malou are back at Rosenholm Academy to start a new school year. But in addition to the lessons in runic magic, clairvoyance and Norse mythology, the girls also have something completely different to worry about. A crime from the past draws threads to the present, and the girls have committed themselves to solving the murder mystery that casts a shadow over Rosenholm. An ominous prediction causes the seriousness to dawn on them, while the questions loom large. And each of them harbors deep secrets that threaten to tear them apart before they can fulfill the promise they made. Time is running out and it could end up being fatal. The Heart of the World (Isles of the Gods #2) — Amie Kaufman (Knopf Books for Young Readers)When Selly and Leander began their treacherous voyage to the Isles of the Gods, the captain’s daughter and the playboy prince were strangers. But amid talk of war and a deadly attack on their ship, the unthinkable happened. They fell in love. Leander’s ritual at the island temple was meant to prevent a war between the gods. Instead, it nearly cost him his life, and drew the goddess Barrica back from exile. Now, as her Messenger, Leander is imbued with her deadly magic, and only Selly’s presence can stop it from consuming him. But Barrica wasn’t the only immortal roused from sleep. The God of Risk, Macean, was awakened by an enemy all thought dead, and across the sea he’s calling for war. The fight to save their world will take Selly and Leander from the gilded ballroom of the royal palace to the hallowed halls of an ancient library. Battle lines will be drawn, and bonds will break. With the wrath of gods and the machinations of power-hungry rulers straining their loyalties, can their love withstand the trials that await them? Touch of Death — Taylor Munsell (CamCat)With just a touch, George experiences a person’s future death. High school is hard enough, but sixteen-year-old death witch Georgiana “George” Colburn can’t seem to catch a break. Even Jen’s ghost, the recently deceased popular girl who ignored George in life, won’t leave her alone. George is convinced her life can’t get any worse. That is until she bumps into the new student and experiences his death at her hand. When a coven mate, Trixie, offers to help her with her magic, George finds herself with a new friend and crush, but she knows even if she found the courage to ask her out, a relationship is impossible: she’d never be able to touch her. With the help of her friends, George must face her fears and learn to embrace her powers to unlock the secrets of her magic before blood stains her hands. We Are Hunted — Tomi Oyemakinde (Feiwel & Friends)When 17-year-old Femi Fatona and his older brother are forced to accompany their dad to an island resort, Femi is not looking forward to it. After all, he hasn’t exactly been getting along with either of them lately. At least the resort promises to be full of all the extravagant luxuries they’re used to. Yet not much is actually known about it, as it’s on a recently-discovered island and shrouded in nondisclosure agreements. Once they arrive, Femi is thrilled to find that the island is bursting with new and spectacular species of plants and animals. But he soon realizes that sometimes pretty exteriors hide ugly truths—truths that are begging to come to light. When the animals suddenly become feral and the island is thrown into chaos, what was meant to be a peaceful bonding experience quickly becomes the stuff of nightmares. Femi will have to put aside tension with his family and work with other guests in order to escape the animals, the island… and his own guilt at the part he may have played in all of it. Such Lovely Skin — Tatiana Schlote-Bonne (Page Street Kids)After spending the summer wracked with guilt about causing the accident that killed her little sister, ambitious gamer and chronic liar Viv returns to Twitch streaming. She never told her parents the truth about the accident, but she hopes that maybe making it big in streaming and giving the money to them is penance enough for her mistakes. The weekend before school starts, Viv finds the perfect horror game to make her Twitch comeback, and during an offline practice run, an NPC asks Viv for a secret. She decides to tell them the truth about her sister’s death since a game could never share her secret—in doing so, she accidentally welcomes a demonic mimic into her life. No one believes Viv when she tells them about her evil doppelganger. Viv has lied to get her best friend’s sympathy and has spread rumors for attention, so why should anyone trust her now? The only person who believes her is Ash, a cute social outcast whom Viv once bullied. In trying to clear her name and kill the mimic, Viv discovers that her lies have hurt people who never deserved it, herself included. Night Owls — A. R. Vishny (HarperCollins)Clara loves rules. Rules are what have kept her and her sister, Molly, alive—or, rather, undead—for over a century. Work their historic movie theater by day. Shift into an owl under the cover of night. Feed on men in secret. And never fall in love. Molly is in love. And she’s tired of keeping her girlfriend, Anat, a secret. If Clara won’t agree to bend their rules a little, then she will bend them herself. Boaz is cursed. He can’t walk two city blocks without being cornered by something undead. At least at work at the theater, he gets to flirt with Clara, wishing she would like him