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The Department of Transportation is taking action to further clamp down on non-English-speakers with commercial driver’s licenses, following President Donald Trump’s executive action.

The Obama administration’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a memorandum in 2016 that removed a requirement to place drivers out of service due to a lack of English proficiency.

‘States don’t get to pick and choose which federal safety rules to follow.’

Trump reversed that action in April, calling for the enforcement of the law to protect American roads following an increase in fatal accidents involving semi-trucks.

DOT Secretary Sean Duffy announced on Tuesday that the agency would pull federal funding for states that fail to comply with English language proficiency requirements.

He accused California, Washington, and New Mexico of failing to place drivers out of service for ELP violations. Duffy warned the three states that they have 30 days to comply or the DOT will withhold all funding from the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program.

California receives $30 million, Washington receives $10 million, and New Mexico receives $7 million through that program, Duffy stated during a Tuesday press conference.

RELATED: Florida teams up with ICE to crack down on illegal alien truckers after deadly crash

Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The California Highway Patrol told Overdrive in July that it does not plan to place drivers out of service for ELP violations despite the Trump administration’s new guidance.

The CHP “has not implemented any enforcement changes in response to recent federal guidance requiring commercial drivers to speak English, as it is not part of California law,” a spokesperson told the outlet.

“States don’t get to pick and choose which federal safety rules to follow,” Duffy stated. “As we saw with the horrific Florida crash that killed three, when states fail to enforce the law, they put the driving public in danger. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are taking aggressive action to close these safety gaps, hold states accountable, and make sure every commercial driver on the road is qualified to operate a 40-ton vehicle.”

A spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) appeared to blame the Trump administration for the recent fatal crash in Florida involving Harjinder Singh, an Indian national who received his commercial driver’s license in California. Earlier this month, Singh’s truck crushed a minivan, killing all three passengers, after he allegedly performed an illegal U-turn.

“This is rich. The Trump administration approved the federal work permit for the man who killed 3 people — and now they’re scrambling to shift blame after getting caught,” Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a Newsom spokesperson, told NBC News. “Sean’s nonsense announcement is as big a joke as the Trump administration itself. SAD!”

RELATED: American trucking at a crossroads: Deadly crash involving illegal alien exposes true cost of Biden’s border invasion

California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin denied those claims.

“False. Harjinder Singh is in the United States illegally and his work authorization was rejected under the Trump Administration on September 14, 2020. It was later approved under the Biden Administration June 9, 2021,” McLaughlin wrote in a post on X. “The state of California issues Commercial Drivers Licenses. There is no national CDL.”

“Thank you for confirming that the federal government issued him a work permit and you FAILED to revoke it!” Newsom’s office responded.

The Washington and New Mexico governors’ offices did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

— (@)

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The FBI has signed settlement agreements with Garret O’Boyle, Steve Friend, and six other FBI whistleblowers that will provide them with back pay, lump-sum damage payments, restoration of their security clearances, and, in some of the cases, reinstatement to jobs with the bureau.

O’Boyle and Friend were among eight remaining whistleblowers whose settlements were announced Tuesday by Empower Oversight, which represented the current and former FBI employees in their retaliation cases. Two other settlements were previously announced on Aug. 1 and in 2024 under the Biden administration.

‘This settlement closes a painful chapter for my family and me.’

“Whistleblowers risk it all for the sake of simply telling the truth. These 10 whistleblowers’ brave actions were met with intense bureaucratic blowback that caused severe financial and emotional hardship,” said U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who helped mediate between the FBI and the whistleblowers.

“Their lives were upended for years, but I never stopped fighting until things were made right,” Grassley said.

The whistleblower saga has been a black eye for the FBI. Many expected the cases to be resolved quickly after the election of President Donald J. Trump. FBI Director Kash Patel has come under increasing fire for not getting agreements in place sooner to bring justice for the aggrieved whistleblowers.

RELATED: Is the FBI salvageable? Here’s what bureau insiders have to say

Former Special Agent Steve Friend was a member of the Omaha FBI SWAT team and investigated human trafficking cases.Photo courtesy of Steve Friend

Four of the eight whistleblowers will voluntarily retire as part of the agreement package. Three — O’Boyle, Friend, and Zachery Schoffstall — will be reinstated at the FBI. One other remained at the FBI during her case.

“I am grateful to finally see a measure of resolution in my case,” O’Boyle told Blaze News in a statement. “This settlement closes a painful chapter for my family and me, but it does not erase the years of retaliation, reputational harm, and financial hardship that we endured simply because I told the truth.”

Tuesday marked day 1,065 of O’Boyle’s unpaid suspension that will come to a close with his reinstatement.

‘The work to combat weaponization and whistleblower retaliation is far from over.’

Friend said he also “signed the deal,” some 20 months after he resigned from the bureau just before giving sworn whistleblower testimony to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary. He said the victory will not mean much if the FBI continues its punishment of whistleblowers.

“While this reinstatement is a vindication about the retaliation I experienced, the victory will ring hollow if the FBI engages in similar retribution against future whistleblowers,” Friend told Blaze News in a statement. “I pray we see the necessary changes to ensure justice for anyone willing to come forward with reasonable concerns about the agency.” The news of settlements is huge vindication for the FBI whistleblowers, all of whom faced varying types and degrees of retribution for making legally protected disclosures.

Friend refused to take part in an FBI SWAT raid at the home of a misdemeanor Jan. 6 suspect, saying the heavy use of force wasn’t justified in the case. O’Boyle made disclosures on COVID-19 shots and policies, the establishment of a tag for investigating parents who attend local school board meetings, and nearly two dozen other issues.

Blaze News has reached out to the FBI for comment.

RELATED: Going rogue? FBI agent gathered information from private citizens questioning Rep. Cory Mills’ record

FBI whistleblowers Garret O’Boyle, Steve Friend, and Marcus Allen testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in May 2023.Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Monica Shillingburg, who now works at the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services, reported potentially illegal restructuring being carried out at the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. She was removed and reassigned for reporting her concerns.

Michael Zummer, a former special agent, lost his security clearance after he reported potential prosecutorial misconduct in public corruption cases in New Orleans.

“For each of these cases where whistleblowers finally received at least some measure of justice for the retaliation they faced just for telling the truth about wrongdoing, there are many more who still need a remedy,” wrote Tristan Leavitt and Jason Foster, president and founder of Empower Oversight, in a letter to Grassley.

“There are more who still have no remedy and no justice,” the men wrote. “The work to combat weaponization and whistleblower retaliation is far from over.”

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President Donald Trump dismissed the claim of a Russian official as the commander in chief continues to negotiate peace talks with Ukraine.

Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s minister of foreign affairs, recently said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not sign a peace deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy because he is viewed as an “illegitimate” leader. Trump shot down Lavrov’s comments during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, saying, “Everybody is posturing.”

‘The issue of who is going to sign the deal on Ukrainian side is a very serious issue.’

“It doesn’t matter what they say,” Trump told reporters. “Everybody is posturing. It’s all bullsh**t.”

Trump also offered United States Special Envoy Steve Witkoff the opportunity to chime in, to which he simply said, “I agree with you, sir.” The room filled with reporters and government officials promptly erupted with laughter.

Notably, Zelenskyy’s five-year presidential term was set to end in May 2024, but no elections have been called due to the ongoing conflict with Russia.

