James Talarico scored some points with an easy political play: Pick up the phone, “call” Ken Paxton, and publicly challenge him to a debate.

The video quickly went viral, with Talarico urging his Republican opponent to join him on Fox News before Texans head to the polls.

The short clip shows Talarico on the phone, before saying, “Hey Ken, it’s James, I’m calling to invite you to a debate on Fox News. Texans start voting in less than a month, and they deserve to hear from both of us before they do. I’ve accepted four local TV debates, but we haven’t heard from you, and we’re running out of time.”

“So if Fox News is where you’ll be most comfortable, I’ll be there because I think it’s that important. Bret Baier can moderate, we can both take questions, and Texans can hear from us directly,” he continued.

“So give me a call back, man. I look forward to hearing from you,” he added.

BlazeTV host Pat Gray wonders if Talarico’s confidence means he’s the “program director at Fox now.”

“We already cleared it with Bret. He’s got on the schedule,” Jeff Fisher laughs.

Executive producer Keith Malinak points out that at least four local stations have agreed to host the debate, but Paxton hasn’t answered the invite — which he calls “completely unacceptable from the Paxton camp.”

“The guy who’s ahead is the one who is begging for debates,” he adds.

The ad, Malinak and Fisher say, has been “effective.”

“It should be addressed,” Fisher says.

The ad was posted days ago, and there’s still been no response from Paxton.

“They actually didn’t return USA Today when they reached out for comment,” Malinak says.

“Does he want to win?” Gray asks.

“I don’t know,” Malinak answers, adding, “Honestly, I don’t believe he does at this point. The evidence points to no.”

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​James talarico, Ken paxton, Campaign ad, Texas, Senate, Pat gray, Blazetv show 

A federal criminal complaint alleges that a DoorDash driver who is said to be in the U.S. illegally struck an immigration officer with his vehicle’s side mirror as he fled a traffic stop — an encounter that ended with him being shot.

The shooting of 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez has led to outrage and protests from critics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The other officer who was wearing a body camera caught up to the scene only after the shooting had occurred.

The complaint claims bodycam video from the Sept. 20 incident in Austin, Texas, shows Perez clipping an officer with the side mirror of his vehicle when he tries to flee from the traffic stop.

The complaint says the law enforcement operation began when immigration officers saw Perez parked with his hazard lights on and discovered through a database check that he had an active deportation order.

The initial interaction was described as “pleasant and not aggressive” in the complaint.

Perez asked officers to allow him to wait for his wife to arrive to retrieve his vehicle, but they refused, which led him to “abruptly” close the window and hit the gas, the complaint claimed.

One of the officers was struck on his torso by the side mirror as the man fled, the complaint also claimed.

Perez allegedly led them on a car chase for about eight minutes before he was shot by an officer who was not wearing a body camera, the complaint continued. The other officer who was wearing a body camera caught up to the scene only after the shooting occurred.

Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an attorney for Perez, previously said that he was seeking asylum and had a valid work permit. She added that he was ordered to be deported because a notice to appear in immigration court had been sent to his previous address and he missed the hearing.

The DHS responded that his work permit had expired in 2025 and added that a work permit did not confer any legal status on immigrants. The Department of Homeland Security had previously described Perez as an “illegal alien from Venezuela, who illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal.”

In court on Tuesday, Lincoln-Goldfinch claimed that Perez remains in “extremely bad medical condition” after the gunshot wound and has been asking for surgery to remove the bullet, the AP reported.

Lincoln-Goldfinch did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News about the allegations in the complaint.

RELATED: DHS Sec. Mullin CRUSHES ‘open borders’ Democrat pushing ‘radical’ anti-ICE bill

Perez was charged with one count of assaulting, resisting, and impeding a federal officer. If he’s convicted of the charge, Perez faces up to 20 years in prison.

He alleges that officers crashed into his car and caused it to spin before he was shot in the back. Perez was taken into custody after receiving treatment at a hospital.

The complaint included still-frames from police footage of the incident, but the bodycam footage was not released.

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​Illegal alien, Immigration and customs enforcement, Body camera footage, Immigration, Politics 

Passengers aboard a Boeing 737 heading to Tel Aviv, Israel, braced themselves when the plane suddenly plunged by 16,000 feet over an alleged hijacking attempt.

A co-pilot stabbed the other pilot on the flight in a 9/11-style attempt to take control of the plane, according to law enforcement officials.

