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Immediately after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran in late February, a mysterious shortwave radio signal began broadcasting coded messages in Farsi. Twice daily, a man’s voice reads groups of seemingly random numbers — an old Cold War-era spy tactic rarely seen in recent decades. As of now, no one knows for certain who’s behind it.

To dive deeper into this curious resurgence of a classic espionage method, Glenn Beck speaks with his chief researcher and former Department of Defense intelligence analyst, Jason Buttrill.

Numbers stations, Buttrill explains, were “something that was used for very highly sensitive communications that one country — whether it was NATO country, U.S., or the Soviet Union — would send out all over the world.”

“People always kind of assumed it was meant for maybe sleeper agents or instructions for people outside the country to do something. … The numbers could represent words out of books or who knows what. But you’re not going to be able to break it very easily, if at all,” he adds.

What makes the numbers station currently broadcasting in Iran so suspicious, he says, is that we have no idea who’s behind it.

“We don’t know if the Iranians started this broadcasting that’s meant to go out of the country, or if this was something like a psy-op that we did, trying to broadcast in Farsi numbers into the country,” Buttrill tells Glenn.

Somebody, however — whether the U.S. or Iran — is actively trying to stop these communications because “five days after this started, … somebody tried to jam this signal,” he says.

“The jamming would take a state actor, right?” Glenn asks.

“Typically, yes, a state actor — someone with the means — but that would usually be, like, a nation-state,” Buttrill responds.

“Or, you know, Bezos or Elon Musk or somebody who now has more money than the United States will ever have,” Glenn quips.

In the next part of the show, Glenn and Buttrill address the broader developments and strategic implications of the ongoing conflict in Iran. To hear it, watch the video above.

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Democrats can learn. Political survival demands adaptation, and lately some on the left have started studying their Republican opponents with something like anthropological curiosity. They watch Republicans work a crowd and ask a practical question: What works?

One answer keeps recurring. Republicans like to quote the Bible.

Christians should stay alert. Not everyone who borrows the language of faith speaks truth.

You can picture the light-bulb moment. A candidate cites Scripture. The audience nods. Somewhere, a strategist thinks: Let’s find a guy who can do that for us.

Enter James Talarico, the Texas Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate who quotes Scripture all day long.

That tactic may sway voters who enjoy hearing a verse, even when it gets pulled out of context to bless ideas Scripture condemns. Christians who know their Bibles will spot the move fast.

Jesus warned about this exact type: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.”

A Bible verse proves nothing by itself. Wolves can quote Scripture, too. So can the devil.

The question is what the verse is being used to defend.

The abortion argument

Talarico claims Genesis 2:7 teaches that a human being becomes alive, and worthy of legal protection, only at first breath.

Wrong. The verse describes Adam’s creation. God formed the first man from dust and then breathed life into him. That account does not describe ordinary human development in the womb. It describes a singular act of creation.

Every other human life begins at conception. A distinct organism exists from that point, with its own DNA and its own trajectory of development. Scripture treats unborn children as living persons. Psalm 139:13-16 speaks of God knitting a child together in the womb.

Even if someone granted Talarico’s “first breath” premise for argument’s sake, the logic collapses quickly into moral absurdity. It pushes abortion right up to delivery. Some activists embrace that conclusion. Most Americans recoil, however, because they sense the truth: Killing a fully formed child moments before birth differs only in location from killing the same child moments after birth.

The ‘nonbinary God’ argument

Talarico also claims God is “nonbinary,” as if that settles the modern LGBTQ agenda.

God has no biological sex. God is spirit. That does not erase the created order for human beings.

Scripture speaks plainly: God created humanity male and female. Genesis 1:27 teaches it. Jesus repeats it when he addresses marriage: “From the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’”

Christian teaching on marriage does not float as an arbitrary rule. It rests on creation itself, and Jesus affirms it.

RELATED: Talarico self-owns when he warns fascism will ‘be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross’

Photo by Gabriel V. Cardenas/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The rainbow vs. the Ten Commandments

Talarico asks why a rainbow flag in a classroom counts as indoctrination while posting the Ten Commandments does not.

The answer isn’t complicated. The Ten Commandments summarize foundational moral truths about God, human life, and justice. They shaped the moral vocabulary of Western civilization for centuries.

The rainbow flag represents a moral program that rejects the biblical account of sex, marriage, and human nature. The two messages do not belong in the same moral category.

Fruit tells the truth

Jesus gave a practical test for identifying false teachers: Look at the fruit.

When someone uses Scripture to justify abortion or to deny the created order of male and female, the fruit shows itself. The apostle Peter warned about this kind of manipulation: “Untaught and unstable people twist [the Scriptures] to their own destruction.”

Christians should not get impressed because a politician can quote a verse. Even Satan did.

The question is whether the Bible is being handled faithfully or weaponized to sanctify fashionable sins.

Stay awake

Christians should stay alert. Not everyone who borrows the language of faith speaks truth.

Know the word of God. Test what you hear against it. Teach your children to do the same.

That’s how you recognize wolves, even when they show up in sheep’s clothing with a Bible in hand.

​Opinion & analysis, First amendment, Freedom of religion, Bible, Truth, James talarico, God is nonbinary, Fascism, Patriotism, Genesis, Abortion, Sin, Christianity, The devil, Satan, Scripture, Pride flag, Education, Ten commandments, Transgender agenda, Leftism, False prophets, Faith, Democrats 

About 11 million people on the island nation of Cuba have lost power after the country’s electrical grid completely collapsed on Monday.

Cuba relies on oil to run the power grid, and a U.S. embargo has worsened the energy crisis it was already suffering under. The U.S. ended oil deliveries to Cuba from Venezuela and threatened other countries with steep tariffs if they provided oil to the nation.

‘Taking Cuba in some form, yeah, taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.’

The state-owned power operator said efforts were under way to restore power to the island. In the meantime, energy has been rationed and many services have shut down.

“The impact [of the blockade] is tremendous. It is most brutally manifested in these energy issues,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on Friday. “This causes anguish among the population.”

Díaz-Canel said Cuba had not received oil in about three months.

“Officials in the U.S. [government] must be feeling very happy by the harm caused to every Cuban family,” said Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío in a statement about the blackout.

Electricity generation is plagued by aged power infrastructure and a lack of spare parts that are also blocked by the embargo.

President Donald Trump said he had designs for a takeover of the island.

“I do believe I’ll be … having the honor of taking Cuba. That’s a big honor,” the president said to reporters at the White House. “Taking Cuba in some form, yeah, taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth.”

RELATED: Massive blackout hits Cuba after entire power grid fails; communist government blames the US

He added, “They’re a very weakened nation right now. They were for a long time. Very violent leaders.”

Protesters have also risen up against the communist government in anger over the blackouts and a shortage of food.

Díaz-Canel said he’s having talks with Trump in order to find “areas of cooperation.” Some anticipate there will be a deal soon to allow some private businesses to operate on the communist island.

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With tensions rising in the Middle East and concerns growing over oil supply, many Americans are wondering what the latest developments mean for the economy — and financial expert Carol Roth may have some answers.

“It’s difficult to have mobility in this economy right now, and it’s, you know, sort of a tough thing for everyday people to deal with,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere tells Roth, noting that recent developments in Iran are affecting not only the price of gas, but food prices.

“How should we be thinking of this right now, Carol?” Stu asks.

“So, I think that we should be thinking that we hope that there is a short end to this conflict both from a moral and human perspective as well as from an economic perspective,” Roth explains.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty. There’s a lot of risk, and we don’t know what the duration is going to be. And so as that information comes out and then gets, you know, kind of extrapolated and increased by algorithmic trading and hedge funds, you see a lot of volatility, but we’ve seen that somewhat normalized,” she says.

