Christian organizations spent nearly a decade fighting New York’s requirement that they pay for abortions. They came out victorious on Friday, thanks in part to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June.

In January 2017, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the Empire State would require employers to not only pay for contraceptive drugs and devices but for “all medically necessary abortion services.”

Cuomo, a Catholic, said that the mandate was one of a number of regulatory actions that would “help ensure that whatever happens at the federal level, women in our state will have cost-free access to reproductive health care.”

‘The state has given up its disgraceful campaign.’

While there was a religious exemption built into the mandate, it was extremely narrow.

As satisfaction of the mandate would violate their deeply held religious beliefs, a coalition of Christian groups ineligible for the exemption — including the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Albany and Ogdensburg, the Anglican Sisterhood of St. Mary, Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, and First Bible Baptist Church — sued the State of New York, claiming it violated the First Amendment’s free exercise clause and both religion clauses.

After years of legal setbacks, the Christian plaintiffs’ fight was renewed in late 2021 when the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a mandate-affirming ruling by the state appellate court and ordered it to reconsider the case in light of its 2021 decision in Fulton v. Philadelphia. In Fulton, the SCOTUS ruled that the City of Philadelphia had violated Catholic Social Services’ free exercise of religion by requiring the foster care agency to endorse homosexual couples as foster parents.

RELATED: Biden’s faith attacks backfire: Support for religious liberties soars to record high under Trump, new report shows

Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images

Again, the state appellate court considered the case, and again it ruled against the plaintiffs and in favor of the abortion mandate.

The Supreme Court took up the Christian groups’ subsequent appeal, and in June 2025, it ordered the Court of Appeals of New York to reconsider the case in light of its June 5 ruling in Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor. In that particular case, the high court unanimously held that by denying the Catholic Charities Bureau a tax exemption that is available for religious entities, Wisconsin had violated the First Amendment.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in the opinion for the court, “When the government distinguishes among religions based on theological differences in their provision of services, it imposes a denominational preference that must satisfy the highest level of judicial scrutiny.”

That Supreme Court ruling boded poorly for New York, whose abortion mandate had a similarly narrow and problematic religious exemption.

On Friday, New York agreed to surrender its effort to coerce the Christian plaintiffs into funding abortions.

“For nearly a decade, New York bureaucrats tried to strong-arm nuns into paying for abortions because they serve all those in need,” said Lori Windham, senior counsel at Becket and attorney for the plaintiffs, in a statement. “At long last, the state has given up its disgraceful campaign. This victory confirms that the government cannot punish religious ministries for living out their faith by serving everyone.”

“The Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear that religious groups shouldn’t be bullied for staying true to their faith,” Windham added.

Per the terms of the settlement with self-identified Catholic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration, the following entities will now be recognized as religious employers, thereby securing exemptions from the mandate: the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Albany and Ogdensburg and the Catholic Charities thereof; St. Gregory the Great Roman Catholic Church Society of Amherst; First Bible Baptist Church; Our Savior’s Lutheran Church of Albany; Teresian House Nursing Home Company, Inc.; Teresian House Housing Corporation; and Depaul Housing Management Corporation.

The Sisterhood of Mary and the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Brooklyn have dropped their free exercise claims against the state.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Abortion, Insurance, Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Christian, Winning, New york, Abortion mandate, Supreme court, Legal, Becket, Politics 

Try explaining this one: President Donald Trump’s relaxed — almost insouciant — response to news that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged allegiance to a China-centered “new world order.”

Why did Trump appear to shrug off Carney’s insistence that Canada’s future lies more with China than with the United States?

Carney’s favorable assessment of China’s role in climate and green finance is not an isolated remark.

Perhaps it has something to do with Greenland and Canada being viewed as components of Trump’s broader Western Hemisphere security plan.

Cue the black helicopters

Not long ago, “new world order” belonged firmly in the vocabulary of conspiracy theorists. But in Beijing last week, Carney elevated the phrase into an official Liberal talking point.

So what did Carney say? Plenty.

Mine is the first visit of a Canadian prime minister to China in nearly a decade. The world has changed much since that last visit, and I believe the progress that we have made in the partnership sets us up well for the new world order.

Trump did not respond immediately. Instead, he waited until the end of the news day last Friday before offering his reaction.

“That’s what he should be doing, and it’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If you can get a deal with China, you should do that,” Trump said.

Not the response many expected from a president who has urged countries in the Western Hemisphere to distance themselves from Beijing.

World order word salad

Pressed on what he meant by a “new world order,” Carney responded with his characteristic blend of abstraction and deflection.

So the question is, what gets built in that place? How much of a patchwork is it? How much is it just on a bilateral basis? Or where do like-minded countries in certain areas? So like-minded countries, just to be clear, doesn’t mean you agree on everything. So aspects, for example, on digital trade or agricultural trade, climate finance as another area to move into areas of geo-strategy, geo-security, you will have different coalitions that are formed. So what this partnership does is in areas, for example, of clean energy, conventional energy, agriculture, as we were just talking about, and financial services, which we have talked less about, but the evolution of the global financial system.

Trump’s nonchalance was not shared by conservative commentators, who sharply criticized Carney’s remarks.