‘We’re here during the hijacking of an airplane. At this point, we’ve subdued the terrorists.’

Some of the 174 passengers of the plane, which took off from the United Arab Emirates, recorded cellphone video of the harrowing incident.

“We’re here during the hijacking of an airplane. At this point, we’ve subdued the terrorists,” said one passenger on his video.

Some of the videos show passengers with blood on their clothing from confronting the alleged attacker. A passenger said cabin crew and passengers rushed to stop the attack.

“We were either going to crash or be murdered,” said another passenger to I24 News. “It was like a terrorist attack in mid-air.”

A flydubai spokesperson said in a statement that following the “altercation in the flight deck,” the “on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight … diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk Airport.”

“At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation. We urge all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts,” the flydubai statement added.

Sources told the Jerusalem Post that the alleged co-pilot terrorist is believed to be from Oman.

Photos showed that the rudder on the plane was damaged during the landing, which was completed by two off-duty European pilots, the New York Post reported.

“Someone shouted ‘stabbing,’ and my husband understood what was happening and rushed to the front of the plane,” a passenger said. “Along with other Israelis, they neutralized the terrorist.”

RELATED: NY woman allegedly thanked Allah for 9/11 and plotted to bomb state capitol and White House

The flight was diverted and landed in Saudi Arabia.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that “all passengers are out of danger” and that “the pilot who stabbed them has been arrested and is currently being questioned by the Saudi authorities.”

Some of the videos from passengers can be viewed on social media.

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​Terror attack, Israel, Plane hijacking, Islam, Politics 

Every day, tens of millions of Americans walk. Some walk to the kitchen, others walk to the bathroom, and plenty make the familiar trip back to the kitchen after forgetting what they went there for in the first place. The more adventurous, in search of a little exercise, head outside for a stroll around the block.

I enjoy a good walk myself. But after reading about the latest method, I have to ask a critical question: Have we all been walking wrong this entire time?

By next spring, expect the arrival of Scandinavian Sitting Down, a Nordic method that involves placing your buttocks on a chair when your legs feel tired.

You see, researchers in Japan have found that deliberately alternating between slower and faster walking can improve aerobic fitness, leg strength, and blood pressure more effectively than simply walking at a steady moderate pace. Hence the latest viral craze sweeping the West. Japanese walking involves three minutes of relaxed walking, followed by three minutes of faster, more vigorous walking. You repeat the process for about 30 minutes.

It’s formally known as Interval Walking Training, which makes it sound infinitely more impressive than “walk normally, then go a bit faster.”

The saber-tooth protocol

Humanity has survived famines. It has endured plagues and savage wars without a digital timer strapped to its wrist, telling it when to put one foot in front of the other. Yet today, millions of supposedly sane adults in America and beyond subscribe to services that tell them to speed up for 180 seconds. Our ancestors accelerated when a saber-toothed tiger chased them and slowed when the tiger disappeared. They called it staying alive.

The absurdity extends far beyond walking. The entire self-improvement industry rests on taking an ordinary human function, giving it a very fancy name, and selling it as a revolutionary lifestyle breakthrough.

When you eat smaller portions, you’re not practicing moderation. No, you’re engaging in the fine art of portion control. If you skip breakfast because you slept through your alarm, you’re practicing intermittent fasting. Should you fall asleep on the couch on a Sunday afternoon, you’re not taking a nap. Instead, you’re practicing a form of Non-Sleep Deep Rest.

The obsession with rebranding even the most basic things stems from deep-seated collective insecurity. Modern culture distrusts anything that lacks an instruction manual or a monthly billing cycle.

Linguistic inflation

When you step outside your front door to observe an oak tree, you’re forest bathing. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator is known as incidental exercise. Drinking a glass or two of water when you feel thirsty has evolved into a hydration protocol, complete with a gallon jug marked with motivational quotes to ensure optimal cellular fluid retention.

Going to bed at 10 p.m. on a weeknight used to be called common sense. Now it’s called sleep hygiene. And naturally, getting a good night’s sleep requires blue-light-blocking glasses, a weighted blanket, and enough magnesium to stock a small pharmacy.

Sitting near a window at 7 in the morning is circadian activation. Taking a 10-minute break from your computer screen is deliberate recovery.

In the 1920s, if a laborer needed a breather, he sat down on a crate and smoked a pipe. A century later, an office manager hires a certified consultant to teach him breath work, which involves inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth.

