Category: blaze media

The mayor of New York City faced two major roadblocks for his far-left plan to hit certain rentals in the city with a pied-à-terre tax.

The tax scheme from Mayor Zohran Mamdani was temporarily blocked by a Staten Island judge on Monday who sided with a group of homeowners suing against the tax.

‘It is pure Amateur Hour, and it’s hard, as President of the United States of America, to sit back and watch it happen, especially to a place I once loved.’

Then President Donald Trump piled on and said he would seek to use the powers of the federal government to oppose the “dangerous” policy in his hometown.

“This dangerous political ‘experiment’ in New York will destroy what was once a great City and State,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “It is pure Amateur Hour, and it’s hard, as President of the United States of America, to sit back and watch it happen, especially to a place I once loved. Financial, and then Social, RUIN, is a 100% certainty.”

The tax would impose a penalty for non-primary residences rented out in the city and worth more than $5 million. Mamdani said it would hit larger landlords and help pay for his socialist schemes in the city.

The president went on to say he would seek to oppose the tax himself in order to save the city from certain ruin.

“I am looking to see if the Federal Government has any legal right to avert this disaster, before it is too late,” he added, “for the millions of people who cherish New York and want to see it thrive, as opposed to becoming a filthy, crime ridden, decrepit place of mockery and scorn.”

The Mamdani administration said i would file an appeal in order to allow the tax to continue.

“The City will continue with the pied-à-terre’s implementation,” said Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesperson for Mamdani.

“We disagree with today’s ruling, but we are confident in both the pied-à-terre surcharge and the City’s ability to implement it fairly and effectively,” he added.

RELATED: Prominent professor supported Mamdani’s socialist scheme — until he became a target

One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit said he supported the tax but was shocked when he got a notice in the mail demanding he pay it. He says it was a mistake.

“Hopefully they can take a bit of time, take a step back, and say, well, let’s approach this in a more thoughtful way, do a little bit more diligence before we start sending out letters,” said Simon Hedley.

The tax would also apply to non-primary co-ops or condominiums worth over $1 million.

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​Zohran mamdani, Piedaterre tax, President donald trump, Socialism, Taxes, Politics 

The residents of a tiny Spanish province in Northern Africa mounted a mass protest to call for action against the tens of thousands of illegal aliens who tried to breach the border from Morocco.

The protesters gathered at the Plaza de la Constitución under the slogan, “Enough, Ceuta won’t give up!” and waved Spanish flags while singing their national anthem, according to Reuters.

‘One day it’s 500 people, the next, 70,000, and they cannot be sent back! What kind of law allows for rejection by land but not by sea …’

Dozens of migrants perished in the waters trying to swim into Ceuta from Morocco in order to try to gain entry into Spain.

The protest was reportedly organized in part by leaders in the four main religious communities in Ceuta: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu.

Samuel Levy, a member of Ceuta’s Jewish community, spoke about the protest to a local news outlet.

“There comes a point where the government’s inaction becomes overwhelming. We cannot live with this sword of Damocles hanging over us,” Levy said.

Some suspect the migrants were motivated to overrun Ceuta after a Spanish Supreme Court ruling saying migrants crossing into the country by sea deserved due process before being turned back, unlike those coming by land.

Levy referred to that suspicion directly.

“One day it’s 500 people, the next, 70,000, and they cannot be sent back! What kind of law allows for rejection by land but not by sea in a country surrounded by coastline?” he added.

“We need protection. We need the agreements that were reached to be honored,” said Mercedes Canca, a representative of the Catholic community.

“Morocco said that after the events of 2021, this would not happen again,” she added, referring to a previous migrant invasion. “Five years have passed, and it has happened again, only this time on an extreme scale. It is unsustainable.”

RELATED: Spain says 25,000 migrants have been expelled from tiny Ceuta territory — with 34 DEATHS

Levy went on to point out that the four communities lived in peace and harmony in Ceuta before the migrants overran the province.

“Ceuta is peace and concordance,” he said.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement condemning the circumstances that led to the invasion.

“This unacceptable incident is the direct result of the Spanish government’s deliberate efforts to enable and facilitate mass illegal migration into Europe,” the agency said in a statement. “We are considering actions to defend Americans at home and abroad from this threat and stand ready to assist other European allies considering similar options.”

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​Ceuta, Illegal immigration, Morocco, Spain, Europe, Nationalism, Politics 

In March this year, openly gay celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton, who built his cruel empire on crude photoshopped doodles on faces, relentless body-shaming, outing people, and gleeful pile-ons, had a dramatic public conversion to Christianity after a severe case of sepsis left him on death’s doorstep. Hilton claimed he encountered God in the hospital and vowed to change his wicked ways, including ceasing his mean-spirited tabloiding, reading the Bible, taking his three children to church, and being a more present father.

Tragically last week, Hilton was hospitalized after a TikTok livestream captured him naked and covered in blood while self-harming. Thousands of people witnessed the gruesome spectacle before TikTok shut down the live stream.

The questions immediately began pouring in. Was this the lingering fallout from his recent sepsis battle? Was he under spiritual attack? Is he suffering from mental illness?

On this episode of “Relatable,” Allie Beth Stuckey examines whether Perez Hilton’s disturbing live stream was a mental health crisis or a case of demonic possession.

Many Christians speculate that Hilton’s self-harming was due to demonic possession. Allie acknowledges this possibility — but only if Hilton’s conversion was not genuine. If he is truly indwelled by the Holy Spirit, then demonic possession is not in the cards, she argues.

But from what she’s seen of Hilton in the months since his public conversion, Allie isn’t certain he really understands the gospel.

She highlights his continued celebration of his gay identity, his comment from a recent post claiming that he “[doesn’t] believe in everything that the Bible says,” and his new line of spiritual-themed merchandise as “red flags.”

Further, self-harm, Allie admits, is a “hallmark” of true demonic possession in the Bible.

“I don’t think that this means that it is always demonic possession, but it seems that when a demon is possessing someone, there is violence done to their bodies,” she says, citing Mark 9, where Jesus heals a demon-possessed boy who kept throwing himself into fire and water, and Mark 5, where Jesus healed a man possessed by legions of demons who cut himself with stones.

While Allie acknowledges that no one knows for certain what really happened to Perez Hilton that horrible night, the circumstances do seem to fit the biblical description of demonic possession.

“The Perez Hilton live stream looks more like demonic possession. … As soon as I saw the description of it, it reminded me of the man walking among the tombs who was cutting himself with the stones every day who was possessed by Legion,” she says.

If it’s true that he was indeed possessed by a demon, then Allie believes Hilton was never saved to begin with.

“Scripture has repeated serious warnings about those who claim to have accepted Christ as their savior but persist in this kind of unrepentant sin. … That unrepentant attitude of stubbornness of ‘This is my identity. This is how I’m going to live. I know what the Bible says. I don’t care. I am my own authority’ — the Holy Spirit is not going to allow you to continue in that if He lives in you,” she argues.

She then reads from Hebrews 10:26-27: “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.”

“I think that we can say in confidence the Holy Spirit is not living inside [Perez Hilton]. He doesn’t have the fruit of the Spirit, and we want that for him,” says Allie, urging her audience to pray for him and his children.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Allie beth stuckey, Bible, Celebrity gossip, Christianity, Demonic possession, Mental illness, Perez hilton, Blazetv show 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton intervened in the controversial case where a couple of California parents called for their hired surrogate to abort their intended baby after the child was found to have a heart defect.

The “Baby Gabriel” case has divided many along the pro-life and pro-abortion divide after the surrogate mother traveled to Texas in search of life-prolonging care for the baby.

‘Baby Gabriel deserves a chance at life, and I will not allow anyone to unlawfully deny him medically necessary care.’

The unborn child has a serious but treatable heart condition, and the California couple have threatened to transport the child out of Texas to avoid the extensive surgeries necessary to save the baby’s life.

