Category: blaze media

In a massive win for women’s sports, this week the Supreme Court ruled that states have the authority to maintain sports teams based on biological sex — upholding laws in West Virginia and Idaho.

But the decision comes after young girls have already been traumatized.

“It was really her eighth-grade season when things started to get worse. She was coming home increasingly frustrated, telling us about mean and then sexually inappropriate things that this boy was saying to her,” a mother whose daughter was forced to play alongside a boy recalled in an interview.

“One day she came home and told me that he was telling her and other girls to ‘Suck my D-word.’ This was happening frequently during track practice and in the locker room from a boy who was saying he was a girl,” she continued.

“So this was really shocking and alarming to us,” she added.

“What did you do at that point?” the interviewer asked.

“We had a coach reach out to us, actually, that same day to tell us that Adelaia had lost her competition spot to this boy, and she wanted to let us know that she felt it was unfair. So we told her about the inappropriate comments and surprisingly, to us, she said that she had also heard him say many inappropriate things,” the mother replied.

The mother also explained that this boy had been asking the girls for nude photographs during track meets and taking “other inappropriate actions towards boys and girls during the season.”

The coach also had a daughter on the team and told Adelaia’s mother that she was “deeply concerned” but “couldn’t say anything for fear of losing her job.”

“So after this conversation, I was so alarmed. I spoke about it with Adelaia and told her that I felt the situation had become unsafe for her and the other girls. And I’ll never forget, she said to me after that, ‘Mom, that’s not the worst thing PJ has ever said to me,’” the mother explained.

“I just felt sick as I read that he had said to her, ‘I’m going to stick my D-word in your P-word,’” she added.

“My gosh,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray says, disturbed.

“They know that he’s doing it, and it doesn’t matter, because heaven forbid they say anything about a boy who identifies as a girl,” he adds.

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​Pat gray, Supreme court, Transgender, Womens sports, Trans, Pat gray unleashed 

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign is in hot water again after new allegations of sexual misconduct were reported Monday. Now his campaign against Susan Collins hangs by a very thin thread.

Platner issued a two-minute video response on Monday afternoon in light of a new report from Politico. In the report a woman, described as someone who once dated Platner, accused him of “sexual assault.”

‘Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.’

In the video, Platner denied the allegations against him, calling them “troubling, serious, and false,” adding that “any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”

The progressive Democrat spent the beginning of the video praising the movement his candidacy built and “the largest volunteer base in the history of Maine politics,” fueled by “a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”

Noting the seriousness of the allegations, however, Platner then made a remark that had some viewers asking questions about the future of his campaign: “So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”

While no definitive statement about the future of his campaign was given in his response, Platner did, however, promise to keep fighting for the base of supporters he amassed over the duration of his campaign.

RELATED: Democrats close ranks around Graham Platner despite string of scandals

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

“On June 9, 154,058 Mainers — the most in primary history — voted to reject a broken politics beholden to Washington and the donor class. They voted for hope, for change, to take back our economy, to take back our power, and to take back our Senate seat,” Platner said in the video.

“Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so,” he added. “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.”

While Platner is not himself officially a part of the far-left Democratic Socialists of America, which has seen some success in recent primaries across the country, his progressive platform may appear to resemble the more radical wing of the party.

While some notable figures have expressed their skepticism of Platner, one Democrat leader has stuck with him through the multiple scandals that have arisen during his campaign.

Steve Guest posted a clip of a press conference earlier this year with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer being asked about Graham Platner and the explanations he has given for the past allegations.

Schumer gave a consistent answer, explicitly saying, “I endorsed Graham Platner,” and said they will defeat Susan Collins and “take back the Senate.” The clip shows Schumer’s apparent preference for Platner over establishment Democrat candidate Janet Mills, who suspended her campaign at the end of April.

Graham Platner handily won the June 9 primary and will face Collins in November, if his campaign continues.

Hours later, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who previously supported Platner’s campaign, released a statement on social media: “I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line. These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”

Blaze News contacted Rep. Ro Khanna and Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), John Fetterman (D-Penn.), and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) but did not immediately receive a response.

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​Chuck schumer, Democratic socialists of america, Establishment democrats, Graham platner, Janet mills, November election, Sexual misconduct allegations, Video response, Politics 

A Millennial Democrat hoping to dive into the U.S. Senate has abandoned her campaign after damaging posts she made about her constituents resurfaced.

Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, 39, announced on Sunday that she was throwing in the towel and endorsing whichever competitor wins the Democratic primary in the pivotal race.

McMorrow called for a change in the leadership of the Democratic Party and said she would continue in that fight.

“I want to be very clear about what this announcement is not. I may be suspending this campaign, but I am not leaving the fight,” McMorrow wrote in a statement on social media.

The Democrat tried to launch the Senate campaign after a speech she gave at the 2024 DNC went viral online, but her campaign was damaged greatly by the resurfaced posts. She had deleted thousands of tweets, but a CNN investigation documented the missing missives.

“I had a dream that the US amicably broke off into The Ring (coasts+Can+Mex+parts Mich/Tex) and Middle America,” she wrote after Democrats lost the 2016 presidential election.

McMorrow, who lived for a time in California, responded positively in another post to a user calling everyone outside California “morons.”

“There are days like these that make me miss California even more,” Morrow responded at the time.

She also appeared to try to cover up posts that contradicted her claim in her book that she moved to Michigan “permanently” in 2014.

In her announcement Sunday, McMorrow called for a change in the leadership of the Democratic Party and said she would continue in that fight.

RELATED: CNN unearths embarrassing deleted tweets from Michigan Democrat running for Senate — it could tank her campaign

“I love this country. I love Michigan. And I love the little girl who waves at me from the window every morning, trusting the grown-ups to leave her a state and a country worth inheriting,” McMorrow wrote about her daughter.

“That’s who I’m fighting for. And I’m not going anywhere,” she added. “I hope you’ll join me.”

The Michigan primary election will be held on August 4.

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​Mallory mcmorrow, Social media, Michigan, Us senate, Politics 

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is demanding that the Trump administration hit Chinese generic drugmakers with new tariffs over their alleged use of Uyghur forced labor, according to a letter exclusively obtained by Blaze News.

Scott, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, sent the letter Monday to Ambassador Jamieson Greer of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative — and he’s naming names.

‘Forced labor practices are categorically unacceptable and create a dynamic in which American workers and manufacturers are undercut.’

He singled out Sinopharm, China’s largest state-owned pharmaceutical conglomerate, as an entity under scrutiny for forced-labor ties in Xinjiang, where China has detained more than 1 million Uyghurs since 2017. The company retains an active pharmaceutical import license in the United States despite the scrutiny.

“Recent reports raise concerns about whether upstream suppliers serving the U.S. generic drug market may abuse Uyghur forced labor,” Scott wrote.

Sinopharm and other Chinese firms, Scott claimed, feed key ingredients into Indian generic drug manufacturers — some of which supply a large share of America’s Medicaid-reimbursed prescriptions.

Scott wrote, “Forced labor practices are categorically unacceptable and create a dynamic in which American workers and manufacturers are undercut by non-viable competitive pricing reliant on the systemic exploitation of human beings.”

Sinopharm and Greer did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: Eli Lilly strikes a $3 billion Chinese drug deal

Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The senator is calling on USTR to apply its already-proposed Section 301 tariffs to generic drugs and ingredients wherever forced labor or Chinese state subsidies are propping up the market. The rates are currently set at 10% and 12.5%.