The linguistic inflation is out of control. Sitting on a chair without looking at your phone for a few minutes is mindfulness. Writing about your annoying boss and even more annoying neighbor in a notebook is journaling. Drinking a mug of black coffee before going for a jog is pre-workout supplementation.

Vacuuming the living room and carrying heavy laundry baskets down to the basement is functional fitness. Throwing a ball around with your son in the back yard is active family bonding. Jumping into cold water is aquatic cardiovascular conditioning. Staring at nothing in particular for 10 minutes is dopamine detoxing.

RELATED: Rare disease? Chronic illness? Fame awaits as a ‘sickfluencer’

Getty Images

Wellness wordsmiths

Influencers have built multimillion-dollar digital empires by doing little more than glancing at the dictionary, grabbing an everyday word, and replacing it with something that sounds like a medical diagnosis.

The goal is to make you feel fundamentally incompetent at simply existing. If breathing, sleeping, walking, and drinking water require a life coach and a six-week online seminar, you’re permanently broken without their intervention.

Things are bad now, and they’ll likely get worse. By next spring, expect the arrival of Scandinavian Sitting Down, a Nordic method that involves placing your buttocks on a chair when your legs feel tired. By autumn, wellness retreats will charge exorbitant fees to teach corporate clients the ancient art of Korean Going to Bed. This esoteric eastern practice involves shutting your eyes in a dark room until you fall asleep.

The solution to this nonsense is pretty simple. And more importantly, it’s entirely free. Put away the stopwatch. Delete the tracking apps; ignore the snake-oil salesmen online. Go outside. Put one foot in front of the other, and walk at whatever speed feels comfortable until you decide to stop.

​Breathwork, Circadian activation, Deliberate recovery, Forest bathing, Health, Hydration, Incidental exercise, Influencers, Japanese walking, Journaling, Lifestyle, Make america healthy again, Wellness 

President Donald Trump has once again found the quickest way to send Canada’s political establishment into a fit of national indignation: point out the obvious.

This time, Trump went after the country’s immigration policies.

It is an extraordinary thing to hear a Canadian prime minister publicly discuss planning for an invasion by the US.

“Canada is destroying itself by allowing millions and millions of people into the Country, essentially unchecked and unvetted, and who are causing problems that will soon be too big to handle,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week. “It is a Liberal takeover that will end very badly. Already showing up in their numbers. Big unemployment.”

Fatuous fact-check

Canadian officials and media outlets were quick to push back. CBC pointed out that immigrants and temporary residents are screened and that Canada’s unemployment rate, while still 6.4% in August, has fallen half a percentage point since May.

Fair enough. Like many of Trump’s pronouncements, “unchecked and unvetted” is an obvious exaggeration. But concentrating on that phrase conveniently allows Canada to avoid the substance of what he said: The country allowed immigration and temporary migration to rise so rapidly that the Liberal government is now scrambling to bring the numbers back down.

As recently as 2021, more than 8.3 million Canadians — 23% of the population — were or had once been landed immigrants or permanent residents, the highest proportion among G7 countries.

And that was before the subsequent explosion in temporary residents. By October 2024, Canada’s non-permanent resident population had climbed to nearly 3 million, or 7.2% of the population.

Ottawa is now reversing course. The government has cut its target for new temporary-resident arrivals from 673,650 in 2025 to 385,000 this year — a reduction of about 43% — and says it intends to reduce the temporary-resident population to less than 5% of Canada’s population by the end of 2027. The government itself acknowledges that immigration levels must be brought into line with Canada’s housing supply, health care system, and labor market.

Justin time

That is quite a retreat from the immigration consensus that prevailed under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In January 2017, days after Trump’s first inauguration, Trudeau responded to Trump’s immigration restrictions with a social media invitation heard around the world.

“To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith,” Trudeau wrote. “Diversity is our strength. #WelcomeToCanada.”

Nine years later, Ottawa is trying to get the numbers back down.

Statistics Canada reported last week that the number of non-permanent residents fell by nearly 155,000 over the previous year. Yet 2.78 million non-permanent residents still remained in Canada on July 1 — about 6.7% of the population.

You don’t have to accept every word of Trump’s Truth Social post to notice what happened. Canada dramatically increased immigration and temporary migration. The government that presided over the increase is now cutting it.

Yet Canada’s political establishment remains far more comfortable talking about Donald Trump than examining how the country arrived here.

Carney’s cosplay

Within days of Trump’s latest broadside, Prime Minister Mark Carney was discussing something considerably more dramatic than immigration: the possibility of war with the United States.