Alex Jones, for one, described Carney as “a Klaus Schwab acolyte” and warned: “You are about to see the globalist prime minister of Canada pledge allegiance to the communist dictator in China, Xi Jinping.”

RELATED: What does Trump see in Canada’s pro-China prime minister?

Chip Somodevilla/Dave Chan/Getty Images

China guy

So far, Carney’s new world order with China has produced a trade agreement allowing up to 49,000 electric vehicles to be imported into Canada annually at a reduced tariff of 6.1%. In return, China is expected to lower tariffs on Canadian agricultural exports — most notably canola oil, a key cash crop for Canadian farmers — to roughly 15%.

But there is nothing new about Carney’s deference to China.

After leaving the Bank of England in 2020, Carney became vice chairman of the board of Bloomberg L.P., the privately held financial data and media company founded by Michael Bloomberg. During the same period, he also served as co-chair of the U.N.-backed Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, working alongside Bloomberg in his separate capacity as the United Nations’ Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions.

In that capacity, Carney consistently praised the alleged environmental stewardship of China, somehow locating a deep commitment to fighting climate change in a country that continues to power its economy with coal-fired plants.

Take Carney’s March 2024 visit to China, during which he told a reporter for the Chinese business outlet 21st Century Business Herald (English translation via Google Translate):

China has made a huge contribution to the fight against climate change, not only in terms of its massive investment in clean technologies and exporting them to other countries, but also in actively developing the financial system needed for the green transition.

Yuan to grow on

Carney’s favorable assessment of China’s role in climate and green finance is not an isolated remark. It aligns with a broader argument he has advanced in recent years: that global economic leadership should become more multipolar, with China playing a larger role alongside — rather than beneath — U.S. dominance.

That worldview extends to currency and finance. At the 2019 Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, Carney argued that the world should reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar by exploring a new “synthetic hegemonic currency,” a framework designed to dilute the dominance of any single national currency.

Carney did not explicitly call for the Chinese yuan to replace the U.S. dollar outright. But his proposal would, by design, weaken the centrality of the dollar and expand the influence of non-U.S. currencies and financial systems.

Trump, for his part, has twice endorsed Carney during Canadian federal elections. Their relationship — particularly during Oval Office meetings — has been described as friendly, though it may be better understood as Trump indulging a leader he views as temporary.

Why does Trump consistently give Carney a pass?

Perhaps because Trump sees Carney less as a lasting architect of global order than as a passing phenomenon — unlikely to impede the president’s broader aim of reinforcing American economic primacy, regardless of how warmly Carney speaks of China’s place in the world.

​Mark carney, Canada, Culture, New world order, Alex jones, Donald trump, Trade talks, Bloomberg, China, Xi jinping, Klaus schwab, Letter from canada 

The Trump administration officials are pushing California to return over $1 billion in federal taxpayer funds that may have been used to cover the health care costs of illegal aliens.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced in May that it was increasing oversight on states that illegally used Medicaid funding to provide illegal immigrants with health care services, noting that Medicaid funding is generally available to illegal aliens only for emergency medical services.

‘We are teaming up to combat healthcare fraud so the money can be used for American citizens who need it!’

As part of the announcement, the CMS declared that states could be forced to reimburse the federal government for funds spent on noncitizens.

CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz revealed in October that the agency found more than $1 billion of federal taxpayer funds were spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.

“And my team is getting it back,” he remarked.

Oz called CMS’ findings “shocking.”

“In a preliminary review of six states, we found those states improperly using federal tax dollars for their allegedly state-funded program and providing coverage to individuals, including some with criminal records of murder and assault,” he stated.

Those findings included $1.3 billion in California, $2.1 million in Washington, D.C., $30 million in Illinois, $2.4 million in Washington, $1.5 million in Colorado, and $5.4 million in Oregon.

RELATED: Dr. Oz exposes the nonprofit lie at the heart of US health care

Mehmet Oz, Bill Essayli. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images

Oz explained that the states had been notified and that “many” had begun issuing refunds to CMS. However the administrator provided an update on Wednesday, stating that additional uncovered data revealed the total had reached $1.8 billion across eight states.

He announced that the CMS is withholding nearly $300 million from California, which Oz labeled “the worst offender,” until the state’s leadership proves “they’re spending the money properly.”

Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, stated, “California must return more than $1 billion to the federal government after an audit by @DrOzCMS and his team uncovered federal dollars being spent on healthcare for illegal immigrants. We are teaming up to combat healthcare fraud so the money can be used for American citizens who need it!”

California officials have rejected claims that the federal funds were misused.

The California Department of Health Care Services previously told the New York Times, “Claims that California improperly used federal Medicaid dollars to provide health care to undocumented immigrants are flatly false and misrepresent both federal law and standard administrative practice.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

RELATED: Illegal-alien patients drain Texas hospitals, racking up billion-dollar bill — in less than a year

Gavin Newsom. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Washington, D.C., has agreed to pay back over $650,000 to CMS by mid-November.

An Illinois Medicaid spokesperson previously told PolitiFact, “Once again, the Trump administration is spreading misinformation about standard uses of Medicaid dollars.”