“The challenge is that, you know, a lot of the tampering of inflation … had a lot to do with the fact that oil had been in a very good and attractive place, particularly for consumers. Maybe not as much for producers, but at least for consumers,” she continues.

Roth believes that in order to combat these issues for everyday Americans, the Trump administration needs to focus on things like small businesses.

“I’d like to see more policies that remove barriers. If you remove barriers, particularly from small businesses, they are the biggest job creators and drivers. They’re also, by the way, the ones who are going to be least susceptible to AI changes,” Roth tells Stu.

“And so, that would be a really good and easy thing to do,” she adds.

Want more from Stu?

To enjoy more of Stu’s lethal wit, wisdom, and mockery, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Stu does america, Stu burguiere, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Financial expert, Carol roth, The economy, Inflation, Iran war, Strait of hormuz, Gas pries, Gas prices 

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is facing contempt of court charges after it refused to release a violent criminal with 35 arrests.

Las Vegas Justice Court Judge Eric Goodman said that 36-year-old Joshua Sanchez-Lopez should be released and placed on electric monitoring, but police say he’s too much of a risk.

‘The idea that a Metro employee can overrule a judge’s release order and keep someone locked up should worry anyone who believes in the Constitution and the rule of law.’

Sanchez-Lopez has previous convictions that include involuntary manslaughter and drug charges and was arrested in January on a charge of grand larceny of a motor vehicle. Goodman said he could be released from jail and monitored if he posted bail.

Metro police told the judge on Jan. 29 they would not release Sanchez-Lopez, in defiance of his order.

The letter cited previous incidents where Sanchez-Lopez failed to appear in court and violated the department’s program. In one instance, he mocked police after posting a photo of his ankle monitor on Snapchat.

On Feb. 5, Goodman responded and threatened to hold the cops in contempt of court.

Metro argues that the decision to keep Sanchez-Lopez is granted to the sheriff by state law.

The suspect’s public defender disagreed.

“Metro’s argument is flat wrong,” reads a statement from public defender P. David Westbrook.

“It is the job of the elected judge to decide whether someone charged with a crime should be released and under what conditions,” he added. “The idea that a Metro employee can overrule a judge’s release order and keep someone locked up should worry anyone who believes in the Constitution and the rule of law.”

Metro assistant general counsel Mike Dickerson said they’re trying to preserve public safety.

“We have to take a look at that and say, ‘Is this somebody who our electronic supervision program can monitor safely in the community?'” Dickerson said.

“There’s absolutely competing narratives about public safety occurring in our community. There’s different approaches too,” he added.

RELATED: Former DHS attorney who told judge ‘this job sucks’ is now running to unseat Rep. Ilhan Omar

In a statement on social media, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo of Nevada said he backed the police.

“Sheriff McMahill and the men and women of Metro are doing exactly what they’re sworn to do: protect the public,” he wrote. “When repeat violent offenders are ordered back onto our streets, law enforcement has a duty to speak up and push back. I fully support LVMPD’s decision to take this issue to the Nevada Supreme Court and fight for public safety. I stand with law enforcement.”

Goodman also pointed out that the level of electronic monitoring ordered for Sanchez-Lopez was similar to house arrest.

“The safety of our officers is paramount,” Dickerson continued. “The safety of the public is key, and the key here is Sheriff McMahill will not violate the law to appease the Las Vegas Justice Court and let out people who he deems to be dangerous. We have a system that’s set up so people can get out of jail quickly, and sometimes, there just needs to be a little bit more thought given to it because lives are on the line.”

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Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino is reportedly retiring from federal service after having left Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, according to two sources CBS News described as “directly familiar with his decision.”

Bovino has been serving as the chief patrol agent of the El Centro sector on the U.S.-Mexico border and has been praised by immigration hawks who approved of his aggressive tactics to enforce federal law.

‘Politicians are laying blame at the feet of law enforcement instead of looking in the mirror at how they have fueled the hatred and violent attacks.’

He is expected to retire at the end of the month, the sources said.

“The greatest honor of my entire life was to work alongside Border Patrol agents on the border and in the interior of the United States in some of the most challenging conditions the agency has ever faced,” Bovino said to Breitbart News.

He faced heated criticism from the left after anti-ICE activists Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed during separate incidents involving federal agents in Minneapolis.

Bovino left Minneapolis and was replaced with border czar Tom Homan, who eventually drew down the operation after reaching an agreement with local officials.

After Bovino returned to California, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said he and other federal officers were under criminal investigation over their actions in Minnesota.

“Our [Transparency and Accountability Project] team is actively investigating 17 incidents that have been brought to our attention by the community, including Gregory Kent Bovino’s actions near Mueller Park on January 21,” Moriarty said in a statement earlier in the month.

On the date cited by Moriarty, Bovino was captured on video tossing a canister of chemical irritants at anti-ICE protesters.

DHS responded to Moriarty’s investigations with a fiery statement.

“This does nothing to make Minnesota safer. Enforcing federal immigration laws is a clear federal responsibility. … Politicians are laying blame at the feet of law enforcement instead of looking in the mirror at how they have fueled the hatred and violent attacks we are seeing against federal law enforcement officers,” a DHS spokesperson said.

RELATED: Gregory Bovino and other federal agents under criminal investigation by Minneapolis county attorney

Bovino released a video statement praising federal immigration officers after his release from Minnesota.

“I’m very proud of what you, the mean green machine, are doing in Minneapolis right now, just like you’ve done it across the United States over these past tough nine months,” he said in the video from Mount Rushmore.

“I also want you to know that I’ve got your back, now and always — I love you, I support you, and I salute you,” he added.

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Last night’s Academy Awards brought the usual mix of celebration, surprises, and disappointment.

It also offered a revealing glimpse into how modern storytelling wrestles with the problem of human evil. Again and again, our stories invent new creators and judges — aliens, scientists, political systems — while avoiding the possibility that the answer might be the one Christianity has proposed all along.

Interestingly, the film’s bleak ending inadvertently highlights the beauty of the alternative.

We see this pattern clearly in this year’s Best Picture winner, “One Battle After Another.” In that film, humanity’s problems are framed largely as political ones: injustice embedded in systems that must be overcome through struggle here on earth.

The problem of evil

The year’s other nominees approach the same problem from different angles. “Frankenstein” warns about the dangers of human beings assuming the role of creator, while “Sinners” treats Christianity itself as a corrupting force rather than a remedy for human brokenness. The stories differ in tone and message, but they circle the same question: Why does humanity repeatedly descend into violence, cruelty, and exploitation?

And then there’s “Bugonia,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ ambitious science-fiction drama. Although the film failed to take home Best Picture or any of the four Oscars for which it was nominated, its unsettling message reveals much about our post-Christian frame of mind.

The film proposes a provocative premise: Humanity was seeded on Earth by extraterrestrial beings known as Andromedans. But when humanity fails to live up to their expectations — ravaging the planet, waging war, exploiting one another — the aliens decide to erase the experiment and reboot the world.

Spoiler alert: They succeed.

Failed experiment

In the film’s closing act, the Andromedans judge humanity irredeemable. Our history of violence, greed, and environmental destruction becomes the evidence against us. Like scientists abandoning a failed experiment, they extinguish the human race in order to start again.

The premise is morally haunting because it contains a kernel of truth. Humanity has indeed fallen short of what we know to be right. Our history is filled with wars, cruelty, and exploitation of both people and planet. Watching the film, you can almost understand why an external observer might conclude that humanity is incapable of redemption.