Asked by the New York Times whether he had seriously considered the possibility of American military action against Canada, Carney said he had examined the “extreme tail risk.”

“I think you have a responsibility in these roles to look at extreme tail risk,” Carney said. He stressed that an American invasion was “not a base case,” describing the exercise as simple “risk management.”

It is an extraordinary thing to hear a Canadian prime minister publicly discuss planning for an invasion by the U.S. Despite Carney’s fond reveries about the War of 1812, when American forces repeatedly invaded British North America, Canada and the United States have spent the past century preparing to fight alongside each other, not against each other.

The two countries were founding members of NATO. They jointly operate NORAD, the world’s only binational military command, and maintain a web of bilateral defense agreements and joint military plans for the defense of North America. The U.S. State Department has described America’s defense arrangements with Canada as more extensive than those it maintains with any other country.

That cooperation dates back at least to 1940, when Prime Minister Mackenzie King and President Franklin Roosevelt established formal cooperation on continental defense.

Eighty-six years later, Canada’s prime minister is publicly acknowledging that his government has considered what happens if the country on the other side of that defense partnership becomes the threat.

The military imbalance makes the hypothetical stranger still. Canada’s armed forces are a shadow of the military that fought through two world wars and landed at Juno Beach on D-Day. During World War II, the Royal Canadian Air Force grew into the fourth-largest Allied air force. Today’s Canadian military has struggled with recruiting, aging equipment, and years of procurement delays.

RELATED: ‘AMERICAN INVASION’: Flailing Canada PM Mark Carney invokes historical grudge in latest lob at Trump

George Rose/Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Made in Canada

Carney’s comments might have remained an odd diplomatic footnote if Donald Trump were not simultaneously becoming the organizing principle of Canadian domestic politics.

In British Columbia, Premier David Eby has just called a provincial election two years ahead of schedule. The timing could hardly be better for Eby. B.C. Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay had resigned only days earlier after months of turmoil within the opposition party.

But Eby says the election is necessary because British Columbia faces an “existential moment.” The threat comes courtesy of — you guessed it — Donald Trump.

“Donald Trump is attacking our jobs, driving up costs, and threatening our ability to make decisions for ourselves,” said Eby in announcing the election.

Obviously, no alliance means that two countries’ interests will always align. Canada has benefited enormously from its relationship with the United States, but there have always been disputes over trade, defense, energy, and any number of other issues. Trump’s tariffs have hurt Canadian industries, while his repeated talk about Canada becoming the 51st state has understandably irritated Canadians. That is what happens when two sovereign countries pursue their own interests.

But Canadian politicians seem increasingly preoccupied with the points of friction. And Trump has become awfully useful to them.

Meanwhile, many of the problems Trump is talking about were made in Canada.

Trump did not create Canada’s housing shortage. He did not create its enormous temporary-resident population or set the immigration targets the Liberal government is now cutting. Those were Canadian decisions, made by Canadian governments.

The immigration reversal should make that particularly difficult to ignore. Ottawa spent years pushing the numbers higher and is now scrambling to bring them down. Correcting Trump’s exaggerations does not make that record disappear.

Canadian politicians can continue blaming Trump for what he says about their country. They might spend a little more time explaining what they’ve done to it.

​British columbia, Canadas immigration policies, President donald trump, Trade disputes, Health care system, Mark carney, Justin trudeau, War of 1812, David eby, Canada, Trade policy, History, Culture, Letter from canada 

Chris Hansen built his career confronting alleged child predators — adults who had agreed to meet up with children — but Hollywood is telling his story from a different angle.

An angle where, apparently, he’s the predator.

In “Primetime,” Robert Pattinson portrays the longtime “To Catch a Predator” host in a fictionalized take on Hansen’s career.

BlazeTV hosts Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau are less than impressed with the film’s spin, especially considering Hollywood doesn’t hold any moral high ground when it comes to predatory behavior.

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“It’s odd because Hollywood’s like, you know, we’re the industry falling apart because we’re, you know, the industry that’s been accused of pedophilia and grooming. So what we should do is make a movie about Chris Hansen where the pedophiles are the good guys,” Dave says.

“This is what fascinates me more than anything else,” Stu agrees, “because of course we live in the country that would … make the guy getting the pedophiles arrested into the bad guy.”

Dave notes that having met Hansen twice himself, he found him to be a “genuinely good dude” who “actually cares about his work.”