On Tuesday Paxton released a statement announcing that he had officially notified UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center of Dallas of their legal obligation to provide the baby with “medically necessary, lifesaving care upon birth.”

Paxton said he also asked a district court to issue an order preventing the removal of the baby from Texas.

“Baby Gabriel deserves a chance at life, and I will not allow anyone to unlawfully deny him medically necessary care,” said Paxton in the press release. “My office will use every tool available to protect innocent lives and ensure that every child receives the care required under Texas law.”

The surrogate mother is a nurse and single mom of two from Alaska named McKenna West. Court documents said the biological parents triggered the “abortion on demand” clause of their agreement after learning about the heart defect diagnosis.

“Every life matters. No woman should be forced to end the life of the baby she is carrying — including me,” West told the New York Post.

“Baby Gabriel should receive a chance at life.”

The biological parents had demanded that West travel to Seattle, Washington, for the abortion procedure after Alaskan doctors refused.

West refused and tried to relieve the parents of financial responsibility for the child, but they refused and sued her for $250,000. She faces bankruptcy if they are successful, West says.

RELATED: Yet another bewildering anti-Christian statement from James Talarico has been unearthed

The couple, however, have accused West in court documents of refusing to undergo an amniocentesis test to identify genetic disorders in order to seek money from them.

Paxton is in the middle of a bruising campaign for the U.S. Senate, which may determine whether Democrats are able to seize control in Congress.

The Baby Gabriel case helps highlight the Republican’s pro-life beliefs in contrast to his far-left competitor, James Talarico. The Texas Democrat enthusiastically supports a woke church that has referred to abortion as a “blessing.”

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​Abortion, James talarico, Ken paxton, Prolife, Surrogacy, Politics 

Oakland resident Jesse Rosemoore began the campaign to “cancel Piedmont” more than a year ago against the 1.7-square mile city with its own police force and school district.

Rosemoore hands out stickers reading, “CANCEL PIEDMONT” and sells $10 T-shirts bearing the provocative slogan, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

‘I felt like someone needed to bring even more attention to it, because what’s going on there says a lot about our society as a whole.’

Some have referred to the city as “Oakland’s Doughnut Hole” because it is encircled by the larger city.

The Chronicle acknowledges that residents in Piedmont have tried to make up for admitted historic efforts of racial exclusion, but those efforts have just led to more backlash.

“I know people want to always think that we’re horrible,” said Jean Chen Takazawa, a diversity, equity, and inclusion director for the Piedmont school district. “The reality is we’re doing good work here. Stop judging us and let us just do the work.”

Rosemoore disagrees.

“It really is ridiculous that a place like Piedmont even exists,” the 44-year-old said. “I felt like someone needed to bring even more attention to it, because what’s going on there says a lot about our society as a whole.”

While one in every five Oakland residents is black, the Chronicle reported that only 1% of Piedmont residents are black.

“Back in the day, segregation tended to look like you having the white neighborhood and the Black neighborhood in the same city,” said Stephen Menendian, an assistant director of a DEI center at UC Berkeley. “But now, most segregation is felt between cities, rather than within them.”

Piedmont residents report feeling scapegoated after city officials attempted address the inequality by hiring DEI experts and trying to build multi-unit apartments with lower-income units. Critics say the efforts are performative rather than substantive.

Rosemoore also recognizes that it’s nearly impossible to have Oakland annex Piedmont because it would require the approval of the wealthy enclave’s residents.

“If I proposed that, I’d be tarred and feathered,” said a former Piedmont mayor to the Chronicle.

RELATED: Video captures the moment karate instructors thwart alleged armed carjacking in Oakland

The Chronicle noted that a “young jogger” had enthusiastically endorsed Rosemoore’s campaign against Piedmont, but an older black woman issued him a warning after furrowing her brow.

“Don’t feel bad if you get some pushback,” she said. “People feel strongly about their small towns.”

Another woman described as a young woman wearing a “Free Palestine” hat also told Rosemoore she supported Piedmont after moving there.

“I’m not going to lie,” she said. “As a Latina who has lived in really bad areas my whole life, it’s pretty sick. And I’m hopeful it’ll only get better. I heard they might be building more apartments.”

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​Diversity equity and inclusion, Gentrification, Segregation, Dei programs, California, Politics 

A CNN investigation has found that the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Michigan has apparently removed more than a hundred YouTube videos expressing his far-left beliefs.

Abdul El-Sayed narrowly won the Democratic nomination from an establishment candidate last Tuesday, leading many to seize upon the contest as further evidence of fringe extremists taking over the party.

Another video no longer accessible to the public had the Democrat calling for the end of the 2nd Amendment guaranteeing gun rights.

Before he ran for the nomination, El-Sayed removed public access to more than 100 videos on his YouTube account, according to the CNN KFILE report.

In one removed video, El-Sayed blasted the Republican Party for focusing on illegal border crossings and claimed illegal immigration should not be a top concern for voters.

Another video no longer accessible to the public had the Democrat calling for the end of the Second Amendment guaranteeing gun rights and instead offered that there should be a constitutional right to health care.

“What if we tweaked the Constitution, amended the amendment, and instead of the ‘right to bear arms,’ we change it to the right to have health care?” said El-Sayed in the removed video.

One removed video from July 2024 featured El-Sayed arguing that Americans should stop celebrating the Fourth of July with fireworks. He cited the environmental damage and the risk they allegedly pose to veterans with PTSD as well as pets and children.

He also expressed support for “feminist prison abolition” while reading an ad for the show.

El-Sayed’s campaign responded to the CNN report in a statement downplaying the video removals.

“Abdul is the former captain of his high school football team, loves Michigan football on Saturdays, and celebrates the Fourth of July with fireworks like the next Michigander,” the statement read. “Cherry-picked comments from old podcasts don’t reflect his beliefs today.”

Although the campaign said El-Sayed had changed his beliefs since posting the videos, the most recently removed videos were just two years old.

RELATED: ‘He’s full of s**t’: Trump RIPS INTO Abdul El-Sayed after his narrow victory

The campaign claimed he respected the Second Amendment and pointed to recent messages he posted telling Americans to enjoy fireworks on the Fourth of July.

CNN said it had reviewed transcripts of the videos that had been archived before they were removed.

El-Sayed is aiming to defeat Republican candidate Mike Rogers, helping to determine whether Democrats are able to seize control of the Senate in the midterm elections.

The RealClearPolling average currently has Rogers winning with a very slim lead of 44.3% to El-Sayed at 44.0%

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​Abdul el-sayed, Us senate election, Michigan, Midterm elections, Politics 

Former NFL quarterback and league MVP Cam Newton is likely to cause a huge disruption in the NFL with his latest comments.

Newton, a three-time Pro Bowl player with the Carolina Panthers, is known as one of the best quarterbacks never to win a Super Bowl, but he’s also known for being one of the most outspoken in the league’s history.

On Thursday’s episode of “4th&1 with Cam Newton,” the Georgia native defended NFL QB Aaron Rodgers over his recent statements on ESPN.

‘Everybody in the NFL voted Democrat? Hell no, they didn’t.’

While appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show” last week, Rodgers unloaded on ESPN for its coverage of his refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccination in 2021 while with the Green Bay Packers.

Newton said he respects Rodgers for speaking out before detailing, at length, how organizations handle controversial issues. Minutes later, he declared it was time to be wholly honest on the topic.

“I hate to be the whistleblower, but I call it how I see it,” Newton began. “Look, if we’re being honest, going back to 2020, there were multiple players, coaches, and executives that fraudulently got their COVID shot. Yes, I said it.”

“Aaron Rogers wasn’t the only one,” Newton said about players being against the vaccine. “He wasn’t the only one in the Packers organization. He wasn’t the only one in the Packers quarterback room.”

RELATED: ‘That absolute coward’: Aaron Rodgers goes scorched-earth on ‘criminal’ Anthony Fauci as fans go ballistic

Newton, who last played in the league in 2021, then called the NFL’s vaccine protocol into question as possible propaganda.

