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A “despicable” homicide suspect was caught on bodycam video pointing a gun at a Florida deputy and pulling the trigger, the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.

Authorities said the Feb. 20 incident took place in Port Charlotte, which is about an hour southeast of Sarasota.

‘Let me be clear: This individual is lucky to be alive today.’

Deputies got word that two suspects from a Sarasota County burglary were driving through their jurisdiction in a rental car, officials said.

After observing a traffic violation, deputies stopped the car and made contact with the occupants, officials said.

The driver was identified as 41-year-old Amy Lee; the passenger refused to provide his identification, officials said.

At first, neither Lee nor the passenger complied with deputy commands to exit the vehicle, but officials said they soon obeyed when they were told they would be arrested for obstruction.

Officials learned that Lee was arrested last year on multiple felony charges and that her co-defendant in those cases was 55-year-old Brian Hewson. He turned out to be the passenger in the rental vehicle, and he also had multiple warrants for his arrest, officials said.

Hewson “immediately resisted” when deputies tried placing him under arrest, and a deputy drew his agency-issued taser while shouting a warning, officials said.

But Hewson pulled a concealed firearm, pointed it directly at the deputy, and pulled the trigger, officials said.

However, there was no round in the chamber of the loaded gun, officials said, and it didn’t fire.

With that, the deputy discharged additional taser probes — yet Hewson still tried to re-rack the gun, officials said.

“Thankfully, due to the neuromuscular incapacitation, Hewson was unable to maintain control of the gun, and it was secured by deputies,” officials said.

RELATED: Florida felon named Blackie accused of pointing gun at vehicle in fit of road rage

Officials said Hewson was arrested for multiple warrants — including one for homicide in Pennsylvania, one for failure to appear in Pennsylvania, and charges in Lee County related to trafficking stolen property.

He also was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer for intentionally pointing a firearm at a CCSO deputy, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a controlled substance (1.1 grams of fentanyl found in the vehicle), resisting with violence, and possession of drug paraphernalia, officials said.

He was being held at the Charlotte County Jail without bond, officials said.

RELATED: Knifed for ‘being a Christian’? Suspect allegedly stabs man and his dog after asking about victim’s religion

Brian Hewson. Image source: Charlotte County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office

“Let me be clear: This individual is lucky to be alive today,” Sheriff Bill Prummell said, adding that “I want to be sure it is understood that my deputies are trained to eliminate a lethal threat with deadly force. They deserve to go home to their families after their shift. This despicable human tried to take one of my deputies out instead of being a man and accepting accountability for his own decisions. Now he will face the justice he has tried to dodge for so long … and I hope he spends the rest of his days behind bars.”

The sheriff’s office added in its Facebook post about the incident that “as a point of clarification: We see a few people questioning why our deputy went taser instead of lethal. The answer to that is that he already had the taser in hand before the firearm was seen. Had our deputy attempted to switch from taser to firearm, he likely would have already been shot. The reaction, in the moment, is to use the taser that was already drawn and aimed to incapacitate the suspect. As you can see in the video, this happened VERY quickly.”

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​Crime thwarted, Florida, Homicide suspect, Charlotte county sheriff’s office, Deputy, Taser, Bodycam video, Port charlotte, Pennsylvania, Warrants, Crime 

As Operation Epic Fury enters its fourth day of attacks against Iran, Mike Huckabee, the United States ambassador to Israel, gave a message to Americans stranded in Israel, which is now enduring airstrikes from Iran.

On Tuesday morning, Huckabee released a video that was just under four minutes long with instructions for Americans on what to do amid the ongoing attacks.

‘The US embassy is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel.’

Huckabee gave an outline of the “fairly limited” options for Americans seeking to leave Israel.

“What we are recommending to all of our American citizens, including our own embassy staff, is follow the directions of Home Front Command, which are right now to shelter in place and to be close to a shelter at all times,” Huckabee said. “Follow the alerts. If you hear the siren, make sure you take cover. That’s the best thing you can do.”

RELATED: US service member death toll continues to rise amid Operation Epic Fury

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

The Home Front Command is an arm of the Israel Defense Forces responsible for search-and-rescue missions in Israel and around the world, according to the HCF website.

Huckabee stressed that all Americans in Israel and the surrounding area should sign up for the State Department’s STEP program, which communicates necessary updates to U.S. citizens.

The ambassador to Israel added one other option, though there are obvious risks and uncertainties involved with it as well: “In addition, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism is providing bus service from several locations — Herzliya, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem — to go to Taba, just across the border in Egypt, and from there, flights could be available from the Taba airport, though there are limited flights. But also ground transportation would be able to be obtained in Taba to go on to Cairo, where the airport is operating normally and efficiently.”

Ground transportation from Tel Aviv to Taba takes an estimated four hours of travel. It takes between six and 10 hours by bus from Taba to Cairo.

