Category: blaze media

Online scams are getting more sophisticated, with attackers using AI to manipulate their voices on phone calls, change their faces on video chats, and write more convincing messages. To help combat the growing threat, Apple brought a new scam-busting feature to iOS 27 called Impersonation Risk Detection.

Impersonation Risk Detection monitors the actions you take within apps to identify red flags that indicate you are about to become the victim of a scam or online attack.

Social engineering schemes were among the most reported crimes in 2025, with more than $7 billion in total losses.

It specifically targets social engineering threats, or scams where cybercriminals trick users into handing over personal data. These are usually carried out through phishing attempts and baiting via personal interactions, making them impervious to typical security measures, like passkeys or two-factor authentication, since you are divulging your information directly to the hacker.

To make a social engineering attack work, the cybercriminal has to engage with his target — usually through emails, messages, or phone calls — and convince the target to take action that compromises his data or security. It may sound unrealistic, but according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Report, social engineering schemes were among the most reported crimes in 2025, with more than $7 billion in total losses.

Scammers may reach out as a bank employee, claiming that your account was hacked and that they need your information to secure it. Or they might pose as a member of the government, claiming you have unpaid parking tickets or owe back taxes to the IRS. In the worst-case scenario, they’ll pretend to be a family member in a dangerous situation and in desperate need of money.

These are the types of engagements that Impersonation Risk Detection is built to detect and thwart.

According to Apple, the company can analyze “interaction patterns, timing, context, and basic sensor data” on your device to determine if and when scams like these are about to take place. Now, Apple doesn’t explain exactly how its threat algorithm works, but it promises that this “information is analyzed on-device, so Apple never receives the data used to generate the risk level.”

Furthermore, Apple claims it won’t snoop on the content in your most personal apps, like Messages, Mail, and Photos. It’s primarily searching for isolated problematic interactions with other users you talk to online, whether that’s a friend or a complete stranger.

RELATED: Social media scams are up 700%. Here’s how to stay safe.

Media Trading Ltd/Getty Images

There are a couple more caveats to consider before you activate Impersonation Risk Detection:

By enabling the feature, you give developers access to your risk threat level, as determined by Apple. Again, Apple claims that threats are measured on-device, and developers never actually see the analyzed data — they only receive the final risk threat level itself. Still, having your interactions scanned and measured may be too intrusive for some.Apps must support Impersonation Risk Detection before they can warn you there’s a problem. That means there will be some apps on your phone that don’t have this feature, at least for several months. That said, as more third-party apps receive their annual iOS compatibility updates, most of your apps should be supported soon.

If you’re okay with these, proceed to the next step.

To enable Impersonation Risk Detection, simply open the Settings app, scroll down, and select Privacy & Security. Once inside, scroll to the bottom and tap on Impersonation Risk Detection. Switch the toggle to the green active position, and you’re all set.

Impersonation Risk Detection in iOS 27/Zach Laidlaw

Your phone will now monitor your app activity for potential social engineering threats. Updates will appear in the Recent Activity section beneath the toggle, listed under one of three categories:

Unknown signals that no malicious activity was detected within a recent app interaction.Medium means that some malicious activity was detected. Proceed with caution.High indicates that a significant degree of malicious activity was detected. You should refrain from further interactions.

There’s a clear trade-off to Impersonation Risk Detection. On one hand, it’s a useful tool that can point out potential scams and stop them before they become a problem. On the other hand, you may not trust Apple to monitor your activity and share the results with app developers. Only you can decide if one risk is worth the outcome.

Impersonation Risk Detection is only available on iPhones running iOS 27. To upgrade, find the Software Update section in General within the Settings app and download the latest version. After the update is complete, you’ll get access to other new fresh features, like the new Siri, Safari Notify Me alerts, and more.

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​Apple, Ios, Iphone, Scam, Social engineering, Tech 

Things are not looking great for Vivek Ramaswamy.

Two polls released this week put Democrat Amy Acton ahead in the Ohio governor’s race. Marist has Acton leading 50% to 44% among registered voters, while a Suffolk poll has her ahead 50% to 41% among likely voters. Another survey has Ramaswamy narrowly ahead, so the race is hardly settled. But Ohio, a state Donald Trump carried comfortably in 2024, should not be producing this kind of anxiety for Republicans.

Ramaswamy spent years mastering the language of the populist right. The question is whether enough voters believe the language reflects conviction rather than calculation.

Some of the explanation is national. Midterms punish incumbent parties. Trump’s approval has tanked, the war with Iran is unpopular, fuel prices have surged, and voters remain angry about affordability. Republicans still control Congress, but they have struggled to turn that control into accomplishments voters can see and feel.

Ramaswamy presents an additional problem, one the party created for itself.

The Cincinnati native was born in 1985 to Indian immigrant parents. His father came to the United States on a student visa and later worked for General Electric; his mother obtained a green card and became a physician. Ramaswamy became a citizen at birth under the 14th Amendment. In other words, he was an “anchor baby.” His mother later naturalized. His father did not.

Ramaswamy built his fortune in biotech. His company Roivant created Axovant around intepirdine, an experimental Alzheimer’s drug licensed from GlaxoSmithKline for $5 million up front. Axovant’s 2015 IPO raised $315 million and briefly pushed the company’s valuation near $3 billion. In 2017, the drug failed its Phase 3 trial and Axovant’s stock fell about 70% in a day.

That history has generated plenty of suspicion among Ramaswamy’s critics, especially because Roivant raised $1.1 billion shortly before the trial results. Suspicion is not proof of fraud, of course, but the fact is that Ramaswamy made his name selling investors on a speculative biotech story that ended in spectacular failure.

He then sold voters another story.

Ramaswamy entered the 2024 presidential race as a long shot and positioned himself as Trump’s most loyal rival. He attacked the administrative state, denounced wokeness, and rarely aimed sustained fire at the front-runner. The campaign raised his national profile even though it never seriously threatened Trump.

After the election, Trump tapped Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency.

Then came the Christmas crashout.

During a fight over H-1B visas, Ramaswamy argued that American culture had “venerated mediocrity over excellence” for way too long. He contrasted prom queens with math Olympiad champions, jocks with valedictorians, sleepovers with math tutoring, and popular television characters with nerds.

RELATED: The American dream now comes with upgrade fees

Blaze Media Illustration

The backlash on the right was immediate — and deserved — because the argument landed as more than a defense of skilled immigration. Ramaswamy appeared to be telling ordinary Americans that foreign workers were outperforming them because immigrant families possessed a better culture.

The post did not single-handedly end his role in the administration, but it certainly didn’t help. Reporting at the time described deeper disagreements with Musk over the DOGE’s mission, plus Ramaswamy’s plans to run for governor. But the H-1B fight clearly worsened tensions and damaged his standing with parts of Trump’s coalition.

Ramaswamy launched his Ohio campaign in 2025 and quickly received Trump’s endorsement and the backing of the state GOP. On paper, the arrangement looked ideal: a famous candidate, a Republican-leaning state, and a president who remained popular with the GOP base.

Then the national environment deteriorated and the candidate’s own liabilities became harder to hide.

