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Introducing News-ique: All the look of real news at a fraction of the value!

October 2, 2026

Those of a certain age will remember the era of infomercials and QVC.

For the younger set, “infomercials” were long-form commercials on cable TV, usually late at night. They ran for five, 10, even 30 minutes, incorporating elements of narrative — usually with laughable skill — to give the feeling that you were watching an actual show rather than a paid advertisement. They hawked products for the home and kitchen with a number to call to place your order.

Most of us are just going to click onto the next thing, unaware that the News-ique (TM) item left a Truth-ette (TM) trace in our minds.

QVC — “Quality, Value, Convenience” — was/is a TV channel that was nothing but one big infomercial, with on-camera hosts showing off products and bantering with each other and customers who called in. It was online shopping before there was an online.

Both marketplaces were famous for offering products that simulated much more valuable items. One such product was the pinnacle: a cubic zirconia stone that was (supposedly) visually indistinguishable from a diamond. It’s got everything: sparkle, allure, and the look of a real diamond at a fraction of the price!

Diamonique is forever

The best part is the name: Diamonique. Those branding this luxury obviously followed the old drag queen convention for choosing a stage moniker: Take a name denoting quality, seriousness, or at the very least referring to an actual person, then give it a little comic twist that lets you know immediately you’re dealing with an imitation. Classic drag queen names of this type include:

Hedda Lettuce

Virginia Hamm

Anita Mann

… to name just a few.

As you can see, Diamonique fits right in.

So glittering was Diamonique that this imitation spawned imitators of its own, the best of which is Diamelle. When you can’t afford Diamonique, turn to Diamelle!

Authentic imitation news

What’s amusing in jewelry marketing doesn’t carry over in news and journalism — or what is alleged to be news and journalism. There’s a “news” marketing practice all over social media that gives you what appears to be a news story but is not.

I call this News-ique (TM). It has the look and feel of real news but at less than .01% of the value. It’s all over Twitter/X and other social media platforms.

The News-ique (TM) formula:

Choose a topic guaranteed to rile people whether they’re left, right, or center. The closer the topic is to today’s “discourse” on social media, the better.Write a lede sentence or short paragraph making a claim that flatters the interests, views, but especially the biases of the reader. The text should confirm the reader’s prior assumptions.Include an image that looks very much like it is advertising a published news story, but do NOT include a link to that apparent story. It might or might not be published somewhere, but you can’t know from the original post — that’s the News-ique Difference (TM)!

Post nothing else. Do not follow up with a link. Watch outrage flow, and collect clicks and cash.

Know your News-ique

Here is an example of News-ique (TM), a post on X from an alleged news account, Europa.com. The post includes a picture of the subject against a background that looks “newsy” and “official.”

It says this:

Poland’s Spokeswoman for Children, Monika Horna-Cieślak, used her official powers to take the children of a woman who was rude to her and place them in an orphanage.

Horna-Cieślak, 36, who is herself childless, had intervened in a public park in Warsaw before being told by the mother of an unruly child to mind her own business. She then leveraged her authority to have the children seized and placed into care.

Why is it News-ique (TM) and not news? Because there’s no link to a fuller source or documentation. There is no follow-up in the thread, only responses from X users.

I do not know if this item is real. I have not checked by doing my own search. It does not matter if this particular item is real or not; it is representative of countless posts every day that use the News-ique (TM) formula. My concern is not the content of the story, but the packaging, intent, and effect.

News-ique (TM) works because it presents plausible outrages. It’s believable that a head of a government ministry for children’s concerns would abuse her position and target a mother who criticized her. This type of thing happens. We know government officials sometimes abuse their authority and get away with it.

Filling in the gaps

But what if there is more to this story about a Polish official?

What I’m about to write is pure speculation used to demonstrate possibilities. I’m not giving you facts; I don’t even know if the original claim is true.

Let’s assume the core of the claim is true. What if the mother did not merely tell the minister to mind her own business? What if she smacked her with her purse? What if she made false and defamatory claims about her online? What if the minister observed that mother abusing her child?

The whole story changes if any of those factors are true. If the mother were abusing her child and the minister intervened, then the minister would have been doing the job she is in office for. She looks like a heroine instead of a villain.

Again, everything I just wrote was speculation. That’s the point: Without context, detail, and at least some provenance for the original claim, all we are doing is writing fiction while treating that fiction as fact.

The political and cultural content cuts in both directions. This example plays to the fears — often real and legitimate — of people with a right-wing bent and to libertarians and other freedom-minded people. But News-ique (TM) items just as often flatter the assumptions of left-leaning people.

H. Armstrong Roberts/Classicstock/Getty Images

New pollution

The News-ique (TM) approach contributes to political, cultural, and emotional pollution. It leaves an impression of truth in the minds of readers and “consumers.” And no, it doesn’t just work on “stupid people.” It works on most people, smart and stupid, left and right, hysterical or stoic. Items that flatter and confirm our prior assumptions are mentally sticky; they leave a trace you might call Truth-ette (TM). Few are immune.

At best, News-ique (TM) is irresponsible and lazy when the content is real and tells a true story. At worst, and I suspect in the majority of cases, it’s a deliberate choice to shade the truth and deprive readers of full context. Outrage gets clicks and cash; sober consideration does not.

Some might push back: “You can use Google/Siri/Whatever to check for yourself.” True. But most people won’t. Not even smart people will usually take the time unless they’re going to comment or use it in an essay or podcast. Most of us are just going to click onto the next thing. We won’t necessarily be aware that the News-ique (TM) item left a Truth-ette (TM) trace in our minds.

Sometimes, we’ll subconsciously incorporate that item into our view of what’s true about the world. This has happened to me and has probably happened in cases I’m unaware of. When I become aware that I’ve been foolish and failed to check veracity, I admit it in the same thread where I made the claim. Better not to react without having the facts first.

Unstoppable

There is nothing you or I can do to stop News-ique (TM). There is no way to change the social media incentive structure so this is not a profitable game. The only thing we can do is increase our skepticism and discernment.

“Then just stay off social media” is not a workable answer either. Social media is toxic and full of mind games. But it is also the medium through which we can learn many actually true things happening in the world that mainstream news simply will not tell us.

Social media is where we can find “citizen journalists” like Nick Shirley who document problems like fraudulent Somali day cares paid for by American taxpayer dollars. When mainstream media gets wind of stories like Shirley’s, it works hard to discredit them, as you see in this CBS News piece. It is also where we can hear directly from politicians and government officials without ABC/NBC/CBS/NPR/NYT leaving out important words to slant the story.

We are never going to have a world “back” where “official news” can be relied on. That world never existed anyway; we just didn’t have any way to fact-check the fact-checkers before.

If you see a “news story” on Twitter/Instagram/TikTok, make sure you know whether it’s news or News-ique (TM). Check whether context or links are given. If they are, cross-reference the claim against other sources. If they are not, you are reading News-ique (TM).