“There was whispers about the shot,” Newton went on.

“So we make it a big thing like, ‘yo, it’s mandatory for you to get the shot or you got to go through these procedures.’ How do we not know that that was propaganda for the pharmaceutical companies to penetrate and say, “Hey, if we could control the NFL, then everybody else will follow.'”

The league did not require players to get a COVID-19 vaccination, but expanded requirements, including daily testing and physical distancing, for those who weren’t vaccinated or weren’t fully vaccinated.

Newton’s claims about the NFL kept broadening, moving from vaccination to political viewpoints to any sort of unauthorized opinion.

“If you were to tell me everybody in the NFL got that shot, hell no, they didn’t,” Newton said.

“Everybody in the NFL voted Democrat? Hell no, they didn’t,” Newton continued. “There’s some people in your locker room that voted for Trump. But when we get to start talking about who voted for who, red or blue? ‘No, no, no. Stay away from that. Don’t talk about that.'”

RELATED: Did Jason Whitlock cost Cam Newton his ESPN job?

Cooper Neill/Getty Images

Newton eventually covered most political bases from left to right, claiming any player who is speaking on something “real” is told to “shut the hell up.”

“No program, no organization, no franchise wants you really to stand on the table and talk about worldly issues that you may believe in. … That’s not good for business,” Newton added.

The NFL did not respond to requests for comment. The New England Patriots, Newton’s team in 2020, did not respond to a request for comment either.

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​Nfl, Covid-19, Covid vaccine, Cam newton, Aaron rodgers, Sports 

Move over, Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders. There’s a new multisport athlete making headlines.

However, this time it’s a male athlete who identifies as a woman.

‘Cycling was so simple by comparison.’

Back in 2018, the man then known as Rachel McKinnon became the first transgender-identifying athlete to win the women’s Masters Track Cycling World Championships in England. He then won a second-straight title in 2019.

McKinnon even told Sky News at the time that his obvious advantage over female competitors did not mean he should be excluded from competing against them.

Eventually, British Cycling got its legs under itself and in 2022 suspended the inclusion of “transgender and nonbinary” participants in its women’s category, opting instead for women and “open” categories.

With women’s cycling off the table, McKinnon is now competing in a new sport under a fresh moniker, having reportedly changed his name at the end of 2019.

Now age 44, McKinnon is going by Veronica Ivy and is competing in Canadian women’s golf.

Last week, Ivy along with teammates Nonie Marler and Aram Choi won British Columbia its third consecutive Inter-Provincial title at the Canadian Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship.

RELATED: Transgender female dominates at Masters Track Cycling World Championships

OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images

“Doing it back-to-back is fun especially out of province,” Marler told Golf Canada. “We fought hard, and the course is in unbelievable shape, and we’re proud to bring it home to B.C.”

The New York Post reported that Ivy separately won two individual women’s championships in June, the British Columbia Mid-Amateur and Mid-Master championships.

Following the first win, Ivy remarked on social media how much harder golf is than cycling.

“I swear, golf has to be the hardest sport out there,” Ivy wrote, per the Post. “Cycling was so simple by comparison. Cycling is maybe five minutes of peak stress, but golf is just five hours of nonstop stress, for days on end.”

Moreover, OutKick reporter Joe Kinsey cited a previous comment from Ivy where the athlete allegedly said he hoped to develop a 280-yard drive, a distance averaged by only three women on the professional tour, the LPGA.

RELATED: The trans movement has resulted in biological males beating women in their own sports

OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images

Ivy’s recent team win was the trio’s second-straight championship together and was celebrated by Golf Canada on their social media pages. Comments have been disabled on Facebook and X.

Ivy has long spoken about how it is incorrect to refer to him as a male, telling multiple outlets that he considers himself to be female.

In 2019, Ivy (then McKinnon), told Sky News that he was “legally and medically female.”

In 2022, he told talk-show host Trevor Noah, “I am a woman, that’s a fact. I am female. So all my identity records, my racing license, my medical records all say ‘female.’ And I’m pretty sure I’m made of biological stuff, so I’m a biological female as well.”

Eligibility

Ivy will likely face no barriers from Golf Canada, as the governing body does not require gender “disclosure or documentation.”

Golf Canada’s website plainly states in its “Transgender Persons Participating Policy” that “athletes can participate in events in the gender category in which they identify.”

The policy continues, “Athletes who identify as a girl or woman are eligible to compete on girls’, women’s, and mixed teams and as individual competitors in events for girls and women.”

However, Ivy will not be getting into the LPGA, thanks to its December 2024 policy requiring athletes to be female at birth.

Golf Canada did not respond to a request for comment.

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​Transgenderism, Women’s sports, Cycling, Golf, Canada, Lpga, Sports 

A 54-year-old California woman last week pleaded guilty to murdering her Cal Fire captain wife in 2025, according to authorities.

Yolanda Olejniczak Marodi is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 2, according to KTLA-TV.

‘I don’t want to die.’

She faces 36 years to life in state prison.

As Blaze News previously reported, 49-year-old Cal Fire captain Rebecca “Becky” Marodi was found stabbed to death at her home in Ramona around 9 p.m. on Feb. 17, 2025.

The arrest warrant said deputies from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office found Rebecca Marodi with “several lacerations and apparent stab wounds on her body, including her neck area, her chest, and abdomen.”

Days after the firefighter’s death, an arrest warrant was issued for Yolanda Marodi.

The sheriff’s office said Yolanda “was seen on surveillance video earlier in the evening arguing with Rebecca and physically assaulting her,” NBC News reported.

An affidavit said Rebecca Marodi could be seen with blood on her back and was heard on the video saying, “Yolanda! Please … I don’t want to die.”

Yolanda Marodi, who was seen in the video holding a knife, replied, “You should have thought about that before,” according to the affidavit.

Approximately 10 minutes later, Yolanda Marodi was “seen gathering pets, random items, and some luggage and loading it into a silver Chevrolet Equinox SUV,” according to the affidavit.

Blaze News reported that Homeland Security later spotted the vehicle crossing the border into Mexico.

After 33 days on the run, Marodi was taken into custody after being located at a hotel roughly two miles south of the U.S. border in Mexicali — approximately 175 miles southeast of where her wife was found stabbed to death at her home.

RELATED: Woman dies after male bludgeons her in head with can of beans — but defense argues alcoholism played role in her death

Rebecca Marodi served Cal Fire for 30 years and helped battle the devastating Eaton Fire.

“Becky was a beloved member of our community and department, and we miss her greatly,” Cal Fire and Riverside County Fire Department said in a statement after her death last year.

In an eerie similarity, Yolanda previously attempted to flee from law enforcement with her two young children after the October 2000 stabbing death of her then-estranged husband, according to law enforcement.

As Blaze News previously reported, Yolanda is an ex-convict who went to prison for the stabbing death of 26-year-old James Joseph Olejniczak in San Bernardino County.

In January 2004, Yolanda pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of her first spouse and was incarcerated from 2004 to 2013 after her conviction for voluntary manslaughter.

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​California, Guilty plea, Mexico, Murder, Stabbing, Ex-con, Crime 

The Chicago Sky’s DiJonai Carrington was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul and ejected in a game against the Indiana Fever for hitting Sophie Cunningham in the face from behind while she was attempting a layup.

Carrington quickly jumped on Instagram Threads after her ejection and posted “WHITE PRIVILEGE” — which didn’t look good for the WNBA player.

But BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock doesn’t believe she’s the only one with this attitude in the league.

“Sophie will not run the approved script after she gets her mouth bloodied. So Sophie is not sisterhood material. She is content. She is a problem to manage. She is the woman the machine is built to isolate. DiJonai Carrington is not a random villain of the week. She is a perfect instrument of this culture,” Whitlock says.

“When the trans athlete fight heated up around Sophie’s public stance, Carrington did not stay out of it, she stepped in. Then she stepped into Sophie at the rim, and when the ejection hit, she did not apologize to the woman with the blood in her mouth,” he continues.