But he’s not stopping there. Scott wants an entirely new, higher tariff tier created specifically to punish “the most egregious participants in forced labor use.” He’s also demanding that the drug tariffs hit at the same time as tariffs on every other Chinese good — no carve-outs, no delays.

He says current enforcement doesn’t come close to matching the scale of the problem. Despite the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act’s presumption that anything made in Xinjiang involves “forced labor,” only one of 43 licensed pharmaceutical companies in the region has actually landed on the UFLPA Entity List.

Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection data shows pharmaceuticals and chemicals are the second-largest category of goods blocked under forced-labor import laws, Scott claimed. More than $19 million in shipments have been denied entry since 2022.

RELATED: Chinese fraudster convicted for ripping off Americans with bogus COVID tests

Jabin Botsford/Washington Post/Getty Images

The tariff push is one of several efforts under way to confront the issue. Separately, other proposals are seeking to restrict taxpayer-funded Medicaid reimbursement for medications whose upstream production relies on forced labor, alongside a push to add significantly more Xinjiang-linked entities to the UFLPA Entity List.

Scott framed the tariff request as part of a much larger pattern of Chinese trade abuse. He pointed to currency manipulation, China’s spot on the USTR’s Priority Watch List for intellectual property theft, its blown commitments under the 2020 Phase One trade deal, and a Chinese mining company’s alleged role covering up a pollution disaster in Zambia.

“China’s reputation as both a trade cheat and a human rights violator remains unparalleled in the global economy,” Scott wrote.

The letter builds on Scott’s broader campaign against America’s reliance on Chinese-linked generic drugs. It follows an October 2025 investigative report he released with Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and the bipartisan Clear Labels Act, which the two introduced in January to force country-of-origin labeling on prescription drugs.

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​Politics, Prescription drugs, Rick scott, Trump administration, Us trade representative, Uyghurs, China 

Immigration isn’t just one issue among many — it’s the issue driving nearly every other political battle in America.

And after the latest Supreme Court ruling to uphold a broad conception of birthright citizenship and reject President Donald Trump’s executive order, BlazeTV host John Doyle is sounding the alarm.

“It’s kind of like if you have cancer for years, and now it’s progressed to stage three. Well, because the cancer’s been around for a while, you actually just have to let it progress to stage four. It would be inconsiderate to the tumor,” Doyle says.

“Don’t you believe in growth for the sake of growth? The ideology of a tumor, it’s completely suicidal,” he continues, explaining that the ruling “has to be defied in some way, very legally, very coolly.”

“And Kavanaugh, though he technically dissented, he did so on a statutory basis, and basically you can’t just overturn this with an executive order; you have to pass legislation to do so,” Doyle says.

“There’s already guys in Congress working to get legislation here, so it’s not the end of everything. And frankly, just going decade to decade, the fact that we even have a president who is willing to challenge this and people occupying Congress, even if in the minority, willing to challenge, I’ll take that as an absolute win,” he continues.

However, Doyle notes that it “doesn’t really matter how it’s done.”

“This is obviously a civilizational threat to us, a threat to the lives of patriots specifically, especially considering travel is far easier now than it was in the 19th century. Anyone can literally just show up here in a day and give birth, secure citizenship,” he says.

“If you are a foreigner, the easiest thing in the world for you to do is to get pregnant and plop out the baby on U.S. soil, and then Amy Coney Barrett will be there to catch it,” he adds.

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​Immigration, John doyle, The blaze, Birthright citizenship, Donald trump, The john doyle show, Brett kavanaugh, Amy coney barrett 

The husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may face charges after he allegedly drove his convertible into a parked car in Napa Valley and drove away Friday.

The Napa County Sheriff’s Office said deputies found Paul Pelosi about a quarter of a mile away from the alleged accident with damage to the front of his brown Maserati.

‘Mr. Paul Pelosi has personally apologized to the owner of the vehicle.’

Police said he told them he hit something but was unaware of what caused the damage to his vehicle.

No injuries were reported. A witness saw the crash and called 911 at about 2:30 p.m.

The 86-year-old did not have alcohol in his system, according to police. He was not arrested, and the sheriff’s office recommended a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of an accident.

Photos of the damage in the case were obtained and published by the New York Post.

The sheriff’s office also said it referred Paul Pelosi to the Department of Motor Vehicles to determine whether he should be allowed to continue driving.

Paul Pelosi previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence in Napa County in 2022. He was sentenced to five days in jail and three years of probation but served only two days in jail.

A spokesperson for the Pelosis released a brief statement about the hit-and-run report.

“Mr. Paul Pelosi has personally apologized to the owner of the vehicle and assured them that he would take responsibility for the damage to their vehicle,” the spokesperson said. “Speaker Pelosi will not be commenting further on this private matter.”

RELATED: Bodycam footage from the Paul Pelosi attack FINALLY released

Paul Pelosi was also apparently involved in a lethal car accident when he was only 16 years old.

His 19-year-old brother David was killed when Pelosi crashed his sports car near San Mateo in 1957, according to the Daily Mail, citing an article from the San Francisco Examiner in February 1957.

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​Nancy pelosi, Paul pelosi, Driving under the influence, Hit and run, Napa valley, Car accident, Politics 

With just a few months under new leadership in the gaming division, Microsoft is set to perform a significant overhaul of Xbox, including a number of job cuts in the process.

Microsoft’s Xbox is planning some major changes to the company — with some staff reductions starting as soon as Monday — under the new CEO, Asha Sharma.

‘I also want to be direct that the roles eliminated today are not being replaced by AI. At the same time, what is true is that AI is changing how work gets done.’

Bloomberg reported that Xbox plans to lay off 3,200 workers in that division alone. Some 1,600 jobs were reportedly eliminated on Monday, and 1,600 more are planned over the next 12 months.

Planned cuts across Microsoft, including outside Xbox, on Monday amounted to 6,400 employees, according to Bloomberg.

RELATED: Microsoft says business must pay to use its AI — and eyes cheap Chinese model for lowly consumers

Finn Gomez/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

“We are still early on this journey, and there will be more changes ahead; other parts of our business will need to make similar changes,” Chief People Officer Amy Coleman wrote in a memo published on Monday.

In addition to the staff reductions, Xbox is seemingly gearing up to reverse course on several growth initiatives overseen by Sharma’s predecessor, Phil Spencer.

Xbox will reportedly sell or attempt to sell five different studios in the near future, all of which were acquired under Spencer in an attempt to grow the company.

These studios include Ninja Theory, Undead Labs, Double Fine, and Compulsion Games, with a view to sell a fifth studio based in Lyon, France, that has yet to begin the consultation process to “review potential strategic options.” Bloomberg reported this process will take longer due to strict labor laws in the country.

Sharma wrote that those acquisitions over the past decade “created meaningful value,” but “they did not grow at the pace we expected,” adding that “in a typical year” Xbox was losing 64 cents for every dollar it invested.

Sharma said that the restructuring would affect several internal studios as well, including Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King, Mojang, and XBOX Game Studios. She emphasized the importance of Mojang (Minecraft) and King (Candy Crush) and added that they would now report directly to her as the two consistent cash cows of the company.