But the film’s central idea contains a deeper philosophical problem that it never addresses.

In “Bugonia,” aliens replace God.

Persistent theory

Instead of an eternal Creator, we are told that advanced beings from another star system planted life on Earth. Humanity, in other words, is merely the product of a cosmic experiment. The idea echoes the pseudoscientific theories popularized decades ago by Swiss author Erich von Däniken, most famously in his 1968 best-seller “Chariots of the Gods?” He argued that ancient monuments and religious traditions were evidence that extraterrestrials had visited Earth and influenced — or even created — human civilization.

Despite the popularity of those claims, they have been widely rejected by scientists and historians as speculative at best and misleading at worst. Yet the underlying idea persists in popular culture, resurfacing in films, television shows, and speculative fiction like “Bugonia.”

The problem is that such explanations never truly answer the deepest question. They merely move it one step back: If the Andromedans created humanity, who created them?

The difficulty with theories that attempt to explain existence without God is that they ultimately arrive at an illogical conclusion — that somehow the material universe emerged from nothing. Matter, life, and consciousness simply appeared. The universe, in effect, would have to create itself.

Every effect requires a cause. Every creation requires a creator. If alien life exists somewhere in the universe — and it very well may — those beings would still be part of the created order. They, too, would owe their existence to something greater and eternal.

A different story

“Bugonia” imagines alien overseers who judge humanity and wipe the slate clean when the experiment fails. But the story humanity actually lives in is far different.

According to Scripture, there was indeed a moment when God chose to “reset” the world. In the story of Noah, humanity had become so violent and corrupt that God sent a flood and preserved only Noah and his family to begin again. Humanity was, in a sense, rebooted.

But even after the flood, humanity fell short again. We continued to quarrel, exploit, and destroy. The human story remained one of brokenness mixed with moments of grace.

The difference between the God of Scripture and the Andromedans of “Bugonia” is not power. It is mercy.

The aliens in the film conclude that humanity’s failures justify annihilation. God reached a radically different conclusion. Rather than abandon His creation, He entered into it.

The eternal God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world — not to condemn humanity but to redeem it. Where the Andromedans choose extermination, God chooses sacrifice.

This is the heart of the Christian story. Humanity fails again and again. Yet instead of discarding us as a failed experiment, God offers forgiveness and transformation.

RELATED: What Shia LaBeouf’s public struggle shows us about Christian redemption

MEGA/GC Images via Getty Images

Quiet revolution

Even then, the story does not become one of instant perfection. People who follow Christ still struggle. They still fall short. The difference is not that believers suddenly become flawless, but that they now have a path toward redemption.

One of the most profound summaries of that path comes from John the Baptist, who famously said of Christ: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30).

Those few words describe the quiet revolution at the heart of Christianity. The transformation of humanity does not come from our own power or moral superiority. It comes from learning humility — placing God at the center rather than ourselves.

And that humility has consequences. A world shaped by self-interest breeds the very problems “Bugonia” highlights — violence, greed, environmental destruction, and exploitation. A world shaped by love of neighbor and reverence for a Creator begins to look very different.

Radical vision

Interestingly, the film’s bleak ending inadvertently highlights the beauty of the alternative.

In “Bugonia,” humanity is judged solely by its failures. There is no grace, no redemption, no possibility that flawed beings might grow into something better.

The Christian story, by contrast, insists that redemption is the point of the whole drama. God promised after the flood that He would not destroy the world again in such a way. The ultimate reset came not through annihilation but through Christ — through renewal.

For all its imaginative power, “Bugonia” ultimately imagines a universe governed by distant creators who abandon their creation when it disappoints them.

The Christian vision offers something far more radical: a Creator who loves His creation enough to save it.

​Academy awards, Oscars, Movies, Culture, Christianity, One battle after another, Best picture, Bugonia, Emma stone, Frankenstein, Sinners, Faith 

A viral video is making waves online after journalist Wajahat Ali, journalist for the Daily Beast and the New York Times, posted a clip declaring that white Americans have already “lost” the demographic future of the country.

BlazeTV host John Doyle breaks down the clip on “The John Doyle Show” — and he doesn’t appear to be worried about the journalist’s wild claims.

“He is a Pakistani gentleman born to immigrant parents in California. He’s a Muslim leftist, very active on Twitter. So a few months ago, he posted this video essentially as a warning to white Americans, a kind of premature victory lap,” Doyle explains, “you know, practically confirming the idea of what’s been described as the ‘Great Replacement.’”

“You’ve lost. You have lost. You lost. The mistake that you made is you let us in in the first place. That’s the thing with brown people. And I’m going to say this as a brown person. There’s a lot of us. Like a lot. There’s like 1.2 billion in India. There’s more than 200 million in Pakistan. There’s like 170 million in Bangladesh,” Ali said proudly in the selfie video.

“Those are just the people there. I’m not even talking about the folks who are expats or immigrants. There’s a bunch of us. And we breed. We’re a breeding people. And the problem is, is you let us in in 1965,” he continued.

“There were a few of us beforehand, but once you let one of us in, you know what happens with brown folks? Our grandmother comes, our grandfather comes, our uncle comes, our aunt comes, our cousin comes, our second cousin comes, our third cousin comes. Then we have kids, a bunch of kids,” he said, asking, “And then guess what?”

“Some white women, you know, the Western civilization women, the pure women, the American women, quote unquote, the rust belt women, the real women, they like some of us brown folks. We don’t take them. They come to us,” he added.

“So this is obviously just like some irrational bloodlust fantasy. You know, this like cucking fantasy pretending that one, literally white people are being outbred. We are demographically less virile. We’re going to lose because, you know, we’re going to be outbred by people like that,” Doyle comments.

Doyle believes that Ali is “doing a kind of war dance” that Doyle himself sees as “bizarre.”

“I think that this person is performing. So I’m going to try to interpret it in good faith. … You know, the only reason that our country is being flooded with immigrants is because of the decisions of other white people,” Doyle explains, pointing out that those white people, who are the “elites,” are “evil.”

“I think that they align themselves with the third world because they have a bone to pick with the first world, with our civilization. That being said, they are in the driver’s seat to our problem. They are in the driver’s seat to our opposition,” he continues, before addressing Ali, “Not you. You are a pawn.”

“You are brought in specifically because it makes them more powerful, simply because, yeah, you’re a number on a piece of paper. You’re not inventing things. You’re not organizing. You are shuffled around,” he says.

“So anyway, he’s trying to take this premature victory lap. It’s very passive aggressive, you know, declaring victory over Americans, white people. We’re going to be outbred or something in our own country. It’s just simply not true,” he adds.

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​The john doyle show, John doyle, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Immigration, Immigration policy, The great replacement, Wajahat ali, The daily beast, Leftism, Pakistan, Immigration crisis 

The ecologist responsible for one of history’s most infamous false global predictions died on Friday, and the New York Times used the occasion to try to keep his anti-population prognostications alive.

In his best-selling book “The Population Bomb” from 1968, Paul Ehrlich popularized the idea that the world was heading toward massive famine and starvation. Ehrlich argued that the Earth’s natural resources were being depleted at such a rate that the population would crash worldwide.

‘His predictions proved wrong. They were not premature. They were wrong. His understanding of the world was wrong.’

Instead, the global population more than doubled from about 3.5 billion people when the book was published to 8.3 billion by 2026.

While most would call the infamous prediction a complete and utter failure, the Times said it was merely “premature.”