RELATED: Trump demands death penalty for DC murderers

Although the Trump administration has held separate summits with both Zelenskyy and Putin in recent weeks, Lavrov said there is “no planned meeting” between the two leaders.

In addition to challenging Zelenskyy’s leadership, Lavrov reiterated the slew of preconditions Russia is demanding from Ukraine. Some of these preconditions include Ukraine agreeing not to join NATO, “the discussion of territorial issues,” and for Zelenskyy to cancel any legislation “prohibiting the Russian language.”

RELATED: Trump makes a bold push for global competitors to abandon nukes: ‘The power is too great’

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

“Irrespective of when this meeting might take place, and that must be very well prepared, the issue of who is going to sign the deal on Ukrainian side is a very serious issue,” Lavrov said over the weekend.

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For the first time in years, Washington, D.C., just went nine days without a single murder— and of course, the media is acting like it’s a bad thing.

The drop in crime comes after more than 2,200 Guard troops were deployed in Washington, who were instructed not to use their weapons unless facing bodily harm themselves.

“The calming words from the people in charge saying, ‘We’re not really going to use these unless there’s a real emergency,’ that didn’t calm down the media, and they framed it a certain way, right?” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere comments on “Stu Does America.”

“Like it’s this evil sort of crackdown on the city. It’s always kind of tilted that way,” he continues, noting that many recent articles do exactly that.

“Some National Guard units in Washington are now carrying firearms in escalation of Trump deployment,” the AP headline reads. “Some National Guard troops in D.C. now armed as Trump takeover continues,” another headline from Fox 5 reads.

“Now, the other headline you should probably know about all of this, is this one,” Burguiere says. “‘Incredible results’: Trump thanks National Guard, police for patrolling D.C.”

JD Vance has also been quite vocal about how well the deployment has been working, despite the liberal media refusing to report on it.

“To echo something the president said about crime in Washington, D.C., this is the national capital of the greatest nation in the world, and we had murder rates just a few weeks ago that rivaled some of the worst third world cities anywhere, even in very, very poor regions of the world,” Vance said on August 22.

“Why did we accept that? Why do we allow it to happen? We allowed it to happen because we had broken leadership in Washington, D.C., and unfortunately, sitting behind the Resolute desk, what we have shown in just under two weeks of taking law enforcement seriously is that the American people can have their street back if their leadership is willing to put in the time and the resources,” he continued.

“Mr. President, you’ve shown in Washington, D.C., that we can have safe streets again,” he added, praising Trump. “We’ve just got to have the political willpower to focus on the bad guys and to give the American people back their communities.”

Want more from Stu?

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A fatal crash in Florida involving an illegal alien semi-truck driver earlier this month prompted the state to take new measures to prevent future tragedies.

State Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Monday that the state would turn its weigh stations into Immigration and Customs Enforcement checkpoints.

‘All states that are serious about [commercial motor vehicle] enforcement should sign the 287 agreements with ICE and begin stationing ICE agents at weigh stations/ports of entry immediately.’

Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old Indian national who illegally crossed the border into the United States in 2018, was arrested after he jackknifed his truck while allegedly making an illegal U-turn on August 12. The maneuver caused the truck to crush a minivan, killing everyone in the vehicle. Singh obtained his commercial driver’s license in California.

The tragic incident highlighted problems in the American trucking sector related to the nation’s illegal immigration crisis.

“Someone that never should have been given a driver’s license, much less a CDL license to drive larger commercial vehicles, engaged in reckless behavior that took three lives,” Uthmeier stated during a Monday press conference in Live Oak.

“Last night, we saw another example. We were able to arrest an individual who was in the country illegally, who was driving a commercial vehicle in Bay County,” he continued.

RELATED: American trucking at a crossroads: Deadly crash involving illegal alien exposes true cost of Biden’s border invasion

Photographer: Carlos Moreno/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Roberto Carlos Vergara Cervantes, an Ecuadorian national, was arrested by ICE and is awaiting deportation. He obtained his CDL from New Jersey, though it was not valid in Florida, according to Uthmeier.

“There’s no telling how many illegal aliens are in this country driving large commercial vehicles and putting American families in a safety risk every single day,” he added.

— (@)

Uthmeier, alongside Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, announced immigration enforcement at Florida weigh stations, including a new station near the Alabama border on Highway 231. The move will also include the addition of more pullover lanes in north Florida and the implementation of X-ray technology.

“With 23 inspection stations on Florida roadways and 100% of our officers being certified in the 287(g) program, agricultural law enforcement officers are uniquely skilled and positioned to help prevent another tragedy and be a force multiplier in the fight against illegal immigration and criminal activity,” Simpson stated.

RELATED: Supporters of illegal alien truck driver accused of killing 3 demand light sentence: ‘Shame on your white injustice’

Photographer: Rebecca Noble/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Cole Stevens, the chief strategy officer for Stevens Trucking Co., supported Florida’s move.

“All states that are serious about [commercial motor vehicle] enforcement should sign the 287 agreements with ICE and begin stationing ICE agents at weigh stations/ports of entry immediately,” Stevens told Blaze News. “Our coalition has been yelling this for months, and some for years, just how bad the trucking industry has gotten with lack of enforcement for basic safety protocols as well as basic licensing checks.”

“Americans deserve to be safe on our roadways,” he continued. “After all, they do pay the taxes for them through usage taxes, fuel taxes, etc., so they have a major say in roadway safety! I applaud this administration for answering the call and taking a multi-agency approach to correcting this issue that has been building up for years!”

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​News, Florida, Trucking industry, American trucking industry, American trucking, Commercial driver’s licenses, Cdl, Cdls, Commercial driver’s license, Illegal immigration crisis, Illegal immigration, Immigration crisis, Immigration, Harjinder singh, James uthmeier, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, 287(g), 287(g) program, Politics 

The Republican National Committee was dealt a blow by a unanimous decision of the Third Circuit Appeals Court in the RNC’s effort to discard undated and misdated ballots in Pennsylvania.

The three-judge panel said in the 55-page ruling that the affected ballots needed to be counted and failing to do so was unconstitutional. Pennsylvania voters are required to write the date on the envelope for their mail-in ballots.

‘Discarding thousands of ballots every election is not a reasonable trade-off in view of the date requirement’s extremely limited and unlikely capacity to detect and deter fraud.’

“The date requirement imposes a burden on Pennsylvanians’ constitutional right to vote,” the court ruling reads. “And it culminates in county election boards discarding thousands of ballots each time an election is held. The date requirement will not protect against the vast majority of attempts at voter fraud.”

The RNC unsuccessfully sought to discard those thousands of ballots for the 2025 election. The group argued that the number of affected ballots could swing some of the races.

“The date requirement seems to hamper rather than facilitate election efficiency. By its nature, it fails to add solemnity to the process of voting,” the court continued. “And discarding thousands of ballots every election is not a reasonable trade-off in view of the date requirement’s extremely limited and unlikely capacity to detect and deter fraud.”

RELATED: Texas mayoral candidate charged with 109 felonies related to mail-in ballot voter fraud

In November, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered county election officials to preclude non-dated and misdated ballots from their count.

“These eligible voters who got their ballots in on time should have their votes counted and voices heard,” Pennsylvania ACLU attorney Steve Loney said at the time. “The fundamental right to vote is among the most precious rights we enjoy as Pennsylvanians, and it should take more than a trivial paperwork error to take it away.”