While many employees worry that their jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence, especially in the tech industry, Coleman addressed this issue head-on: “I also want to be direct that the roles eliminated today are not being replaced by AI. At the same time, what is true is that AI is changing how work gets done. Some of the tasks we do every day can now be automated, and that means we all need to keep learning, keep building new skills, and keep adapting as the work evolves.”

This announcement comes just months after Microsoft’s first-ever buyout program for retirement-age employees in the United States. Coleman’s announcement reported that 30% of eligible employees chose to participate in the program. In April, CNBC reported that there were roughly 125,000 U.S. Microsoft employees as of June 2025 and that about 7% of the workforce was eligible for this one-time program.

Assuming these figures are accurate, this program may have bought out up to around 2,600 more employees earlier this year.

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​Ai, Artificial intelligence, Ceo, Microsoft, Tech industry, Workers, Xbox, Politics 

A Democrat is facing fierce blowback for posting his support for the Mexican soccer team in the World Cup.

Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona (D) posted photos of himself and his wife in Mexican soccer jerseys along with hundreds of other fans watching the Mexico versus England match on Sunday.

‘You are a fcking disgrace to America.’

“Lots of people out in Tucson to watch Mexico take on England. Tucson and La Rosa sure know how to do the World Cup!” he wrote on the X social media platform.

Many critics responded that it was improper for a politician representing Americans to root for another nation’s team.

“It’s your country’s 250th birthday. Where’s your USA jersey?” said Tricia McLaughlin, the former spokesperson for Homeland Security.

“What a fcking clown. Move to Mexico, asshat,” said former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker.

“Mexico is a huge rival of United States in soccer. Everybody knows this,” read another response. “I don’t know who advised you to put on a Mexican jersey as an American politician but it’s a horrible look.”

“Mark, I say this with all due respect… You are a fcking disgrace to America,” said another detractor.

“You pandering c**t. You’re a US Senator, you can’t be seen wearing the national team jersey of any other country,” said another critic.

Less than two weeks earlier, Kelly basically characterized himself as a lukewarm soccer fan. “I’ll be honest, soccer was never really my thing. But the World Cup is converting me,” he posted on June 25, just before USA’s unsuccessful match against Turkey.

Other Democrats have also been heavily criticized for supporting teams other than Team USA in the World Cup.

RELATED: Dems hoping to blame Trump for World Cup failures forced to switch strategy after success

Kelly’s support didn’t appear to help the Mexican team. Mexico lost 3-2 and was knocked out of the competition by England.

The Democrat is considered one of many possible contenders for the Democratic 2028 presidential nomination, but polling shows he is far behind other candidates.

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​Democrats, Mexico, Sen mark kelly, Team usa, World cup, Politics 

The City of Newport Beach in Southern California said police made 402 arrests after “social media posts drew a large influx of juveniles and young adults to the Newport Pier area within a matter of minutes” on July 4.

Officials added that “as the crowd quickly grew into the thousands, dangerous and unlawful behavior escalated, blocking roadways, preventing emergency access and putting families, visitors and first responders at risk.”

‘I’ve lived here 54, 55 years, and I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s very sad.’

However, officials said “more than 350 officers responded quickly to restore order, reopen emergency access routes and protect the community.”

KTLA-TV reported that video of the chaos shows hundreds of people in a parking lot along West Balboa Boulevard — and that some were seen fist-fighting while others vandalized property and looted some local businesses, including a grocery store.

In a statement issued Sunday afternoon, Newport Beach officials said a “large group of unruly juveniles and young adults created dangerous conditions” on the Balboa Peninsula during Independence Day celebrations, KTLA noted.

More from the station:

City officials stated that tens of thousands of people were drawn to the community throughout the day, but things didn’t get out of hand until “late in the evening” when social media posts drew a large influx of people to the Newport Pier in a short amount of time.

That verified reports of previous social media posts advertising a “TikTok Takeover” in Newport Beach.

RELATED: Video: 2 female police officers assaulted, injured in July 4 mob attack; guns, spear recovered

“As the crowd rapidly grew, individuals engaged in increasingly dangerous and unlawful behavior, blocking roadways, restricting emergency vehicle access, and throwing explosive mortars, fireworks, and other projectiles at police officers, into densely packed crowds and near families with children,” the city’s statement reads, according to KTLA. “The sudden influx of thousands of people into a confined area within a short period of time created an immediate threat to public safety and required a coordinated regional law enforcement response.”

The gathering was eventually declared an unlawful assembly, and law enforcement worked to restore order, the station said.

One Newport Beach police officer was struck by a mortar, KTLA reported, adding that the officer was treated at the scene and released.

The 402 arrests made between midnight July 3 and 6 a.m. July 5 were more than six times the 60 arrests made during the same period last year, the station said.

Officials said approximately 200 of the arrests involved individuals who refused lawful dispersal orders, while those “responsible for inciting the crowd, engaging in violent, criminal behavior, and threatening public safety” also were taken into custody, KTLA reported.

RELATED: Bodycam video: Thug ambushes, repeatedly stabs Florida deputy. Sheriff’s office reveals what ultimately saved deputy’s life.

A longtime Newport Beach resident spoke to the station Monday morning and said the scene over the holiday weekend was unlike anything he’d experienced before.

“This year was the worst I’ve ever seen,” the resident, named John, told KTLA. “Last year was kind of a little crazy, but this year … was a riot. I’ve lived here 54, 55 years, and I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s very sad.”

“Come to the city, please. Come enjoy yourself. … It’s Fourth of July. … Greatest country in the world, right?” he added to the station. “Beautiful beach, the water’s warm, there’s a little bit of surf. … Why wouldn’t you come here? Please come, but please don’t do what you did [this year].”

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​Takeover, Newport beach, California, Police, July 4, Arrests, Vandalism, Fights, Looting, Crime 

The British public and the world at large have been provided with yet more evidence that the U.K. justice system holds whites — white men in particular — to a different standard than virtually every other group.

Damning footage shows a group of six black individuals hectoring a young white man on Broad Street in Birmingham, England, on June 21.

‘The police have lost the benefit of the doubt.’

As the voices grow louder, the individual focus of the mob’s rage — a 20-year-old white man who has been identified as Cody Harper — turns his head to address someone to his left, video shows.

Apparently seizing upon the distraction, a man from the mob dressed in a black jacket makes a cowardly attack from the right, knocking Harper to the ground. The victim of this sneak attack attempts to stand up, but a different coward rushes in, this time punching Harper in the back of the head.

Harper attempts once again to regain his footing — only to be tackled against a nearby wall by a female police officer who was apparently disinterested in the attackers now fleeing the scene.

Disoriented after having been thrown to the ground, then sucker-punched, Harper blindly throws a punch in self-defense — but succeeds only in brushing off the officer’s cap.

The female officer — who failed to identify herself as police — lunges for the Harper’s neck then proceeds to handcuff the victim.

After Harper points out both that “they’re tryin’ to smack me up” and that he was just trying to “go home,” the female officer appears to call him a “dick.”

RELATED: UK cop failures, Sikh killer’s lies in Henry Nowak case are EVEN WORSE than previously disclosed

“You’re under arrest for assault on police,” says the female officer, who — with another female police officer — proceeds to march Harper over to a police car. A male cop then shoves Harper into the police cruiser, and more female cops are later gathered in the area, video shows.

A witness off-camera explains to one of the officers: “Someone clotheslined him, then someone hit him from behind, and that’s when you went in. All I can say in his defense is he probably thought you were one of the attackers at that moment.”