The U.S. embassy for Jerusalem echoed Huckabee’s instructions about finding an escape route while saying what Americans in the Middle East never wish to hear during an armed conflict in the region: “The U.S. embassy is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a similar message on Monday night encouraging Americans to sign up for the STEP program for up-to-date situation notifications. Rubio also announced that the State Department, immediately after Operation Epic Fury commenced, “activated a 24/7 task force, surging personnel and resources necessary to help provide American citizens with up-to-the-minute safety and security information.”

The State Department issued a “worldwide caution” warning on February 28.

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​Politics, Mike huckabee, Israel, United states, Iran, Middle east, Operation epic fury, Idf, Home front command, State department, Secretary of state, Marco rubio, Step program, Israel defense forces, Egypt, Cairo, Taba 

The Israeli military has carried out a strike on Iran’s Supreme Council during a meeting to select a new supreme leader, an Israeli official claims.

A senior Israeli official told Fox News that the attack happened on Tuesday “while they were counting the votes for the appointment of the supreme leader.” The strike reportedly took place in Tehran, where the regime’s remaining senior officials were gathered to determine who would replace the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who died in a strike over the weekend.

Israeli analysts estimate more than 1,000 enemy combatants have been killed inside Iran since the campaign began.

The bombing is one of the most direct blows yet against Iran’s political command structure as part of the joint U.S. and Israeli campaign now entering its fourth day. Since the launch of the coordinated operations targeting Iranian leadership and infrastructure, more than 40 of Iran’s top leaders, including Khamenei, have reportedly been killed, fracturing the regime’s chain of command.

Israeli analysts estimate more than 1,000 enemy combatants have been killed inside Iran since the campaign began.

RELATED: Iranian state TV hijacked with Trump, Netanyahu message urging citizens to ‘seize control’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has framed the broader operation as necessary to dismantle Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear capabilities, arguing the regime’s long-term objective threatens not only Israel but the West.

Vice President JD Vance says that the administration’s objective remains limited: Prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure it cannot rebuild that capability.

“There’s just no way that Donald Trump is going to allow this country to get into a multi-year conflict, with no clear end in sight and no clear objective,” Vance said, according to Fox News. “He’s defined that objective as Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and has to commit long-term to never trying to rebuild the nuclear capability.”

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​Politics, Israel, Bombs, Missiles, Iran 

Oil and gas prices spiked globally amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Americans aren’t immune, having to shell out significantly more at the pump.

Since Saturday morning, the U.S. and Israel have executed multiple waves of military strikes against Iran. The Shiite nation has, in turn, launched a series of attacks on American installations, personnel, and allies in the region.

‘We’ll likely see both of those rolling over $3/$4 respectively quite soon.’

Violence has spread to Bahrain, Cyprus, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Fighting is also heating up in southern Lebanon, where Israel has endeavored to seize more “strategic positions.”

Related attacks and threats of attacks have slowed and in some cases halted regional energy production and transportation, choking global supply.

Aramco ceased operations at Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil refinery on Monday following a nearby drone attack. Sources told Reuters that, as of Tuesday, the Saudi oil giant was working on rerouting some of its crude exports to the Red Sea to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, where several ships have been attacked in recent days.

Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil normally transits the Strait of Hormuz, a stretch of water between Oman and Iran that links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman. Shipping through the strait has, however, virtually stopped amid Iranian threats and attacks on vessels attempting to pass.

Ebrahim Jabari, a senior official with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, reportedly stated on Monday that “the strait (of Hormuz) is closed. If anyone tries to pass, the heroes of the Revolutionary Guards and the regular navy will set those ships ablaze.”

RELATED: Netanyahu denies forcing US into war after mixed messages from Rubio, Johnson

Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Citing a shortage of tankers, overloaded export terminals, and navigation disruptions resultant of the “closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” Iraqi authorities have announced major production reductions, reported OilPrice.com.

Following military attacks on two of its facilities, the world’s largest liquid natural gas producer, Qatar’s state-run QatarEnergy, also announced on Monday that it was halting LNG production, then revealed on Tuesday it was arresting the production of downstream products including urea, polymers, methanol, and aluminum.

In the wake of QatarEnergy’s initial announcement on Monday, benchmark British and Dutch wholesale gas prices reportedly spiked by nearly 50%, while benchmark Asian LNG prices shot up 39%.

As of Tuesday, Brent crude oil prices were reportedly climbing toward $84 a barrel — the highest level since July 2024.

JP Morgan analysts indicated a day earlier that “if vessel passage through the SoH [Strait of Hormuz] is restricted for 3 to 4 weeks,” Brent oil prices could exceed $100 per barrel, reported Yahoo! Finance.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at the price-tracking service GasBuddy, noted on Tuesday morning, “The most commonly encountered gas price today in the US is $2.99/gal, while the most common diesel price is $3.99/gal. We’ll likely see both of those rolling over $3/$4 respectively quite soon.”

“Based on the numbers at this moment (3/3/26, 945am ET), the average price of gasoline would likely climb to about $3.30-$3.35/gal in time,” added De Haan. “Any further changes in markets will change this, but if everything held still, that’s where we’d likely be. Diesel closer to $4.25-$4.45.”

