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The latest joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes on Iran have been met in America with bipartisan praise and condemnation.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of America’s most vociferous advocates for regime change in Iran, rushed to celebrate the “historic operation,” noting that he is “in awe of President Trump’s determination to be a man of peace but at the end of the day, evil’s worst nightmare.”

‘This is not “America First.”‘

Graham wrote in one of several emotion-laden commentaries, “My mind is racing with the thought that the murderous ayatollah’s regime in Iran will soon be no more. The biggest change in the Middle East in a thousand years is upon us.”

Graham was hardly alone in his celebration of the regime-change strikes on the Shiite nation.

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton (R) provided a laundry list of reasons why this is a “vital mission of vengeance, and justice, and safety,” noting, “Iran has waged war against the U.S. for 47 years: the hostage crisis, the Beirut Marine barracks, Khobar Towers, roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan that killed or maimed thousands of American soldiers, the attempted assassination of President Trump.”

RELATED: World leaders respond to regime-change strikes on Iran: ‘Peacekeeper is at it again’

Photo by Mahsa/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

“The butcher’s bill has finally come due for the ayatollahs,” added Cotton, who signaled appreciation in a separate post for Trump’s speech.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee with Cotton, thanked Trump for his “strong leadership,” and characterized Operation Epic Fury as both a demonstration of “peace through strength” and “AMERICA FIRST.”

Democrat Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) joined Graham and the other Republicans in lavishing praise on President Donald Trump for attacking Iran, stating, “President Trump has been willing to do what’s right and necessary to produce real peace in the region.”

“God bless the United States, our great military, and Israel,” continued the Democrat.

Several of Fetterman’s Democrat colleagues condemned the attacks and the president’s perceived circumvention of Congress, which retains the authority to declare war.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) claimed that “single-handedly starting another war with Iran is dangerous and illegal” and expressed doubt about whether “America first” meant another foreign entanglement.

Democrat Sen. Mark Warner (Va.) raised concerns about the constitutionality of the strikes, noting, “The Constitution is clear: the decision to take this nation to war rests with Congress, and launching large-scale military operations — particularly in the absence of an imminent threat to the United States — raises serious legal and constitutional concerns.”

Warner demanded that the administration “come forward with a clear legal justification, a defined end state, and a plan that avoids dragging the United States into yet another costly and unnecessary war.”

While Congress was not formally briefed on the strikes, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with and briefed the Gang of Eight, which includes the Democrat and Republican leaders from both the Senate and the House.

A spokesperson for Johnson confirmed to NOTUS that Johnson was notified. Sources also told NOTUS that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) were notified along with Sen. Warner, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), and Republican Rep. Rick Crawford (Ark.).

RELATED: Iran sparks regional war after retaliating against US military assets over ‘massive’ US-Israel strike

Photo by Stringer/Getty Images

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) — who recently filed a Senate resolution with Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) that would block a war against Iran unless approved by Congress — was less restrained than Warner in his criticism of the president.

Kaine accused Trump of waging an “illegal war,” called the strikes a “colossal mistake,” and implored his colleagues to “go on the record about this dangerous, unnecessary, and idiotic action” and vote on his war powers resolution.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a critic of the president who has similarly attempted to prevent Trump from going to war with Iran without congressional approval, referred to the attacks as “acts of war unauthorized by Congress.”

In a subsequent post on social media, Massie stated, “I am opposed to this War. This is not ‘America First.'”

“When Congress reconvenes, I will work with @RepRoKhanna to force a Congressional vote on war with Iran,” continued Massie. “The Constitution requires a vote, and your Representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war.”

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​Foreign entangelement, Intervention, Regime change, Iran, Tehran, Thomas massie, Massie, Tim kaine, Democrat, Republican, Fetterman, Iranian, Strikes, Missile, Military, War, Donald trump, Politics 

The joint American and Israeli military operation launched against Iran on Saturday — dubbed Operation Epic Fury — has prompted mixed responses abroad.

While Russian officials were among the most critical of the strikes, several European leaders similarly condemned the American-Israeli initiative.

Amid reports of massive explosions in numerous Iranian cities as well as retaliatory attacks on American bases in the region and Israel, a spokesman for the British government stated, “We do not want to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict.”

The British spokesman — whose government previously blocked a request from President Donald Trump to use U.K. air bases during a preemptive attack on Iran —added that “Iran must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and that is why we have continually supported efforts to reach a negotiated solution.”

‘Take all firm measures necessary to confront Iranian violations.’

Whereas the U.K. government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared less than enthusiastic about the strikes, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch expressed solidarity with the U.S. and Israel “as they take on the threat of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its vile regime.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke critically of “Iran’s murderous regime and the Revolutionary Guards,” but claimed that the “developments in Iran are greatly concerning” and urged “all parties to exercise maximum restraint, to protect civilians, and to fully respect international law.”

Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs noted that it “is deeply alarmed by today’s strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran,” and echoed von der Leyen’s request that warring parties “exercise maximum restraint, protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.”

RELATED: Iran sparks regional war after retaliating against US military assets over ‘massive’ US-Israel strike

Aftermath of an Iran strike on the main headquarters of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet in Manama. Photo by Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images.

Some European leaders similarly expressed concern about escalation while signaling their opposition to the Iran regime, the health of which is now in doubt.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that “the outbreak of war between the United States, Israel, and Iran carries grave consequences for international peace and security.”

Macron, presuming there is something left of Iran’s “Islamic regime,” suggested Tehran “now has no other option but to engage in good faith … negotiations to end its nuclear and ballistic programs.”

Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s foreign affairs minister, did not similarly balance his critical remarks about the strikes with criticism of Iran, suggesting instead that the initial strikes were unlawful.

“The attack is described by Israel as a pre-emptive strike, but it is not in accordance with international law. A pre-emptive attack would require the existence of an imminent threat,” said Eide.

Spain’s leftist prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, spoke scathingly of the strikes as well as of Iran’s retaliation, stating, “We reject the unilateral military action by the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order.”

“We likewise reject the actions of the Iranian regime and the Revolutionary Guard,” continued Sanchez. “We cannot afford another prolonged and devastating war in the Middle East.”

Russia, which recently held joint military exercises with Iran, went further in its condemnation of the strikes.

RELATED: U.S. and Israel launch ‘massive’ strikes against Iran: ‘We may have casualties’

Photo by Bedirhan Demirel/Anadolu via Getty Images

Mikhail Ulyanov, a Russian foreign services official, said in a statement shared by the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, “The new aggression of Israel and the US against Iran is fraught with the danger of significant deterioration and destabilisation in the Middle East.”

Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, stated, “The peacekeeper is at it again.”