One of those liabilities is religion. Ramaswamy has always been cagey with voters on questions of faith. He was careful to talk about a shared belief in God, but he was never specific about which one. He would share pictures of Christian pastors praying over him but would fail to mention that he did not share their faith.

Ramaswamy is a pagan Hindu who believes in a host of foreign deities. While he would praise Christian values as central to America, he doesn’t quite share them. This once again revealed a lack of sincerity that turned off many voters who were already feeling disillusioned with the GOP.

A sharper identity dispute concerns immigration and assimilation.

Ramaswamy became a symbol of the H-1B fight because he defended a visa program heavily used and abused by Indian professionals while criticizing native-born American culture. Immigration skeptics saw the combination as confirmation of their fear that the Republican donor and business class values imported labor more than the people already here.

Fairly or not, Ramaswamy became the avatar for that argument.

That is the Vivek question now confronting the GOP. A party can nominate a candidate who checks every ideological box on paper and still discover that voters do not trust his instincts, his biography, or his cultural loyalties. Party leaders can explain that the alternative would govern farther left. They can point to endorsements, policy positions, and the partisan lean of the state.

RELATED: The GOP still has a loser mentality

Blaze Media Illustration

What they cannot manufacture is enthusiasm.

The newest polling illustrates the cost. Marist finds independents breaking for Acton 57% to 32%. That does not prove one cause, and national conditions may explain much of it. But Republicans should not pretend that candidate selection plays no role simply because acknowledging it would be deeply uncomfortable.

Ramaswamy spent years mastering the language of the populist right. The question is whether enough voters believe the language reflects conviction rather than calculation.

If the answer is no, the problem did not begin with the polls. It began when Republican leaders assumed saying all the right things was the same as being trusted by the people expected to vote.

​Donald trump, H1b visas, Independent voters, Presidential race, Vivek ramaswamy, Religion, Ohio, Governor race, Amy acton, Doge, Elon musk, American culture, Endorsement, Gop, Indians, Opinion & analysis 

A 35-year-old woman was charged with sexually trafficking a missing 16-year-old who had run away from home, according to the Harris County Constable of Precinct 4 in Texas.

Police said they began an investigation into a report of a runaway juvenile when they received information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

‘They begin to trust these traffickers, and once they trust them and they go with them, then they end up getting thrown onto the street or on online ads or even taken.’

The FBI said the juvenile was being trafficked out of a home in north Harris County.

Police obtained a search warrant but were unable to find the juvenile at the home. Instead they found Brandi Lowe.

“From the evidence that we got from the home, we were able to establish that the female that we took into custody was in fact doing a lot of the stuff online, trying to solicit individuals to basically sell her out as a 16-year-old child,” Constable Mark Herman said.

Herman said police were “resilient” in their efforts that night to locate the missing juvenile after Lowe’s arrest.

“We didn’t give up. We ended up getting a location of a possible hotel she was staying at. We went to the hotel, and we found her with a male subject that we felt was a part of this also,” he said.

“And she was rescued, put in a safe place,” Herman added.

Lowe was charged with promotion of prostitution of a person under 18 years old and held on a bond of $20,000.

The juvenile was reunited with her family, and police indicated that some more people may be arrested in the case as the investigation continues.

RELATED: White woman accusing ‘brown’ man of sex trafficking his daughter gets hate crime charge

Private investigator Betty Simons told KHOU-TV that these kinds of cases typically begin through online interactions.

“A big thing that we see is that they’re groomed online, whether that’s through Xbox, PlayStations, social medias, you know, so they’re groomed online or even in the schools,” Simons said. “They begin to trust these traffickers, and once they trust them and they go with them, then they end up getting thrown onto the street or on online ads or even taken.”

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​Texas, Sex trafficking, Child trafficking, Prostitution, Crime 

Until recently, everything I knew about Friedrich Nietzsche came from two movies.

“The Abyss” opens with his warning that when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes back. My other exposure came from “Blazing Saddles.” During a chaotic town meeting, Howard Johnson tries to elevate the proceedings.

A compelling why does not make the why righteous. Conviction supplies endurance. It does not supply morality.

“You know, Nietzsche says, ‘Out of chaos comes order.’”

Olson Johnson replies, “Oh, blow it out your ass, Howard.”

Mel Brooks provided the more memorable lesson.

So when California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) quoted Nietzsche while discussing a possible presidential run, I thought of Olson Johnson immediately.

In a PBS “NewsHour” interview, Newsom was asked what might keep him from running in 2028. He answered that he would need a “big enough why” to endure almost any “how,” invoking Nietzsche, and said he would have to look voters in the eye with a compelling vision.

When a governor reaching for the White House quotes Nietzsche on endurance, he is not confessing limits. He is announcing appetite.

I am not a Nietzsche scholar. I am a caregiver. I have spent 40 years straining against the limits of my own power, and I have learned how easily “responsibility” becomes a contest of wills. I have wanted the last word at home and called it love. Fatigue cooled that appetite more than virtue ever did.

I have enough trouble governing myself. Men eager to govern everybody else no longer impress me. They weary me.

Newsom has been busy making the rounds. He went fly-fishing in Montana with Jake Tapper and talked about 2028. He spoke at the United Nations. He met with fire survivors in Altadena.

None of that is scandalous. Ambitious governors do ambitious-governor things. But California has already handed Newsom a why.

Only 19% of California households could afford the state’s median-priced existing single-family home in the second quarter of 2026. The median price was $916,750, and a household needed an annual income of $228,400 to qualify for the typical payment.

People still sleep outside. Fire survivors are still rebuilding. And U-Haul ranked California last among the states for net one-way customer growth in 2025 — the sixth straight year it finished at the bottom.

When U-Haul starts sending thank-you notes to the governor, he ought to ask why.

RELATED: The audience you may need someday

Olivia Wong/Getty Images

We call it public service. How often is it public power wearing better clothes? A compelling why does not make the why righteous. Conviction supplies endurance. It does not supply morality.

To be fair to Newsom, the aphorism is genuinely Nietzsche’s. It appears in “Twilight of the Idols.” Quoting it does not make Newsom a disciple of Nietzsche any more than quoting G.K. Chesterton makes me … well, Chesterton.

But the actual Nietzsche was less greeting-card. In “The Antichrist,” he asks, “What is good?” and answers: “Whatever augments the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself, in man.” At least he labeled the package.

The desire for a bigger seat is neither new nor rare. Jesus had just told His disciples that He would be condemned, flogged, and killed when James and John asked for the seats at His right and left.

“You do not know what you are asking,” He told them. The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over others, but “it shall not be so among you.” Whoever would be great must become a servant. Then He spoke of giving His own life as a ransom.

James and John wanted the best seats in the kingdom. At Calvary, the places on His right and left went to two criminals. That was not the seating chart they had in mind.

In the middle of the night, when someone is hurting and a dressing needs changing, nobody cares how important I think I am. No podium waits. No national why arrives. There is only the next necessary thing: wash the wound, change the dressing, dry the tears, do the laundry, get out the mop.

RELATED: The myth of the ‘good person’

Calvindexter/Getty Images

Politicians who cannot stand work at that scale keep looking for a bigger room so that the work can stay abstract. Nietzsche offers me nothing in those hours. Christ offers everything.

