Category: blaze media

A threat to livestock has re-emerged in South Texas and has prompted a significant response from state officials and food safety authorities in the Trump administration.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture flagged a potential South Texas case of New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite that is considered a real threat to livestock.

‘These eggs hatch into dangerous parasitic larvae, or maggots, which burrow or “screw” into flesh with sharp mouth hooks.’

The USDA confirmed that a sample has been taken to the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, lowa, for “confirmatory testing.”

The agency confirmed that it is monitoring the situation on the ground in coordination with local partners.

RELATED: Exclusive: CBP stops 300+ hatching eggs at the border — possibly preventing bird flu outbreak

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The New World screwworm fly is a “devastating pest” whose larvae feed on the living tissue of warm-blooded animals, according to a USDA fact sheet available on a website page dedicated to screwworm information. A screwworm is roughly the size of a common house fly.

New World screwworm “flies lay eggs in open wounds or orifices of live tissue. These eggs hatch into dangerous parasitic larvae, or maggots, which burrow or ‘screw’ into flesh with sharp mouth hooks. NWS primarily infest livestock, but can also affect any warm-blooded animal, including wildlife, pets, humans, and birds,” according to a Texas Animal Health Commission document.

The screwworm fly thrives in warm, humid environments, making the national spread of screwworm unlikely.

On Wednesday night, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced that the tests at the laboratory in Iowa confirmed the detection of New World screwworm. She added that it was found in a “3 week old bovine in Zavala County, Texas.”

In another post, Rollins assured the public that “our food supply is 100% safe. This potential New World Screwworm detection is being fully contained and is not a harm to the American food supply or consumer safety.”

She added that a return of the parasite was expected last year, according to available predictions: “All models showed NWS coming to the U.S. last summer/early fall — so a big thank you to our partners across the industry and local, state and the entire Trump administration for unprecedented action that gave us almost an extra year to prepare for this moment.”

The extra time bought by those monitoring the situation may prove crucial in an already precarious moment for the beef industry.

According to an analysis of the USDA’s annual report on U.S. cattle inventory released on January 30, 2026, the cattle herd stands at 86.2 million head, its lowest point in 75 years. Beef prices have already been on the rise month over month for the past year with little relief in sight, and any drop in supply could drive them even higher.

Rollins encouraged all farmers to follow movement restrictions and treatment guidance provided by the Texas Animal Health Commission.

The Texas Animal Health Commission published a press release on Wednesday, stating that the agency has been preparing for a resurgence of NWS cases for “over two years” since “northward progression from Central America was observed in 2023.”

The U.S. government has historically had success eradicating the parasite and continuously pushing cases farther southward. The USDA, in fact, “declared the United States free of indigenous screwworms as early as 1966,” despite a severe outbreak with 90,000 cases in Texas alone by 1972.

The best method of stopping the spread of NWS is the mass release of sterile flies into the region in which cases are found. Flies are sterilized by being irradiated with gamma rays before being released into the area.

In April, the USDA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers broke ground on an $8.5 million sterile fly production facility at Moore Air Base in Edinburg, Texas. The initial facility is expected to be operational late 2027 with the production of 100 million sterile flies per week. The project will be scaled further to increase the production to 300 million flies per week in an effort to bolster the United States’ domestic strategy against the screwworm.

Rollins reportedly called the response an “all of Trump administration effort,” according to CNN.

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​Brooke rollins, Usda, Texas, Politics 

Vickrum Digwa, the Sikh who fatally stabbed and maligned white 18-year-old Henry Nowak in the U.K. in December, was convicted of the teen’s murder last week and sentenced on Monday to a minimum of 21 years in prison.

The British public now wants accountability for the police officers who responded to the scene of Nowak’s murder — those who reflexively accepted the Sikh’s false claim that the dying teen was a racist aggressor, arrested and handcuffed Nowak based on those false accusations, and then dismissed his final pleas.

‘They just hate white people.’

Following the release of bodycam footage showing Nowak’s undignified death in the custody of members of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary — one of whom has resigned — hundreds of Britons took to the streets of southern England in protest. Politicians, meanwhile, sounded off about the discriminatory policies and practices that lay the groundwork for the teen’s mistreatment.

Amnesty International decided to chime in on Tuesday with a tone-deaf statement that critics seized upon as further evidence of the organization’s ideological capture and moral bankruptcy.

Rather than condemn the police’s treatment of Nowak, Amnesty International — a London-headquartered NGO that is purportedly committed to challenging “injustice wherever it exists,” confronting “uncomfortable truths,” and pushing for “transformative change, even when it’s unpopular or politically inconvenient” — condemned the reactions from right-leaning politicians.

“At a time when hate crimes are rising, and violence and fear are becoming a daily reality for people of colour and migrants, calls for ‘cold, hard rage’ are completely reckless,” stated Amnesty International.

RELATED: Two-tier Britain finally has its George Floyd moment

Britons take to the streets to protest Henry Nowak’s treatment at the hands of Southampton police. Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images.

The “cold, hard rage” quote derives from a statement from Reform U.K. Party leader Nigel Farage: “The fear of being called racist was greater than dealing with Henry Nowak’s murder. We should respond to this with pure cold rage. Britain’s historic way of life is being thrown away.”

While acknowledging that Nowak’s murder “is an awful tragedy,” Amnesty International said that “irresponsible narratives of two-tier policing seek to sow division and fly in the face of decades of evidence of institutional failure within policing and disparities faced by racialised communities. This includes many cases of deaths in police custody for which meaningful steps towards accountability are long overdue.”

Amnesty International filed this reality–averse statement under “racial justice.”

Charlie Weimers, a Swedish member of the European Parliament, said in response to the NGO’s statement, “Amnesty has been morally bankrupt for a long time. A pure left-wing organization.”

“Amnesty International lost its moral compass many years ago,” wrote former Canadian Defense Minister and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. “Sad that an organization that used to be hugely effective in advocating for prisoners of conscience was coopted to become a boringly predictable voice for the left’s omnicause.”

Amnesty International has in recent years expanded its advocacy to include championing abortion, pushing climate alarmism, and advancing the cause of LGBT cultural imperialism.

Turning Point USA contributor Jack Posobiec emphasized, “It’s not complicated. They just hate white people.”

Amnesty International was hardly alone in its effort this week to gaslight the public about two-tier policing in the United Kingdom.

Nigel Farage demanded in parliament on Wednesday that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer “end this divisive practice of two-tier policing and make sure that all British citizens are treated the same.”

The leftist prime minister, who briefly expressed horror this week over Nowak’s mistreatment by police, responded by saying, “I don’t believe there’s two-tier policing in this country.” He proceeded to accuse Farage of attempting to exploit the tragedy.

While Starmer is evidently keen to pretend the U.K. doesn’t practice two-tier policing, the National Police Chiefs’ Council has announced it is reviewing its anti-racism guidance that, as currently worded, explicitly calls for treating people differently on the basis of race:

Our commitment to racial equity means producing equality of policing outcomes for people from different ethnic groups by responding to individuals and communities according to their specific needs, circumstances, and experiences, with understanding that these will be racialised and with the aim of reducing harm. It does not mean treating everyone “the same” or being “colour blind” (racial equality).

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​Henry nowak, United kingdom, Britain, Policing, Racism, Discrimination, Murder, Sikh, Immigration, Dei, Leftism, Police, Amnesty international, National police chiefs’ council, Keir starmer, Nigel farage, Politics 

President Donald Trump ousted Pam Bondi from the attorney general role on April 2, then announced that “very talented and respected Legal Mind” Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney, would be stepping in to serve as acting attorney general.

In the months since, several names have been floated as possible long-term picks for the position, including EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), and Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas.

The president announced his choice of nominee at a private White House Rose Garden dinner on Wednesday: acting AG Blanche.

In a video shared to social media by deputy White House Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, Trump said, “Tomorrow I’m instructing Dan and everybody else that’s involved in that very complicated process, which is gonna go, I think, very quickly, that we are going to make him permanent attorney general.”