back. When Anat vanishes and New York’s monstrous underworld emerges from the shadows, Clara suspects Boaz, their annoyingly cute box office attendant, might be behind it all. But if they are to find Anat, they will need to work together to face demons and the hungers they would sooner bury. Clara will have to break all her rules—of love, of life, and of death itself—before her rules break everyone she loves. September 24 The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s — Hanna Alkaf (Salaam Reads)For over a hundred years, girls have fought to attend St. Bernadette’s, with its reputation for shaping only the best and brightest young women. Unfortunately, there is also the screaming. When a student begins to scream in the middle of class, a chain reaction starts that impacts the entire school. By the end of the day, seventeen girls are affected—along with St. Bernadette’s stellar reputation. Khadijah’s got her own scars to tend to, and watching her friends succumb to hysteria only rips apart wounds she’d rather keep closed. But when her sister falls to the screams, Khad knows she’s the only one who can save her. Rachel has always been far too occupied trying to reconcile her overbearing mother’s expectations with her own secret ambitions to pay attention to school antics. But just as Rachel finds her voice, it turns into screams. Together, the two girls find themselves digging deeper into the school’s dark history, hunting for the truth. Little do they know that a specter lurks in the darkness, watching, waiting, and hungry for its next victim Hunterlore (Hunterland #2) — Dana Claire (CamCat)For Liam Hunter, monster hunting is a way of life—a family tradition passed down for generations. But when campers are murdered in the woods, their hearts ripped from their chests, Liam finds himself facing his most terrifying adversary yet—his own mother turned monster. Her pack of werewolves will test Liam’s limits, and his connection with the girl who still has too large a claim on his heart. Olivia Davis is determined to uncover her own place in Hunterland and hone her newfound abilities. But when Olivia has a terrifying vision, she’s faced with a much larger uncertainty: her feelings for the boy she let slip through her fingers. Together, Olivia and Liam must survive the deadly game of cat and mouse, or else risk becoming victims in a world where the monsters are the hunters. The clock is ticking. The game is on. And the price of failure may be their humanity. The Thirteenth Child — Erin A. Craig (Delacorte)Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive. When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick. But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death? Michael Vey: The Colony (Michael Vey #10) — Richard Paul Evans (Simon Pulse)After saving Tara and Jack—and losing a few of their own—in a dramatic battle in the Peruvian jungle against the Elgen offshoot the Chasqui, the Electroclan has returned to the US to regroup. But their downtime is brief, as Abi—who was abducted from outside her college dorm—is still missing. Piecing together what few clues they have from video footage of the abduction as well as some additional information from Grace, whose consciousness has broken free of her physical body and connected with worldwide intelligence, they determine that she is being held somewhere in Peru by the leader of a group of other electrics known as the Colony. And so—once again joining forced with Alpha Team for a dual-pronged attack—they return to South America for a rescue mission. They’ve fought—and won—against incredible odds before. But they’ve never had to face off against others with powers similar to—and potentially stronger—than their own. Still, with the life of one of the Electroclan members at stake, failure is simply not an option as they take on their final mission. This Fatal Kiss — Alicia Jasinska (Holiday House)Cursed to haunt the river running through the magical spa town where she drowned, Gisela is a water nymph who dreams of returning to the living world and the family she left behind. All it takes to regain her humanity is a kiss from a mortal…but everyone sees her as a monster. And then there’s Kazik, the brooding, interfering, spirit-hunting grandson of a local witch. He’s determined to rid the world of unholy creatures like Gisela. After Kazik botches Gisela’s exorcism, she strikes up a deal. She won’t tell the other spirits that he’s losing his magic, if he agrees to play matchmaker and helps her get a kiss. But Gisela’s plan goes awry when Kazik also falls for the devilishly handsome young man that she sets her heart on—someone who could be linked to Gisela’s troubled past. Sweetest Darkness — Leslie Lutz (Holiday House)Everyone in Gypsum, Texas knows the Hotel Alvarado changes at night—especially Quinn. A teenage clairvoyant, he’s been having dreams about it… dreams that call him to its dark, abandoned halls. The hotel is a monument to the town’s more prosperous past, when celebrities flocked to the mineral spas and films were shot in the desert. The Great Depression killed all of that, it killed the Alvarado, and frankly it killed Gypsum, too. Now, when the sun goes down, things no longer living stir deep within its creaking depths. But the dreams are relentless. When Quinn braves the hotel’s darkness with his best friend June and unrequited love Selena, looking for answers, he gets only one: ghosts