Category: blaze media

In 2024, Pat McAfee made a controversial statement about WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark — calling her a slur while complimenting her.

“There’s one white bitch for the Indiana team who is a superstar, and it is because she stayed in Iowa and put an entire state on her back and took a program from nothing to a multiple-year success story,” McAfee said on his show.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock has watched as the disrespect for Clark because of the color of her skin and superstar status has only grown — and he believes it’s time for big names like McAfee to step up and defend her.

“I’m disappointed with someone like Pat McAfee,” Whitlock says.

“And I’m saying this today trying to inspire him. He’s based right there in Indianapolis. He’s talked about Caitlin Clark previously. He has all the power and leverage at ESPN. He can say whatever the hell he wants and has previously on Caitlin Clark,” he explains.

“But you know what Pat? We need more than you being on ESPN calling Caitlin Clark a ‘white bitch’ as you did previously,” he continues.

“You didn’t say it in a negative way, but you said it. We need more than that. We need you to draw a line in the sand and say, ‘Hey man, whatever the Fever got going on here … the Stephanie White liberation army, this group of angry lesbian feminists that are running the Indiana Fever organization,’ you need to call them out,” he adds.

And Whitlock points out that Clark herself has “Stockholm syndrome” and “can’t speak for herself,” which is why someone like McAfee needs to step up and tell “Indianapolis and Indiana Fever fans, ‘Stay out of that arena until they clean out this left-wing alphabet mafia garbage.’”

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​Fearless, Jason whitlock, Caitlin clark, Pat mcafee, Wnba, Indiana fever, Fearless with jason whitlock 

A Catholic priest who was officially employed as an exorcist has been removed from his role.

The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., said the firing came in direct response to comments made in late May surrounding UFOs and aliens.

‘They can do things that we can’t do.’

Cardinal Robert McElroy, the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., said in a press release on Wednesday that Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a priest of the Diocese of Syracuse, N.Y., would no longer be affiliated with the archdiocese where he was used as an exorcist.

Rossetti recently made comments in a YouTube video saying that his personal belief was that aliens were most likely demonic entities.

“There’s no question in my mind … that probably many, if not most of these UFO sightings, are in fact demons,” Rossetti said in a video that has been removed from YouTube.

It has since been noted that Rossetti is a former Air Force intelligence officer who spent six years in service. Rossetti confirmed this in a 2024 interview, describing himself as a signals intelligence officer, while other biographies have also listed him as working in an intelligence capacity.

RELATED: Exorcisms are exploding across America — but nobody wants to admit why

Grzegorz Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images

Rossetti is also listed as a former serviceman in an official Air Force document, where he is described as a “distinguished graduate of the Air Force Academy class of 1973.”

“They can do things that we can’t do, thus the speed and all sorts of things that human beings can’t,” Rossetti said in his recent video. “They will try to manipulate us.”

Cardinal McElroy said Rossetti’s statements that linked “UFOs to demonic presence” and his social media activity “gravely undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil, demons, and exorcism.”

Rossetti responded to the press release by saying he was “saddened” by the decision and asked for forgiveness if he had not been faithful to the “teachings of the Church’s Magisterium.”

“I believe it is of the utmost importance to be obedient to the Church, and I will continue to endeavor to subject all that I do and the Center to be thus obedient,” he added.

RELATED: EXORCIST: Is America demonically possessed?

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The comments come at a time of increased UFO disclosure, which has included a trove of government documents revealing reports of unknown objects like “glowing orbs.”

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) in particular has been at the forefront of remarkable claims about aliens and UFOs/UAPs in recent months.

Burchett has claimed that alien aircraft, life forms, and even human-alien breeding programs are confirmed to exist.

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​Ufo, Aliens, Demons, Tech, Exorcism, Catholic church, News, Faith 

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton will reportedly plead guilty to one of the 18 federal charges against him, according to sources who spoke to CNN.

Bolton was indicted by a federal grand jury in Maryland in Oct. 2025 on eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information.