Chesterton wrote that original sin is “the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.” I do not need Washington to test the claim. I provide evidence myself. So do men who cannot sit still in the office they already hold.

If Newsom wants to look voters in the eye, he already has people in front of him. Californians gave him a job, a mighty how, and enough need to exhaust any honest servant.

If he still needs a bigger why, that tells me something about which hunger is doing the asking.

Olson Johnson had the right response the first time.

​California governor, Gavin newsom, Politicians, Criminals, Nietzsche, Blazing saddles, Christ, Olson johnson, 2028 election, White house, Jake tapper, United nations, Opinion & analysis 

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent speech demonizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement not only infuriates the “Pat Gray Unleashed” panel, it makes them think the democratic socialist is gearing up for a presidential run.

On September 27 during More Perfect University’s “Students vs. Billionaires” series, AOC compared ICE to a black-box surveillance stack.

“ICE is an agency that has not even existed for as long as many of us have even been alive. They are a new agency created in the surveillance state establishment after 9/11,” she said. “ICE is Palantir; ICE is AI; ICE is facial recognition; ICE is surveillance — and ICE is coming after you regardless of your status.”

Pat is incensed at her calling ICE a new agency.

“They’re 25 years old — 25!” he exclaims. “That’s a new agency? … Compared to what? The fall of Rome?”

“She’s also trying to pin this on Trump for starting ICE. That’s what they desperately want to do,” he adds.

But it’s the progressive’s comparison of ICE to Palantir, AI, facial recognition, and surveillance that really ticks him off.

“Wow, is that irresponsible,” he sighs. “It’s just a flat-out communist lie. … This is what gets people killed.”

“How she’s saying it just made me think she’s running for higher [office],” adds co-host Jeffy. “She’s not screeching about it.”

Pat agrees, mocking, “This darn Donald Trump and his new agencies.”

To hear more of the panel’s commentary and see the clip of AOC’s speech, watch the video above.

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.

​Alexandria ocasio-cortez, Ice, Immigration and customs enforcement, Palantir, Pat gray, Surveillance state, Blazetv show 

California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom is getting mocked by a U.S. attorney after he signed new orders intended to restrict federal immigration operations in his state.

Newsom has tried to position himself as the foremost opponent to the Trump administration in an attempt to bolster his image ahead of a possible presidential run in 2028.

‘Governor, we’ve been through this already. If you want to regulate federal agents, you have to win a federal election.’

Newsom’s press office said Tuesday that he issued new restrictions on “flash-bang grenades and explosive breaching charges” that included their use in immigration enforcement.

First Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli responded with ridicule.

“Or what? You’re going to write us a ticket,” he replied on social media.

The governor also touted 21 bills he signed to “protect Californians from Trump’s Orwellian immigration tactics.”

Essayli responded again with mockery.

“Governor, we’ve been through this already. If you want to regulate federal agents, you have to win a federal election,” he wrote.

“Until then, you have no jurisdiction,” Essayli added. “Accordingly, I have advised DHS to disregard your bill attempting to ban safe and effective less-lethal tools that agents need to escalate dangerous situations.”

Among the steps Newsom took was a restriction on shock gloves approved for use by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and also a 25% tax on private detention centers he claimed was the first of its kind in the nation.

RELATED: DHS has a fiery message for Newsom after he bans masks for ICE: ‘We will NOT comply!’

The governor has also expanded public access to detention centers in an attempt to increase transparency and increase “health, safety, and oversight requirements” for civil detention facilities.

The governor has admitted that he’s considering running for president but said he would bow out if Kamala Harris ran again.

“Why would I? I wouldn’t do that to her. I wouldn’t do that to you; I wouldn’t waste everyone’s time,” said Newsom to Jake Tapper. “Who needs that?”

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​Bill essayli, Gavin newsom, Immigration and customs enforcement, Immigration, Politics 

The death of a black woman found hanged from a tree was peddled by left-wing activists as a racist lynching to further divide Americans, but police say it was something else altogether.

29-year-old Tasia Fortune, a mother to four children, was found dead in the back yard of an abandoned house in Jackson, Mississippi, on Aug. 3.

‘Not only was the act itself heinous, but what it was, I believe, intended to imply was also heinous.’

Even after a black man was arrested for his alleged part in Fortune’s murder, many continued to peddle the falsehood that Fortune’s death was emblematic of the nation’s racist past.

That narrative was further derailed by new details in the case released on Monday.

Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney said in a press conference that an investigation determined that Fortune had been killed after a drug deal went wrong, and her “lynching” was staged afterward.

“So at this time, we do know the manner of death was homicide. We also are confirming that this was a staged event, and often we know that these events are staged so that we can derail the investigation, pointing in another direction,” Brackney said.

Police said 45-year-old Eric Clark used “props” to make it appear that the mother of four children had been killed in a racist lynching.

“Not only was the act itself heinous, but what it was, I believe, intended to imply was also heinous,” Brackney added.

Police said a witness told them Clark and two other people left with Fortune but that the three men came back without the woman. Days later, she was found hanging from a tree.

The witness allegedly said Clark came back dirty and sweaty with a pocket full of money.

Two other men were arrested in the case and were identified as 51-year-old Jarques Ratliff and 25-year-old Earnest Lloyd Jr.

Brackney said that she expects conspiracy charges to be filed in the case as the investigation continues.

She added that there was a known association between Fortune and the suspects arrested.

RELATED: Activists rage over racist vandalism at California HS — district says black student was caught

Clark pleaded not guilty and was given a $5 million bond. Requests for bonds were rejected for Ratliff and Lloyd.

Fortune’s family said in a statement Monday that the public should reject making hasty assumptions about the case.

“We would like to thank everyone for their prayers and support and are grateful for the silence to be broken, but we also want to say that we wish for people to have patience and wait for the rest of the facts to come out before jumping to conclusions.”

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​Lynching, Racial hoax, Mississippi, Racism, Politics, Crime 

The editors of the New York Times responded to online furor and ridicule over their headline that minimized the alleged attempted hijacking of a plane heading to Israel.

While many were praising the crew and passengers who rushed to stop the alleged terror attack Wednesday, the Times was seemingly downplaying the incident on social media.

‘Why does the @nytimes act as a propagandist for terrorists?’

“Breaking news: A plane flying from Dubai to Israel was diverted after an altercation between the pilot and co-pilot, Israeli officials said,” read the Times post on social media.

A community note provided context the Times had neglected to mention:

This was not simply an “altercation between pilots”. The co-pilot stabbed the captain, attempted to take over the aircraft with mostly Israeli citizens on board, children included. Passengers forcibly subdued the attacker after the plane dove 15,000 feet.

Critics pounced on the opportunity to pummel the Times on social media.

“The New York Times is just laughable. … An attempted terrorist attack on a flight from Dubai to Israel, and they call it a ‘clash’?” responded news anchor Stella Escobedo.

“This isn’t real journalism.”

“An altercation is how you describe an argument. An attempted terrorist hijacking is how you describe this incident. Dishonesty and deception is how you describe the New York Times,” replied entrepreneur Phil Bak.