Many online reacted with scorn and ridicule.

“Wrong. His predictions proved wrong. They were not premature. They were wrong. His understanding of the world was wrong. Faulty. Unrealistic. False. Falsified,” data scientist John Aziz responded.

“Its [sic] stunning not just how wrong Ehrlich was … or how evil he was … but how constantly our media amplified him and is still covering for his endless failed predictions,” replied Andrew Follett of the Club for Growth.

Others pointed to stories of people who chose to avoid having children based on Ehrlich’s book and regretted it greatly later.

“Paul Ehrlich was one of the most pernicious public figures of the last 50 years. Somehow he was still celebrated in certain intellectual circles until the very end. Never forget the harm his ideas caused,” replied Alec Stapp, who cited an example from the comments section.

“I was a college student when I read Mr. Ehrlich’s ‘The Population Bomb.’ I took it to heart and now have no grandchildren, but 50 years later the population has increased to eight billion without dire consequences. I was gullible and stupid,” a man named Kenneth Emde wrote.

“Paul Ehrlich’s work wasn’t ‘premature,’ it was wrong, completely so, and evil: his recommendations resulted in many hundreds of thousands of coerced sterilizations and abortions among the world’s most vulnerable people,” city planner M. Nolan Gray replied.

RELATED: CBS kicks off new year with ‘mass extinction’ prediction from ‘anti-human’ depopulationist who spent his career being proven wrong

“His predictions in the 1960s and 1970s weren’t premature; they were just wrong and his Malthusian views cascaded into innumerable damage on society. … He advocated for abortion and policies for population control,” science policy analyst Chris Martz responded. “Lots of people refused to have children as a result of his philosophy. But many climate activist degrowthers still hang on every word.”

Ehrlich died of complications from cancer at the age of 93 at a nursing facility in Palo Alto, California.

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Islamic terrorism may be undergoing a resurgence in the U.S., energized in part by the latest conflict in the Middle East.

According to a U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security terror threat assessment report published last year, there were over 50 jihadist cases in 30 states between April 2021 and June 2025, including vehicle ramming attacks and efforts to provide material support to ISIS.

Last year, for instance, started off with the slaughter of 14 Americans and the grievous injury of scores of additional victims in New Orleans by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a radical whom the FBI revealed had pledged allegiance to ISIS.

‘This isn’t a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet.’

The perennial threat of violence by adherents of Islamist ideology do not appear to be letting up — and if the rash of attacks and attempted attacks that have already occurred this month are any indication, the reverse might be true.

New York

A pair of Pennsylvania residents with alleged ties to radical Islam — Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi — were arrested on March 7 after two homemade improvised explosive devices were ignited near anti-Islam protesters outside Gracie Mansion in New York City.

“This was an alleged ISIS-inspired act of terrorism that could have killed American citizens,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.

RELATED: ‘So pathetic’: Virginia governor nailed with backlash over response to possible terror attack at Old Dominion

Department of Justice

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche noted, “These men allegedly sought to inflict mass casualties in service to ISIS with the hope of exceeding the carnage of the Boston Marathon bombing.”

An FBI examination of the explosive devices revealed that “they were each approximately the size of a mason jar; that they each had an attached fuse; and that they each had nuts and bolts attached to the exterior, surrounded by duct tape,” according to the criminal complaint.

The first device contained “TATP, a highly volatile explosive that is colloquially known as the ‘Mother of Satan’ and extremely sensitive to impact, friction, and heat. TATP has been used in multiple terrorist attacks over the last decade,” the DOJ press release said.

According to the complaint, Balat allegedly told police after his arrest, “This isn’t a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet. … We take action! We take action!”

After arriving at the precinct, Balat allegedly requested a piece of paper and wrote, “All praise is due to Allah lord of all worlds! I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State. Die in your rage yu [sic] kuffar!”

Kuffar or kafir is a derogatory Arabic term for a non-Muslim, an alternate to “infidel,” used by radicals including Muhammad Masood — a Pakistani doctor who worked for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York, and pleaded guilty in 2022 to attempting to provide ISIS with material support.

Virginia

On Thursday, an American who pleaded guilty in 2016 to similarly attempting to provide material support to ISIS opened fire on ROTC students in a classroom at Virginia’s Old Dominion University.

‘The unit is responsible for launching hundreds of rockets.’

Before heroic students subdued Mohamed Bailor Jalloh and “rendered him no longer alive,” the 36-year-old shooter killed Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, a professor of military science at Old Dominion’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.

Dominique Evans, an FBI special agent, said that “prior to him conducting this act of terrorism, he shouted … or stated ‘Allahu akbar.'”

Authorities said that Jalloh admitted in 2016 to carrying out an attack similar to the Fort Hood massacre where Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. citizen whose radicalization to violent Islamist extremism was reportedly clear to his superiors and peers, murdered 12 U.S. service members and one Pentagon civilian employee.

Michigan

Just hours later on March 12, a Lebanese native rammed a vehicle into Temple Israel, a Detroit-area Reform synagogue with a preschool and religious education school on-site. Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, the suspect who reportedly killed himself when confronted by security personnel, appears at the very least to have been associated with Islamic terrorists.

Officials have confirmed that Ghazali, who was granted U.S. citizenship in February 2016, lost family members — including two brothers, Qassem and Ibrahim — in the recent Israeli military strikes in Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces alleged in a statement on Sunday that Ibrahim Ghazali was a Hezbollah commander “responsible for managing weapons operations within a specialized branch of the Badr Unit. The unit is responsible for launching hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilians throughout the war.”

Hassan Qazwini, the leader of the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, told the New York Times that Ghazali attended a service at his center for the first time earlier this month.

Dearborn appears to have incubated a great many other Islamic radicals over the years.

‘There were indicators.’

On Oct. 31, 2025, for instance, the FBI arrested a pair of Dearborn residents, Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud, for allegedly planning to carry out a terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS. Ayob Nasser was later arrested and charged in connection with the alleged plot.

The trio — each of whom has been charged with conspiring to provide material support to ISIS as well as with having firearms that would be used to commit an act of terrorism on behalf of the jihadist terrorist organization — allegedly scouted the nearby city of Ferndale for possible targets.

Texas

In the early hours of March 1, a suspect armed with a pistol and a rifle opened fire outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden in Austin, killing two individuals and wounding 14 others.

The man whom authorities identified as the shooter, 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne, shot at patrons outside the bar through the window of an SUV. He then parked the vehicle nearby and opened fire with a rifle on unsuspecting pedestrians.

Police intercepted the gunman, then permanently neutralized the threat.

Photo (center): Austin Police Department; Photo (background): FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

The FBI indicated that “there were indicators … on the subject and in his vehicle that indicate potential nexus to terrorism,” and a law enforcement official told CNN that the dead suspect was wearing a shirt with an Iranian flag design on it as well as a hoodie emblazoned with the text, “Property of Allah.”

A Quran was reportedly also recovered from Diagne’s vehicle.

Diagne entered the U.S. from Senegal on a B-2 tourist visa in March 2000 and was naturalized in April 2013, seven years after his marriage to an American citizen. Over 97% of the Senegalese population identify as Muslim.

There was another incident earlier this month in the Lone Star State that had all of the markings of another potential tragedy.

Kyle Najm Chris, a 39-year-old Iraqi native who also goes by Muhi Mohanan Najm, entered Zwink Elementary School in Spring, Texas, through an unsecured door on March 10, allegedly armed with a holstered firearm and a taser and wearing military attire, reported KHOU-TV.