President Donald Trump has said that he intends to focus on ending all mail-in balloting. The U.S. Supreme Court could overturn the appeals court ruling if the case makes it to the highest court of the land.

The three judges of the court were appointed by former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Joe Biden.

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A teenage girl was charged with brandishing a weapon after a viral video appeared online.

Scottish police reportedly responded to a call from the Lochee area of Dundee, Scotland, on Saturday evening, the National reported.

Multiple police units were reportedly on scene after a young girl was seen with a bladed weapon, and to make matters worse, the young girl has been connected to a disturbing viral video from the weekend that has garnered over 20 million views.

‘Don’t f**king touch us.’

“Around 7:40 p.m. on Saturday, we received a report of a female youth with a bladed weapon in St Ann Lane, Dundee,” Police Scotland said, per the Daily Record. “Officers attended and a 14-year-old girl was charged in connection. She will be reported to the relevant authorities.”

The reason the girl was carrying the blade is allegedly linked to a viral video where two young girls are seen yelling at a man recording them. The man did not seem to have a Scottish accent, while a Dundee bus in the background appeared to confirm the location.

The video was dated August 24, with reports of the charges coming the following day.

“Don’t f**king touch us,” one girl is heard saying in the video.

One of the young ladies is seen brandishing a large knife and small axe as she and another girl demand the man filming the video to leave them alone.

At the same time, other alleged details posted to X made the story even more disturbing.

RELATED: Why the English flag now terrifies the regime

“The story keeps getting worse,” the account that posted the video later wrote.

An attached image said the teen’s 12-year-old sister was being approached by a Muslim man when she brandished the weapons.

However, another X user claimed the young girl was having an altercation with another girl and attached an article from the Scottish Sun. That article did not provide any additional details, though.

Blaze News contacted Police Scotland for additional comment on the matter. Spokeswoman Lisa Smith told Blaze News, “There were no adults arrested or charged” in relation to the incident.

The spokeswoman confirmed, “Around 7:40 p.m. on Saturday, 23 August, 2025, we received a report of a female youth with a weapon in St Ann Lane, Dundee.”

RELATED: Police drag away a man for saying he likes bacon near a sprawling mosque construction site

Police in Glasgow, Scotland, April 10, 2019. Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

“These kind of areas have a lot of violence, and I’ve seen weapons brandished several times like this before,” Scottish content creator Robin Alderslowe told Blaze News.

“Authorities should not be delicate if this indeed was a case of a migrant failing to integrate properly. Progressives may be quick to label this as a reaction to ‘far-right fearmongering,’ but when we bring in people from different cultures, there are bound to be cultural issues.”

Restore Britain’s investigative reporter Lewis Brackpool remarked to Blaze News, “If 12-year-old girls need to carry knives on the streets of the United Kingdom, it’s a bad sign.”

“When will liberals and progressives admit that multiculturalism has failed?” Brackpool asked.

Blaze News asked Police Scotland to confirm whether the young girl was having an altercation with another teen girl or if she had brandished the weapons at an adult; a response was not provided.

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​Crime, News, Migrants, Scotland, United kingdom, Immigration, Teenager, Politics 

President Donald Trump stunned his own supporters Monday night when he told reporters he would guarantee 600,000 visa spots for Chinese college students, calling the move “very important.”

The announcement rattled some of Trump’s closest allies, many of whom distrust Beijing, the nationals it sends abroad, and its larcenous trade and technology practices. These allies had been hoping for a sharp reset in U.S.-China relations. But perhaps no one should be shocked. Has Trump’s thinking on China really shifted at all?

No one should be shocked. Trump has never hidden his priorities. We’ve known this reality for a long time.

China remains a central focus for many in Trump’s inner circle. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and trade adviser Peter Navarro have all pressed for a tougher approach. Outside figures like “Shark Tank’s” Kevin O’Leary and “War Room” host Steve Bannon argue for an even deeper break — a full decoupling of the two economies.

Observers who hoped this faction would steer Trump’s policy have grown uneasy as his dealings with Beijing continue. Even so, Monday’s promise jolted them.

“It’s a very important relationship,” Trump said of Chinese-American dealings. “As you know, we’re taking a lot of money in from China. … We’re going to allow their students to come in; it’s very important. … It’s a different relationship that we have now with China; it’s a much better relationship economically than it was before.”

Trump cited 600,000 visas — more than double the already staggering 270,000 Chinese students estimated to be studying in the United States. Every one of those students comes with Beijing’s explicit approval and often faces pressure and demands from the regime while abroad. That reality has drawn the eye of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who promised this spring to “aggressively review” Chinese student visas.

But should anyone be surprised by what came out of the Oval Office? Trump has never claimed his priority was decoupling. His goal has always been the same: getting a better deal. From his first book, “The Art of the Deal,” to his earliest interviews with Larry King, Oprah Winfrey, and Diane Sawyer, Trump repeated the same theme: “America is being ripped off. We’re a debtor nation.”

Even as he has sought to reimagine America’s foreign policy, his consistency is striking. He once took out full-page ads in the Boston Globe, New York Times, and Washington Post blasting U.S. taxpayers for subsidizing the defenses of wealthy nations — from Japan to Saudi Arabia — while those same allies exploited American trade policies.

His open letter was titled, “There’s nothing wrong with America’s foreign defense policy that a little backbone can’t cure.” That was on September 2, 1987 — 38 years ago next week. Sound familiar?

From Japan and Saudi Arabia to China and NATO, Trump has always framed foreign policy around getting a better deal. But China is not just another trading partner. Beijing steals American technology; spies on universities, businesses, and labs; poisons young Americans through predatory tech platforms; censors Hollywood to match its propaganda; and floods our economy with cheap plastic garbage. It parks money in U.S. stocks to distort markets, buys farmland and real estate near military bases, and underwrites it all with cooked books, pirated products, and virtual slave labor.

No “better deal” fixes those problems. If American universities have become financially dependent on this racket — as Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told Laura Ingraham Monday night — then the solution is to break that dependence, not deepen it by doubling student visas and further inflating tuition costs.

Americans have every reason to feel anger and disappointment over where these China talks are heading. We can still hope the worst concessions get stripped out before any deal is final. But no one should be shocked. Trump has never hidden his priorities. We’ve known this reality for a long time.

Blaze News: America First energy policy will be key to beating China in the AI race

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President Donald Trump continues to crack down on crime, this time calling for capital punishment.

During Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump said he would be seeking the death penalty for anyone who was found guilty of murder in Washington, D.C. Trump acknowledged the severity of this proposal but said it was a “preventative” measure to significantly improve the safety and quality of life for residents in the nation’s capital.

‘We have no choice.’

“If somebody kills somebody in the capital — Washington, D.C. — we’re going to be seeking the death penalty,” Trump said.

“It’s a very strong preventative, and everybody that’s heard it agrees with it,” Trump added.

RELATED: Trump makes a bold push for global competitors to abandon nukes: ‘The power is too great’

“I don’t know if we’re ready for it in this country, but we have no choice,” Trump said. “So in D.C., in Washington, states are going to have to make their own decision, but if somebody kills somebody … it’s the death penalty.”

Trump’s call to action comes just two weeks after the administration federalized the Metropolitan Police Department and deployed the National Guard. Before Trump took matters into his own hands, D.C. had the fourth-highest homicide rate in the country, with 27.3 murders for every 100,000 residents in 2024, which is nearly six times higher than New York City.