The woman nods comprehendingly and replies, “Right. OK. So someone assaulted him first, right? OK.”

After the footage of this incident went viral online, Birmingham Police said in a July 2 statement, “We are aware of footage showing the arrest of a man after a disorder on Broad Street at 1.30am on 21 June. Officers found a group of men fighting. As the incident was dealt with, an officer was punched. One man was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer.”

In addition to characterizing a violent, seemingly unprovoked mob attack on a single individual as a “fight” and claiming their lady officer was in the right, Birmingham Police implored the public not to share video of the incident — just as police in Northern Ireland asked the public last month not to spread video evidence of a beheading attempt, allegedly by a Sudanese asylum-seeker.

“The incident has been reviewed, and we have no concerns over the officer’s actions and we are satisfied that they were reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances,” the police department said in its July 2 statement. “We would ask that footage is not further shared to allow the legal process to take its course.”

RELATED: ‘Symbol of a country adrift’: White French boy ‘lynched’ by pack of thugs who smiled while filming the murder

British police officers in Birmingham, England. PAUL ELLIS/AFP/Getty Images

The official response by police exacerbated the public outrage over the incident, including from lawmakers.

James McMurdock, a Reform UK member of Parliament, wrote, “I can’t let this go unchallenged. That young man was, in my opinion and based on the video below, the clear victim of an assault. The video shows, for reasons that are entirely beyond my comprehension, the officer steaming directly into the victim.”

“The officer made no effort to prevent the attack or apprehend the men who had just administered the violence. What I see in the video is the officer using speed and aggression at the moment of peak danger and confusion against the victim,” continued McMurdock. “The victim then controls himself the moment he realises it is now a police officer attacking him and not one of the multiple men who were attacking him a fraction of a second earlier.”

McMurdock said that Birmingham Police should drop the charges and put questions to the female officer about “why she went for the victim on the ground and not the attackers!”

Robert Jenrick, another member of Parliament for Reform UK, said that “it’s baffling that he was arrested while the two black men who attacked him weren’t.”

In addition to raising concern about “the clear unequal treatment” by the female officer, Jenrick took issue with Birmingham Police’s characterization of the attacks as a “fight.”

“This wouldn’t be a one off incident either. We saw two-tier policing by Hampshire Police when they came to the scene of Henry Nowak. We saw it for decades across the county with the Grooming Gangs that went unpunished,” wrote Jenrick. “The police have lost the benefit of the doubt in the eyes of many. They’ve had enough.”

After similar critiques, the Birmingham Police issued a revised statement on July 3, this time expressing interest in an “assault.” The revised statement refers to the arrest of a “20-year-old man,” presumably Harper, but does not suggest he is the victim of the assault.

‘Our commitment to racial equity means producing equality of policing outcomes.’

“We are carrying out an investigation to identify people involved in an assault in Birmingham city centre,” said Birmingham Police. “We are aware of footage on social media showing the incident before the man is arrested. Recognising that an assault has taken place, we are now carrying out active enquiries to identify those involved.”

Birmingham Police noted further that “although officers were in the area when this assault took place, they were involved in the arrest of another man at the time.”

Cody Harper is set to appear at Birmingham magistrates’ court on July 23.

This incident took place just weeks after Southampton police released bodycam footage showing their two-tiered approach to the scene of the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak.

After fatally stabbing Nowak in an unprovoked attack on Dec. 3, a knife-wielding Sikh named Vickrum Digwa told police that he was the victim of a racist attack.

When police from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary arrived on the scene, they reflexively adopted Digwa’s framing of events and treated Nowak as a racist and a criminal as the teen lay dying — handcuffing him and brushing off his repeated complaints about having been stabbed and being unable to breathe.

The officers instead took a sympathetic approach to Digwa, never once handcuffing him even after discovering Nowak’s stab wounds.

Officers’ approach to Nowak and Harper may be informed, in part, by the anti-racism guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, which explicitly calls for treating people differently on the basis of race:

Our commitment to racial equity means producing equality of policing outcomes for people from different ethnic groups by responding to individuals and communities according to their specific needs, circumstances, and experiences, with understanding that these will be racialised and with the aim of reducing harm. It does not mean treating everyone “the same” or being “colour blind” (racial equality).Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Racism, Anti-white, Dei, Equality, Henry nowak, Police, Bias, Politics 

A Google engineer named Justin Poehnelt went viral last week for a tweet that should embarrass everyone in Mountain View. Two months ago, he says, Google fired him for building the Google Workspace CLI, a command-line tool that hit #1 on Hacker News, racked up more than 25,000 GitHub stars, and pulled in thousands of real users in a matter of days. Two days before the company showed him the door, Google announced at its own Cloud Next conference that an official Workspace CLI was on the way.

Read that again. The man built the thing developers were begging for. Google’s response was to fire him and then ship its own version of his idea.

If you want to understand why a company that once defined the cutting edge now seems like a sleepy utility, this is the whole story in miniature.

What he actually built

Quick background for the non-nerds. A CLI, or command-line interface, is just a way to control software by typing commands instead of clicking around a screen. Poehnelt’s tool, gws, let you reach into Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and the rest of Google Workspace from the terminal. More importantly, it was built so that AI agents could do the same thing, with over 40 prebuilt “skills” an agent could call on its own.

These giant companies can coast on momentum for years.

The clever part: It didn’t ship with a fixed menu of commands. It read Google’s own published API directory at runtime and built itself on the fly. So the second Google adds a new capability, the tool already knows about it.

And here’s the part that matters for the “rogue employee” narrative people are pushing: This wasn’t some basement side project. Poehnelt spent nearly seven years at Google on the Workspace Developer Relations team. Building open-source tools on top of Google’s APIs is literally that team’s job. He wasn’t going around the company. He was doing the thing he was hired to do, and he did it better than anyone expected.

The official reason and the real one

So why fire him? The cover story is brand policy. The tool lived under Google’s googleworkspace GitHub account and wore Google’s logo and colors, which made it look like an official product when it technically wasn’t. Legal wanted to know who authorized that.

That’s a real concern, and to be fair to the suits, you can’t have employees slapping the corporate logo on unofficial software. There are liability questions. But a branding problem has an obvious fix that isn’t termination. You change the logo. You add a disclaimer. You move the repo. Companies issue “please update the README” requests a hundred times a day. Nobody loses their career over a color palette.

Poehnelt’s own read, in his own words, is more honest and more damning: “I think the cause was that Workspace and certain leaders (and projects) were afraid of being disrupted. But the fear wasn’t specific to my CLI, it was a broader fear in what agents meant for Workspace.”

There it is. The tool worked too well. It showed, in public, at millions of views, what an AI-agent future for Google Workspace could look like. Some product manager whose road map suddenly looked obsolete didn’t enjoy the spotlight. The man didn’t get fired for breaking a rule. He got fired for being right too early and too loudly.

The irony Google would rather you forget

Here’s the irony: Google exists because two grad students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, hacked together a search engine on Stanford’s network using the school’s resources, without anybody handing them a permission slip. The entire Silicon Valley story runs on exactly the kind of initiative Google just punished. How many startups began in a garage or dorm room?

The company that was built by people who shipped first and asked forgiveness later now fires the people who ship first and ask forgiveness later. It has become the bureaucracy its founders routed around.