‘I think he’s, you know, a bad person. I think he’s a bad — yeah, he’s a bad guy. It’s too bad. But that’s the way it goes, right? That’s the way it goes.’

The 77-year-old is expected to plead to one count of illegal retention of sensitive documents and also agree to pay a fine of $2.25 million.

Federal prosecutors alleged that he illegally retained classified documents and information for the purpose of writing his 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.”

Bolton had allegedly sent thousands of pages of classified national security material via a private email server to his family members before he was fired by Trump in Sept. 2019.

“While Bolton was a national security adviser, he was literally stealing classified information, utilizing his family as a cutout,” said a top U.S. official to the New York Post after Bolton’s offices were raided in Aug. 2025.

President Donald Trump has lambasted Bolton often since tossing him out of his first administration.

“Washed up Creepster John Bolton is a lowlife who should be in jail, money seized, for disseminating, for profit, highly Classified information,” said the president in June 2020.

Bolton is expected to admit to improperly keeping classified information in his diaries, but he is expected to continue to deny he illegally carried classified documents out of government offices.

The sources indicated that Bolton is likely to plea guilty at his arraignment on June 26.

Neither Bolton nor the Justice Dept. commented on the report, according to ABC News.

RELATED: DOJ fires back at John Bolton over accusations in his book

“You’re telling me for the first time, but I think he’s, you know, a bad person,” the president said in October about Bolton’s indictment. “I think he’s a bad — yeah, he’s a bad guy. It’s too bad. But that’s the way it goes, right? That’s the way it goes.”

He was facing 10 years in prison for each of the 18 counts in the indictment.

Bolton worked in the Trump administration as national security adviser between 2018 and 2019. He had been a longtime proponent of regime change in Iran, but he has criticized how the president has handled the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.

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​Classified documents, John bolton, National security adviser, Trump administration, Politics, Donald trump 

On June 1, Vickrum Digwa — the British-born Sikh man from Southampton who stabbed and killed 18-year-old British university student Henry Nowak over false claims of racism in December 2025 — was sentenced to life in prison.

The day following Digwa’s sentencing, released bodycam footage from the incident sparked a furious national uproar.

The footage captured police handcuffing and treating the dying Nowak as the aggressor based on Digwa’s false racism claim, while he repeatedly pleaded, “I’ve been stabbed,” and “I can’t breathe” — fueling widespread anger over perceived two-tier policing and racial bias in how officers responded. A particularly chilling image from the footage showing Nowak’s pale, bloodless hand in handcuffs has gone viral.

BlazeTV host Steve Deace wonders if this horrific case will finally “light the powder keg in the U.K.”

While Deace believes the outrage over the Nowak case has revitalized Reform U.K. leader Nigel Farage, making him sound like his stronger, more outspoken “Brexit-era” self again, he fears that the U.K. still lacks a strong enough political party or movement to actually ignite change — especially given the enormity of the task ahead.

“History shows Islamists don’t ever just peacefully hand over cultures,” he says, speculating that to successfully uproot Islam from British culture will take far more than the current “embers of resistance.”

Co-host Todd Erzen is even less hopeful. “I don’t think this is going to wake anybody up. Nobody wants to be awake. That’s the thing. They want to be comfortably numb there,” he says.

Aaron McIntire agrees, noting that more Brits would likely riot over Arsenal’s Champions League loss to PSG than over Nowak’s treatment and the broader erosion of British culture by mass immigration.

“The Christian worldview does not allow for nihilism, does not allow for black pilling, but I’m just trying to analyze this realistically,” he admits. “What would you point to to say that there is an appetite?”

The only leverage the U.K. has left, says Deace, is “the zero option” — the ultimate escalation of no-limits force.

But even this method isn’t foolproof.

“Sometimes against jihadists, you don’t even have that because now they’re just like, ‘You know what’s on the other end of zero option? Forty vestal virgins and a law in eternity,’” he says.

Even still, he believes zero option remains the only hope of change.