The Klein Independent School District said in a statement that when confronted by an employee and asked for identification, Chris — who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2022 and reportedly has no affiliation with either the school or the district — allegedly declined to identify himself. Staff contacted the school’s armed campus guard, and Chris, barred from entering deeper into the school on account of its “secure vestibule” system, left without incident.

Chris has been arrested and charged with felony possession of a prohibited weapon. He allegedly told authorities that he was a security guard, but court records reviewed by KRIV-TV show that the Iraqi native is currently unemployed and holds neither a security license nor a peace officer certification.

A neighbor told KTRK-TV that Chris is a veteran and suggested that this might be a misunderstanding.

Europe

In recent days, there have been multiple potential Islamist terrorist attacks in other Western nations.

On March 8, an IED was placed outside the U.S. embassy in Oslo, Norway. The blast caused minor damage and resulted in no injuries, reported the BBC.

Three brothers, all Norwegian citizens in their 20s with links to Iraq, were arrested in connection with the attack. Their mother was later arrested on suspicion of involvement with the attack. Frode Larsen, head of the Oslo police investigation unit, said that the bombing — which is being treated as a likely terrorism attack — may have been linked to the conflict unfolding in the Middle East, reported CBS News.

On March 9, an explosion went off outside the main doors of a synagogue in the Belgian city of Liège on March 9. The blast reportedly inflicted only minor damage and resulted in no injuries. Nevertheless, a group calling itself the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right reportedly claimed responsibility for the Liège bombing.

French police reportedly stopped a pair of Moroccan-Italian nationals last week whom they suspect were plotting a “lethal and anti-Semitic” attack. The suspects were found to be in the possession of a semi-automatic weapon, a bottle of hydrochloric acid, and an ISIS flag.

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A married school secretary at an Indiana high school was reportedly caught by her husband having a sexual relationship with a student in mid-February, which led to the discovery that she allegedly had an unlawful sexual relationship with a second student. However, the suspect’s lawyer is calling for action after a video of her interrogation by police went viral, which he described as an “injustice of magnanimous proportions.”

As Blaze News reported last month, 31-year-old Alicia Hughes was arrested “following an investigation into allegations involving inappropriate conduct with a minor,” according to police.

‘I’ll need my lawyer here at this point.’

The Union City Police Department announced in a statement, “During the course of the investigation, officers learned that Hughes’ husband had discovered her with an 18-year-old student of Randolph Eastern School Corporation and confronted the individuals.”

Police said Hughes was allegedly “battered during that altercation.” The Randolph County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the alleged battery.

Hughes, an employee of the Randolph Eastern School Corporation, was involved in a sexual relationship with a second student, police stated.

“As the investigation progressed, Union City Police Department investigators uncovered evidence that Alicia Hughes had also engaged in a sexual relationship with a separate high school student who was 17 years old at the time,” the statement read.

Police determined that Hughes and the underage student “engaged in sexual intercourse on at least five occasions.”

On Feb. 17, Hughes was arrested and charged with five counts of child seduction related to the sexual relationship with the minor student, according to police.

According to Indiana law, child seduction is when a “person uses or exerts the person’s professional relationship to engage in sexual intercourse, other sexual conduct, or any fondling or touching with the child with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of the child or the person.”

According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, child seduction is a Level 5 felony in Indiana if the child is at least 16 years old but less than 18.

If convicted on all five charges of child seduction, Hughes faces a prison term of between five and 30 years, plus a fine of up to $10,000.

Cleveland.com reported that Randolph Eastern School Corporation Superintendent Neal Adams announced that Hughes “has been removed from all duties with students pending the outcome of the legal process.”

However, Hughes’ attorney is calling for action after the Union City Police Department released a video that showed a portion of the school employee’s interrogation by an officer.

Hughes’ attorney, David M. Jordan, called the release of the interrogation video “an injustice of magnanimous proportions,” the Star Press reported.

Mark Ater, the Union City Police Department’s director of public safety, admitted that his department released the video but said that it was “lawful” to do so.

“The release was lawful, measured, and deliberate,” Ater told the Star Press. “The portion disclosed contained no admission of criminal conduct.”

Ater pointed out that the two-minute video clip shows an officer discussing accusations that Hughes had sex with an 18-year-old student, which he said is “conduct that is legal under Indiana law.”

Ater added, “The department exercised restraint and ensured no protected information was disclosed.”

Ater stressed that all of the names of any alleged victims have been redacted from the video.

Hughes’ attorney argued, “For his own selfish reasons, [Ater] had impeded the defendant’s right to a fair trial, led the public to believe there are multiple alleged victims, and drawn attention to the defendant’s request for a lawyer.”

Jordan claimed that the video went viral, racking up “millions of combined views of the media accounts containing the defendant’s interrogation footage.”

The video of the interrogation appeared on numerous websites, including the New York Post, as well as the Sun and the Mirror in the U.K.

Jordan demanded an “expedited hearing” and for the judge to order “Mark Ater, and the Union City Police Department not to release any other evidence or statements to the media” about Hughes’ case “without prior approval of the court.”

Jordan also asked Ater to issue a public apology “for releasing the interrogation video.”

The attorney called on Randolph Circuit Court Judge Jay Toney to order Ater to pay Jordan’s office “not less than $10,000” for “the time and effort his law firm has spent collecting evidence for the gag order and presenting the matter to the court.”

RELATED: Teacher of the year arrested for alleged child sex crimes — then she’s arrested on similar charges just days later

Randolph County Prosecutor David Daly also expressed concern over the release of the interrogation video.

Daly noted, “The recent release of the video interview of Ms. Hughes did not come from my office, and my office did not authorize, approve, or have anything to do with its release.”

The Star Press reported that Daly stressed that he is “committed to obtaining a fair trial in this case and to avoid prejudicing Ms. Hughes’ right to a fair trial.”

Daly also declared that he is “committed to seeking justice for victims.”

Ater proclaimed, “Let me be clear. The police department did not seek, nor was it required to seek, approval from the prosecutor’s office before releasing this brief excerpt.”

WTRC-FM reported that Ater said he has had “some issues with their [the prosecutor’s office’s] decision-making on multiple cases as far as child abuse.”

During the interrogation video, Hughes is heard confessing that she had sex with the 18-year-old student on three occasions, but none were before he turned 18.

The video shows the officer asking Hughes if she has had sex with any other students, to which she responds, “No.”

The officer responds, “Are you sure about that?”

Hughes replies, “Yes.”

During the interrogation, Hughes is asked about the 17-year-old student, but she denies having sex with the boy. In the video, Hughes admits she met the student and sent him “pictures.”

According to the video, the officer questions Hughes on how the relationship with the 17-year-old student started, to which she is seen on video saying, “I’ll need my lawyer here at this point.”

Ater revealed that the investigation is ongoing and that Hughes may face additional charges because investigators have “several electronic devices that search warrants are being executed on right now.”

“We’ve got multiple electronic devices that were used during this unfortunate crime that she committed, so we’re still ironing through all that stuff,” Ater stated.

According to WTRC, Ater said the investigation can be lengthy because “law enforcement must sort through electronic devices and social media accounts.”

The Union City Police Department said there were no new developments in the investigation.

Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact the Union City Police Department at 937-968-7744.

The Randolph County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Blaze News.

WTRC-FM reported that Hughes is scheduled to appear in court on April 16 for pretrial motions, then on May 7 for a pretrial conference, and the jury trial begins on June 15.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has likened artificial intelligence to utilities that are required to live.

Altman was discussing his company’s plans during BlackRock’s U.S. Infrastructure Summit on Wednesday. A mix of politicians, union leaders, and industry executives were in attendance when he dropped the news about his vision for AI.