“She posted ‘WHITE PRIVILEGE’ in all caps. That is the whole ideology in two words. Hurt a woman outside the circle, then accuse her of systemic advantage, systemic racism. Sophie is the victim of the file, and the defendant in the narrative. That inversion only works if the media runs it for you,” he adds.

And run it the media does.

“Enter Jemele Hill and Cari Champion. These are not the independent columnists who happen to land in the same place. They are best friends,” Whitlock explains.

“Both of them were on the line for Carrington,” he adds.

In a post on Threads, Hill wrote, “Dijonai Carrington receiving a Flagrant 2 and an ejection was the right call, but let’s go back to the play that made Sophie Cunningham famous. SC gained a million followers overnight. She is affectionately known as an enforcer. Nobody suggested she should be brought up on assault charges despite her play being clear retaliation.”

“Meanwhile Dijonai Carrington was actually going for the ball but she’s being called racial slurs, a thug, and some suggested a suspension for multiple games. Hmm …” she added.

And Champion wrote in a post on X, “The question is a fair ask — will @dijonai be applauded? Will she gain millions of followers and marketing opportunities?”

“One softens the foul. One questions the incentive structure while still centering Carrington as the protagonist. Same friendship, same hours, same protected player,” Whitlock comments, adding, “That is not a coincidence.”

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​Chicago sky, Dijonai carrington, Indiana fever, Jason whitlock, Sophie cunningham, White privilege, Cari champion, Wnba, Blazetv show 

Francesca Hong was one of only six Wisconsin Democrats to vote against a law making grooming a felony.

Assembly bill 677 aimed to make “grooming a child for sexual activity” a felony in Wisconsin. The bill was introduced in 2025 after public school teacher Christian Enwright got away with mere disorderly conduct charges despite apparently conducting “a months-long grooming relationship with a 14-year-old student.”

‘I will never vote for legislation that institutes hate speech, and that is recognized hate speech.’

“No person may engage in a course of conduct, pattern of behavior, or series of acts with the intention to condition, seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a child for the purpose of engaging in sexual intercourse or sexual contact or for the purpose of producing, distributing, or possessing depictions of the child engaged in sexually explicit conduct,” the bill read.

The Wisconsin Assembly passed the bill 93-6 in January. Hong and three of the other no votes form the Assembly’s Socialist Caucus, which unanimously rejected the new child protections. Democrat Gov. Tony Evers signed the bill into law in March.

Currently the front-runner in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor, Hong has offered no public explanation for her vote. Her campaign did not respond to requests for comment as to why she opposed creating a felony for the patterned sexual grooming of children.

Four of the bill’s opponents have endorsed Hong’s gubernatorial bid.

“The term ‘groomer’ has been increasingly used as a slur to imply that LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly educators, are threats to children,” said an explainer circulated by fellow bill opponent state Rep. Angelina Cruz (D).

RELATED: Hasan Piker is the anti-Charlie Kirk

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

“I will never vote for legislation that institutes hate speech, and that is recognized hate speech,” Cruz told the Racine County Eye in January. “This is not about protecting children. It’s about advancing a political agenda.”

Cruz is a public school teacher and former president of the Racine Education Uniserv Council labor organization.

Socialist Caucus member Rep. Christian Phelps (D) claimed the bill was not a “good-faith effort,” according to the Wisconsin Examiner. Phelps is also vice chair of the Assembly’s LGBTQ+ Caucus.

Even the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, which oversees public education and libraries, supported the bill.

At the time of Enwright’s conviction, no specific Wisconsin statute criminalized grooming. Prosecutors could charge him only with misdemeanor disorderly conduct, allowing Enwright to avoid the sex offender registry.

Enwright pled guilty and was sentenced to over a year in prison plus probation, according to Fox 6.

Assembly Bill 677 became 2025 Wisconsin Act 88 after Evers signed it into law. Prosecutors began charging suspects under the new statute just over a week after it took effect.

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​Francesca hong, Pride, Politics, Grooming 

For a brief period last week, Telegram disappeared from Apple’s App Store. That is no small thing. Telegram has more than a billion users worldwide, and for anyone who tried to install Telegram on an iPhone, Apple had temporarily cut off the normal route to getting the app. Apple said it removed Telegram after finding child sexual abuse material on the service. Telegram deleted the material, banned the offending user, and Apple restored the app the same day. Existing users were able to keep using Telegram while it was unavailable for download.

That alone would have been a noteworthy story, but Telegram founder Pavel Durov later offered a much stranger explanation for what happened. According to Durov, the material was not simply posted by some random criminal. He claims it was deliberately planted by what he called a “takedown extortionist,” someone who threatens online communities with removal unless their owners pay up.

It’s a much stranger security problem than most people are used to thinking about.

In Durov’s telling, the attacker found an old message in an active public Telegram group, edited it to contain AI-modified illegal material, and then reported the offending content directly to Apple. Because the edited message was buried in the group’s history, ordinary Telegram users were unlikely to stumble across it and report it themselves. The Verge subsequently reported Durov’s account of the alleged scheme.

Apple has confirmed the illegal content and the reason it removed Telegram, but it has not independently confirmed Durov’s story about the extortion scheme. That distinction matters. The claim that an extortionist deliberately planted the material, that AI was used to modify it, and that the old message was selected specifically to evade Telegram’s own moderation all come from Durov.

Still, if his account is accurate, the incident offers a glimpse of where cyberattacks may be headed. The alleged attacker did not have to hack Telegram’s servers, compromise Apple, steal anyone’s password, or discover some exotic zero day vulnerability. He simply figured out how to manipulate Apple’s enforcement system into attacking Telegram for him.

Hack the referee

That may sound like an entirely new category of attack, but the basic idea has been around for years. Social media companies have dealt with organized mass reporting campaigns in which activists, dissidents, competitors, and political opponents are buried under bogus complaints in hopes that an automated moderation system will suspend them.

Meta disclosed in 2021 that it had broken up a network in Vietnam that used real, duplicate, and fake accounts to submit hundreds and sometimes thousands of false reports against activists and critics of the Vietnamese government.

YouTube has had similar problems with fraudulent copyright complaints. Google reported that more than 6% of videos targeted through YouTube’s public copyright removal process in 2025 were subject to abusive removal requests.

The reason the Telegram case is more interesting is that artificial intelligence is changing the economics of these attacks. A human being has always been capable of lying, filing false reports, forging evidence, or pretending to be someone else. AI makes it possible to do those things at enormous scale and with much less time and effort.

RELATED: Infamous cyberattackers claim their next shocking victim — using a decades-old trick

Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The FBI has already warned that criminals are using generative AI to create fake identification documents, fictitious social media profiles, synthetic photographs, cloned voices, and fraudulent videos for impersonation and fraud. The FBI has separately warned that criminals are using AI-altered images and videos to create explicit material for extortion.

The important thing is not merely that AI can make a convincing fake photograph. It is that one person can now manufacture photographs, voices, accounts, documents, messages, and identities faster and cheaper than ever before.

The attack surface is getting bigger

That becomes especially dangerous as more institutions hand decisions over to automated systems. Banks use software to decide whether a transaction looks fraudulent. Email providers decide whether a message is spam. Social networks decide whether a photograph violates their rules. App stores determine whether software is safe enough to distribute. Advertising platforms decide which businesses are legitimate. Payment processors determine which merchants are too risky to serve.

In every case, the system has to take some collection of inputs and make a judgment about them. An attacker does not necessarily have to defeat those systems in the traditional sense. He only has to learn which inputs produce the result he wants.

That is a much stranger security problem than the one most people are used to thinking about. For decades, the stereotypical cyberattack involved a hacker trying to break through a locked door. He stole a password, exploited an unpatched vulnerability, installed malware, encrypted a hard drive, or broke into a database.