“Anything that happens to Israelis, the NYT downplays. Anything that happens to Palestinians they exaggerate and then issue a correction,” said independent investigator Eyal Yakoby.

“Just a little scuffle between two guys, ya know. Nothing to see here. Shame on you, @nytimes!” replied New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov.

“‘An altercation’??? Why does the @nytimes act as a propagandist for terrorists?” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)

After five hours into the online kerfuffle, the Times released a defiant statement.

RELATED: Dentist loses job after ripping down Hamas terror victim flyers, calls them too divisive

“Our headlines and live coverage contain all the facts we’re able to confirm as we confirm them,” the statement read. “Unlike activists and partisans, we don’t publish speculation or unverified information.”

In a statement Wednesday, Flydubai also described the incident as an “altercation … in the flight deck.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted the passengers from the terror attack and called them heroes for taking down the alleged attempted hijacker.

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​Israel, New york times, Benjamin netanyahu, Hijacking, Politics 

A transgender New York Times executive was gunned down in Northern California, allegedly by the exec’s mother-in-law, who blamed the victim for her grandson wanting to wear his “sister’s dresses,” according to a California Post report, which cites court documents.

Jonathan McKinsey, the paper’s head of engineering for games player experience, allegedly was killed by McKinsey’s elderly in-laws — Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77 — on Saturday in the parking lot of a Dublin park, the Post said.

‘During our marriage, the children and I learned to avoid provoking Jonathan lest he became angry.’

Zhang and Chen allegedly took turns shooting McKinsey, the paper said.

McKinsey transitioned from female to male in 2010 and got married to Candice Jang in 2011, a previous Post story said, adding that the couple had been estranged and were set to be in court for child custody prior to the shooting.

According to a restraining order McKinsey filed against Jang, Chen — McKinsey’s mother-in-law — visited to watch the couple’s children in 2023, the Post said.

Chen noticed her grandson was asking to wear his sister Alexis’ dresses — a “phase” he was going through, McKinsey said, according to the Post, which cited records.

Chen allegedly began berating her grandson and called him a “disgusting queer” and a “pervert,” the paper said, adding that Chen also allegedly hit her grandson in the back of his head when he asked to wear the dresses.

When McKinsey “begged her to stop,” the Post said Chen called McKinsey the same names, according to the restraining order.

“She blamed me for W wanting to wear his sister’s dresses and told me to get out of ‘her house’ even though we were in the home owned by Candice and I,” McKinsey wrote, the Post reported.

McKinsey tried to get Jang to hire outside help to prevent Chen from taking care of their children again, but Jang allegedly refused, the paper reported.

McKinsey also accused Jang of abuse in their relationship, including pushing McKinsey to commit suicide, the Post said, citing the documents, because “no one would want to be with someone as f**ked up and transgender like me.”

Jang first filed a restraining order against McKinsey last year, alleging McKinsey “threatened to kill me and my parents,” the paper reported.

RELATED: Transgender sex offender accused of trying to kidnap boy at elementary school gets good news from DA

Alameda County prosecutors also charged McKinsey with two counts of misdemeanor child abuse after an incident during which McKinsey allegedly hit their 6-year-old son in the face with an open hand, the Post said.

Charging documents also say Jang told investigators about a 2018 domestic violence incident during which McKinsey bruised her left arm, the paper said, adding that McKinsey pleaded not guilty to both crimes and was released from jail on the condition that McKinsey take parenting classes.

Moments after McKinsey’s killing, Zhang and Chen were arrested nearby and booked into Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of murder, the Post said, adding that booking records indicate the couple is facing charges including first-degree murder, felony conspiracy, dangerously firing a gun, and child endangerment that could have caused major injury or death. They both remained behind bars Wednesday on no bond, jail records say.

A previous California Post report said Jang indicated in an August custody filing that “during our marriage, the children and I learned to avoid provoking Jonathan lest he became angry. In my experience, appearing agreeable or happy around him was sometimes a means of avoiding his anger.”

Jang filed for divorce in 2025 after McKinsey allegedly became abusive to her and their three children, ages 3, 5, and 7, the paper said, adding that McKinsey also filed for divorce last year.

Jang also filed a restraining order against McKinsey in 2025, and McKinsey filed a restraining order that same year, the Post said.

Jang also submitted an additional court filing that updated the court on a custody issue and addressed false testimony she claimed McKinsey gave, the paper said.

McKinsey, who was 40, joined the New York Times in early 2023 as a senior engineering manager for the games platform and became director of engineering for games player experience in late 2025, the Post said.

The paper said it reached out to the Times for further comment.

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​California, Crime, Fatal shooting, Murder charges, New york times, Transgender, Politics 

Artificial intelligence is being sold as a necessary, giant leap forward. But there’s another story unfolding beneath it: a borrowing spree unlike anything America has ever seen.

And Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck is sounding the alarm, asking, “Who is borrowing more money now than anybody in America besides the federal government?”

“The people who are borrowing more money than anybody else are the people building artificial intelligence,” he explains, and the company SoftBank is among them.

“SoftBank just borrowed $11 billion in junk bonds, paying as much as 9 and 3/4%,” he says.

“Oracle’s interest bill for one quarter jumped 55%. Their interest is now $1.4 billion. JP Morgan expects $4 trillion of AI debt to be issued between now and 2030.”

“That’s a tenth of our national debt borrowed,” he continues.

“And just in time, as the price of borrowing is climbing. This is like building your dream house with an adjustable-rate mortgage,” he says. “And the rate just keeps being adjusted, and it’s always up. How long would that last?”

And now one of the biggest data center landlords in the country, CoreWeave, is “[telling] its investors that every one-point rise in interest rates costs it another $30 million a year.”

“Then last week, Brookings put a price on the whole thing. $10.3 trillion for America’s AI build-out between 2025 and 2032,” Glenn says.

“What is the debt in the interest on that?”

“Now, you measure that against the size of the economy,” he continues. “That is bigger than the canals. That’s bigger than electrifying the entire country. That’s bigger than the interstate highway system. That’s bigger than the railroads.”

However, this is a massive bet the AI companies are making — as a recent Gallup poll says 71% of Americans don’t want a data center in their own towns.

“This is the biggest bet in not American history — in human history. This, let me say it again, the biggest bet in all of human history,” Glenn says.

“When a bet is too big to fail and too sacred to question, there’s only one place the bill can go,” he explains. “One place.”

“I want you to ask one question of your congressman, and I want you to send a clear message to everybody in Washington. Ask this question: If it goes wrong, who pays? If the answer is fuzzy, so is the plan,” he continues. “And it will end up being on your shoulders.”

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​Glenn beck, Coreweave, Debt, Data centers, Artificial intelligence, Soft bank, Oracle, Jp morgan, Brookings, Blazetv show 

A federal criminal complaint alleges that a DoorDash driver who is said to be in the U.S. illegally struck an immigration officer with his vehicle’s side mirror as he fled a traffic stop — an encounter that ended with him being shot.

The shooting of 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez has led to outrage and protests from critics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The other officer who was wearing a body camera caught up to the scene only after the shooting had occurred.

The complaint claims bodycam video from the Sept. 20 incident in Austin, Texas, shows Perez clipping an officer with the side mirror of his vehicle when he tries to flee from the traffic stop.