“The talks with Iran were just a cover. Everyone knew that. So who has more patience to wait for the enemy’s sorry end now?” continued Medvedev. “The US is just 249 years old. The Persian Empire was founded over 2500 years ago. Let’s see what happens in 100 years or so.”

Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, the foreign minister of Cuba, an Iranian ally, referred to the attacks as “treacherous aggression,” adding, “These irresponsible actions undermine international peace and security, and constitute a clear transgression of International Law and the UN Charter.”

Communist China, which has in recent years developed a strong strategic partnership with Iran, was relatively quiet about the latest joint U.S.-Israeli strikes in West Asia. As of early Saturday morning, Beijing appears to have limited its public communications on the matter to words of caution to Chinese nationals in the region.

Saudi Arabia and other American strategic partners in the Middle East focused their ire on Iran.

The Saudi Foreign Affairs Ministry called “on the international community to condemn these blatant attacks and to take all firm measures necessary to confront Iranian violations that undermine the security and stability of the region.”

Qatar echoed Saudi Arabia, calling the Iranian strikes a “flagrant violation of its national sovereignty, a direct infringement on its security and territorial integrity, and an unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and stability of the region.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney avoided criticizing the attacks, noting instead, “Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security.”

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​Geopolitics, Russia, Regime change, Iran, Donald trump, Europe, Qatar, Dubai, Foreign entanglement, Israel, Iran strikes, Attacks, War, Politics 

Once you burn your credibility, it’s hard to get back.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) deceived voters and concealed her true leftist agenda to win the governor’s mansion last year. Now she and her fellow Democrats are lying to Virginians about a new gerrymandered congressional district map they placed on the April 21 ballot as a constitutional amendment.

The new map ensures that most rural voters will be represented by people who live in Fairfax and were elected by voters in the DC suburbs.

It’s a naked attempt to make it impossible for Republicans to win election to Congress in most places in Virginia, and it’s why she was rewarded with the plum assignment of responding to President Trump’s State of the Union address this week.

The Virginia Supreme Court has already had one chance to stop the gerrymandering by upholding a judge’s ruling that Democrats cut legal corners to get the measure on the ballot. The justices, however, inexplicably chose to wait until the vote takes place.

I filed another lawsuit to bring new challenges, along with my Republican House colleague Morgan Griffith (Va.-9), the Republican National Committee, and the National Republican Congressional Committee. We won in circuit court, blocking the referendum again, so our Supreme Court will have another chance to do the right thing.

As we wait for a ruling, it’s important that people have the facts.

Spanberger masqueraded as a moderate in her campaign and won ceaseless praise from the media for her focus on “affordability.” But she dropped that as soon as she was sworn in and went right back to what she truly believes.

She returned Virginia to the multistate, radical environmental scheme that artificially raises electricity rates by $500 million every year. She’s currently considering a variety of tax increases proposed by Democrats in the Virginia legislature, including bumps in the sales and income tax, as well as taxes on everyday services like dog-walking and gym memberships. She has yet to rule out raising taxes on anything.

All of this is the opposite of what she ran on.

Now Spanberger and her Democrats have turned to stealing congressional seats. Naturally, they’re lying about that as well.

It’s nothing complicated. They’re taking Virginia’s current congressional district map, which produced six Democrats and five Republican members, and redrawing the lines to twist it into a 10-to-1 map in favor of Democrats.

Kamala Harris won here in the 2024 presidential race with less than 52% of the vote, but this map would award her party 91% of our congressional seats.

They’re assigning new federal representation to Virginians who didn’t ask for it, and there’s every likelihood that some of the lines were drawn to benefit specific Democrat politicians. One thing that’s certain is that no one was thinking of the well-being of voters when they hatched this plot.

As an example, take Fairfax County, vote-rich and dominated by Democrats in Northern Virginia outside Washington, D.C.

The new map carves Fairfax into five pieces and attaches them to districts that reach deep into Virginia’s rural regions. Picture the county as an octopus that has tentacles running throughout the state, and you’ll have an idea.

The configuration ensures that most rural voters will be represented by people who live in Fairfax and were elected by voters in the D.C. suburbs. It’s difficult to imagine what these groups might have in common geographically, culturally, or economically.

To top it off, just a few days ago, Democrats in the General Assembly decided they hadn’t cheated enough and twisted the screws even more to guarantee total victory in 10 of the 11 districts.

States usually redistrict following a census, but Democrats claim they must act now to balance Republican activities in other states. This excuse falls apart because most observers agree that Virginia’s new map is a particularly egregious example of partisan gerrymandering.

And Democrats lie when they talk about it.

RELATED: Democrats made Trump’s case for him Tuesday night

Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images

The party that told us that Joe Biden was mentally sharp now wants us to think a 10-1 congressional map promotes “fair elections,” as the advertising claims.

Democrats were even dishonest in the ballot question they wrote, which says it will temporarily “restore fairness” — without explanation or context — to elections in Virginia until the regular redistricting occurs in 2030.

We shouldn’t let politicians select their own voters, and Virginians were wise enough to see this coming.

Just six years ago, a whopping 66% of voters approved a constitutional amendment creating an independent redistricting commission. Unable to resist the lure of unchecked power, Virginia Democrats are trying to trick voters into undoing that so they can burgle those congressional seats.

National Democrats are paying attention.

House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has already sent $5 million to the campaign to support the new map and pledged to spend “whatever it takes” on top of that.

Democrats hilariously claim to be restoring fairness.

But a party powerful enough to ram this down everyone’s throat isn’t the victim of unfairness. It’s the cause of it.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

​Virginia, Virginia democrats, Gerrymandering, Abigail spanberger, Democrats, Republicans, Gerrymander, Partisan, Opinion & analysis, 2026 midterms 

Afforded a trifecta in November and no longer kept in check by former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s vetoes, Democratic lawmakers in Virginia are poised to greatly limit gun rights in the state.

They are working to advance, for instance, a ban on the sale, purchase, manufacture, transfer, or importation of so-called “assault firearms” and magazines capable of holding over 10 rounds; a bill that would establish a five-day waiting period for all firearm sales; legislation that would impose an 11% tax on the purchase of any firearm or ammunition in the state; and a bill that would further limit where law-abiding Virginians can carry a gun.

‘Someone feels that they have the right to infringe upon this.’

The Second Amendment’s would-be curtailers in the General Assembly of Virginia — a state with the official motto Sic Semper Tyrannis, “Thus always to tyrants” — have a champion in Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D), who made clear on the campaign trail last year, “I will sign commonsense gun violence prevention bills.”

It turns out that Virginians are less than enthused about the Democratic regime’s gun agenda.

A survey conducted from Feb. 16 to 17 by Quantus Insights found that registered voters overwhelmingly oppose the legislative proposals now being considered in Richmond.

