'Continuous neglect and poor conditions'

With the announcement of Valorant coming to consoles at Summer Game Fest, how will cross-play and controller presets work? We’ll have the answers to all your Valorant on console-related questions below. Will Valorant have cross-play between PC and console? Before Valorant officially arrives on consoles, Riot will hold a Limited Beta to test it out. The real question is whether Valorant will support cross-play between PC and console, which will not be happening. We do know for a fact that cross-play will only be available between Xbox and PlayStation. In a support page on Valorant’s website, Riot stated what type of cross-play Valorant will support. Riot assured that console players will not be able to play with PC players. This is probably good for console players since playing via mouse and keyboard versus a controller are very different and keeping console players fighting against other console players will make for balanced matches. The good news is that cro...

The Celestial Nighthawk is an iconic piece of armor and is better than ever in The Final Shape. If you’re a Hunter, you need this helmet, so let me show you how to get the Celestial Nighthawk in Destiny 2. Where to get the Celestial Nighthawk Hunter Exotic in Destiny 2 It’s never been easier to snag a Celestial Nighthawk helmet. First, pick the Hunter class, head to the Tower, and speak to Master Rahool. Use his Focused Decoding service and choose Red War Helm Decryption. Screenshot: PC Invasion You can purchase the Celestial Nighthawk from the menu if you have the following items. Exotic Engram x1 Enhancement Prism x10 30,000 Glimmer If you’re playing as a Hunter, every Exotic Engram you decode can become the Celestial Nighthawk, but purchasing outright removes any RNG. There’s always a chance that Xur will stock the helmet on his weekly visits if you prefer to pay with Strange Coins. Is the Celestial Nighthawk good in Destiny 2? ...

It seems that many gun control activists want to take your guns so badly that they’re willing to take your voice, too. And increasingly, the war for the Second Amendment involves battles waged on a First Amendment front. Just ask the National Rifle Association, which last week needed the Supreme Court to vindicate its right to free speech against New York’s attempts to suppress the gun rights organization’s pro-Second Amendment views. New York’s unconstitutional assault on a Second Amendment advocacy group was, unfortunately, far from the first time that gun control activists have attacked the lawful gun industry and lawful gun owners by threatening their right to speak freely. Particularly when it comes to the importance of armed self-defense, gun control activists know that the closest thing they have to a winning argument is a silent (or silenced) opposition. The numbers simply don’t work in their favor. Almost every major study has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times annually, according to a 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 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. No wonder gun control activists pressured the CDC two years ago into quietly removing those numbers from the agency’s website. But defenders of the Second Amendment should keep shouting the facts from the rooftops, despite efforts to silence us. 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 here from past years.) The examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use that we found in May. You may explore more using The Heritage Foundation’s interactive Defensive Gun Use Database.  May 1, Jackson, Mississippi: A woman returned home to find herself face-to-face with three burglars who’d broken in, police said. At least one burglar was armed and shot at the woman, who drew her own gun and returned fire until all three fled. Police later arrested one suspect. May 4, Omaha, Nebraska: Security cameras captured the moment an armed Air Force veteran defended his jewelry store from a would-be robber who used a rock to smash his way inside after the store closed, police said. Footage shows the veteran store owner jogging out of a back room and pointing his gun at the robber, who stands over a display case with burglary tools in his hands. After seeing