Democrats wasted no time condemning Trump’s choice of candidate and vowing to block Blanche’s confirmation.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told CNN’s Laura Coates on Wednesday evening that Blanche doesn’t have enough votes in the Senate to be confirmed, then characterized the acting AG as inexperienced.

RELATED: ‘We cannot allow Lunatics to change our way of life’: Trump makes big announcement about WHCD

Gage Skidmore/Getty Images

“This is a man that has been involved in investigating the chairman of the Fed, investigating former people that the president has perceived as his enemies. And they’re weaponizing that agency. They’ve even gone after United States senators,” said Booker.

“His only qualification, which seems to be all that President Trump wants from people, is that they are willing to do his bidding and they will act like his own personal attorneys, which he was, and not like somebody upholding the highest law enforcement office in the land,” continued Booker.

So far under the leadership of acting AG Blanche, the Justice Department has made progress on several fronts, securing, for instance, indictments against disgraced former FBI Director James Comey, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and former Cuban President Raul Castro; creating the National Fraud Enforcement Division; and addressing the fallout of the Biden administration’s government weaponization efforts.

After Coates pointed out that Blanche “does have legal experience, obviously” — noting that he has been a prosecutor, has worked in a law firm, and has already been tested as acting AG — Booker insinuated that some of his Republican colleagues are similarly uncertain about Trump’s pick, adding, “This is not a serious person.”

Having ironed out his talking points on CNN, Booker later said more of the same on MS NOW.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) melted down over the announcement, stating, “Corrupt & compromised by feckless Trump fealty, Blanche is a nonstarter as AG.”

“There’s no way we should confirm an AG who will continue as Trump’s personal lawyer, not the people’s,” added Blumenthal.

While Democrats have cast doubt on whether the Senate will confirm Blanche, it confirmed him as deputy attorney general last year in 52-46 vote.

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​Donald trump, Cory booker, Attorney general, Justice department, Todd blanche, Justice, Confirmation, Nomination, Congress, Politics 

We’re but days into the month of June, and already the LGBTQ+ agenda is being shoved down everyone’s throats — and that includes children.

“Even Elmo has fallen victim this year,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says.

She displays the following Pride Month post from “Sesame Street”:

“It’s a kids’ show. … They’re puppets, so I don’t understand why we are talking about sex at all. Are they sexually active puppets?” Sara quips.

“There’s just absolutely no excuse for a children’s show celebrating who adults want to sleep with. There’s no innocent excuse, I should say. There are a lot of excuses that are completely demonic and evil,” she continues.

Sara points out that even parts of the rainbow community — specifically the “LGB” part — are beginning to get tired of the propaganda. She reads a fiery social media post from X user Cynthia Holt, a self-described lesbian and MAGA supporter:

“As a lesbian, I’m f**king LIVID right now at Sesame Street for pushing this Pride Month indoctrination garbage straight at little kids. … There is NO TQIA+. The LGB community does NOT want or allow this groomer pedo agenda shoved down our throats or anywhere near our children,” she wrote.

“We fought for basic rights and acceptance, not this delusional, hyper sexualized takeover that’s confusing kids, erasing actual same-sex attraction and turning childhood into a grooming playground. Sesame Street used to teach letters and numbers. Now you’re teaching toddlers to question their biology and celebrate fetish parades,” Holt continued.

Sara calls Holt’s excoriations “very valid statements.”

“Ten years ago when I was just making videos in my home, I literally said … I’m pretty sure the L’s, the G’s and the B’s are like, ‘We don’t want anything to do with the T’s,’” she laughs, acknowledging how many gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals refuse to deny “biological reality.”

But unfortunately, Pride solidarity extends far beyond “Sesame Street.” Many corporations are participating in Pride Month this year, despite the financially disastrous consequences of companies like Target and Bud Light.

Sara expresses confusion at this ongoing advocacy when we’re living in a time where the LGBTQ+ tides are turning.

“You’re having these trans surgeries for kids that are being banned all across the country. People are waking up to it. It’s not cool anymore,” she declares.

“So it kind of boggles the mind that you still have these companies that are pushing this trans-gay agenda because it always seems to backfire.”

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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

​Sara gonzales unfiltered, Pride month, Sara gonzales, Sesame street 

In the murder trial of Karmelo Anthony — who was 17 when authorities charged him with murdering high school star athlete and fellow 17-year-old Austin Metcalf in a stabbing at a Frisco, Texas, track meet in April 2025 — the prosecution dismissed all prospective black jurors before 12 jurors and six alternates finally were selected Wednesday, KTVT-TV reported.

The prosecution argued that the circumstances surrounding the crime are “race-neutral” and a diverse panel of jurors isn’t needed, the station said, adding that Judge John Roach overruled the objection. Anthony is black; Metcalf was white.

‘This is close enough to home that I’m not confident that I could be completely fair.’

The juror pool began with 589 prospective jurors, the station said, which was narrowed down after prosecutors and defense attorneys vetted them, KTVT said.

When prosecutors asked prospective jurors if media coverage of the case led them to form opinions, several responded that it had; the station said one replied, “I don’t know if it’s going to affect me, but I can’t tell you those thoughts are not inside my head.”

Another prospective juror who identified as an educator in the Frisco Independent School District — where Anthony and Metcalf both attended different high schools — said “this is close enough to home that I’m not confident that I could be completely fair,” KTVT reported.

Prospective jurors also were asked if Anthony’s race and age would influence their judgment, and one potential juror whom prosecutors identified as African-American said he would “have a hard time putting a brother in jail,” the station added.

RELATED: Blaze News original: ‘Austin Metcalf got exactly what he deserved — point blank, period’: Karmelo Anthony defenders go viral

KTVT said Anthony’s attorney, Mike Howard, plans to argue that his client stabbed Metcalf, who was unarmed, in self-defense after an altercation.

The station said prospective jurors also were asked if they would hold it against Anthony if he didn’t testify, and one prospective juror acknowledged that “silence is deafening; it matters. It’s difficult to ignore.”

KTVT said several prospective jurors were annoyed at Howard for asking them, “How do you feel about the country’s immigration policies?”

The station said some of them refused to answer, noting that the subject is irrelevant.

The prosecution and the defense were each allowed to dismiss 10 prospective jurors, KTVT said, adding that the 12 jurors and six alternates were seated just after 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Opening statements are scheduled to commence Thursday morning, the station said.

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​Karmelo anthony, Austin metcalf, Texas, Frisco, Murder trial, Race, Black jurors dismissed, Crime 

Earlier this month I saw our old house in Pacific Palisades again, risen from the ashes in all its beautifully unremarkable splendor. In fact, the entire cul-de-sac had been restored, and when I followed Dulce Ynez to Jacon and then out onto Marquez, I passed all the familiar shops. There was Ronny’s Market, open for business, just as it was that Monday night 15 months ago when I stopped in for beer and toilet paper.

A mile or so down Sunset, Gelson’s supermarket was back too, along with the churches and the schools and the yogurt shops. So were other, more personal landmarks — sites of playdates and family dinners and Halloween parties, homes with addresses as familiar as my own.

We all remember Bass’ first public appearance during the fire: ambushed by a Sky News reporter as soon as she got off the plane from Ghana.

Like a ghost, this eerie figment of memory vanished the moment I went to get a closer look. One click on street view and I was back among the barren empty lots and charred ruins we had all come to accept as the new Pacific Palisades.

Map in the face

Why did Google Maps revert to pre-fire imagery of the Palisades (and Altadena, for that matter) sometime in mid-May?

It’s not unusual for Google to rely on older aerial photos for some maps, but after our town burned to the ground, the company seemed to make a special effort to document its destruction and slow recovery.

Anyone wanting to remember the complete and total devastation of the Palisades can go into Google Earth’s history and see the town flattened like Dresden in the first update, published just three weeks after the fire. Click through and you get a new aerial image roughly once a month until that September — at which point it’s as if somebody looked at the slow pace of rebuilding and decided it wasn’t worth the effort to take pics every month. And so the Palisades circa early fall 2025 remained the default.