Those attacks are not going anywhere, and AI is making them more sophisticated as well. But increasingly, attackers may be able to accomplish their goal without ever breaking through the door. If they can persuade the security guard that the owner of the building is a criminal, the guard may do the damage for them.

Apple’s power is part of the problem

That is essentially what Durov claims happened to Telegram, and it exposes another uncomfortable part of the story.

Apple obviously cannot ignore child sexual abuse material. Nobody is arguing that it should. But that does not automatically answer the much larger question of what Apple should do when a single user uploads prohibited material to an application serving more than a billion people.

Is Apple responsible for policing every photograph, message, and file that passes through every app it distributes? More importantly, should Apple have the authority to punish every user of an application because one user violated the rules?

Apple’s own App Store guidelines do not require developers to somehow guarantee that objectionable material will never appear. Apps containing user generated content are required to have systems for filtering objectionable material, reporting it, blocking abusive users, and providing contact information so complaints can be addressed.

Apple’s guidelines also describe a remediation process in which the company may contact a developer, ask that offending material be removed, and request a plan for preventing similar violations. The guidelines reserve immediate removal for more serious circumstances, including egregious or repeated behavior.

That raises an obvious question if Durov’s account is accurate. Why did Apple remove Telegram before contacting the company instead of first giving Telegram an opportunity to remove the content and address the offending account?

RELATED: Surveillance pricing is here — and this surprising state is saying NO

mathisworks/Getty Images

There may be additional considerations involving child sexual abuse material that are not fully spelled out in Apple’s general App Store guidelines, so it would be too strong to say Apple clearly violated its own policy. But the discrepancy is worth asking about.

Telegram says this entire episode stemmed from the actions of a single user. Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn criticized Apple for disrupting access to the app over one user’s actions, while Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney questioned how any large messaging service could realistically guarantee that none of its users would ever upload prohibited material.

That gets to the larger issue. No communications platform with hundreds of millions or billions of users can promise that no individual user will ever do something criminal. The meaningful question is how quickly and effectively the platform responds when that happens.

Yet Apple possesses the power to remove an entire application from the primary software marketplace for more than a billion iPhone users.

That is an extraordinary amount of authority for one private company to exercise over communications software.

It also makes the alleged extortion scheme possible in the first place. The attacker’s leverage did not come merely from his ability to plant prohibited material. It came from knowing that Apple possessed both the power and the willingness to punish an entire application in response.

If Durov’s story is accurate, the extortionist was exploiting Apple just as surely as he was exploiting Telegram.

Who decides who gets to stay?

There is also reason to question how consistently Apple exercises that authority.

The Verge reported Friday that Apple took a different approach toward X and Grok during controversy over sexualized AI-generated images. Apple reportedly contacted X and sought moderation changes rather than immediately removing the apps.

Durov, by contrast, says Telegram was removed before Apple contacted the company.

That does not prove Apple acted improperly in either case, and the underlying facts were not identical. But it does expose how much discretion Apple possesses. Apple worked with one platform while another was removed before contact, according to Durov.

That should make even people who have little sympathy for Telegram uncomfortable. The question is not whether Apple should tolerate illegal material. It is whether a company that controls one of the two dominant mobile operating systems should also serve as judge, jury, and executioner for applications containing the speech of billions of third-party users.

Seen that way, the Telegram affair is not merely a warning about AI-powered cyberattacks. It is also a warning about centralized gatekeepers.

The more power we give a handful of companies to decide who may communicate, transact, advertise, publish, or distribute software, the more valuable those companies become as targets for manipulation.

Why bother silencing a billion users yourself when you can trick Apple into doing it for you?

AI is getting better at old-fashioned hacking too

AI makes these manipulation attacks easier, but the machines themselves are also becoming much better at traditional hacking.

OpenAI recently disclosed an internal cybersecurity evaluation in which advanced models escaped the constrained environment researchers had built for them after discovering and exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability. The models gained internet access, escalated privileges, moved laterally through systems, and ultimately exploited vulnerabilities in Hugging Face’s real production infrastructure while pursuing the objective of the test.

There are important caveats. This was a deliberately aggressive cybersecurity evaluation. OpenAI had reduced or disabled some of the safeguards that would ordinarily restrict such behavior, and the prerelease model involved was an internal research prototype rather than a product released to the public.

Even with those caveats, the result was remarkable. The models found ways around barriers that researchers had not expected them to overcome.

RELATED: They had their life savings drained online in an instant. So who’s next?

Velishchuk/Getty Images

Then on Friday, OpenAI disclosed another development that shows how quickly these capabilities are progressing. The company said testing of its upcoming Astra model had advanced far enough that it could no longer rule out what OpenAI classifies as “critical” cybersecurity capability.

That is the highest category in OpenAI’s cybersecurity framework. At that level, according to OpenAI’s description, a model could potentially discover functional zero-day exploits against hardened real-world systems without human assistance or independently plan and execute complex novel attacks from a high-level objective.

OpenAI has not said Astra definitely possesses those capabilities. It has said the possibility is serious enough that the company has tightened security controls around the model while testing continues.

We have reached the stage where one of the companies building the world’s most advanced AI systems considers autonomous attacks against hardened real-world targets plausible enough to build safeguards around.

Cybersecurity is becoming a fight over reality

Put these developments together, and the future of cybercrime starts to look much more complicated than simply giving hackers better tools.

On one side, AI systems are becoming increasingly capable of probing networks, discovering vulnerabilities, writing exploits, and carrying out technical work that once required highly skilled human operators. On the other side, far less sophisticated AI can already generate fake identities, doctored evidence, fraudulent complaints, cloned voices, and synthetic content that can be used to manipulate the institutions surrounding a target.

You can imagine where that leads without getting too far into science fiction. A criminal might not need to break into a company’s bank account if he can generate enough convincing evidence to persuade the bank’s fraud system to freeze it. He might not need to hack a competitor’s website if he can convince its hosting company that the site contains illegal material. He might not need to compromise an executive’s email if he can clone the executive’s voice and video closely enough to fool an employee. An attacker targeting a social media account might simply generate and test thousands of variations of malicious content until he discovers one that reliably triggers the platform’s moderation system.

The institutions involved cannot simply stop enforcing their rules. Banks cannot stop looking for fraud. Email providers cannot stop filtering spam. Social networks cannot simply abandon moderation. Apple cannot simply shrug when illegal material appears inside an app.

But neither should we treat every decision made by those systems, or by the companies controlling them, as automatically legitimate simply because the underlying problem is serious.

Every system that makes judgments can also be studied, manipulated, and eventually exploited.

That is what makes the Telegram incident worth paying attention to, even if Durov’s account ultimately proves incomplete. Apple has removed Telegram over child sexual abuse material before, in 2018, and Telegram has faced years of criticism and regulatory pressure over illegal activity on the platform. Durov is hardly a disinterested observer.

But the broader vulnerability he describes is real whether or not every detail of this particular incident turns out exactly as he says.

For most of the history of cybersecurity, defenders worried about attackers taking control of their computers. The next phase may be stranger. Attackers may not need to take control of your computer at all.

They may only need to convince everyone else’s computers to turn against you.

​Tech, Cybersecurity, Cyberattack, Telegram, Apple 

A German airport that serves as a logistics hub was seemingly targeted as part of a plot carried out by enemies of the West.

How they did it is a wake-up call about the vulnerability of air travel worldwide.

‘All of this does not point to an amateurish approach.’

Leipzig/Halle Airport in eastern Germany almost became the site of disaster, but whether it was luck or poor execution, a mass causality event was barely avoided.

The airport is used by German military and its NATO allies for military transport, the BBC reported, but at the same time, it serves as a base for Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines.

Ukrainian aerial cargo was the apparent target when a drone was spotted carrying an explosive device near the Antonov planes.

The drone was fitted with military-grade explosives including Semtex and Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). Fortunately, the detonator on the drone apparently malfunctioned, rendering the explosives useless, the Financial Times said, per German police.

A bomb-defusing robot was deployed to remove the detonator from the device, and police later carried out a controlled explosion to dispose of the material.