To hear more of the panel’s discussion, watch the episode above.

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​Steve deace show, Steve deace, Henry nowak, Uk, Britain, Two-tiered justice system 

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) ratified a radical piece of Democratic legislation last week that will force colleges across the state to moonlight as dispensaries for abortion drugs like mifepristone, thereby encouraging college-age women to abort the next generation.

‘College students shouldn’t have to go through hoops.’

House Bill 1335 — a bill sponsored by state Rep. Lorena Garcia, a Democrat who ensured last year that all Coloradan taxpayers contribute to abortion — requires that:

Thirty-two Colorado colleges with student health facilities “provide abortion medication to all students enrolled at the institution”;On-campus pharmacies “maintain a stock of and provide access to abortion medication to students” enrolled at the school; andColleges without on-site pharmacies submit prescriptions for abortion medications to off-campus pharmacies or alternatively dispense abortion drugs through their student health centers.

The law goes into effect on Aug. 1, 2027.

Among the organizations that condemned the legislation and urged Polis to consider a veto was the Colorado Catholic Conference, which deemed HB 1335 “a violation of the sanctity of life of preborn children.”

RELATED: James Talarico’s WOKE CHURCH raises money to fund abortions and transgender summer camp for children

WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP/Getty Images

“Requiring colleges and universities to stockpile abortion pills will destroy more human life and cause serious physical, emotional and mental harm to many young women,” the CCC stated. “Additionally, HB26-1335 violates the religious freedom of insurers who do not cover abortion.”

Lydia Davis, a spokeswoman for Students for Life of America, warned about the dangers of abortion drugs.

Davis told the College Fix that “these deadly drugs have killed millions of babies, harmed women, and polluted our water systems with chemically tainted fetal remains flushed into our sewer systems. This bill would turn college campuses into abortion distribution centers and continue transforming our sewers into cemeteries.”

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, there were at least 36 patient deaths associated with mifepristone between September 2000 and December 2024.

Adverse events have also been reported in 2,740 cases of women who took mifepristone to kill their unborn children. Between November 2012 and December 2024, 288 women who used mifepristone were hospitalized; 190 experienced blood loss requiring transfusions; and 114 suffered infections, the USDA reported.

Rebecca Weaver, director of advocacy for the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists Action, said in her written testimony to Colorado lawmakers that the legislation “imposes sweeping requirements without establishing basic medical safeguards, creating significant risks to women’s health and undermining standards of care.”

Lloyd Benes, a Coloradan who testified earlier this year in opposition to the legislation, echoed some of AAPLOG Action’s concerns in an op-ed in the Loveland Reporter-Herald last month, stating that the legislation does not require campus clinics to provide informed consent; has no in-person dispensing requirement, raising concerns about potential coercion; has no ultrasound requirement, perhaps leaving ectopic pregnancies undetected; has no guidance on the disposal of human remains; and lacks conscience protections.

After Polis signed the bill into law, state Rep. Garcia stated, “This new law makes sure college students can easily access their constitutionally-protected right to reproductive healthcare. For college students, their entire lives center around campus, and this law makes medication abortion accessible through a student health clinic or pharmacy.”

State Rep. Kenny Nguyen (D) said, “College students shouldn’t have to go through hoops to receive their constitutionally-protected right to an abortion. Our law streamlines access to medication abortion accessible so college students can receive life-saving care.”

Regis University, a private Catholic school in Denver, is exempt from the law, Axios reported.

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​Abortion, Colorado, College, Democrats, University, Abortion pill, Pharmaceuticals, Death, Mifepristone, Politics 

Oil industry executives have reportedly warned the Trump administration that energy prices are likely to spike even more as reserves hurtle closer to a danger point.

Gas prices have already risen sharply as a result of the blockade by both the U.S. and Iran on the trade route through which much of the world’s oil travels, the Strait of Hormuz.

‘I hope they are paying attention to inventories right now. You’re hitting tank bottom.’