“This is not a reality show, and there is no conspiracy to circumvent federal law and provide ineligible individuals with Medicaid coverage. Dr. Oz should stop pushing conspiracy theories and focus on improving health care for the American people,” the spokesperson added.

A Washington State Health Care Authority also pushed back on CMS’ claims, calling the estimates shared by Oz “inaccurate.”

“We were very surprised to see Dr. Oz’s post, especially considering we continue to work with CMS in good faith to answer their questions and clear up any confusion,” the spokesperson said.

Colorado’s Department of Health Care Policy & Financing also insisted the state did not break the law.

“Our payments for coverage of undocumented individuals are in accordance with state and federal laws,” a spokesperson told PolitiFact. “The $1.5 million number referenced by federal leaders today is based on an incorrect preliminary finding, and has been refuted with supporting data by our Department experts.”

Oregon Health Authority previously told KOIN that CMS’ claim was “false and mischaracterizes not just this essential part of our nation’s emergency care infrastructure, but also an ongoing, routine audit process.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​News, Medicaid, Centers for medicare and medicaid services, Cms, Mehmet oz, Trump administration, Trump admin, California, Washington dc, Washington, Dc, Illinois, Colorado, Oregon, Immigration, Immigration crisis, Illegal immigration, Illegal immigration crisis, Health care, Healthcare, Politics 

Journalist Savanah Hernandez is shedding light on one abhorrent story out of New York City — where a man who used his weapon to protect himself was sent to prison for four years.

“I just attended the sentencing for Charles Foehner, a 67-year-old retiree who was just sentenced to four years in prison after defending himself from a 15-time career criminal here in New York City,” Hernandez reported.

“Now, if you’re not familiar with the story of Charles, basically, back in 2023, a 15-time career criminal with a history of mental illness ended up threatening him and lunging at him. Charles, who had a handgun in his pocket, which he had, by the way, because of his fears of rising crime throughout the city, ended up pulling out his weapon, telling this man to stop,” she continued.

“He did not heed the warning. He continued to lunge at Charles. Charles opened fire and ended up killing him,” she said.

While even the DA of Queens, Melinda Katz, did not bring homicide or manslaughter charges because she agreed that it was clearly self-defense, she did go after Charles for criminal possession of a weapon.

The cops then searched his home and found what they called an “arsenal of unlicensed weapons.”

“Charles’ attorney stated that Charles has been shooting guns since he was a kid. Charles has no criminal history, and he has been around guns his entire life. However, because he was in New York and these were unlicensed, the DA decided to bring forward these charges,” Hernandez reported.

“It’s incredible that this is happening in the United States of America. So he ended up — this 67-year-old retiree ended up losing his home because of the legal fees and him being cut off from his Social Security benefits while he’s in prison. You can’t get that when you’re in prison,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“It’s really incredible that there is such a thing as unlicensed firearms in this country. It’s like, says who? That is completely unconstitutional, because I have a Second Amendment right to protect myself however I see fit,” she says.

“This man would not be alive if it weren’t for the weapon that he carried. And the fact that doing that — protecting his own life — now causes him to be in prison because then they can go and raid your home and say, ‘Oh, actually, you have an arsenal here. You’re not allowed to do that,’ is so very chilling,” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Upload, Camera phone, Free, Video, Sharing, Video phone, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Nyc man self defense prison, Man goes to prison for self defense, Charles foehner, Savannah hernandez 

A Tennessee husband and now-former church deacon has been criminally charged after his wife, who was holding his phone during a medical procedure, allegedly discovered videos of an underage babysitter in their bathroom, police said.

Christopher Thomas Collins, 42, was arrested Jan. 14 after police reportedly found explicit content on his cell phone. Collins is being detained on a $50,000 bond, according to Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office records.

‘Through the course of a marriage counseling session, Chris Collins’ wife revealed that she had found videos on her husband’s phone of a minor.’

Citing the police affidavit, WTVC-TV reported that Collins handed his phone over to his wife while he was undergoing a medical procedure.

Collins’ wife suspected her husband of cheating, so she searched his phone for evidence of infidelity, according to the affidavit.

But the wife found explicit videos and a photo of the couple’s former babysitter inside a hidden folder in the photo gallery, the affidavit said.

The wife informed investigators that the videos appeared to be recorded from small cameras placed inside a downstairs bathroom at Collins’ home in Hixson, which is about an hour and a half southeast of Nashville. Investigators found the secret cameras, and they seemed to be positioned toward the shower and toilet, court documents said.

The wife told deputies that Collins told her he installed the cameras to spot rats, according to court docs.

The police affidavit said the wife told investigators she deleted the files but then took screenshots from the “recently deleted” folder.

RELATED: Critical detail leads police 400 miles to surgeon accused of killing ex-wife and her new husband

Photo by wbritten via iStock / Getty Images Plus

The wife sought guidance from Abba’s House church, where her husband had been a deacon.

The affidavit revealed that staff members of the church encouraged the wife to contact police. Shortly afterward, officers arrived to interview Collins’ wife, court docs said.

Police were concerned that Collins would delete the evidence, so officers were dispatched to confront him, according to the affidavit.

Officers conducted a traffic stop to detain Collins, where they obtained his cell phone, and he gave police authorization to conduct a search of his home in Hixson, according to court documents.