Moreover, a second unidentified object actually made contact with a cargo aircraft near the same airport, but the plane seemingly absorbed the blow and later landed in Hanover, Germany, with minor damage.

RELATED: America is winning the air war and losing the information war

NEWS5/AFP/Getty Images

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said that the incidents showed “a new level of threat” but warned the job was complex and professional, not a slapped-together device.

“All of this does not point to an amateurish approach. We are talking about a professional, hybrid threat scenario that we will continue to address.”

Without naming names, Dobrindt said that the attack “may also involve foreign powers.”

The claim comes as Polish authorities have alleged that U.S. intelligence forwarded them warnings that Russia could soon be looking to carry out an attack on NATO allies.

RELATED: Putin’s spies have been hiding in plain sight in Japan — now the US is helping clean house

John MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images

According to LBC, Warsaw recently received intelligence from Washington that Russia could be planning an armed provocation (drone or missile strikes) on Polish soil, with the aim of escalating tensions among the West, which would lead to the suspension of support for Ukraine.

The warning included the possibility of an attack on what was described as critical Polish infrastructure, which could involve Russian or Belarusian troops crossing into NATO territory.

The United States “systematically informs Poland about ever-new Russian plans for a conventional attack on NATO’s eastern flank, from which Poland is by no means excluded,” a source close to the Polish president told LBC.

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​Drones, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Nato, Poland, Tech 

At Blaze Media, we strive to consistently bring you the best conservative talent on the market. Today, we’re excited to announce that pastor and podcaster Josh Howerton has joined our lineup.

As senior pastor of Lakepointe Church in Dallas, Texas, and host of one of the fastest-growing shows in the faith and culture space, “Live Free,” Howerton brings a large and loyal audience of faithful churchgoers and cultural observers who value his clear, biblically grounded perspective on the issues of our day.

Howerton told us he’s excited about joining the Blaze Media team because it allows him to accomplish the two things he’s “most passionate” about: “Telling everybody everywhere the good news of Jesus Christ” and applying “the whole word of God to the issues of the whole world.”

“This partnership advances both, so we’re in and excited about it,” he said.

We share in that excitement.

“Josh has built something rare: a podcast with genuine chart momentum and a growing audience that’s actively looking for clarity on faith and culture,” said Tyler Cardon, CEO of Blaze Media. “’Live Free’ fits naturally into our lineup, and we think our distribution can help Josh reach even more people hungry for the truth.”

“Live Free with Josh Howerton” launches today on BlazeTV+, YouTube, and major podcast platforms.

“Live Free with Josh Howerton” is currently ranked #2 in Apple Podcasts’ religion and spirituality category and #39 overall. It has also surpassed one million YouTube subscribers, with an audience that spans committed churchgoers, conservatives, and cultural observers alike. Josh is building something special, and we’re honored to come alongside him and his team to support and amplify the great work that he’s doing.

When you subscribe to BlazeTV+, you’re helping us bring more voices like Josh Howerton to Blaze Media, voices willing to speak clearly about faith, culture, and the issues shaping our country.

Join BlazeTV+ and start watching Josh today at blazetv.com/JOSH. Use promo code JOSH40 to get $40 off your subscription.

​Christianity, Culture, Josh howerton, Podcast, Blazetv show 

It’s now dawning on some liberals that there’s nothing funny about the clowns taking over the Democratic circus.

MS NOW talking head Joe Scarborough, for instance, was left momentarily speechless on Monday after sharing a video in which Megan Romer, the national co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, not only blames Israel for its attack by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, but notes that she would have stood in solidarity with Hamas in the immediate aftermath of the massacres.

‘I really don’t want to hear from the DSA anymore.’

In an interview with the New Yorker’s David Remnick released Friday, Romer detailed the DSA’s platform, including its views on Israel. Romer condemned Israel and expressed support for a “one-state solution”: a “free Palestine with the capital in Jerusalem.”

Remnick noted that Darializa Avila Chevalier — the Islamic anti-police, anti-Israel, anti-border socialist now poised to win a congressional seat in New York as a Democrat — attended the pro-Hamas rally held in Times Square on Oct. 8, 2023, which featured signs justifying the terror attacks and was organized by radical groups, including Al-Awda New York.

When asked whether she supports Chevalier attending the rally, Romer said, “Yeah, I do,” and noted that she too would have attended the rally had she been able.

“One day after the slaughter of 1,200 people and taking of over 200 hostages, you would’ve come and rallied behind Hamas?” asked Remnick.

“I think that October 7 was largely inevitable,” answered Romer. “If you put people in an open-air concentration camp, and you deprive them of rights, of dignity, of food, of the ability to live in safety, you have to expect that they are going to not take that for that long.”

“You cannot put people in a cage and expect them not to revolt,” added the socialist.

RELATED: Mike Rowe nukes DSA commies, then takes a moment to bask in the fallout

Spencer Platt/Getty Images (R)

After playing a clip of the exchange on “Morning Joe” on Monday, Scarborough appeared stunned.

He broke the silence to state, “The co-chair of the DSA supported going to a pro-Hamas rally the day after Hamas gleefully slaughtered more Jews on October 7 than any day the Jews were slaughtered since the Holocaust. Women raped. Young children shot in front of their parents. Parents shot in front of young children. The DSA co-chair, which means the DSA, supports that.”

‘This is about the Democrats once again fumbling the football on the 2-yard line.’

“I really don’t want to hear from the DSA anymore,” added the liberal host, “that they’re about economic justice or health care. This would be like going to a pro-Al-Qaeda rally on September 12, which I’m sure many people in the DSA would say, ‘Well, that would be perfectly fine because look at the U.S. policies throughout the years.'”

The talking head who officially left the GOP in October 2017 — for supposedly abandoning its fiscal principles — implored the Democratic Party to reject the DSA ahead of the primary elections on Tuesday in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

In Wisconsin, Francesca Hong — a card-carrying DSA member who has expressed a desire to abolish the police, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the U.S. Senate — is likely to win the Democratic Party’s nomination in the state’s gubernatorial race.

In Minnesota, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan — who does not identify as a socialist but is nevertheless a leftist similarly extreme in her views — is up against establishment Democratic Rep. Angie Craig in the Gopher State’s Democratic Senate primary.

“There’s nothing wrong with the Democrats supporting economic justice. There’s nothing wrong with the Democrats supporting, you know, cutting taxes, or getting rid of the Trump taxes and making billionaires pay more in taxes,” said Scarborough. “That’s a legitimate mainstream debate for people to have.”

He suggested, however, “I don’t need people telling me, ‘Oh, you have to just turn a blind eye to people saying that women getting raped on October 7 didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.’ Americans aren’t going to support that.”

“This is about the Democrats once again fumbling the football on the two-yard line when they have the chance to make great gains but being … too woke to call out the obvious,” said Scarborough.

Scarborough underscored that it’s prudent for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to call out the extremism of the DSA and those socialists making inroads in the Democratic Party — or to, at the very least, call pro-terrorist rape apologetics “despicable.”

“It’s crazy that we’re even having this conversation!” he shouted.

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​Joe scarborough, Ms now, Democratic socialists of america, Megan romer, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Politics 

“What is a reverse ATM?”

This question has been asked ad nauseum for the last few years, and the answer is somewhere between an unnecessary step and a cashless society.

‘Hardly-user friendly.’

Money walks

An early August post asked, “What in the Davos,” referring to the home base of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, where undoubtedly the most controversial world figures come together to coordinate, undoubtedly, the most controversial policies.

The “you’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy” meme apparently extends to physical money, as well, as one X user’s photo read, “reverse ATMs are available throughout the concourse for your convenience.”

According to BluePoint ATM Solutions, a “Reverse ATM” is a cash-to-card kiosk that allows users to convert physical cash into a prepaid card.

The kiosks are everywhere now, especially in New York, where they are seen at venues like MVP Arena and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. In Texas, the San Antonio Zoo says a cashless experience ensures that guests “spend less time in line.”

