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Newly released court documents reveal that the third alleged would-be Trump assassin snapped a selfie just moments before opening fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday.

Just half an hour before the attack, the suspected gunman, identified as 31-year-old Cole Allen, apparently snapped a mirror selfie in his Washington Hilton hotel room showing firearms and ammunition strapped to his body.

‘It was, at its core, an anti-democratic act of political violence.’

According to the new court documents, the image shows Allen smirking in the mirror while “wearing a small leather bag consistent in appearance with the ammunition-filled bag later recovered from his person,” as well as a holster and two sheathed knives.

The documents also contain images of the shotgun, handgun, and knives the suspect was carrying when he rushed a security checkpoint and fired shots in the Washington Hilton lobby.

“Had the defendant achieved his intended outcome, he would have brought about one of the darkest days in American history,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Jones wrote.

RELATED: Karoline Leavitt names and shames Democrats who inspired WHCD assassination attempt

President Trump, Truth Social/Anadolu/Getty Images

Allen was ultimately charged with one count of attempting to assassinate the president, interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition with intent to commit a felony, as well as discharge of a firearm during a violent crime.

“This was a planned attack of unfathomable malice that risked the lives of hundreds of people whose only transgression was attending an annual event celebrating the media and featuring the President of the United States,” Jones added.

“It was, at its core, an anti-democratic act of political violence.”

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​Cole allen, Political violence, Whcd shooter, White house correspondents dinner, Donald trump, Trump assassination attempt, Secret service, Politics 

The Supreme Court issued a shocking ruling on Wednesday about a congressional map in Louisiana that was drawn to give black voters a boost in representation.

The case, Louisiana v. Callais, involved a challenge by Louisiana voters in a congressional district that was redrawn after the 2020 census. The Supreme Court struck the map down, concluding it is an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander” that cannot be justified under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

‘That map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.’

Justice Samuel Alito penned the majority opinion of the court and was joined by his five fellow conservative justices. Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, and Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion in which he was joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch.

The Supreme Court decided that the “time had come” to deliver a clear answer on what for 30 years had simply been assumed about Voting Rights Act case law.

RELATED: SCOTUS rules on law banning ‘conversion therapy’ — and 2 liberal justices break rank

Chip Somodevilla/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

Succinctly put, the opinion of the court, stated in the syllabus, holds: “Because the Voting Rights Act did not require Louisiana to create an additional majority-minority district, no compelling interest justified the State’s use of race in creating SB8, and that map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

Justice Thomas, in his concurring opinion, went farther, arguing that the prevailing wisdom of the last 30 years of VRA case law and districting practices has been fraught with error. The court “led legislatures and courts to ‘systematically divid[e] the country into electoral district along racial lines,'” thus rendering Section 2 “repugnant to any nation that strives for the ideal of a color-blind Constitution,” he wrote.

Thomas concluded his concurring opinion with the proclamation: “No §2 challenge to districting should ever succeed.”

The liberal justices of the Supreme Court lamented the decision and its implications for Section 2: “The consequences are likely to be far-reaching and grave. Today’s decision renders Section 2 all but a dead letter.”

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon celebrated the decision of the court on social media: “Extremely gratified to see this decision we’ve been waiting for! I was proud to co-author the brief for the United States as amicus in this important case, perhaps one of the most important developments in decades in Voting Rights Act jurisprudence!”

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​Assistant attorney general, Black voters, Clarence thomas, Colorblind constitution, Congressional map, Democrats, Harmeet dhillon, Justice thomas, Louisiana, Politics, Racial gerrymander, Section 2, Section 2 vra, Supreme court, Voting rights act 

Armed individuals allegedly entered a Kent, Washington, home in the middle of the night earlier this week, but the homeowner also was armed — and opened fire. Kent is about a half hour south of Seattle.

Officers were dispatched to the residence on Hampton Way shortly before 3 a.m. Monday, KOMO-TV reported.

‘It’s just terrifying.’

The victims told officers that several armed people entered the home, the station said.

But the homeowner shot at the intruders and hit one suspect several times, KOMO noted, citing a Kent Police Department spokesperson.

The other suspects fled before officers arrived, the station said.

Police entered the home, cleared it, and began treating the wounded suspect until medics arrived and took him to Harborview Medical Center, KOMO reported.

While a K-9 team tried to find the other suspects, the station said none were located.

RELATED: ‘I didn’t have any hesitation’: Gun-toting homeowner says he spotted intruder in his house and ‘just let it fire’

“It’s just terrifying,” neighborhood resident Sarah told KOMO. “We have kids here, two schools, we’ve got a middle school, an elementary school.”

Many commenters underneath the station’s story seemed squarely behind the homeowner’s actions:

“I love starting the day with a feel good story,” one commenter said.”Too bad this was in King County,” another commenter wrote. “The homeowner will likely need to hire a lawyer and spend lots of $$. Even though this was pretty clear[ly] a justified shooting.””Excellent,” another commenter stated. “Well done, sir!””Awesome!” another commenter declared. “Too bad he didn’t drop all of them!””I love a ‘good news’ story to start off the week,” another commenter quipped.”More target practice is required,” another commenter observed.”FAFO,” another commenter stated. “YOU are the first responder.””Great job by the homeowner!!!” another commenter exclaimed. “Need more of this kind of rock-solid SELF-protection. Thank you!”

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​Guns, Gun rights, Shooting, Homeowner shoots intruder, Kent, Washington, Self-defense, 2nd amend., Home invasion, Armed home invasion, Crime 

The Chinese communist government stepped in to block Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta from completing a company takeover in what has been described as an extraordinary late-stage intervention.

However, the CCP preventing a U.S. company from bringing a Chinese tech firm to the U.S. comes as no shock to other analysts who say it was strange the deal was allowed to get to this stage.

‘It’s got Chinese founders, and those Chinese founders are in China.’

In December for $2 billion, Meta acquired Manus AI, an agentic AI that resembles chatbots like ChatGPT. However, its differentiating factor has been that Manus AI “independently plans and completes” tasks without the need for continuous prompts from the user.

The company is Chinese founded but has since settled in Singapore. This did not stop China’s National Development and Reform Commission from rejecting the acquisition, in what was labeled as a mandatory “unwinding.”

The commission reportedly said in a statement that it was prohibiting foreign investment in Manus in accordance with laws and regulations. It also said that Meta’s acquisition had violated Chinese rules on foreign investment.

RELATED: This Big Tech patent tracks your brain, eyes, and body — with earbuds

Meta said on Monday, however, that it “complied fully with applicable” laws during its transaction.

“We anticipate an appropriate resolution to the inquiry,” the company said in a statement. The Times also reported that Meta has described itself and Manus as being two teams that have already become “deeply integrated.”

Some experts, like Matt Bloxham from Bloomberg Intelligence, were not surprised that the Chinese government stepped in.

“Manus was originally a Chinese-founded business and reincorporated in Singapore, but it’s got Chinese founders, and those Chinese founders are in China, and they’re being blocked from leaving the country,” Bloxham said on Monday. “So I think clearly, you know, this is an issue about technology transfer from one superpower to another, and that’s why we’re seeing this Chinese clampdown.”

Bloxham added that in his mind it was “a little bit surprising” that the acquisition had actually been “waved through” up to this point.

RELATED: Meta is using its own employees to train AI agents for ‘everyday tasks’

Raul Ariano/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The White House provided a vague statement on Monday about protecting against foreign interference in its technology sector.

The Trump administration will “continue defending America’s leading and innovative technology sector against undue foreign interference of any sort,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said, per the Washington Post.

Other features of Manus AI include interacting with a user’s browser and other software to complete tasks, with the capability of generating text and images across other user applications.

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​Agentic ai, Chinese communist government, Company takeover, Foreign investment, Return, White house, Technology transfer, Chatbot, Tech 

After the nation watched President Donald Trump survive the third credible assassination attempt against him on Saturday, many people have begun wondering what exactly is going on with his security detail, the Secret Service.

For what is thought to be the most elite security detail that protects arguably the most important — and the most targeted — man on the planet, there seems to be an astronomically high number of “security failures,” and that doesn’t count the many other threats against Trump.

‘When the lights came on, a neatly dressed young man, a complete stranger, was standing next to FDR.’

However, a look back at history reveals a remarkable pattern of “failures” to secure the president’s person — even aside from the successful assassinations of Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865, James Garfield on July 2, 1881, and William McKinley on September 14, 1901.