the armed owner, the robber puts his hands in the air and scrambles back out of the store, the video shows. Police didn’t have a suspect. May 7, Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania: A DoorDash driver with a concealed carry permit exchanged gunfire with two carjackers who accosted him while he made a late-night delivery, police said. The driver escaped unharmed and his assailants fled, though police later arrested a suspect after tracking him down with a K-9 unit. May 9, Portland, Oregon: Two private security officers confronted a man who was “aggressively banging on apartment windows” and tried to get him to leave the premises. For unclear reasons, the man then charged at a bystander and continued coming after him, even as the bystander tried to get away. Eventually, the bystander drew his lawfully concealed firearm and shot the man, wounding him. May 11, Yakima, Washington: A homeowner who fatally shot an elderly man did so in self-defense after the man came onto the homeowner’s property and threatened his family with a gun, police said. The homeowner’s version of events was confirmed by video evidence and witness statements. May 14, Vermillion, South Dakota: Police said a man with a history of domestic violence violated a protection order, forced his way into a woman’s home, threatened those inside with a handgun, and shot at a guest. The guest retrieved his own firearm and fatally shot the assailant before he could harm anyone. Records indicate this wasn’t the first time the woman was granted a protection order against the man—or the first time that he violated one. May 15, Willow Springs, Illinois:  An armed homeowner helped end a police manhunt, detaining a wanted burglary suspect at gunpoint after catching him hiding in his backyard, where his young child was playing, police said. The suspect was one of two men accused of stealing chainsaws and leading police on a high-speed chase that at times reached 120 mph. Police arrested a second suspect outside a nearby school.   May 17, Monrovia, California: Police said a man armed with knives showed up at a woman’s home in violation of a restraining order, then tried to stab her and another man inside the residence. The woman retrieved her firearm and fatally shot him. Neither victim appeared to be injured. May 21, Vernon Parish, Louisiana: A woman’s ex-boyfriend broke into the home where she and her children were staying as a way to avoid him, police said. He stabbed the woman in front of the children, then stabbed the homeowner when he tried to intervene. Despite life-threatening wounds, the homeowner retreated to another room, grabbed his gun, and fatally shot the ex-boyfriend. May 24, Farrell, Pennsylvania: When a police officer approached a man outside a convenience store, suspecting he carried a weapon, the man refused to cooperate and started shooting at the officer, police said. A bystander with a concealed carry permit helped return fire at the gunman, who was wounded and arrested. May 27, Taylor, Texas: A homeowner shot and wounded a man who, while wielding a large knife inscribed with the words “hail Satan,” tried to break into his house in the middle of the night. The suspect faces felony charges, police said.  May 29, Lehigh Acres, Florida: A county sheriff lauded an armed homeowner as a hero for fatally shooting a man who, in the midst of an hourslong violent crime spree, drove a stolen car to a relative’s home and opened fire at those inside. It wasn’t clear what prompted the man, who had no criminal history, to commit four carjackings before targeting the homeowner. Examples like the ones above make it easy to see why proponents of gun control are often more eager to use the government’s coercive power to silence pro-Second Amendment views than they are to engage in open and honest gun policy debates. They rely on a narrative that “good guys with guns” really don’t exist and that armed self-defense is rarely an effective solution for crime victims. But that narrative is only persuasive if stories about defensive gun use are swept under the rug. Because these stories of armed self-defense speak volumes. We won’t let them be silenced. The post These Accounts of Defensive Gun Use Speak Volumes appeared first on The Daily Signal.