Eighty-four percent of respondents agreed that “the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental freedom protected by the U.S. Constitution,” and 65% agreed with the statement that “gun control laws mainly make it harder for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves, while criminals ignore the laws anyway.”

RELATED: ‘Fake Moderate’ Democratic governor demands local police cut ties with ICE

Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images

When asked about a ban “on commonly owned firearms labeled as ‘assault weapons,'” 60% of respondents signaled opposition. Only 33% said they would support such a ban.

Sixty percent of Democrats and 15% of Republicans said that they would support a ban.

When asked about a ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds — a prohibition built into the Democratic bill passed by the state House in a 58-34 vote earlier this month — 58% of respondents signaled opposition.

An even greater percentage of respondents, 65%, said they opposed the proposed 11% state tax on firearms and ammunition.

Law enforcement leaders are among the loudest critics of the gun-control laws proposed by Democrats.

Amherst County Sheriff LJ Ayers, for instance, said in a video statement on Wednesday, “The Second Amendment grants us the right to bear arms — to protect ourselves, our homes, our property; to go with our children, our family, our friends out hunting, to enjoy God’s given nature — and someone feels that they have the right to infringe upon this.”

Ayers stressed that such efforts were “appalling” and emphasized that the Democratic legislation will only impact law-abiding citizens, not the criminals who’ll inevitably find workarounds.

WSET-TV reported that sheriffs in Campbell, Henry, Appomattox, and Bedford Counties have similarly spoken out against the proposed gun-control laws.

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Earlier this month, the Cato Institute — perhaps the most effective think tank advocating open borders — published a study claiming that since 1994, immigration has generated a whopping $14.5 trillion surplus in tax revenues over expenditures.

Critics quickly noted that Cato’s study uses a strange standard for judging immigration policy. For example, the study admits that immigration drives up housing prices by increasing demand, yet it still treats the resulting rise in property-tax payments from homeowners — citizens and noncitizens alike — as a benefit.

Who the ‘American people’ were in 1776 or 1787, or are in 2026, is a much-disputed question, but that does not exempt us from trying to answer it.

But perhaps more fundamental is the study’s idea of what should count as an expenditure on immigrants. It treats the educational and medical expenses of immigrants’ American-born children — all of whom Cato claims are “birthright citizens” — as expenditures on citizens rather than on immigrants. This is the same kind of sleight of hand we saw during COVID, when the rise in illness experienced after the first of two shots was counted as cases among the unvaccinated rather than the half-vaccinated.

Statistical games aside, such studies raise a far deeper question: To whose well-being, security, and liberty is the government of the United States directed? That is answered for us in the preamble to our fundamental law, the Constitution of 1787:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

When I cited the preamble recently, the libertarian economist Glen Whitman replied that it is not binding law. Perhaps, but it is something more fundamental than law — it tells us what our laws should be trying to achieve.

Who the “American people” were in 1776 or 1787, or are in 2026, is a much-disputed question, but that does not exempt us from trying to answer it.

When John Rawls — the late political philosopher and the most influential liberal theorist of my generation — tried to explain how rational people should design society’s basic institutions, he did not treat civilization as nothing more than a collection of isolated individuals. In his famous “original position,” he argued that we should imagine ourselves not only as individuals but also as representatives of “continuing persons” — family heads, or stewards of enduring family lines.

This concept of continuing persons was Rawls’ clunky but effective mid-20th-century version of Gouverneur Morris’ more eloquent “ourselves and our posterity.” It does not seem crazy or racist — Rawls would have said it was reasonable — to think that immigration policy should be assessed from the perspective of current citizens and their descendants. In fact, that was how the historical Rawls claimed we should think about immigration, much to the surprise and dismay of his students and epigones.

On social media, we find the repeated cry that the so-called great replacement — the notion that elites are exchanging native populations for more tractable revenue producers — is a demagogic lie. After all, the open-borders pundits argue, more immigration doesn’t mean anybody is forced to leave.

RELATED: America has immigration laws — just not in these courtrooms

Cemile Bingol / Getty Images

But we are all forced to leave. Someday, each of us will be reunited with his or her fathers and mothers. Our descendants — the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren we leave behind in the country we made for them — are our posterity.

Another problem is that mass immigration not only increases the demand for housing, but it also suppresses the wage expectations of the native-born, particularly native-born men who are low-income workers. By increasing housing prices and reducing lifetime wages, mass immigration erodes the economic foundation required for family life, making fewer native-born men marriageable.

This decreases the fertility of the native-born. While an increasing share of children are born to unwed mothers, unwed parenting is sufficiently difficult that few such mothers have more than one child, and very few have more than two. Governments then trumpet studies like Cato’s to justify bringing in immigrants to support the aging natives who do not have enough of their own posterity to meet the fiscal need.

To paraphrase Charles de Gaulle, the graveyards are full of irreplaceable men. But if we want our graves to be tended and our memories to be revered by our posterity, we need to work now to ensure that immigration policy serves the welfare, security, and liberty of that posterity.

Those who continue the work of George Washington and the other founders by maintaining and passing on the union they built — stronger, more united, and free — may not be their blood relatives, but they can justly claim to be their spiritual progeny.

A version of this article appeared originally at the American Mind.

​Great replacement, Americans, Immigration, Illegal immigration, Homeland, Posterity, Citizens, John rawls, Opinion & analysis, Children, Families, Policies, Donald trump, Declaration of independence, Constitution 

The U.S. military struck Iran along with Israeli forces on Saturday morning and Iran lashed out with attacks on Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait.

President Donald Trump issued a national statement about the military operation dubbed “Operation Epic Fury” late Friday evening.

‘The Israeli Air Force is operating to intercept and strike threats where necessary to remove the threat.’

“The United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests,” Trump said. “We’re going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated.”

Sirens in Israel indicated that Iran launched a wave of missiles against the country but some reports said the effort was muted.

“A short while ago, sirens were sounded in several areas across the country following the identification of missiles launched from Iran toward the State of Israel,” read a statement from Israel. “At this time, the Israeli Air Force is operating to intercept and strike threats where necessary to remove the threat.”

The Ministry of the Interior in Bahrain ordered evacuations of some parts of the country, including Juffair.

The United Arab Emirates said that the strike from Iran violated their sovereignty and they reserved their right to respond.

Iran also launched missiles at the Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar, leading the country to condemn the attacks.

Loud explosions and warning sirens were reported in Kuwait near the U.S. Army base.

Several heavy explosions were also heard in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

Fox News reported that the strikes targeted the Iranian Parliament, the National Supreme Council, the Ministry of Intelligence, as well as the Iranian Atomic Agency.

Russia also called for an immediate halt to the strikes on Iran and ordered all Russian citizens to leave Israel.