aren’t the scariest thing lurking inside the Alvarado (although they’re there, cold and restless and angry). No. He’s been called by something worse: a predatory, inhuman entity that threatens to wipe Gypsum off the map, along with everyone in it. And wrongly—accidentally—he’s let it out. It takes the shape of a handsome young man. It walks. It talks. It laughs. It can even make you laugh. But its appetite for death can never be sated. Quinn has always had the power to see the future… can he find the power to change it? The High Republic: Tears of the Nameless (Star Wars) — George Mann (Disney Lucasfilm Press)It’s been over a year since the fall of the Starlight Beacon space station, and both heroes and villains alike must face the consequences of their decisions. When Jedi Knight Reath and Padawan Amadeo Azzazzo are sent on a mission to test their theories about the Nameless, they’ll come face-to-face with the terrifying creatures once thought to be myth—and learn the true meaning of fear… fear that fallen Jedi Azlin Rell advised them to embrace if they have any hope of defeating the monsters When the World Tips Over — Jandy Nelson (Dial Books)The Fall siblings live in hot Northern California wine country, where the sun pours out of the sky, and the devil winds blow so hard they whip the sense right out of your head. Years ago, the Fall kids’ father mysteriously disappeared, cracking the family into pieces. Now Dizzy Fall, age twelve, bakes cakes, sees spirits, and wishes she were a heroine of a romance novel. Miles Fall, seventeen, brainiac, athlete, and dog-whisperer, is a raving beauty, but also lost, and desperate to meet the kind of guy he dreams of. And Wynton Fall, nineteen, who raises the temperature of a room just by entering it, is a virtuoso violinist set on a crash course for fame… or self-destruction. Then an enigmatic rainbow-haired girl shows up, tipping the Falls’ world over. She might be an angel. Or a saint. Or an ordinary girl. Somehow, she is vital to each of them. But before anyone can figure out who she is, catastrophe strikes, leaving the Falls more broken than ever. And more desperate to be whole. With road trips, rivalries, family curses, love stories within love stories within love stories, and sorrows and joys passed from generation to generation, this is the intricate, luminous tale of a family’s complicated past and present. And only in telling their stories can they hope to rewrite their futures. The post All the New Young Adult SFF Books Arriving in September 2024 appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts Fantasy Read an Excerpt From Margaret Killjoy’s The Sapling Cage A tale of earth magic, power struggle, and self-invention. By Margaret Killjoy | Published on September 11, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy, a powerful story of trans witchcraft publishing with the Feminist Press at CUNY on September 24th. Lorel has always dreamed of becoming a witch: learning magic, fighting monsters, and exploring the world beyond the small town where she and her mother run the stables. Even though a strange plague is killing the trees in the Kingdom of Cekon and witches are being blamed for it, Lorel wants nothing more than to join them. There’s only one problem: all witches are women, and she was born a boy.When the coven comes to claim her best friend, Lorel disguises herself in a dress and joins in her friend’s place, leaving home and her old self behind. She soon discovers the dark powers threatening the kingdom: a magical blight scars the land, and the power-mad Duchess Helte is crushing everything between her and the crown. In spite of these dangers, Lorel makes friends and begins learning magic from the powerful witches in her coven. However, she fears that her new friends and mentors will find out her secret and kick her out of the coven, or worse. It wasn’t hard to figure out how The Gate got its name. The gatehouse of the old giant’s castle still stood, a stone arch braced thirty feet up between cliff walls at the entrance to the valley. The rusted remains of an ancient iron door lay against one cliff face. We went through it into the town beyond. A small market bustled just inside the gate. I tried not to let disappointment creep across my face. I wanted to see new things, amazing things. Nothing could compare to Port Cek’s market, filled to overflowing with people and goods from across the world. The Gate’s market, which was plenty big considering the small town, was full of livestock and tools and all things mundane and sundry. Nothing new. Nothing surprising. At least I’d left the barony for the first time. Plus, I was headed to the highlands, where the fields were rich and the people were rich and it was all sunshine and good crops instead of mist and rain like we had in the lowlands. The highlands were paradise, according to every highlander I’d ever met. Heads turned at our passing, which I suppose made sense enough. A coven will draw eyes anywhere, even without the spears and swords and shields we carried. It wasn’t polite for visitors to travel armed, pretty much anywhere. In Ledston, we’d let knights get away with it, or the occasional brigands or witches who were too stubborn to conceal their weapons, but we were never happy about it. Whispers surrounded us, faint shadows of words. Were people afraid of us? Were they angry? Buy the Book The Sapling Cage Margaret Killjoy Buy Book The Sapling