In what has been coined the “New Great Depression,” the number of high schoolers who agree with the phrases “I can’t do anything right,” “I do not enjoy life,” and “My life is not useful” has doubled since 2010. That’s an unprecedented spike. Constant cellphone use has exacerbated a mental health crisis among our youth, who have been relentlessly exposed to online content during critical years of formation and growth, including during school hours. Jonathan Haidt sounds the alarm about this in his new book, “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.” He also lays out solutions, including allowing no smartphones before age 14, no social media until age 16, phone-free classrooms, and more free play time. With mounting evidence of the toxicity of smartphone overuse in our children, the time has come to ask ourselves a difficult but necessary question: Are we willing to do something about it? While we have bemoaned the consequences, we have neglected to take effective action to truly stem the tide of destruction. Maybe we don’t want to anger or isolate our kids. We ourselves are used to always being “on.” We fear we don’t have the resources to fight powerful Big Tech, and we don’t want to admit to ourselves that we allowed it to get this far.  This is what students on the phone at school looked like in 1938, at least according to this scene from the Columbia Pictures film “Girls’ School.” (Photo: Irving Lippman/Vintage Images/Getty Images) As a parent, I am more committed than ever to keeping my young children away from smartphones and social media apps in order to allow them to develop and connect in the real world. As a lawmaker, I know that I have a responsibility to our teachers, administrators, and parents alike to stop the ubiquitous presence of phones in classrooms, and set our students up for success by minimizing distractions. It will come as no surprise that 97% of students are on their phones during typical school hours—texting, posting, filming, scrolling, watching, rinsing and repeating. Despite many school districts having policies against phone use in class, the reality is that enforcement is a challenge when the endlessly compelling internet portal can be easily hidden behind a book or under a desk. We’ve sent our kids to school with a television, boom box, and walkie-talkies, and expected them to pay attention during class.  States must take firm action now to get smartphones out of classrooms and give our students and teachers uninterrupted time to focus on math, science, reading, writing, and in-person socialization. Public education is one of the largest funding priorities in any state budget, and lawmakers have a responsibility to the families they serve and the taxpayers who are footing the bill to provide an educational environment that is conducive to learning and free of inappropriate influence.   Removing the temptation during school hours will unchain our students from the technocratic overlords who are monetizing the destruction of their brains. Phones can be slipped in locking neoprene pouches at the beginning of the school day and kept out of sight in backpacks until school is dismissed. Or they can be left in lockers with immediate consequences for visible phones in classrooms, hallways, and cafeterias. Nothing worth doing is ever easy or without some opposition, and this will be no exception. Parents will need to be confident that their children will still be reachable in an emergency, and Big Tech will no doubt launch a defense in an effort to keep their underage customers online all day. However, the results will be well worth it, as proven in the schools that have already adopted this approach across the nation. There’s no need to imagine a world where children exist free of the constant threat of online hazards. It’s possible for the children you know to be free today.  Teachers and parents alike will be grateful for this “new normal,” reaping the benefits of more engaged children and focused time in the classroom. Students will finally feel what it is like to be unleashed and free from a prison of our creation. Who knows, they may even start making eye contact again. Every state should rise to this challenge and give school districts the tools and support they need to make this a reality. I will be filing a bill in the Texas Legislature to do just that. Our children have become servants to the creeping compulsions of Big Tech under our watch, and it’s time we step up to save them from what we know is slowly killing them—and do it sooner, rather than later. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Parents, Teachers, Lawmakers Must Unite to Untether Kids From Smartphones in Classrooms appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Another Friday afternoon, another potential bombshell in the Trump “hush money” trial in New York City. The judge who presided over former President Donald Trump’s trial notified the parties that on May 29, a user named “Michael Anderson” (if that is his real name) posted on the New York Unified Court System’s public Facebook page that “My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted . . . Thank you folks for all of your hard work!!!!!”  (Emojis omitted). ?Buckle Up! Breaking news in @realDonaldTrump's Hush Money Trial.The judge notified the parties that someone posted on the NY Court System's social media page BEFORE the verdict that "My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted."What does this mean? ?? pic.twitter.com/vnw3X2Yfah— Zack Smith (@tzsmith) June 7, 2024 Of course, if true (and that’s a BIG if), this comment raises immediate concerns and should raise alarm bells for all involved in the trial.  That’s because jurors are not supposed to discuss the case with anyone—even other jurors—until the judge submits the case to them and their formal deliberations begin. This requirement is crucial to maintain any semblance of integrity in the jury trial process (setting aside the other issues related to this specific prosecution). As part of his instructions to the jurors right before they began their deliberations, Judge Juan Merchan admonished that “During your deliberations, you must discuss the case only among yourselves; you must not discuss the case with anyone else, including a court officer, or permit anyone other than a fellow juror to discuss the case in your presence.” Jurors typically receive a similar admonishment at the beginning of the trial whenever the judge swears them in to begin their service.  