Diamonique can give you sparkle for the soirée at an affordable price. News-ique (TM) is a bad bargain at any price.

Cable tv, Mainstream media, Qvc, Social media, Skepticism, Lifestyle, Culture, Intervention, News

blaze media

Is this why everyone gets into fights at Taco Bell?

October 2, 2026

Andrew Chapados

The citizenry is mad at Taco Bell.

What started as a meme has morphed into a social commentary on the economy and corporate greed.

‘Prices for almost every major fast-food chain had exceeded inflation.’

Bean counters

What started as a meme has morphed into a small economic referendum after a 20-year comparison of Taco Bell menu prices began circulating on social media.

The post contrasted purported 2006 prices with what customers pay today. A crunchy taco, according to the graphic, went from 69 cents to $1.99. A Crunchwrap Supreme went from $1.89 to $6.49.

“This doesn’t even take into account the shrinkflation factor,” one user complained. “All these items are smaller, have less filling, or just flat out taste worse than they used to.”

Another remembered getting two double-decker tacos and a medium soda for $2.99.

In the end, the fast-food industry in the United States has become predominantly known for two things: fights and overpriced food.

For the latter, the prices are outpacing inflation. A 2024 analysis by FinanceBuzz looked at 10 longstanding menu items at a dozen major fast-food chains and compared their prices with a decade earlier. Every chain it studied had raised prices faster than overall inflation over that period, which was roughly 32.5%, with Taco Bell being one of the biggest culprits at 81%.

Fast food, in other words, really did get expensive unusually fast.

Marcin Golba/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Big Mac attack

Historically, brands have blamed “increased commodity costs” and labor costs on the spike in food prices.

Economists Orley Ashenfelter and Štěpán Jurajda studied wage rates and Big Mac prices at nearly every McDonald’s in the United States between 2016 and 2020. They found that increases in minimum wages were passed almost entirely into higher restaurant prices.

Their estimate suggests that a 10% increase in the minimum wage raises the price of a Big Mac by about 1.4%.

The president of McDonald’s USA said in 2024 that salaries, food, and paper had increased about 40% in the past five years, as did the average price of McDonald’s menu items.

Portillo’s CEO said that same year that prices in each market have to go up to cover the cost of labor commiserate with minimum wage increases, while Chipotle’s CEO made similar claims too.

Taco Bell in 1994. Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images

Border run

Some have related the prices to a shift in company priorities. An article from Medium alleged that fast-food chains are more akin to tech companies now, scraping app data or being more like real estate developers. The latter is essentially the plot of the McDonald’s-themed movie “The Founder.”

Are prices still going up?

Yes, but they haven’t gone over inflation. In March, Grocery Trade News noted restaurant prices had gone up 3.8%, while groceries had only risen 1.9%.

The current inflation estimate for 2026 is 3.4%.

Will we ever reach the prices of the purple and green Taco Bell era again? Outlook not so good.

Taco bell, Inflation, Mcdonald’s, Lifestyle

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Trump and Rodman meet face-to-face, and a close insider claims POTUS has big plans post-midterms

October 2, 2026

Andrew Chapados

The president may be campaigning to help Republicans in the midterms, but he is allegedly already making plans for after the election.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump made stops in Texas and Oklahoma, but he took some time out for an old friend who has a storied history in both places.

‘So long as I’m here, you’re not going to have any problems.’

When the president visited Peterbilt Motors in Denton, Texas, he was greeted by the towering, pink-haired character who is Dennis Rodman.

Rodman went to college at the nearby North Central Texas College and also attended Southeastern Oklahoma State in Durant, Oklahoma, where Trump held another rally later in the day.

In Texas, Trump pointed out Rodman in the crowd, calling him “the greatest guy” and a “friend for a long time.”

Trump communications adviser Margo Martin later posted a video of the two meeting face-to-face, where the president called Rodman the “best rebounder in the history of basketball,” with Rodman responding that Trump is “my friend.”

A source described as “close to Rodman” revealed to the New York Post that the president has big plans to reconnect with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after the midterms, saying, “Trump wants to refocus again on North Korea and start talking about Kim Jong Un.”

The source added, “Dennis believes he’s the ambassador of goodwill between North Korea and the United States. As Trump ponders what to do next, he’s been soliciting ideas, and one of those key people he’s talking to is Dennis.”

The news comes as Washington Post reporter Josh Rogin claims that Rodman had a falling out with Kim Jong Un after allegedly getting too drunk during his last visit.

“He can’t help Trump with North Korean diplomacy anymore,” the reporter claimed.

A White House official told Blaze News: “President Trump in his first term held three historic summits with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un that stabilized the Korean Peninsula. U.S. policy on North Korea has not changed. President Trump remains open to talking with Kim Jong Un, without any preconditions. There has been no change on this policy.”

As Trump toured the facility in Texas, a reporter asked if he was “brokering any peace with North Korea with Dennis today.”

Trump replied, “I can tell you this: We have a good relationship, and you’re not going to have any problem — so long as I’m here, you’re not going to have any problems.”

“Somebody else comes, you could have some big problems,” the president added.

Joining Rodman at the Texas event was his girlfriend, a rapper called Yella Yella, who also said hello to the president.

“You’re with that guy?!” Trump asked her. “What the hell are you doing with him for?” he continued, as others laughed off-camera.

The rapper proudly posted images from the event on her Instagram page with the caption, “Hanging With TRUMP … wow,” with a shocked face and goat emojis.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Rodman, now 65, reportedly joined the president’s motorcade for the ride to Oklahoma, 740 the Fan reported.

The former athlete allegedly told Reuters that he hoped to speak to the president about “life.”

When asked if he was going to North Korea in the near future, Rodman reportedly replied, “If you buy the ticket.”

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Dennis rodman, Donald trump, Kim jong un, North korea, Oklahoma, Politics, Texas

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Konstantin Kisin: Britain can slow the bleed — but reversing the damage is harder

October 2, 2026

BlazeTV Staff

Can Britain still change course, or has the country already passed the point of no return?

After attending the Unite the Kingdom rally, BlazeTV host Nick Freitas is asking that question — and Konstantin Kisin, who is an immigrant himself, has some answers.

“Do you believe that there is any chance within the next five to 10 years that there is a party that controls parliament with enough of either a majority or a ruling coalition that they will significantly curtail immigration and actively deport illegal immigrants?” Freitas asks Kisin.

“I think there is no reason why Reform can’t do that, other than the legislative system is set up in such a way that they’re going to have to sweep away a lot of Blair-era legislation,” Kisin answers.

“Actually, the reason that the Conservative Party wasn’t able to deal with the issue is partly they didn’t realize that when Blair was in power, they basically legislated their values into law,” he continues.

“So now, things like net zero, not deporting illegal immigrants, etc., it’s the law,” he explains, noting that despite all of this, “Reform, if they are elected, can address that problem.”

Kisin likens the influx of immigrants to inflation and people’s general understanding of it.