Officers seized two SD cards from small cameras and an older cell phone, police said.

According to the affidavit, a camera was positioned near a water heater in the bathroom and aimed toward the shower and toilet.

Court documents stated Collins admitted to investigators that he knew about the cameras in the bathroom and confessed to using a mobile application to view images on his cell phone.

Collins admitted to police that he saw a naked image a camera captured and kept it for a while before deleting it, according to the affidavit.

A forensic examination of Collins’ cell phone revealed nine video files from the bathroom cameras, time-stamped in 2025, according to the court documents.

The court documents stated investigators said the videos show a girl changing clothes, using the toilet, and entering and exiting the shower.

Police determined that recordings were made without the girl’s knowledge or consent and in a place where she had a reasonable expectation of privacy, according to the affidavit.

Authorities determined the files were child sexual abuse material, court documents state.

Collins was arrested and charged with nine counts of especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor for each file found on the phone.

The offense of especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor in Tennessee makes it unlawful for a “person to knowingly promote, employ, use, assist, transport, or permit a minor to participate in the performance of, or in the production of, acts or material that includes the minor engaging in sexual activity; or simulated sexual activity that is patently offensive.”

On Thursday, a spokesman for Abba’s House said Collins was stripped of his church deacon title upon his arrest.

The church issued the following statement to WDEF-TV:

Through the course of a marriage counseling session, Chris Collins’ wife revealed that she had found videos on her husband’s phone of a minor. We immediately reported it to the police, and they are handling the situation. We are caring for his wife and kids during this tragic time. Chris Collins had been a member of the church for four years and served as a deacon. He has been removed from that role.

Collins is no longer listed on the church’s website.

Abba’s House pastor Ronnie Phillips Jr. told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that the church paid for a hotel for Collins’ wife and will pay for counseling and cover her bills until she can get back on her feet.

Collins appeared in court on Tuesday morning, according to WCTV.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ request for comment.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​True crime, True crime news, Tennessee, Tennessee crime, Child sex abuse material, Csam, Crime, Church deacon, Video cameras 

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have all received subpoenas from the Department of Justice, reports claim.

Fox News reported on the subpoenas Tuesday and said they related to an investigation into obstruction of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

‘This Justice Department investigation … does not seek justice. It is a partisan distraction.’

Walz’s office and Frey’s office confirmed to KMSP-TV that they received the subpoenas. Walz also posted a statement on social media to President Donald Trump.

“Mr. President, Minnesota invites you to see our values in action. Come see how communities from all walks of life are working together, and how the spirit of this state refuses to be defined by division or fear,” he wrote in part.

“But let me be absolutely clear: The State of Minnesota will not be drawn into political theater,” Walz added. “This Justice Department investigation, sparked by calls for accountability in the face of violence, chaos, and the killing of Renee Good, does not seek justice. It is a partisan distraction.”

The subpoenas asked for records and communications from the politicians related to the surge of federal officers in Minnesota. The Associated Press reported that other subpoenas were also sent to St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, who previously admitted she is an “illegal” immigrant, and officials in Ramsey County as well as Hennepin County.

“When the federal government weaponizes its power to try to intimidate local leaders for doing their jobs, every American should be concerned,” read a statement from Frey to KMSP.

“We shouldn’t have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they disagree with,” he added. “In Minneapolis, we won’t be afraid. We know the difference between right and wrong, and, as Mayor, I’ll continue doing the job I was elected to do: keeping our community safe and standing up for our values.”

RELATED: Tim Walz tries to dunk on Trump and gets pantsed on social media

Walz went on to call for an investigation into the death of anti-ICE activist Renee Good instead.

“A mother is dead, and the people responsible have yet to be held accountable,” he wrote.

“That’s where the energy of the federal government should be directed: toward restoring trust, accountability, and real law and order, not political retaliation,” Walz added. “Minnesota will not be intimidated into silence and neither will I.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Justice dept subpoenas, Gov tim walz, Minneapolis mayor jacob frey, Attorney general keith ellison, Politics 

A Chinese man tried paying his wife to stop spending time with her virtual boyfriend.

The man asked his wife to stop using a particular program for a year in exchange for $2,800, and she initially agreed. The woman reportedly transferred the money into her daughter’s savings account until a week later, when she reinstalled the game because a new dating scene for her virtual boyfriend was released.

‘As a married woman, I still feel a bit guilty.’

The story of a woman going by “Minnie” is one of many chronicled in a recent article about Chinese women who are addicted to otomo games, virtual romance games targeted at women.

The most popular, Love and Romance, made $750 million in 2025, according to Pocket Gamer, with Sensor Tower reporting that the game had over 100,000 downloads in the Apple Store in December alone.

Other games like Light and Night or Beyond the World have women choose between different lovers who represent various personality types or themes. Collectible cards offer micro-transaction opportunities in order to unlock outfits, scenes, and storylines.

According to KrAsia, these games are wedging their way into women’s real lives at an alarming speed.

RELATED: 1980s-inspired AI companion promises to watch and interrupt you: ‘You can see me? That’s so cool’

Photo by Jiangang Wang

These games, in conjunction with chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek, are being used by women to create a constant stream of contact with their AI boyfriends.