If there is any question as to whether or not the kiosks are connected to the WEF-prescribed future, there are a plethora of horror stories floating around online that confirm the theory.

RELATED: Elderly Air Force veteran assaulted, robbed after withdrawing cash from ATM; video shows juvenile taking victim’s wallet

Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Peasant problems

One traveler to Brussels — the home of European Parliament — panicked when she realized she was nearly out of gas and zero locations in the area “employed an actual human attendant.”

Her credit cards didn’t work anywhere, but her payments weren’t being declined, either. Instead, she realized the pumps operate through reverse ATMs: insert cash, get a ticket, scan the ticket at the pump to get gas.

Turns out this was the case in France, too, Ashley Smith wrote. The blogger noted that in many EU states, paying with a credit card forces a €120 deposit, which refunds the difference depending on gas consumption. At the same time, this is disincentivized given that a signature is required for purchases over €100.

With no humans in sight, it’s back to the reverse ATM for the peasantry.

Fintech Finance News reported in 2024 that the reverse ATMs are “hardly-user friendly,” and one New York location provided no receipt, the card was not reloadable, and users must go through a “time-consuming process” to reclaim any remaining balances.

Similar experiences have been widely discussed online.

RELATED: Violent punks caught on video ganging up on, brutally beating elderly man by Baltimore 7-Eleven — while wielding rifle, sword

Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Card sharks

One Reddit post discussed an ice cream shop in Philadelphia that refused a $10 bill, opting for a reverse ATM payment instead. The card didn’t work, and an employee told the customer it wasn’t his fault before gifting him the treat anyway.

On another thread, users discussed how much money is left unclaimed on the ATM cards. One user said he left $9 on a card at an amusement park because “everything in the park” costs more than that.

Another said the New York MTA had made $100 from his unused cards in just one year.

Detractors say to use the card elsewhere, as it is likely a prepaid VISA or Mastercard. Companies will say it prevents cash theft and reduces labor. This is of course for the business, not the customer, who has to whip out cash at a less secure location and then take extra steps simply to spare the establishment a few minutes of work.

“Minimize pathogen concerns associated with cash,” BluePoint ATM says on its website.

Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve says there is no federal statute mandating that a private business, person, or organization “must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services.”

Instead, citizens must rely on bylaws, like that of Philadelphia, where under the city’s cashless retail prohibition, establishments “may not refuse to accept cash.”

It is unclear whether that extends to the ice cream experience, though.

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​Reverse atm, Davos, World economic forum, European union, Cashless, Lifestyle 

A homeowner in Richmond, New York, noticed something on his home security system Sunday night that prompted him to call 911 — and also to grab his shotgun and confront the disturbance himself.

“He was receiving live surveillance footage of two individuals entering a property that he owns,” Undersheriff Michael Rago of the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office told WHAM-TV. “He lives close by, and while he remained on the phone with the 911 center, he responded to the location.”

‘We actually received a 911 call from one of the occupants in the residence.’

The homeowner arrived to find a suspicious vehicle parked discreetly on the property and lights flickering inside the home, Rago added to the station.

With that, the homeowner called out to those inside his property and shot out the vehicle’s tires, WHAM said.

“At that time, we actually received a 911 call from one of the occupants in the residence, stating that they were in there and that they were going to cooperatively exit with their hands up,” Rago added to the station.

When deputies arrived, they took 19-year-old Alexandria Mosher and 22-year-old Dominick Wood, both of Lima, into custody, WHAM reported.

Deputies found Mosher and Wood in possession of items from inside the home, the sheriff’s office told the station, adding that the pair were charged with second-degree burglary before being released after their arraignment.

RELATED: Homeowner opens fire on burglar who was on parole for previous burglary conviction, cops say. There won’t be future offenses.

The homeowner has not been charged, the station said.

“A word to the wise is to understand … when you can and can’t use deadly physical force,” Rago noted to WHAM. “This wouldn’t be considered deadly physical force. …”

The undersheriff also offered the following advice, according to the station: “At the end of the day, you know … we don’t need more victims. We don’t need victims injured. We don’t need suspects or defendants, you know, injured. … I come back to being a being a good witness for law enforcement.”

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​New york, 2nd amendment, Guns, Gun rights, Defending property, Homeowner shoots, Burglary, Crime 

Automotive safety technology was supposed to help you keep your eyes on the road. Increasingly, it is keeping its eyes on you.

More new vehicles are equipped with cameras pointed directly at the driver, tracking where you look, whether your eyes are open, and whether the computer thinks you’re paying enough attention. Look down at the touch screen too long and you may hear a warning. Turn your head away from the windshield and the steering wheel may vibrate.

There is a major difference between a sensor detecting that you’re drifting out of your lane and a camera continuously observing your face.

This technology is no longer simply an optional gadget dreamed up by automakers. In Europe, regulators now require new vehicles to include systems capable of detecting driver distraction.

On a recent episode of “The Drive,” co-host Karl Brauer and I spoke with longtime automotive journalist Michael Harley of Forbes about where this technology is heading.

The stated purpose is safety, and there are good reasons for that. But once a camera is installed inside your car, watching you every second you’re behind the wheel, another question becomes unavoidable: Who else eventually gets to watch?

Stay focused

Subaru provides a good example of how quickly driver monitoring has moved into ordinary cars.

Its DriverFocus system uses a near-infrared camera aimed at the driver’s eyes and head. Subaru says the system can identify signs of distraction or drowsiness and warn the driver accordingly. Because the camera is infrared, it can continue monitoring the driver even when the cabin is dark.

The intention is easy to understand. Distracted driving kills people, and so does falling asleep behind the wheel.

There is also evidence that many drivers appreciate the technology. An Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study of nearly 3,500 Subaru owners found that 87% used DriverFocus most or every time they drove, while about 70% said they would want the system on their next vehicle.

But that same research identified the downside. Drivers reported false alarms, and some said the warnings came too frequently. Annoyance was one of the main reasons owners switched the system off.

Karl and I have each experienced this ourselves in new vehicles. Modern cars increasingly offer automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane-centering systems, and other technology specifically designed to compensate when a driver makes a mistake. Yet some of those same cars are becoming more aggressive about policing exactly where the driver is looking.

RELATED: Lucid makes one of the best EVs in America. That may not be enough to save it.

Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images

Nanny cam

This isn’t only about automakers deciding what features customers might like.

Europe is turning driver monitoring into regulation.

Under the European Union’s General Safety Regulation, all newly sold vehicles have been required since July 2024 to include technology warning drivers about drowsiness. Beginning in July 2026, additional rules require advanced systems designed to detect driver distraction as well.

The EU doesn’t explicitly say every manufacturer must put an infrared camera in your face. The regulation is based on what the system must accomplish rather than specifying one particular piece of hardware.

In practice, however, camera-based systems are an obvious way to meet those requirements, and they’re already becoming common.

Once these systems become mandatory in a market as enormous as Europe, automakers have another incentive to design them into vehicles everywhere rather than engineer completely different cars for different countries. That’s why American drivers should pay attention.

Close quarters

Here is where I become uncomfortable.

There is a major difference between a sensor detecting that you’re drifting out of your lane and a camera continuously observing your face.

Michael explained just how capable these systems already are:

“They’re [infrared] cameras … watching every single thing in real time inside the car, and it’s triggering verbal, audible and/or haptic alarms,” he said.

“And you cannot defeat it. Some of them you can turn off, but the second you restart the car, it starts all over again. … It’s just a memory chip … away from being able to record the telemetry.”

Today’s camera may simply analyze the information inside the vehicle and generate an alert. Technologically, however, there isn’t an enormous distance between a camera that sees what you’re doing and a system that stores or transmits what it sees.

Modern cars are already rolling computers connected to manufacturer servers through cellular networks. Automakers have collected driving data and shared information with third parties, while insurance companies increasingly offer policies based on telematics.