The analyst indicated that the 12-cent rise is the “largest since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine boosted prices 15.0c/gal on 3/4/22.”

When asked about spiking oil prices on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters, “We knew that going in would be a factor. And so we have a program in place that will begin to be implemented by [Energy] Secretary [Chris] Wright, Secretary [Scott] Bessent.”

“We talked about it last night, again, about this program. We talked this morning,” continued Rubio. “And starting tomorrow, you will see us rolling out those phases to try to mitigate against that.”

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​Foreign entanglements, War, Oil, Gas, Energy, Iran, Arab, Emirates, Strait of hormuz, Cars, Affordability, Politics 

A company recently revealed its human-brain-cell-driven chatbot that it has taught to play video games.

However, even though the program runs on real human cells, it is still hallucinating answers.

‘It could be more able to use biological intelligence in a meaningful way.’

The company, Cortical Labs, shared a video recently that showed its brain-cell-operated large language model responding in real time to a user prompt. Return reported on the company last year for using brain cells grown on a silicon “chip” for an organic computer. The tech is referred to as synthetic biological intelligence, and the company now appears to have a room full of such computers.

“This is a whole new paradigm to how … the syntax of the LLM can be more like us,” a company rep said in the video.

Boasting about his brain-powered chatbot, the voiceover added, “It could be more able to use biological intelligence in a meaningful way to select the next token and to create better responses.”

This example immediately failed, though. When the user asked the program, “Tell me where you want to visit on vacation,” the bot cited a place that does not exist.

“The Great Barrinchi Cove in the Maldives,” it stated, before also suggesting “Tuscany, Italy, for its rolling hills, stunning views.”

Despite the complex technology, these types of “hallucinations” are common with AI chatbots and are a somewhat typical occurrence for any frequent chatbot user.

RELATED: Dystopia: World’s first ‘biological computer’ uses human brain cells that are ‘raised in a simulation’

In 2022, Cortical Labs said it had successfully taught 800,000 living brain cells to learn how to play the game Pong. The cells were linked to a computer to gradually learn to sense the position of the game’s ball and control the virtual paddle.

“If we allow these cells to know the outcome of their actions, will they actually be able to change in some sort of goal-directed way?” Chief Scientific Officer Brett Kagan asked at the time.

Since then, and after a bevy of requests, the company has advanced its model to play a more complex game: Doom.

The crude shooter game represents a 21-year jump in technological understanding for the program, given that Doom came out in 1993 and Pong in 1972.

RELATED: Trump fired Anthropic for being ‘leftwing nut jobs,’ but the company’s AI is conquering the internet

The recent demo also showed an incomplete answer provided by the chatbot when asked to explain the meaning of life.

It answered, “The meaning of life is a philosophical question that has been pondered by thinkers and scholars across various cultures and religions for centuries.”

It went on, “It explores the fundamental question of what purpose or ultimate meaning lies in human existence.”

“Different interpretations may vary widely,” it added before ending abruptly.

Cortical Labs has made its research publicly available, letting the viewer decide if the company is indeed creating science “for the greater good,” as it has stated.

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​Return, Ai, Chatbot, Human ai, Brain cells, Human brain, Gaming, Doom, Tech 

The SAVE America Act is a common-sense bill that would ensure American citizens would decide American elections by requiring voter ID and getting rid of mail-in ballots — which BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler could not be more on board with.

“It’s basically just elementary voter ID. This should have been passed weeks ago. Why hasn’t it been?” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler asks, before introducing the vice president of programs at the Conservative Policy Institute, Rachel Bovard.

“She knows what’s going on and who is to blame and what needs to happen to get the SAVE Act passed,” Wheeler says.

“It has passed out of the House — twice, actually. So what we’re dealing with: You have the SAVE Act, and then you have the SAVE America Act. And that is where we are now focusing, is the SAVE America Act,” Bovard explains.

“We had to do a second vehicle, because the SAVE Act passed out of the House in April. It went over to the Senate, where it was then referred to the Senate Rules Committee. And Mitch McConnell is the chair of the Senate Rules Committee and doesn’t like this bill,” she says.

“I don’t know why. Inexplicably. He’s never spoken on it. He doesn’t like it,” she adds.

That’s when House and Senate conservatives, working together on the issue, tweaked the bill to reintroduce it as the SAVE America Act.

“They sent it over to the Senate, and they did something very strategic this time around. They packaged it in such a way, in what we call a message. So they sent it over to the Senate as a message. Meaning, normally, to get on a bill in the Senate, you have to overcome a filibuster. When you have a message, it’s privileged. You don’t. So you can get onto the bill, bypassing the filibuster altogether,” Bovard tells Wheeler.

“And the second thing that was so brilliant about what they did was when it comes over as a message, it doesn’t get referred to committee. It sits at the desk, where it is just now waiting for Majority Leader John Thune to call it up. Now, will it be subject to a filibuster then? I assume it will,” she says, pointing out that there are two ways to break a filibuster.