Cage Margaret Killjoy Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget One man came close to us, clearly curious. He was young, maybe eighteen or twenty at the most, and he wore the plain garment of a working peasant. In his hand, though, he held a basket full of egg-shaped rocks. He saw me looking and caught my eyes with a smile. He was handsome. He looked so sure of himself as he strode past us in the market. “Hold there, coven,” I heard, then turned to look for the source of the voice. “The market is closed to you.” Three tax knights barred our path. New ones that we hadn’t seen before. The witches fanned out into a line, facing off with the knights. Hands hovered uncomfortably close to weapons. “You’ll be on your way, out and through town,” one of the knights said, her voice strong and unwavering. “No tax knight will bar my passage,” Dam Alectoria said. She didn’t shout, but her voice carried unnaturally strong.“We have no quarrel with the Order of the Vine,” the knight said. “Then we’ll buy provisions.” “We have no quarrel, but I am under orders to prevent you from commerce.” She sat up straighter in her saddle and towered over the crowd. “You see how those two statements contradict one another?” “You may return the way you came or you may be on your way, but you will not linger and you will not trade.” “Great Mother, you people are insufferable.” Alectoria actually raised her voice this time, putting a hint of magic into it, and her words echoed so loud they hurt my ears. Some in the crowd cowered at the display of power, though many others seemed pleased to see Alectoria shout down the knights. To their credit, the tax knights maintained their composure. “How can a woman claim to run a town she doesn’t live in?” Dam Alectoria said, her voice returning to its regular, still remarkable volume. “Whelps, come here, it’s time for a lesson. I will teach you how to lay a curse. What would be most appropriate? Pox? Clumsiness? Maybe a slow petrification?” “I assure you, you will not survive the casting.” The knight’s two companions had crossbows leveled at Alectoria’s breast. I wanted to see Alectoria destroy them for that. I wanted to help her do it. After what I’d seen and heard the other knights of the same brotherhood do at Umbrin, I wanted revenge. “Hey! You lice! Eat Ilthurian rocks!” A voice cut through the silence. I turned—I think we all turned—just as the young man with the basket threw one of his rocks. All eyes followed the stone as it struck the lead knight square in the forehead of her helmet. She fell to the ground. With that, the peasant took off into the crowd, his basket still in hand. The two remaining knights tried to charge after him on their horses, but the gathered crowd didn’t seem fond enough of them to clear their way. “We aren’t going to help that man?” I asked Rose. “He’ll be fine,” she said, pointing. I looked, and the rock-thrower stood on top of a nearby house, making rude gestures with one hand while tossing a stone with the other before sprinting away and leaping to another roof. The fallen knight lifted her head and looked around confused, so Dam Ilma knelt down and whispered something into her ear. The tax knight moaned and closed her eyes. Her snores receded into the distance as we walked through town as quickly as Dam Lament could manage. There was no time to buy provisions. We left the market behind and traveled a narrow path between rows of shanties before reaching the edge of town, well away from the road. We walked between plowed fields to the forest beyond. We caught our breath in a small grove of fir trees alongside a wide and deep creek. Dam Alectoria set down the child’s casket from her back, then she and Dam Ilma paced a circle widdershins, chanting. I wasn’t sure what magic they worked. I wasn’t sure whether the casket was part of it, or why she carried a casket at all. “We ought to have killed them,” Araneigh whispered to me and Hex. Hex nodded. “If you meet a predator in the forest, and it decides to hunt you, you have to kill it. Otherwise it’ll hunt you every time you leave the house.” “We probably shouldn’t have confronted them at all,” Dam Alectoria said. Her hearing was uncanny. “I was just angry. I acted on that anger, which is rarely the right plan.” “Who was that man with the rocks?” I asked. “He was an Ilthurian,” Hex answered. The Ilthurians, the outlaw knights, were a strange bunch. I’d only met two the entire time I’d worked the stables, but each had left an impression. They had their own individual codes of honor, and they spent at least as much time thumbing their noses at the nobility and the other knightly brotherhoods as they did righting wrongs and defending the weak. Instead of “Sir” or “Dam,” each took the title Ilthura, regardless of their gender. I’d never been tempted by knighthood, not even when Lane had gone on and on about it, but watching that man today had been wonderful. Dam Lament was shaking, and she clutched tight to the haft of the battle-axe hidden beneath her cloak. She paced the circle, muttering, leaning heavily on her crutch. She wasn’t casting magic, it took me a moment to realize, she was just trying to release her anger and fear. “Alright, let’s not get ourselves over-worried,” Dam Alectoria said. “They didn’t try to hurt us.” “No,” Lament said, “they just want to starve us out. That’s not better. We should have killed them.” “Even if we’d managed to kill them without