According to a Politico report, four executives confirmed that officials of the U.S. energy industry informed the administration that backup oil reserves are being depleted quickly.

“We’re at dangerously low levels already,” said an industry executive who requested anonymity. “We have shared those concerns at the highest levels of government about what’s coming in mid-to-late June. … I hope they are paying attention to inventories right now. You’re hitting tank bottom.”

However, a White House official flatly denied the Politico report.

“Politico’s anonymous sources are wrong,” the official said.

The report was supported by recent public statements from ExxonMobil, Chevron, and other oil companies about depleted oil backup resources.

Gas prices have risen on average by an astounding 42.9%, according to statistics from the Automobile Association of America. A gallon of gas cost just under $3 before the war started, reached as high as $4.50, and has settled recently at $4.26.

Exxon’s senior vice president, Neil Chapman, said at an investor conference that crude oil prices could hit $150 or $160 a barrel once reserves run out.

“You can debate whether that’s going to hit those really low levels in two weeks or three weeks. Once you get to that point, then you’ll see prices shoot up,” he said.

Another oil executive commented to Politico about Chapman’s statement.

“The administration has already been told that,” the executive said. “Don’t think that an open strait is going to mean your July 4 gasoline bill isn’t going to be higher than what it is today. It’s going to be.”

Others expressed surprise that the oil price shock hadn’t hit already.

RELATED: Gavin Newsom tries to blame gas companies for high gas prices — and gets NUKED by community note

The Trump administration points to policy changes it has made to alleviate oil prices, including a waiver to the Jones Act.

“President Trump and his energy team anticipated short-term market disruptions, communicated them openly to the American people, and implemented an aggressive plan to mitigate any impacts,” reads a statement from Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson. “President Trump will never allow Iran to possess a nuclear weapon, and he will continue to advance America’s core national security interests.”

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​Blockade, Energy prices, Gas prices, Strait of hormuz, Politics 

President Donald Trump has criticized California for its vote-counting delay in the gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral races, accusing the state’s Democratic leaders of “BIG cheating.”

While California polls closed at 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday, that state’s counting appears to remain at a standstill as of Thursday morning.

‘Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.’

Only 56% of the votes have been counted in the race for governor and 62% in the mayoral election, according to the Associated Press. This is a 2% decrease for both races compared to Wednesday morning.

In the race to replace Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Fox News host and small-business owner Steve Hilton (R) currently holds a slight lead over former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra (D), and climate advocate and businessman Tom Steyer (D) remains in third position.

Hilton has so far received 1,421,466 votes, Becerra received roughly 1,318,536, and Steyer received 1,019,332.

Despite the AP and other election data aggregators stating that the race is currently too early to call, Trump declared Hilton the winner on Wednesday afternoon.

“Congratulations to Steve Hilton on coming in first, last night, in the California Vote for Governor,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “If Californians are smart, which I know they are, they will put Steve into the Governor’s Mansion, and watch their State get better at a rate that has probably never been seen before. I know Steve — He is a hard driving WINNER, and he will turn California around, quickly — and the Federal Government will be there, with him, to help!”

The top two winners will face off again in November.

RELATED: California vote-counting continues: Who’s advancing in the governor and LA mayor races?

Frederic J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

Meanwhile, in the race for L.A. mayor, only incumbent Karen Bass has currently secured enough votes, 183,701, to move on to November’s runoff election, according to the AP.

Former reality TV star Spencer Pratt sits in second place with 157,116 votes, and L.A. City Councilwoman Nithya Raman is in third with 119,809.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk claimed that many voters had returned their mail-in ballots on Election Day.

RELATED: ‘Doomsday scenario’: California governor race turns into high-stakes scramble as vote split may keep Republican out

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

Trump accused the “Dumocrats” in California of “trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES.”

“Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS,” he wrote on social media.

Trump announced that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles is investigating the vote-counting delay.

“There’s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California. Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks. Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Why the vote counting DELAY???” Trump wrote.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined Blaze News’ request for comment.