RELATED: Iran strike looms as Trump hosts Board of Peace

“To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the police,” Trump said in his speech. “I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity or in the alternative, face certain death.”

The regime in Iran has been facing political demonstrations from dissidents opposed to their totalitarian rule and some reports claim that tens of thousands have perished from the violent response.

Trump had warned Iran that if they killed protesters, the U.S. would “come to their rescue.”

It appears that he fulfilled that promise.

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The auto industry is marketed as global — same brands, same badges, same hype. It’s easy to assume we’re all shopping from the same menu.

We’re not.

BYD has now surpassed Tesla in global EV sales — even though BYD sells none of those vehicles in the United States.

On the latest episode of “The Drive,” iSeeCars.com executive analyst and Forbes Autos contributor Karl Brauer and I sit down with automotive creator Al Vazquez, whose Spanish-language platform gives him a vantage point most U.S. journalists don’t have.

He covers cars for the American press like we do — but he’s also regularly flown to Latin America and other markets to drive vehicles, many of them Chinese-branded, that Americans will never see on a dealer lot.

What he’s seeing raises a practical question for buyers here at home: What happens when other markets are flooded with cheaper, rapidly improving vehicles — while American consumers face higher prices and fewer straightforward options?

Bargains head east

Because Al’s channel is in Spanish, his reach extends across Latin America and into Europe. That audience brings invitations: Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Spain. And when he lands in those markets, he often finds himself driving cars unfamiliar to U.S. buyers.

A major reason: Chinese brands are no longer fringe players in many regions.

Al is blunt about the shift. Five to 10 years ago, he says, he would have dismissed many of these vehicles. Today he sees better interiors, stronger feature sets, and long warranties backing them up.

But the real story is price.

In several markets, buyers are offered vehicles that undercut U.S. pricing dramatically — sometimes at what he describes as “half the price” of comparable models here. Whether that pricing would survive U.S. regulatory and labor realities is another question. But for consumers abroad, the appeal is obvious: new-car affordability that hasn’t vanished.

That’s something American buyers increasingly struggle to find.

Redirecting competition

In the U.S., tariffs and dealer franchise laws make it difficult for Chinese automakers to sell directly here. But as Karl points out, barriers don’t eliminate competition — they redirect it.

If Chinese brands gain massive volume in Europe, South America, and elsewhere, they gain scale. Scale means supplier leverage, faster iteration, and more resources to improve product.

For American consumers, the implications are concrete:

If global competitors grow rapidly elsewhere, they get stronger — even without entering the U.S. If the U.S. market remains more closed and more expensive, buyers here risk paying more while seeing less variety.

“Global competition” may sound abstract. But it shows up as pricing, features, and whether a truly affordable new car is even an option.

RELATED: No new cars under $50K? Thank the government

NurPhoto/Getty Images

Tesla or BVD?

We turn to Tesla, where reports suggest the Model S and Model X may be phased out amid slowing sales.

Al offers an international perspective. In places like Bolivia, he says, Tesla still signals status. Owning one means you’ve arrived. He also claims that Teslas sourced through China appear better assembled than some U.S.-market examples.

Karl widens the lens: BYD has now surpassed Tesla in global EV sales — even though BYD sells none of those vehicles in the United States. Meanwhile U.S. EV growth has cooled compared to earlier momentum.

For buyers, this is a lesson in how automakers respond to pressure. When margins tighten and competition intensifies, companies cut slower-selling models and redirect investment. The future shifts toward autonomy, AI, robotics, and software ecosystems.

Show and sell

Our conversation shifts to auto shows — Detroit, L.A., Chicago, New York — and whether they’re fading into irrelevance.

At their best, auto shows solve a real consumer problem: They let buyers compare multiple brands in one place, sit in vehicles without pressure, and evaluate options without a salesperson hovering nearby.

Al argues it’s a mistake to let that disappear. He points to Detroit’s recent rebound — smaller than its glory days, but active — and contrasts it with international shows that are still thriving. In Qatar, he says, the show was sold out with lines out the door.

Consumers increasingly delay visiting dealerships until they’ve narrowed their choices online. Auto shows provide something dealerships often can’t: a neutral comparison environment.

In an era obsessed with “experiential marketing,” there’s nothing more experiential than physically sitting in a dozen competing vehicles in a single afternoon.

Influencers or experts?

Al describes watching an influencer perform handstands in front of a Mustang — without mentioning the car itself.

It’s easy to roll your eyes, but it also illustrates the reality: Automakers now market vehicles through personality-driven content as much as traditional reporting.

Journalists report on the car. Influencers incorporate the car into their personal brand. Both models coexist.

For consumers, this shift changes the information landscape: more personality and less structured analysis.

This makes discernment more important. Buyers who want real trade-offs, cost analysis, and ownership implications still need to seek out sources focused on the vehicle — not just the vibe.

Fragmented markets

Al’s story is partly about media evolution — how a creator adapts from print to YouTube to TikTok and beyond. But the larger story is about fragmentation.

Some markets are getting cheaper new-car options faster than we are. Some brands are gaining global dominance without ever touching the U.S. Meanwhile American buyers face rising transaction prices, heavier regulation, and fewer places to comparison-shop freely.

The auto industry may be global, but your buying experience is still local — and increasingly shaped by forces that don’t always align with consumer affordability.

Listen to the full episode of “The Drive with Lauren and Karl” (featuring Al Vazquez) below:

​Drive with lauren fix and karl brauer, Honda, Tesla, Uaw, Lifestyle, Auto industry, Ev mandate, Align cars 

On February 20, boxing legend Floyd Mayweather sent shock waves through the sports world when he announced that after eight years, he’s coming out of retirement.

Set to resume professional fights after his upcoming spring 2026 exhibition bout with Mike Tyson, Mayweather declared in a written statement to ESPN, “I still have what it takes to set more records in the sport of boxing.”

But some are arguing that there’s an underlying reason for the 48-year-old’s sudden exodus from retirement — and it has nothing to do with setting records.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock plays a recent clip from Shannon Sharpe and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson’s podcast “Nightcap,” during which the ex-NFL duo speculated that the real reason Mayweather is re-entering the ring is for financial reasons.

“Only three fights that Floyd can have that can command and get the kind of money he’s looking to recoup for money that may have been lost or money that may have been stolen or money he may have spent, you know, to date,” said Ochocinco, naming rematches with Canelo Alvarez and Manny Pacquiao, plus a showdown against current champion Terence “Bud” Crawford, as the only matchups capable of delivering that kind of payday.

Whitlock agrees: “Guy’s got a gambling problem. Of course his situation’s unstable. I mean, this is about as predictable as anything I could imagine,” he laughs.