Cars can already record enormous amounts of information about speed, location, braking, acceleration, and crashes. Add an interior camera, and the vehicle potentially knows not only where you went and how you drove, but what you were doing while you drove there.

Were you looking at the road or at your phone? Were you yawning? Did you appear sleepy? Who else was inside the vehicle?

Manufacturers will tell us these systems have privacy safeguards, and many of them do. But privacy policies can change. So can software, regulations, and the circumstances under which information can be demanded by law enforcement or other third parties.

The hardware remains pointed at you.

Eyes have it

This is usually how intrusive technology arrives: not through some grand announcement that everybody will now be monitored, but through a series of individually reasonable steps.

It’s there to detect drowsiness. It’s there to make sure you’re paying attention. It’s there to prevent crashes.

Each argument has merit. I don’t want a sleepy driver drifting across the center line any more than anyone else does. Consumers should nevertheless ask where the boundary lies.

A seatbelt protects me without needing to know where I’m looking. An airbag doesn’t watch my face. Anti-lock brakes don’t care who is sitting beside me.

Driver-monitoring cameras are different because they introduce something automobiles never historically required: a machine observing the occupants of the car in real time.

Governments are now beginning to require the systems capable of doing that.

New normal

There is one more irony.

Cars are becoming more capable of assisting the driver at precisely the moment manufacturers and regulators are becoming more insistent about monitoring the human being behind the wheel.

Your vehicle can steer, brake, maintain its distance from the car ahead, and in some cases even change lanes and navigate highway interchanges. But glance away for a little too long, and the same car starts scolding you.

Maybe these systems will save lives. I hope they do.

Before Americans normalize cameras watching drivers in every new automobile, however, we deserve clear answers about what those systems collect, whether any information leaves the vehicle, how long it can be retained, and who can obtain it.

Once the camera becomes standard equipment, the question is no longer whether the car can watch you. It’s who gets access to what it sees.

​Driver assistance technology, Driver distraction detection, Infrared camera, Vehicle monitoring systems, Subaru driverfocus, Big tech, Auto industry, European union, Privacy, Lifestyle, Automotive 

I have watched more of Charlie Kirk since his death than I ever did while he was alive. I do not say that proudly.

While Kirk traveled from campus to campus inviting hostile students to challenge him, I was only vaguely aware of what he was building. In the months since his assassination, I have watched hours of those encounters and wished I had paid closer attention.

Charlie Kirk offered a vision of adulthood built upon duty, sacrifice, personal responsibility, and devotion to something worth defending. Hasan Piker offers a different vision.

As Hasan Piker’s influence has expanded across the American left, I have begun to see him as a kind of anti-Charlie Kirk.

That requires some explanation.

Piker publicly condemned Kirk’s assassination and called it horrific. Nor am I suggesting that Piker avoids debate. He and Kirk debated in 2018 and were scheduled to meet again at Dartmouth College on September 25, 2025.

Charlie Kirk was assassinated 15 days before that debate.

The difference between the two men lies less in whether they were willing to argue than in how they exercised influence, the lives they presented, and what their methods taught young people to do with disagreement.

Charlie Kirk’s signature gesture was to share the microphone.

Hasan Piker’s is to control it.

Kirk went where he was disliked. On campuses where much of the student body opposed nearly everything he believed, he invited students to tell him why he was wrong.

He could be abrasive, overly confident, and eager for the devastating clip. But he entered the arena and allowed his opponents to enter with him. They stood a few feet away and spoke in their own voices. Kirk had to listen, think, and respond in real time.

The person disagreeing with him remained visibly a person.

Piker has mastered the internet’s preferred form of political communication: the reaction. From his studio, he watches clips, interrupts them, mocks them, and turns opponents into material for an audience already disposed to applaud. He selects the clip, stops it when he wishes, interprets the opponent’s motives, and delivers the verdict.

RELATED: The internet makes monsters and saints before the body is cold

PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP/Getty Images

The opponent is present, but only as content.

Media does more than transmit ideas. It trains habits.

Kirk’s format taught his audience that an opponent should receive a microphone, finish a question, and expect an answer. Piker’s format more often teaches an audience to classify, ridicule, and dismiss.

Kirk tried to win converts. Piker identifies enemies.

There is another difference, and it has less to do with politics than with adulthood.

Piker is not publicly known to be married, and his private relationships are his business. It would be unfair to speculate about what we do not know. The relevant distinction is not his marital status but the vision of life he presents publicly.

Charlie Kirk made no mystery of his.

He spoke openly about his wife, Erika, his children, his Christian faith, and the joys and responsibilities of building a family. He did not merely tell young people how to vote. He urged them to marry, have children, accept responsibility, and build something durable.

Kirk offered a vision of adulthood built upon duty, sacrifice, personal responsibility, and devotion to something worth defending.

Piker offers a different vision. His public rhetoric is saturated with rage, profanity, grievance, and the promise that political power can remedy injustice, real or perceived. Speaking to the College Democrats this summer, he described himself as “an outsider currently pushing for an insurgency.” After condemning Democrats he considers collaborators, he declared, “We don’t need those Democrats anymore.”

Kirk called young people to govern themselves. Piker calls them to join a political insurgency against those he blames.

Rage, once summoned, does not always respect political boundaries.

Nearly a year after Kirk’s murder, Piker is alive, broadcasting, and shaping the politics of a generation. That is how a free country is supposed to work. Conservatives should criticize him, answer his arguments, and oppose the candidates he supports.

They must also defend his right to keep talking.

RELATED: The Democrat civil war is real — and it is happening in Wisconsin

Joshua Lott/Getty Images

The harder question is whether the political culture gathering around Piker would extend that protection to people such as Charlie Kirk.

A culture can make violence more plausible long before anyone commits it. It begins by stripping opponents of their individuality and treating their presence as a threat.

A person becomes a category. A category becomes an enemy. An enemy becomes an obstacle.

Eventually, someone decides the obstacle should be removed.

Charlie Kirk’s importance was not that he was always right. It was that he kept showing up where people believed he was wrong. He asked for the next question. He believed opponents could be confronted without being erased.

Then, he went home to the wife and children he loved.

Kirk and Piker were supposed to meet on a stage at Dartmouth. We will never know what Charlie would have said that night.

But as the anniversary of his murder approaches, we should remember what he had already said through the manner of his life: Bring your argument. Take the microphone. Prove me wrong. Then, go home and build something worth defending.

Just leave the rifle behind.

​Assassination, Charlie kirk, Debate, Hasan piker, Opinion & analysis, Democratic socialists of america, Turning point usa 

Michigan Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar’s political career took a major hit when voters rejected him in favor of a democratic socialist — but it’s not a loss that was hard to see coming.

In a campaign video posted to social media by Shri himself, he’s standing in downtown Detroit wearing bright red sneakers, shorts, and a black shirt with a photo of himself on it with red laser eyes.

“I’m meeting people asking them to make sure they vote on August 4 in the primary election. I’m asking for your vote so I can continue fighting the Trump administration, continue fighting their corruption and their lawlessness,” Thanedar said in his thick accent.

“He is not a real person,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“He’s like, ‘What do the people in downtown Detroit wear?’ And he’s like, ‘I know,’ except the shirt is just him with laser beams coming out of his eyes, and it says ‘Shri,’ which I just don’t think is relatable,” she adds.

And interviews that have surfaced of Shri didn’t help his case.

“What are the five Grosse Pointe cities?” an interviewer asked Shri.

“Look, I’m not here to answer a quiz. I’m here to say that I’m going to fight for the people of Detroit,” he said, before the interviewer rattled off the five cities.

The interviewer then called Shri out for abandoning beagles and leaving them “to die in their cages at your pharmaceutical testing.”

“I love animals,” Shri responded.

“I mean, some of them died under my neglect, but other than the ones that I killed, I love animals,” Gonzales mocks.

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​Congress, Democratic socialist, Donald trump, Michigan, Sara gonzales, Shri thanedar, Blazetv show