“The difficulty is, Nick, that it’s like inflation. Inflation goes down from 3% to 2.5%, and people say, ‘Things are getting cheaper.’ You don’t understand how inflation works. Inflation is the rate of change,” he tells Freitas.

“So getting mass immigration down from its peak of almost a million a couple of years ago to a couple of hundred thousand is great. You still have a couple of hundred thousand people coming in,” he continues.

“The challenge that people are really frustrated by is the fact that the country has changed very dramatically and in ways that they don’t like,” he says, adding, “And undoing that is a much bigger project than reducing the number of people coming in.”

“Making the Argument with Nick Freitas” is available on BlazeTV+, YouTube, and major podcast platforms.

Start watching Nick Freitas NOW at blazetv.com and use the promo code NICK40 for $40 off your BlazeTV+ subscription.

Britain, Immigrant, Immigration, Inflation, Konstantin kisin, Nick freitas, Reform, Blazetv show

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Brewery fires co-owner over supposed skepticism about mass Indian graves hoax

October 2, 2026

Joseph MacKinnon

A Canadian brewery has fired one of its owners who may have dared to question the mass Indian graves hoax.

After spending time fighting forest fires, planting trees, then working on a bottling line, John Adair took a risk and started a brewery with several other people in Sooke, British Columbia. It turns out that the real risk wasn’t starting a business in a small municipality but doing so with people who would instantly throw him under the bus to appease woke cranks.

‘Show me the evidence.’

The Sooke Brewing Company announced on Thursday that “John Adair has been terminated, effective immediately,” adding that his “views and actions do not reflect the values of Sooke Brewing Company, its ownership, or its staff.”

Adair had apparently done the unthinkable: He allegedly wore a shirt to work on Wednesday emblazoned with the statement, “Show me the evidence.”

While a shirt signaling a desire for evidence might appear innocuous to most people, the management team at the brewery deemed it “offensive” because of the day on which Adair allegedly wore it.

Since 2021, Canada has observed “National Day for Truth and Reconciliation” on Sept. 30, owing to legislation pushed by a former Liberal minister. According to the Canadian government, this federal statutory holiday — which is also known as “Orange Shirt Day” — was established to recognize so-called “survivors” of Canada’s now defunct residential school system.

The residential schools — which were in many cases operated by various Catholic dioceses as well as by Anglican and Presbyterian churches — were established across Canada in the 1880s as part of a federally mandated campaign to educate poor Indian children who had no alternative local school options and to assimilate them into contemporary society.

Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

An estimated 150,000 children attended the schools over the course of a century.

“Orange Shirt Day” took off in the wake of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation’s announcement that children’s remains had been discovered in an apple orchard near a former Catholic-run residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia.

Despite an absence of any real evidence of children’s remains in that area, what followed was a literal firestorm:

Hundreds of churches were torched and/or vandalized.Statues remembering historic figures were toppled.Canada Day festivities were canceled around the country.Catholic dioceses were targeted for extortion.Canadian institutions lowered the national flags in memory of the supposedly missing children.Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other officials in Ottawa expressed grief over the supposed discovery.

A radical parliamentarian even passed a motion with unanimous consent demanding that the Canadian government “recognize what happened in Canada’s Indian residential schools as genocide.” Thousands of children allegedly did die while attending the schools, but the main killer was reportedly tuberculosis, which similarly swept through non-Indian populations.

In the years since the First Nation’s announcement, tens of millions of federal dollars have been wasted in hopes of recovering children’s graves that simply aren’t there. Not a single body has been found to date.

The Canadian self-flagellation nevertheless continues unabated, while activists lean on the Liberal government to criminalize skepticism about the unmarked graves hoax and the imagined “genocide.”

Leah Gazan, a member of the socialist New Democratic Party, has a private member’s bill before the House of Commons that would amend Canada’s Criminal Code so that anyone who “wilfully [sic] promotes hatred against Indigenous peoples by condoning, denying, downplaying, or justifying the Indian residential school system in Canada or by misrepresenting facts relating to it” would be guilty of an indictable offense punishable by up to two years in prison.

According to City News, a photo of Adair wearing a “Show me the evidence” T-shirt taken on Wednesday was widely circulated on Threads and was also shared on Reddit, prompting outrage and an effort on Google Reviews to tank the brewery’s score.

Artur Widak/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The woke online mob apparently figured that the shirt was referring to the unmarked graves or at least had something thematically to do with “Orange Shirt Day.”

The brewing company, which did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment, said in one of multiple statements on Facebook:

We are aware of the photograph circulating online showing a member of the Sooke Brewing Company ownership group wearing an offensive T-shirt while working at the brewery on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. We want to be unequivocal: the message displayed on that shirt does not reflect the values of Sooke Brewing Company. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a day to honour Survivors, remember the children who never returned home, acknowledge the profound and ongoing harms caused by residential schools, and reflect on the responsibility we all share in advancing reconciliation.

In the post announcing Adair’s termination, the company noted, “We are committed to Truth and Reconciliation and to respectful relationships with local First Nations communities and have reached out to First Nations leadership to listen, understand their concerns, and determine the appropriate next steps to ensure something like this does not happen again.”

When asked for comment, Adair told Blaze News, “Given the circumstances, I’m currently seeking legal advice before making any public statement.”

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Unmarked graves, Justin trudeau, Canada, Kamloops, Hoax, Politics

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The right is building its own lawfare defense machine — finally

October 2, 2026

Mike Howell

For years, the right has rented legal capacity by the hour. This week, the Oversight Project is changing that.

We are launching a new law firm led by Jeff Clark and backed by a multi-million-dollar investment from philanthropist Tom Klingenstein. Its job will be straightforward: provide rapid-response representation to people we believe are being hit with politically motivated subpoenas, investigations, lawsuits, and professional disciplinary actions — and pursue lawful remedies against those who abuse those processes.

The next time one of ours gets the subpoena, the bar complaint, the investigation, or the lawsuit, someone will be there to answer it.

In practical terms, we are building something the right has long lacked: a public-defender-style legal network for our side.

With Klingenstein’s help, the project aims to raise $10 million over two years and hire at least 15 lawyers. Clark already has a small legal team at the Oversight Project. The new firm will expand that capacity, pair it with our investigators, and build specialized expertise in constitutional, administrative, ethics, and First Amendment law.

That’s the news. The reason for it is simpler.

You are not going to get the politics and policy you want if your political allies are in jail, tied up in frivolous proceedings, fighting for their professional licenses, or going broke paying lawyers. You certainly will not get durable policy wins if people who might otherwise enter public life decide the personal price is too high.

Politics does not require everyone to become a political actor, and it should not. Most people should be able to focus on faith, family, work, and community. But some people choose to step into the public fight on everyone else’s behalf. They need a fair chance to survive it.

Lawfare threatens that. The left has learned to move political disputes from the ballot box and public square into criminal cases, civil litigation, bar proceedings, subpoenas, and investigations. It also has a much larger institutional legal ecosystem — major firms, nonprofit litigators, advocacy organizations, and in-house lawyers — capable of imposing costs and absorbing them.