“Yeah, it’s for the money. If you just google Floyd’s name and the IRS — all the news is out there. He owes jewelers money. There’s back paid rent for real estate in New York. It’s clear that he is now part of the no money team, which is very ironic,” adds “Fearless” contributor Steve Kim.

“The challenge for Floyd, and it’s a challenge with a lot of young black men who become famous, is that he made a brand out of, ‘Let me show you what I have,”’ says fellow contributor Dre Baldwin.

If it’s true that Mayweather’s motivation is primarily financial, the “sad” part, Baldwin says, is that we will likely have to watch him “get destroyed and destroy the image that we have of [him].”

But Whitlock doesn’t understand why coming out of retirement is Mayweather’s choice of path when he could surely earn income in other ways. “Why not just start a podcast? Isn’t this what all the former NFL and basketball players do?” he asks.

Baldwin lays it bare: “Can’t make $200 million in one night with a podcast.”

“I took the liberty of doing a cursory Google search while you guys were talking. Estimates are 1.1 to 1.52 … billion with a B that Floyd Mayweather has made throughout his career … and he’s completely broke,” says contributor Jay Skapinac.

“Of all the idiots that we’ve seen out there — celebrities, actors, entertainers that have lost a lot of money — this guy would take the cake. To blow a bill before he even hits 50 is unimaginable,” he scoffs.

To hear more of the panel’s conversation, watch the video above.

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A former participant in a short-lived reality television show about swingers in southwest Ohio pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to heinous sex allegations that left law enforcement officers “speechless.”

Tony McCollister, 43, was initially accused of uploading child sexual abuse imagery to his Google account on Nov. 23 as well as having sex with two different dogs he owned, according to prosecutors.

‘It’s just hard to process when you see what these people are capable of.’

McCollister was arrested on Dec. 23 in Union Township, Ohio. At that time, he was charged with felony pandering of obscene material involving children and misdemeanor sexual conduct with animals.

He was ordered to stay away from children as well as pets and given a $250,000 bond.

WLWT-TV reported that McCollister’s home address was listed as a residence owned by 43-year-old Erica Grove, who is also facing a misdemeanor charge of sexual conduct with an animal. Grove was served a court summons the same day that McCollister was arrested.

Investigators then discovered evidence that the couple had drugged a girl under 6 years old in order to rape her.

“They drugged the girl specifically to rape her. … Who would have thought that the sex with the dogs was not going to be the most horrific aspect of this case?” Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said. “I mean, when you get to that, you think, what can be worse, and then they continue to investigate and find out that they’re drugging and raping this little girl. … It’s just hard to process when you see what these people are capable of.”

McCollister was charged with 30 counts related to the accusations, and Grove was charged with 24.

On Thursday, McCollister pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, according to TMZ. He also filed a motion for the court to order a mental state evaluation at the time of the alleged crimes.

RELATED: Ohio woman pleads guilty to horrific child sex abuse charges and bestiality — and will testify against her husband

McCollister starred in A&E’s “Neighbors with Benefits” show in 2015 as one of the swingers who lived in an Ohio suburb. Viewers expressed shock and outrage after A&E aired commercials about the show even before it aired.

The activist groups One Million Moms and Citizens for Community Values voiced opposition to the show, and it only lasted two episodes before being canceled.

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The United States and Israel launched a “massive ongoing operation” against Iran, striking the Islamic Republic for the second time in eight months.

President Donald Trump confirmed the coordinated attack with Israel early Saturday morning after strikes were reportedly heard in several parts of Tehran. Dubbed Operation Epic Fury, this is the second military intervention the United States has taken against Iran following Operation Midnight Hammer in June of 2025, where Americans “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities.

‘It will be totally, again, obliterated.’

Trump similarly justified the latest series of strikes to ensure Iran will “never have a nuclear weapon” but noted that “the lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties.”

“That often happens in war,” Trump said. “But we’re doing this. Not for now. We’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission. We pray for every service as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear armed Iran.”

RELATED: For the first time in decades, more Americans sympathize with Palestinians over Israelis: Poll

Trump said Iran “rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions,” prompting the massive military offensive from Israel and the United States. While vowing to end the regime, Trump also urged Iranians to rise up and reclaim their government when the operation is finished.

“For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests,” Trump said. “We’re going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated.”

“Stay sheltered,” Trump told Iranians. “Don’t leave your home. It’s yours outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations.”

RELATED: No ‘right to hijack’: Christian ousted from Trump faith panel over anti-Zionist remarks

Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images

The Israeli Defense Forces later announced that they are working to intercept missiles “launched from Iran towards Israel.”

“To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the police,” Trump said. “I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity or in the alternative, face certain death.

This is a developing story.

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A Kansas law that invalidated about 1,700 driver’s licenses over the mismatch between birth gender and gender identity is being challenged in court by two transgender-identifying males.

The law invalidates birth certificates and driver’s licenses where the sex does not match the one assigned to the individual at birth. Invalidation notices were sent to trans-identifying persons this week.

‘This legislation is a direct attack on the dignity and humanity of transgender Kansans.’

Republicans argued that the law was necessary to protect women and girls, but the lawsuit claims that it is unconstitutional and “dehumanizing.”

Other states have similar laws, but Kansas is the only state that invalidates documents that were previously changed.

“The Kansas Constitution prohibits the Kansas Legislature’s targeting of transgender individuals for this discriminatory and dehumanizing treatment,” the lawsuit reads.

The two males are represented by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and are only identified under the pseudonyms Daniel Doe and Matthew Moe. They want to remain anonymous out of fear of discrimination, harassment, and violence.

A statement from the ACLU says the law “violates the Kansas Constitution’s protections for personal autonomy, privacy, equality under the law, due process, and freedom of speech.”

RELATED: Rep. Jayapal pushes ‘Transgender Bill of Rights’ to oppose ‘cruelty’ of Trump policies

About 1,800 birth certificates were also invalidated. The law was passed after the legislature overturned a veto from Governor Laura Kelly, a Democrat.

“This legislation is a direct attack on the dignity and humanity of transgender Kansans,” reads a statement from ACLU Kansas legal director Monica Bennett. “It undermines our state’s strong constitutional protections against government overreach and persecution.”

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NBA superstar Kevin Durant accused critics of American basketball culture of taking indirect shots at black athletes under the guise of praising European player development — arguing that the criticism is simply masking frustration at black Americans dominating the sport.

Stephen A. Smith then backed Durant’s take on “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” claiming that globalization efforts are attempting to “whiten” the sport as a whole.

“I just don’t like the talk around the USA versus European style of how you approach the game. All I hear is, ‘AAU is destroying the game; the Euros do it right while the Americans do it wrong,’” Durant said in his rant.