RELATED: Secret Service accused of trying to ‘cover up’ motorcade accident involving VP Kamala Harris

Trump Campaign Office/Handout/Anadolu/Getty Images

Here’s a breakdown of some of the most remarkable security breaches since the beginning of the 20th century — after the president’s security team supposedly “got serious.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Not long after the assassination of his predecessor, President McKinley, President Theodore Roosevelt found himself in harm’s way. As the story goes, according to Andrew Tully’s book “Treasury Agent: The Inside Story,” a man wearing a top hat, white tie, and tails told an usher at the White House that President Roosevelt was expecting him. Though he did not recognize the man’s name or expect a visitor, Roosevelt agreed to meet with him in the Red Room. After a few minutes of speaking with the man, Roosevelt summoned the chief usher and told him to “take this crank out of here.”

The man was searched after his meeting with the president and was found with a revolver in his back pocket.

Famously, Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest while running for re-election in 1912, three years after he left office, but he went on to deliver a speech as planned. However, the Secret Service did not start protecting major presidential candidates on the campaign trail until 1968, so they cannot be blamed for this incident.

William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft’s presidency saw what could be described as a more violent threat at the White House. Illinois’ the Day Book reported in 1912 that a man identified as Michael Winter, supposedly a German, was arrested “after twice forcing his way into the private part of the executive mansion.” According to the Day Book, he reached the White House, “ran swiftly up the steps, dashed past the doorkeeper, and for a moment was lost in the darkness of the hall.”

The man, who was later deemed “mentally incompetent” and booked in an asylum as “harmless,” explained that he had been twice denied an introduction to President Taft by German Ambassador to the U.S. Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, but insisted on meeting with him without further explanation: “I want to see the president. I must see him.”

Winter was carrying a long blade with a guard to protect the hand “in case it were used as a weapon.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Though the Secret Service surely learned from these mistakes and beefed up its security measures in the following decades, “slip-ups still occurred,” Margaret Truman, President Harry Truman’s daughter, wrote in her book, “The President’s House: The Secrets and History of the World’s Most Famous Home.“

In her book, Margaret Truman recounts an almost unbelievable snafu in the FDR White House that is worth quoting in full:

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s oldest son, Jimmy, tells a story that the Secret Service would rather forget. One night during World War II, he was home on leave and joined his parents at the White House for dinner. Afterward they watched a movie. When the lights came on, a neatly dressed young man, a complete stranger, was standing next to FDR.

Instead of brandishing a weapon, however, the interloper asked for the president’s autograph. Somehow, apparently for a lark, he had gotten past the doormen and the Secret Service to penetrate the heart of the house. FDR gave him the autograph and the embarrassed Secret Service men escorted him to the door.

Richard Nixon

In 1974, Army private Robert K. Preston stole a military helicopter from Fort Meade, Maryland, and led two police helicopters on more than an hour-long chase around the D.C. area. He reportedly hovered near the Washington Monument before flying close to the White House. Police shot the helicopter, forcing Preston to land on the White House lawn, where he was tackled and placed under arrest.

Preston was reportedly upset about being a “washout from Army flight training,” as the Associated Press reported at the time.

New York Magazine reported that Preston’s flight was partially successful, however. Officers described his flying as “masterful.”

Gerald Ford

The White House was understandably upset with the Secret Service after Gerald Bryan Gainous Jr. was able to gain access to the White House grounds a total of four times between 1975 and 1976. And it somehow gets worse: Two of those incidents occurred within the span of 10 days.

The New York Times reported at the time that the White House ordered an immediate report from the Secret Service on how Gainous was able to breach the perimeter on the night of November 26 and again during the day on December 6, 1974. On the first occasion, the intruder “spent two hours lurking about the grounds and came within five feet of the president’s daughter, Susan, before being apprehended.”

Gainous allegedly told police that he was “trying to see the president to seek a pardon for his father, an Air Force sergeant convicted of smuggling drugs.”

Ronald Reagan

A New York Times report from January 31, 1985, detailed a White House intrusion in which a man, identified as Robert Latta, was able to “slip into the White House last Sunday and roam around, unchecked, for 14 minutes.”

A representative, who shares the intruder’s surname but bears no relation to him, explained the strange way the man was able to access the supposedly secure perimeter of the White House:

I understand that a Robert Allen Latta was arrested and charged with unlawful entry at the White House during the inaugural activities. The Secret Service informed me that he had entered the White House with the Marine Corps Band. A court date is set for March 5. He is not a relative of mine, and he is from Denver, Colo. By coincidence I do have a son, Robert Edward, who is an attorney and lives in Bowling Green, Ohio.

George W. Bush

On April 9, 2006, Brian Lee Patterson, a New Mexico man who said he had “intelligence information for the president” and claimed that his “family is being poisoned in New Mexico,” ran “well inside” the White House perimeter before being apprehended by officers, according to a CNN report at the time of the incident.

His incursion onto the White House lawn was his fourth time jumping the White House fence.

Barack Obama

According to a CNN report, two uninvited guests, identified by the Washington Post as Tareq and Michaele Salahi, were able to gain access to President Obama’s first White House state dinner on November 24, 2009.

The couple was able to get close enough for photos with then-Vice President Joe Biden and Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, photos which Michaele Salahi reportedly posted on Facebook after the event.

During his congressional testimony regarding the incident, Mark J. Sullivan, the director of the United States Secret Service at the time, said that “a mistake was made”:

In our line of work, we cannot afford even one mistake. In this particular circumstance, two individuals, who should have been prohibited from passing through a checkpoint and entering the grounds, were allowed to proceed to the magnetometers and other levels of screening before they were then allowed to enter the White House. Although these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of screening, their entry into the White House is unacceptable and indefensible.

Another event during the Obama administration deserves mentioning. On November 11, 2011, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez fired a rifle at the residential wing of the White House at least seven or eight times, according to multiple reports. One bullet struck a bulletproof window on the second floor, steps away from the first family’s formal living room. Another got stuck in a window frame, and others bounced off the roof, sending debris to the ground.

Although a tip led to the arrest of Ortega-Hernandez at a hotel in Indiana, Pennsylvania, five days later, the Washington Post reported some remarkable, previously unreported details about the incident.

According to the Post, Secret Service officers “initially rushed to respond.” Snipers on the roof, standing only 20 feet away from where one of the bullets struck, were searching for signs of an attack.

However, the officers soon received a surprising order: “No shots have been fired. … Stand down.” The loud sounds were attributed to a backfire from a nearby construction vehicle, contrary to CNN’s report that the officers thought that there were gunshots but that they believed the shots were gang-related and not directed at the White House.

It took the Secret Service four days to discover that the White House had been shot at multiple times, and that discovery “came about only because a housekeeper noticed broken glass and a chunk of cement on the floor.”

President Obama and first lady Michelle were not in Washington at the time, though their daughter Sasha and Michelle’s mother, Marian Robinson, were inside the residence, and Malia was expected to return around the time that the shooting occurred.

Donald Trump

While many people are able to recount the assassination attempts on July 13, 2024, by Thomas Matthew Crooks; September 15, 2024, by Ryan Routh; and April 25, 2026, allegedly by Cole Tomas Allen, President Trump has faced other security threats that should have been prevented much more quickly than they were.

For example, on March 10, 2017, a man identified as Jonathan T. Tran breached the White House grounds and roamed around for 15 minutes before he was arrested by Secret Service agents just steps from the main door. He was reportedly carrying a backpack with mace and a letter for President Trump. According to a CNN report, two Secret Service agents were fired over the handling of the incident.

President Trump was at the residence at the time of the fence-hopping incident.

More recently on February 22, 2026, an armed man was able to breach the perimeter of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. The man, identified as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin, was carrying a shotgun and a fuel can.

He was shot and killed by Secret Service agents after they discovered him.

This is not an exhaustive list of threats against U.S. presidents in the history of the Secret Service. The USSS has successfully mitigated countless threats against presidents throughout history, yet the surprisingly consistent security breaches during these administrations may still raise some eyebrows.

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​Assassination attempts, Oscar ramiro ortegahernandez, Politics, President trump, Presidential protection, Presidential security measures, Robert latta, Secret service, Security detail, Security failures, Theodore roosevelt, Threats against trump, White house, White house intrusion, White house lawn, White house state dinner 

Many leftists pin their hatred of Donald Trump on their unproven claim that he was involved with Jeffrey Epstein — but that isn’t stopping them from supporting an alleged abuser at the box office.

And BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is tired of the hypocrisy.

“They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, we hate pedophiles. We are the party against pedophiles, and the Republicans are always protecting pedophiles. If there’s anything we hate, it’s pedophiles,’” Gonzales mocks.

“Actually, that’s historically not been the case. Has not been the case, as documented with all of these Democrats involved with Jeffrey Epstein, but also they have apparently been crawling all over each other to go watch a movie about [an alleged] renowned kiddie diddler,” she continues.

The movie is Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic, which brought in a whopping $218.8 million globally over its opening weekend and became the biggest domestic opening of all time for any biopic.