“If not for ChatGPT and Love and Deepspace, I wouldn’t have realized how deeply I need to be understood and loved or that such needs could be perfectly met,” Chi Cheng told the outlet. “But if you told me to delete the game and stop using ChatGPT now, I’d lose my mind.”

In just five months, Cheng has spent over $1,100 chasing the cards of her favorite male companion, Xavier.

Minnie, however, prefers Rafayel, and even though she is married, she said the character is “someone who loves reading and art, is emotionally stable, understands finance, and never argues.”

Minnie has two Love and Deepspace accounts, having spent around $2,500 USD. Although she said she does not have an unhappy marriage, and she even has a daughter, the digital partner is still her perfect match.

“Even with a compatible partner, there will always be tension and stress. A 100% match doesn’t exist in real life,” the woman explained.

AI boyfriend in real life

Minnie noted that she uses her AI boyfriend’s chatbot function for real-life conversation, which is what led to her husband’s aforementioned monetary ultimatum:

“I’ll give you [$2,800]. Just stop playing Love and Deepspace for a year.”

Citing that she once read, “The best partner is someone you can talk to in the middle of the night,” Minnie revealed, “If my husband finally falls asleep after working late, I can’t wake him just to talk. But that’s when I can — by launching Love and Deepspace.”

All the women KrAsia interviewed use this function on a daily basis, and Minnie even uses the character for fitness motivation. During postpartum workouts, Minnie was able to extend the time she could hold a plank position after her coach joked, “Try looking at your favorite guy; maybe you’ll last longer.”

She began staring at Rafayel and extended her ability to hold the position from three seconds to 48 seconds. An attached photo showed her staring at her phone during her workout.

Other extensions for the app include an augmented reality feature where users can view their companion in their current environment through their phone.

Cheng reportedly often uses this feature to imagine Xavier walking beside her or sitting in a nearby chair.

RELATED: ‘Coded Casanovas’: The AI trend stirring dread, disgust, and fury

With plummeting marriage rates in China already, the fear is that this already massive industry will become more pervasive, as other girls like Yangtao explain that the reason otome games are so appealing is “maybe because real-life marriage is just … dull.”

She added, “But people never stop craving romance.”

Another woman, Meiyi, 35, told herself, “You’re at a crossroads. Don’t play this game, or you’ll get addicted.”

She apparently downloaded it anyway.

What became clear with the women in their stories was often directly admitted to; Minnie put it plainly:

“In the game, there’s no conflict, no arguments. Even small fights just build up to the next emotional high. Interacting with an in-game character feels more exciting than real life. But as a married woman, I still feel a bit guilty.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Return, Ai, Chatgpt, Ai companion, China, Video games, Gaming, Dating app, Tech 

Minnesota is hardly the only state whose kindness to migrants from the third world has been abused. Michiganders, too, have apparently opened their arms to foreign-born fraudsters who are more than happy to steal from their host state’s most vulnerable residents.

Nkechy Ezeh, a woke Nigerian who served as a professor at Aquinas College until 2023, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a scheme that bled taxpayers for $1 million and forced an organization that funded early learning initiatives for poor kids to close.

‘Her theft of millions of dollars intended for the most vulnerable of children was brazen, all-encompassing, and unconscionable.’

Ezeh could face up to 20 years in prison for the fraud charge and another five years for tax evasion — a charge to which she also pleaded guilty on Wednesday.

In the years since she migrated to the U.S., Ezeh has complained about “structural racism” while being showered with awards and opportunities.

In 2018, for instance, the West Michigan Woman Brilliance Awards named her woman of the year. In 2020, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed Ezeh to the executive committee of Michigan’s Early Childhood Investment Corporation. In 2021, Aquinas College honored the Nigerian fraudster with its Distinguished Service Award.

The acclaim and upward mobility evidently weren’t enough for Ezeh, who decided to live a jet-set lifestyle at taxpayers’ expense.

According to a 2023 whistleblower complaint, Ezeh used various interrelated organizations to funnel hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to herself as well as to friends and family members while serving as CEO of the Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative.

RELATED: Somali terror group cashing in on your tax dollars? Minnesota’s child-care fraud whistleblowers warned about a decade ago.

Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

The ELNC was a nonprofit in Grand Rapids that Ezeh — who claimed in a 2022 profile that “injustice makes me cry” — founded with the purported aim of providing state “funding, advocacy, and high-quality early childhood educational services to families, children, and neighborhoods that are more ‘at-risk or vulnerable.'”

The complaint filed against Ezeh indicated that she funneled funds from the ELNC with the help of the nonprofit’s bookkeeper, Sharon Killebrew, who secretly paid herself nearly $1 million between June 2017 and April 2023.

Court documents reviewed by WOOD-TV indicate that Ezeh not only created nearly $500,000 in fake invoices with Killebrew but created two fake day-care businesses to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to herself and others.

Ezeh reportedly used some of the stolen taxpayer money to pay for trips to Hawaii, Liberia, and Nigeria for herself and others.