‘People buy it from us on a meter and use it for whatever they want to use it for.’

Speaking to Bayo Ogunlesi, chairman and CEO of BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, Altman likened AI to lifesaving utilities that are typically viewed as human rights.

“We see a future where intelligence is a utility like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter and use it for whatever they want to use it for,” Altman explained.

The CEO then claimed that the “demand” for metered AI usage is high and that the idea only continues to become more popular. His claims contained a warning though, in that “if we don’t have enough” AI, it will become too expensive and “kind of goes to rich people.”

This claim was seemingly based off Altman’s plans to build a massive AI infrastructure system in the United States through his Stargate Project.

RELATED: Silicon Rebellion

Announced at the beginning of 2025, the Stargate Project is a $500 billion investment plan to build sprawling AI infrastructure for OpenAI and its partners by 2029.

This would allegedly “generate massive economic benefit for the entire world,” the press release stated.

However, as it stands, there is only one data center under the project currently operating: the flagship location in Abilene, Texas.

The 980,000 square foot site produces an estimated 200+ megawatts, capable of powering 50,000 NVIDIA GB200 NVL72s in each of its buildings — which are essentially AI supercomputers.

Another data center in Port Washington, Wisconsin, is scheduled to be open in 2028.

RELATED: Sam Altman says NSA can’t use OpenAI — then tells staff they don’t have a say in military actions

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“If we don’t have enough [AI], we either can’t sell it or the price gets really high, and it, you know, kind of goes to rich people or society makes a bunch of sort of central planning decisions that I think almost always go badly about, you know, we’re going to use our limited compute supply for this and not that,” Altman said at the BlackRock event.

He added, “So the best thing to me throughout all the history of capitalism, innovation, whatever you want, is to just flood the market,” which seemingly means the flooding should go through OpenAI.

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An attorney who made headlines when she complained to a judge in court about working for the Department of Homeland Security has filed to run against Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

Julie Le announced a campaign for Minnesota’s fifth district just weeks after being fired from the Justice Dept. over her exasperated comments before a judge.

Le is running as a Democrat and says she wants to reform the immigration system.

Le told U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell, “The system sucks,” and, “This job sucks,” in a Minnesota courtroom on February 3. According to FOX 9, Le was an ICE attorney who had “volunteered” to work with the U.S. attorney’s office the month before.

Le asked the judge to hold her in contempt just so she could get 24 hours of sleep. She indicated that attorneys were overwhelmed from dealing with court procedures related to Operation Metro Surge from the Trump administration.

She said she was fired from DHS just hours after the interaction.

Le is running as a Democrat and says she wants to reform the immigration system rather than get rid of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as Omar has demanded many times.

“Legislators are the only ones that can change the law, or update the laws, or do something, so that we can have this under control,” Le told the Washington Post.

The 47-year-old is an immigrant from Vietnam and first came to the U.S. in 1993.

RELATED: Pro-Ice student suspended over posters at California high school where hundreds of anti-ICE students walked out

Omar has held the congressional seat since 2019. Le says that health care access, immigration reform, and education funding are the most important planks of her platform.

After the feds shut down Operation Metro Surge, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said her office was investigating the actions of federal agents for possible criminal charges.

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As the Iran strikes stretch into a third week, the Trump administration has threatened legacy media outlets over their coverage of the conflict.

On Sunday, President Trump took to Truth Social to blast the legacy media for their “FAKE NEWS” coverage of the last two weeks, suggesting a degree of cooperation between some American media outlets and the Iranian propaganda machine.

‘The Radical Leftwing Press knows this full well, but continues to go forward with false stories and LIES.’

“Iran has long been known as a Master of Media Manipulation and Public Relations. They are Militarily ineffective and weak, but are really good at ‘feeding’ the very appreciative Fake News Media false information. Now, A.I. has become another Disinformation weapon that Iran uses, quite well, considering they are being annihilated by the day,” Trump wrote.

Trump gave several examples of the types of imagery and videos he claims are generated by artificial intelligence, including Iranian “Kamikaze Boats shooting at various Ships at Sea,” several U.S. refueling planes having been “struck down and badly damaged,” and the “USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier, one of the largest and most prestigious Ships in the World, burning uncontrollably in the Ocean.”

Trump called these stories “FAKE NEWS, generated by A.I.” He further explained of the USS Abraham Lincoln: “Not only was it not burning, it was not even shot at — Iran knows better than to do that!”

RELATED: Trump demands other nations clear Strait of Hormuz, claims NATO’s future at stake

Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images

Citing two U.S. officials, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that “five U.S. Air Force refueling planes were struck and damaged on the ground at Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia.” The article, which appears to have been updated on Saturday at 12:18 p.m. ET, went on to say that the tankers were “damaged but not fully destroyed.”

Trump went on to suggest the severity of punishment that he believes is warranted for the “dissemination of false information”: “In a certain way, you can say that those Media Outlets that generated it should be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information! The fact is, Iran is being decimated, and the only battles they ‘win’ are those that they create through AI, and are distributed by Corrupt Media Outlets. The Radical Leftwing Press knows this full well, but continues to go forward with false stories and LIES.”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr made similar statements Saturday, stressing that it was time for the media to “correct course.” He also reposted a previous Truth Social post from Trump insisting that “the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal (In particular), and other Lowlife ‘Papers’ and Media actually want us to lose the War. Their terrible reporting is the exact opposite of the actual facts!”

Carr wrote: “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions — also known as the fake news — have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

“Time for change!” he added.

Many of Trump’s Democrat opponents and members of the media have since spoken out against his calls for punishing the “fake news” media.

On Friday, CNN chairman and CEO Mark Thompson issued a statement about the outlet’s reporting:

We stand by our journalism. Politicians have an obvious motive for claiming that journalism which raises questions about their decisions is false. At CNN our only interest is in telling the truth to our audiences in the U.S. and around the world and no amount of political threats or insults is going to change that.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) weighed in on Carr’s post on Saturday: “If Trump doesn’t like your coverage of the war, his FCC will pull your broadcast license. That is flagrantly unconstitutional.”

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who has been under fire for months over his involvement in a video encouraging military service members and intelligence personnel to “refuse illegal orders,” likewise criticized the threats from the Trump administration: “When our nation is at war it is critical that the press is free to report without government interference. It is literally in the Constitution. This is overreach by the FCC because this Administration doesn’t like the microscope and doesn’t want to be held accountable.”

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) told Carr: “Take your fascist s**t and shove it.”

The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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The White House has reportedly obtained intelligence that Iran’s new supreme leader could be gay, sparking a hilarious response from President Donald Trump.

Trump reportedly burst into laughter after being briefed that Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei may be gay, according to the New York Post.

Notably, homosexual conduct is a capital offense in Iran.

Others found it amusing as well, including a senior intelligence official who “has not stopped laughing about it for days,” the Post reported.

Mojtaba’s late father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a targeted airstrike conducted by the United States and Israel, reportedly had reservations about his son’s suitability to lead Iran due to his potential homosexuality.

RELATED: ‘Couldn’t find her reservation’: Trump hilariously roasts Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren in private dinner

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Two intelligence sources told the Post that Mojtaba had a “long-term sexual relationship” with his childhood tutor, while another intelligence source said he had an affair “with a person who formerly worked for the Khamenei family.”

Education in Iran is almost always strictly segregated by gender with very limited exceptions.

Although American intelligence agencies don’t have photographic evidence to confirm Mojtaba’s alleged homosexuality, one source said the intel was “derived from one of the most protected sources the government has.”