The right is better positioned than it used to be. Conservative legal groups have built sophisticated litigation shops. Investigative organizations have become more aggressive. Procedural challenges, public-records suits, and constitutional litigation are no longer unusual.

But one hole remains: institutionalized capacity to represent individuals at little or no cost when the process itself becomes the punishment.

The right’s usual answer has been a legal-defense fund: raise money and pass it through to private firms billing hundreds or even thousands of dollars an hour. A few prominent figures get help. Plenty of staffers, lawyers, activists, and public servants do not.

I have seen that firsthand. A friend of mine, a young White House official, received a subpoena from the January 6 Committee and an unfriendly call from the FBI. The quotes he received merely to respond to the investigation were far beyond his means. I represented him pro bono.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Most people in his position do not happen to have a friend who can do that. We are renting legal capacity we should own.

Jeff Clark understands the cost personally. He was arrested and indicted in Fulton County’s 2020 election case; those charges were later dismissed. He was swept into the federal investigation that became special counsel Jack Smith’s election case. He was subpoenaed by the January 6 Committee. And his D.C. Bar disciplinary case remains pending.

Clark knows what it costs to spend years inside criminal, congressional, and professional-disciplinary machinery. That’s one reason he is the right person to build this.

The new firm will defend clients when subpoenas, bar complaints, investigations, or lawsuits land. Salaried, mission-driven lawyers inside a nonprofit can represent far more people for far less money than a model that depends entirely on outside counsel.

Defense, however, is only half the plan.

Pairing the lawyers with Oversight Project investigators means we can also find the records behind abusive conduct and pursue damages, fees, sanctions, and other lawful consequences where the facts support them. A movement that only absorbs blows will eventually be outspent and worn down. The goal is to change the cost calculation for anyone who believes legal process can be weaponized without consequence.

That distinction is critical. This is not a license to manufacture cases against political opponents. If we become what we say we oppose, we have built nothing worth defending. The answer to abusive legal process is aggressive, lawful representation backed by evidence.

Tomloel/Getty Images

The firm will also build the next generation. We want young, hungry lawyers to get real responsibility early, work beside experienced counsel, and learn how to run cases rather than spend years carrying bags for partners. Lawyers who choose public duty over careerism should have a path to leadership.

For too long, much of the conservative legal movement has focused on commercial and regulatory questions important to major institutions. Other organizations have done strong work on the First and Second Amendments, education, abortion, and religious liberty.

We need that work. We also need lawyers ready to represent people fighting over election law, immigration, executive power, administrative government, and the emerging legal fights around populist and nationalist policy.

The left built a legal machine because it understood that legal infrastructure is political infrastructure. The right cannot keep renting lawyers by the hour and hoping donor generosity arrives after the damage is done.

That era is ending.

Jeff Clark and the Oversight Project are building a permanent institution to defend our allies and make abusive legal tactics more expensive to use. Judge us by the work.

But the next time one of ours gets the subpoena, the bar complaint, the investigation, or the lawsuit, someone will be there to answer it.

Lawfare, Oversight project, Republicans, Democrats, Jeff clark, Legal defense, January 6, Lawsuits, Religious liberty, Opinion & analysis

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Google invites itself into your closet — to help you try on your clothes

October 2, 2026

Zach Laidlaw

Would you let Google snoop around your closet? Your closet is a sacred domain for your most personal items, and now Google wants to peek inside. A new feature in Google Photos lets you virtually mix and match clothing items to create new outfits without physically trying them on. All it needs is an AI scan of you and your photo library to build your digital wardrobe.

That’s what the company hopes you’ll allow with the new Wardrobe feature in Google Photos. This was first announced back in April of this year, and after several long months and a multi-stage rollout, it is finally available to both Android and iOS users through the Google Photos app.

If your creep-o-meter is already leaning at full tilt, you’re not alone.

To find the new Wardrobe feature, open the Google Photos app, tap the “Create” tab at the bottom, and select “Outfit try-on” at the top. From here, you can start to build your digital wardrobe. All you have to do is let Google scan through your photo library in search of existing images of you that its AI can use to identify your face, body type, and clothing options from outfits you own.

If your creep-o-meter is already leaning at full tilt, you’re not alone. There’s something a bit skeevy about unleashing Google’s AI on your entire library so that it can build a digital model of you and every outfit you have worn throughout thousands of images.

And yet, for the sake of this article, I hit the button and let it root through my digital life to see what Wardrobe was all about. The process can take several hours, so feel free to run it in the background while you go about your day, if you’re so inclined.

Wardrobe in Google Photos/Zach Laidlaw

Alas, I didn’t meet the minimum requirement to put my wardrobe to use. You need at least 1,000 photos of yourself wearing easily identifiable clothing; otherwise the feature will come up blank.

For those who fit the bill, though, the feature lets you digitally “try on” up to six different items — including shirts, pants, and accessories — in your closet without going through the trouble of putting them on, similar to the clothing picker in the movie “Clueless.” This lets you easily see which items would go well together to better plan an outfit for the day.

The only thing you can’t do is add photos of clothes you find online to see how they look on you without buying them. Google’s Wardrobe is strictly meant for the things you already wear — at least for now.

Marina113/Getty Images

Naturally, Wardrobe in Google Photos raises plenty of concerns for potential misuse and abuse. For instance:

It’s available to anyone with “an eligible Google Account that meets the minimum age requirements for your country or region.” In the United States, that age limit is 13. Digging deeper into Google’s age restrictions, users as young as 13 are permitted to use Google AI via Gemini, though some generative AI photo features are reserved for users 18 years old and up. It’s unclear where Wardrobe fits into this structure and whether or not minors can be scanned and uploaded into the system.Google Photos lets you choose which person you want to stylize at the initial setup, aside from yourself. That means you can technically select a friend, family member, or a complete stranger to use as a digital doll to test outfits as you see fit.Some garments are more intimate than others. There is no documentation as to how Google’s Wardrobe handles more private apparel, should these appear in a photo scan.

Blaze News reached out to Google to clarify these misuse and abuse concerns, and a spokesperson provided the following response:

We take protecting kids seriously. We have strong safeguards for the Google Photos Wardrobe feature, including restrictions on allowed clothing types, modesty guardrails to prevent nudity, and age limits that prevent access by younger users.

Google added that revealing clothing, like swimwear and lingerie, are prohibited for all users. “Child account holders” under age 13 cannot use the Wardrobe in Google Photos at all, though based on Google’s age criteria, underage teenagers may still have access. Lastly, Wardrobe is governed by Google’s generative AI prohibited use policy that strictly prohibits the creation of intimate imagery, child exploitation, and abuse.

Since Wardrobe is closely tied to Google’s AI endeavors, it’s restricted to Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers for now. However, as with many of Google’s paid exclusives, Wardrobe could eventually trickle down to free customers as well. Luckily, Google’s Wardrobe feature can’t activate until you enable it manually.