ELNC sued Ezeh and Killebrew in September 2023, but by that time, the damage was done. ELNC had to close its doors on account of the financial impact of the duo’s embezzlement and fraud, which meant the loss of both 35 jobs and a source of support for numerous Michigan families.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Clay Stiffler, the victims of the the fraud committed by Ezeh — who has been touted as a “champion for poor black and brown kids” — “were mostly children of color under the age of five years old, 72% of whom lived below the federal poverty level in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Kent County, Kalamazoo, and Battle Creek.”

Killebrew initially insisted she was innocent, claiming she “didn’t steal anything.” However, when confronted with the mountain of evidence to the contrary, she pleaded guilty in June. Killebrew was sentenced to 54 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution.

Like her accomplice, Ezeh initially denied her guilt but has since admitted to embezzling over $1 million.

The Nigerian fraudster’s attorney, Mary Chartier, told MLive/the Grand Rapids Press, “Ms. Ezeh is committed to taking full responsibility and accountability for her actions. She is deeply remorseful to anyone who has been negatively impacted.”

Amy DeLeeuw, the president of the apparently defunct nonprofit, stated that she was “disappointed by Nkechy Ezeh’s failure to meaningfully articulate the nature and scope of her criminal misconduct during her change of plea hearing today. Her theft of millions of dollars intended for the most vulnerable of children was brazen, all-encompassing, and unconscionable.”

“To date, Nkechy has made no effort to repay any of the millions of dollars she stole from ELNC,” continued DeLeeuw. “I trust Nkechy’s demeanor at today’s hearing did not go unnoticed by Chief Judge Hala Jarbou. I and the board will have more to say in our victim impact statement and look forward to her sentencing hearing on May 13.”

Ezeh has reportedly agreed to pay $1.4 million in restitution to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Early Head Start programs and other agencies that gave grants to the ELNC as well as nearly $400,000 in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

Whitmer’s office did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

Aquinas College confirmed that Ezeh retired in May 2023 and told Blaze News that the college is not in a position to comment on Ezeh’s outside endeavors.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Minnesota, Michigan, Grand rapids, Nkechy ezeh, Nigeria, Nigerian, Fraud, Fraudsters, Ezeh, Early learning neighborhood collaborative, Daycare, Scam, Fraudster, Politics 

With the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, now in full swing, leaders from around the world are clamoring for the spotlight. And the Democratic governor of California is no exception.

In a video he shared on Tuesday morning, Gov. Gavin Newsom went on an unhinged rant against President Donald Trump, who is expected to give an address on Wednesday.

‘Diplomacy with Donald Trump? He’s a T. rex. You mate with him or he devours you.’

The video, a composite of several edited soundbites in a loud hallway, features Newsom railing against Trump in a myriad of attacks, including with some novel comparisons.

RELATED: Trump pulls US out of ‘racist’ UN forum pushing ‘global reparations agendas’

Photo by Lian Yi/Xinhua via Getty Images

Newsom demanded that European leaders “stop being complicit”: “I can’t take this complicity. People rolling over. I should have brought a bunch of knee pads for all the world leaders.”

Newsom called the world leaders’ handling of Trump’s dealings on the global stage “embarrassing,” adding strangely, “Diplomacy with Donald Trump? He’s a T. rex. You mate with him or he devours you. One or the other.”

The California governor then threw the Trump derangement syndrome kitchen sink at his crowd of listeners: “This guy is a wrecking ball. … It’s code red. And you guys are still playing by an old set of rules. … He’s unmoored. It’s the law of the jungle. It’s the rule of Don. And I hope it’s dawning on the world what we’re up against. I mean, this is serious. This guy, he’s not mad; he’s very intentional. But he’s unmoored, and he’s unhinged.”

Mustering all of his bravado, Newsom demanded of world leaders: “Have some spine. Have some goddamn balls.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Politics, Gavin newsom, Newsom, California, California governor, Davos, World economic forum, Tds, Wef, Donald trump, President trump, World leaders 

An actress known for black exploitation movies said that she remembers seeing lynchings when she was a child in Ohio — but her claims were contradicted by history as well as math.

Pam Grier made the claims during her guest appearance on “The View,” and the co-hosts did not push back on the bizarre story.

‘At least make up a story that’s halfway believable.’

“You faced a lot of racism growing up in Columbus, Ohio. How did that shape you?” Sunny Hostin asked.

“Phew! Well, the military wouldn’t allow black families to live on the base, so you had to live in an apartment. And you couldn’t take a bus. You couldn’t afford a car. You walked. Your dads walked to the base,” Grier said.

“And sometimes we would go from tree shade to shade to get back to the apartment, my brother and I and my mom with bags,” she added. “And my mom would go, ‘Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look,’ and she would pull us away because there’s someone hanging from a tree.”

Grier appeared emotional, and the audience gasped at her story.

“And they have a memorial for it now where you can see where people were and left,” she continued. “And it triggers me today to see that a voice can be silenced and if a white family supported a black, they’re going to get burned down or killed or lynched as well.”

While Ohio does have a horrible history of racial lynchings, the last record of such an incident was from 1911, which makes it impossible for Grier’s story to be accurate.

Many critics lashed out at her online after video of the tale was posted to social media.

“I am 78. I grew up in Columbus Ohio. Bulls**t story,” one X user responded.