“The fact that this was elevated to the highest of high levels shows you there’s some confidence in this,” another source told the Post.

The White House did not provide comment to Blaze News.

RELATED: Trump offers hilarious rebuttal to Tim Walz’s absurd Civil War analogy

Photo by Hamed JAFARNEJAD / ISNA / AFP via Getty Images

Notably, homosexual conduct is a capital offense in Iran, with some gay Iranians having been publicly executed.

“If there was ever a time where it was OK to out somebody, it would be when it’s a leader of a repressive Islamic theocracy that hangs gay people by cranes,” one source told the Post.

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President Donald Trump announced that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has been diagnosed with early-stage cancer.

Trump shared the news in a Truth Social post Monday, praising Wiles for her leadership in the administration and her commitment to the American people. Trump also said that her prognosis is “excellent” and that she will continue to serve in the White House during her treatment.

‘She will win this battle with grace.’

“Susie Wiles is an incredible Chief of Staff, a great person, and one of the strongest people I know but, unfortunately, she has been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, and has decided to take on this challenge, IMMEDIATELY, as opposed to waiting,” Trump said.

“She has a fantastic medical team, and her prognosis is excellent! During the treatment period, she will be spending virtually full time at the White House, which makes me, as President, very happy!”

RELATED: Trump’s hilarious response after intel reportedly tells him Iran’s new supreme leader might be gay

Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Trump went on to call Wiles one of his “closest and most important advisors,” saying he and first lady Melania Trump will be “with her in every way.”

“Her Strength and her Commitment to continue doing the job she loves, and does so well, while undergoing treatment, tells you everything you need to know about her,” Trump said.

“We look forward to working with Susie on the many big and wonderful things that are happening for the benefit of our Country!”

RELATED: Karoline Leavitt announces pregnancy news: ‘My heart is overflowing with gratitude to God’

Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images

White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair also praised Wiles for her dedication to Trump and the administration, particularly through the most challenging moments.

“Susie led President Trump’s team through illegitimate indictments, domestic spying by the former administration, rigged federal prosecutions, illegal law enforcement raids, general lawfare, assassination attempts, & more,” Blair said in a post on X. “As with the rest, she will win this battle with grace.”

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It’s not just James Talarico’s recent win against Rep. Jasmine Crockett (Texas) in the Democrat primary for Senate that has turned Talarico into one of the most talked-about politicians in the state.

After first being elected to the Texas House in 2018, he gained national attention when clips of his speeches went viral online — especially his opposition to legislation involving the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

“How did this person with all of these kooky beliefs rise to such prominence?” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey asks on “Relatable.”

“He was first elected as a Texas House representative in 2018 after he defeated Republican Cynthia Flores. And he rose to prominence a couple of years ago, when he went viral for his videos of speeches on the Texas House floor opposing the legislation to display the Ten Commandments in Texas classrooms,” she explains, before playing a clip of Talarico explaining why he is against the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

“Forcing our religion onto Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, and atheist students is not love. Forcing teachers to put up a poster in their classrooms against their wills is not love. Love does no harm to a neighbor,” Talarico said.

“I bet he would argue, though, that Christian teachers could be forced to call a child by the wrong preferred pronouns or could be forced to teach things about the acceptance of LGBTQ ideology even though it opposes their worldview,” Stuckey comments.

Stuckey also points out that in order to understand Western civilization or American history, children should be taught about Christianity.

“You can’t understand America without understanding Christianity, without knowing the Bible, without understanding the Ten Commandments,” she says. “So even just from a literary or historical educational perspective, displaying the Ten Commandments, I think, is really foundational in understanding the country that we live in.”

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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The New York Times has sounded the alarm over Republican officials partnering with Turning Point USA to expand the group’s presence in schools — and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales isn’t letting the “Karen” behind it get away with it.

“Every once in a while, I like to check in on the enemy, the enemy of the people. Yes, I do mean the New York Times,” Gonzales says, before playing an audio clip of one of the New York Times’ podcasts, “The Headlines.”

In the episode, the host explains that a “growing coalition of Republican officials” are “pushing to expand the influence of Turning Point USA in schools.”

“The partnerships do not appear to involve taxpayer money, and they’re not mandates. But critics have raised concerns about the state’s embrace of them, considering Kirk’s hard-right views, his dissemination of conspiracy theories, and his criticism of gay and transgender rights. They say the state partnerships could be seen as a kind of government seal of approval,” the host explained.

“I regret to inform you it gets worse,” Gonzales comments.

“They did a write-up on this.”

In the article, she notes that Charlie Kirk is portrayed as the villain “even in death.”

“You have Karen, the appropriately named Karen Svoboda,” Gonzales says, reading from the article, “executive director of Defense of Democracy, a liberal group that opposes conservative influence in public schools, argued that the partnerships amounted to a sort of state-sponsored imprimatur promoting one political viewpoint.”

“Ms. Svoboda also accused Turning Point of being a divisive force in schools, noting that Mr. Kirk was critical of gay and transgender rights. A Turning Point club at a high school, she said, ‘would be offensive and probably even a little scary for kids who were members of the queer community at school, and families that are dealing with that,’” the article continued.

“Now, as you know … I like to give everyone a chance … to come on and try to defend these bats**t-crazy viewpoints. So we reached out to Karen, who initially agreed to come on the show today, until she realized who she was agreeing to do it with,” Gonzales comments.

“If you’re not willing to defend your bats**t-crazy views, I guess you don’t care about democracy at all. Now, I would remind you that we do not have a democracy,” Gonzales says, adding, “but this is your buzzword. You own the buzzword, and you can’t defend it at all.”

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These days, it feels like war is everywhere I turn. Culture wars on social media. Actual war on the news. Spiritual war invisibly raging all around. War inside me. Even the piling dishes and the toys that never stay tidy can feel like a kind of war.

But every now and then, a sunbeam pierces the thundercloud and silences the cacophony for a brief moment, allowing me to breathe and recenter. Sometimes it’s a timely sermon, other times a gentle breeze and birdsong. Coffee with a dear friend can do the trick.

‘String Cheese’ ministers to my weary soul by reminding me that what I call trials are actually gifts.

But this week, it was “American Idol” contestant Hannah Harper’s song “String Cheese.”

The name is silly; the lyrics are anything but. Right from the start — “I warm my morning coffee up for the third time” — I was smiling, nodding along in quiet recognition. Then the line, “Babies crying, it’s pure chaos, but I don’t miss a beat,” hit, and my eyes filled. Tears streamed until the final note.

And I’m certainly not the only one reaching for the tissue box. Harper’s anthem about the realities of motherhood has touched the hearts of millions in the six weeks since it went viral.

On February 2, the 25-year-old Missouri mother of three — dressed in a homemade patchwork mid-length dress, her strawberry curls pinned atop her head — proved her talent for both singing and song-writing when she auditioned for the 24th “American Idol” contest by performing her original song.

It was an unsurprising unanimous yes from judges Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie — and seemingly from America herself. “String Cheese” has racked up millions of views (and tears), peaked at No. 14 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and has already become one of the most viewed Idol audition moments in the show’s history.

Suffering through the storm

It’s not like there’s a shortage of music that tugs on our heartstrings, so what about Harper’s country-style ballad is resonating with so many Americans?

I think there are two main reasons.

The first is that there’s something for nearly every woman in this song.

For the new mom under the black cloud of postpartum depression, whose motherhood feels more like a curse than a blessing, “String Cheese” offers the kind of encouragement only empathy can provide. Harper vulnerably confessed in her audition that the song was inspired by her struggles with postpartum depression.