“The one everyone’s very familiar with is invoking cloture, which is 60 votes. But the other way is through physical exhaustion, which is the old-fashioned way, which is making senators stand and speak until they physically cannot do so any longer and then putting the question,” she continues.

“So instead of having to break through 60 votes, you break through physical exhaustion, and then in both cases, once you’ve broken the filibuster, the bill passes a simple majority,” she says. “So that is where things stand right now.”

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​Video phone, Upload, Sharing, Camera phone, Video, Free, Youtube.com, The liz wheeler show, Liz wheeler, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze original, Blaze originals, Rachel bovard, The save america act, The save act, Mitch mconnell, House, Senate, Illegal immigration, Voter ids, Voter id 

Former President Bill Clinton testified under oath that President Donald Trump never indicated any improper involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, according to video released Monday by the House Oversight Committee.

In a 4.5-hour deposition Friday in Chappaqua, New York, as part of the committee’s Epstein probe, Clinton went out of his way to defend Trump. Despite no “follow-up question” compelling him to do so, Clinton interrupted the proceedings to note that he did not want to “leave the impression” that Trump ever mentioned to him any involvement “in anything improper with regard to Epstein.”

Clinton then recalled a conversation with Trump from around 2002 or 2003 at a charity golf tournament at “his golf course” when Trump mentioned his past association with Epstein.

‘I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.’

Clinton said Trump told him about Epstein: “You know, we had some great times together over the years, but we fell out all because of a real estate deal.”

“The president never … said anything to me to make me think he was involved with anything improper with regards to Epstein either, he just didn’t,” Clinton stated.

He later emphasized, “I have no information that he did anything wrong.”

RELATED: Iranian state TV hijacked with Trump, Netanyahu message urging citizens to ‘seize control’

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

About his own associations with Epstein, Clinton declared in his opening statement: “I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.” He emphasized he had “no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing” and saw no signs of abuse.

The committee released videos of both Bill Clinton’s and Hillary Clinton’s depositions on Monday.

Republicans highlighted Clinton’s comments on Trump, with Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) calling it an exoneration. Democrats have pushed for Trump to testify as well.

Neither the Clintons nor Trump have been formally accused of wrongdoing in Epstein’s crimes.

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​Politics, Trump, Epstein, Bill clinton, Upload, Video, Free, Sharing, Camera phone, Video phone, Youtube.com 

A 46-year-old female forced her way into an Iowa home over the weekend and attacked the homeowner, police said. But the homeowner was armed with a gun and used it to shut down the attack.

Des Moines police were called just before 11 p.m. Saturday to a residence in the 1500 block of Guthrie Avenue in the Union Park neighborhood after a 911 caller said an intruder was attacking the homeowner, KCCI-TV reported.

Investigators told KCCI the homeowner reported hearing someone yelling in the back yard — and then someone banging on the back door.

While officers were on their way to the home, the caller told dispatchers the intruder had been shot, the station said.

When officers arrived, they found Stannita Wilson inside the home with multiple gunshot wounds, KCCI said.

Officers provided first aid until Des Moines Fire Department rescue personnel arrived and transported Wilson to MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center for treatment, the station said.

Investigators told KCCI the homeowner reported hearing someone yelling in the back yard — and then someone banging on the back door.

When the homeowner unlocked the door, Wilson allegedly forced her way inside and began assaulting the resident, the station said.

But the homeowner was armed with a handgun and shot Wilson during the incident, police told KCCI.

RELATED: ‘Anyone who breaks into someone’s home should expect to get shot’: Gun-toting Florida homeowner takes care of business

Wilson’s injuries were described as minor, the station said.

After she was treated and released from the hospital, KCCI reported that Wilson was charged with second-degree burglary, a Class C felony.

Police added to the station that Wilson was not known to the homeowner — and as of Sunday, no charges had been filed against the homeowner.

Radio Iowa indicated that the homeowner is a male.

The incident remains under investigation, KCCI said.

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​2nd amend., Guns, Gun rights, Forced entry, Homeowner shoots intruder, Home invasion, Iowa, Des moines, Self-defense, Arrest, Crime 

Since the start of the attacks on Iran on Saturday, the United States and Israel have hit Iranian military capabilities hard. However, those attacks have also come at a steep cost for the United States as Iran retaliates against the joint strikes.

U.S. Central Command published a heartbreaking update to the number of U.S. service members killed since the war began.

‘Major combat operations continue.’

On Monday afternoon, CENTCOM wrote: “As of 4 pm ET, March 2, six U.S. service members have been killed in action. U.S. forces recently recovered the remains of two previously unaccounted for service members from a facility that was struck during Iran’s initial attacks in the region.”

“Major combat operations continue. The identities of the fallen are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin notification,” the post added.

RELATED: Netanyahu denies forcing US into war after mixed messages from Rubio, Johnson

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

CBS News reported that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed that an incoming munition hit a tactical operations center in Kuwait, resulting in U.S. fatalities.

CENTCOM reported on Sunday that three service members had died. The number rose to four by Monday morning as another service member “succumbed to their injuries.”

The identities of the service members have not been made public.