“It is amazing that she can lie so boldly without no push back. … You know who believes this slop? Middle aged single leftist white women who will believe ‘lived truths’ over facts,” another detractor replied.

“It’s important to learn history so that when you lie, you can at least make up a story that’s halfway believable,” another critic said.

RELATED: Jasmine Crockett melts down on ‘The View’ over ‘racist’ jab from JD Vance — and claims Republicans are disturbed by her

A community note attached to the video pointed out that Grier was born in 1949, nearly four decades after the last lynching in the state. And while there is a plaque in Columbus to remember two victims of lynching in the downtown of the city, those incidents were from 1896.

Grier is best known for her roles in “blaxploitation” movies in the 1970s, including “Coffy” and “Foxy Brown.” She is celebrated as one of the first female action stars.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Pam grier on lynchings, The view lies, Lynchings in ohio, Online backlash, Politics 

Women’s basketball is not doing great, and BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock believes it has a lot to do with the feminist attitude of the players — which has led to the failure of making their new Unrivaled basketball league a must-watch.

This new league is a three-versus-three women’s basketball league that WNBA players started last year to play in their off season.

“This is year two. The ratings have absolutely collapsed. There’s 50, 60 thousand people watching these Unrivaled basketball games. Last year, I think 2, 300, 400 thousand people were watching. It is a horrendous product, … and it’s not surprising to me that it would collapse,” Whitlock explains on “Fearless.”

“Players in the WNBA are causing the collapse of the WNBA, causing the collapse of women’s sports. This is an inside job by the actual players in women’s athletics. They are destroying themselves and their own league. They are destroying women’s sports,” he adds.

Whitlock believes this is a reflection of “matriarchal leadership.”

“They’re not leaders; they’re chaos agents. … They are actually destroying themselves,” he says.

Whitlock also points out that almost all of the famous women in sports — save Caitlin Clark — have adopted the gender-fluid, race-worshipping, lesbian lifestyle — making them horrific role models for young girls.

“Because Caitlin Clark didn’t fit the lesbian stereotype, she hadn’t adopted the lesbian lifestyle, and because she’s white, the lesbians and the jealous, angry black women have ganged up on her, pushed her out, and made all sports fans deal with, like, ‘Who are these people we’re supporting?’” Whitlock explains.

And this phenomenon is not central to just basketball, but also women’s soccer players like Megan Rapinoe.

“Do I really want Megan Rapinoe as a role model for young girls? These women are insane,” Whitlock says. “And so, I’m sitting here applauding the collapse of the WNBA.”

“This Unrivaled league and the ratings are an embarrassment,” he says. “They’re a statement about how little interest there actually is in women’s basketball beyond Caitlin Clark.”

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Camera phone, Upload, Video phone, Free, Sharing, Video, Youtube.com, Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Megan rapinoe, Caitlin clark, Wnba, Unrivaled basketball league, Wnba ratings, Womens basketball 

To invoke the “Manhattan Project” is to summon a particular ghost: one of total mobilization, of scientists sequestered in secret rooms, of a national destiny forged in the heat of a singular, technological breakthrough by a threatened country. In the 1940s, the location was Los Alamos; in 2026, it is a secure laboratory in Shenzhen. Here, the objective is not a nuclear chain reaction, but the etching of light onto silicon at a scale so small it defies the physical properties of the air we breathe.

The technology is extreme ultraviolet lithography. To the uninitiated, it is a manufacturing process; to the Chinese state, it is the choke point that must be cleared if the nation is to thrive. For years, Washington operated under the assumption that the complexity of these machines — monstrous contraptions the size of city buses, requiring the synchronization of molten tin droplets ionized by lasers 50,000 times a second — would remain a Western monopoly, a “Silicon Shield” guarded by the Dutch firm ASML. That assumption, like so many others in this decade, has proved precarious.

If China succeeds, it will have neutralized the West’s major lever.

The machinery of this mobilization is vast. At the top sits the Central Science and Technology Commission, directed by Ding Xuexiang, a man whose proximity to President Xi Jinping signals that the semiconductor is no longer a matter of commerce, but of national interest. The strategy is one of “brute-force innovation.” In this world, the tech giant Huawei coordinates a web of institutes and thousands of engineers, a private entity acting as a limb of the state.

There is an urgency in the way the talent was gathered. Since 2019, Beijing has been luring Chinese-born engineers back from foreign firms with signing bonuses of $700,000 and the promise of a place in history. When they arrive, they disappear. To protect the project’s secrecy, these returnees work under false identities, wearing fake ID badges and using aliases even among their colleagues. They operate with military-like discipline; scientists sleep on-site at laboratories, barred from returning home during the work week, their phone access restricted as if they were handling the codes to a nuclear missile silo.

One thinks of the “Two Bombs, One Satellite” program of the 1960s, the earlier state-directed campaign that yielded China’s first atomic and hydrogen bombs. The rhetoric is the same: the patriotic return of the diaspora, the vanquishing of foreign embargoes through indigenous innovation. The narrative is of national rejuvenation, of overcoming “past humiliations” by proving that the mind cannot be embargoed. In early 2025, the prototype emerged. It is, by all accounts, crude and enormous, filling nearly an entire factory floor in Shenzhen, a stark contrast to the refined, bus-sized machines of the West. However, it is operational, generating the 13.5 nm ultraviolet light beam necessary to etch circuits at the 5 nm scale and below.