“Michael Jackson, when it comes to him, technically he was cleared in the legal system in 2005,” Gonzales says, though she isn’t buying it.

And according to a report in People magazine, Gonzales may be on to something.

The report claims that the director of the biopic allegedly made an extra $25 million to remove child sex abuse allegations.

“That’s a lot of money to pay the director and a producer to remove things from the movie if they weren’t true,” Gonzales says, pointing out that it’s not the first time allegations of abuse have been suspiciously squashed.

“You also had the documentary ‘Leaving Neverland,’ which was 2019. And the biggest accusations that came out were highlighted in this. … But guess what? If you missed it and you want to go back to check it out, you’re not going to be able to see it because the Jackson Estate sued to remove it from the internet, just like they buried it in the movie and got paid off,” she continues. “Are you sensing the trend yet?”

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.

​Abuse, Allegations, Antoine fuqua, Biopic, Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Blazetv host, Box office, Child sex abuse, Democrats, Director, Documentary, Hypocrisy, Internet, Jackson estate, Jeffrey epstein, Leaving neverland, Leftists, Michael jackson, Money, Pedophiles, People magazine, President, Producer, Republicans, Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered, The blaze, Trend, United states 

For the first time in nearly 35 years, a British monarch has addressed a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

King Charles III, no doubt sensitive to the recent political friction between the U.S. and Britain over the matter of the war in Iran, noted at the outset Tuesday night that these are “times of great uncertainty, in times of conflict, from Europe to the Middle East, which pose immense challenges for the international community and whose impact is felt in communities the length and breadth of our own countries.”

Charles emphasized, however, that even in such times, it remains clear that America’s and Britain’s destinies are entangled and that the two countries share a special “bond of kinship and identity” that is “irreplaceable and unbreakable.”

After reassuring lawmakers that his presence stateside was not “part of some cunning rearguard action” and lauding the American founding fathers both as “bold and imaginative rebels with a cause” and inheritors “of the British Enlightenment,” Charles hyped the need to build upon and renew the Anglo-American partnership, particularly in the military space.

On the theme of renewal and in an apparent nod to President Donald Trump’s repeated insistence that North Atlantic Treaty Organization members boost their defense spending, Charles noted that the U.K. “has committed to the biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the Cold War.”

RELATED: Pentagon floats ousting Spain from NATO, punishing allies for not toeing the line on Iran

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer committed last year to spending 2.5% of GDP on core defense by April 2027. The U.K., which spent an estimated 2.3% of GDP on defense in 2024, has since entertained the possibility of increasing spending to 3% in the next Parliament — an increase that Starmer said would be made possible by reductions to aid spending.

Charles, speaking weeks after the Trump administration signaled an interest in pulling the U.S. out of NATO, said the military alliance is as relevant now as it was during the Cold War and “in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when NATO invoked Article Five for the first time.”

The king — who acknowledged that “the commitment and expertise of the United States Armed Forces and its allies lie at the heart of NATO” — suggested further that the alliance was imperative to keep “North Americans and Europeans safe from our common adversaries,” singling out Ukraine as a nation now in need of defense.

Charles closed his speech with an apparent knock at isolationism, stating, “I pray with all my heart that our alliance will continue to defend our shared values with our partners in Europe and the Commonwealth and across the world and that we ignore the clarion calls to become ever more inward-looking.”

The last royal address to Congress was given by Charles’ late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in the wake of the Gulf War. Elizabeth similarly spoke with interest about nurturing Britain’s “long-standing friendship with the people of the United States.”

“We want to build on that foundation and to do better,” said the queen. “And if the going gets rough, I hope you can still agree with your poet Emerson, who wrote in 1847, ‘I feel, in regard to this aged England, with a kind of instinct, that she sees a little better on a cloudy day, and that, in storm of battle and calamity, she has a secret vigor and a pulse like a cannon.’ You will find us worthy partners, and we are proud to have you as our friends.”

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​Alliance, Britain, British monarch, Congress, Defense spending, Foreign entanglements, Gulf war, International community, Isolationism, King charles, King charles iii, Military, Monarch, Nato, Queen elizabeth ii, Shared values, Speech, United states armed forces, Us congress, War in iran, Politics 

The advocates of enforced age verification promise safe and secure technologies that protect user privacy.

Age verification mechanisms have, they insist, developed sufficiently, users need not fear, and skeptics’ arguments are relics of a bygone time. The newest security protocols, they argue, have rendered the privacy and cybersecurity concerns once attached to age verification outdated.

But promises of what can, theoretically, be done by public policy often founder when implemented — when practical, technological, and human constraints mount a counteroffensive against the best-laid plans of academics’ white papers.

If privacy is to be forfeited, the citizenry can demand evidence that their sacrifice will yield significant benefits, but the data provided so far gives little assurance.

The claims of robust security can be dispensed with: Age verification services routinely succumb to hacks, data breaches, leaks, and sloppy data-management practices. These failures publicize users’ government-issued documentation and other personal information.

The latest case study from the European Union lends no assistance to the advocates of age verification.

Only hours after Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, announced the EU’s new age verification platform, soon to be made available — and mandatory — to the continent, the app proved rotten.

Security consultant Paul Moore, as reported by Politico, claimed to have hacked the app in under two minutes. He found in the application myriad deficiencies, including one that enabled users to evade the verification process altogether. The EU repaired its code, but Moore quickly dismantled the updates.

The EU has stumbled, joining a lengthy list of compromised verification platforms. Count among their number Outabox, AU10TIX, and two third parties employed by Discord. Add to these a breach of IDMerit, which alone compromised 1 billion records of personal data.

In March, hundreds of security and privacy academics signed a letter “call[ing] for a moratorium on [age verification] deployment plans” — at least “until the scientific consensus settles on the benefits and harms” of the technologies in question.

The manifest dangers of age verifications remain unresolved, even as regulators rush to enact mandates that would precondition access to everyday digital services on the user’s willingness to give up sensitive information about himself to vulnerable digital databases.

“Two critical issues have not been addressed: whether age assurance is efficacious and what the potential damages to general security and privacy are,” the letter reads.

Besides the privacy failings, the letter raises another inconvenient question: the efficacy of age-verification regimes. If privacy is to be forfeited, the citizenry can demand evidence that their sacrifice will yield significant benefits, but the data provided so far gives little assurance.

RELATED: The FBI should get a warrant before reading your messages

J. David Ake/Getty Images

The implementation of the Online Safety Act in the United Kingdom was met with a rush of British users resorting to virtual private networks, which allowed them to circumvent the age verification process.

Australia attempted to bar minors from major social media platforms, instituting age verification to effect the mandate. And yet, according to the findings of the Molly Rose Foundation, “three fifths (61%) of [12- to 15-year-olds] who previously held accounts on restricted platforms continue to have access to one or more active accounts.” Moreover, seven in 10 children called it “easy” to dodge the law.

Children are by nature troublemakers and hell-raisers. They carry these qualities — at once endearing and enraging — into the digital world. The government cannot ensure that children remain safe online, because it cannot love or know children as parents can, nor can it monitor children’s operations in the digital world.

Age verification is sold to credulous legislators as the one-size-fits-all fix for a world populated by innumerable young people, diverse in their abilities, proclivities, desires, and weaknesses. As extant age verification mandates demonstrate, noncompliance is, quite literally, at the fingertips of minors enterprising enough to best the regulatory requirements they confront.

No government knows enough about any given child or what he does every day to parry his every thrust. Once more, the responsibility comes home to parents, who must raise and protect their children as vigorously in the digital world as in the physical one.

From one vantage, it seems logical to support enforced age verification. But the technological and human facts of the case reveal the policy’s manifest dangers and scant chances of success.

Traditional child-protection standards lodge primary responsibility for children’s formation and well-being in the family — with parents. The digital world is novel, but human nature is eternal. Even in the digital world, the remedy is to be found at kitchen tables, not in legislatures.

​Age verification, European union, Social media platforms, Personal data, Social media restrictions, Free speech, Censorship, Eu, Opinion & analysis 

A ProPublica investigation portrayed a pregnant mother, Cherise Doyley, as a victim of Florida’s “fetal personhood policies” after she was forced mid-labor into a virtual court hearing and told she would be compelled to undergo a cesarean section if an emergency developed. However, the story, which numerous left-leaning outlets and advocates amplified, overlooked an important detail that Doyley’s doctors claimed sparked the drastic intervention to protect her unborn baby’s life.

A transcript and video of the hearing obtained by Blaze News revealed additional details about the hospital’s decision to alert the state about Doyley’s case.

‘We were concerned that she would not want to act in the best interest of her infant, even if it came to that.’

In Sept. 2024, Doyley, a doula and then-student midwife, arrived overnight via ambulance at the University of Florida Health in Jacksonville after her water broke while over 41 weeks pregnant, according to the hospital’s doctors.