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Google, Google ai, Artificial intelligence, Tech

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EXCLUSIVE: A year after Charlie Kirk’s death, Sabo’s ‘controversial’ tribute finally goes on display

October 2, 2026

Sabo X

One year after the murder of Charlie Kirk, the VFW in Denver has allowed me to hang the art that I created in tribute to him.

I’d presented it four months ago, but it was suggested that the story was too hot, that not enough time has passed for people to be comfortable with the content. I could have pulled the old line, “I thought that was the whole point of art, to challenge people,” but even I could appreciate their trepidation, especially in a city as captured by liberal dogma as Denver.

I learned a while back that when a liberal says that art should never be censored, what they really mean is art that they agree with should never be censored.

A year has passed since the murder, and we’ve heard just about every conspiracy theory you could imagine: exploding mics, palm guns, a bullet fired from a drone, it was Israelis, it was the FBI, it was his wife.

Nonetheless, it was determined last month that the case against the official suspect will be going to trial. Without a doubt, it will be the most watched legal proceeding since OJ’s. This art will be on display in October on First Friday in Denver. I hope that you’re able to see it.

Over the target

As with the COVID art I revisited this summer, I dedicated a good amount of time to getting the pieces together, all the while with an increasing sense of dread that my time — the last thing I have to waste — would be in vain: There was no way in hell the VFW was going to allow me to hang the work.

Ever since I’ve been showing art in Denver, my website has been getting hacked, making it difficult for me to be able to support my family. As much as it sucks, these attacks remind me of the saying, “You take flak when you’re over the target.” In other words, I must be doing something right.

In light of what happened to Charlie for standing up for his beliefs, getting a site hacked and losing a couple of bucks pales in comparison. Don’t get me wrong — it’s not that these people don’t want the worst for me. If my wife and I ended up living under a bridge, they would laugh and throw things at us as they drove past. It’s sobering to realize how joyfully some people embrace hate. I may not be Charlie Kirk, but I am certainly closer to him than our self-proclaimed enemies.

Unsavoryagents.com

Violent reactions

I put these Charlie Kirk pieces on the streets not long after Charlie’s murder. The tattered, textured look is meant to represent the violent reactions that he inspired from those who disagreed with his views, as well as how often my street art is ripped down just as quickly as it’s put up. I put my posters up at night and never wait for better light to document them, aware that they may be torn down before the sun comes up.

I learned a while back that when a liberal says that art should never be censored, what they really mean is art that they agree with should never be censored. Everything else is fair game, and as Charlie learned, no tactic to silence someone is off limits.

I also decided to include my Iryna Zarutska pieces; perhaps these would make the cut even if the Charlie pieces proved too much. Who was I kidding? I thought, as my anxiety increased. This series is even more brutal.

Unsavoryagents.com

Screaming ‘stop!’

Taking over a stop sign is not as simple as it looks. I’ve seen many half-hearted attempts at repurposing one. My approach is to not add a single word to the piece. I want the art that I add to scream, “STOP!!!” The art should belong on that sign. I think I pulled it off with her murderer half a second from plunging that knife into her neck. I want everyone who views this piece to scream that one word in their head. Included are photos taken from the street hit in Hollywood. One piece boldly and purposefully includes the name IRYNA ZARUTSKA so there is no question as to who this person is. Everyone who views these pieces will say her name, even if just in their thoughts.

I CAN’T BREATHE! I’ll admit to the art being cluttered. The pieces should have more room to breathe. I was so surprised and blown away at being allowed to show these pieces, from both series, that I took the opportunity to throw as much of it up as I could, fearing I’d never get such an opportunity again. But if all goes well, next month I’ll curate the display to include only the Charlie Kirk pieces, some of which are absent. The month after that, I intend to reshow the Iryna pieces, also including those photos I didn’t have room for this time around.

Unsavoryagents.com

The small “ALL LIVES MATTER” piece is a deliberate reminder of this truth. I mean to provoke those who cheered the murder of Charlie because he did not agree with them and dismissed the murder of Iryna simply because she was white and her murderer was black. This is what I mean when I include the word “DOGMA” in the Charlie Kirk piece. What good is art if it only confirms what you already believe?

Lifestyle, Culture, Art, Street art, Iryna zarutska, Charlie kirk assassination, Charlie kirk, Denver, Sabo strikes!

blaze media

Death row goes DEI — and the execution still goes off the rails

October 2, 2026

Jeannie DeAngelis

America has been inundated with sob stories from female murderers over the past few months. First, it was Lindsay Clancy, otherwise known as the Exercise Band Executioner of Duxbury, Massachusetts. Prosecutors say Lindsay deliberately strangled her three children; she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Now after a mistrial, her lawyer insists there is a “total and complete lack of evidence” that smiling Lindsay killed them. A judge rejected that bid Thursday.

Maybe JonBenét Ramsey’s killer, who is still on the loose, climbed in the Clancy window and did what Mom is being unfairly blamed for?

Remember when drawing, quartering, and beheading were the only special treatments criminals got?

Recently, the soap opera moved farther south to Tennessee, a state that had not executed a woman since 1819. The convicted female death-row inmate in the news is 50-year-old Christa Pike, condemned for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer.

Pike’s lethal injection was scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m. CDT. Concerned about being traumatized, Christa demanded special treatment at her execution.

Christa took diversity, equity, and inclusion to new heights by requesting that women handle the execution because of her history of sexual abuse. Her attorney later said it appeared Tennessee honored the request.

Remember when drawing, quartering, and beheading were the only special treatments criminals got?

Pike also challenged Tennessee’s lethal-injection protocol because of her small veins and a blood disorder. Her lawyers proposed a central line or even hanging as alternatives. It’s a shame no one thought of Lindsay Clancy; she is both a nurse and a woman. If Pike had requested that wheelchair-bound Clancy be flown in from Massachusetts to tenderly place the IV line in the femme fatale’s arm — then if that had failed, who better than Lindsay to enforce the alternative?

Poor Christa said she had been living in constant fear, unable to sleep and hoping the IV would go in cleanly. She did not want to end up like Tony Von Carruthers, the Tennessee death-row prisoner whose execution was called off in May after officials spent more than an hour trying and failing to establish the required backup IV line.

After a day of appeals, a temporary Sixth Circuit stay, and the U.S. Supreme Court clearing the way for Tennessee to proceed, Christa finally found herself eight miles from Music Row in Nashville, in a sanitized execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, about to be ushered into Nirvana by the all-female team she had requested.

The curtain opened at about 7:27 p.m. Witnesses saw Christa strapped to a gurney and prepped for lethal injection. Pike received pentobarbital and remained conscious long enough to smile, move, and complain that her arm hurt.

RELATED: How groupthink replaces truth

Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

The curtain closed, reopened, then closed again. Witnesses could still hear Christa breathing and snoring behind it. Tennessee administered a second dose. That one didn’t kill her either.

Her attorney demanded that officials stop the execution and provide emergency medical care. At 8:53 p.m. — 86 minutes after the curtain first opened — Christa Pike was still alive, and witnesses were ordered out.