A handbook for jurors provided by the New York court system explains that the judge explains to jurors at the beginning of a trial that each “juror pledges to act fairly and impartially and follow the law . . . . [including the instruction to] not discuss the case with anyone (including other members of the jury) until all evidence has been presented and the jury retires to deliberate.” If Anderson’s comment turns out to be true, at least one juror clearly did not follow those instructions with a potential consequence that the jury’s verdict against Trump could be tossed out. So what happens now? First, an investigation into the comment is likely to take place to find out who made it and if that person is, in fact, related to a juror. The judge will likely hold a hearing allowing the defense and the prosecution to present arguments about how this investigation should proceed. Given the unprecedented nature of this prosecution and the serious consequences that will follow from it, everyone should want an expeditious resolution. Second, if the comment is found to have been made by a real person, who is really related to a juror, that’s where things get interesting. The judge would likely hold further hearings and question the juror, under oath, about his or her conduct. Depending on what the conduct consisted of, that juror could find himself or herself subjected to criminal liability—though even that could be very difficult to prove given New York’s juror misconduct statutes. And regardless, if the juror shared information, he or she clearly violated his or her oath. Third, in terms of what this means for the verdict, there is recent precedent from New York’s highest court that could call for the verdict against Trump to be set aside. In a 2019 case, People v. Neulander, a unanimous New York Court of Appeals (New York’s highest state court), upheld the setting aside of a murder conviction where a particular juror had texted extensively about the case during the trial and then lied about it. Finally, it is notable that the judge in this case did not sequester the jury, which would have prevented them from having communication with others outside the trial. Juries in other high-profile cases—such as the O.J. Simpson case—have been sequestered to keep outside pressures from influencing their decisions and avoiding potential issues like the one the parties in the Trump trial now face. Of course, sequestration itself is controversial and its benefits and drawbacks are hotly contested. Still, if ever there was a case where sequestration might have been appropriate, this seems to be the one. We’re still early in this process. The Facebook comment could be nothing—a random comment from a random person designed to wreak havoc. As some have reported, the poster’s profile says that the is “transabled & a professional sh– poster.” But if it’s not—if it was made by a person related to a juror—buckle up. Things are going to get wild. And it would be another black mark against this already-besmirched prosecution. The post Social Media Message Could Doom Trump NYC Verdict—If It’s True (And That’s a BIG IF) appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Lunden Roberts, the mother of Hunter Biden’s daughter Navy Joan Roberts, told British host Piers Morgan on Thursday that President Joe Biden has never contacted his granddaughter. Roberts formerly worked as Hunter’s assistant and has spoken out about dealing with him following their child’s birth in 2018, noting both the president and his son’s efforts to distance themselves from Navy. Roberts on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” said neither the president nor his son has ever met Navy in person and that the elder Biden has never even reached out to his granddaughter. “Have you ever heard from either President Biden or the first lady directly?” Morgan asked. “No. No, I have not,” Roberts answered. Morgan followed up by asking if she thinks that’s “surprising,” with Roberts answering she does not. Roberts also told Morgan that Hunter has never met his daughter “in person.” “Hunter’s relationship with his daughter has been built through Zoom,” she said. “He was required to call once a month or something like that. Navy gets to pick out one of his paintings, and that’s how they would start building a relationship. However, Hunter went above and beyond. He not only called her once a month, but once they started building a relationship, he wanted to call weekly or sometimes a couple of times a week just to talk to her. When she goes into surgery, he wants to Zoom and talk to her. He calls to check on her at different times and things like that. He has gone above what the time frame required and has done that for her, which I appreciate tremendously.” Morgan asked if there are any plans in place for them to meet in person. “Yeah, I’m sure,” Roberts answered. “Me and Hunter haven’t worked the details out with that. But, I mean, like, the world knows. Hunter has a lot on his plate right now. I think that that needs to be his main focus, and getting through this time and then the rest can come after. Navy is well aware. She knows that her father’s very busy right now, and he’s got a lot of things going on and she’s waited five years; she can wait a couple more months.” Roberts and Hunter resolved their child support dispute in June 2023 and the Biden family finally acknowledged Navy in July 2023. Roberts told Morgan that the “door is always open” for the president to meet his granddaughter and it “always will be.” Hunter gave his daughter some of his paintings and he paid Roberts’ legal fees. She unsuccessfully attempted to grant her daughter the Biden last name as part of their child support dispute. Hunter’s federal gun trial began Monday and he is facing three charges brought by special counsel David Weiss in September, which include providing false statements and knowingly possessing a gun while being addicted to drugs. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post Mother of Hunter Biden’s Daughter Says President Still Has Never Met or Contacted Granddaughter appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Feel-Good Friday: An Update - WWII Veteran to Marry Near Normandy

POTATUS Isn't the Only Case of Gastro-Intestinal Upset in Europe: It's EU Election Day!