Until sometime last month. Suddenly, with a looming mayoral election putting renewed scrutiny on incumbent Karen Bass’ much-criticized handling of the disaster, the most powerful tech company on the planet memory-holed what happened. Nothing to see here, folks.

At least, that’s how the “conspiracy theory” goes.

Wack job

Conspiracy theory: That’s what people like us — educated, affluent, well traveled — call such speculation. The phrase rolls off the tongue with a knowing, detached amusement — betraying just a hint of condescension for the benighted masses too paranoid to accept the unnamed Google spokesperson’s perfectly reasonable explanation:

This is a technical issue triggered by a recent, routine update to satellite imagery in Google Maps and Earth, which accidentally restored old imagery from before the fires. We’re fixing it ASAP.

Now that’s a response the old me could have gotten behind. Of course! A “technical issue.” “Routine update … accidentally restored …” It all checks out. I mean … I think. I use Google. I read the Economist. I know upper-level management at Netflix. My kid goes to the same school as the guy who designed the Cybertruck.

I don’t know exactly how it all works, but I believe the science — and I’m definitely not going to waste anyone’s time (“We’re fixing it ASAP”) with embarrassing, half-understood accusations. That’s what a conspiracy theorist does.

Hopelessly demoted

Why does that label sting? To paraphrase the old saw about capitalism, most of us see ourselves as temporarily embarrassed elites, no less capable or in control than the people we vote for. To express anger and frustration at them implies dependence. I’ve always thought that the most embarrassing thing about being a conspiracy theorist isn’t that it makes you look gullible. It’s that it shows everybody how helpless you feel.

Well, after days spent sweating through cheap paper hazmat suits, awkwardly scrabbling over ash-covered piles of twisted metal and carbonized particleboard in search of any remotely recognizable token of our previous lives, I’m no longer so self-conscious.

Months of misplaced documents, unfiled claims, and phone calls in which I invariably subject well-meaning strangers to me at my meanest, most self-pitying worst have made me realize there’s only so much we can control.

Most crucially, almost a year and a half of gaslighting, buck-passing, and bureaucratic bulls**t have made me so desperate for the straightforward, unvarnished truth that I no longer care about asking for it politely.

In other words, brothers and sisters, pass me the tinfoil hat, because I’m ready to start connecting some dots.

The author’s house before …

… and after. Photos courtesy Matt Himes

Loudmouth at large

Did Karen Bass or someone on her team actually call up someone at Google and ask them to make her re-election bid just that much easier? I don’t know. I don’t care.

Anyone with a modicum of imagination — and nothing fires up the imagination like coming face-to-face with the kind of apocalyptic destruction you’ve previously only seen in Michael Bay movies — can tell you the timing of this curious digital switcheroo doesn’t look good. Would it hurt Google to admit it?

Credit where it’s due: The only reason the company deigned to say anything at all was likely because of Spencer Pratt. He wasn’t the first to bring it to Google’s attention, but he was apparently the first person loud enough to merit an official response.

That’s because from the moment his own house burned down, Pratt started talking and hasn’t stopped. He has built a loyal local following by relentlessly calling out everybody he thinks failed the Palisades: Karen Bass, the LAFD, Gavin Newsom.

There were plenty of times he probably should have kept his mouth shut. Sometimes he seemed whiny or self-pitying. He was given to exaggeration and didn’t always aim his attacks precisely. But he also didn’t care what people thought, and this let him state the most obvious truths and ask the most basic questions that nobody else would touch.

Heel turn

Pratt is a former reality-star villain who thinks he’s “qualified” to run Los Angeles. That’s the joke his detractors never tire of telling. But the joke only works if you start with a specific idea of leadership.

Mayor Karen Bass exemplifies it. She has decades of public-sector experience and an easy familiarity with the levers of power. She understands the intricacies of policy and the necessity of compromise. She’s not very charismatic or compelling, but she knows how to project the kind of calm managerial competence that lets good liberals like us relax and take our eyes off the news.

But suddenly we were the news, and the last thing we wanted was to be “managed.”

We all remember Bass’ first public appearance during the fire: ambushed by a Sky News reporter as soon as she got off the plane from Ghana, she stared straight ahead for two and a half excruciating minutes, saying nothing, as if by standing completely still she could make herself disappear.

Bass found her words in time for the first official press conference, of course. But by then it was clear that the standard-issue pablum about unity and strength and resilience was just another defensive strategy to keep predators at bay.

Maybe that’s why the Google maps thing struck a nerve. It would have been easier to ignore if it didn’t seem like the crudely literal embodiment of Karen Bass’ primary political instinct during these long months of recovery: to put this whole mess behind her as quickly and as painlessly as possible.

RELATED: Dispatch from Pacific Palisades: A harrowing view of California’s competency crisis

Apu Gomes/Getty Images

Prattriots in control

It’s easy not to think about leadership until it fails you. Spencer Pratt as mayor? It never would have occurred to me; I doubt it ever occurred to him. Yet the fact remains that when thousands of people felt abandoned, confused, angry, and unheard, he was willing to make a spectacle of his own rage and pain on their behalf.

Was it self-indulgent? A way of making it all about him? Maybe at first. But at some point, Pratt was no longer just talking about himself. He was speaking for us too, saying things many of us were saying in private, while making it clear that none of the usual tactics — the bad-faith appeals to civility, patience, unity — were going to work on him. As they say in the reality biz, he wasn’t here to make friends.

It’s June 2026 now, and many of the things Spencer Pratt was mocked for saying no longer sound especially controversial. So much so that Jimmy Kimmel can go on his show and say of course Los Angeles’ current leadership is useless; everybody’s always known that; kudos to Pratt for saying so, but anyone who thinks that’s a reason to hand him the city is an idiot.

Sure, Pratt can identify the problem, but he has no idea how to fix it.

Skin in the game

But was identifying the problem really that easy? Kimmel didn’t do it. A few days after the fire, he was back on the air, fighting back tears as he praised the firefighters and condemned “our future president and his gaggle of scumbags” for daring to criticize Newsom and Bass.

I’ve talked to many of my fellow Palisadians about that long, terrible day, and two things hold true for everyone, regardless of the political views. Nobody saw a single fire truck come to help them. And nobody was thinking about Donald Trump.

Spencer Pratt has made a lot of us understand that leadership is not merely a matter of credentials or expertise. For those of us used to treating politics as a lifestyle choice, it took being brought to our knees to admit that we needed something more. It’s so simple a 5-year-old could understand it: Tell the truth about what happened, accept responsibility for what went wrong, and vow to prevent it from happening again.

In this post-Christian age, we like to think of ourselves as rational, self-reliant people who are above such symbolic gestures. Yet many of us occupy positions where we take it for granted that our concerns will be heard and our questions answered. The shock of the fire was compounded by a second shock: the realization that nobody in authority was really listening.

For once, Los Angeles is behind the times; a lot of Americans have known this for years. That could explain the interest the entire country has taken in this local contest. If the hopeful schemers and would-be main characters of our country’s broken-down dream factory can see themselves clearly, anyone can.

​Pacific palisades fire, California, Election, Spencer pratt, Karen bass, Nithya raman, Mayor, Los angeles, Gavin newsom, Donald trump, Lifestyle 

A Muslim, pro-Palestine valedictorian from a North Carolina high school blasted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during her commencement speech last week, which a school official is seen on video cutting short.

During the graduation ceremony for Clayton High School last Thursday, Leen Hijaz delivered the welcome speech, WRAL-TV said, adding in its video report that Hijaz is the valedictorian of the graduating class.

As Hijaz reached the closing remarks of her speech, she began commenting about ICE and Palestine, the station said. The following is the transcript of Hijaz’s final words based on a video recording:

Before I leave the stage, I have one last thing to say. Every single person here has a voice, and we are privileged to have the freedom to use it when so many people around the world are struggling and suffering to be heard. Whether it’s the millions suffering in Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Afghanistan, and so many other countries around the world, or the families being torn apart by ICE, these are not distant issues; they are happening right now as I speak. My point is, we’re not given a voice to stay silent.

Then what appeared to be a school official approached Hijaz at the podium and cut off her speech, after which Hijaz turned and sat down in her seat onstage.