“It’s a lot of bulls**t with that. I can read between the lines on that. It’s a shot at black Americans. We’re controlling the sport. They’re tired of us controlling the sport. ‘France is coming for you.’ Really? We smacked them boys,” he added.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m here to tell you I’m ten toes down on this with Kevin Durant. He’s a thousand percent right. America, when you talk about globalizing the sport, certainly money has everything to do with it,” Smith responded.

“But the other part in globalizing your brand is whitening the sport, too.”

While Smith agreed, BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock couldn’t agree less.

Whitlock tells Jay Skapinac on “Fearless” that Smith appears to be arguing that “white fans wouldn’t watch the NBA unless … these white Europeans were here.”

“I think that’s B.S. I don’t think white fans were crying out for these foreign-born players to come whiten up the league,” he says.

“Generally, it’s the people that are playing the race card and trying to race-bait, they’re actually the racist ones,” Skapinac chimes in.

“Like Kevin Durant has to talk about Euros versus Americans like it’s black and white, but he’s the one that’s making it that way. … He is the one that is invoking the race card and race-baiting,” he adds.

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The U.S. Senate seat campaign for Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett (Texas) got a significant boost from a popular rap artist and the last Democratic candidate for president Friday.

Both Cardi B and Kamala Harris announced their endorsements for Crockett in the primary election against James Talarico, a former middle school teacher and state representative.

‘Y’all heard my good sis!!! She’s on a SOLD OUT tour and still took a minute to tap in.’

The rapper, whose legal name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, posted a video endorsement to her millions of followers on social media.

“Listen up, y’all. Early primary voting is happening right now in Texas, and we need Jasmine Crockett to win. She is running for U.S. Senate,” Almánzar said.

“And if you want somebody that’s going to fight for your right,” she added, “if you want somebody to fight for your community, if you want somebody that’s going to go up there and represent you and represent your issues, please vote for my sister, Jasmine Crockett, because one thing about it, she’s going to fight her best. She’s going to fight whoever she has to so your voice and your problems could be heard.”

Crockett reposted the video on her account.

“Okurrr,” she wrote. “Y’all heard my good sis!!! She’s on a SOLD OUT tour and still took a minute to tap in. We’ve got 2 days of Early Voting left. Let’s gooooo!!!”

Harris also dropped an endorsement in the high-profile race.

“Texas has the chance to send a fighter like Jasmine Crockett to the United States Senate,” said the failed presidential candidate in a robocall message. “Jasmine has the experience and record to hold Donald Trump and his billionaire cronies accountable.”

Whoever wins the nomination will go against the Republican candidate, which will be decided between Attorney General Ken Paxton, incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, and Rep. Wesley Hunt. If Republicans are unable to defeat the Democratic candidate, it may lead to their loss of control of the U.S. Senate.

One poll shows Crockett leading Talarico with 56% to 44%.

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

The primary race between the two Democrats made national headlines after Stephen Colbert claimed that new FCC rules led to his canceling the broadcast of an interview with Talarico.

Crockett surprisingly came out in defense of the Trump administration and pointed out that Colbert had been given other options to meet the FCC standard and declined.

She has also said she entered the race because she wanted to be a part of “karma” payback against Republicans for redrawing district lines in the state.

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A 23-year-old man identified by police as a transvestite prostitute was reportedly arrested after trying to escape a Texas police sting.

An undercover officer of the Irving Police Department Vice Unit contacted a person advertising escort services on an online website and arranged for sexual services on Feb. 10, according to an Irving Weekly report.

When officers confronted him, the man initially raised his hands but then fled with police chasing after him.

Police said that during the initial escort call, their officer was quoted a price of $300 for sexual services.

In subsequent messages, the officer negotiated specific services to be performed without a condom, and the man agreed to them for $400. Police indicated that these negotiations are undertaken to reassure the target that they’re not dealing with police.

Then the officer arranged to meet the escort at the Red Roof Inn on Airport Freeway in Irving.

When the man arrived, officers texted him the number of a hotel room that was part of their police operation. They observed a white Kia vehicle park in front of the room and saw a man exit the vehicle and approach the room.

When officers confronted him, the man initially raised his hands but then fled with police chasing after him.

He then ran to the second floor of the hotel and jumped out of the building onto concrete on the ground, according to police.

Police were able to apprehend him despite his allegedly locking his arms and refusing commands.

The man was identified as Fernando Jose Ortiz-Gutierrez of Arlington and was booked on one count of prostitution, one count of evading arrest or detention, another of resisting arrest, and one count related to an outstanding confirmed regional warrant.

RELATED: Illegal alien coach who allegedly murdered 13-year-old now charged with other horrendous sex crimes against 2 other underage boys

Law enforcement authorities then determined that Ortiz-Gutierrez was an illegal alien, and a detainer was ordered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

He has since been taken into ICE custody.

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A former Air Force major was arrested for allegedly training Chinese military pilots in a scheme arranged by a Chinese national who admitted stealing U.S. military secrets.

65-year-old Gerald Eddie Brown Jr. flew to China in Dec. 2023 to train pilots and returned in February of this year, according to the Dept. of Justice. He was arrested on Feb. 18 and charged with providing and conspiring to provide defense services to Chinese pilots without U.S. government authorization.

‘He broke that oath and betrayed the country, jeopardizing the safety of our service members and allies.’

More significantly, Brown is also allegedly linked to Stephen Su Bin, a Chinese man who pleaded guilty in 2016 to conspiring to hack into U.S. defense contractors’ computer networks and steal sensitive military data for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

Su Bin was sentenced to four years in prison, and he was placed on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Entity List in 2014, along with his company PRC Lode Technology Company.

The DOJ says Brown answered questions about the U.S. Air Force for about three hours on his first day in China and then presented a brief for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force on the second day.

The U.S. has warned that China is actively targeting Western countries in spying operations.

“China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continues to target current and former military personnel from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nations and other Western countries to help bolster the PLA’s capabilities,” read a warning in a joint 2024 statement from the U.S., the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

Brown was known by the call sign “Runner” during his 24 years in the U.S. Air Force. He could face significant prison time if convicted.

RELATED: NY man admits running secret police station for China above noodle restaurant in Manhattan

“As an Air Force Officer, Brown took an oath to defend our nation against all enemies foreign and domestic. He broke that oath and betrayed the country, jeopardizing the safety of our service members and allies,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro about the case.

“We will hold Brown, and anyone conspiring against our nation, accountable for their actions,” she added. “The Department of Justice and my prosecutors are steadfast in our commitment to use every lawful tool available to keep American military expertise where it belongs — here in America.”

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BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is fairly certain that President Trump’s State of the Union address will go down as one of the best presidential speeches of our time — though some of the Democrat lawmakers in attendance made it clear they did not think so.