Instead of a hearse, an ambulance eventually shuttled Pike from Riverbend to a hospital. As of Thursday afternoon, her lawyers said she remained in critical condition receiving “life-saving care”. Gov. Bill Lee (R) halted Tennessee’s remaining executions for the year and ordered an independent review.

No one scooped Colleen Slemmer up on that freezing winter night in Knoxville and ferried her away. Slemmer’s unrecognizable body wasn’t found until the next morning.

Christa’s journey to Riverbend started on January 12, 1995, when she was 18 years old. The night before, she told friend Kim Iloilo that she intended to kill fellow Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer because she “had just felt mean that day”. Pike believed Colleen was interested in her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp.

The next night, Pike, Shipp, Slemmer, and Shadolla Peterson left the Job Corps center together. Only three came back.

Pike later told Iloilo that Colleen had begged them to stop. Instead of mercy, Christa cut the 19-year-old woman’s throat, beat her, and cracked her skull with a piece of asphalt. Pike said a meat cleaver was used to cut Slemmer’s back and a box cutter to cut her throat. A pentagram was carved into Slemmer’s forehead and chest.

Then Pike came back with a souvenir: a piece of Colleen’s skull.

The next morning, with the skull fragment still in her pocket, Pike bragged to classmate Stephanie Wilson about the killing. Pointing to brown spots on her shoes, she said, “That ain’t mud on my shoes, that’s blood.”

John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

On January 13, a University of Tennessee groundskeeper found Slemmer’s brutalized body and testified that it was “so badly beaten that he had first mistaken it for the corpse of an animal.”

Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to death in 1996. Her prison résumé did not improve. In 2001, she choked inmate Patricia Jones unconscious with a shoelace and was later convicted of attempted first-degree murder.

With execution looming, Pike’s lawyers filed a 226-page clemency petition. They said she was sexually abused by her grandmother’s boyfriend between ages 2 and 5, raped by a neighbor at 11, and raped again by a stranger at 17. They also cited bipolar disorder, PTSD, suicide attempts, and other mental-health problems.

Granted, if Christa’s accounts are true, they are tragic. But even all that does not justify one woman brutally torturing and murdering another woman. And then, three decades later, she had the gall to ask for women around her execution gurney to lessen the “trauma.”

In the end, it is almost as if karma circumvented compassion. After all the argument over who would touch Christa, how the IV would be placed, and how much suffering the state could lawfully impose, Tennessee gave her two hefty doses of the death drug and still failed to kill her.

Now Pike remains hospitalized in critical condition with a dire prognosis — which is considerably more medical attention than Colleen Slemmer received after Christa bludgeoned her to death.

Diversity, Equity, Lindsay clancy, Opinion & analysis, Tennessee, Ptsd, Christa pike, Death penalty, Law and order, Murder

blaze media

NBA team hires and fires announcer on same day over teenage tweets: ‘Asian people p*** me off!’

October 2, 2026

Andrew Chapados

Everything on the internet lasts forever.

This sage advice was everywhere at the turn of the millennium, but play-by-play broadcaster Braiden Bell may have been too young to hear it.

‘Girls these nights … Smh.’

On Thursday, Bell was introduced as the new announcer for the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, with the organization praising him for being “authentic” and a “great fit” for the team, local outlet KGW8 reported.

However, Bell’s tenure would last only mere hours as that same local outlet dug up some old X posts (then tweets) from Bell — when he was only 15 years old — and contacted the Trail Blazers for comment about them.

Bell was promptly fired for his old jokes, which were later described by the basketball team as “racist, sexist” and “harmful.”

Bell wrote in 2012, “I’m not racist at all.. But not gonna lie.. Asian people piss me off! Hahaha #Honest,” according to images shared by KGW8.

“Gotta give a shoutout to all the big girls out there and those closet whores. #BigUps,” read another post.

Other posts featured by the local outlet from 2013 included “We got a slut alert on aisle 10,” and “Girls these nights … Smh. #ThirstyForTheD.”

The Trail Blazers did not take these past remarks lightly and wrote in a statement that the team has zero tolerance for comments that are “in clear violation of team and league policies, as well as our values and expectations.”

“Therefore, we will not be moving forward with this broadcaster.”

The team went on to boast about the standard it holds for its play-by-play role, before apologizing to the city and fans.

“Everyone … should feel welcome and safe,” the organization added.

Interestingly enough, Portland as a city and the NBA franchise were once known for embracing misfits on the court. So much so that the team was referred to as the “Jail Blazers” due to how many players on the squad had criminal records.

Steph Chambers/Getty Images

Critics of Thursday’s firing pointed out that Oregon state law dictates that juveniles can have their records expunged for serious crimes, while Bell was losing his job over immature commentary.

Clay Travis, founder of OutKick, wrote on X, “We have to stop firing people for tweets sent when they were minors.”

Travis added, “If this guy had robbed a store as a minor, his juvenile record would be sealed forever. If we don’t hold people accountable for crimes as minors, holding people accountable for Tweets is beyond absurd.”

Blaze News reached out to Bell and his agency for comment. Neither provided an immediate response.

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Nba, Basketball, Portland trail blazers, Sports

blaze media

This China bombshell is blowing up in MS NOW’s face

October 2, 2026

BlazeTV Staff

On MS NOW, “Deadline” host Nicolle Wallace took viewers through a montage of Trump’s past tough-on-China remarks, before excitedly suggesting that Trump had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping whether or not China wanted to buy American weapons.

“So much for Mr. Tough Guy,” Wallace scoffed. “Over the last few days, we saw Donald Trump roll out an actual red carpet for China’s President Xi Jinping when he came to the White House, a visit which Reuters called, quote, ‘a stalemate summit that was a glitzy gift to China,’ end quote.”

“And then there was this moment on Fox News yesterday, courtesy of America’s ambassador to China, David Purdue,” she added.

In the clip, Purdue said, “President Trump continues to say, ‘Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world.’ He actually asked President Xi would he like to buy some at one point.”

“You heard that correctly. That was the ambassador to China saying that the United States president offered to sell arms to China,” Wallace said, laughing.

The State Department responded to the claim with a statement that read, “U.S. law prohibits arm sales to China, and there is no offer or plan to sell arms to China.”

Wallace called the statement “backpedaling,” but BlazeTV host Pat Gray points out that she’s supposed to be reporting the news.

“This is a news person, supposedly. So the president and his team denied everything you just presented in the clip, and your response is a sarcastic, belittling, dismissive heh-heh,” he says, mimicking her laugh.

“That’s some good news broadcast right there. That’s some hardcore news and reporting and journalistic integrity right there,” he continues. “It’s unbelievable.”

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

David purdue, Donald trump, Ms now, Nicolle wallace, Fox news, Xi jinping, China, Blazetv show

blaze media

The kids are all right: Identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual in ‘free fall’ among teens, CDC data analyst says

October 2, 2026

Joseph MacKinnon

LGBT activists’ moment in the sun appears to be at an end.