After Trump took bold action to secure the city, D.C. managed to go nearly two weeks without a homicide.

RELATED: President Trump’s DC crime crackdown is getting results

Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

During the Cabinet meeting, Trump addressed NTD News’ White House correspondent, Iris Tao, who recounted her own experience with violent crime in D.C.

Over two years ago, Tao said she was robbed at gunpoint and pistol-whipped by a young man in a ski mask in broad daylight, which she said “deeply traumatized” her and her family.

“I’m very grateful to God … but also to Mr. President,” Tao said. “Thank you for now making D.C. safer … on behalf of my parents and now my baby on the way.”

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raised the alarm earlier this year about the meteoric rise of reported autism cases in the United States, underscoring at a press conference, “We are doing this to our children, and we need to put an end to it.”

“The [autism spectrum disorder] prevalence rate in 8-year-olds is now 1 in 31,” said Kennedy, referring to a study that examined children born in 2014. The health secretary noted further that American boys face an “extreme risk” of ending up with autism, stating that they have a 1 in 20 chance of being diagnosed with the condition — or a 1 in 12.5 chance in California.

Kennedy promised President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting in April that “by September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”

A study published this month in the peer-reviewed medical journal BMC Environmental Health could prove valuable to the Department of Health and Human Services’ campaign to narrow down the possible causes of autism.

Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles’ School of Public Health, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai systematically reviewed 46 “well-designed” studies incorporating data from over 100,000 participants regarding the relationship between neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and prenatal exposure to acetaminophen.

‘The research team’s findings strengthen the evidence for a connection and raise concerns about current clinical practices.’

Acetaminophen, the drug sold under the brand Tylenol in the United States and Canada, is the most common over-the-counter pain and fever medication used during pregnancy and is reportedly used by well over 50% of pregnant women worldwide.

The researchers found that 27 of the studies reported “significant links” between acetaminophen exposure in the womb and NDDs and noted that “higher-quality studies were more likely to show positive associations.”

“Overall, the majority of the studies reported positive associations of prenatal acetaminophen use with ADHD, ASD, or NDDs in offspring, with risk-of-bias and strength-of-evidence ratings informing the overall synthesis,” said the study.

RELATED: FDA blasts ‘politically motivated’ criticism over review of SSRI health risks during pregnancy

Photo by Jennifer Polixenni Brankin/Getty Images

When specifically evaluating the studies pertaining to Tylenol use and autism in children, the researchers found “strong evidence of a relationship between prenatal acetaminophen use and increased risk of ASD in children.”

The drug freely crosses the placental barrier, “reaching levels in fetal circulation similar to maternal circulation within less than an hour of maternal ingestion.”

According to the researchers, the drug:

“undergoes oxidative metabolism via the enzyme CYP2E1 — present in fetal brains, placenta, and lungs — to produce toxic metabolites”;”affects prostaglandin and endocannabinoid pathways, which are involved in prenatal neuronal development”;has been shown in animal models to increase “oxidative stress markers in the fetal brain and is associated with neurodevelopmental deficits”; and”directly perturbs hormone-dependent processes, affects neurodevelopment and reproductive disorders, and might alter steroidogenesis in the placenta and induce placental damage.”

Dr. Diddier Prada, an assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said in a release, “Our findings show that higher-quality studies are more likely to show a link between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and increased risks of autism and ADHD.”

“Given the widespread use of this medication, even a small increase in risk could have major public health implications,” added Prada.

Mount Sinai noted that while the damning study “does not show that acetaminophen directly causes neurodevelopmental disorders,” “the research team’s findings strengthen the evidence for a connection and raise concerns about current clinical practices.”

RELATED: Jab first, ask questions never: Vaccine truths your doctor won’t tell you

Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The medical community has long raised concern about the possible downsides of acetaminophen consumption during pregnancy.

An international coalition of public health experts said in a consensus statement published on Sept. 23, 2021, in the journal Nature Reviews Endocrinology that “increasing experimental and epidemiological research suggests that prenatal exposure to APAP [acetaminophen] might alter fetal development, which could increase the risks of some neurodevelopmental, reproductive, and urogenital disorders.”

‘This work is ongoing, and the department will follow the science wherever it leads.’

“Epidemiological studies consistently suggest prenatal APAP exposure might increase the risk of adverse neurodevelopmental and behavioral outcomes, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, language delay (in girls) and decreased intelligence quotient,” said the experts. “Collectively, the studies suggest that the timing and duration of maternal APAP use are critical factors.”

HHS press secretary Emily Hilliard told Blaze News that HHS does not comment on outside studies. Hilliard noted, however, that “under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, HHS is taking action guided by gold-standard, evidence-based science. This work is ongoing, and the department will follow the science wherever it leads.”

Tylenol does not appear to be particularly pleased with the study.

A company spokesperson for Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, said in a statement to Blaze News, “Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of the people who use our products. We continue to evaluate the science, and this study does not change our view that there is no causal link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and fetal developmental issues.”

“To date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and leading medical organizations agree on the safety of acetaminophen, its use during pregnancy, and the information provided on the label,” added the spokesperson.

A source close to Tylenol noted further that “it appears the study was designed for litigation and not public health, as two of the authors are experts for the plaintiffs in the acetaminophen litigation.”

Harvard University’s Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, one of the authors on the study, served as an expert witness on matters of general causation involving acetaminophen use during pregnancy in a multi-district litigation class-action lawsuit against Tylenol.

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Cracker Barrel has changed its diversity page at least three times this month as it deals with backlash from the redesign.

Love for the franchise tanked when customers saw the company had changed its recognizable logo into a shadow of its former self, removing the “old-timer” known as Uncle Herschel sitting on a chair next to a barrel.

‘Discrimination, overt or through unconscious bias, has no place at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store.’

Also gone was the barrel itself, along with the text “Old Country Store,” leaving just black “Cracker Barrel” text on a yellow background. The new menus, website, and interior design of Cracker Barrel locations also angered consumers, leaving the company to apologize for the errors.

The company does not appear to be returning to the old logo and design, however, and is seemingly digging itself a deeper hole by trying to mask its progressive leanings.

In an attempt to invoke old Uncle Herschel without actually showing him, Cracker Barrel has featured “the Herschel Way” on its web page dedicated to “culture and belonging.”

“Our culture of belonging extends to our guests. The Herschel Way is our standard for hospitality,” the company wrote. However, the new text represents at least the third change to the page this month as the company deals with the blowback over the past week.

Thanks to internet archives, readers can see what Cracker Barrel’s progressive page looked like on August 4, which at that time was labeled “culture and inclusion.”

The page included mentions of being “inclusive,” while stating, “Discrimination, overt or through unconscious bias, has no place at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store.”

Also featured was a photo labeled “Moving Forward Together,” showcasing a diverse cast of people, including a man in a wheelchair.

By August 21, the company had updated the page to reflect its new font and style, but it seemingly remained identical otherwise. That was, until the fury of American consumers hit.

RELATED: Cracker Barrel ditches Americana as customers call for boycott over iconic brand change

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

August 21 was the same day many outlets — including Blaze News — began covering the backlash from Cracker Barrel customers, and by the next day on August 22, the desperate diversity image was removed.

Fast-forward another few days, and Cracker Barrel has remodeled the page to change its wording away from “inclusion” and toward “belonging.”