The complaint says the law enforcement operation began when immigration officers saw Perez parked with his hazard lights on and discovered through a database check that he had an active deportation order.

The initial interaction was described as “pleasant and not aggressive” in the complaint.

Perez asked officers to allow him to wait for his wife to arrive to retrieve his vehicle, but they refused, which led him to “abruptly” close the window and hit the gas, the complaint claimed.

One of the officers was struck on his torso by the side mirror as the man fled, the complaint also claimed.

Perez allegedly led them on a car chase for about eight minutes before he was shot by an officer who was not wearing a body camera, the complaint continued. The other officer who was wearing a body camera caught up to the scene only after the shooting occurred.

Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an attorney for Perez, previously said that he was seeking asylum and had a valid work permit. She added that he was ordered to be deported because a notice to appear in immigration court had been sent to his previous address and he missed the hearing.

The DHS responded that his work permit had expired in 2025 and added that a work permit did not confer any legal status on immigrants. The Department of Homeland Security had previously described Perez as an “illegal alien from Venezuela, who illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal.”

In court on Tuesday, Lincoln-Goldfinch claimed that Perez remains in “extremely bad medical condition” after the gunshot wound and has been asking for surgery to remove the bullet, the AP reported.

Lincoln-Goldfinch did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News about the allegations in the complaint.

RELATED: DHS Sec. Mullin CRUSHES ‘open borders’ Democrat pushing ‘radical’ anti-ICE bill

Perez was charged with one count of assaulting, resisting, and impeding a federal officer. If he’s convicted of the charge, Perez faces up to 20 years in prison.

He alleges that officers crashed into his car and caused it to spin before he was shot in the back. Perez was taken into custody after receiving treatment at a hospital.

The complaint included still-frames from police footage of the incident, but the bodycam footage was not released.

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​Illegal alien, Immigration and customs enforcement, Body camera footage, Immigration, Politics 

James Talarico scored some points with an easy political play: Pick up the phone, “call” Ken Paxton, and publicly challenge him to a debate.

The video quickly went viral, with Talarico urging his Republican opponent to join him on Fox News before Texans head to the polls.

The short clip shows Talarico on the phone, before saying, “Hey Ken, it’s James, I’m calling to invite you to a debate on Fox News. Texans start voting in less than a month, and they deserve to hear from both of us before they do. I’ve accepted four local TV debates, but we haven’t heard from you, and we’re running out of time.”

“So if Fox News is where you’ll be most comfortable, I’ll be there because I think it’s that important. Bret Baier can moderate, we can both take questions, and Texans can hear from us directly,” he continued.

“So give me a call back, man. I look forward to hearing from you,” he added.

BlazeTV host Pat Gray wonders if Talarico’s confidence means he’s the “program director at Fox now.”

“We already cleared it with Bret. He’s got on the schedule,” Jeff Fisher laughs.

Executive producer Keith Malinak points out that at least four local stations have agreed to host the debate, but Paxton hasn’t answered the invite — which he calls “completely unacceptable from the Paxton camp.”

“The guy who’s ahead is the one who is begging for debates,” he adds.

The ad, Malinak and Fisher say, has been “effective.”

“It should be addressed,” Fisher says.

The ad was posted days ago, and there’s still been no response from Paxton.

“They actually didn’t return USA Today when they reached out for comment,” Malinak says.

“Does he want to win?” Gray asks.

“I don’t know,” Malinak answers, adding, “Honestly, I don’t believe he does at this point. The evidence points to no.”

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​James talarico, Ken paxton, Campaign ad, Texas, Senate, Pat gray, Blazetv show 

Passengers aboard a Boeing 737 heading to Tel Aviv, Israel, braced themselves when the plane suddenly plunged by 16,000 feet over an alleged hijacking attempt.

A co-pilot stabbed the other pilot on the flight in a 9/11-style attempt to take control of the plane, according to law enforcement officials.

‘We’re here during the hijacking of an airplane. At this point, we’ve subdued the terrorists.’

Some of the 174 passengers of the plane, which took off from the United Arab Emirates, recorded cellphone video of the harrowing incident.

“We’re here during the hijacking of an airplane. At this point, we’ve subdued the terrorists,” said one passenger on his video.

Some of the videos show passengers with blood on their clothing from confronting the alleged attacker. A passenger said cabin crew and passengers rushed to stop the attack.

“We were either going to crash or be murdered,” said another passenger to I24 News. “It was like a terrorist attack in mid-air.”

A flydubai spokesperson said in a statement that following the “altercation in the flight deck,” the “on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight … diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk Airport.”

“At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation. We urge all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts,” the flydubai statement added.

Sources told the Jerusalem Post that the alleged co-pilot terrorist is believed to be from Oman.

Photos showed that the rudder on the plane was damaged during the landing, which was completed by two off-duty European pilots, the New York Post reported.

“Someone shouted ‘stabbing,’ and my husband understood what was happening and rushed to the front of the plane,” a passenger said. “Along with other Israelis, they neutralized the terrorist.”

RELATED: NY woman allegedly thanked Allah for 9/11 and plotted to bomb state capitol and White House

The flight was diverted and landed in Saudi Arabia.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that “all passengers are out of danger” and that “the pilot who stabbed them has been arrested and is currently being questioned by the Saudi authorities.”

Some of the videos from passengers can be viewed on social media.

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​Terror attack, Israel, Plane hijacking, Islam, Politics 

Every day, tens of millions of Americans walk. Some walk to the kitchen, others walk to the bathroom, and plenty make the familiar trip back to the kitchen after forgetting what they went there for in the first place. The more adventurous, in search of a little exercise, head outside for a stroll around the block.

I enjoy a good walk myself. But after reading about the latest method, I have to ask a critical question: Have we all been walking wrong this entire time?

By next spring, expect the arrival of Scandinavian Sitting Down, a Nordic method that involves placing your buttocks on a chair when your legs feel tired.

You see, researchers in Japan have found that deliberately alternating between slower and faster walking can improve aerobic fitness, leg strength, and blood pressure more effectively than simply walking at a steady moderate pace. Hence the latest viral craze sweeping the West. Japanese walking involves three minutes of relaxed walking, followed by three minutes of faster, more vigorous walking. You repeat the process for about 30 minutes.

It’s formally known as Interval Walking Training, which makes it sound infinitely more impressive than “walk normally, then go a bit faster.”

The saber-tooth protocol

Humanity has survived famines. It has endured plagues and savage wars without a digital timer strapped to its wrist, telling it when to put one foot in front of the other. Yet today, millions of supposedly sane adults in America and beyond subscribe to services that tell them to speed up for 180 seconds. Our ancestors accelerated when a saber-toothed tiger chased them and slowed when the tiger disappeared. They called it staying alive.

The absurdity extends far beyond walking. The entire self-improvement industry rests on taking an ordinary human function, giving it a very fancy name, and selling it as a revolutionary lifestyle breakthrough.