The latest Twitter Files expose how a social media movement promoting an exodus from the Democratic party was falsely labeled as Russian propaganda and censored. Actor Brandon Straka founded the “#Walkaway” online movement for Democrats looking to leave their party, but the movement was “set up” to be censored and smeared by biased groups, Big Tech, and the U.S. government, according to Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi. Facebook deleted the 500,000-strong group in January 2021, but the Twitter Files exposed “federal interest” in the group, Taibbi noted. Falsely linked to Russian bot activity, Straka was targeted by the U.S. government and Big Tech. Straka’s first video went viral in May 2018 and, a month later, he had 16,000 Facebook members and scheduled interviews with such big names as Tucker Carlson, Taibbi posted.  New Knowledge, however, a firm staffed byformer National Security Agency officials who scrounged for Russian-linked posts and accounts, labeled Straka’s movement as a group of “domestic extremists” tied to “foreign actors.” The firm cited the infamous Hamilton 68 dashboard which has since been exposed for wrongly labeling ordinary accounts, particularlypro-Trump accounts, as having Russian links.  New Knowledge identified that some of those using #walkaway and participating in the campaign were not real people but rather fake accounts that used Shutterstock images as their profile photos. Straka, shocked, personally denounced the fake accounts as bots; Twitter analysts, however, verified most of those participating in the campaign as real users.  Unfortunately, the media and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) of which Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) was a ranking member, picked up on the bad press of Russian amplification for Walkaway, Taibbi added. The fake users’ posting and using “#Walkaway” appeared to have spiked right after the movement was accused of being amplified by Russian accounts, Taibbi explained. Twitter could have provided evidence to undermine the Russian amplification accusation, but chose not to, Taibbi noted.  Some Twitter employees sought to tell Congress about the Russia hoax, but top executives saw it as a “public relations boon” for government officials and private entities alike, Taibbi continued. The advisory council for the think tank that funded Hamilton 68, Alliance Securing Democracy (ASD), included “former heads or deputy heads of the CIA, NSA, and DHS, John Podesta, and future Biden security chief Jake Sullivan,” per Taibbi.  ASD and Schiff’s Congressional committee were so fixated on Hamilton 68 that even Twitter executive Yoel Roth lost patience. “This feels like we’re continuing to give Hamilton68 too much ground on the issue… almost like we’re acknowledging that there’s something to it,” Roth said according to a screenshot Taibbi shared.  Hamilton 68’s accusation against #Walkaway created a media smear campaign, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) sent Twitter a spreadsheet of 38,000 supposedly fake accounts, Taibbi posted. Walkaway was labeled an attempt by Russian President Putin to influence Americans, not long before the sources for the accusation were mired in scandal. Yet the accusors’ complete lack of credibility never led to retractions or apologies to Straka’s group. “Straka would go on to be arrested for being outside the Capitol on January 6th. To some, this will always mean CNN, Steven Colbert, and others were entitled to lie about him,” Taibbi concluded. “But make no mistake: the Russia and bot accusations were a fraud, and they're owed a correction.” Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.