Hansen isn’t a fan of the film either, explaining in an interview that even though he is not “the most objective reviewer … since A24 made it without [his] consult or consideration, and they use [his] name, image, and likeness,” that the film is “pure fiction.”

“They mix in some reality here and there. At the end of the day, I wasn’t blown away by it either way. It’s a movie, and I’ll continue to do the work I do, and people can watch this movie and make up their own minds,” he added.

A Washington Post article also addresses the new film’s spin on Hansen’s career, titled “A new movie asks whether Chris Hansen is the predator. He’s sure of his answer.”

“‘No’ is his answer,” Stu laughs. “Quite obviously ‘no’ is the correct answer. It’s easy to detect because he was the people putting predators into prison.”

“Yes, that’s how you know he wasn’t the predator,” Dave agrees.

“The pitch on him being the bad guy, by the way, is all he cared about was ratings and he was exposing these losers and their weird sexual things to the masses for his own publicity and ruining their lives, which, at some level, parts of that storyline are true,” Stu says.

“I’m sure he cared about ratings, as every television person does,” he continues. “I’m sure he was trying to advance his career and make the show popular.”

“But … just because you’re a loser and just because, you know, you have a weird sexual thing does not make it OK to act on that with kids,” he adds.

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​Chris hansen, Dave landau, Hollywood, Stu burguiere, To catch a predator, Washington post, Primetime, Robert pattinson, Blazetv show 

Philadelphia police said a masked male allegedly broke into a woman’s apartment before sunrise Wednesday — but she was armed with a gun and opened fire.

Officers were called to an apartment complex in the 4600 block of Castor Avenue in the city’s Frankford section just after 5 a.m. for a shooting, WPVI-TV reported.

‘It appears this individual broke the window and was able to reach in and open the door and then entered this woman’s apartment and that’s when the shot — or shots — were fired.’

The woman in her 20s told police she heard someone breaking windows to the apartment and encountered the man inside, the station said.

The problem for the alleged intruder? The woman had a gun.

Arriving officers found in the apartment’s bedroom an unresponsive 29-year-old man who had been shot in the head, the station said.

He was pronounced dead at the scene, police added to WPVI.

“It appears this individual broke the window and was able to reach in and open the door and then entered this woman’s apartment and that’s when the shot — or shots — were fired,” Chief Inspector Scott Small with the Philadelphia Police Department told WPVI.

The station showed an image of a broken window in the rear of the second-floor apartment, through which the intruder reportedly placed his hand and then unlocked the apartment’s rear door.

Police told the station it didn’t appear the male had any weapons on him.

Investigators told WPVI that once they removed the mask from the male, the woman recognized him, telling police they had a prior relationship, although the nature of the relationship is unclear.

Officials told the station the woman is cooperating with police and has turned over a semi-automatic handgun to officers.

RELATED: Gun-toting woman ‘took care of business’ after male broke into her home, entered her bedroom, and wouldn’t leave

Homicide detectives are interviewing the woman, and police also are reviewing surveillance video from near the scene, WPVI added.

A woman the station interviewed after the shooting said, “I feel anybody should defend themselves if they think they’re in harm’s way.”

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​Crime thwarted, Philadelphia, Fatal shooting, Home invasion, Break-in, 2nd amendment, Guns, Self-defense, Woman shoots intruder, Crime 

The NFL promotes politics on clothes and in the end zones, but when it comes to players doing so, it’s a no go.

Muslim players found this out the hard way earlier this month when they were fined for writing messages on their eye black, an apparent violation of league rules.

‘If you’re going to pull down the messaging, pull it all down.’

Arizona Cardinals defensive back Kei’Trel Clark wrote, “Glory Be 2 God …,” with a peace sign in the middle, while Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair was fined for having the name of a deceased Palestinian child.

Both were fined for displaying personal messages, but one former NFL player turned Christian minister says they should have the right to do so.

Former Minnesota Vikings defensive back Jack Brewer told OutKick he thought it was “disgusting” for the NFL to fine players for writing religious messages on their equipment.

“If someone’s writing things across their uniform or putting it out there on top of their helmet, that’s a different story,” Brewer said. “But the eye black — think back to Tim Tebow and many, many other athletes, myself. We would write stuff on our tapes, on our forearms. We would write stuff on our eye black.”

Brewer revealed that he spoke with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington, D.C., about the issue, discussing the players’ freedom of speech and employee rights.