any of us getting hurt,” Alectoria said, “it would just make everything worse.” “If we’re to join this coven, then it’s only right that you tell us what danger we’re in,” Araneigh said with an enviable confidence in her voice. “Why are tax knights trying to starve us out? What was the bad hunt my father spoke of?” The four witches looked at one another, each in turn, silently determining who ought to speak. Then they turned to look at Rose, but she looked down, shaking her head, and Dam Lament spoke up. “No one’s quite sure,” she said. “We’re trying to figure it out. It’s never been safe to be a witch, not really. Superstition says we’re evil, and some people put their faith in superstition. But lately, it’s been more than that. Since we broke up last Endsmeet, at least three covens have been destroyed by Helte’s tax knights. Each time, the pretense was some blight on the land. Two times it was just regular dead crops, but one coven was blamed for what your father called the colddead. Like the knights at Umbrin were starting to do to us before we left.” “We’re convenient scapegoats for everything, ever, always,” Rose said. “And you’re worried that the Order will be outlawed outright?” I asked. Dam Lament nodded, and I beamed with pride about being right even as I realized the implications of what I was right about. “It’s not going to help anything that this coven stopped a company of tax knights from making us the fourth before we picked you whelps up,” Dam Alectoria said. A smile grew across Dam Lament’s wounded face. “They tried to arrest us, but we told them we wouldn’t live in chains. So they tried to kill us. We killed ten of them before they ran off.” “They’re not entirely wrong,” Dam Sorrel said. Though I hadn’t spoken much with her, she reminded me of my mother—relaxed, hardworking, and often happily staring at clouds. “The thing we’re being blamed for, it’s a real thing that’s happening. The cold blight is everywhere. You saw it. When the knights found us, we’d just stumbled upon a dead forest.” “Who would blight a forest?” Araneigh asked. “All we have to do is find the cause of the blight, and then we can clear our name before things get worse?” I asked. “It’s not as simple as that, whelp,” Dam Alectoria said. “It could be,” Rose said. “And I hope it is.” 1 We set up camp by the creek when the sun was down near the horizon. A few of the witches and both other whelps went down to the water to bathe. I couldn’t join them, of course, so I sat with my back to a tree on the bank and tried not to stare. Rose and Araneigh were beautiful, and I felt guilty for thinking so. I’d known for a long time that I was attracted to girls and boys both, but back in Ledston I’d figured out quick that I wasn’t nearly as interested in dating as most teenagers. Lane had talked about boys all the time. Myself, I just figured it would happen or not and there was no hurry. I’d wanted to kiss Lane, because I knew her so well, but she hadn’t shared my attraction so we’d just stayed good friends. There were only two other people besides her that I’d wanted to be with. One was a sailor’s son in Port Cek. He’d been a couple years older than me, and his friends had called him Honey but I never learned his real name. He’d smiled at me when he thought I was a girl. He was all business with me once he figured out I was just a boy, and nothing ever happened between us. The Great Mother approves of anyone who wants to be with anyone, but he clearly hadn’t wanted to be with me. The other was a girl who had passed through our stables and stayed a week last fall. Her name was Kenosi. Her mother was a merchant from the Kingdom of Oxley. She told me stories about half the world while we ate pears under my favorite tree, and she kissed me, then she told me to forget about her. Honestly, it had sort of worked. I’d mostly forgotten about her. Sometimes I thought that my crush on her had just been jealousy of her life—she was a girl and she was seeing the world. I tried extra hard not to watch Araneigh when she swam. I didn’t succeed. I wanted to be with her. Or maybe I wanted to look like her. Maybe both. She caught my eye as I sat on the bank, and she smiled, and my heart lifted in my chest for a moment, like I was falling. She looked away and I was myself again. I’d never felt that way before. I wasn’t sure I liked it. When Hex took off her dress, instead of an undershirt, she wore a bandage that bound her chest down. I could do that. I had no breasts to bind, but if I wore bandages like that, then people would assume I had breasts and just didn’t want them showing or getting in the way. It didn’t solve the problem of the bulge between my legs, but it was a start. “Want another chance to bring back dinner?” Lament asked me while I was watching the witches and thinking. “I don’t know that I’ll do any better this time,” I said. “We’re not going to hunt anything,” Lament said. “Just going to buy it.” “Oh,” I said. “Sure. Why me?” “Because you can pass for a boy, almost. No offense.” “None taken.” My thoughts on the matter were far too complicated to be described as simply having taken offense. “Just wear your hair different, in a topknot, maybe.That’s what boys are wearing right now?” “Yup,” I said. I’d worn a topknot every day for years, while working the fields, only taking it down at home. As Lament watched, I tied my hair up, trying my hardest to make it look like I didn’t know what I was