Nevertheless, the crowd gave Hijaz a big round of applause.

Below is the clip of her off-script words:

RELATED: Hillary Clinton, other leftists praise HS valedictorian’s surprise, unapproved speech attacking pro-life ‘heartbeat bill’ in Texas

The moment was captured on video as Clayton High School live streamed the commencement ceremony on the school’s YouTube page, WRAL reported.

What’s more, Hijaz on her TikTok account the day after the graduation ceremony said her diploma was being withheld due to her words in her speech, the station said.

“What I focused on throughout my entire life was my education, and for something so important to me, something that I worked hard for 12 years of my life to get taken from me, I feel oppressed,” Hijaz said, according to WRAL.

Hijaz in her TikTok video also identified herself as a Muslim and added that she was the graduating class’ valedictorian even though she was technically a junior, noting that she graduated early.

Hijaz added that for six months she did “a lot of fighting to get on that stage” before the school “gave in and they said that I could do the welcome speech.”

“The only reason why I wanted to go on that stage is because I wanted to say something,” Hijaz said in her TikTok video. “And I really think that somebody had to say something because nobody else is going to speak up. Nobody.”

Hijaz added in her TikTok video that when the high school principal approached her at the podium, the principal said that “if you don’t stop speaking right now, you’re not graduating.”

What’s more, Hijaz said in her TikTok video that her diploma was going to be “withheld for a week.”

RELATED: ‘Substantial risks’: USC releases outside commencement speakers just days after axing Muslim student’s valedictorian speech

The News & Observer said the school’s principal didn’t respond to an email requesting comment on the incident.

In a statement provided to WRAL, Johnston County Public Schools said students were required to submit their remarks well in advance of graduation and that a student deviated from what administrators preapproved.

“School administrators intervened in order to maintain the integrity and focus of the program in real time,” the district said, according to the station. “This action was not about limiting a student’s voice but about ensuring that a school-sponsored event remained consistent with its intended purpose.”

In her TikTok video, Hijaz said she didn’t submit the end of her speech as part of her official speech because she said the school would’ve denied it “immediately because of how racist they are.”

“I was extremely scared to say something and really wasn’t planning on doing it, but I had so much support from my friends and family around me, and they really encouraged me to say something,” Hijaz said in her TikTok video, adding that “I didn’t get the chance to say everything I wanted to say, but I said enough that the word went out.”

Hijaz added in her TikTok clip that her principal was yelling her name and making her feel “uncomfortable” — and that later the principal said that she was “so disappointed” in Hijaz and that the valedictorian “made this all about” herself and “abused” the “privilege to speak.”

The school district told WRAL that while it respects students’ right to express their views and encourages important conversations concerning their views, they also have “a responsibility to ensure that official school events remain inclusive, respectful, and focused on celebrating all graduates.”

“We remain committed to supporting student expression while upholding the structure and expectations of school-sponsored activities,” the district said, according to WRAL.

WRAL added that the school district has given Hijaz’s diploma to her.

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​Education, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Commencement speech, Leftists, Palestine, North carolina, High school, Valedictorian, Muslim, Politics 

Computers and their graphics processing units are becoming hot commodities, and prices seem poised to get worse, not better.

Demand for processors is set to affect everything from gaming to run-of-the-mill memory sticks, resulting in a pincer attack on consumer wallets.

‘AI demand is driving up the price.’

Blaze Media’s Auron MacIntyre noted a recent price spike in handheld gaming device Steam Deck; a product that has been on the market for about four years increased in price by $300 in May.

“Over the entire history of video games, systems went down in price as they get older,” MacIntyre wrote on X. “You might say ‘who cares it’s a child’s toy’ and fair enough but it’s a signal of a wider trend[.] The price is skyrocketing because AI demand is driving up the price on all physical computing hardware from video processors to RAM.”

The culprits in the processor gold rush are tech and AI companies buying up GPUs — which are typically used in phones, laptops, and gaming consoles — to power their data centers.

Just a few years ago, a few thousand GPUs in a single facility was considered cutting edge. Now, upwards of 100,000 GPUs are “interconnected through high-speed networking systems designed to operate as a single computational unit” inside one building, according to DataCenters.com.

RELATED: Sick of Microsoft’s preinstalled propaganda on your PC? Block it now.

While the mind may imagine an all-powerful energy source or an unseen technology at the core of these sprawling data centers, photos inside the facilities show they are quite literally thousands of computers plugged into each other, powering the demands of search engines and AI agents.

The writing has been on the wall since at least 2024; Microsoft bought 485,000 Nvidia Hopper GPUs that year. Meta bought an estimated 224,000, ByteDance bought around 230,000, and xAI purchased 200,000 (per Data Center Dynamics).

Last November, Tech Powerup noted official “warnings” from manufacturers that price hikes would be unfolding as memory costs rose over 170% year-over-year.

This prediction turned out to be accurate as GPU pricing has risen between 5% to 20% or more, according to Fusion Worldwide. The outlet notes shortages in high bandwidth memory, graphics double data rate, and dynamic random-access memory.

This has led to product lead times of an additional three to seven months.

RELATED: Out of control: Here’s how a company spent $500 million on AI in a single month

Jim WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

Consumers may be well served to hoard some GPUs for themselves too. The demand is not only making prices increase, but depreciation is slower as well.

Business Insider recently cited a company selling refurbished GPUs that said in the second year of a processor’s life, it only loses 15 cents on the dollar. In its third year, the same GPU is only losing one additional cent and can be sold for 84 cents on the dollar.

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​Computers, Return, Video games, Data centers, Ai, Gpus, Tech 

“Mind the gap.”

British trains broadcast this recorded warning to passengers about to board, reminding them to avoid stumbling into the space between the station platform and the train.

The Bible explains how this one act of sacrificial love built a beautiful bridge over that infinitely large gap between you and your Creator.

But there’s a much bigger gap — a bottomless chasm of a gap — that we also desperately need to mind.

It’s the gap between us and the wholly holy God who made us.

I know. You don’t believe in a “sky daddy.” Or you do, but you prefer to avoid thinking about the ramifications of being a creation and not the Creator.

Either way, you know that you’re broken. Perhaps you rationalize your unhappiness by telling yourself the fiction that we are all just random bits of tissue, evolved from primordial ooze.

But telling yourself there is no meaning to life does not mean there is no meaning to life. You’ve just not grasped it yet.

And you can’t. Not on your own.

But again, that doesn’t mean the answers are not there. You’re just reluctant to look in the right place.

The answer you don’t want to hear

Yep, it’s the Bible. The beautiful story of who created you, and what He created you for.

Of course, you could start by just looking around — at the magnificent beauty in the world, at the unfathomable greatness of the cosmos, of the meticulously designed intricacies of the human body, of the irreducible complexity of the tiniest organism — and ask yourself honestly, is this really all random?

The people who insist that is the case are the most effective gaslighters in history. Because you’re being gaslit when someone tells you to ignore what you can plainly see with your own eyes.

And when you open your eyes to that, you have to wrestle with the existence of a Creator. And that’s when you should consider opening that Bible.

It explains how a loving, wholly holy God created people, not robots. They were and are free to choose. The first people chose wrong. Like we all would have, had we been the first. God was not surprised by this. After all, He’s God. He had a plan all along.

Why did He choose to do it this way? I don’t know. I’m not God. Neither are you.

But as He is holy and perfect and we are not, doing wrong put a permanent, uncrossable, gaping chasm between Him, the holy, and us, the unholy. We don’t have a way to reach Him.

And yet — He created us to be in relationship with Him. That’s a longing we all have, to be in relationship with our Creator, but we stifle it or tell ourselves it’s nonsense until we can’t even hear the little voice that tried to point us in the right direction.

The good news …

And now we come to the good news, or gospel (which literally means “good news” in Greek). This part is in the Bible too, as it was, as I said, God’s plan all along.

Jesus, who is God, came to Earth. He allowed Himself to be crucified. And He rose again, as was witnessed by hundreds of people. He is alive now. He is still God.