“When you start talking about freedom of speech in this country and you start talking about employees’ rights in this country, it’s a big deal,” Brewer explained. “As a Christian man, I’m not going to stand for that. And as a former NFL player, I’m not going to stand for that.”

RELATED: Muslim NFL players say they’re confused after thousands of dollars in fines: ‘I need answers’

Kenneth Richmond/Getty Images

Brewer said that players of any religion should be protected from being fined for displaying messages such as those from Clark and Al-Shaair; both are Muslim.

Much of the former player’s argument centered around the fact that the NFL already has significant political messaging around the sport, such as gay pride merchandise and anti-racism messaging in the end zones.

“If you’re going to pull down the messaging, pull it all down, but don’t pick and choose,” Brewer said.

He added, “You cannot treat people differently based upon whatever it is you want to promote.”

Brewer argued that the NFL, through all its different statements, “cannot pick and choose” which messages it wants its players to be a part of.

RELATED: Former Vikings player says ‘demonic’ Minnesota Democrats are upset ICE is ‘deporting their voters’

Jack Brewer 2004. Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

The players who were fined seemed to be in direct violation of Rule 5, Section 4, Article 8 of the NFL rulebook, which states, “Players are prohibited from wearing, displaying, or otherwise conveying personal messages” during game day when the player is visible to the stadium or television audience.

For Clark, his fine may have come as a surprise given that he had worn religious messaging on his eye black in September 2025 that read, “Inshallah …,” one of many ways the player expresses his Muslim faith publicly.

“The NFL treated Clark’s gratitude to God, as expressed in four words, as a punishable personal message,” Brewer said in a letter, per OutKick. “This fine represents an action that strikes at the heart of religious liberty and sends a chilling message to every person of faith in professional sports.”

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​Nfl, Jack brewer, Religious freedom, Azeez al-shaair, Kei’trel clark, Football, Sports 

Deportation flights are cleared for takeoff.

The Supreme Court of the United States on Tuesday issued an emergency ruling allowing the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to “third countries,” or those other than their nation of origin. The administration has deported Cubans and Venezuelans to African nations like Liberia and Eswatini.

‘A bad day for criminal illegals and open borders activists alike.’

Though the one-page stay did not include a vote count, the three liberal Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson noted they would not have granted the Trump administration’s request.

The Department of Homeland Security wasted no time taking a victory lap on social media.

“In our second Supreme Court victory in less than a week, DHS’s third country removal policy is back in effect,” DHS General Counsel James Percival said on X after the ruling. “A bad day for criminal illegals and open borders activists alike. It’s not too late to get $3,000 and a flight home.”

The practice became a practical necessity for removing illegal aliens after several countries, including Cuba and Vietnam, refused to accept the return of their deported nationals.

Though third-country deportations to African nations have generated prominent media attention, Mexico remains the leading destination for said removals. Of the roughly 25,000 third-country deportees since the policy took effect, 20,000 have been sent to Mexico.

Department of Justice Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed the successful application to stay Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy’s February judgment.

RELATED: Libertarian think tank clutches pearls about reduced Islamic migration — but it’s music to MAGA ears

J. David Ake/Getty Images

“The United States relies on third countries in part to facilitate the removal of criminal aliens who are otherwise difficult to remove because their home countries and other countries refuse to take them,” Sauer wrote in the filing. “Absent an effective third-country removal policy, the United States is forced to retain (and often release into the interior) vicious criminals who have already harmed our communities.”

Tuesday’s emergency ruling is a temporary stay, not a final decision. The justices also granted the administration review and set oral argument for December.

SCOTUS will evaluate in December whether Murphy had jurisdiction to issue a nationwide pause and whether the third-country policy is lawful on its merits. The emergency ruling allowed the Trump administration to resume third-country deportations without the lengthy notice-and-hearing process previously imposed by Murphy.

“The Left wants you to believe that removing aliens to countries other than their home country is cruel,” Percival said. “What is cruel is allowing criminal illegals who can’t be sent home to stay in our communities and victimize anew.”

Tuesday’s order marks the third time that the Supreme Court has granted the federal government third-country deportation powers pending a final hearing and decision.

The DHS and DOJ did not respond to requests for comment.

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​Department of homeland security, Department of justice, Illegal aliens, Trump administration, Politics, Supreme court 

After many years of catering to mid-range phone customers and serving up nostalgia on the back of the Razr name, Motorola is back with a major flagship release. The Motorola Signature 27 debuted at the Qualcomm Tech Summit in September, and a must-have privacy feature is coming next year.