“My youngest is 1, and shortly after he was born, I had postpartum depression, and so I was sitting on my couch … I was just having a pity party, praying that the Lord would calm my spirit. … I got up off the couch, and I quit throwing a pity party … so I wrote this song,” she told the judges.

“Some days I wanna cry, run away and hide / But I worry about their every need,” goes one verse.

Any mother who’s been in the throes of PPD knows this feeling in her bones. The sleep deprivation, the hormonal landslide that occurs after birth, the endless needs, ceaseless crying, and lack of time to meet your own basic needs start to amount to something truly terrifying.

Suddenly, the walls begin to close in, and your biological self-defense mechanisms start screaming at you to flee. But something even stronger — a deep, primitive force that almost scares you — compels you to stay even as you wither. The mere thought of your child’s needs being met by anyone other than you is enough to keep you rooted to his or her side.

So you stay, and you suffer until the storm eventually passes.

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Astrida Valigorsky/WireImage | Getty Images

When ‘touched out’ turns existential

The song also offers a beautiful perspective to the overwhelmed mother, just trying to make it through another day of nonstop demands, tantrums, obligations, and messes.

“When I’m overwhelmed and touched out

They come climbin’ up on the couch

Sayin’, ‘Mama, can you open my string cheese?'”

Sometimes a simple snack request when you’re just trying to catch your breath is the drop in the bucket that tips the scale. For me, it’s seeing tiny, sticky fingerprints on a surface I just cleaned. Every mom has that thing that takes her from typical stress levels to existential crisis.

It’s tempting sometimes to fantasize about the days when life will be easier, quieter, and cleaner, but Harper sends mothers to their knees with this reminder:

“One day I’ll be alone with a hot fresh cup of joe,

Wishing that someone would just drop by.

And I’ll sit and reminisce on times that I sure miss

Scattered toys and a baby on my hip.

I thought finding peace in the quiet’s what I wanted,

But I’d do anything to go back to being needed.”

For the mom struggling to keep her head above the rising tide, “String Cheese” is not only the promise that she won’t drown but that the water isn’t as deep as she thinks. In fact, there will come a day, and soon, when she will long for the feeling of waves lapping at her chin.

Saved from waste

And finally, this tearful anthem is for the woman who is afraid of motherhood. Maybe she feels she doesn’t have the resources — financial, time, emotional, or otherwise — to be a good mom. Maybe she’s bought the feminist lie that motherhood is an unwelcome burden, a barrier to her personal ambitions and dreams, or simply more effort than it’s worth.

Two short lines are the timely message this startlingly large population of women need to hear:

“I never knew this is what my 20s would look like,

But they saved me before I had the chance to waste my life.”

The moment when a mother first looks in her baby’s face, something remarkable happens: All the things she once fretted over — time, money, preparedness, even happiness — lose their power, and a life without that child becomes unthinkable. The career, the travel bucket list, the free time, the clean house, the bank account, the mental stability all take their rightful place behind the tiny, wriggling creature in her arms. She knows that to have everything she ever dreamed of — but not the child — would be exactly as Harper says: a waste of life.

With the exception of the gospel, this is the most important message young women in America need to hear today.

Three women

I think “String Cheese” hits me so deeply because I am all three of these women. I’ve been the new adult in my early 20s, terrified of motherhood, barely capable of caring for myself, unsure that a swanky downtown loft and a cool-girl job that allowed me to travel wasn’t the better path. I’ve been the newly married woman in my mid-20s, wondering how on earth we’d afford a baby.

I’ve been the new mom, crushed by the reality of caring for a newborn who didn’t sleep, nurse, or stop crying for months and months and months (and then some more months).

Today, I am the mom who is just trying to make it through another day of work, meeting the emotional and physical needs of an almost 2-year-old who never stops moving (and still doesn’t sleep that great), housekeeping, and the ceaseless task of keeping tummies full.

“String Cheese” ministers to my weary soul by reminding me that what I call trials are actually gifts.

But it does something else for me too. It pulls my gaze in the right direction: down. Down to the blue eyes and the chocolate-smudged mouth that says “mama” 800 times a day.

And that’s the second reason this song is striking such a chord with so many Americans right now — women and men alike. Every day we watch the world grow more dystopian, as wars rage overseas, political divides deepen at home, and AI swallows entire industries whole. We fret over our children’s futures, yet in that very worry, we often overlook one of their most basic needs: our full attunement. This song adjusts our posture in the most simple but profound of ways.

Win or lose, Hannah Harper is already an American idol. In one simple song, she has reminded us that the most profound victories aren’t won on distant battlefields or in viral debates. They’re won right here in the ordinary, messy, sacred trenches of the home, where a child’s small request for string cheese is really a divine invitation to love fiercely, stay present, and choose joy amid the storms.

​Motherhood, Faith, String cheese, American idol, Hannah harper, Christianity, Lifestyle, Culture, Entertainment, Children, Down here 

President Donald Trump seeks to enlist the international community in helping the United States clear the Strait of Hormuz and suggested that a lackluster showing by NATO members may place the alliance’s future in doubt.

Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday, “The United States of America has beaten and completely decimated Iran, both Militarily, Economically, and in every other way, but the Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT!”

‘Whatever it takes.’

“The U.S. will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well,” continued Trump. “This should have always been a team effort, and now it will be — It will bring the World together toward Harmony, Security, and Everlasting Peace!”

After the U.S. and Israel again bombed Iran last month, Tehran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in what War Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday was an act of “sheer desperation” that people “don’t need to worry about.”

According to Lloyd’s List Intelligence, 16 commercial vessels have been attacked in and around the Strait of Hormuz since the outset of the conflict. The attacks, effected largely with surface-to-surface missiles but also with the use of drones and mines, have killed numerous crew members and forced others — at least in the case of the Safeen Prestige, a container ship flying under the flag of Malta — to abandon ship.

The strait’s corresponding closure has proven globally consequential, as roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil normally transits the strait, which lies between Iran and Oman and links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman.

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Photo by Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Energy prices have skyrocketed in recent weeks. The price of Brent crude, for example, was over $100 per barrel ahead of market opening on Monday. U.S. gas prices are reportedly at their highest level since Oct. 7, 2023.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, noted on Sunday, “Americans today will spend $300 million more on gasoline than they did 30 days ago.”

On Saturday, Trump specifically expressed hope that China, France, Japan, South Korea, and Britain “will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated.”

Trump told the Financial Times the next day that it is “only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there.”

“If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO,” added Trump, who told U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on March 7 that he didn’t need the help of British aircraft carriers.

“We have a thing called NATO,” Trump told the Times. “We’ve been very sweet. We didn’t have to help them with Ukraine. Ukraine is thousands of miles away from us … but we helped them. Now we’ll see if they help us. Because I’ve long said that we’ll be there for them but they won’t be there for us. And I’m not sure that they’d be there.”

When asked what kind of help is needed, the president said, “Whatever it takes.”

It appears that some nations are not in a rush to help.

Japanese Prime Minister Sane Takaichi said her nation, which has begun releasing oil reserves, has yet to make “any decisions whatsoever about dispatching escort ships,” reported the Independent.

Australian Transport Minister Catherine King said her country “won’t be sending a ship to the Strait of Hormuz,” adding that “we know how incredibly important that is, but that’s not something we’ve been asked or we’re contributing to.”

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​Strait of hormuz, Hormuz, Iran, Oil, Gas, War, Conflict, Missiles, Tehran, Donald trump, Israel, Mines, Drones, Bombing, Energy, Tankers, Politics