The Bible explains how this one act of sacrificial love built a beautiful bridge over that infinitely large gap between you and your Creator. Your broken relationship with God has been permanently repaired.

So all that’s required to mind the gap is to access that beautiful bridge.

And that’s really quite simple. The Bible shows us the path, countless times.

In Acts 16, we’re told that the authorities had jailed the apostle Paul and his companion Silas for preaching that gospel, and God miraculously caused an earthquake to break open the jail doors and unshackle the prisoners. The jailer awoke, saw the open prison doors, and drew a sword to kill himself, believing his two prisoners had escaped. But Paul yelled to him that they were still there. The jailer rushed in: “And trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved’” (Act 16:29-31).

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. That’s it. Faith in Jesus as Lord means you are saved from eternal separation from the Creator (hell) and rightly aligns you as who you were created to be.

Simple, but rich with meaning. Note the language. We are to believe in the Lord Jesus.

… and how to take it

Consider also (boldface mine):

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

Many beliefs move a person closer to God. Acknowledging that there IS a God is a start. So is acknowledging that Jesus lived, died, and even rose again. But you can intellectually come to believe the second part of that passage (believe God raised Him from the dead) without confessing Jesus as Lord — because if someone is your Lord, by definition you submit to Him.

Make no mistake, God is already in authority over you. But He doesn’t force anyone to submit to Him. As James points out, even the demons know that Jesus is God, but they don’t willingly submit to Him (James 2:19). You have been granted the same freedom to reject Him as Lord and be your own god.

Millions choose that path. But the fact is, there is only one bridge to God — that bridge forged by Christ’s loving sacrifice on the cross.

RELATED: 7 ways to know if you’re saved

HUM Images/Getty Images

Only one way

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me’” (John 14:6).

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

Don’t be misled. Any path that doesn’t involve walking over this bridge will not mind the gap. It is instead a path that will leave you without God for eternity.

It’s so easy to take a wrong turn. That’s why the gospel is such good news, that fulfills every need you have with a plethora of blessings.

What prizes await

When you accept the free gift offered through faith in the Lord Jesus, His grace transforms you.

And that moment of transformation is YOUR life’s pivot point. Kind of like the best Christmas morning you could ever have, because all at once you get to unwrap all these gifts:

The gift of faith, as we are granted the ability to believe the truth.The gift of repentance, as we begin the pivot away from our old life (aka, begin to sin less).The gift of justification, which means our accounts are settled with God. The price has been paid for every sin we have ever committed or will commit. Paid in full. Done. (Spoiler: Christians will still sin. See “sanctification” below.)The gift of salvation, as we are welcomed into His eternal family and rescued from the domain of darkness. We are now His children.The gift of relationship, as we are granted personal, unquestioned access to the God of the universe (in the Old Testament, only the high priest could access the “Holy of Holies” aka God; now we all can, as we are welcome to pray at any time).The gift of the Holy Spirit within you. God comes to live in you.The gift of sanctification, which means we will grow more and more like Him as we learn more and more of Him through His word. And the more we are like Him, the more we will burn with a desire to do for Him whatever He has gifted and called us to do. We are invited to come alongside Him and build His kingdom, which is the greatest adventure any of us could undertake.

So now you know how to access the bridge that will mind the gap, once and for all.

Whether you take that path is the most important decision of your life. God will not force you into His presence. But in His love, He has provided a simple choice you can make to live with your Creator now and for eternity.

If you choose wrong … mind the gap, my friend.

​Abide, Lifestyle, Christianity, Mind the gap, God, Jesus, Christian living, Faith 

Randall McCain bragged in a rap song that the feds were watching him but were unable to catch him. It appears the feds took that personally.

McCain was arrested for allegedly running an international drug ring, and prosecutors say that his rap lyrics helped them build the criminal case against him and dozens of others.

‘I’m on the road right now … 200 bows in a n***a’s state … 3,500 for a pound this that better weed.’

The criminal organization allegedly peddled narcotics and black-market marijuana and spanned all the way to Spain and the United Kingdom.

The ring was based out of a metro office park in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, but extended to California, Texas, Illnois, Arkansas, and Florida.

The suspects posted rap videos with lyrics that “celebrated and advertised” the drug trafficking operation, according to prosecutors. Some of the claims in the songs were corroborated by activities documented by police.

One of the rap lyrics cited was, “The feds tryna watch me but they couldn’t I was swapping whips,” which means the rapper was swapping cars in order to avoid detection by law enforcement.

Another set of lyrics cited was the following: “I’m on the road right now … 200 bows in a n***a’s state … 3,500 for a pound this that better weed.” The slang apparently translates to $3,500 for 200 pounds of marijuana.

Yet another refers to criminal activity from the home at the rapper’s grandmother.

They also used popular social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram to run the business, as well as encrypted platforms like Signal.

RELATED: Man who rapped about his gun having an automatic switch is arrested for possessing a machine gun, faces 10 years in prison

Eighteen suspects have been arrested, and officials say as many as 40 in total may be implicated in the drug ring.

Most of the suspects arrested already are facing charges of conspiracy to commit a felony.

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​Drug trafficking, Oklahoma city, Rap lyrics, Social media, Crime 

Most people think of grants as free money handed out at random or as something reserved for large nonprofits with powerful connections. In reality, however, grants are one of the most structured and intentional forms of funding in the American economy. They are designed to connect capital with specific outcomes, and both sides benefit when that connection is made.

Essentially, a grant is a non-repayable investment. A donor, whether an individual, foundation, or corporation, allocates capital toward a defined purpose. A recipient, whether a nonprofit, business, or project leader, applies for that funding with a plan to execute that purpose.

Unlike a loan, there is no repayment, and unlike a general donation, there are expectations.

That structure is what makes grants so effective.

Understanding how that system works is the difference between missing out and getting ahead.

For recipients, the benefit begins with access to capital without added risk. Organizations can fund new programs, hire staff, or invest in infrastructure without having to take on debt or divert limited funds. That security opens the door to growth.

Grants are often used as seed funding, supporting early-stage ideas that would otherwise struggle to attract financing. They allow organizations to think beyond short-term constraints and plan for the long term.

Just as importantly, grants create credibility. When an organization is awarded funding through a competitive or structured process, it signals validation. That recognition can attract additional donors, partners, and opportunities, creating momentum that extends far beyond the initial award.

But grants are not just one-sided. For donors, instead of broadly contributing to a cause, grantmakers can define exactly what they want to support. Grantmakers can also establish criteria, require reporting, and track outcomes over time. That creates accountability and ensures that funding is tied to results, not just good intentions.

Matching grants, for example, are designed to unlock additional funding by requiring others to contribute. This approach not only increases total dollars raised, but it also expands participation and engagement. According to data from the Bolger Foundation, these types of campaigns consistently drive higher donor involvement and overall contributions.

There are also practical advantages on the donor side. Contributions can offer tax benefits, and tools like donor-advised funds allow individuals and families to strategically manage their giving over time.

However, the grant system only works when the right capital meets the right opportunity. Too often, organizations struggle to identify funding sources that match their mission. At the same time, donors can find it difficult to connect with projects that align with their goals.

RELATED: No more free ride for federal grant hogs

Porcorex/Getty Images

That disconnect slows everything down.

That’s why more and more firms like mine have grown increasingly focused on grant matching as a way to close that gap.

By helping connect recipients with funding opportunities that align with their work and aligning donors with clearly defined outcomes, the process becomes more efficient for both sides. The alignment happens, and the results are tangible: Projects move forward faster, funding is deployed more strategically, and donors and recipients alike have greater confidence.

Grants are part of a system designed to direct resources where they can have the greatest impact. Understanding how that system works is the difference between missing out and getting ahead.

For organizations looking to grow, grants offer a path to funding without added burden. For donors looking to make a difference, they offer a way to turn intention into measurable results.

The opportunity is already there. The question is whether more people are ready to use it.

​Grants, Us economy, Small businesses, Grantmakers, Donors, Entrepreneurs, Corporations, Opinion & analysis 

Morris Katz is not only a political strategist credited with helping engineer Zohran Mamdani’s rise in New York politics and who is now reportedly involved with Graham Platner’s campaign, but also a children’s book author.