Public opinion has, for instance, soured on permitting cross-dressing men in women’s sports and bathrooms; on the provision of sex-rejection mutilation surgeries and puberty blockers to minors; and on the promotion of gender ideology in schools. Public support is also slipping for homosexual “marriage.”

‘Groomers hardest hit.’

Major corporations have pumped the brakes on the rainbow flag and supporting LGBT indoctrination initiatives and events — or have at the very least felt the need to pretend they would.

It appears that LGBT activists are now also losing their grip on future generations. New data from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System reveals a dramatic decline in non-straight identification among high school-age Americans.

According to an analysis of the CDC data by San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge, the number of LGB-identifying students “plummeted” in 2025.

Whereas, for instance, CDC data showed that 17% of 9th-graders — Americans ages 14 and 15 — identified as non-straight in 2023, that number fell to 11% last year. There were also declines in non-straight identification in other grades, especially among 10th-graders.

There was also decline for 12th-graders, but only two percentage points, from 18% to 16%.

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

The psychology professor highlighted that this “free fall” was driven almost entirely by teenage girls, which makes sense given that the LGBT social contagion that was dismissed and/or downplayed in recent years by so-called experts predominantly impacted girls.

“Identifying as LGB dropped from 27% in 2023 to 22% in 2025 among girls and from 9% to 7% among boys,” Twenge noted. “The previous increase in identifying as LGB was also larger among girls, with a 128% increase (more than doubling) from 2015 to 2021 among girls and a 99% increase (doubling) from 2015 to 2023 among boys.”

Twenge noted that the greatest decline was observed among 9th-grade girls. Whereas 30% of the cohort identified as non-straight in 2021, the number had fallen to 17% last year.

Part of this decline in LGB identification among teenage girls can be attributed to the collapse of the “bisexual” fad. Last year, only 13% of 9th-grade girls identified as “bisexual” — down from 26% in 2021.

“The sharp turn downward in identifying (and acting) as LGB among Gen Alpha teens could be a harbinger of a coming wave of change, or it could be a blip — it’s hard to say,” wrote Twenge.

Mary Rice Hasson, director of the Person and Identity Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, tweeted: “Looks like people aren’t ‘born that way.'”

Todd Erzen, the co-host of BlazeTV’s “Steve Deace Show,” said in response to the decline in teenage LGB identification, “Groomers hardest hit.”

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Homosexual, Lgbt, Sexuality, Gender ideology, Centers for disease control and prevention, Politics

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Christian influencer couple arrested after teen girl alleges sexual and physical abuse, police say

October 2, 2026

Carlos Garcia

A popular Christian influencer couple was arrested for allegedly abusing a 14-year-old girl, according to Texas police.

39-year-old Seth Michael Day is accused of sexually and physically assaulting the girl after a high school teacher noticed injuries to her face and head.

The girl said she had suffered numerous instances of abuse and reported some of them but that Heather Day had lied to officials in order to cover it up.

The teacher reported the injuries to the Keene police, who interviewed the girl. She claimed to have suffered ongoing abuse by Day and said he injured her with a cell phone.

After receiving treatment at the Cook Children’s Medical Center, she also said that Day had sexually assaulted her.

In the last incident of abuse on Sept. 22, the girl said Day assaulted her while his wife, Heather Marie Day, was in the home.

Police said they found evidence of the physical and sexual assaults at the Days’ home after obtaining a search warrant.

The girl said she had suffered numerous instances of abuse and reported some of them but that Heather Day had lied to officials in order to cover it up.

She allegedly told the victim that she had an autoimmune disease called hereditary angioedema, which causes swelling. Police noted that swelling would not explain the the injuries the victim had.

Records show the Days were both booked into the Johnson County jail but were released on bail of $100,000.

Heather Day hosts a Christian podcast, and the couple have authored several books, including one titled “I’ll See You Tomorrow.”

Seth Day is also a professor at Southwestern Adventist University, but he was placed on administrative leave after his arrest.

“We are fully cooperating with law enforcement,” the university said in a statement that indicated the allegations did not involve its students, staff, or other members of the faculty.

“The safety of our University community remains our first priority. We will share additional details as appropriate,” the university added.

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Search warrant, Sexual assault, Law enforcement, Christianity, Christians, Crime

blaze media

Exclusive: Rep. Van Duyne reinforces BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales in war on H-1B fraudsters

October 2, 2026

Joseph MacKinnon

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales‘ crusade against H-1B visa abuse in Texas not only has alleged fraudsters panicking and closing up shop but has prompted meaningful crackdowns by state and federal officials.

Those officials poised to nab the kinds of fraudsters targeted by Gonzales’ investigations might soon be able to hit them with greater penalties.

‘Hopefully we’ll make them think twice about doing this.’

On Thursday, just days after lauding Gonzales for “bringing this to the surface,” Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) introduced legislation that would increase penalties for certain violations of the H-1B visa program, Blaze News has exclusively learned.

The congresswoman told Blaze News that American workers have been “losing opportunities and having wages drastically cut because some bad actors, employers, were actually wanting to break the law to get cheaper labor, and one of the ways that they were doing that is to abuse the H-1B visa program.”

“Hopefully, we’ll make them think twice about doing this,” added Van Duyne.

Currently, the secretary of labor is permitted to impose a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation should an employer engage in willful violations of the H-1B program’s conditions, willful material misrepresentations in an H-1B attestation, and/or retaliation against employees who disclose suspected H-1B violations.

The penalty is $35,000 per violation if it involves the termination of an American worker employed within 90 days before or after the filing of a visa petition.

Van Duyne said on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered” last week that the current fines amount to little more than a “slap on the wrist” — that a $5,000 fine is hardly a deterrent for H-1B employers when they’re saving tens of thousands of dollars by importing a foreign worker instead of hiring an American.

Van Duyne’s H-1B Visa Fraud Crackdown Act would raise the maximum per-violation fines from $5,000 to $100,000 and from $35,000 to $250,000, respectively.

The congresswoman told Blaze News that “the $100,000 penalty is already federal law for falsifying information to the government,” so “we were just being consistent.”

“You guys have to pass that!” Gonzales told the congresswoman.

“Hit them in the pocket book. Make it hurt because they have no problem doing that to the American worker that they’re undercutting and displacing.”

Additionally, the new bill would bar H-1B employers who willfully commit violations from sponsoring new visas for at least five years, or 10 years in the event that an American worker was displaced. Presently, those penalties are two years and three years, respectively.

Gonzales said in a statement to Blaze News about Van Duyne’s bill, “Any meaningful steps to crack down on the fraud and over abuse of the H-1B visa system is very welcome. It’s a great first step, and Congress needs to act to make sure that we can end, or at the very least, reform this corrupt system once and for all.”

“This is why I’ve been working so hard to expose the fraud in the H-1B visa system, to make sure that appropriate action is taken.”