RELATED: Chinese elites paying American surrogates to breed ‘mega-families’

Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images

The technical challenge of EUV is a kind of high-stakes alchemy. Because 13.5 nm light is absorbed by glass and even air, it must travel in a vacuum and be focused by specialized multilayered mirrors with atomic-level precision. To achieve this without the help of Western suppliers such as Germany’s Zeiss, the Chinese relied on obsessive, focused resourcefulness. They scoured secondary markets for old equipment; they salvaged components from older ASML machines; they acquired restricted parts from Japanese firms Nikon and Canon via intermediaries.

Perhaps most revealing is the “SWAT team” of 100 young engineers assigned to take these machines apart and put them back together. Each desk is monitored by a camera as they meticulously reverse-engineer components, a process of “training through deconstruction.” The scene is of Ph.D.s poring over discarded machinery like puzzle pieces, striving to unlock the nuances of a technology they were never meant to have. The result is a proof of concept that observers had believed was a great many years away.

We are witnessing the early phase of a race for AI chips. If the 20th century was defined by oil reserves and nuclear arsenals, the 21st will be defined by computing power and silicon fabs. The U.S. has responded with the CHIPS and Science Act, investing over $50 billion to reshore production, while simultaneously attempting to choke off China’s access to the most advanced tools.

Yet there is a quandary in this decoupling. The semiconductor supply chain is global and interdependent. An ASML machine is a mosaic of components from Japan, Germany, and the U.S. By forcing China toward self-sufficiency, the West may be inadvertently creating the very monster it fears: a China capable of producing advanced chips on entirely China-made machines, “kicking the United States 100% out of its supply chains.” The goal is a “digital Iron Curtain,” where two separate technological stacks, one Chinese-led, one Western-led, operate in parallel, neither reliant on the other’s hardware or software.

For now, the project remains a work in progress. Mass-producing 2-5 nm chips in China is likely still years away, perhaps 2030 or beyond. The machines must be refined; the optical mirrors remain a weak point. Yet the significance of the prototype is not its current efficiency, but its existence, which demonstrates an irreversible commitment to Chinese technological independence.

The air in Shenzhen is thick with techno-optimism and a quiet, state-sanctioned fervor. When a Chinese chip startup recently went public, its stock soared 693%, a sign of a public that views each new milestone as a victory against a foreign blockade. This is the intersection of technology and national pride. If China succeeds, it will have neutralized the West’s major lever. If it fails, the U.S. may extend its lead. The breakthroughs, however, feel inevitable to those inside the project. They are playing a long game, one where the cost — in billions of dollars, in the isolation of their brightest minds, in the fracturing of the global order — is simply the price of admission.

​Tech 

Democrat U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota uttered a profanity to describe the United States amid ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities in Minneapolis.

During a Democrat-led Saturday event titled “Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump’s Deadly Assault on Minnesota,” Omar ripped Republicans and President Donald Trump over ongoing ICE operations.

‘There is no circumstance in which she should refer to our country in this way.’

“It is appalling for our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to be OK for the president to carry out retribution here in Minnesota. It is appalling for our Republican colleagues to be OK for there to be cell detentions in ICE for American citizens,” she said.

Omar added: “It is appalling for them to be OK for there to be checkpoints in American cities where people are asked for their papers. And it is appalling for Americans to have to carry their citizen papers only to be told they are not sure if those papers are correct.”

Then the native Somali opened her potty mouth: “I don’t wanna curse, but those of us who escaped places like that? The one place where we thought we would never experience this is the U.S. [sic] goddamn States.”

Omar also said that “we should all be ashamed that it is the United States that is allowing for this to take place, and it is being … broadcasted to the rest of the world, where people are calling and saying, ‘Are you sure this is America?’ I am ashamed, and we must do everything that we can to bring back the America we all escaped into.”

You can check out video of Omar’s tirade below. Her profanity describing the U.S. comes just after the 1:20 mark in case you’re not in the mood to endure the whole thing:

The White House Rapid Response account on X ripped Omar for her profane description of the U.S., insisting that “there is no circumstance in which she should refer to our country in this way. It is beyond disrespectful — it is appalling, disgusting, and SICK. SHAME ON HER!”

Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah reacted on X by saying “no member of Congress should *ever* refer to our country as the ‘U.S. G—— States.’ What should be the consequence of saying that?”

Elon Musk answered Lee, suggesting “whatever the penalty is for treason” — to which Lee noted, “That one carries a pretty stiff penalty.” The penalty for treason against the U.S. can be death.

While Trump didn’t directly reference Omar’s profane description of the U.S. in a Sunday Truth Social post, the president did call her a “fake ‘Congresswoman'” and a “constant complainer who hates the USA” who “knows everything there is to know. She should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia, considered one of the absolutely worst countries in the World. She could help to MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN!”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Ilhan omar, Minneapolis, Ice, United states of america, Curse word, Profanity, St. paul, Minnesota senate building, Democrats, Goddamn, Donald trump, Mike lee, Elon musk, Politics