At only 27 years old, BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler isn’t surprised that Katz is the “kingmaker” of “communist candidates like Zohran Mamdani and Graham Platner.”

But what is surprising about Katz is a children’s book he authored titled “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Puberty ― and Shouldn’t Be Googling: For Curious Boys.”

“This book is targeted, by the way, at young boys aged 10 and up. Think of a 10-year-old child, a 10-year-old boy. This is who this book is targeted to,” Wheeler says, before homing in on page 17 of the book.

Katz used fruit and animals to symbolize different stages of puberty but added a note on page 17 that reads: “At first, we were going to use images of my penis to get this point across but the publisher said it was inappropriate so here we are, with some fruit and animal metaphors.”

“This is not normal. This is disgusting, disturbing degeneracy, and it gets even worse than that,” Wheeler says, before pointing out a chapter in Katz’s book titled “Sexual Feelings.”

“It can feel embarrassing if your crush is a friend or someone a lot older than you,” Katz wrote.

“You could find yourself with a crush on someone who’s not really thinking sexual thoughts yet,” he continued, calling it “perfectly normal.”

“What on earth is he writing? Normalizing to children not only sexual relationships between young people and significantly older people — which, if you’re writing this to a 10-year-old, would be a predator relationship, a relationship with a sexual predator, a crime,” Wheeler comments.

“He’s also normalizing being attracted to, quote, ‘someone who’s not really thinking sexual thoughts yet.’ What is that?” she asks.

“That would be a child. A crush on a child, a sexual crush on a child, is not normal. And yet, according to Morris Katz in his book, he says, ‘All perfectly normal,’” she adds.

Katz even wrote a chapter on “sexuality,” where he made sure children know that they can like “girls, boys, both, or neither.”

“That is called grooming. Grooming children into certain sexual identities by introducing the concept to them. Grooming children to be gay by telling them that it is a perfectly normal feeling to have deviant sexual feelings,” Wheeler says.

Katz goes on to encourage transitioning, writing, “The sexual organs you are assigned at birth determine your gender at birth. If you are born with a penis, you are considered a boy, and if you’re born with a vagina, you’re considered a girl.”

“But not everybody feels at home in their body or identifies with the gender they are assigned at birth. Some people don’t identify as a boy or a girl,” he added, urging children to talk to a parent, doctor, or therapist if they’re feeling confused.

“Ten-year-old boys. And Politico reports he sold hundreds of thousands of copies,” Wheeler comments. “I hope that’s not true because it means that children all across our country would be subject to this content.”

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​Puberty, The liz wheeler show, Liz wheeler, Morris katz, Graham platner, Zohran mamdani 

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida accused a top Code Pink organizer of berating her before smacking her, and the entire exchange is on video.

Luna was walking from Congress after questioning Secretary of State Marco Rubio when Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin peppered her with questions.

‘These are not “allegations.” It happened. My staff was there when it happened and wrote statements.’

TMZ obtained the video from the anti-war organization and published it online.

“Marco Rubio has been sanctioning the Cuban people, which is hurting them by the billions!” Benjamin said to Luna.

“You just touched me! You’re going to walk away right now, or else I’m going to call Capitol Police!” Luna said to Benjamin.

“OK, I will walk away. Bye-bye!” she responded.

Luna posted on social media that she would be filing charges against Benjamin.

“After I questioned Secretary Rubio on Code Pink and their ties to the CCP, their organization followed me out, berated me, and then their head person here in DC smacked me. I will be filing charges,” she posted.

“Btw these are not ‘allegations.’ It happened. My staff was there when it happened and wrote statements for LEO,” she added.

Benjamin posted about the incident and accused Luna of lying.

“Today, a congresswoman lied to have me detained by Capitol Police. Why? To try to silence our work against U.S. wars in the Middle East and sanctions on Cuba,” she wrote on social media.

RELATED: Former candidate who threatened to hire ‘Russian-Ukrainian hit squad’ to kill Anna Paulina Luna has been sentenced to prison

Benjamin admitted that she “tapped” Luna with her hand but claimed Luna accused her of assault.

“Instead of defending these wildly unpopular policies, members of Congress target the activists working to stop them,” she added. “Thankfully, I was released without charges. No amount of intimidation will change that the majority of people in the U.S. want to stop U.S. wars and aggression. We won’t be silenced.”

The Code Pink organization did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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​Code pink, Medea benjamin, Rep. anna paulina luna, Politics 

The U.S. House of Representatives successfully passed a rebuke against the president’s U.S.-Israeli joint strikes on Iran on Wednesday.

Democrats in the House narrowly passed the resolution by a vote of 215 to 208, with four Republicans joining their political opponents.

‘I told Iran, “It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal. You’ve been doing this for 47 years, and it cannot be allowed to go on any longer!”’

A White House official expressed to ABC News the view that the resolution is unconstitutional.

“President Trump will continue to protect our national security using his constitutional authority as commander in chief while being transparent with Congress,” the official said.

The official added that the resolution is unlikely to pass in the Senate, but even if it were to pass, it would have “no force or effect.”

The four Republicans who voted with Democrats were Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Tom Barrett of Michigan, and Warren Davidson of Ohio.

The Senate is working on a separate version that would force the president to end the war, but even if the Senate passed it and got approval from the House, Trump could easily veto it.

The president has been trying to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Iran, but the regime’s nuclear program and control of the Strait of Hormuz have been sticking points between the two nations.

Also on Wednesday, Iran’s foreign ministry defended the regime’s attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait by accusing the Middle Eastern countries of allowing the U.S. to launch attacks from bases within their borders.

“Any hostile act will be met with an immediate, decisive response. What sanctions and war failed to achieve won’t be won with more war,” Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi said.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana told reporters the wartime resolution was “dangerous” and “untimely.”

Trump berated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Axios, for threatening the peace negotiations by attacking Lebanon.

“You’re f**king crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this,” the president said, according to a summary by one of the officials.

RELATED: The Iran war is causing another shortage — and it will directly affect every American

On Tuesday, the president posted an update on negotiations on Truth Social that denied some media reports claiming talks between the nations had ended.

“The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today,” Trump posted.

“Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, ‘It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal. You’ve been doing this for 47 years, and it cannot be allowed to go on any longer!'” he added.

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​Us house of representatives, Us-israel strikes on iran, Constitutional authority, Iran war, Politics 

As fears over the impending AI takeover continue to mount, some politicians are proposing solutions. Earlier this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) published an opinion piece in the New York Times in which he announced a bill called the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act.

In short, Sanders argued that big AI companies got rich by using everyone’s data, writings, and ideas without permission or compensation. His bill proposes that the government take 50% ownership of the biggest AI companies — including voting shares and board seats — and place them into a public sovereign wealth fund that would supposedly benefit all Americans.

Glenn Beck believes this might be Sanders’ worst idea to date.

“For the love of little baby Jesus, hear me!” he pleads. “Do not allow our government to get deeper in bed with these AI companies.”

While Glenn agrees with Sanders that AI developers “have taken and built this entire system on your back,” government involvement will only further corrupt an already depraved system.

He explains that for years, AI developers have been using Google data to “map” human brains to learn how to effectively “manipulate” us. In other words, they’re learning how to bring about “the death of free will.”

Couple this astonishing power with the government’s “evil schemes,” and you’ve got a dystopia that would shock even Orwell.

To illustrate the danger of public-private partnerships, Glenn recounts how during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government made secret agreements with companies like Pfizer to receive royalty payments for every vaccine sold.

“Now you want to give Bernie Sanders 50% of these AI companies, which would give [the government] a seat at the table? … Not on your life,” declares Glenn.

“That is unimaginable power that you’d be giving to the United States government.”

Executive producer for “The Glenn Beck Program” Ricky Ratliff-Fellman notes the hypocrisy of Sanders’ sudden desire to work with AI developers. “It’s interesting that Bernie Sanders, who has historically been very skeptical … of Big Tech, is suddenly finding a way to get into bed with them,” she remarks.