While she noted that wage suppression and fraud shouldn’t be partisan issues, Van Duyne told Blaze News that Democrats will likely oppose the bill in part because they are keen on “flooding their areas with people who are here legally or illegally to make sure that they’re not losing their power and losing their congressional district seats because of populations.”

In April, Van Duyne and fellow Texas Republican Reps. Pat Fallon, Ronny Jackson, and Brandon Gill sent a letter to members of the Trump administration, urging them to “provide recommendations to Congress, if necessary, on statutory or regulatory changes to close loopholes and restore integrity to the H-1B program.”

The congresswoman, who has been working with U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services and the Department of Labor on this issue, told Blaze News that “one of the things that we requested in the letter was to give us ideas of legislatively what we could do,” and this bill “was one of of the things that the administration suggested that we enact.”

Van Duyne, appreciative of the Trump administration and the work of “independent journalists like Sara Gonzales,” told Blaze News that there are additional related bills in the works.

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H-1b visa, Visa, Immigration, Sara gonzales, Congress, Fraud, Politics

blaze media

These ‘smart’ fridges got a software update — then the chaos began

October 2, 2026

Andrew Chapados

It knows what you are eating, it knows when you’re awake.

Those are the apparent benefits of new Samsung smart fridges, which look more like gigantic phone screens than they do refrigerators.

‘Being able to glance at what’s inside right from the screen or my phone …’

With a 32-inch display and the ability to tell homeowners what is inside their fridge, the Samsung fridges offer endless technological capabilities seldom seen in something that is simply supposed to keep food cold.

However, with a six-foot-tall smart device comes the need for internet connectivity and, of course, mandatory updates.

When users of the product went to open their smart fridges last week just before a holiday, they noticed they had suddenly lost power and stopped functioning.

South Korean outlet Star News reported that dozens of fridge owners saw blank screens after the update, or text that read “Checking SmartThings app during update,” or “offline.”

Standard fridge owners are used to seeing nothing on their appliance doors; for smart fridge owners, however, the lack of an operating system display and absent LED lights meant their fridges weren’t powered and weren’t keeping their food cold.

To make matters worse, the report stated that in some cases all cold air had escaped the fridges completely.

SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The affected products predominantly included Samsung Bespoke AI 4-Door refrigerators released in 2024 or later.

These fridges are described as using artificial intelligence to monitor its contents, and the AI can track expiry dates or suggest recipes for the user. This is, of course, made capable through the use of internal cameras that work with Google Gemini and an “AI Food Manager.”

One review suggested the “item tracking save[s] serious time and cut[s] down on forgotten, expired groceries.”

“Being able to glance at what’s inside right from the screen or my phone makes meal planning seamless,” the review added.

The gigantic display screen also makes it possible to watch videos or listen to music from the refrigerator, with another user stating that they like to use the fridge screen to monitor their security cameras.

SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg/Getty Images

When some users reached out to Samsung to get emergency repairs, some were allegedly told that “employees have left for the day, making immediate action impossible.”

Further consumer reports said there was no mention of activating an emergency response team, even though inquiries had allegedly led customers to being told that an engineer visit was required for repair.

However, Samsung has since responded to the incident saying they had “activated an emergency response protocol, and its service centers are taking immediate action to address this issue.”

“The issue has been limited to Korea, with no impact identified to overseas markets,” Samsung told Ars Technica.

The statement concluded, “It occurred September 22nd afternoon due to an error during Samsung’s internal testing related to a refrigerator software update. Samsung immediately suspended the testing upon receiving reports of the issue.”

The incident happened just before South Korea’s Chuseok holiday break, which was celebrated September 24-26 this year.

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Artificial intelligence, Smart fridge, Samsung, South korea, Tech

blaze media

How to enable the ultimate parental controls on iPhone

October 2, 2026

Zach Laidlaw

While lawmakers try to cram down restrictive age verification laws that would implement nationwide digital ID to use devices, AI, and the internet, Big Tech is fighting back by giving parents more control on their platforms. Apple is the latest to join the effort with new child safety features for iOS 27.

Child safety was one of the headlining announcements when Apple unveiled iOS 27 at WWDC this past spring, and now that the operating system is widely available for iPhones 11 and up, you can enable these on your child’s device right now.

Apple’s new child safety features in iOS 27 are all about parental control and responsibility.

To set up a new child account with the latest child safety features in place, you must establish a “family” within your iPhone. To get started, open the Settings app, tap on your iCloud account at the top, then tap “Family.” Next, select “Create Child Account” and input your child’s name and date of birth.

You’ll be prompted to input your child’s iCloud email address or create a new one, along with a password that you and your child can remember. You can choose to keep this password to yourself or share it with your child.

Lastly, you can choose whether you receive a notification on your phone or on your child’s phone if your child tries to sign in on another device with his or her Apple account. It’s best to set this to alert your phone number, just so you’re aware if your child tries to use a separate device.

Child Safety Features in iOS 27/Zach Laidlaw

Once everything is set up, you now have new controls to govern your child’s account:

Content Restrictions let you restrict your child’s content access based on his or her age range. This affects which apps they use (like social media), shows they watch, books they read, and more. You can also limit which sites they visit, either opening them up to the entire web or requiring your permission before they visit a new site.Communication Safety monitors his or her device for any content that isn’t age-appropriate, including images and videos that contain adult themes or violence.Communication Limits ensure that your child can only share phone calls or messages with specific people that you choose.Apps and Website Activity shows how much time your child spends on his or her phone and gives you the ability to limit app usage from day to day. You can even pause screen time during certain times of the day, like during school when they should be in class, or summertime when they should be outside.Screen Distance monitors how closely your child uses his or her phone to their face and sends an alert if the phone is too close, hopefully preserving their eyes.Ask to Buy alerts you every time your child wants to buy or download an app, song, or movie, giving you the power to approve or veto the decision.

You also have the option to share your child’s location from his or her phone to yours. Enable this so you always know where your child is through the Find My app. This is especially useful if your child attends school and participates in extracurricular activities.

And that’s it. Your child is now protected based on the parameters you set. You can also change these parameters at any time, choosing to add more restrictions or loosen them as circumstances change and your child grows older.

To tweak the parameters, go back to the Settings app, tap on the “Family” tab beneath your name at the top, choose your child, and make adjustments accordingly.

iPhone 18 Pro Max Models/Apple

Apple’s new child safety features in iOS 27 are all about parental control and responsibility. It’s up to parents to decide what their kids can and can’t see, and for families in Apple’s product ecosystem, these tools go a long way to provide meaningful guardrails without government overreach.

As for Android users, Google has taken steps to add more parental features as well, with a new API that offers “age-appropriate experiences” to users. It’s not nearly as robust as Apple’s offerings here, but at least both companies are moving in the right direction.

Apple’s new child safety features are available in iOS 27. Install it on your device now for instant access, plus you get other features like the new Siri, a more accessible Visual Intelligence, and custom Safari alerts.

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Ios, Iphone, Parental controls, Safety, Tech