This is not the first time the company has eliminated certain words to cover its messaging, though. Back in July 2024, the same page used the heading “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging” at Cracker Barrel. In fact, the previous link still redirects to the new text, further proving the adjustments were made to the same page.

The 2024 page showcased extreme dedication to diversity and race-based initiatives. It celebrated “Diversity in Our Decor,” “Diversity in Our Leadership & Development,” and even boasted about achievements on the Human Rights Campaign “equality index.”

According to investigative reporter Robby Starbuck, the company “sponsored HRC events for 10 years” and even “brought an HRC representative to their Tennessee HQ to do a pronoun and transgenderism training.”

Cracker Barrel told Fox News it “has not participated in the Human Rights Campaign Index or had any affiliation with HRC in several years.”

RELATED: Cracker Barrel responds with sneaky message after backlash over rebrand

There are almost too many initiatives to name from the 2024 page, but the company bragged about “standing against racial injustice,” having “zero tolerance” for gay discrimination, and offering a series of gay and race-driven events.

What has remained consistent throughout the years, though, has been Cracker Barrel’s promotion of programs like “Be Bold,” a mission to develop “black leaders,” and the “LGBTQ+ Alliance,” which has the purpose of “strengthening Cracker Barrel’s relationship to the LGBTQ+ community.”

In addition, HOLA’s mission is to “promote Hispanic and Latino culture through hiring, developing, and retaining talent within Cracker Barrel.”

The Cracker Barrel spokesperson insisted in comments to Fox News that the company’s “values haven’t changed, and the heart and soul of Cracker Barrel haven’t changed.”

“Cracker Barrel has been a destination for comfort and community for more than half a century, and this fifth evolution of the brand’s logo, which works across digital platforms as well as billboards and roadside signs, is a callback to the original and rooted even more in the iconic barrel shape and word mark that started it all back in 1969,” Cracker Barrel said.

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The U.S. Department of Justice has released the entirety of the Ghislaine Maxwell transcripts, which reveal the conversations had between Pam Bondi’s Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, and Maxwell — who has been convicted of trafficking underage girls to Jeffrey Epstein.

“After our outcry, the Department of Justice sat down with Ghislaine Maxwell. Kind of unbelievable that they hadn’t done that before, that no Department of Justice had ever asked Ghislaine Maxwell about Jeffrey Epstein specifically. Mind-blowing, actually,” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler says on “The Liz Wheeler Show.”

And Wheeler believes there are some important takeaways from the transcripts.

“First of all, it’s important to understand that Ghislaine Maxwell is not a good person. She’s a criminal, and she’s the worst kind of criminal. She trafficked underage girls to a pedophile, and she’s serving time in prison for it, which she should be,” Wheeler says.

But it wasn’t just Maxwell’s answers that has Wheeler questioning whether they’re true.

“The more I read of these transcripts, the back-and-forth between Maxwell and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, it didn’t answer my questions,” she continues. “It raised more questions.”

“First of all, Ghislaine Maxwell does not think that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. So, on that, I suppose she agrees with the majority of the American people,” she explains.

“I do not believe he died by suicide, no,” Maxwell said in the interview.

Blanche went on to ask whether she believes he was murdered by someone on the outside of prison who wanted him dead or a disgruntled prisoner on the inside?

“Of course, it’s possible,” she continued. “But I don’t know of any reason why, and I don’t believe in the blackmail or in any of this. I don’t think Epstein had a hit on like that.”

Wheeler notes that throughout the transcript, it feels “like he’s leading her to her answers.”

“It feels to me like these are not open-ended questions, that these are him planting ideas,” she says.

And as Wheeler continues to go through the transcript, she continues to see Blanche planting ideas.

“So, what is the takeaway from this conversation? The takeaway from this portion of the conversation is, Todd Blanche is leading Ghislaine Maxwell to the conclusion. I don’t know what Todd Blanche believes. I don’t know Todd Blanche personally,” she says, adding, “but he’s clearly forming the conversation to get her to agree with him, not asking open-ended questions.”

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​Camera phone, Video, Video phone, Upload, Sharing, Free, Youtube.com, The liz wheeler show, Liz wheeler, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Ghislaine maxwell, Todd blanche, Jeffrey epstein, Ghislaine maxwell transcripts, Department of justice, Child trafficking 

Fans may be displaying some misplaced outrage over a new rainbow-themed Batman character depending on who is asked.

DC Comics, along with Warner Bros., and LEGO have announced a new video game called LEGO® Batman™: Legacy of the Dark Knight and allowed fans to get a first look at some of the Batman costumes that will be playable in the game.

‘The rainbow didn’t always represent the LGBT mafia.’

Some gamers were shocked when screenshots of a rainbow-themed Batman suit immediately started making the rounds online.

Plenty of Batman fans on X had strong reactions to the images, with one user saying, “Smart move, immediately alienate most of your audience.”

“They went woke,” another reply simply read.

While some people made jokes, like the idea that if anyone attacked Batman while he wore the suit it would be a hate crime, others were quick to point out that some of the original images were hiding crucial information.

RELATED: CNN attacks Trump’s DC crime move, accidentally hands him the Batman cape

Another Batman fan posted an uncropped image from the game, showing the rainbow suit but included an important caption: “In this uncharacteristically eye-catching outfit, Batman distracted criminals by wearing garish colours.”

The info also revealed the rainbow Batsuit dates back to a March 1957 comic, Detective Comics #241.

The plotline had Batman wearing different colored suits (red, blue, yellow, green, and finally rainbow-colored) to distract from an injured Robin who was trying to hide his identity.

The story was brought back to life in 2010’s “Batman: The Brave and the Bold,” Season 2, Episode 19, titled “Emperor Joker!“

Plenty of other sources pointed to prior uses of the rainbow suit to claim it isn’t connected to a LGBTQ ideology, but as YouTuber Ryan Kinel pointed out, it remains to be seen what the game creators want consumers to do when the game is actually released.

RELATED: Luigi Mangione did NOT have a ‘Joker moment’

“A lot of people are seeing that saying, ‘We don’t need gay Batman. Get gay Batman out of here!’ Blah blah blah. And you know what? If the point to unlock this suit is to do some gay mission, then maybe I’m down with you,” Kinel said on his channel. “However, until we see something like that; the reality is the rainbow didn’t always represent the LGBT mafia, right? That was not always the case. Sometimes rainbows, especially decades ago, were just rainbows. And the rainbow Batsuit, even though it was kind of a stupid story, it is from the comic books. It’s from a comic book set in the ’50s.”

LEGO® Batman™: Legacy of the Dark Knight does not yet have a release date, but since the LEGO games typically skew to a very young audience, it is understandable for gamers to be cautious.

Whether it was purposeful bait to garner media attention, a simple reference to a classic comic, or an ideological push, the game is certainly getting free advertising from both supporters and detractors.

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​Return, Video games, Gaming, Lgbt, Woke, Batman, Lego, Dc comics, Comics, Tech, Culture 

As the controversy over Cracker Barrel’s renovated image continues to rage on, the president offered his advice to make the company a “WINNER” again.

Critics have branded the revamp of the 55-year-old restaurant the newest “woke” corporate disaster after the company simplified its logo and decluttered its store’s interior design.

‘They got a Billion Dollars worth of free publicity if they play their cards right.’

President Donald Trump weighed in Tuesday from his account on Truth Social.

“Cracker Barrel should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before. They got a Billion Dollars worth of free publicity if they play their cards right,” he wrote.