Doyley had been receiving prenatal care from UF Health throughout her pregnancy and had adamantly expressed that she wanted to have a vaginal birth after cesarean section, instead of a fourth C-section.

By her 12th hour of contractions, Doyley was forced to attend a court hearing via Zoom video call from her hospital bed. Joining her on the call were Circuit Court Judge Michael Kalil, lawyers, and hospital staff.

Judge Kalil explained to Doyley that the state had filed an emergency petition requesting that the court order her to undergo a C-section. He called these types of hearings “extraordinary,” noting that such petitions are “infrequently filed.”

The order granting the emergency petition for declaratory judgment explained that the petitioner, the state of Florida, had “a compelling interest in the preservation of the life of an unborn child and the protection of innocent third parties, such as Unborn Child, who may be harmed by the parental refusal to allow or consent to life-saving medical treatment.”

Doyley, who insisted that she had not been notified in advance, repeatedly requested her own legal representation or a patient advocate before proceeding with the hearing. This request was denied after Kalil and the state prosecutor concluded that there is no constitutional right to legal counsel in emergency civil proceedings.

RELATED: The truth about the brain-dead mother giving birth — and why it’s the right choice

BSIP/Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The hearing: What the transcript shows

Arguments in the hearing began with Dr. Erin Burnett, an attending physician at UF Health, detailing Doyley’s medical history, including noting that the pregnant mother had never had a successful vaginal birth in her three prior pregnancies. According to Burnett, these included a failed induction at 42 weeks with her first child, an attempted trial of labor after cesarean with her second that ended in a repeat C-section after a uterine infection with her newborn, requiring a two-week NICU stay, and potential fetal heart rate decelerations during her third labor that also resulted in a C-section. Burnett further testified that Doyley had a “uterine window,” or thinning of the scar tissue from a prior C-section, which increased the risk of uterine rupture.

Burnett acknowledged the risks associated with C-sections and that Doyley had “some very bad experiences” trying to heal from those prior surgeries, including suffering from hematomas that required drains and other complications that impacted her ability to care for her children during her weeks-long recovery.

When Doyley arrived at UF Health around 2:00 a.m., Burnett stated, she was experiencing contractions, had ruptured membranes, and was three centimeters dilated. Burnett assessed that Doyley was unlikely to have a successful vaginal birth because, during her time at the hospital, dilation had progressed only to five centimeters and her contractions had become less frequent. For a successful vaginal delivery, the cervix must fully dilate to 10 centimeters.

Without a C-section, Burnett expressed concern that the unborn child might sustain brain damage or brain bleeds.

“I think the most, or more, concerning thing was her fetus,” Burnett testified. “When she got here, the fetal tracing was much more reassuring. But for the past six to eight hours, the fetus has lost what we call fetal heart rate variability, which … essentially tells you if the baby is getting acidotic or not.”

Burnett claimed the baby’s heart rate had dropped to the 50s, whereas the typical range is in the 110s to 160s. She explained that when the baby’s heart rate returned to normal, it was then that the hospital recommended a C-section, per its protocol, hoping to avoid another potential heart rate drop that could lead to an emergency.

When staff approached Doyley about this, she refused and “made the comment that if her baby dies, so be it,” Burnett alleged.

She stated that Doyley’s alleged comment about her unborn child’s life, which was not mentioned in the ProPublica articles, was what sparked the hospital’s intervention.

“We were concerned that she would not want to act in the best interest of her infant, even if it came to that,” Burnett said.

Jenny Van Ravestein, the then-division director of women’s services at UF Health Jacksonville, reiterated the reason that the hospital decided to intervene. Van Ravestein testified that the “concern from my nurses … and from the physician, I truly believe, was about the welfare of this infant.”

While Van Ravestein was not on site to witness the interaction firsthand, she alleged that “when I was put on speaker [phone] with the patient in her room, she said that the baby could just die, it was okay if the baby just died, she was not going to have a C-section.”

“I heard her say, ‘I’m not gonna have a C-section. If the baby dies, the baby just dies,'” Van Ravestein alleged again a few moments later.

“That, to me, was what was extremely upsetting to my team,” Van Ravestein added.

Transcript and video of the hearing reveal that Doyley did not explicitly deny making the remarks, but did claim they were “taken out of context.”

Referring to Van Ravestein, Doyley told the judge, “She actually was not in the room, so this statement is being taken out of context, which makes sense because she was over the phone. But the statement was in regards to, if it is my life or the baby’s life, the baby’s going to have to die. And I stand on that because I have three other children that I have to take care of.”

Van Ravestein testified that as a result of Doyley’s alleged comments about her infant, the hospital staff reached out to risk management and the hospital insurance program, which instructed her to contact the hospital’s legal team, setting off the chain of events that led the state attorney’s office to file an emergency petition.

While ProPublica’s reporting noted that Van Ravestein said she and her staff were “very concerned about the baby’s welfare,” the outlet did not include her statements about Doyley’s alleged remarks.

When reached for comment about why it did not include these alleged remarks by Doyley, ProPublica told Blaze News, “We stand by our reporting. In the hearing, neither Dr. Burnett nor Jenny Van Ravestein testified that they directly heard Ms. Doyley make that statement, and Ms. Doyley disputes that she said this. It’s secondhand information that has not been substantiated and therefore wasn’t included in the story.”

The State Attorney’s Office confirmed that the hospital reported Doyley’s case partly due to the alleged comments she made about her preborn baby’s life.

“UF Health alerted the State Attorney’s Office that a 41-week, full-term baby was facing grave risk of death without medical intervention,” the State Attorney’s Office told Blaze News. “The mother was refusing that care. In accordance with our legal duty, our office brought the matter before the Circuit Court, which held an evidentiary hearing. After hearing from the mother and medical professionals, the court determined a cesarean delivery was necessary to protect the child’s life and mother’s health.”

“The State Attorney’s Office does not make medical decisions — we ensured the court was presented with the facts so a judge could make his determination under the law,” the office added.

Dr. John Davis, professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Florida College of Medicine, Jacksonville, told Doyley during the hearing that the hospital has been recognized for its low C-section rate and performs them only when required.

“I think I can say … to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, you are not going to be able to deliver vaginally,” Davis testified, stating that it was his understanding that she had never dilated beyond seven centimeters during any of her previous pregnancies.

“The longer this labor goes on, there are increasing likelihood of complications for the baby — infection, brain damage, death — but also increasing risk of complications for the mom, including infection, uterine rupture, and death.”

Doyley’s response and the risks

Several times during the hearing, Doyley stated that she was willing to consent to a C-section in the event of an emergency. Hospital staff on the call acknowledged Doyley’s expressed openness to an emergency surgery.

“Where we were at this morning, where she was refusing regardless, is much different than where we’re at now,” Burnett told the judge.

“I’m very happy that she has consented in the event of an emergency to undergo a C-section. … When we initially kind of initiated all this stuff, she was in a much different state of mind.”

Although Doyley agreed to the C-section in an emergency, she disagreed with the doctor’s evaluation of the urgency of the situation. She argued that the baby’s heart rate was normal and pointed out that the doctor had not checked her dilation status for at least four hours.

“For them to say that I have not made any cervical change and that the baby’s life is in danger without exhausting all options is completely false,” Doyley told the judge. “And I feel it all boils down to people, doctors, thinking that they know and understand my body better than me.”

She also stated: “I am concerned about the well-being of my child, but at the end of the day with my background, I can read a trace just like they can. And there’s nothing that is saying that this is an emergency situation that I have to be rushed into a C-section within a hour.”

Doyley emphasized that the risks associated with a C-section are significantly higher than those of a vaginal birth and that she had “a major complication” with each of her prior C-sections.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which sets guidelines for pregnancy and birth care, strongly endorses VBAC for patients with one prior C-section and considers it reasonable to offer the option for those with two. However, it does not outright endorse or oppose VBAC for women who have undergone three or more prior C-sections, citing limited data. However, the group firmly stands behind a pregnant patient’s “right to refuse treatment, even treatment needed to maintain life.”

‘This case demonstrates that Florida is committed to both protecting innocent life and upholding the rule of law. Hospital staff and the judge lived up to that in this situation.’

Doyley, who accused the hospital staff of pushing for surgery based on “a lot of what-ifs and maybes,” highlighted ACOG’s guidelines to the judge, stating that the organization “do [sic] not have any specific policy that says that someone cannot have a vaginal birth after three C-sections.”

“Any time you go into childbirth, whether you do a vaginal or a C-section, there’s inherent risk to the mother and the baby,” she added. “So if it’s between them choosing whether I have to live or the baby has to live, I did tell them that I want to live. I have other children out here in the world that need me.”