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​News, California, Los angeles, Donald trump, Steve hilton, Spencer pratt, Karen bass, Xavier becerra, Tom steyer, Nithya raman, Politics 

Welcome, America, to the Thunderdome of AI oversight.

President Trump has dropped his executive order, putting the onus on the federal government’s most secretive agencies to determine whether the products of private corporations are safe for public consumption. The National Security Agency is at the heart of the plan, with the intelligence community setting classified benchmarks, vetting, and gatekeeping new AI models within a 30-day window. Private-sector institutions and stakeholders, including AI companies themselves, must sit and wait, blind, for decisions to be handed down.

It can’t be said that this decision is strongly supported by conservatives, the “based community,” or even MAGA people more narrowly. The personal, private bid by former White House AI and crypto chief David Sacks to stop the Trump train on AI resulted only in a delay and a narrowing of the oversight window. On X, Sacks had to resort to emphasizing the things the order doesn’t do that he and the accelerationist wing of the right oppose.

Is there anything we can tell these machines to do that doesn’t tend to demote us as human beings?

That means even Trump’s inner circle will keep on duking it out among themselves.

Congress is wrestling with OpenAI’s approach, which relies on (deep breath) the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation. In short, the idea is that oversight and testing should be carried out under the aegis of established and respected bodies that bridge government and industry through public-private partnerships. This approach allows AI companies themselves, plus other stakeholders and experts outside the intelligence community, to have a participatory role in testing and oversight of new models.

Yet Congress is sharply divided, and the upcoming midterm elections could alter the balance of power. Competing bills are already in the mix on Capitol Hill, with the leading piece of draft legislation, the bipartisan American Leadership in AI Act, hinging on outcomes in the rat’s nest of congressional politics — ranging from Louisiana Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s unwillingness to reauthorize the House AI Task Force to rank-and-file Democrats’ unfavorable disposition toward the draft bill.

Can both houses of Congress come to an agreement on AI model development as well as testing? One that Trump won’t veto? Probably not, but with anti-AI sentiment running hotter and hotter across the populist (and opportunist) wings of both parties, principled members and ambitious members alike are all but guaranteed to shoot their shot before November.

That means Americans won’t be looking to their elected representatives for clarity on AI.

RELATED: Why dystopian AI doomers need to get religion

The doomer delusion ArtMarie via iStock/Getty Images

And Pope Leo XIV, of course, has his landmark encyclical out there, insisting — along with many other Christians — that no law or regulation or basket of rules is enough to enable anyone, even the United States government, to get the kind of grip on AI that will ensure our sacred human being is no worse for wear.

But there’s no indication that America’s Christians, much less the world’s, are poised to throw down their doctrinal and ecclesiological differences and line up shoulder to shoulder with the pope’s presentation of things — or with the pope as a singular planetary spiritual authority on all matters AI and tech.

That means neither our leading political power players nor our leading spiritual authority figures will give Americans the kind of overall guidance they increasingly seem to crave.

Perhaps, however, we should all recognize that’s actually for the best, because the essence of the problem concerning AI is its risk, not of wiping out the human race, but of emptying the human race of all power and authority except for a tiny cyborg elite, one hell-bent on remaking all God’s creation, every single one of us included, in their monomaniacal image.

Paradoxically, responding to this risk by maximizing tech hate and consolidating all tech hatred into as tiny and powerful an elite as possible dramatically increases the risk of both wiping out the human race and deepening the would-be cyborg elite’s conviction that if they don’t achieve a radical and irreversible break with all to ever come before them, then they’ll meet a fate worse than death.

Back on our feet and back in charge

Given the dangers of over-centralized AI oversight on one hand and a regulatory war of all against all on the other, now is a good time to ask whether Bitcoin can offer ordinary people a more balanced, distributed, and practical path forward.

For all the noise and blather in the fractured crypto world, the case for Bitcoin in the AI age is simple: If we are not going to dismantle these machines — and if people will keep building more powerful ones — can we direct them toward anything that preserves rather than diminishes our human dignity?