“I just love that the speech was so good. It was just such a positive, uplifting, incredible speech that even CNN had to admit it. They released a poll right after the speech: 64% of people had a positive reaction, compared to 36% having a negative reaction,” Gonzales says.

“They keep trying to tell you that everyone hates Donald Trump. They keep trying to make you feel like you are in the minority. They want you to think that you are in the minority if you appreciate this president following through on his promises,” she continues.

And while 36% had a negative reaction, Gonzales believes those are the same people who would have sat with the Democrats when Trump gave them a chance to publicly, and literally, stand for what’s right.

“If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens,” Trump said, as the Republican side of the chamber all stood.

“You don’t think that your job is to protect American citizens over illegals? What the hell are you doing in Congress? In fact, I think that that alone is enough to just expel you from Congress. Like that’s kind of like the whole thing. That’s kind of your one job. You swear an oath that resembles, ‘Hey, I’m going to stand up for American citizens,’” Gonzales comments.

“And then to sit down — how absolutely disrespectful. Not even to the president, but to your American citizens and constituents that you claim to represent,” she adds.

Even when President Trump brought in the U.S. men’s hockey team — who just won gold at the Olympics — some of the Democrats stayed seated.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever seen them get up. And actually, not all of them did get up,” Trump said after introducing the team.

“And that is where I think that they have just really shown you their true colors. They don’t actually care about this country. They’re not patriots. They’re not patriotic. They don’t have a sense of patriotism when they think about this country. They actually think this country is bad,” Gonzales says.

Even when Trump paid tribute to the life of Iryna Zarutska, a young Ukrainian woman who was brutally stabbed to death while sitting on a train — as her mother cried in the audience — the Democrats stayed seated.

“That’s unspeakably evil. It’s almost like they want the violence and the carnage,” Gonzales says.

“I think that this is why the polls said the people overwhelmingly responded positively. They are tired of this anti-American rhetoric. They were happy that President Trump was actually calling them out on their bulls**t,” she adds.

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Former President Bill Clinton stated during his Friday deposition that President Donald Trump never gave him any indication he was involved with convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.).

The committee deposed his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the day prior. During her testimony, she seemed to throw Bill Clinton under the bus by deferring most of their questions to her husband, lawmakers reported.

‘I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.’

Epstein reportedly visited the White House 17 times during the Clinton administration. Flight logs revealed that Bill Clinton took 26 flights on Epstein’s plane, including international trips to Bangkok, Rwanda, Russia, and China. Clinton’s last known documented trip on Epstein’s plane was in November 2003.

Ahead of Friday’s hearing, Clinton shared his opening statement to the public.

“As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing — I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals,” he wrote.

Clinton advocated justice and healing for the “girls and women whose lives Jeffrey Epstein destroyed.”

RELATED: ‘Ask my husband’: Hillary Clinton throws Bill under the bus during Epstein deposition, reports indicate

Photo by the US Justice Department / Handout /Anadolu via Getty Images

He framed his relationship with Epstein as a “brief” acquaintanceship that “ended years before his crimes came to light.” He claimed he “never witnessed during our limited interactions any indication of what was truly going on,” insisting that he “had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing.”

“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” Clinton wrote.

The former president warned in his opening statement that he would often answer lawmakers’ questions with, “I don’t recall.”

“That might be unsatisfying. But I’m not going to say something I’m not sure of. This was all a long time ago,” he stated.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) responded to Clinton’s opening statement in a post on X, writing, “We’ve added a new question for former President Bill Clinton to the top of the list: Do you suffer from dementia or memory loss?”

Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998 for perjury and obstruction of justice. In a 2001 statement, Clinton confessed to providing false testimony under oath and acknowledged violating a judge’s discovery orders. He conceded that he had “tried to walk a fine line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely,” admitting that some of his responses “were false.”

RELATED: Hillary Clinton’s Epstein deposition goes off the rails after leaked photo triggers meltdown

Photo by the US Justice Department / Handout /Anadolu via Getty Images

During a break in Clinton’s Friday deposition, Chairman Comer addressed reporters to share a comment the former president made. Comer explained that Clinton stated President Donald Trump “has never said anything to me to make me think he was involved” with Epstein.

“I know there’s a lot of curiosity about President Trump. I thought that was an interesting thing that President Clinton said,” Comer stated.

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The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment on Friday charging 30 more people who allegedly stormed Cities Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota, last month.

The arrests are related to an incident that occurred on January 18, when anti-immigration enforcement protesters entered the church, disrupting its Sunday service and intimidating the attendees.

‘The First Amendment does not give anyone — regardless of profession, prominence, or politics — license to storm a church.’

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that she instructed federal agents to apprehend 25 of the newly indicted individuals, vowing that more arrests would follow.

“YOU CANNOT ATTACK A HOUSE OF WORSHIP. If you do so, you cannot hide from us — we will find you, arrest you, and prosecute you,” Bondi wrote in a post on social media. “This Department of Justice STANDS for Christians and all Americans of faith.”

FBI Director Kash Patel revealed additional details about the indictment, stating that the individuals had been charged under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, commonly known as the FACE Act.

RELATED: Anti-ICE radical who took credit for the invasion of Minnesota church ARRESTED by feds

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Patel explained that the FBI had carried out a joint operation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations to arrest the suspects. He also noted that there would be additional arrests.

“This makes 39 indictments in the Cities Church case total so far, including the arrest of Don Lemon and multiple alleged leaders of the riot last month,” Patel stated. “Let it be known: This FBI will never tolerate anyone who targets, intimidates, or attacks Americans peacefully exercising their right to worship freely.”

Lemon was arrested on January 29 and released the following day. He pleaded not guilty to violations of the FACE Act and conspiracy to violate another’s constitutional rights. The other original eight defendants in the case also pleaded not guilty.

RELATED: ‘You are on notice!’ Don Lemon backs anti-ICE radicals who stormed Saint Paul church — but DOJ vows reckoning

Kash Patel. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

True North Legal, the law firm representing Cities Church, responded to the superseding indictment and additional arrests in a Friday statement.

“The indictment of 30 additional people for their involvement in the invasion of Cities Church sends a clear message: Houses of worship are off limits for those who would use chaos and intimidation to advance a political agenda,” Doug Wardlow, director of litigation for True North Legal, stated. “The invasion of Cities Church was a planned, coordinated effort to disrupt a worship service and interfere with religious exercise that placed congregants, including children, in fear for their lives. The First Amendment does not give anyone — regardless of profession, prominence, or politics — license to storm a church and intimidate, threaten, and terrorize families and children worshipping inside.”