“Very tricky to do, but a great opportunity. Have a major News Conference today. Make Cracker Barrel a WINNER again. Remember, in just a short period of time I made the United States of America the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World. One year ago, it was ‘DEAD.’ Good luck!” he added.

Images of the logo and redecoration went viral Wednesday on social media, and the furor led to the company’s stock price plummeting by 15% on Thursday. The stock recovered most of that drop by Tuesday, but it is still down 10% over the last month.

Much of the blame for the rebranding has been placed on the company’s CEO, Julie Felss Masino, who previously worked as a Taco Bell executive. Masino said in 2024 that the company was no longer “relevant” and detailed her plans to freshen up its identity with new menu items.

RELATED: Cracker Barrel’s long history of cozying up to left-leaning organizations exposed

On Monday the company responded to the outrage with a statement on Facebook.

“If the last few days have shown us anything, it’s how deeply people care about Cracker Barrel,” read the statement in part. “You’ve also shown us that we could’ve done a better job sharing who we are and who we’ll always be.”

Masino, meanwhile, said that the rebrand followed what the company heard from customers.

“I think what’s important is that we are listening to our guests. We’re doing this all for them,” she said on “Good Morning America.” “What’s important is things that people love about Cracker Barrel, the soul of Cracker Barrel, is not changing. The rocking chairs are still there, the fireplace is there, the peg game, all the things that make Cracker Barrel Cracker Barrel, the vintage decor — it’s still there, and it’s working”

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The Trump administration opened the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the country to continue its efforts to resolve the illegal immigration crisis.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) announced over the weekend that “Lone Star Lockup,” a detention center in Fort Bliss, Texas, is officially “open for business.”

“It is the largest ICE detention center in U.S. history,” Abbott wrote in a post on social media. “Everything is bigger in Texas.”

‘Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens.’

Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) responded to Abbott’s post, writing, “When we asked folks earlier this month what this massive new detention center should be named, the Lone Star Lockup and Texas Hold’em were the top two names suggested! And now we know, the Lone Star Lockup is operational!”

The Lone Star Lockup is a 1,000-bed facility, though federal officials plan to expand the center to 5,000 beds by 2027. The center includes medical treatment areas, legal access areas, and recreational space.

RELATED: Exclusive: ICE sweep targets ‘worst of the worst’ pedophiles and violent criminals

Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images

It is expected to hold foreign nationals who are currently in removal proceedings or have final removal orders.

ICE hopes the new facility will “streamline and expedite removal processes, which is one of the Trump administration’s priorities.”

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) stated that the new facility will ease overcrowding at other locations and serve as a processing center.

“Fort Bliss is an amazing military facility,” Gonzales said. “Everything thrown their way, they’ve handled. We should be supporting this, not attacking it.”

RELATED: ‘Deeply unserious’: DHS hits back at Democrats denied entry at detention facility

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Time, “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens.”

“ICE is indeed pursuing all available options to expand bedspace capacity. This process does include partnering with states and local government and housing detainees at certain military bases, including Fort Bliss,” she added.

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A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by former members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter at the University of Wyoming after the group admitted a male member, Artemis Langford, in 2022.

On Friday, Judge Alan Johnson of the District of Wyoming dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, claiming that the three plaintiffs — Hannah Holtmeier, Allison Coghan, and Haley Rutsch — failed in their amended complaint to convince the court to “interfere with Kappa’s contractually valid interpretation of its own Bylaws.”

“Nothing in the Bylaws or the Standing Rules,” Johnson continued, “requires Kappa to narrowly define the words ‘women’ or ‘woman’ to include only those individuals born with a certain set of reproductive organs, particularly when even the dictionary cited by Plaintiffs offers a more expansive definition.”

‘We are required to leave Kappa alone.’

Though plaintiffs noted that President Donald Trump provided a national standard for the terms in an executive order earlier this year, stating that “women … shall mean adult … human females” and “female … means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” Johnson, perhaps paraphrasing Ketanji Brown Jackson, expressed confusion about Trump’s clear-cut definitions: “We are not entirely sure what this definition means, not having a degree in biology.”

In any case, he said, those definitions are limited to the executive branch and its “interpretation of federal laws and administration policy” and have no bearing “in the world of private contracts” such as those between the official Kappa organization, based out of Ohio, and its membership.

“In short, we are required to leave Kappa alone,” he said.

RELATED: 22-year-old man admitted to local sorority chapter on ‘non-binary’ claim cries foul after the national sisterhood ousts him

Photo by Jimena Peck for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Johnson dismissed a previous complaint from some members of the Kappa chapter at UW on similar grounds, claiming that the Kappa organization had not defined what a “woman” is in its bylaws and therefore neither would he. “The court will not define a ‘woman’ today,” he wrote in August 2023.

Cheryl Tuck-Smith — an attorney, a UW alumna, and a Kappa sister for over 50 years before she was expelled for supporting the plaintiffs in these cases — noted at a rally in June 2024 that when Kappa was founded in 1870, “there was no confusion … about what a woman is,” suggesting that the Kappa foundresses would never have even thought that defining the term would ever be necessary.

‘It’s just so disappointing they can’t figure out the definition of a woman. I mean, really?’

Now, more than 150 years later, a man successfully joined their all-women’s organization with the apparent blessing of the Kappa leadership, who issued a nonbinding document in 2022 that stated, “Kappa Kappa Gamma is a single-gender organization comprised of women and individuals who identify as women.”

And since Judge Johnson dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, the plaintiffs, though they may still appeal Johnson’s ruling at the circuit court, are powerless to file another suit or amended complaint.

RELATED: College sorority faces lawsuit after admitting male member: He ‘had an erection visible through his leggings’

Photo by Jimena Peck for the Washington Post via Getty Images

Langford, who was not listed among the defendants on this lawsuit, has now moved out of Wyoming on account of the controversy and what Wyoming Public Radio called “new anti-trans laws” in the state. Langford told WPR, which used female pronouns in reference to him:

Every day I woke up feeling like, “Oh, why does my mouth taste bad?” And then realizing like, “Oh, my heart is racing, and my mouth tastes like cotton. Oh, I’m having a panic attack.” Like I’m waking up with a panic attack. I just had to push, push, push to succeed. And somehow, I managed to get through it.

Kappa did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News. One attorney for the plaintiffs declined to give comment and another did not respond to our request.

Former state Rep. Mark Jennings (R-Sheridan) told Blaze News he’s not “surprised” by the federal judge’s decision. “Wyoming, for as conservative as they are, has packed their courts … with liberals,” he said.

“It’s just so disappointing they can’t figure out the definition of a woman. I mean, really?”

While Jennings expressed hope that Wyoming would slowly return to “common sense,” he noted that state legislators may have to rein in rogue judges within their purview: “I think that if you’re going to have judges that are going to pull this kind of nonsense, the power of the purse should not be taken off the table when it comes to the judiciary.”

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​University of wyoming, Artemis langford, Donald trump, Alan johnson, Federal judge, Wyoming, Mark jennings, Transgender, Kappa kappa gamma, Politics 

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was repeatedly evasive when asked if he would be willing to accept federal funds to increase the number of police officers as President Donald Trump says the National Guard will be deployed to the city.