The answer is obviously yes, but the combination of massive fear over techno-dystopia and massive resistance to “organized religion” leads many to paint themselves into a paralyzing psychological corner where no answer seems plausible or effective.

That’s a shame. Bitcoin is sitting right there, an advanced, mature technology that allows people with a minimum of new information or expertise to start creating and growing markets and institutions that benefit and protect themselves and their friends, families, and parishes, without having to rely on superintelligent machines or government financial systems.

Given that superintelligent machines and government financial systems have a clear logical and practical tendency to converge, becoming one system very well suited to enforcing a single, uniform, and servile existence worldwide, it would seem fairly urgent for people to consider the benefits of taking a few steps outside their zone of comfort or self-disempowerment and start to use Bitcoin at least a little with those they care about most.

That’s why I continue to offer my book on our tech reckoning, “Human Forever,” only in Bitcoin. Piling up the digital currency and waiting for Nirvana just isn’t going to cut it, whether we face a societal collapse scenario, an age of mandatory pleasure and plenty, or a mutant future that somehow combines both into one waking phantasmagoria. Using Bitcoin needs to happen well beyond the realm of books, obviously. But being a writer, well — I’m putting my money where my mouth is.

Is it enough to solve all our problems, with our machines and with one another? Obviously, again, no. But it just might fix our attention on how we can preserve human ways of life that open the way not just to solutions, but to salvation.

​Artificial intelligence, David sacks, Donald trump, Executive order, Intelligence community, National security agency, Opinion & analysis, Pope leo, Tech, Human forever, Oversight, Bitcoin, Religion, Christianity 

As controversy continues to swirl around the Freedom 250 Great American State Fair, one performer is making it clear he has no intention of dropping out: rapper Vanilla Ice.

The man behind the hit song “Ice Ice Baby” isn’t backing down from his decision to perform at the fair — which is a festival organized by Freedom 250, a nonprofit working with the White House Task Force 250.

When the lineup for the festival was announced, several large performers dropped out, including Martina McBride, Bret Michaels, Young MC, the Commodores, and Morris Day.

“We’re going to have a nice concert with a whole bunch of acts that haven’t been big in 35 to 40 years,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray jokes on “Pat Gray Unleashed.”

“Vanilla Ice,” he says, adding, “And he was one that didn’t pull out.”

“I’m reinforced. I’m here. I am committed. Once you commit, you don’t quit, man. And that’s how I am,” Vanilla Ice said in an interview.

“And the way the people are dragging this into politics, it’s not fair,” he said. “It is not fair to us as entertainers for sure. And I think that this shouldn’t be looked at as political or anything.”

“I don’t think that doing a partisan rally is the way to go on this,” Gray comments, though he notes that he does “love what this president is trying to do to celebrate this country.”

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​Americas 250th birthday, Bret michaels, Commodores, Freedom 250, Ice ice baby, Martina mcbride, Morris day, Pat gray, Pat gray unleashed, Vanilla ice, Young mc 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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​Brooke rollins, Usda, Texas, Politics 

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

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

‘They just hate white people.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gage Skidmore/Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Map in the face

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

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

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

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

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

Wack job

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

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

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

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

Hopelessly demoted

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

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

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

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

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

The author’s house before …

… and after. Photos courtesy Matt Himes

Loudmouth at large

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

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

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

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

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

Heel turn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Apu Gomes/Getty Images

Prattriots in control

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

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

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

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

Skin in the game

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Below is the clip of her off-script words:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘AI demand is driving up the price.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jim WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

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

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

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

“Mind the gap.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And you can’t. Not on your own.

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

The answer you don’t want to hear

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The good news …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

… and how to take it

Consider also (boldface mine):

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

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

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

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

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

RELATED: 7 ways to know if you’re saved

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Only one way

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

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

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

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

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

What prizes await

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That structure is what makes grants so effective.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RELATED: No more free ride for federal grant hogs

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That disconnect slows everything down.

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

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

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

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

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

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