RELATED: New lawsuit claims Ring’s smart doorbell spyware is taking photos of millions without their consent

EvgeniyShkolenko/Getty Images

That’s the mark of stagnation: an immune system so twitchy it attacks its own healthy cells, ensuring the safest move inside your company is to build nothing and stay invisible. The stock price doesn’t know it yet, but deep down, you do: You’ve already lost.

This isn’t a one-off

Poehnelt wasn’t the only one to walk. Addy Osmani left around the same time. He’s the longtime Googler who first posted the tool to the world back in March, a guy with 14 years at the company and a real reputation in web development. Poehnelt now calls that post “the tweet that got me fired.”

Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw, summed up the mood: “Google fired the guy that made the google workspace cli, because he made the google workspace cli.”

The people capable of building Google’s future increasingly have no reason to build it at Google. They can do it independently, keep the upside, and skip the legal interrogation about logo colors. Poehnelt is already off doing his own thing. The repo he built is still live. Google’s official version is still “coming.” Eventually.

These giant companies can coast on momentum for years. But the rot moves faster: In the small decisions, in the moment a company decides that the man who made something people love is a threat rather than an asset. You can’t buy that kind of initiative back once you have taught your best people that showing it gets them fired.

Google ain’t making more Larry Pages. It would do well to remember how, before it’s too late.

​Tech 

America is in a “living battle for sovereignty and independence,” warns Glenn Beck.

And the stakes are higher than ever. With the Supreme Court’s recent rulings expanding presidential authority over independent agencies while reinforcing core constitutional protections like warrants, the battle lines are now clearly drawn.

“The agencies and the global pressures constantly pushing for more control and nuanced compromises in our founding liberties — it’s got to stop,” Glenn declares.

“Independence was never meant to be negotiated down into something comfortable — never. Freedom is uncomfortable. Freedom was meant to be declared and defended without apology or amendment.”

Glenn recalls the letter John Adams penned on his deathbed to be read at America’s 50th Independence Day celebration. He wrote, “A memorable epoch in the annals of the human race, destined, in future history, to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or abuse of those political institutions by which they shall, in time to come, be shaped by the human mind.”

“It’s remarkable how the founders understood human nature and what could happen to the United States,” says Glenn.

Not even 100 years later, Woodrow Wilson — a president Glenn pulls no punches about hating — openly denounced the Declaration of Independence, criticizing people who he thought were stuck on the founding principles and resistant to embracing the “progressive” changes he wanted for America.

“[Wilson] completely inverts the Declaration. He says, ‘You don’t have inherent rights until government puts you in a position to claim them,”’ says Glenn. “That is the heart of the disease called progressivism, which is now known as democratic socialism.”

Unlike Wilson, who desperately wanted America to distance itself from the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln revered it as timeless and paramount.

“He wrote that these truths are ‘applicable to all men at all times … that today and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression,”’ Glenn quotes.

He warns, “We can’t assume that this radical idea of freedom will always be embraced by Americans, because we’re losing it now.”

“The fundamental principles of the Declaration are under attack from the left. They want you to forget about it, which makes it so important that you learn it.”

Glenn recalls an iconic John Adams moment from 1826. Shortly before his death, Adams requested that a toast be given in his honor on July 4. The words he wanted were simple: “Independence forever.”

When asked if he wanted to add anything else, Adams replied, “No, not a word.”

“That’s the spirit we need today,” says Glenn.

To hear more, watch the video above.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Woodrow wilson, Abraham lincoln, Declaration of independence, July 4, Independence day 

The onset of America’s 250th birthday should feel like a greater deal than it is.

It should be, in the words of John Adams, “solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

Despite this moment, when Americans are largely feeling down about themselves, the world lately has found itself quite impressed by America.

And yet 2026 has felt lethargic. America250 celebrations have mostly fallen under the radar or become subsumed into larger partisan divides. Even a local America250 lecture at my library devolved into a bully pulpit for a history professor to bark the “1619 Project” at a handful of seniors.

Reid my lips

If anything, there was active antagonism going into the weekend’s celebrations, with former MSNBC host Joy Reid sparking controversy on social media for dismissing the holiday as mournful and a mere “celebration of slave holders who freed themselves.” She continued, “Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice. I must mourn.”

This is even reflected in statistics. Recent YouGov polls have found that the percentage of people who “are proud to be an American” has dropped from 83% in 2024 to 70% last month. That number drops precipitously farther among Democrats (58%), Independents (59%), and those between the ages of 18 and 29 (56%). 40% of respondents say “America’s best days are in its past,” while 62% of Americans do not unconditionally support their country, noting severe “problems in your country” in need of solutions.

Certainly, the ongoing conflicts in Iran, Ukraine, Israel, and Minneapolis have put a damper on the public’s enthusiasm, but there is a creeping disdain at work as well. At a moment when Tucker Carlson, Hasan Piker, Nick Fuentes, and Zohran Mamdani alike have made startling gains attacking the heart of America’s institutional trust and credibility, those who are merely proud to be Americans may often feel alone or ashamed. Patriotism may feel hollow or alienating.

Horseshoe theory

There is a bipartisan consensus among the far right and far left that the status quo must be destroyed and replaced, whether that be by Marxist revolutionaries, white nationalists, or Catholic integralists. And despite their vast variety of opinions and backgrounds, they somehow all have an unhealthy relationship with Israel.

Despite this moment when Americans are largely feeling down about themselves, the world lately has found itself quite impressed by America. The past few weeks have been replete with hundreds of viral clips of World Cup fans flooding into cities like Dallas and Boston, discovering not only the incredible kindness of Americans, but the incredible achievement of the nation we have built. A generation of young people, raised on American movies and shows about how much America sucks, is now discovering that it is a bigger and more beautiful country than they were led to believe.

Americans often benefit from having their story told back to them by people outside America. Whether it is Tocqueville, Chesterton, Rand, Bono, or (God forbid) John Oliver, Americans often find their own story is best freshly told by outsiders or those who have lived outside it, usually because most of us have already forgotten it.

Captain Kirk

In his 1957 book “The American Cause,” the great conservative philosopher Russell Kirk lamented the strange discovery among postwar Americans that a generation of soldiers had just been sent overseas with a startling lack of knowledge about what they were even fighting for. Vichy French soldiers capturing American prisoners in North Africa were “astonished” by how “politically naive” the Americans were.

“For most Frenchmen are passionately interested in political notions; while most Americans … are not,” writes Kirk.

“One reason that the Americans … do not spend much time arguing over theories of politics is that for a very great while nearly all of us have been contented with our society and our form of government. We have not been revolutionaries since 1776 because we have felt that we have enjoyed as good a society as any people reasonably can hope for.”

Kirk warned that this remarkable sign of America’s success was also a danger. A generation freed from the burden of having to reinvent the world would create an ignorant and illiterate generation that lacked any ability to defend itself on first principles, thus making them weakened and vulnerable to all forms of subversion. Particularly in moments of change and confusion, this would create opportunities for anti-American ideologies to run rampant, to “give Americans a bad conscience, and to give the United States a bad reputation in the rest of the world.”

What really creates discontent in the modern age, as in all ages, is confusion and uncertainty. People turn to radical doctrines not necessarily when they are poor, but when they are emotionally and intellectually distraught. When faith in their world is shaken; when old rulers and old forms of government disappear; when profound economic changes alter their modes of livelihood; when the expectation of private and public changes becomes greater than the expectation of private and public continuity; when even the family seems imperiled; when people can no longer live as their ancestors lived before them, but wander bewildered in new ways — then the radical agitator, of one persuasion or another, has a fertile field to cultivate.