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Voters in three states head to the polls on Tuesday, March 3, in the first major test of whether the America First movement will dominate the 2026 midterms, as several prominent Republican incumbents face key primary challenges.

‘I just haven’t made a decision on that race yet.’

Texas

The highest-profile race Tuesday is arguably the Senate primary matchup between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Rep. Wesley Hunt, and several other Republican candidates.

It is the most costly Senate primary race in history, with over $122 million spent. Cornyn, who was first elected in 2002, accounts for over 57% of total spending, with $69 million in ad buying by his campaign and outside groups. Total ad buy in support of Hunt is $12 million; for Paxton, $4.1 million.

Paxton has accused Cornyn of betraying Trump and the America First movement.

“I’m running to beat Fake Republican John Cornyn. The race is a DEAD HEAT,” Paxton said on Monday as part of an effort to encourage his conservative supporters to contribute to his campaign.

Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images

Cornyn warned Texans not to vote for Paxton.

“Ken Paxton will be the kiss of death for Republicans on the ticket in November of 2026,” Cornyn said in February.

“I think the attorney general, if he’s the nominee, could very well lose the seat,” he continued. “But if he doesn’t lose the seat, he’s not going to win except by the hair of his chin. And unfortunately, that will not help the down-ballot races.”

President Donald Trump has not endorsed any candidates in the Texas Senate GOP primary race.

“I just haven’t made a decision on that race yet,” Trump told reporters in February.

“I like all three of them,” Trump said, referring to Cornyn, Paxton, and Hunt. “Actually, I like all three. Those are the toughest races. They’ve all supported me. They’re all good, and you’re supposed to pick one, so we’ll see what happens.”

Also seeking to take over Cornyn’s seat, on the Democrat side, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett is facing off against state Rep. James Talarico. Total ad spending in support of Crockett reaches roughly $4.5 million, with $20.8 million for Talarico.

A poll from the University of Texas at Tyler showed Crockett, who received an endorsement from former Vice President Kamala Harris last week, with a double-digit lead over Talarico.

“Heading into Election Day, especially with multiple polls showing me ahead,” Crockett told her supporters, “I want you to be ready to tune out the noise, the falsehoods, and the onslaught of attacks from D.C. insiders, the Epstein class, and all those who benefit from the status quo.”

RELATED: Cardi B and Kamala Harris endorse Jasmine Crockett for pivotal US Senate race in Texas: ‘Okurrr’

Jasmine Crockett. Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images

With Paxton running in the Senate election, multiple Republicans have thrown their hats into the ring to become the state’s next attorney general, including Rep. Chip Roy, attorney Aaron Reitz, and state Senators Mayes Middleton and Joan Huffman.

Texas voters will also select their nominee in the gubernatorial primary election, with the general election scheduled for November 3. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is seeking a fourth term and faces several challengers.

There are also 38 U.S. congressional seats in Texas up for grabs in Tuesday’s election.

Incumbent Rep. Tony Gonzales is up for re-election amid a political crisis over a scandal involving a former staffer who died by suicide. Gonzales is set to have a rematch against Brandon Herrera, a firearms influencer who nearly beat Gonzales in a 2024 runoff.

Tony Gonzales. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

Incumbent Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R), elected to the House in 2018, is the only Texas Republican incumbent who has not received Trump’s endorsement this election cycle. He is facing competition from three Republican candidates: attorney Martin Etwop, Army veteran Nicholas Plumb, and state Rep. Steve Toth.

Polling in Texas opens at 7:00 a.m. and closes at 7:00 p.m local time. Voting in the Republican or Democrat primary does not require party affiliation. However, voters who choose to participate in one party’s primary will be affiliated with that party for the rest of 2026. This affiliation will prevent those voters from casting ballots in the other party’s runoff election.

If no candidate secures more than 50% of the primary vote, the top two candidates will advance to a runoff election on May 26.

North Carolina

In June, Sen. Thom Tillis (R) announced his retirement, prompting a dozen candidates, including six Republicans and six Democrats, to run for his seat. Former Republican Party Chair Michael Whatley, who secured Trump’s endorsement, is the most prominent name on the GOP side. Former Gov. Roy Cooper is leading the Democrat primary election.

Donald Trump and Michael Whatley. Photographer: Cornell Watson/Bloomberg/Getty Images

North Carolina voters will also cast their ballots to select 14 candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. local time. The state holds partially closed elections, in which voters can select only their party’s ballots. Unaffiliated voters may choose a Republican or Democratic ballot, but they cannot vote in more than one primary.

In North Carolina, a runoff election is triggered when the second-place candidate requests it, but this applies only in primaries where the first-place candidate receives 30% or less of the vote. The state’s potential runoffs would be held on May 12.

Arkansas

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) is up for re-election. While she is running unopposed in the Republican primary, Democrats have a contested primary on Tuesday to choose who will face Sanders. Democrats will decide between state Sen. Fredrick Love and businesswoman Supha Xayprasith-Mays. Libertarian Party candidate Colt Shelby will be on the ballot in the general election on November 3.