When you eat smaller portions, you’re not practicing moderation. No, you’re engaging in the fine art of portion control. If you skip breakfast because you slept through your alarm, you’re practicing intermittent fasting. Should you fall asleep on the couch on a Sunday afternoon, you’re not taking a nap. Instead, you’re practicing a form of Non-Sleep Deep Rest.

The obsession with rebranding even the most basic things stems from deep-seated collective insecurity. Modern culture distrusts anything that lacks an instruction manual or a monthly billing cycle.

Linguistic inflation

When you step outside your front door to observe an oak tree, you’re forest bathing. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator is known as incidental exercise. Drinking a glass or two of water when you feel thirsty has evolved into a hydration protocol, complete with a gallon jug marked with motivational quotes to ensure optimal cellular fluid retention.

Going to bed at 10 p.m. on a weeknight used to be called common sense. Now it’s called sleep hygiene. And naturally, getting a good night’s sleep requires blue-light-blocking glasses, a weighted blanket, and enough magnesium to stock a small pharmacy.

Sitting near a window at 7 in the morning is circadian activation. Taking a 10-minute break from your computer screen is deliberate recovery.

In the 1920s, if a laborer needed a breather, he sat down on a crate and smoked a pipe. A century later, an office manager hires a certified consultant to teach him breath work, which involves inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth.

The linguistic inflation is out of control. Sitting on a chair without looking at your phone for a few minutes is mindfulness. Writing about your annoying boss and even more annoying neighbor in a notebook is journaling. Drinking a mug of black coffee before going for a jog is pre-workout supplementation.

Vacuuming the living room and carrying heavy laundry baskets down to the basement is functional fitness. Throwing a ball around with your son in the back yard is active family bonding. Jumping into cold water is aquatic cardiovascular conditioning. Staring at nothing in particular for 10 minutes is dopamine detoxing.

RELATED: Rare disease? Chronic illness? Fame awaits as a ‘sickfluencer’

Getty Images

Wellness wordsmiths

Influencers have built multimillion-dollar digital empires by doing little more than glancing at the dictionary, grabbing an everyday word, and replacing it with something that sounds like a medical diagnosis.

The goal is to make you feel fundamentally incompetent at simply existing. If breathing, sleeping, walking, and drinking water require a life coach and a six-week online seminar, you’re permanently broken without their intervention.

Things are bad now, and they’ll likely get worse. By next spring, expect the arrival of Scandinavian Sitting Down, a Nordic method that involves placing your buttocks on a chair when your legs feel tired. By autumn, wellness retreats will charge exorbitant fees to teach corporate clients the ancient art of Korean Going to Bed. This esoteric eastern practice involves shutting your eyes in a dark room until you fall asleep.

The solution to this nonsense is pretty simple. And more importantly, it’s entirely free. Put away the stopwatch. Delete the tracking apps; ignore the snake-oil salesmen online. Go outside. Put one foot in front of the other, and walk at whatever speed feels comfortable until you decide to stop.

​Breathwork, Circadian activation, Deliberate recovery, Forest bathing, Health, Hydration, Incidental exercise, Influencers, Japanese walking, Journaling, Lifestyle, Make america healthy again, Wellness 

President Donald Trump has once again found the quickest way to send Canada’s political establishment into a fit of national indignation: point out the obvious.

This time, Trump went after the country’s immigration policies.

It is an extraordinary thing to hear a Canadian prime minister publicly discuss planning for an invasion by the US.

“Canada is destroying itself by allowing millions and millions of people into the Country, essentially unchecked and unvetted, and who are causing problems that will soon be too big to handle,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week. “It is a Liberal takeover that will end very badly. Already showing up in their numbers. Big unemployment.”

Fatuous fact-check

Canadian officials and media outlets were quick to push back. CBC pointed out that immigrants and temporary residents are screened and that Canada’s unemployment rate, while still 6.4% in August, has fallen half a percentage point since May.

Fair enough. Like many of Trump’s pronouncements, “unchecked and unvetted” is an obvious exaggeration. But concentrating on that phrase conveniently allows Canada to avoid the substance of what he said: The country allowed immigration and temporary migration to rise so rapidly that the Liberal government is now scrambling to bring the numbers back down.

As recently as 2021, more than 8.3 million Canadians — 23% of the population — were or had once been landed immigrants or permanent residents, the highest proportion among G7 countries.

And that was before the subsequent explosion in temporary residents. By October 2024, Canada’s non-permanent resident population had climbed to nearly 3 million, or 7.2% of the population.

Ottawa is now reversing course. The government has cut its target for new temporary-resident arrivals from 673,650 in 2025 to 385,000 this year — a reduction of about 43% — and says it intends to reduce the temporary-resident population to less than 5% of Canada’s population by the end of 2027. The government itself acknowledges that immigration levels must be brought into line with Canada’s housing supply, health care system, and labor market.

Justin time

That is quite a retreat from the immigration consensus that prevailed under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In January 2017, days after Trump’s first inauguration, Trudeau responded to Trump’s immigration restrictions with a social media invitation heard around the world.

“To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith,” Trudeau wrote. “Diversity is our strength. #WelcomeToCanada.”

Nine years later, Ottawa is trying to get the numbers back down.

Statistics Canada reported last week that the number of non-permanent residents fell by nearly 155,000 over the previous year. Yet 2.78 million non-permanent residents still remained in Canada on July 1 — about 6.7% of the population.

You don’t have to accept every word of Trump’s Truth Social post to notice what happened. Canada dramatically increased immigration and temporary migration. The government that presided over the increase is now cutting it.

Yet Canada’s political establishment remains far more comfortable talking about Donald Trump than examining how the country arrived here.

Carney’s cosplay

Within days of Trump’s latest broadside, Prime Minister Mark Carney was discussing something considerably more dramatic than immigration: the possibility of war with the United States.

Asked by the New York Times whether he had seriously considered the possibility of American military action against Canada, Carney said he had examined the “extreme tail risk.”

“I think you have a responsibility in these roles to look at extreme tail risk,” Carney said. He stressed that an American invasion was “not a base case,” describing the exercise as simple “risk management.”

It is an extraordinary thing to hear a Canadian prime minister publicly discuss planning for an invasion by the U.S. Despite Carney’s fond reveries about the War of 1812, when American forces repeatedly invaded British North America, Canada and the United States have spent the past century preparing to fight alongside each other, not against each other.

The two countries were founding members of NATO. They jointly operate NORAD, the world’s only binational military command, and maintain a web of bilateral defense agreements and joint military plans for the defense of North America. The U.S. State Department has described America’s defense arrangements with Canada as more extensive than those it maintains with any other country.

That cooperation dates back at least to 1940, when Prime Minister Mackenzie King and President Franklin Roosevelt established formal cooperation on continental defense.

Eighty-six years later, Canada’s prime minister is publicly acknowledging that his government has considered what happens if the country on the other side of that defense partnership becomes the threat.

The military imbalance makes the hypothetical stranger still. Canada’s armed forces are a shadow of the military that fought through two world wars and landed at Juno Beach on D-Day. During World War II, the Royal Canadian Air Force grew into the fourth-largest Allied air force. Today’s Canadian military has struggled with recruiting, aging equipment, and years of procurement delays.