America as beacon

President Ronald Reagan famously said in his 1982 Memorial Day speech that America’s national anthem “ends with a question and a challenge. … Does that flag still wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” This is a question Americans must answer every generation, because, as he said in a later speech, “Freedom … is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.”

Is America still “a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home”? Will it remain that way? That remains to be seen. But as we find in the wisdom of George Washington, it will only be that way if we want it to be. As biographer James Thomas Flexner writes in his remarkable multi-volume work “Washington: The Indispensible Man,” Washington knew better in the Revolution than to approach the war as a battle of tactics and materials. He approached it rather as one of spirit and mind.

Washington was, indeed, so little the dedicated soldier that he never regarded fighting the enemy as the fundamental means by which the Revolutionary War would be won. He demonstrated again and again his conviction that the crucial battlefields were in the minds of individual Americans. If the majority decided that they would be better off under renewed submission to the Crown, all military efforts to defeat the British would be of as little avail as trying to stop a river that was perpetually flowing. But if the people became staunch supporters of American rights that they would hold steadfast through any emergency, the British might well march their military might into the ocean.

The war for the future of America is a battle over the hearts and minds of people, and if they freely choose to abdicate the American experiment upon the altar of despair and envy, that cannot be helped.

A meaningful effort

However, that does not mean that Americans who care about the fight for American republicanism can rest on their laurels. Nor can we give up hope and assume such an effort is pointless. We cannot take for granted that a generation that has learned most of its American history and civics from “Hamilton” is going to read the “Federalist Papers” and suddenly fall in love with classical liberalism, Judeo-Christian ethics, and the Electoral College.

A meaningful effort to fight the ongoing radicalism of our times is necessary. This necessitates new organizations, new methods, and a renewed effort to instill trust in a mainstream institutional culture that Americans have largely lost trust in. It means teaching people why they should trust their institutions, while institutions put in the effort to make themselves trustworthy. It means outlining the nature of ordered liberty and the free market at a moment when people are confused and scared. We cannot take any of our principals for granted. We must explain them all to people who are hearing them for the first time. And if you’re not sure how, Kirk’s “The American Cause” is a good place to start.

There is still plenty to love about America. It is still a great nation with a great effect on the world. More controversially, though, America is also a good nation. Sadly, Americans are terrible judges of our own character. Even if it takes soccer fans for us to recognize that, there is still hope for us.

​America at 250, Lifestyle, Culture 

Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael Pahira Jr. may have joined the ranks of Americans whose lives were tragically cut short by foreigners illegally present in the homeland.

Pahira — a 44-year-old native of Schuylkill County who enlisted in the Pennsylvania State Police in 2007, according to the PSP — was conducting an inspection on a tractor trailer he had pulled up onto the shoulder of Interstate 81 South near Ashland on July 1 when a second tractor trailer veered off the road in his direction.

‘Trooper Pahira was a hero, and his family, fellow troopers, and the public deserve answers.’

The incoming tractor trailer sideswiped the trooper’s cruiser, careened into the truck that Pahira was inspecting, then struck the trooper. According to the PSP, both trucks caught fire on impact.

Pahira’s body was found pinned beneath the bumper of the second tractor trailer, the Pottsville Republican Herald reported. Nearby construction workers ran toward the scene of the accident and pulled Pahira free from the flaming wreckage.

Pahira — who Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro revealed has in recent weeks been taking care of his cancer-afflicted mother — was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead 90 minutes later. The driver of the tractor trailer, 33-year-old Michael Bon, was also taken to a hospital, where he was treated for injuries.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Bon is an illegal alien from Haiti who initially entered the U.S. through Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in July 2024 under the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program.

RELATED: Rep. Raskin melts down after Republican gets real about Democrat policies that led to teen’s murder by illegal alien suspect

Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The DHS told the Boston Herald that Bon, who has been living in Brockton, Massachusetts, unsuccessfully filed an application in October 2024 for Temporary Protected Status — the very status the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the Trump administration to terminate late last month.

The DHS claimed that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services terminated Bon’s parole in June 2025, but the Haitian refused to leave and has remained in the country illegally ever since, the Herald reported.

Bon has been charged with felony vehicular homicide, felony vehicular aggravated assault, misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person and involuntary manslaughter, as well as various traffic offenses. The Haitian is presently being held in Schuylkill County Prison and is scheduled to appear in court again on July 16.

As of Monday afternoon, no attorney was listed for Bon on court documents.

In a statement on Sunday, the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association highlighted Bon’s illegal presence in the country at the time of the crash, noting, “This is not about politics. This is about right versus wrong. Trooper Pahira was a hero, and his family, fellow troopers, and the public deserve answers.”

“They need to know why the person accused of this senseless killing, who was in the United States illegally, had been granted a commercial driver’s license in Massachusetts,” the PSTA continued. “This individual should never have been driving such a dangerous vehicle on our highways. But he was, and now a good man is dead. Trooper Pahira should be alive today.”

In March 2025, the Haitian national reportedly obtained a non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. Bon applied to renew his CDL in February and was approved again, the MRMV confirmed to the Herald.

Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) stated, “We owe our law enforcement officers far better than this.”

Last week, Amelia Aubourg, a spokeswoman for the MRMV, attempted to assign blame for Bon’s licensing on the Trump administration, even though Massachusetts State Police are responsible for ensuring that such drivers are up to snuff in coordination with the state’s licensing authority, the Herald reported.

“The Non-Domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses program is a federal program,” Aubourg told the Herald. “This individual was ruled eligible based on the Trump administration database and allowed to drive by federal law and Trump administration policies.”

“The RMV relies on the federal SAVE database to determine whether someone is eligible to work in the United States. When Bon applied … in 2025 and 2026, he was listed by the federal government as eligible,” Aubourg added.

The Massachusetts State Police told Blaze News that its “role is limited to conducting the commercial skills test for the CDL program.”

Blaze News did not immediately receive comment from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The Trump administration issued a final rule on March 16 barring DACA recipients, asylum seekers, refugees, TPS holders, and other noncitizens from obtaining, renewing, upgrading, or transferring non-domiciled CDL licenses.

During a press conference last week, Gov. Shapiro asked “the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to pray for the Pahira family. To pray for his friends and neighbors. To pray for Troop L, where Mike served. And, of course, to pray for the entire Pennsylvania State Police family.”

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​Illegal alien, Semi-truck, Truck driver, Haiti, Crime, Commercial driver’s licenses, Politics 

Speaking from George Washington’s desk, New York City Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivered an address for America’s 250th birthday in which he criticized ICE, capitalism, and the United States more broadly.

Surrounded by a group of recently naturalized American citizens, Mamdani framed the U.S. as a “nation of contradictions.”

‘The truth, my friends, is that America is exceptional because here nothing is fixed into place.’

“We see the wealthiest country in the history of the world, one where children go to sleep hungry while the world’s first trillionaire hungers for more. We see monopolies that dominate every industry and oligarchs who buy elections,” he said in remarks released on July 3.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist, further critiqued American capitalism and overseas military action.

“We see a nation whose immense wealth has been built by those with calloused, dirt-streaked hands … and we see a nation that has allowed so much of that wealth to be held instead in the soft hands of a precious few.”