Incumbent Sen. Tom Cotton (R), who took office in 2015, is competing to retain his seat against two Republican candidates: Pastor Micah Ashby and Arkansas State Police Trooper Jeb Little.

RELATED: 3 contentious Texas primaries that hang in the balance

Tom Cotton. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

All of Arkansas’ four U.S. House districts are holding primary elections on Tuesday.

Arkansas’ polling sites will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. local time. The state conducts open primaries, allowing voters to select either a Republican or Democratic ballot at the polls without registering with the chosen party.

The state’s runoff elections are triggered if no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote. These runoff elections would be held on March 31.

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​News, Donald trump, Trump, John cornyn, Cornyn, Ken paxton, Paxton, Wesley hunt, Texas, Jasmine crockett, James talarico, Chip roy, Aaron reitz, Mayes middleton, Joan huffman, Greg abbott, Tony gonzales, Brandon herrera, Dan crenshaw, Martin etwop, Nicholas plumb, Steve toth, North carolina, Michael whatley, Thom tillis, Roy cooper, Sarah huckabee sanders, Fredrick love, Supha xayprasith-mays, Colt shelby, Tom cotton, Micah ashby, Jeb little, Primary election, Arkansas, Primary elections, Politics 

Over the weekend, the United States and Israel launched joint military strikes on Iran, targeting its leadership, nuclear facilities, ballistic missile sites, and military infrastructure, and ignited an ongoing war, sparking Iranian retaliatory attacks across the region.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn Beck and his chief researcher, Jason Buttrill, break down the most important events, the intelligence behind the operation, the scale of military buildup leading up to the strike, and what could come next.

Turning to the standout moment of the strikes, Glenn emphasizes the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: “We knew exactly where this guy was … and we gave the information to Israel and said, ‘You want to go get that guy? Go get that guy,’ and they bombed precision, and it was remarkable what happened,” he says.

Although celebrations of Khamenei’s death as a potential step toward liberation are widespread among some Iranians and Iranian-Americans, they are deeply tempered by the devastating strike on a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran that killed over 150 people, predominantly young female students and staff.

The Iranian regime state media has framed the incident as a deliberate, blatant crime by the U.S. and Israel, but Glenn isn’t buying that narrative.

“Our military does not have evil in their hearts. We are not targeting schools. This is war,” he says, noting that sadly, “accidents do happen.”

President Trump, he says, “knows how to carry a very big stick,” and these military strikes on Iran are not only about toppling the regime and preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons; they’re also about sending a clear message to the world: “Don’t ever mess with them.”

“That’s how you keep the peace,” says Glenn.

Jason then displays a chart illustrating the massive scale of military firepower deployed in this operation.

“It is significant — more than we’ve seen in a very, very long time,” he says, calling the air and naval power involved “absolutely insane.”

Even though there have been no reports of special forces on the ground in Iran, Glenn speculates that it’s highly likely U.S. teams are operating there covertly.

“Anybody says we won’t have anybody on the ground … I find that highly unlikely because if there is nuclear material, we are going to have to get it out … to secure the nuclear facilities,” he explains.

“We saw this the last time when Israel and the United States struck the nuclear targets a few months ago. They had Israeli special forces on the ground picking targets out. I would assume there’s something similar to that,” adds Jason.

“There’s also the idea of what happens to a lot of these radicals as they try to flee out of the area. My guess is they’re probably gonna go to Iraq,” he continues.

Glenn acknowledges that “Iraq could become the next Iran” but emphasizes that we need time to observe the fallout from this military operation.

“Anybody who was definitively saying, ‘this is the greatest thing ever,’ or definitively saying, ‘this is the worst thing ever’ — they’re fools. Do not listen to them,” he urges. “This could be really, really good. This could be really, really bad.”

“What you have to ask is: Do you trust the person who is in command of this?”

To hear more of Glenn and Jason’s analysis, watch the video above.

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In his Monday appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the latest U.S.-Israeli military operation against Iran and denied the dominant interpretation of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s and House Speaker Mike Johnson’s recent remarks about the genesis of the attacks.

Compelled to act?

The Trump administration attempted on Monday to address the mounting confusion about the justification and objectives for the Iran strikes.

‘We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces.’

As part of this broader effort, Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill, “Why now? The first is it was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone, the United States or Israel or anyone, they were going to respond and respond against the United States.”

“The assessment that was made that if we stood and waited for that attack to come first before we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties,” said Rubio.

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher [than] those killed,” continued the secretary. “And then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn’t act.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), a member of the Gang of Eight who was briefed ahead of the resumption of strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, echoed Rubio, suggesting to reporters that the strikes were a “defensive measure.”

“Israel was determined to act in their own defense here with or without American support,” said Johnson, suggesting further that Iran posed an “existential threat” to Israel, and its missile production was outstripping “our allies in the region.”