RELATED: ‘AMERICAN INVASION’: Flailing Canada PM Mark Carney invokes historical grudge in latest lob at Trump

George Rose/Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Made in Canada

Carney’s comments might have remained an odd diplomatic footnote if Donald Trump were not simultaneously becoming the organizing principle of Canadian domestic politics.

In British Columbia, Premier David Eby has just called a provincial election two years ahead of schedule. The timing could hardly be better for Eby. B.C. Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay had resigned only days earlier after months of turmoil within the opposition party.

But Eby says the election is necessary because British Columbia faces an “existential moment.” The threat comes courtesy of — you guessed it — Donald Trump.

“Donald Trump is attacking our jobs, driving up costs, and threatening our ability to make decisions for ourselves,” said Eby in announcing the election.

Obviously, no alliance means that two countries’ interests will always align. Canada has benefited enormously from its relationship with the United States, but there have always been disputes over trade, defense, energy, and any number of other issues. Trump’s tariffs have hurt Canadian industries, while his repeated talk about Canada becoming the 51st state has understandably irritated Canadians. That is what happens when two sovereign countries pursue their own interests.

But Canadian politicians seem increasingly preoccupied with the points of friction. And Trump has become awfully useful to them.

Meanwhile, many of the problems Trump is talking about were made in Canada.

Trump did not create Canada’s housing shortage. He did not create its enormous temporary-resident population or set the immigration targets the Liberal government is now cutting. Those were Canadian decisions, made by Canadian governments.

The immigration reversal should make that particularly difficult to ignore. Ottawa spent years pushing the numbers higher and is now scrambling to bring them down. Correcting Trump’s exaggerations does not make that record disappear.

Canadian politicians can continue blaming Trump for what he says about their country. They might spend a little more time explaining what they’ve done to it.

​British columbia, Canadas immigration policies, President donald trump, Trade disputes, Health care system, Mark carney, Justin trudeau, War of 1812, David eby, Canada, Trade policy, History, Culture, Letter from canada 

Chris Hansen built his career confronting alleged child predators — adults who had agreed to meet up with children — but Hollywood is telling his story from a different angle.

An angle where, apparently, he’s the predator.

In “Primetime,” Robert Pattinson portrays the longtime “To Catch a Predator” host in a fictionalized take on Hansen’s career.

BlazeTV hosts Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau are less than impressed with the film’s spin, especially considering Hollywood doesn’t hold any moral high ground when it comes to predatory behavior.

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“It’s odd because Hollywood’s like, you know, we’re the industry falling apart because we’re, you know, the industry that’s been accused of pedophilia and grooming. So what we should do is make a movie about Chris Hansen where the pedophiles are the good guys,” Dave says.

“This is what fascinates me more than anything else,” Stu agrees, “because of course we live in the country that would … make the guy getting the pedophiles arrested into the bad guy.”

Dave notes that having met Hansen twice himself, he found him to be a “genuinely good dude” who “actually cares about his work.”

Hansen isn’t a fan of the film either, explaining in an interview that even though he is not “the most objective reviewer … since A24 made it without [his] consult or consideration, and they use [his] name, image, and likeness,” that the film is “pure fiction.”

“They mix in some reality here and there. At the end of the day, I wasn’t blown away by it either way. It’s a movie, and I’ll continue to do the work I do, and people can watch this movie and make up their own minds,” he added.

A Washington Post article also addresses the new film’s spin on Hansen’s career, titled “A new movie asks whether Chris Hansen is the predator. He’s sure of his answer.”

“‘No’ is his answer,” Stu laughs. “Quite obviously ‘no’ is the correct answer. It’s easy to detect because he was the people putting predators into prison.”

“Yes, that’s how you know he wasn’t the predator,” Dave agrees.

“The pitch on him being the bad guy, by the way, is all he cared about was ratings and he was exposing these losers and their weird sexual things to the masses for his own publicity and ruining their lives, which, at some level, parts of that storyline are true,” Stu says.

“I’m sure he cared about ratings, as every television person does,” he continues. “I’m sure he was trying to advance his career and make the show popular.”

“But … just because you’re a loser and just because, you know, you have a weird sexual thing does not make it OK to act on that with kids,” he adds.

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​Chris hansen, Dave landau, Hollywood, Stu burguiere, To catch a predator, Washington post, Primetime, Robert pattinson, Blazetv show 

Philadelphia police said a masked male allegedly broke into a woman’s apartment before sunrise Wednesday — but she was armed with a gun and opened fire.

Officers were called to an apartment complex in the 4600 block of Castor Avenue in the city’s Frankford section just after 5 a.m. for a shooting, WPVI-TV reported.

‘It appears this individual broke the window and was able to reach in and open the door and then entered this woman’s apartment and that’s when the shot — or shots — were fired.’

The woman in her 20s told police she heard someone breaking windows to the apartment and encountered the man inside, the station said.

The problem for the alleged intruder? The woman had a gun.

Arriving officers found in the apartment’s bedroom an unresponsive 29-year-old man who had been shot in the head, the station said.

He was pronounced dead at the scene, police added to WPVI.

“It appears this individual broke the window and was able to reach in and open the door and then entered this woman’s apartment and that’s when the shot — or shots — were fired,” Chief Inspector Scott Small with the Philadelphia Police Department told WPVI.

The station showed an image of a broken window in the rear of the second-floor apartment, through which the intruder reportedly placed his hand and then unlocked the apartment’s rear door.

Police told the station it didn’t appear the male had any weapons on him.

Investigators told WPVI that once they removed the mask from the male, the woman recognized him, telling police they had a prior relationship, although the nature of the relationship is unclear.

Officials told the station the woman is cooperating with police and has turned over a semi-automatic handgun to officers.

RELATED: Gun-toting woman ‘took care of business’ after male broke into her home, entered her bedroom, and wouldn’t leave

Homicide detectives are interviewing the woman, and police also are reviewing surveillance video from near the scene, WPVI added.

A woman the station interviewed after the shooting said, “I feel anybody should defend themselves if they think they’re in harm’s way.”

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​Crime thwarted, Philadelphia, Fatal shooting, Home invasion, Break-in, 2nd amendment, Guns, Self-defense, Woman shoots intruder, Crime 

The NFL promotes politics on clothes and in the end zones, but when it comes to players doing so, it’s a no go.

Muslim players found this out the hard way earlier this month when they were fined for writing messages on their eye black, an apparent violation of league rules.

‘If you’re going to pull down the messaging, pull it all down.’

Arizona Cardinals defensive back Kei’Trel Clark wrote, “Glory Be 2 God …,” with a peace sign in the middle, while Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair was fined for having the name of a deceased Palestinian child.

Both were fined for displaying personal messages, but one former NFL player turned Christian minister says they should have the right to do so.

Former Minnesota Vikings defensive back Jack Brewer told OutKick he thought it was “disgusting” for the NFL to fine players for writing religious messages on their equipment.

“If someone’s writing things across their uniform or putting it out there on top of their helmet, that’s a different story,” Brewer said. “But the eye black — think back to Tim Tebow and many, many other athletes, myself. We would write stuff on our tapes, on our forearms. We would write stuff on our eye black.”

Brewer revealed that he spoke with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington, D.C., about the issue, discussing the players’ freedom of speech and employee rights.