doing. “Great,” Dam Lament said. “Who are you going to be, then? My mother?” She laughed. “I was hoping to be your older sister, but I guess, yeah, I probably look more like your mother.” She went to a nearby pine tree and picked at the air near it as if she were picking fruit in an orchard. Once she had enough of the nothing she was collecting, she rolled it between her hands and smeared at her face. When her hands came away, she was the picture of unscarred beauty. “There,” she said. “That’ll do until dawn.” “You look amazing,” I said. That was the sort of magic I was going to need. “Why don’t you…” I cut myself short. “Why don’t I do it all the time, disguise the wounds while they’re healing?” “Yeah,” I said. “Then I realized it was a stupid question.” “What’s the answer?” “You don’t do it all the time because you have no shame in your wounds?” “And no pride in a countenance unmarred by the weight of my actions, yes.” I emptied my basket of clothes and Dam Lament led us away from camp. Not ten paces away, I turned and saw no sign of the coven. More illusion. I wanted that power as badly as I’d ever wanted anything. Dam Lament walked without the crutch, once again sipping her potion for strength. We entered town on the main road, but no guard hailed us and no bell tolled our coming. A young man and his mother—or maybe older sister—drew no undue attention at all. Excerpted from The Sapling Cage, copyright © 2024 by Margaret Killjoy. The post Read an Excerpt From Margaret Killjoy’s <i>The Sapling Cage</i> appeared first on Reactor.

JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania—Former President Donald Trump said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that his message to undecided voters in Pennsylvania ahead of the Nov. 5 general election is that his second administration would bring prosperity to Pennsylvanians through commonsense approaches to energy, border security, and strengthening manufacturing. “We are going to bring the cost down on energy, and that is going to bring down the cost of everything,” Trump said. The former president added that he wants voters to know he would take the country to a better place, not just on costs but on the massive influx of illegal immigrants who have crossed the southern border since the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration. Data from the Department of Homeland Security showed encounters with illegal immigrants at the southern border soared after President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris entered the White House in January 2021, with at least 6.5 million migrants crossing the border in that time frame. “They have taken over our cities,” Trump said of illegal aliens in reference to the increase in crime in the United States. Trump was in Johnstown, a once-mighty manufacturing city in Cambria County, just after Harris sat down with CNN host Dana Bash for her first interview in the 39 days since Biden was pushed out of the race and Harris was named the Democratic presidential nominee. In the interview, Harris dismissed the notion that she would ban fracking and stated that she said so in her debate with then-Vice President Mike Pence in 2020. But a quick read of the transcript shows Harris only said Biden would not ban fracking. She did not mention her viewpoint. Harris followed up her fracking claim with Bash by quickly saying her values on climate change have remained the same. Trump questioned why, if Harris is so supportive of fracking, she hasn’t lifted the pause on exports of liquid natural gas that Biden placed on the industry. “I would lift that immediately,” Trump said. “I would get rid of everything that she’s done.” Trump said Harris is accountable for everything that has happened in the Biden-Harris administration, especially because Biden made a point of saying Harris was always the last person in the room with him on big and small decisions. “Oh, she is totally accountable. She sat in every meeting. She was responsible for what happened in Afghanistan,” Trump said of America’s chaotic exit. “I look forward to debating her,” he added after watching her interview. Within minutes after the Examiner interview, Trump walked onto the stage at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena, where the iconic hockey Paul Newman movie “Slap Shot” was filmed, and spoke to a packed crowd of supporters. Outside, a screen was set up for the overflow crowd that filled several blocks of the main street leading to the arena. Trump began by saying, “Starting on Day One, I will seal the border. We will halt the invasion and deport the illegals.” He went on to say he would cut regulations that started under the Biden-Harris administration, unleash American energy production, cut consumer energy bills in half, and make the country a more affordable place to live. Two days earlier, his vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, was in Erie County, New York. A week before that, Vance was in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Trump has also been to Pennsylvania’s Luzerne, York, and Dauphin counties, all in an effort to shore up votes in the post-industrial communities outside the major cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Harris has been to western Pennsylvania twice. The first time, she visited one of her campaign field offices in Beaver County and held a small, invite-only rally with union members at the airport. The second visit was on Labor Day, when she joined Biden at another invite-only rally with approximately 500 people at a union hall in Pittsburgh. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, visited Erie County on Sept. 5. To date, Walz’s only interview was the joint one he did Aug. 29 with Harris on CNN. The former high school teacher faced criticism in that interview for claiming “his grammar isn’t always good” when trying to explain why he falsely said he had been in combat. Walz was never deployed in a war zone; however, he was deployed to Italy. Trump held a town hall Sept. 5 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, hosted by Sean Hannity and Fox News. Harris returned to Pittsburgh to prepare for her debate with Trump, making a public appearance Saturday. Between 1992 and 2016, every Democratic candidate running for president won Pennsylvania. In 1996, then-President Bill Clinton won by capturing 28 of the state’s 67 counties. What was missed between that year and 2012 was that the state was slowly moving right by 0.04 percentage points every four years. Then-President Barack Obama won Pennsylvania in 2012 by carrying only 13 of the state’s 67 counties. In 2016, the next Republican nominee only had to gin up approximately 2,000 more votes in the 10 rural, post-industrial counties such as Luzerne, Erie, Cambria, and Westmoreland. It didn’t matter what happened in the heavily populated counties of Allegheny and Philadelphia. Instead, what mattered was the counties that Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee, failed to visit. Trump went on to win the 2016 presidential election by gaining those counties. The fact that Pennsylvania had been trending right wasn’t the only thing missed. The coalitions of both parties had changed. Obama had shed the New Deal Democrats from his coalition in 2012, which is why he won the state by fewer voters than he did in 2008. And Trump’s constant talk about the dignity of work and showing up in places no candidate typically does paid off. Four years later, Biden picked off just enough of those heirloom Democrats to narrowly defeat Trump in 2020. Polling shows Trump and Harris in a statistical tie in Pennsylvania. At this same time in 2016 and 2020, both Hillary Clinton and Biden held leads over Trump, with Clinton eventually losing to him in Pennsylvania and Biden barely winning the state. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM The post In Pennsylvania, Trump Vows to Hold Harris Accountable and Take Country to Better Place appeared first on The Daily Signal.

EAU CLAIRE, Wis.—Craig Ervin, a skilled welder from my hometown of Eau Claire, is forced to rent. “I always wanted my own place, but I don’t even bother looking anymore. Gets my hopes up, then I see the prices. It’s just depressing how expensive it’s gotten,” he said. Like many Wisconsinites, Ervin is wondering how different policymakers would bring down the cost of living. Ervin is the epitome of a hardworking American who did everything right, but still finds his paycheck stretched thin. He graduated from Chippewa Valley Technical College, where he learned to interpret complex blueprints and weld piping systems to precise specifications. Ervin would love to buy a house, but buying one costs nearly $1,000 more per month than it would have four years ago. In fact, Wisconsin homebuyers now face a quarter-million-dollar increase in interest payments over the life of a 30-year mortgage. The median selling price for a home in Wisconsin has increased from $210,000 to $324,900 since January 2021. In addition, interest rates are more than double what they were, increasing from under 3% to nearly 7% today. With a 20% down payment, the principal and interest on a mortgage for the median-priced home in Wisconsin in January 2021 cost $693 per month. Buying the same house today costs $1,654 per month, a 238% increase. At the same time, the median 20% down payment has increased by $23,000. Effectively, Ervin’s potential mortgage costs $345,000 more than it would have. Vice President Kamala Harris says inflation is a result of corporate price-gouging. So, to fix inflation, she is proposing a ban on gouging. Such price-setting measures will do nothing to ease interest rates. Basic economic principles and recent history consistently show that when governments impose price ceilings, shortages follow. Look no further than the 1970s, when government-mandated caps on gasoline prices led to the most severe fuel shortage in our nation’s history. The same principle applies to construction materials and rent-control policies, which result in reduced housing availability and quality. The supply of existing homes for sale is shrinking, too. Many homeowners aren’t selling their properties because it would mean giving up their low 2% to 3% interest rates for much higher rates. This also puts pressure on the rental market because renters who would otherwise purchase a home stay in the rental market. The housing market will remain frozen as long as interest rates remain high. Here’s what’s really happening: Inflation is caused by massive government overspending. When the government borrows and spends trillions of dollars, it floods the economy with money. This surge in money outpaces the production of goods and services, causing the dollars in our pockets to lose value relative to things we buy (otherwise known as inflation). To combat