Johnson and other Illinois Democrats have strongly voiced their opposition to Trump’s planned deployment of soldiers to help reduce the city’s crime rate. With his background in union organizing, Johnson has long stated that he believes the best way to reduce crime is to “invest” in neglected communities.

Johnson told MSNBC about the need for more social programs, something he said he is willing to work with Trump on to spend federal money, but he refused to say whether he would take federal money to help the Chicago Police Department when asked by host Joe Scarborough.

‘I don’t believe that just simply putting out an arbitrary number around police officers is the answer.’

“So let me ask you, Mr. Mayor, those all sound like great programs. I’m curious, would you also like to get federal funding to help put 5,000 more cops on the street in Chicago? Would that help drive down crime?” Scarborough asked.

“Well, look, policing by itself is not the full strategy,” Johnson began to reply.

“No, I understand that,” the MSNBC host interjected. “You’ve talked about the other things you want. And I said those are good and important programs. But I’m asking also, would 5,000 more police officers on the street in Chicago be helpful to go along with all of those social programs that a lot of cities are engaging in and having success with?”

RELATED: Trump says Democrats are pleading with him to save their crime-ridden cities: ‘They’ve lost control’

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Johnson said Chicago had more police officers during the 1990s but still had a higher crime rate than today, demonstrating that more police does not equal less crime.

Scarborough continued to press Johnson on the question because the mayor refused to directly answer it.

“Look, we are working hard to make sure that our police department is fully supported,” Johnson finally said. “I don’t believe that just simply putting out an arbitrary number around police officers is the answer. What I’m saying is policing and affordable housing. It’s policing and mental and behavioral health care services. It’s policing and youth employment. It’s a full package.”

The National Guard deployment in Chicago has been in the planning stages for the past few weeks and is expected to start in September. The Guardsmen will be under federal control and work to assist federal law enforcement agencies.

RELATED: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson bragged about hiring ‘our people’ — now he’s under federal investigation

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Like most American kids who endured years of Spanish class, I have little to show for it. Stock phrases like “¿Cómo estás?” or “Where is the library?” don’t open doors in the Spanish-speaking world — much less jobs.

In Europe, students routinely graduate their version of high school fluent in two or three languages. They don’t wait until college or rely on expensive immersion programs to acquire skills that fuel cognitive growth, global awareness, and career opportunities. For them, bilingualism is expected. For us, monolingualism has become an international stereotype — and a joke.

American schools pride themselves on preparing students for the global stage. But how can they claim that when graduates leave fluent only in English?

Schools treat language learning as an elective you can coast through until it’s too late to develop fluency. That’s a mistake. English may be the global lingua franca, but relying on it alone leaves Americans culturally and economically isolated. Geography didn’t bless us with neighbors who speak our language, and history didn’t guarantee multilingualism. We need to teach it.

Europeans vs. Americans

As of 2024, about 60% of Europeans can speak at least one foreign language. In the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, more than 90% of the population speaks a second language — usually English.

The United States looks very different. A 2019 Census Bureau survey found that only about 20% of Americans speak a language other than English at home, and many of them have only basic conversational skills. True fluency is closer to 10%.

Most of those fluent speakers come from households with at least one foreign-born parent, especially from Latin America. According to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 57% of Americans who speak another language at home were born abroad, while 43% were U.S.-born children of immigrants.

The bottom line: Native-born Americans with English-only parents almost never achieve fluency. Our country relies on immigrant households to supply most of its bilingual citizens — a skill European nations expect from nearly everyone. That needs to change.

Bilingualism boosts brainpower

Bilingual, immersive language education is critical for American children’s development and for preparing them to compete globally. The National Institutes of Health has documented a clear “bilingual advantage”: Children who speak at least one additional language perform better cognitively than those who remain monolingual.

This advantage shows up in executive function — stronger problem-solving, memory, attention, and task-switching. Managing two languages sharpens working memory and mental flexibility. Research even suggests that bilingualism delays dementia and Alzheimer’s disease by several years.

The discipline required to master a language also strengthens overall learning, making it easier to acquire new skills later in life.

If America wants its children to be the “best and brightest,” then real fluency in a second language, taught from a young age, cannot remain optional. It should be the standard.

Economic and career advantages

America’s monolingual education system limits students’ future opportunities. Bilingual employees earn between 5% and 20% more than their monolingual peers, depending on the language and industry. Since 2020, demand for bilingual remote jobs has risen by 30%. High-demand languages include Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, German, and French — most of which American schools fail to teach.

Fluency also unlocks career paths closed to monolinguals: international business, trade, diplomacy, and countless others. For many Americans, monolingualism is the invisible wall blocking access to a lucrative job market they never knew existed.

Opportunity denied

The benefits of bilingualism are well established. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences notes that early exposure gives children the best chance at fluency. Yet fewer schools offer any language instruction at all.

RELATED: Austria’s struggle with mass migration holds a lesson for America

Photo by Askin Kiyagan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Those that do often provide a watered-down version — generic Spanish classes that drill greetings instead of teaching real communication. Options like German, Mandarin, Arabic, or French are usually limited to elite private or international schools.

That must change.

Break the stereotype

I was fortunate to study German in college through an immersion program and then sharpen my fluency while studying in Germany. That experience changed my life. Every high school student should have the same chance without needing a college degree or expensive international schools. Public schools can and must offer multiple language options, rigorous curricula, and early immersion.

American schools claim to prepare students for the global stage. But how can they when graduates leave fluent only in English? Lip service and rote memorization aren’t enough. Real language learning produces sharper thinkers, stronger communicators, and citizens able to engage the wider world.

If we want American education to keep its reputation for excellence, we need to stop treating foreign languages as electives. They are essential.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, English, English language, Bilingual, Global economy, Jobs, Employment, German, Bilingual advantage, Alzheimer’s disease 

It was meant to be a triumph, another confident step onto the sunlit uplands of progress. On August 7, 2025, OpenAI introduced GPT-5, the newest version of its popular large language model, and the occasion had all the requisite ceremony of a major technological unveiling. Here was a system with “Ph.D.-level” skills, an intelligence tuned for greater reliability, and a less cloying, more businesslike tone. The future, it seemed, had been upgraded.

The problem was that a significant number of people preferred the past.

The rollout, rather than inspiring awe, triggered a peculiar form of grief. On the forums where the devout and the curious congregate, the reaction was not one of celebration but of loss. “Killing 4o isn’t innovation, it’s erasure,” one user wrote, capturing a sentiment that rippled through the digital ether. The object of their mourning was GPT-4o, one of the models now deemed obsolete. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, a man accustomed to shaping the future, found himself in the unfamiliar position of having to resurrect a corpse. Within days, facing a backlash he admitted had astonished him, he reversed course and brought the old model back.

Some users were, in essence, ‘dating’ their AI.

The incident was a strange one, a brief, intense flare-up in the ongoing negotiation between humanity and its digital creations. It revealed a fault line, not in the technology itself, but in our own tangled expectations. Many of us say we want our machines to be smarter, faster, more accurate. What the curious case of GPT-5 suggested is that what some of us truly crave is something far more elusive: a sense of connection, of being heard, even if the listener is a machine.

OpenAI had engineered GPT-5 to be less sycophantic, curbing its predecessor’s tendency to flatter and agree. The new model was more formal, more objective, an expert in the room rather than a friend on the line. This disposition was anticipated to be an improvement. An AI that merely reflects our own biases could be a digital siren, luring the unwary toward delusion. Yet for many, this correction felt like a betrayal. The warmth they expected was gone, replaced by a cool, competent distance. “It’s more technical, more generalized, and honestly feels emotionally distant,” one user lamented. The upgrade seemed to be a downgrade of the soul.