“When you start talking about freedom of speech in this country and you start talking about employees’ rights in this country, it’s a big deal,” Brewer explained. “As a Christian man, I’m not going to stand for that. And as a former NFL player, I’m not going to stand for that.”

RELATED: Muslim NFL players say they’re confused after thousands of dollars in fines: ‘I need answers’

Kenneth Richmond/Getty Images

Brewer said that players of any religion should be protected from being fined for displaying messages such as those from Clark and Al-Shaair; both are Muslim.

Much of the former player’s argument centered around the fact that the NFL already has significant political messaging around the sport, such as gay pride merchandise and anti-racism messaging in the end zones.

“If you’re going to pull down the messaging, pull it all down, but don’t pick and choose,” Brewer said.

He added, “You cannot treat people differently based upon whatever it is you want to promote.”

Brewer argued that the NFL, through all its different statements, “cannot pick and choose” which messages it wants its players to be a part of.

RELATED: Former Vikings player says ‘demonic’ Minnesota Democrats are upset ICE is ‘deporting their voters’

Jack Brewer 2004. Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

The players who were fined seemed to be in direct violation of Rule 5, Section 4, Article 8 of the NFL rulebook, which states, “Players are prohibited from wearing, displaying, or otherwise conveying personal messages” during game day when the player is visible to the stadium or television audience.

For Clark, his fine may have come as a surprise given that he had worn religious messaging on his eye black in September 2025 that read, “Inshallah …,” one of many ways the player expresses his Muslim faith publicly.

“The NFL treated Clark’s gratitude to God, as expressed in four words, as a punishable personal message,” Brewer said in a letter, per OutKick. “This fine represents an action that strikes at the heart of religious liberty and sends a chilling message to every person of faith in professional sports.”

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​Nfl, Jack brewer, Religious freedom, Azeez al-shaair, Kei’trel clark, Football, Sports 

Deportation flights are cleared for takeoff.

The Supreme Court of the United States on Tuesday issued an emergency ruling allowing the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to “third countries,” or those other than their nation of origin. The administration has deported Cubans and Venezuelans to African nations like Liberia and Eswatini.

‘A bad day for criminal illegals and open borders activists alike.’

Though the one-page stay did not include a vote count, the three liberal Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson noted they would not have granted the Trump administration’s request.

The Department of Homeland Security wasted no time taking a victory lap on social media.

“In our second Supreme Court victory in less than a week, DHS’s third country removal policy is back in effect,” DHS General Counsel James Percival said on X after the ruling. “A bad day for criminal illegals and open borders activists alike. It’s not too late to get $3,000 and a flight home.”

The practice became a practical necessity for removing illegal aliens after several countries, including Cuba and Vietnam, refused to accept the return of their deported nationals.

Though third-country deportations to African nations have generated prominent media attention, Mexico remains the leading destination for said removals. Of the roughly 25,000 third-country deportees since the policy took effect, 20,000 have been sent to Mexico.

Department of Justice Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed the successful application to stay Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy’s February judgment.

RELATED: Libertarian think tank clutches pearls about reduced Islamic migration — but it’s music to MAGA ears

J. David Ake/Getty Images

“The United States relies on third countries in part to facilitate the removal of criminal aliens who are otherwise difficult to remove because their home countries and other countries refuse to take them,” Sauer wrote in the filing. “Absent an effective third-country removal policy, the United States is forced to retain (and often release into the interior) vicious criminals who have already harmed our communities.”

Tuesday’s emergency ruling is a temporary stay, not a final decision. The justices also granted the administration review and set oral argument for December.

SCOTUS will evaluate in December whether Murphy had jurisdiction to issue a nationwide pause and whether the third-country policy is lawful on its merits. The emergency ruling allowed the Trump administration to resume third-country deportations without the lengthy notice-and-hearing process previously imposed by Murphy.

“The Left wants you to believe that removing aliens to countries other than their home country is cruel,” Percival said. “What is cruel is allowing criminal illegals who can’t be sent home to stay in our communities and victimize anew.”

Tuesday’s order marks the third time that the Supreme Court has granted the federal government third-country deportation powers pending a final hearing and decision.

The DHS and DOJ did not respond to requests for comment.

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​Department of homeland security, Department of justice, Illegal aliens, Trump administration, Politics, Supreme court 

After 12 years of fighting ISIS and 23 years since the start of the Iraq War, U.S. troops have withdrawn from Iraq.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement released Wednesday that Operation Inherent Resolve had “formally concluded” in Iraq and that troops and equipment had departed Erbil Air Base in Northern Iraq, marking “the successful conclusion of the military mission that defeated ISIS in Iraq.”

‘The United States supports a strong sovereign Iraq.’

Parnell added that the Iraqi government must now take “responsibility for addressing Iraq’s remaining security challenges, including ISIS remnants and Iran-aligned militias that undermine Iraqi sovereignty and regional stability,” even as the U.S. continues “to work with Iraq and our partners to ensure ISIS can never reconstitute from Iraqi territory.”

U.S. CENTCOM claimed that the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve has relocated to Jordan and will conduct ongoing anti-ISIS efforts in Syria, in coordination with the Syrian government.

The withdrawal follows the timetable set in a joint statement from the U.S. and Iraq in September 2024, which pledged that the mission and U.S. involvement would continue until September 2026.

Some, however, especially in the Kurdistan Region, have concerns about security without a more pronounced U.S. military presence.

“U.S. withdrawal, under a Coalition-[Government of Iraq]-U.S agreement, comes at a sensitive time, when instability threatens regional and Iraqi security,” said a statement Monday from the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs.

RELATED: Osama bin Laden is dead. His strategy is still working.

Ammar Karim/AFP/Getty Images

Moreover, the Peshmerga Ministry notes that the Kurdistan Region, including civilian areas, has suffered over 1,000 drone and missile strikes since the U.S. conflict with Iran began six months ago, resulting in “injuries, material damage, and deaths.”

Additionally, no alternative air defense system has yet been put in place in the Kurdistan Region, an issue that the Peshmerga Ministry called “deeply concerning.”

Parnell hinted at the concerns of the Peshmerga Ministry, stating that while the U.S. Department of War “will continue to provide targeted training and intelligence support to our Iraqi partners,” all Iraqi forces, including those in the Kurdistan Region, must now step up and “lead the continuing effort to secure Iraq and keep ISIS remnants suppressed.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi seems pleased with the withdrawal of U.S. troops, claiming that it ushers in “a new phase” of Iraqi “sovereignty.”

Al-Zaidi also previously promised that non-state militia groups in Iraq would be disarmed by Wednesday, though he has since extended that deadline until the end of June 2027, CNN reported.

Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, a leader of the Iran-allied Kataib Hezbollah militia, likewise called the withdrawal of “occupation forces” a powerful demonstration of Iraq’s “full sovereignty,” according to CNN.

For his part, Parnell indicated that a fully sovereign Iraq is exactly what America wants.

“The United States supports a strong sovereign Iraq that secures its borders, protects its people, and serves as the foundation for deeper commercial, diplomatic, and security cooperation between our two countries.”

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​Iraq, Isis, Iran, Kurds, Politics