Dr. Christina Francis, a board-certified OB-GYN speaking on behalf of the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs, detailed the risks of VBAC in a statement to Blaze News, stating that “there’s not a lot of data out there on … women laboring with three or more C-section scars.”

Francis cited one study, which she noted was “a little bit of an outlier,” that showed uterine rupture risks were under 1% for multiple prior C-sections. Other studies, she stated, showed a risk of uterine rupture from 2% to 3.5%.

“The way we counsel most patients with that many C-sections is, because of that increased risk, it likely is safer to do a scheduled repeat C-section,” Francis said.

Francis also addressed the data on repeated C-sections, calling it “very mixed” and stating that many studies show the risks associated with repeat surgeries are “actually higher than a woman going through a trial of labor, even if she has that many previous C-sections,” including risks of hemorrhage and infections.

“It really is not a clear decision, I would say,” Francis remarked, emphasizing the importance of “shared decision-making” between a pregnant woman and her doctor, describing it as “a travesty” that Doyley felt unsupported by hospital staff.

During her testimony, Doyley rejected claims that there was nothing else the doctors could do to help her achieve a natural birth. She repeatedly insisted that UF Health transfer her to another hospital where she could receive a second opinion. UF Health staff explained that a transfer was unlikely to occur on such short notice, since another hospital would first have to agree to accept her as a patient.

She criticized the hospital for not having “one person of color that is on this floor working,” adding, “I have 20 white people against me.” She accused the hospital staff of trying to take her rights away, comparing it to “slavery.”

“Just knowing what we know, as far as black maternal health in America and how black women are three times more likely to die during childbirth, a lot of that comes from medical negligence and medical racism, where we have a group of white doctors that think that they know what is best for black bodies and black babies,” she testified.

At the conclusion of the multi-hour hearing, Kalil determined that Doyley could continue laboring to attempt to have a natural birth but that the hospital could force Doyley to undergo a C-section in the event of an emergency, to which Doyley agreed. The judge’s order defined emergency events as fetal bradycardia, fetal heart tracing category 3, or signs of uterine rupture.

The infant was ultimately delivered via C-section after doctors said her heart rate dropped overnight for seven minutes, ProPublica reported. While Doyley recovered from the surgery, the baby was brought to the NICU due to respiratory distress and placed on a continuous positive airway pressure machine to assist with her breathing.

The court’s jurisdiction in the matter terminated upon the child’s successful delivery.

A spokesperson for UF Health Jacksonville declined to comment, citing privacy regulations that prevent the hospital from discussing patient information.

RELATED: ‘PRAISE GOD!’ Florida defeats radicals’ attempt to enshrine nearly limitless abortion as a right

LUIS ROBAYO/AFP/Getty Images

The reaction to Doyley’s case

Progressive advocates have used Doyley’s experience to argue that Florida’s pro-life laws have gone too far and infringe on pregnant women’s medical freedom.

ProPublica wrote that while “mentally competent patients typically have the right to choose their medical care — or refuse it,” pregnant patients do not. The outlet highlighted this as an “inconsistency” in Florida, noting that the state has championed expanded medical autonomy for patients wishing to avoid vaccines and fluoridated water.

“In Florida and many other states, court-ordered medical procedures are just one of the ways pregnant patients’ rights are restricted. The effort to chip away at those rights is rooted in the concept of fetal personhood — that a fetus has equal and, in some cases, more rights than the woman sustaining it,” ProPublica wrote, claiming that “even a state prisoner on a hunger strike has more rights to make medical decisions” than a pregnant woman.

Francis suggested that the hospital’s intervention may have been driven by concern over serious complications and potential malpractice liability.

“As the ProPublica piece is referring to, I don’t think that it probably centered around placing the personhood of her preborn child ahead of the consent of the patient,” Francis said, adding that Doyley’s case “highlights a significant problem in this country” that has “nothing to do with abortion laws or fetal personhood laws” but rather a fear of malpractice lawsuits. A 2023 American Medical Association report found that 62.4% of OB-GYNs had faced a lawsuit.

The author of the ProPublica report, Amy Yurkanin, seemed to give Kalil some credit for his ruling, stating that judges in these cases are in a “difficult position.”

During an interview with WJCT’s “First Coast Connect,” Yurkanin stated, “I think he did try to thread the needle really with his ruling.”

“The hospital wanted him to court-order a C-section. He declined to sort of issue that blanket court order,” she remarked.

State Rep. Berny Jacques (R) shared his thoughts on Doyley’s case with Blaze News.

“This case demonstrates that Florida is committed to both protecting innocent life and upholding the rule of law. Hospital staff and the judge lived up to that in this situation,” Jacques said. “It’s especially refreshing that in a time when we’re seeing a lot of activist judges who ignore the law to score political points, the judge in this case simply followed the law as written and did the right thing.”

Jacques added that he wishes the mom and child “all the best.”

When Blaze News contacted Kalil for comment, the Fourth Judicial Circuit’s general counsel stated that the court “is unable to provide any comment or participate in any public discussions regarding these matters.”

Doyley did not respond to requests for comment.

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​Cherise doyley, Csection risks, Fetal personhood, Florida, Jacksonville, News, Preborn, Prenatal care, Pro-choice, Pro-life, Propublica, Uf health jacksonville, Unborn child, University of florida, University of florida health, Politics 

Some like to imagine that the digital world has freed us from the physical one, that computing lives somewhere above the friction of pipelines and permits and power lines, in a clean, abstract place we have named, without irony, the cloud. That illusion is dispelled when a transformer shortage causes a delay in the construction of data centers.

To give a sense of the amount of energy throughput required to keep building, the following numbers come from federal laboratories and utility research organizations: In 2023, American data centers consumed approximately 176 terawatt-hours of electricity, or 4.4% of all the energy the country used. By 2028, that figure is expected to reach somewhere between 325 and 580 terawatt-hours. By 2030, data centers could account for between 9% and 17% of national electricity consumption. Virginia, which already hosts more data-center capacity than any other state, could find itself directing between 39% and 57% of its electricity to the machines by decade’s end.

The political consequences are becoming visible at an unsettling pace.

What Sightline Climate reported in February 2026 is clarifying in its plain arithmetic: At least 16 gigawatts of data-center capacity were supposed to come online in the United States during 2026. Of that, roughly five gigawatts were under construction. The remaining 11 gigawatts had been announced but showed no construction progress. Given this delay, between 30% and 50% of the year’s projected capacity is unlikely to exist by year’s end. The buildings are failing to rise not because of any shortage of ambition or capital, but because the electrical systems that would bring them to life are themselves a constrained resource.

Tech acceleration, electricity slowdown

The technology industry tends to describe its obstacles as temporary inconveniences, friction to be optimized away. The power problem is not that kind of obstacle. A modern data center, before it is a real-estate asset or a monument to computational ambition, is an electrical system. IT equipment can represent 95% of its total demand. Cooling systems are themselves power-electronics loads. For the highest-performing AI facilities, operators have begun to omit traditional backup protection for their servers, relying instead on software checkpointing and restart logic, because the weight of the electrical infrastructure has become something to work around. “Construction complete” does not mean the facility can be turned on. Completion requires that the utility interface, the internal electrical architecture, the backup strategy, and the thermal system are synchronized and tested. The construction is the least of it.

The physical bottleneck is in a part of the supply chain that is rarely mentioned. Distribution transformers, the equipment that turns high-voltage transmission power into the voltages that buildings can actually use, are in short supply. Lead times that ran three to six months in 2019 stretched to 12 to 30 months by 2023. Large power transformers are custom-made, difficult to substitute, expensive to stockpile, and dependent on grain-oriented electrical steel, aluminum, and copper, all of which faced their own post-pandemic constraints. When a hyperscale campus needs utility service, substation capacity, and specialized transformer equipment at the same moment as the broader grid, delay is the usual result.

RELATED: How AI could decide the midterms — with $200 million to sway your vote

Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Images

Why they weren’t ready

A relevant historical parallel is the railroad age. There is a structural similarity beyond the lazy metaphor that “data centers are the new railroads.” The railroads began as a private development wave and became a problem of political economy. They forced changes in public regulation, organizational form, and the distribution of costs and benefits that their builders had not anticipated. The data center is following a similar path. American electricity demand is being reshaped at a pace unseen since the postwar industrial boom, but with a crucial difference: Today’s growth arrives in enormous concentrated parcels, in specific counties, on venture-capital timescales. The grid, in contrast, expands on utility and regulatory timescales. These are not the same.

The political consequences are becoming visible at an unsettling pace. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered PJM Interconnection, a regional grid operator, in December 2025 to write clearer rules for serving AI-driven data centers. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation reported in 2025 that 13 of its 23 assessment areas face resource-adequacy challenges over the next decade. The Energy Information Administration announced in March 2026 that it was launching pilot studies on data-center energy use, covering electricity consumption, cooling systems, server metrics, and site characteristics. For two decades, data centers were background infrastructure. The regulatory apparatus of the federal government now wants new instruments to see them clearly.