Glenn believes the unprecedented power such a union would create is just too tempting even for Big Tech skeptics.

“Can you imagine how far in the rear-view mirror we would be if we had politicians on the board of directors of these tech companies, where [they] had a 50% vote and voice?” he asks.

“We will be the Soviet Union making the ZiL, the worst car ever made, overnight.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Bernie sanders, Ai, Artificial intelligence 

A far-left radical who made millions as a Silicon Valley software engineer and then worked on Wall Street before going into politics just ran into a political brick wall.

Saikat Chakrabarti worked on the Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) presidential campaign in 2016 before founding Justice Democrats to push the party to the far left. His signature victory was helping Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) oust a party boss in New York in 2018.

‘We’re thinking about kind of, like, how much of myself I’m pouring into this and how much of myself we want to make sure that we’re, you know, pouring into the task at hand.’

Now he’s known for spending the most money in the primary race for California’s 11th district — and failing to even compete.

Despite outspending his main competitor $9.2 million to $3.9 million, Chakrabarti was able to garner only about 15% of the vote and was boxed out of the general election.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat, got the most votes at 41.3%, while San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan (D) progressed to the next election stage with 28.6% of the vote.

Chan was able to soundly defeat Chakrabarti despite spending only $650,000, or about 7% of the massive spending by Chakrabarti. As of Wednesday afternoon, the final tally for the primary has not been reported, but the election has been called for Chan and Weiner by NBC News and others.

Chakrabarti worked as the chief of staff to Ocasio-Cortez for a time before branching out on his own. In that time, he was accused of illegally funneling money to her campaign through payments to her boyfriend.

Ocasio-Cortez denied the allegations but did not answer directly if the description of the transfer of money was accurate.

She also shrunk back from endorsing Chakrabarti in the campaign to replace 86-year-old Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is retiring from the seat after winning it 20 times.

“I think for me overall it’s more about I’m trying to think about the role that I am trying to play more broadly in these things,” she said in April when asked about a possible endorsement for her former chief of staff.

RELATED: Ocasio-Cortez tosses her former chief of staff under the bus over Pelosi feud

“We’ve got 435 seats in Congress, right? And there is this kind of moment where it’s like when — and not just with this race, with any race — once you go in, then it’s like, what about this? What about this, what about this one? And I’m one person with, you know, a pretty amazing crack but also lean team,” she added helpfully.

“And so we’re thinking about kind of, like, how much of myself I’m pouring into this and how much of myself we want to make sure that we’re, you know, pouring into the task at hand,” she continued.

She went on for almost another minute.

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​Alexandria ocasio-cortez, Justice democrats, Nancy pelosi, Saikat chakrabarti, Politics 

Despite plenty of video footage showing former President Joe Biden stumbling through basic sentences and forgetting where those sentences were going, Jill Biden is once again dismissing concerns about his cognitive fitness.

In a recent interview on CBS with Rita Braver, Jill claimed more than once that Biden was “fine” when asked about his frequent gaffes.

“But what if that had happened during a meeting with foreign leaders or something like that?” Braver asked the first lady.

“I don’t know how to answer that,” Jill responded.

“Yeah, because you can’t answer that,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray chimes in on “Pat Gray Unleashed.” “He should not have been president is the only answer to that.”

“Next time you steal the presidency, make sure it’s someone with a pulse,” executive producer Keith Malinak adds.

Braver also pointed out that while “President Biden had said that he would never pardon his son,” he then pardoned him.

“Did you urge the president to think again about that?” the reporter asked.

“Well, you know, Joe said in the beginning, ‘I won’t pardon Hunter. I won’t pardon Hunter.’ And then the Justice Department changed, and I think that the process was not fair to Hunter,” Jill answered.

Jill was also asked about Biden’s mental decline, with the reporter asking, “Did you ever see signs that he was falling into cognitive decline?”

“No, no,” she answered.

Malinak isn’t amused by Jill’s claim, commenting, “You’re a liar.”

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​Pat gray unleashed, Pat gray, Keith malinak, Jill biden, Joe biden, Cognitive fitness, Cbs, Rita braver, Interview, Hunter biden 

A former Army combat surgeon and 9/11 first responder with a history of befriending convicted Islamist terrorists emerged victorious in Tuesday night’s Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District.

Adam Hamawy — having received endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) — beat out 12 other Democratic contenders in the contest to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman.

Hamawy led the race in fundraising by a significant margin, with the pro-Palestinian super PAC American Priorities spending an additional $2 million on his behalf.

‘[Hamawy’s] testimony … did more to bolster the prosecution’s proof of a jihadist terrorism conspiracy against the United States than to help the accused.’

Notably, Hamawy, 56, is drawing intense backlash for his past connection with Egyptian terrorist Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman — known as the “Blind Sheikh” — and for his defense testimony in the 1995 trial that ultimately saw Abdel-Rahman put away for life.

Hamawy, then a 26-year-old medical school student, was put on the stand by Abdel-Rahman’s lawyers to deny that the Blind Sheikh had solicited various people to carry out the assassination of then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

According to court documents, during a 13-hour car ride from New Jersey to Detroit in 1991, Abdel-Rahman encouraged FBI informant Emad Salem to turn his “rifle’s barrel to President Mubarak’s chest, and kill him.” However, Hamawy testified that he sat behind the two during the ride and never heard any such statement, adding that he did not hear Mubarak’s name come up at all.

“Did you ever hear Sheik Omar say to Emad Salem to turn his gun on Mubarak?” Lynne Stewart, Abdel Rahman’s lawyer, asked Hamawy.

“No,” Hamawy replied.

Hamawy went on to tell prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he heard the word “jihad” more than once that weekend as they attended the “Towards a Global Islamic Economy” conference, which featured numerous other Islamist terrorist speakers, including Osama bin Laden associate Hassan al-Turabi.

When Fitzgerald asked if Hamawy had heard “about how Muslims had to do jihad against the enemies of Islam,” Hamawy replied, “That’s what [Abdel-Rahman] always talked about. He talked about jihad, you know?” Hamawy confirmed that Abdel-Rahman considered the United States and Israel enemies of Islam.

At the time, Abdel-Rahman also preached at the Al-Salam Mosque in Jersey City, where the 1993 World Trade Center bombing conspirators met.

Abdel-Rahman was ultimately convicted of seditious conspiracy, solicitation to murder Mubarak, conspiracy to murder Mubarak, solicitation to attack a U.S. military installation, and conspiracy to conduct bombings. The bombing targets consisted of the U.N. General Assembly building, the New York FBI building, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Holland Tunnel, and the George Washington Bridge, according to evidence presented at trial.

Andrew McCarthy, the chief prosecutor of the case, said: “As was uniformly the case with witnesses presented in the extensive defense case, [Hamawy’s] testimony, once cross-examination was over, did more to bolster the prosecution’s proof of a jihadist terrorism conspiracy against the United States than to help the accused.”

Hamawy’s campaign told Fox News Digital that a past affiliation with Abdel-Rahman amounts to “guilt-by-association” shaming.

Hamawy is also attracting criticism for working in a Gaza hospital that served as a command center for Hamas.

In May 2024, he did a three-week tour of duty at Gaza’s European Hospital. When Hamawy returned, he told Rowan University’s student newspaper, the Whit, in October: “I didn’t see any guns in the hospital. There was no one that I could identify as a combatant. There were definitely no tunnels underground and no command base there.”

One year later, in May 2025, Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attacks, was killed by the Israel Defense Forces in a tunnel directly under the emergency department of the hospital while meeting with other senior Hamas terrorists, many of whom also died.

RELATED: Squad-endorsed candidate once reportedly volunteered with group tied to al-Qaeda and testified for terrorist ‘blind cleric’

Amir Levy/Getty Images

The Times of Israel reported that Hamas also held hostages in the tunnel at some point.

Hamawy’s connections to Hamas-related controversies do not end there. He received the endorsement of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, whose executive director, Nihad Awad, said he “was happy to see” Palestinians “breaking the siege” on October 7.

In April, Hamawy appeared on the far-left streamer Hasan Piker’s podcast, where he discussed his desires to “abolish ICE” and “dismantle the DHS,” while also attacking what he referred to as “the department of war crimes.”