“I see America in a health insurance industry that exploits the sick … in corporate landlords for whom negligence is a business model … when we spend our tax dollars on bombs and bailouts, when we sell our elections to the highest bidder.”

The mayor also appeared to take a jab at President Trump, whom he has openly referred to as a fascist, saying, “Those ideals upon which our nation was built — they are strong enough to endure any authoritarian regime.”

Throughout the speech, Mamdani focused on America and New York City as a story of immigrants fleeing hardship in search of a better life.

“Despite laws enacted by the federal government to bar their entry, despite sweatshop fires that killed hundreds of women, despite riots aimed at their very existence, immigrants made homes here in New York City, and they helped to make New York City.”

Drawing from his personal experience of migrating from Uganda at age 7, Mamdani, who became a U.S. citizen in 2018 and holds dual U.S.-Ugandan citizenship, said, “From the air, we could make out the promise of America, the promise of the beautiful patriotic work of rendering America, year after year, a little more faithful to its founding ideals.”

RELATED: Mamdani seemingly begins his ‘defund the police’ reign by nixing officer increase

He then turned to ICE and criticized the deportation of illegal immigrants.

“We see masked agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans. … We see America each time neighbors link arms with neighbors, without asking how long they have lived here or what papers they have, as ICE invades our neighborhoods.”

Mamdani offered his interpretation of patriotism, a sentiment that currently sits at a historic low for the Democratic Party, according to a recent Gallup poll.

“There are some who respond to those who ask for more from America with a simple refrain. ‘Love it or leave it,’ they say. But patriotism has never been about pretending our nation is without flaws. … It is precisely because we love this nation that we will not leave it.”

He also addressed the concept of American exceptionalism.

“We are told that America is exceptional because we are richer, stronger, more powerful than everyone else. The truth, my friends, is that America is exceptional because here, nothing is fixed into place.”

Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for New York governor, blasted the mayor over his address.

“Mamdani’s 4th of July Address was a dark and vindictive appraisal of America’s past, present and future,” Blakeman said. “America is a beacon of freedom that has created more prosperity for everyday people than any other civilization in the history of the world. No wonder people from all over the world crave to come here. Mamdani is a dangerous subversive who must be stopped.”

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​Independence day, Mayor zohran mamdani, New york city, Politics 

A small city on the outskirts of Toronto has become an unlikely front line in the debate over free speech and government power — a debate increasingly familiar to Americans as well.

Pickering Councillor Lisa Robinson, one of Canada’s most controversial municipal politicians, is seeking the mayor’s office even as she faces fresh restrictions on her participation in council proceedings and yet another clash with the city’s integrity commissioner.

‘And it’s kind of like a group-think mentality over there.’

Robinson has become a cause célèbre among conservative and libertarian activists after repeated clashes over free speech, Pride displays, government transparency, and municipal governance. Her critics say she has harassed city employees and spread misinformation; her supporters say she is being punished for asking uncomfortable questions and refusing to conform.

Reagan inspiration

The latest dispute marks another chapter in a political battle that has already cost Robinson nearly two years of pay and raises a larger question: Are public institutions increasingly treating dissent on politically sensitive topics as misconduct rather than disagreement to be answered through debate?

Asked what motivates her, Robinson reaches for one of Ronald Reagan’s most famous observations.

“Well, you know, Ronald Reagan once said that government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem, and I can honestly now say that I agree with that statement 100%,” Robinson told Blaze Media.

“So I’m running for mayor to return City Hall back to the people. As you know, during my tenure [as] city councillor, I’ve witnessed so many things — I’ve witnessed firsthand extortion, corruption, lying, a [‘rules for thee but not for me’] attitude, a lot of wasteful spending [of] the taxpayers’ dollars.”

Outsider mentality

Robinson’s latest controversy stems from a YouTube video in which she questioned the narrative surrounding the alleged discovery of “mass graves” at the former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia. Robinson argued that politicians and media outlets transformed preliminary ground-penetrating radar findings into claims that hundreds of children’s remains had been discovered.

Her remarks prompted another complaint to the city’s integrity commissioner and renewed accusations that she was spreading misinformation and causing harm to indigenous communities. The dispute has become emblematic of a broader argument in Canada and the United States over where to draw the line between controversial political speech and conduct that public institutions deem harmful.

The controversy is only the latest in a long-running conflict between Robinson and Pickering’s political establishment.

She says she first encountered that establishment mentality when a senior municipal official advised her that she should stop thinking of herself as an outsider.

“With all due respect, Councillor Robinson, you are no longer an outsider looking in,” she recalls being told.

“That really stuck with me. I guess they just figured that I was going to just follow along with the status quo and just … go along with everything that they said, no questions asked.

“And it’s kind of like a group-think mentality over there, and the moment that you start asking questions, that you start going on your own … any time that you start to push back against the establishment, then you know you’re going to get the reception that I have received over the last four years of docking my pay.”

RELATED: Will Alberta leave Canada? Either way, Premier Danielle Smith is feeling the heat

NurPhoto/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The price of speech

Robinson says she has effectively gone nearly two years without receiving a salary from the city because of repeated suspensions.

Her vision for Pickering, she says, is straightforward.

“When I’m mayor, I want to create a utopia here: Stop the rising taxes, protect the people, protect their properties, [and] give children the ability to thrive here in Pickering.”

She says the city has allowed prime farmland to be gobbled up by “the greedy hands of developers” who have created a “senseless” urban sprawl.

“So it’s my whole entire campaign: I’m basically running to return City Hall to the people.”

Robinson says she once lost three months’ pay after suggesting she would use strong mayoral powers to overhaul City Hall.

“[I said] I would go into City Hall; I’d get rid of the [chief administrative officer], the city solicitor, and a bunch of the directors, because corruption does start at the top. I would tear it down, build it back up from the bottom, and give it back to the people. And I lost three months’ pay for that.”

The city sees the matter differently. An independent workplace investigation commissioned by Pickering concluded that Robinson’s statements and actions toward staff constituted workplace harassment and created a “poisoned work environment.” Robinson disputes those findings, saying she has never threatened city employees and that criticizing government decisions and public officials is not harassment but democratic accountability.

‘Standing my ground’

Despite the sanctions and controversies, Robinson says she has no regrets.

“I have done nothing illegal. All I have done is speak the truth and try to make people know what happens in your local politics.”

Asked what she considers her proudest accomplishment as a city councillor, despite often serving without pay, Robinson’s answer is simple.

“I guess it would have to be just standing my ground, staying with my morals and my integrity, fighting as hard as I can for the people. Even if I’m not successful, I know that I have done everything that I can thus far to help the people.”

Whether Robinson is ultimately viewed as a victim of institutional overreach or an elected official who repeatedly crossed the line, her battles with Pickering have turned one municipal council chamber into a test case for a question increasingly confronting democracies on both sides of the border: When does dissent become misconduct?

​Conservative activism, Pickering, Toronto, Free speech, Lisa robinson, Lifestyle, Politics, Letter from canada 

On Monday, in a Provo, Utah, courthouse, a preliminary hearing got under way for Tyler Robinson, who is accused of killing Charlie Kirk on the campus of Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025. Charlie Kirk’s YouTube channel is carrying the hearing live. You can watch via the video embed below:

Blaze News will have updates on the hearing.

Editor’s note: The image used is from a June 12, 2026, hearing in Utah.