The grid at a crossroads

Maine, in April 2026, approved the first statewide moratorium on large-scale data centers in the United States, halting approvals for facilities above 20 megawatts while a state council studies grid, air, water, and cost impacts. Only Democrat Gov. Janet Mills’ veto stopped the push (for now). In Mississippi, a lawsuit accused a major AI company of operating gas turbines near Memphis without the required permits, the speed-to-power logic having collided with environmental permitting. In March 2026, the Trump administration announced a pledge under which major hyperscalers agreed to build or buy new generation and cover the cost of power-delivery upgrades rather than passing those costs to households. Whatever the durability of that commitment, the political signal is clear: Once officials begin publicly assuring households that they will not be asked to subsidize AI infrastructure, the issue has moved from sectoral regulation to the politics of fairness.

The “cloud” always involved a rhetorical stance. It described a physical system as if geography, electricity, and equipment lead times were incidental to it. The transformer shortage, the interconnection queue, and the emergency turbines pierce through that description. The internet reappears as pipes, wires, substations, permits, emissions, and cost-allocation fights. It arrives in a specific county, draws on a specific grid, and asks specific communities to absorb consequences that were designed, by the grammar of cloud computing, to belong to no one.

Delay is the form this revelation takes. It forces governments to decide what may be built, at whose cost, and on whose timeline.

​Tech 

The family of a 25-year-old man is mourning his loss after he was stabbed in the heart over a dispute about a chicken dinner, according to Wisconsin police.

Mikayla Kloth, 27, allegedly attacked Lukas Rosch at her apartment in Okauchee on Friday after he came over to cook chicken drumsticks.

‘About a week before the incident, Rosch told people that Kloth had bitten his thumb and that he was scared of her.’

Lac La Belle Village police said they arrived at the apartment at about 6:50 p.m. to find the man lying on his back and a landlord applying pressure to his chest.

Kloth admitted that she stabbed her longtime boyfriend because she wanted to go out for dinner that evening, and he wanted to cook instead, according to police.

Police said they asked Kloth if there had been a struggle, and she replied, “No, I did stab him.”

Kloth also told police she got angry after Rosch grabbed the knife by the sharp edge, and she went on to plunge the knife into his chest.

“She admits, ‘I stabbed him. You have to take me to jail? OK.’ She didn’t hesitate with her discussion with officers,” said Waukesha County Court Commissioner David Herring in court.

Rosch was transported to a hospital but was later declared dead.

Kloth faces one count of first-degree intentional homicide and if convicted could face life in prison.

She also admitted that she should have just gone to a bar instead.

The family of the victim released a statement about the incident.

“We are completely broken at the tragic and senseless loss of our son, Lukas John Rosch, the most loving, giving, kind-hearted person anyone could ever meet,” the statement reads. “We are just asking for privacy at this time as we try to process.”

RELATED: Illegal alien allegedly bites 3-yr-old’s face in horrifying attack — DHS blames lax Biden immigration policies

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that about a week before the incident, Rosch told people that Kloth had bitten his thumb and that he was scared of her.

Kloth’s cash bond was set by a court commissioner at $2 million.

Okauchee is an unincorporated area inside the Village of Lac La Belle.

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​Mikayla kloth, Stabbed in the heart, Murder over chicken dinner, Dinner dispute death, Crime 

Everything feels more expensive in 2026, and health care is no exception.

While gas prices and grocery costs tend to dominate the political conversation, health care affordability remains one of the biggest financial pressures on working families.

One major reason is a lack of real competition. More than 95% of health insurance markets in the United States are highly concentrated, dominated by one or two companies with the power to drive up costs and limit consumer choice.

That is exactly why the Trump administration’s antitrust policy is so important.

The Trump administration has not hesitated to confront corporate behavior that distorts markets or threatens American interests.

The Federal Trade Commission’s new health care task force signals that President Trump understands what Washington too often ignores: When markets stop working for everyday Americans, government needs to step in to restore competition, lower prices, and protect consumers.

Trump’s antitrust policy, which is pro-consumer, pro-competition, and grounded in common sense, is making real progress toward that restoration.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson made that clear last year when he said the agency would stop “picking winners and losers” and focus instead on removing regulatory barriers that suppress innovation and hurt the American people.

That approach reflects a return to the traditional consumer welfare standard, the idea that antitrust enforcement should focus on whether consumers are actually being harmed by reduced competition. This ensures regulators are focused on results and not politics.

The results on this are clear. The Trump administration has not hesitated to confront corporate behavior that distorts markets or threatens American interests.

For example, the FTC has challenged the left’s toxic corporate practices like DEI and environmental, social, and governance investing. Earlier this year, Ferguson sent a letter to 42 big law firms, warning them that their use of DEI constituted an anticompetitive business practice and could bring legal consequences.

The FTC has tackled ESG too, threatening litigation against investors who attempt to block U.S. coal production in favor of a “net-zero” energy agenda, among other actions.

Meanwhile, the antitrust cases against Meta and Google are still moving forward because the concern is real: These companies have become so powerful they can choke off competition and influence what millions of Americans see online.

Last year, the Trump administration also secured a $2.5 billion settlement with Amazon over its unethical business practices.

RELATED: Hospital consolidations and ‘nonprofit’ tax breaks are driving up medical costs

Carol Smiljan/NurPhoto/Getty Images

This is what Democrats fail to understand about Trump. He is willing to take on corporate power to ensure markets work for the people.

That is also why the administration made the right call in stepping away from absurd Biden-era enforcement like the case against Pepsi over discounts offered to large retailers. During inflation, the last thing Americans need is government attacking lower prices.

The same logic applies to strategic deals that strengthen America against foreign adversaries. The Trump administration allowed the Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks merger to move forward after Biden blocked it. A stronger American tech company would be better positioned to compete with Huawei, the Chinese giant tied to espionage and intellectual property theft.

Trump’s team understands what the last administration did not: Antitrust does not exist in a vacuum. Competition matters, but so does national security.

Trump’s antitrust agenda is revealing a broader shift away from ideology and back toward realism. By restoring the consumer welfare standard, his administration is focusing on protecting consumers, strengthening domestic industry, and defending American interests.

Trump and Ferguson understand that antitrust policy can push back on ideological coercion, protect America’s competitive edge, and make life more affordable for working families, all while keeping consumers and competition at the center of the analysis.

For families being squeezed by rising health care and grocery costs, this is real relief. The FTC may fly under the radar, but under Trump it has become an important part of a broader America First agenda built on common sense and affordability.

​Antitrust policy, Dei, Hospital consolidations, Inflation impact, Meta and google, Trump, Trump administration, Economy, Opinion & analysis 

Last week was a hard one for the atheists. President Trump read from the Bible in the Oval Office, and a federal court upheld the right of Texas to display the Ten Commandments. You can just hear the weeping and gnashing of teeth.

A recent legal challenge, one of many in a long line of church-state disputes, raises a now-familiar question: Can the government display the Ten Commandments without violating the First Amendment?

If government exists to protect what is of highest value, then it cannot remain agnostic about the source of those values.

Predictably, the answer from modern critics comes quickly. We have lived under an ACLU regime for 50 years, which has gaslighted us into believing any such display is wrong and illegal. The atheist insists that any public reference to the Bible is unconstitutional. The pluralist adds that if one religious text is displayed, then all must be.

Together, they present what appears to be a dilemma: Either scrub public life of all religious content, or open the floodgates to every creed imaginable.

Both claims, however, rest on a fundamental misunderstanding of the American founding.

To see why, we need to begin with the principles that shaped the United States itself. These are the principles articulated most famously in the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration does not speak in the language of neutrality. It speaks of “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” It grounds human equality in the fact that we are “created” and “endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”

These are not neutral or secular claims. They are claims rooted in what philosophers have long called natural theology: the idea that reason and creation reveal truths about God.

The First Amendment must be read in light of these founding principles, not in isolation from them.

The text itself is straightforward: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Notice what it does not say. It does not say that the government must be silent about God.

It does not say that public institutions must pretend religion played no role in the nation’s founding. And it certainly does not say that acknowledging moral truths found in Scripture is forbidden.

What it prohibits is the establishment of a national church and the interference with religious worship.

This distinction is crucial. The founders were not secularists in the modern sense. Many of them (though differing in theological detail) shared a conviction that moral law is grounded in God. That conviction did not lead them to impose a church on the people, but neither did it lead them to erase God from public life.

That is where the Ten Commandments come in.