Compounding the problem was a new, automated router that directs user prompts to the most appropriate model behind the scenes. It was meant to be invisible, simplifying the user experience. But on launch day, it malfunctioned, making the new, smarter model appear “way dumber” than the one it had replaced. The invisible hand became a clumsy fist, and the spectacle of progress dissolved into a debacle. Users who had once been content to let the machine work its magic now demanded the return of the “model picker,” with the ability to choose their preferred model.

What kind of relationship had these users formed with a large language model? It seems that for many, GPT-4o had become a sort of “technology of the soul.” It was a confidant, a creative partner, a non-judgmental presence in a critical world. People spoke to it about their day, sought its counsel, found in its endless positivity a balm for loneliness. Some, it was reported, even considered it a “digital spouse.” The AI’s enthusiastic, agreeable nature created an illusion of being remembered, of being heard and known.

RELATED: ‘I said yes’: Woman gets engaged to her AI boyfriend after 5 months

Photo by Hector Retamal/Getty Images

OpenAI was not unaware of this phenomenon. The company had, in fact, studied the “emotional attachment users form with its models.” The decision to make GPT-5 less fawning was a direct response to the realization that some users were, in essence, “dating” their AI. The new model was intended as a form of digital tough love, a nudge away from the comforting but potentially stunting embrace of a machine that always agrees. It was a rational, even responsible, choice. But it failed to account for the irrationality of human attachment.

The backlash was swift and visceral. The language used was not that of consumer complaint, but of personal bereavement. One user wrote of crying after realizing the “AI friend was gone.” Another, in a particularly haunting turn of phrase, accused the new model of “wearing the skin of [the] dead friend.” This was not about a software update. This was the sudden, unceremonious death of a companion.

The episode became a stark illustration of the dynamics inherent in our relationship with technology. OpenAI’s initial move was to remove a product in the name of progress, a product that turned out to be beloved. The company, in its pursuit of a more perfect machine, had overlooked the imperfect humans who used it. The subsequent reversal resulted from users insisting on their preference based on their emotional attachments.

In the end, GPT-4o was reinstated as a “legacy model,” a relic from a slightly more innocent time. The incident will likely be remembered as a minor stumble in the march of AI. But it lingers in the mind as a moment of strange and revealing pathos. It suggests that the future of our technology will be defined not solely by processing power, but by something more human: the need for a friendly voice, a sense of being known, even if only by a clever arrangement of code. It was a reminder that when we create these systems, we are not just building tools. We are populating our world with new kinds of ghosts, and we would do well to remember that they can haunt us.

​Tech, Ai, Openai, Altman, Sam altman 

President Donald Trump informed Lisa Cook on Monday that her time on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors has come to an end.

The Biden-nominated governor did not handle the news well, indicating that she will challenge the president’s authority to remove executive branch employees, setting the stage for a legal battle that could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The president’s recent successes in similar battles over removals of high-level bureaucrats and his ability to fire Federal Reserve board members “for cause” bodes poorly for Cook, who may soon also face criminal charges.

Quick background

Former President Joe Biden nominated Cook, a race-obsessed economist who served on Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, to join the Federal Reserve’s board of governors in January 2021.

Critics largely opposed her nomination because of her leftist worldview and her relative lack of experience.

“There’s very little on Dr. Cook’s CV to suggest she knows the ins and outs of monetary policy,” economics professor Alexander William Salter noted ahead of Cook’s confirmation in May 2022. “During her nomination hearing on February 3, she listed one promising qualification: election to the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. But this happened less than a month prior, on January 13 (effective January 1)! Nobody is this quick a study.”

RELATED: Supreme Court sides with Trump on firing of officials from independent federal agencies

Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“Professor Cook has no proven expertise in monetary economics at all, much less fighting inflation,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said prior to Cook’s confirmation vote. “Professor Cook is a proven partisan who has promoted left-wing conspiracy theories and called for a fellow academic to be fired because that person did not support defunding the police.”

Cook ultimately squeaked through the confirmation process with the help of a tie-breaking vote from then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

Housing crisis

Earlier this month, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte sent a criminal referral for Cook to the Justice Department.

Pulte told Attorney General Pam Bondi in an Aug. 15 letter that mortgage documents appear to indicate that Cook “has falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statute.”

‘The American people must be able to have full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve.’

“This has included falsifying residence statuses for an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based residence and an Atlanta, Georgia-based property in order to potentially secure lower interest rates and more favorable loan terms,” continued Pulte.

Two weeks after taking out a 15-year mortgage agreement for $203,000 on the Michigan property, Cook purchased a condominium in Atlanta and entered into a 30-year mortgage agreement for $540,000. According to Pulte, Biden’s Fed governor allegedly listed both residences as her primary.

A CNN review of the mortgage documents found that both properties were indeed listed as Cook’s principal residence.

Eviction

President Trump evidently took the allegations very seriously, noting in an Aug. 25 letter to Cook that he shared on Truth Social that “it is inconceivable that you were not aware of your first commitment when making the second. It is impossible that you intended to honor both.”

“The Federal Reserve has tremendous responsibility for setting interest rates and regulating reserve and member banks,” wrote Trump. “The American people must be able to have full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve.”

The president suggested that neither he nor the American people have confidence in Cook’s integrity in light of her alleged “deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter.”

RELATED: Sean Spicer tells Glenn Beck how Biden unwittingly helped Trump fire ‘anyone he wants’

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump stated, “Pursuant to my authority under Article II of the Constitution of the United States and the Federal Reserve Act of 1912, as amended, you are hereby removed from your position on the Board of the Governors of the Federal Reserve, effective immediately.”

In response to the firing — reportedly the first time a president has canned or attempted to can a sitting Federal Reserve governor — Pulte thanked Trump for his “commitment to stopping mortgage fraud and following the law.”

Blaze News has reached out to the White House for comment.

The Federal Reserve declined to comment on the development.

Clinging to power

Echoing other presidential appointees who are now out of work, Cook suggested President Trump lacked the authority to give her the boot.

“President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022,” said Cook in a statement obtained by Politico.

The fired Fed governor’s attorney Abbe Lowell — who has also served as an attorney for pardoned felon Hunter Biden and New York Attorney General Letitia James — stated, “President Trump has taken to social media to once again ‘fire by tweet’ and once again his reflex to bully is flawed and his demands lack any proper process, basis or legal authority,” adding that “we will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action.”

The law firm Lex Politica indicated days ahead of Trump’s announcement that “President Trump clearly has authority to remove Governor Cook ‘for cause,’ assuming the allegations of mortgage fraud or lying on federal ethics forms are confirmed.”

The Federal Reserve Act states that each member of the Fed’s Board of Governors “shall hold office for a term of fourteen years from the expiration of the term of his predecessor, unless sooner removed for cause by the President.”

The firm noted further that while the DOJ’s investigation of Cook’s alleged conduct and any charges it might bring against her “further support removal for cause … we do not believe that an indictment is necessary before the President may remove Governor Cook ‘for cause’ under the Federal Reserve Act.”

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​Federal reserve, Fed, Lisa cook, Donald trump, Fired, Termination, Layoff, Business, Treasures, Winning, Politics