RELATED: Iranian state TV hijacked with Trump, Netanyahu message urging citizens to ‘seize control’

Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images

“Because Israel was determined to act with or without the U.S., our commander in chief and the administration and the officials I just named had a very difficult decision to make,” continued Johnson. “They had to evaluate the threats to the U.S. — to our troops, to our installations, to our assets in the region and beyond — and they determined because of the exquisite intelligence that we had that if Israel fired upon Iran and took action against Iran to take out the missiles, then they would have immediately retaliated against U.S. personnel and assets.”

The suggestion that probable blowback from an ally’s planned preemptive attack on another country forced America’s involvement in a deadly conflict prompted outrage and debate — even on the right.

Conservative commentator Matt Walsh, for instance, said in response to Rubio’s statement, “So he’s flat out telling us that we’re in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand. This is basically the worst possible thing he could have said.”

RELATED: Poll: GOP voters’ lukewarm support for Iran strikes significantly lower than past conflicts

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

On the flip side, National Review editor Philip Klein suggested that critics had misconstrued Rubio’s meaning.

Klein noted that later in Rubio’s press conference, the secretary of state said that the U.S. was not forced to strike because of an impending Israeli action and that “this operation needed to happen because Iran in about a year or a year and a half would cross the line of immunity, meaning they would have so many short-range missiles, so many drones, that no one could do anything about it because they could hold the whole world hostage.”

‘Nobody drags Donald Trump into anything.’

Democrats such as Sen. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), and former Biden White House Domestic Policy Council Director Neera Tanden made hay of Rubio’s and/or Johnson’s remarks as did Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who stated, “Mr. Rubio admitted what we all knew: U.S. has entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel. There was never any so-called Iranian ‘threat.’ Shedding of both American and Iranian blood is thus on Israel Firsters.”

The outrage over the suggestion that America’s hand was forced not by an enemy but by a friend appears to have prompted a response from President Donald Trump, who noted on Monday evening,

The Radical Left Democrats, a Party that has completely lost its way, are complaining bitterly about the very necessary and important attack, by the United States and Israel, on Iran. What most people understand is that they are only complaining BECAUSE I DID IT and, if I didn’t do it, they would be screaming — Why didn’t “TRUMP” attack Iran, he should do it, IMMEDIATELY?

Trump then urged his followers to watch Netanyahu’s interview on Fox News, where Hannity asked the Israeli prime minister about the forced-to-act claim.

“There are people that say, ‘Well, the prime minister of Israel dragged Donald Trump into it,'” said Hannity. “As somebody that’s been friends with him over 30 years, nobody drags Donald Trump into anything, number one, but I want to get your reaction to that.”

Netanyahu laughed, then said, “Well, you’re right. I mean that’s — that’s ridiculous. Donald Trump is the strongest leader in the world. He does what he thinks is right for America. He does also what he thinks is right for future generations, and frankly, we’re partners in that effort.”

The Israeli leader suggested that it was necessary to strike because Iran “started building new sites, new places, underground bunkers that would make their ballistic missile program and their atomic bomb programs immune within months. If no action was taken now, no action could be taken in the future.”

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​Iran, Iran strikes, Foreign entanglement, Intervention, War, Missiles, Tehran, Khamenei, Donald trump, Marco rubio, Johnson, Mike johnson, Congress, Gang of eight, Benjamin netanyahu, Netanyahu, Israel, Tel aviv, Politics 

A training manual for federal judges just ditched its biased chapter on climate change. Good. But the same manual still peddles quackery about how science works — and it risks teaching the judiciary to treat models and “consensus” as proof.

The “How Science Works” chapter in the “Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence” invites judges to overvalue computer models built on unproven assumptions and to accept “consensus” as evidence even when empirical testing cuts the other way. That is not science. It is a distortion of the scientific method, which demands observation, experimentation, and results that can be challenged and falsified in the real world.

This is the posture of pseudoscience: conclusions protected by authority and repetition rather than disciplined testing against reality.

The problem runs deeper than emphasis. In defining hypothesis, theory, and scientific law, the writers omit testing, observation, and experimentation. They also fail to acknowledge that all three can be disproven — even though demonstrating falseness has long been central to scientific progress. Science advances not by protecting favored conclusions but by trying — relentlessly — to break them.

The chapter even claims that science cannot “disprove hypotheses.” That is historically indefensible. Science has disproven hypotheses repeatedly, and entire revolutions have turned on that process.

Geocentrism gave way to Copernicus’ heliocentric model. Phrenology, eugenics, spontaneous generation, and miasma theory all enjoyed “consensus” before evidence refuted them. Alfred Wegener’s plate tectonics also met decades of rejection before the evidence won. Consensus delayed the truth. It did not deliver it.

The chapter also stumbles over prediction. It says prediction is a logical consequence of a hypothesis, “not necessarily what will happen in the future.” That drains prediction of its most important feature: testable claims about what should occur under specified conditions. A hypothesis can be tested against the past as well, but the logic stays the same — it must match reality.

Then the chapter offers reassurance that reveals the posture: “The fact that there is room for improvement in the process of science does not necessitate distrust of hypotheses that have gained widespread acceptance in the scientific community and about which consensus has been achieved.” In practice, that treats consensus as a shield against contrary evidence — a common ploy among climate alarmists.