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​Charlie kirk, Assasination, Politics, Tyler robinson 

Referee Raphael Claus has become the center of attention since issuing American player Folarin Balogun a pivotal red card last week.

However, this isn’t the first time the Brazilian referee has been the focus of controversy with a governing body.

‘Yes, I asked for a review by FIFA.’

The FIFA World Cup’s red card heard around the world, which landed Balogun a one-game suspension, came in the 64th minute of the U.S.’ 2-0 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday.

Even though FIFA lifted Balogun’s match ban on Sunday — after a call from President Trump — eyes have been fixated on Claus after details of a match-fixing scandal in his home country have re-emerged.

Claus, along with two other Brazilian referees, were called to testify before a 2024 Senate Parliamentary Inquiry Commission on the Manipulation of Games and Sports Betting in Brazil.

According to Brazilian outlet O Dia, Claus and fellow referee Daiane Caroline Muniz were asked to participate in secret sessions regarding particular games in the Brasileirão, the top Brazilian soccer league, where Claus refereed the game and Muniz was working on the video review team.

For both the 2022 and 2023 Brazilian Championships, the two were asked to provide clarification on their use of video review and “any possible influences on match results.”

The investigation included videos provided by Rio de Janeiro club Botafogo FR that purportedly showed unaired video footage that contradicted the decisions made by the referees.

That wasn’t the only accusation made in the report.

RELATED: Report: Trump personally involved in FIFA overturning USA player’s suspension

Eric Verhoeven/Soccrates/Getty Images

Another item that caught the attention of Brazilian soccer officials was the shocking number of games Claus and Muniz worked on together: 11. This was found to be unusual, as it greatly exceeded the typical limit for referees working together, which is a maximum of three, according to O Dia.

Botafogo also reportedly asked that Claus not be allowed to referee one of the team’s matches.

The Sporting News also reported that Claus has been accused of handing out “irregular red cards.”

At the same time, former referee Glauber do Amaral Cunha was pulled into the investigation over audio where he is allegedly heard complaining about not being able to manipulate a “smaller division” game.

In the end, Claus was found not guilty by the Brazilian Football Confederation and faced no charges. Per the New York Post, investigators found no direct evidence linking Claus to any schemes, and he was not punished.

Muniz is still listed on FIFA’s website as a referee and video match official, and Cunha retired before the investigation began.

The Trump call

Blaze News previously reported that President Trump may have placed a phone call to FIFA President Gianni Infantino to ask if FIFA’s governing body would review the red card. Blaze News has since independently verified that was indeed the case, with subsequent follow-ups revealing that the president was first notified of the incident by White House FIFA World Cup Task Force executive director Andrew Giuliani.

By Wednesday night, Politico reported, the White House put in motion its attempts to appeal Balogun’s suspension, and what followed has been described as four days of lobbying, legal maneuvering, and diplomacy.

Trump made the call on Thursday and, by his own admission, told the FIFA boss “that wasn’t a foul.”

Trump also said Claus is “a little bit suspect if you check his past” and “made a call that nobody could believe” last week.

“So yes, I asked for a review by FIFA,” Trump added.

Meanwhile, Giuliani focused on Claus and those same controversies from recent years. Senior government officials reportedly reviewed Claus’ story, making sure to evaluate every angle that they could use in their appeal.

By Sunday, FIFA had decided Balogun did not deserve a suspension, but rather a probationary period, although it did not publish a report on the decision reached by its 18-person disciplinary committee.

RELATED: Trump’s USA World Cup watch party a raucous hit on National Mall

The Post reported that Claus has given out just the one red card in 23 international matches and averages more than four yellow cards per match in Brazil.

Claus also refereed two matches at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar: England vs. Iran and Canada vs. Morocco.

FIFA and the Brazilian Football Confederation did not responded to requests for comment from Blaze News.

The United States and Belgium play at 8 p.m. ET on Monday at Lumen Field in Seattle.

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As the nation prepares for its 250th birthday, patriotism is down among the left — with some even saying that just waving the flag feels “MAGA.”

“This one feels different to many Americans,” Erin Burnett said in a CNN interview with Jon Meacham about the Fourth of July.

“There’s a new Gallup poll that saw that just 53% of Americans say they’re very or extremely proud to be American. Ten years ago, that same poll said the number was 81%,” Burnett continued.

“My jaw drops when I see that,” she added. “What do you see here? Is this really about Trump?”

“I hate to say it, but I think it is,” Meacham answered.

“It’s you guys,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says, shocked.

“I mean, what losers. What losers. If you would have asked me during the Obama years or the Joe Biden years, ‘Do you love this country?’ I’d be like, hell yes. And that is why I want better for it. The love for the country doesn’t leave,” she adds.

But CNN isn’t the only outlet denigrating America before its birthday.

“As nation turns 250, many Americans say the Stars and Stripes is now a red flag,” one NBC News headline reads, with the subhead below: “The American flag: To some, it’s Old Glory. To others, it’s a MAGA hat on a stick.”

The article spotlighted a man named Bruce Watson from Massachusetts, who said that while he was “very proud” of his American flag, he fears “his Stars and Stripes may now need an asterisk.”

“If we do fly the flag, we will also put out signs to make it clear that we are not MAGA,” he added.

“By the way, his stupid gay sign says, ‘Our home believes in kindness, hope, peace, justice, equality, science, respect, diversity, and love,’” Gonzales comments.

“Oh, that’s so cute. You know who’s not putting out that sign? Me. I want you to know I’m America first, and I want you to cry harder about it,” she adds.

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Americans all over the country celebrated the 250th anniversary with fireworks, barbecue, and friends and family. Still others celebrated by joining one of the most patriotic-looking events — which was joined by United States Marines.

On Sunday, the day after Independence Day, dozens of Marines joined hundreds of enthusiastic runners for a remarkably patriotic run in the heart of New York City.

‘It does not matter who gets in our way. We will tell them we love them, and we’ll keep it pushing anyways.’

Video from the run shows rows of uniformed Marines running through Central Park, followed closely by hundreds of proud Americans carrying American flags of various sizes.

The group that organized the run, Unify USA, is on a mission to run with the American flag in all 50 states, uniting the country “one step and one smile at a time.”

RELATED: What are the odds? America’s birthday is full of incredible coincidences

One of the co-founders, Teagan McCoy, spoke at the event, holding a large American flag as he addressed the enthusiastic crowd of runners in Central Park.

“We are out here to spread patriotic positivity!” he said. “I expect to lose my voice at every event because I’m so passionate about this.”

He added that it doesn’t matter which state anyone is in because there are patriots all over the country: “I don’t care where you’re at. There are Americans who care in this country, and we are here to exemplify that.”

Teagan’s brother and group co-founder, Koston McCoy, also addressed the crowd, emphasizing the message that Unify USA is seeking to promote:

Every single day we have to wake up and decide: Are we going to do what we have to do to unify America one step and smile at a time? Are we gonna continue to ignore that there’s division in this country? And are we gonna stand proud for the flag that we hold in our hands today — and not only for today, but for the weeks, months, years, and for the rest of our life say we are proud to be Americans?

“It does not matter who gets in our way. We will tell them we love them, and we’ll keep it pushing anyways.”

Unify USA started at the end of last year and has gained traction as the 50-state tour has progressed. Its six-pillar mission includes restoring patriotism in the communities they visit, leading more people to heaven, supporting our veterans, and giving back to others.

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