this, the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, making borrowing more expensive for banks, businesses, and everyday Americans like Ervin. A would-be Harris administration would continue this spending trend, offering $25,000 for down payments to first-time homebuyers. However, injecting more demand into an already overheated market will likely not achieve the intended outcome. Rather than making housing more affordable, that policy would drive up home prices substantially, while also increasing the budget deficit. When the government spends money, it needs to be paid for eventually. The public pays either directly through taxes or indirectly though inflation. The COVID-19 pandemic spending financed by trillions in borrowed dollars has led to the recent inflation, imposing a hidden tax that silently erodes the purchasing power of Ervin’s and every other American’s hard-earned money. To return to an America where the reward for hard work is affordable living, the government needs to stop its reckless spending. Harris’ plan to ban inflation won’t fix the underlying problem of government spending, but it will cause housing and food shortages. Hardworking Americans such as Ervin are the backbone of our country’s industrial might. Housing is out of reach for many Americans, and Washington’s reckless spending has tangible effects on the lives of hardworking people in Wisconsin and every other state. Ervin isn’t asking for handouts. He simply wants Washington to step back so his hard work can once again be enough to achieve the American dream. The post Priced Out of the American Dream: A Would-Be Homebuyer’s View From Wisconsin appeared first on The Daily Signal.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson called out Goldman Sachs on Tuesday for suggesting the economy under Vice President Kamala Harris could be more beneficial, arguing the group and others like it are pushing an agenda that could “destroy” middle-class Americans. Last week, Goldman Sachs economists released a note suggesting Harris’ policies might provide a “very slight boost” to gross domestic product investment, while former President Donald Trump’s plans could negatively impact growth due to “tariffs and tighter immigration policy.” On his podcast, “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” Hanson questioned why voters should heed Goldman Sachs when the firm won’t face the consequences of “whatever disastrous policies” could come from a potential Harris administration. “Why would we listen to someone who makes so much money that will be immune from whatever disastrous policies that will destroy the rest of us? And then they can afford the luxury for social or cultural reasons of supporting a neo-socialist, and that’s what we’re talking about. We really are,” Hanson said. “Reminds me of the aristocrats during the Bolshevik Warsaw revolution, who all thought that Lenin was kind of cute and neat. But that they had so much land and so much money that he would never go after them, and even if he did, it wouldn’t hurt them.” “I don’t listen to anything Goldman Sachs says, I’m not—I have no animus toward them, but they’re just, they live in a different world, all those people,” Hanson continued. Hanson then called out former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent endorsement of Harris, expressing concern that Cheney’s approval of the vice president also implies approval of her potential attorney general choices, such as Keith Ellison, who has received donations from left-wing billionaire George Soros. “Dick Cheney is endorsing the Soros attorney generals, and I don’t understand the ‘Never Trumpers’ or the Goldman Sachs people, that’s what they endorse. They don’t just endorse being kind of liked by the Left and kind of having better press coverage … But what they’re really doing to the middle class is they are promoting an agenda that will destroy the middle class,” Hanson said. The senior fellow continued to slam Democrats as he stated they “lie” about wanting to push policies that secure borders, have a “low tax deregulated economy to spur investment and entrepreneurship,” and are “tough” on “deterrent foreign policy.” “The fact is, there’s two different agendas, and they’re antithetical. One agenda is 90% similar to all of the people’s, all of these characters that I mentioned to their lifelong advocacies,” Hanson continued. “So why are they rejecting 90% of what they told us was essential to give them money or to give them votes or to give them support?” “And the answer is they got their feelings hurt. They lost their magazine, they lost their speaking fees, they lost their TV billets, they lost their authorities. No one listens to them. They’re has-beens, they destroyed their careers. They committed career suicide. And they’re angry, and they blame it all on the orange man,” Hanson said. After unveiling her economic policies in mid-August, Harris faced backlash from political pundits on both sides of the aisle, particularly over her proposal to place a federal ban on “corporate price gouging” in order to lower high grocery store prices. Critics stated that not only would the proposal potentially drive up prices, but it would also create black markets. Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post Victor Davis Hanson Rips Goldman Sachs for Propping Up Harris, Says Others Alike Are Pushing to ‘Destroy’ Middle Class appeared first on The Daily Signal.