Motorola used to be one of the great phone brands of the age, introducing the world to the original Razr flip phone and captivating a generation of Android users with its Motorola Droid series of devices.

The mystery is finally over.

When Google acquired the company in 2012, the future looked brighter than ever, thanks to an ultra-customizable phone called the Moto X that was assembled in Fort Worth, Texas. Sadly, the phone flopped, the plant closed, and Google sold Motorola to Lenovo just two short years later.

By then, the Motorola brand had lost most of its industry appeal. Still, Lenovo found success by launching mid-range devices across international markets, earning it enough revenue to tread water until the foldable craze sparked an opportunity for the Razr to return. With a foldable display, Razr carved out a unique place in the smartphone market that has sustained itself for six years.

That brings us to the present day. Motorola just showed off a brand-new flagship dubbed the Signature 27. It will be one of the first phones on the market to include a Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chip, Qualcomm’s newest chip and the second mainstream consumer SOC built on a 2nm architecture after the A20 Pro found in the iPhone 18 Pro series.

These 2nm chips prioritize extreme performance and power efficiency that surpass previous architectures. So far, the A20 Pro in the iPhone 18 Pro Max has proven to be a very capable device with fantastic power output and battery life. There’s no way to know how the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 will compare yet, but 2nm is the future for premium gadgets.

RELATED: Stronger security and privacy are coming to Android, but will they come in time?

Chayada Jeeratheepatanont/Getty Images

The Signature 27’s other big claim to fame is a unique triple camera system along the top edge arranged in a way that may just trigger the trypophobia — a fear of many holes — you didn’t know you had. It includes a 50MP Sony LYTIA L910 main sensor, a 200MP telephoto with 100x zoom enhanced with AI generation for clarity, and a 50MP ultrawide for wide shots. These are mated to a textured woven backplate unlike the usual aluminum or titanium found in most flagships today, giving it a distinct look and feel.

The most interesting part, though, is the software.

When the Motorola Signature 27 launches “in the coming months,” it will feature the typical Android OS you would expect from a Motorola device. Next year, though, Motorola will sell new Signature 27 models with another option — GrapheneOS.

This may not be a surprise if you have followed along on Blaze News. In early September, there were reports that Motorola was queuing up a new phone for GrapheneOS, the privacy-focused fork of Android that strips out all of Google’s spyware and replaces it with open-source software. Now we know for certain, though, that Signature 27 will be that phone.

In a reply to a user on X, the official GrapheneOS account said, “Yes, [the Motorola Signature 27] will be the initial supported phone. Wait for official news about it.”

X.com

Clearly, there are more details to come, but at least the mystery is finally over. Motorola Signature 27 will be the first phone to launch with GrapheneOS from the start.

Up until this point, the only way to use GrapheneOS was to purchase a Google Pixel phone and overwrite the default software. With GrapheneOS out of the box, the Motorola Signature 27 will make the Android alternative more accessible than ever, finally letting users kick Google to the curb with the least amount of hassle possible. That’s great for users who want a more private option outside Android and iOS.

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​Motorola, Android, Privacy, Tech 

After 12 years of fighting ISIS and 23 years since the start of the Iraq War, U.S. troops have withdrawn from Iraq.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement released Wednesday that Operation Inherent Resolve had “formally concluded” in Iraq and that troops and equipment had departed Erbil Air Base in Northern Iraq, marking “the successful conclusion of the military mission that defeated ISIS in Iraq.”

‘The United States supports a strong sovereign Iraq.’

Parnell added that the Iraqi government must now take “responsibility for addressing Iraq’s remaining security challenges, including ISIS remnants and Iran-aligned militias that undermine Iraqi sovereignty and regional stability,” even as the U.S. continues “to work with Iraq and our partners to ensure ISIS can never reconstitute from Iraqi territory.”

U.S. CENTCOM claimed that the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve has relocated to Jordan and will conduct ongoing anti-ISIS efforts in Syria, in coordination with the Syrian government.

The withdrawal follows the timetable set in a joint statement from the U.S. and Iraq in September 2024, which pledged that the mission and U.S. involvement would continue until September 2026.

Some, however, especially in the Kurdistan Region, have concerns about security without a more pronounced U.S. military presence.

“U.S. withdrawal, under a Coalition-[Government of Iraq]-U.S agreement, comes at a sensitive time, when instability threatens regional and Iraqi security,” said a statement Monday from the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs.