“Cities Church is grateful for the Department of Justice’s continued commitment to enforcing federal law to protect churches and other places of worship. The Department’s aggressive prosecution of this case affirms a foundational principle: In the United States, the sanctuary remains a sanctuary,” Wardlow added.

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Military officials, defense analysts, and critics have issued numerous warnings in recent years about the state of America’s military readiness.

While the Trump administration has taken steps to address some of the problems identified by scrutineers, there is at least one outstanding issue that could impact America’s ability to wage a protracted ballistic war against its adversaries, namely its depleted stores of critical munitions.

‘I don’t want our adversaries to think for a second that we don’t have enough resources.’

Two U.S. military officials recently told the New York Times that the Department of War presently lacks the requisite forces and munitions for an extended bombing campaign against Iran.

One of the officials suggested that the American forces presently positioned in the region could continue strikes in the region for only seven to 10 days.

Christian Brose, the president of the American defense firm Anduril, similarly suggested earlier this week in a piece for the Wall Street Journal that “in a conflict with China, the U.S. would run out of critical munitions in days, according to the results of war games.”

Amid such chatter and mounting concerns over what America’s stockpiles might look like in the wake of a lengthier conflict with Iran, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to Politico, “The Department of War has everything it needs to execute any mission at the time and place of the president’s choosing and on any timeline.”

RELATED: Nukes by the numbers: A problem we can’t wish away

Handout photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jesse Monford/U.S. Navy via Getty Images

The Pentagon’s confidence notwithstanding, some American officials and analysts are worried about how America’s stockpiles will look after a potential conflict with Iran.

After all, by arming Ukraine for its ongoing war with Russia, bombing Houthi terrorists in Yemen, vaporizing numerous alleged Venezuelan drug-runners, and helping to protect Israel — which has its own sophisticated albeit depleted missile defense system — from regional threats, the U.S. has reportedly burned through a great many Patriot missiles, Standard Missile-3s, and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptors.

According to American Enterprise Institute fellows Mackenzie Eaglen and Todd Harrison, the U.S. expended over 150 THAAD anti-ballistic missile interceptors defending Israel in June 2025 during its 12-day conflict with Iran.

That’s reportedly nearly 25% of its total number of THAAD interceptors and reportedly three times the average annual procurement since 2010.

Each THAAD interceptor is valued at approximately $12.7 million.

The AEI duo noted that during the same conflict, the U.S. also launched over 80 Standard Missile-3 interceptors.

According to a December report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the SM-3 missiles fired last June — which range in cost from around $9.6 million to $27.9 million — represented nearly one-fifth of the military’s stockpile at the end of 2025.

“If the Iranians can deplete 25% of America’s THAAD stocks and a significant portion of our SM-3 magazines in a few days, the Chinese can and will exhaust them in a few hours,” wrote the AEI duo, who proposed that the military “regain its ability to compete at scale.”

American forces in the Red Sea have also expended a significant number of munitions battling Houthi terrorists in recent years.

Stars and Stripes reported last month that Navy forces had fired over 200 missiles and 150 artillery rounds in response to Houthi attacks since November 2023.

Vice Admiral Brendan McLane, commander of Naval Surface Forces, told Stripes that over the past 15 months or so, the Navy had fired 120 SM-2, 80 SM-6, and 20 Evolve Sea Sparrow and SM-3 missiles.

SM-2 and SM-6 missiles roughly cost $2.1 million and $3.9 million each, respectively.

While Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) acknowledged to Politico that munitions scarcity was “not a secret,” he indicated that assembly lines for air defenses such as THAAD systems and Patriot interceptors have been “set up, and they just have to maximize, with double or triple shifts.”

“I don’t want our adversaries to think for a second that we don’t have enough resources,” Calvert added. “We do.”

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A Canadian sports reporter blamed the internet for backlash she received over her questions to American hockey players.

Members of Team USA men’s Olympic hockey team have been lectured by media members for days now after laughing at a joke made by President Trump over the phone.

‘If we were to do it again, I think we wouldn’t do that, and we made a mistake.’

Trump called the team in the locker room after their gold medal win on Sunday and made a joke that has offended woke reporters, seemingly worldwide.

“We’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” the president joked about the Team USA women, who also won gold. He added that he “probably would be impeached” if he didn’t.

For daring to laugh, U.S. players have been subjected to struggle sessions in their individual markets from hockey reporters. Seemingly the worst of such examples has come out of Canada’s capital, where Americans Jake Sanderson and Brady Tkachuk play for the Ottawa Senators.

Both players were given a browbeating from TSN reporter Claire Hanna, a Canadian who lists her pronouns as “she/her” on her X page.

Sanderson told reporters that while he thought things had been “blown out of proportion a little bit,” he still thought it was a “mistake” to laugh at the president’s joke.

“We have nothing but the utmost respect for the women. We had a lounge in the village that we were hanging out with them all the time, watching other events,” Sanderson said.

That answer was not good enough, though, and Hanna sought further clarification.

“Do you understand in the moment how much it could hurt a team to hear them kind of just be put down that way?” the female reporter asked.

“If we were to do it again, I think we wouldn’t do that, and we made a mistake. But again, I think it kind of got blown out of proportion a little bit,” Sanderson answered.

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The scrum of reporters was incessant with questions about the Trump call and the players’ subsequent visit to the White House and State of the Union address.

Tkachuk was not spared from these queries, explaining that only 15 minutes after leaving the ice with the gold medal, “You have the president of the United States calling you. You just can’t really believe [it].”

“You’re still riding the high of being a world champ, and for the president to take time and call …,” Tkachuk trailed off before sharing a memory from the Olympics.

Still, no amount of positive reinforcement about the women’s team could save Tkachuk, as Hanna soon asked, “Do you understand how they could feel pretty put down by that moment?

“I get it,” Tkachuk replied. “I have no really other comments other than, you know, for the things that we can control, and that was, you know, we supported them, they supported us. Can’t control what other people say. That’s just kind of life itself.”

With Tkachuk praising the women’s team and saying they were clearly the best squad in the tournament, most would think that Tkachuk had touched on the narrative enough, but Hanna again pressed forward.

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‘”So then why would you laugh when they got invited?” the reporter asked.

“I don’t really have an answer, honestly,” an exhausted Tkachuk stated. “It was just a whirlwind of a moment that you can’t really control what somebody says, and I guess caught off guard a little bit. “

The American reiterated, “When you’re talking to the president 10 minutes after you just achieve your dream, it’s just the fact that you’re talking to him. It’s just, you can’t really believe where your life’s at, that you’re talking to the president of the United States after you just won a gold medal.”

Hanna, seemingly shrugging off a bevy of backlash, wrote on X, “I see the internet is angry today.”

This only garnered more disgruntled fan remarks.

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