Jewish Insider recently published a detailed description of Hamawy’s history of volunteering in Bosnia during the summer of 1994 with a nonprofit called the Benevolence International Foundation that aided Muslims in the region.

Hamawy had worked in the cities of Sarajevo and Zenica, the two cities in which Benevolence maintained its offices. In 2002, Bosnian and U.S. authorities raided those offices and allegedly found documents, correspondence, and materials linking Benevolence to al-Qaeda operations and financing.

Hamawy himself has not been charged with terrorism or accused by authorities of participating in terrorist activity.

In the November general election, Hamawy will face off against Republican Gregg Mele in what is considered a solidly Democratic district.

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​Adam hamawy, Congressional district, Democratic primary, Gaza hospital, Hosni mubarak, New jersey, Politics 

Move over, Charlize Theron!

Jennifer Lopez is the latest star to flaunt the decade’s must-have celebrity accessory: a “trans” kid.

‘[The kids should] go where they want to go and do what they want to do.’

Twins

Emme Muniz — one of a pair of twins Lopez shares with ex-husband Marc Anthony — recently graduated from Los Angeles’ Windward School under the new, more gender-identity-appropriate moniker Oskar, according to Page Six.

The last name Muniz comes from Anthony’s real name, Marco Antonio Muñiz; the singer and Lopez were married from 2004 to 2014.

The nepo baby formerly known as Emme is no stranger to the limelight; when she was just 11, her mom brought her onstage to perform with her at the Super Bowl LIV halftime show. Since then, the superstar scion has made the scene at a number of screenings and red carpets.

RELATED: Want to be a man of action? Start a family

Bruce Glikas/WireImage

Status symbols

In a since-deleted post from Windward’s Instagram account, the school congratulated one “Oskar Muniz” for gaining admittance to Sarah Lawrence College, a private liberal arts college in New York.

The post was “liked” by actress Jennifer Garner, who was once married to actor Ben Affleck; he was married to Lopez for three years.

The post tagged an account belonging to Oskar, which also notes the same college, along with “he” as a preferred pronoun, as well as symbols for gay (“⚣”) and trans (“⚧︎”).

RELATED: Let them ‘rot’: Former Marine’s solution to fixing California is about as anti-establishment as it gets

VIRGINIE LEFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

All in the family

Dad Anthony apparently failed to attend his daughter’s graduation, but other members of the extended family were there to pick up the slack. Among them: 14-year-old Samuel Affleck, Anthony’s ex-wife’s former stepson.

While Samuel continues to identify with his biological sex, his older sister Seraphina recently came out as trans.

Anthony was born in New York City to Puerto Rican parents and has multiplatinum albums in both English and Spanish. He is 57 years old and has seven children in total.

Lopez, 56, had previously said she wants her kids to “be happy and go where they want to go and do what they want to do.”

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​Align, Generation z, Jennifer lopez, Super bowl, Ben affleck, Marc anthony, Transgenderism, Lifestyle 

Bodycam footage from the United Kingdom has turned Henry Nowak’s death from a local outrage into a national indictment. The footage appears to show officers handcuffing an 18-year-old stabbing victim, dismissing his pleas for help, and treating him as the suspect while he bled to death.

Nowak, an 18-year-old from Essex, reportedly told officers, “I can’t breathe,” and “I’ve been stabbed.” Officers mocked him, denied that he had been injured, and debated whether they had any obligation to check. The case has drawn comparisons to George Floyd in the United States. The comparison is imperfect, but the contrast is obvious: In Nowak’s case, the police had every reason to believe the man on the ground needed urgent medical care.

The purpose of a system is what it does. British police no longer appear organized to protect the people of Britain, but rather to eliminate them.

In December, Nowak was walking home from a pub while recording himself on social media. He encountered Vickrum Digwa, a 22-year-old Sikh immigrant, who claimed Nowak intentionally bumped into him. The recording stopped during the initial encounter, so the exact sequence remains unclear. When it resumed, Nowak called Digwa a “bad man” before Digwa grabbed his phone and the recording ended.

Digwa then allegedly stabbed Nowak multiple times in the jaw, legs, and heart with a ceremonial dagger. Britain imposes strict anti-knife laws on its native population, yet Sikhs receive exemptions to carry kirpans. That fact turned Nowak’s death into a symbol of Britain’s two-tier society.

Digwa did not immediately summon help. He recorded himself mocking Nowak as the wounded teenager tried to escape over a fence. Nowak told his attacker more than once that he was dying. Digwa’s brother eventually called police with a story that Nowak was a violent racist who had insulted and assaulted the Sikh man before injuring himself while climbing a fence.

The police appear to have accepted that story instantly. They treated the bleeding English teenager as the threat and the immigrant suspect as the victim. They handcuffed Nowak, and he reportedly choked to death on his own blood in police custody.

Even before the bodycam footage emerged, Nowak’s death had become a flashpoint in a deeply divided Britain. Despite the clear wishes of voters, British politicians have allowed mass migration to transform the country. Immigrants have strained the welfare state, crowded the job market, driven housing pressure, and changed the country’s culture. But nowhere has the transformation become more obvious than policing.

The Pakistani grooming-gang scandals revealed the pattern. English girls were raped across the country while police, terrified of being called racist, ignored or minimized the crimes. In some cases, victims were treated as the problem. In others, fathers who tried to protect their daughters faced the law instead. The message was clear: The state feared accusations of racism more than it feared the destruction of its own people.

RELATED: ‘White lives matter’: UK erupts over footage of English teen’s demise in handcuffs after stabbing by Sikh thug

Carl Court/Getty Images

Immigrant stabbing attacks have also helped justify sweeping bans on defensive weapons, including knives and pepper spray. Yet Nowak died from a ceremonial blade Digwa was permitted to carry. Immigrants enjoy exceptions while native Britons face disarmament. That is not equal justice. It is hierarchy.

After a stabbing spree last year left three young girls dead, riots broke out across Britain. The government response was brutal. Authorities did not merely arrest violent offenders or street protesters. They escalated social media arrests so aggressively that Britain now jails people for speech and political offenses at levels no free country should tolerate. At every turn, the government has privileged the comfort of foreign communities over the safety and dignity of the native population.

Americans often fail to grasp how deeply George Floyd’s death reshaped the Anglosphere. Britain, despite lacking America’s domestic history of slavery, endured its own Black Lives Matter revolution: protests, policing struggle sessions, and attacks on statues of figures such as Winston Churchill. Keir Starmer, now prime minister, bent the knee for a foreign criminal. A country convulsed itself over an American drug addict, yet struggles to muster the same moral energy for murdered English children. The implication is dark.

The Nowak footage poured gasoline on a smoldering fire. Officers assumed the white teenager was guilty without evidence. They joked as he begged for help. They placed him in cuffs when he posed no threat. One image now circulating shows officers shackling Nowak’s pale hand, ghost-white from blood loss. It captures the moral condition of the British state.

RELATED: Free speech in Britain is worse than you think

Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The purpose of a system is what it does. British police no longer appear organized to protect the people of Britain. Too often, they protect the regime’s migration project and punish anyone who resists it. When mass migration produced predictable violence, the government minimized, excused, or concealed it. When victims and their families protested, the government disciplined them. When citizens took to the streets to demand justice, the government crushed them.

The British state has made mortal enemies of the English people. That may sound extreme, but what better explanation fits the evidence? The system treats white Britons as permanent suspects and immigrants as protected classes. It uses “racism” not as a neutral moral category but as a weapon to silence, disarm, and destroy the native population.

One officer involved in Nowak’s death has reportedly resigned. According to the Telegraph, the other three remain on duty and have not been suspended.

White lives matter. Henry Nowak’s life mattered.

A real price must be paid for his death, and radical reforms must follow. If British elites attempt to bury this case, they will be playing with righteous fire.

​United kingdom, Henry nowak, Uk police, George floyd, Sikh immigrant, Vickrum digwa, Immigration, Racism, Blm, Keir starmer, British police, Opinion & analysis