RELATED: Osama bin Laden is dead. His strategy is still working.

Ammar Karim/AFP/Getty Images

Moreover, the Peshmerga Ministry notes that the Kurdistan Region, including civilian areas, has suffered over 1,000 drone and missile strikes since the U.S. conflict with Iran began six months ago, resulting in “injuries, material damage, and deaths.”

Additionally, no alternative air defense system has yet been put in place in the Kurdistan Region, an issue that the Peshmerga Ministry called “deeply concerning.”

Parnell hinted at the concerns of the Peshmerga Ministry, stating that while the U.S. Department of War “will continue to provide targeted training and intelligence support to our Iraqi partners,” all Iraqi forces, including those in the Kurdistan Region, must now step up and “lead the continuing effort to secure Iraq and keep ISIS remnants suppressed.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi seems pleased with the withdrawal of U.S. troops, claiming that it ushers in “a new phase” of Iraqi “sovereignty.”

Al-Zaidi also previously promised that non-state militia groups in Iraq would be disarmed by Wednesday, though he has since extended that deadline until the end of June 2027, CNN reported.

Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, a leader of the Iran-allied Kataib Hezbollah militia, likewise called the withdrawal of “occupation forces” a powerful demonstration of Iraq’s “full sovereignty,” according to CNN.

For his part, Parnell indicated that a fully sovereign Iraq is exactly what America wants.

“The United States supports a strong sovereign Iraq that secures its borders, protects its people, and serves as the foundation for deeper commercial, diplomatic, and security cooperation between our two countries.”

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​Iraq, Isis, Iran, Kurds, Politics 

European-style health care mandates are the latest fringe policies from the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America. Packaged as “Medicare for Ya’ll” and “universal care,” these extreme plans from politicians like James Talarico and Abdul El-Sayed push control of health care to the government and away from patients and their providers.

With Talarico recently walking back some of his more controversial statements, Texans should take a hard look at how he is missing the mark on health care policy and urge him and state politicians to keep radical, European-style health care out of the state House and out of Congress.

We don’t have to look far to know what happens when government takes control of our health care.

The dangers of European-style health care policies are currently playing out across the pond. The National Health Service in England reports that waiting lists for patients have ballooned to over 7 million cases, including patients with serious and life-threatening medical conditions like cancer and heart disease.

Nearly 80,000 patients were removed from the waitlist between 2024 and 2025, not because they received care but because they died.

The promise of improved care simply doesn’t bear out when European-style policies are put into practice, yet Democrats in America are doubling down on more government intervention rather than innovation and reform.

When government boards and committees control health care decisions, there is no free market competition and no incentive to innovate. It takes nearly 20 months in Europe before patients can access a new drug once it is approved.

Why would we import these failed policies to our country?

In 2020, Americans watched as presidential contenders proposed and then abandoned European-style proposals after failing to articulate a clear vision for how the system would be implemented.

Democrats are currently recycling those same bad ideas for the midterms, only this time they are fueled by the socialist craze to force government on every aspect of American life.

RELATED: The DSA’s history lesson has one big omission

Sarah Rice/Getty Images

Americans should send a message that a government-controlled health care monopoly is not the answer. Already, bloated government health care programs fuel waste and abuse in the American health care system. The runaway 340B program is the perfect example.

Launched more than 30 years ago as a way to help safety-net providers and hospitals serve low-income patients, the program has gradually ballooned into a revenue stream that allows hospitals to purchase drugs at steep discounts and then charge insurers full price.

The Government Accountability Office has warned about insufficient oversight and improper use among hospital participants. There’s no accountability mechanism to ensure that the savings are used for charity care or passed on to low-income patients. As the program has grown, so has the waste, fraud, and abuse.

The Trump administration has made efforts to tackle the rampant abuse in the system, but Congress needs to act in order to enact lasting change. The Democrat response is more government control and health care expansion, bringing us one step closer to Europe’s harmful health care policies and further away from meaningful reforms.

States must reject attempts to import failed European health policies and government control into our health care system. Texans and Michiganders should push back against the socialist agenda that glorifies waitlists, price controls, and drug rationing over patient care.

We don’t have to look far to know what happens when government takes control of our health care. Americans need to send a clear message during the midterms: Don’t Europe our health care.

​Democrat party, Dsa, James talarico, National health service, Trump administration, Free market, Midterm elections, Socialism, Europe, Opinion & analysis, Health care