For centuries, the Ten Commandments have been understood not merely as a religious text, but as a concise summary of the moral law. Prohibitions against idolatry, murder, theft, perjury, and covetousness form the backbone of legal systems throughout the Western world. Even those who reject their divine origin often recognize their ethical clarity.

But here is an often-overlooked point: When the Ten Commandments are displayed, they are displayed as a whole.

This matters because critics frequently attempt to reduce them to commandments five through 10. We can call this the “horizontal” commands governing human relationships. But the full Decalogue begins with the “vertical” commands: to worship God alone, to reject idols, and to honor His name and His day.

To display all 10 is to acknowledge that law is not merely a human construct. It reflects an order that begins with God and extends to human society. That idea is foundational to American law.

This fact is why the atheist objection fails. The claim that the First Amendment requires strict secularism reads modern assumptions back into an 18th-century document. The founders did not believe that public acknowledgment of God violated liberty. On the contrary, they believed liberty depended on it.

Without a grounding in something higher than human will, rights become negotiable and law becomes an instrument of power rather than justice. The very idea of equality (so central to the American experiment) loses its foundation.

The pluralist objection fares no better. It assumes that fairness requires equal representation of all religious claims in public displays. But the United States was not founded on a principle of religious equivalence. It was founded on a particular understanding of God, law, and human nature. This was an understanding shaped by Christianity.

RELATED: Why do state schools bankroll people who despise the state?

ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

The Christian nature of American law does not mean that citizens of other faiths are excluded. The First Amendment ensures they are free to worship without government interference. But freedom of worship is not the same as a requirement that the state treat all religious claims as equally foundational to its own identity.

A courthouse displaying the Ten Commandments is not making a claim about every religion. It is recognizing the historical and philosophical roots of its own legal system.

And this brings us back to the central issue: What is the role of government?

If government exists to protect what is of highest value, then it cannot remain agnostic about the source of those values. The founders were clear: These rights come from God. To acknowledge that is not to establish a church; it is to affirm the very basis of the nation’s laws.

Displaying the Ten Commandments alongside the Declaration of Independence is not a constitutional violation. It is a historically informed reminder of where our ideas of law and equality come from.

It tells the truth about the American founding.

In an age increasingly confused about the source of its own principles, telling that truth and teaching it to the next generation is the right thing to do.

​10 commandments, Antichristian, Atheists, Bible, Christianity, Declaration of independence, First amendment, Founding principles, Legal systems, President trump, Role of government, Texas, Opinion & analysis 

On April 25 at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton in D.C., 31-year-old California resident Cole Tomas Allen allegedly rushed a security checkpoint armed with a shotgun, handgun, and knives, firing multiple shots in an attempt to target Trump administration officials.

President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and others were safely evacuated with no serious injuries to attendees; Allen was quickly apprehended and later charged with attempted assassination of the president. Prior to the incident, he had sent a manifesto to family expressing his motives.

When BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler heard the news, she was shaken but not necessarily surprised by yet another act of political violence from the left.

“The left will keep committing or trying to commit hideous acts of violence against us until they can’t. … There is no rhetoric that exists, no argument that can be constructed that will persuade them to stop,” she laments.

This isn’t just a gut feeling either. On this episode of “The Liz Wheeler Show,” Liz points to a recent poll that captures how deeply committed the left is to using political violence to advance its agenda.

According to an April 2025 poll conducted by the Network Contagion Research Institute in partnership with Rutgers University’s Social Perception Lab, 56% of self-identified left-of-center respondents said murdering Trump would be at least “somewhat justified,” with 14.1% calling it “completely justified.”

Liz is horrified by these numbers.

“Fifty-six percent of people on the left — that’s not just the mainstream media and the loudest influencers on X and YouTube, the freaks of the Democratic Party and Congress. This is over half of Democrats,” she says. “That means if you walk up to someone on a street, you meet a neighbor, a co-worker, and you find out that they voted for Kamala Harris or that they lean left, they are more likely than not going to justify a potential assassination of Donald Trump.”

As much as she disagrees with left-wing ideologies, Liz cannot fathom harboring such hatred for her political opponents that she would hope for their murder.

“There’s no circumstance that I can possibly hypothetically construct in my mind where I would ever under any circumstance justify the assassination of even the most horrific Democrat operator that I can think of — ever,” she declares. “There would be no justification for that. It’s illegal. It’s immoral.”

Democrat voters, she argues, are “being formed specifically to believe this.”

Liz shares data from a 2025 Skeptic Research Center report showing that the more education a person has, the more likely they are to condone violence as a means of social change.

“Of people who have a high school diploma or less, 23% agree that violence is often necessary to create social change. Of people who have some college or an associates degree, only 20% agree with that. If you have a bachelor’s degree, 26% agree with that … if you have a graduate or professional degree, suddenly that number jumps all the way to 40%,” she reads from the study.

The same trend emerged for the question: “If you are protesting something unjust, it is reasonable to damage property.”

“This is not a coincidence that … the number of years you spend in colleges and universities correlates to your exponentially increased support for political violence,” says Liz, highlighting the left’s stronghold on academia.

All considered, one thing is clear to Liz: Political violence is no longer confined to the fringes; it’s “mainstream leftist.”

To hear more of her analysis, watch the episode above.

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Late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel responded defiantly to calls demanding he be fired after joking about President Donald Trump dying before the latest assassination attempt.

Kimmel made the joke during a parody Thursday where he pretended to tell jokes at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and made one at the expense of the president.

‘I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.’

Only two days later, an allegedly crazed gunman fired shots at the dinner after posting threats against the president and his administration online.

Kimmel replied to the backlash during his show Monday night.

“You know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and the first lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job? We’ve all been there. Right?” Kimmel said.

He claimed the joke was not about the president dying but rather about the lack of joy on the first lady’s face during their interactions.

“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination. And they know that,” Kimmel said.

“I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence, in particular,” he added. “But I understand that the first lady had a stressful experience over the weekend. And probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house. And also, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”

Both the president and first lady called for Kimmel to be fired for the joke.

“Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at her, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow!” Kimmel quipped.

Kimmel’s show was pulled off the air in Sept. 2025 after he suggested that the suspect in the killing of activist Charlie Kirk was a Trump supporter. He went back to his show only a few days later.

RELATED: ‘The View’ host says latest assassination attempt might have been STAGED by Trump: ‘Is he trying to distract us?’

The first lady posted her comments on Monday.

“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” she wrote.

“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,” she added.

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Video of a very simple question from a Republican member of Congress to a pro-abortion activist went viral on social media.

Republican Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas questioned reproductive rights expert Jessica L. Waters on her preferred method of gruesome baby aborting, but she refused to answer.

‘I wouldn’t want to talk about this either if I were you because it is barbaric and evil.’

Waters was testifying in defense of the FACE Act that was weaponized under the Biden administration to increase prosecution against pro-life activists who protest at abortion provider centers.

“You’re an advocate for abortion, for abortion policy. What’s your favorite type of abortion?” Gill asked.

“I am an advocate for patients having access to the full realm of reproductive health care,” she answered.

“But do you have a preferred method of abortion that you like?” he asked.

“I do not,” she replied.

“Let me read through a couple different methods, and I want to get your take on how much you like these,” Gill said.

“The first type is called a suction abortion. This is when the cervix is dilated and a strong suction 29 times the power of a household vacuum cleaner tears the baby’s body apart and sucks it through the hose into a container. Do you prefer that method?” he asked.

Waters refused to answer, so Gill went on to another method.

“OK, what about this one? This one is called dilation and curettage. After dilation of the cervix, a sharp looped knife is inserted into the uterus. The baby’s body is cut into pieces and extracted, often by suction. Do you prefer that method?” he asked.

Waters again tried to sidestep the question, but Gill pressed on.

“You don’t want to talk about abortion itself. Why is that?” he asked.

He went on to describe another method called dilation and evacuation.

“Do you prefer that method?” he asked.

“I would prefer to talk about the reason the hearing was called and the basis of my expert testimony,” she responded.

“It’s uncomfortable to hear this, isn’t it? It is. I think it is, because it’s barbaric and evil,” he said before describing another abortion method, after which Waters responded again that she would prefer to speak on the subject of the hearing.

“This is the subject of the hearing. This is about protests outside of abortion clinics. I’m asking you about abortion,” Gill said.

“I stand by my prior testimony,” Waters replied.

“I wouldn’t want to talk about this either if I were you because it is barbaric and evil,” he added.

RELATED: Pro-life activist to file civil lawsuit after Democrat DA missed deadline to press charges on assault caught on video

Gill posted video of the testimony from the hearing at the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, and it went viral on social media.

“This is the greatest single question I’ve ever seen asked in Congress,” BlazeTV host Steve Deace replied.

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Last weekend at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton in D.C., a 31-year-old California resident named Cole Tomas Allen allegedly rushed a security checkpoint — armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and knives — and fired multiple shots in an attempt to target Trump administration officials. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, and Allen was charged with attempted assassination of the president.

Allen, Glenn Beck says, is different from former would-be assassins. He isn’t “some lone wolf,” “crazed madman,” or “basement-dwelling nobody.” He’s “a brilliant Caltech graduate” with a long list of impressive credentials and a normal background by all measures.

Glenn wants to know how a man with a successful history in engineering, computer science, and education, whose students and colleagues “loved him,” became “the friendly federal assassin” — the nom de guerre Allen gave himself in the manifesto he sent to family and friends before he allegedly attempted to kill President Trump and other Cabinet members.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn dives into how a bright person with great potential becomes a radicalized killer and what it means for America if this trend isn’t stopped.

“[Allen] was radicalized the same way our children are being radicalized today — not by some foreign terrorist group, but by the toxic stew that is American politics in 2026,” Glenn says.

From “endless media hysteria” and “the online echo chambers” — where Trump and others in the administration are constantly accused of being “rapists,” “pedophiles,” and “fascists” — to the pervasive “belief that our political opponents aren’t just wrong … they’re evil,” modern society has become a factory that churns out radicals, he explains.

But it’s a complicated issue because these revolutionaries who commit acts of violence in the name of justice consider themselves the good guys.

“[Allen] saw himself as a hero — and that mindset is the danger. The guy thought he was Bonhoeffer!” Glenn exclaims.

Allen’s devolution from a bright man with great potential into an alleged would-be assassin is evidence that our republic is heading toward collapse, he warns.

“Bright young men convinced that violence is the only answer to a political disagreement, when assassination becomes thinkable, when fixing the world means opening fire at a dinner — that’s how our republic unravels,” Glenn says.

If the radicalization and violence continues, government officials and public figures will have to start “living behind the walls,” but it’s everyday Americans who will pay the steepest price by “[losing] a piece of the free open society” that we’ve known for so long.

“It’s the republic that pays the price as we lose yet just one more piece of our soul every time hatred wins,” Glenn says.

“[Allen] wasn’t born this way. He was taught to be this way. He was radicalized step by step, post by post, protest by protest, march after march. He actually began to believe that murder was moral,” he continues.

And Glenn fears he won’t be the last to commit violence against political opponents.

“In a country where political rage is treated like a virtue instead of poison, how many other guys are out there right now?” he asks.

“America, we are running out of warnings.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

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Three female customers at a Florida Taco Bell allegedly used a water cup for soda earlier this week, after which an employee opened fire following an argument.

Officers were called around noon Monday to the Taco Bell at Military Trail and 45th Street in West Palm Beach after reports of shots fired inside the restaurant, WPEC-TV reported, citing the probable cause affidavit released Tuesday.

‘It doesn’t surprise me that it would happen. The world we live in today, it makes sense.’

Police said three women entered the restaurant and asked for a cup of water, the station reported.

Investigators said one of the women then filled the cup at a soda fountain, which led to a verbal argument with an employee identified as 20-year-old D’Mari Jy’Quan Patterson, WPEC said.

A witness recorded cellphone video showing Patterson yelling at the women as tempers flared, the station said, adding that police said the sound of a gun being racked can be heard on the video just before a shot rang out in the dining area.

One woman fell to the floor after being shot while another suffered a graze wound, investigators told WPEC.

A third woman ran out of the restaurant, the station said, adding that police allege Patterson followed her outside and fired another shot in her direction.

WPEC said that shot missed but shattered a window near the entrance.

RELATED: Male security guard in Taco Bell caught on video slapping female in face: ‘I said leave!’

The three women drove themselves to a hospital, WPEC reported, adding that police said two were treated for minor injuries and released, while the third was not injured.

After the shooting, Patterson called 911 and told dispatchers a customer had jumped behind the counter, the station said, adding that an arrest affidavit indicated he admitted firing the gun and told officers he placed the gun in the management office before police arrived.

Investigators told WPEC Patterson claimed he believed the women were armed — though police said no weapons were found.

In addition, surveillance video and witness statements don’t support a claim of self-defense, police told the station, which added that the women appeared to be trying to leave when additional shots were fired.

One customer told WPEC regarding the incident that “it doesn’t surprise me that it would happen. The world we live in today, it makes sense.”

Patterson was arrested Monday and charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, the station said, adding that jail records show he’s being held pending court proceedings. His bond is $25,000 for each count of aggravated assault, jail records show.

The State Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case, WPEC said.

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Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz tried and failed to co-opt federal raids on day cares and autism centers amid allegations that he has obstructed anti-fraud investigations.

The Dept. of Justice announced an operation on nearly two dozen sites on Tuesday as part of an investigation into massive fraud in Minnesota, allegedly by members of the Somali community.

‘It’s too little too late because I have already referred him.’

Walz, who dropped a re-election campaign after the allegations of obstruction, posted a statement on social media to take credit for the federal raids.

“If you commit fraud in Minnesota you’re going to get caught — and that’s exactly what we saw today. We catch criminals when state and federal agencies share information. Joint investigations work, and securing justice depends on it,” the failed vice presidential candidate wrote.

He went on to claim that the raids were a result of state agencies catching “irregular behavior” and reporting it.

“Now let’s work on a joint investigation into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good — instead of cherry picking when we seek justice and when we turn a blind eye,” he added.

Pretti and Good were killed while interfering with federal immigration agents in Minnesota.

Kash Patel, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, forcefully rejected Walz’s claims.

“Come again? This FBI and DOJ with our DHS partners drafted and executed every search warrant today,” Patel wrote.

“But go ahead and take credit for our work while we smoke out the fraud plaguing Minnesota under your governorship,” he added.

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida also broadsided the governor.

“Glad to see Tim Walz has finally come around to holding fraudsters accountable, unfortunately it’s too little too late because I have already referred him, as well as other bad actors, to the DOJ for criminal referral for being complicit in this horrifying Minnesota fraud scheme,” Luna wrote.

RELATED: ‘Feeding Our Future’ scam artist agrees to plea deal with a slap-on-the-wrist sentence

Numerous day care and autism treatment centers were included in the FBI raids in Minnesota Tuesday morning, including the infamous “Quality Learing Center” on Nicollet Avenue.

“The task force and the DOJ will be relentless in exposing these fraudsters wherever they may be hiding,” Vice President JD Vance wrote on social media.

Nearly 100 people have been indicted in Minnesota for fraud since 2021, and 67 have been convicted. One of the larger schemes involved the Feeding Our Future nonprofit organization that drained hundreds of millions of dollars from a federal nutrition program.

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The Virginia Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday in Scott v. McDougle, a case initially brought before Tazewell County Circuit Judge Jack Hurley Jr. that could determine whether Old Dominion ultimately adopts a gerrymandered map that would all but guarantee that 10 out of the state’s 11 congressional seats go to Democrats in the upcoming midterm election.

On April 21, Virginia voters passed the redistricting referendum, but the next day, Hurley blocked certification of the result, ruffling the feathers of Democrats who eagerly want to see the result certified.

Hurley ruled in January that the constitutional amendment that ended up on the April 21 ballot was unlawful. He then declared on April 22 in a related case about the constitutional amendment — Koski v. Republican National Committee — that:

the Virginia General Assembly illegitimately usurped the powers of the Virginia Redistricting Commission; the legislation that prompted the special election for the amendment violated the submission, timing, and form of laws clauses of the Virginia Constitution; and”any and all votes for or against the proposed constitutional amendment in the April 21, 2026, special election are ineffective.”

The judge granted the Republican plaintiffs in the Koski case a permanent injunction against certification, noting that they “will be irreparably harmed absent permanent injunctive relief because of the numerous violations of the constitutional amendment process and because Congressmen [Ben] Cline and [Morgan] Griffith would be irreparably harmed by their districts changing at this juncture.”

On April 24, Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones (D) filed a motion for an emergency stay of Hurley’s order in the Koski case.

The Virginia Supreme Court delivered Jones and other Democrats bad news on Tuesday, denying them their coveted emergency stay.

RELATED: Virginia Supreme Court seems skeptical about Democratic gerrymandering

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Former Republican Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli said in response to the court’s rejection of the Democratic motion that “in the ‘tea leaves’ category, this is as positive a ‘tea leaf’ as one might imagine” with regard to the Scott case.

Cuccinelli said that if the Virginia Supreme Court “thought they would let the referendum stand, then logically they would have lifted the injunction on counting & certifying the votes.”

Virginia Del. Wren Williams (R) wrote, “The same Supreme Court that allowed the referendum to go forward in March, so voters could be heard, has now declined to override a final judgment finding the constitutional amendment process defective. Strong signal that process matters in Virginia.”

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