RELATED: Win for kids! Major surgeon group reverses course, comes out against child genital mutilation

Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/Boston Globe via Getty Images

In places, the chapter contradicts itself, sometimes gesturing at rigor, elsewhere diminishing falsification and redefining key terms. The result is confusion. Its length and muddled definitions do not clarify how science works; they blur it. Worse, they introduce judges to wrongheaded practices — overuse of models and consensus — as if they can settle disputed scientific questions.

That is not the empirical tradition of Isaac Newton or Marie Curie. It is the posture of pseudoscience: conclusions protected by authority and repetition rather than disciplined testing against reality.

U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg removed the manual’s climate chapter after objections from state attorneys general and others. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine still hosts the manual — including “How Science Works” — on its website.

Rosenberg, as head of the Federal Judicial Center, should take the next step and remove this chapter as well. Federal judges and the public they serve deserve a guide to science that prizes evidence over consensus and observation over simulation.

​Courts, Science, Climate, Climate agenda, History, Scientific method, Opinion & analysis, Climate change, Junk science, Pseudoscience, Federal judicial center, Federal courts, Reference manual on scientific evidence, Alfred wegener, Plate tectonics, Robin rosenberg 

Three young teenage boys have been charged as adults for a heinous crime that has horrified the community in Miami, Florida.

A 12-year-old girl said she left a friend’s home on June 18, 2025, when she was allegedly accosted by three boys.

‘I don’t care if they get 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, 100 years. … I’m gonna always feel like it’s not enough.’

A 13-year-old boy dragged her to the Green Haven Project community garden in Overtown, according to police.

Two other boys, ages 12 and 14 years old, allegedly restrained the victim while the 13-year-old sexually battered her. A fourth person witnessed the incident, according to police.

One of the boys allegedly put rocks in her mouth to keep her from screaming. The children released her after hearing her father calling for his daughter, but the arrest report said the abuse lasted for about 30 minutes.

Police said they interviewed the witness, whose account corroborated the claims made by the victim. The witness said he did not intervene “because he was outnumbered and was afraid of getting beat up.”

The three boys were initially arrested after the incident, but on Thursday the two younger suspects were booked into the Metro West Detention Center on adult charges. The older boy, who has since turned 15, is also facing adult charges.

Fifteen-year-old Xavier Tyson has been charged with sexual battery, false imprisonment, and lewd and lascivious conduct with a child. Thirteen-year-old Nelson Nunez has been charged with sexual battery on a minor by a minor and kidnapping, while 12-year-old Jusiah Jones has been charged with aggravated battery and false imprisonment.

Attorneys for Jones and Nunez said they pleaded not guilty and argued that they should not be held in adult jail.

RELATED: Former reality TV star accused of horrific sex crimes pleads not guilty — by reason of insanity

The victim’s mother, who wants to remain anonymous, is demanding justice for her child.

“I don’t care if they get 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, 100 years. … I’m gonna always feel like it’s not enough,” she said in an interview with WPLG-TV.

She also thanked the witness for coming forward.

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​Teens rape 13-year-old girl, Miami teen rape, Nunez jones tyson rape, Children rape child, Crime 

The appeal to pity is the modern left’s favorite fallacy.

In logic, it is called argumentum ad misericordiam. Instead of showing that a policy is just or true, the speaker points to suffering and insists compassion requires agreement. It works because it weaponizes one of the strongest moral instincts in the American people: mercy.

Deep empathy does not sneer at suffering. It refuses to treat feeling as the foundation of ethics.

The person making the appeal to pity is not merely expressing concern. He is using your compassion to secure special treatment, expanded power, or ideological conformity. And because America remains culturally shaped by Christianity — a faith that commands love of neighbor — the tactic often succeeds.

Allie Beth Stuckey and Joe Rigney have warned about what they call the weaponization of empathy. Empathy, properly understood, is the act of feeling the pain of another. It differs from sympathy, which acknowledges suffering without necessarily taking it on. Empathy attempts to enter another person’s emotional state.

But empathy rests on feeling, and feelings fluctuate. They can be misinformed. They can be manipulated. They can even be built on fiction.

Yet in the modern West, empathy has increasingly become a substitute for ethics. Moral reasoning gets reduced to a simple script: Identify the oppressed, feel their pain, then reorder society accordingly. The equation becomes: Empathy plus an oppression narrative equals moral righteousness.

This framework now gets handed to American students as a moral catechism. Under Marxist-inflected professors, they learn to “problematize” and “deconstruct” Western institutions, to “decolonize” structures of power — all in the name of empathy. The moral energy driving the project does not come from reasoned argument about justice or human nature. It comes from cultivated emotional identification with those cast as victims of “systemic oppression.”

Question this framework, and you run into another trick: the motte-and-bailey.

The motte-and-bailey fallacy works like this: Someone advances a controversial claim (the bailey). When challenged, he retreats to a safer, more defensible position (the motte). When the pressure eases, he returns to the controversial claim.

You see it constantly. A progressive activist claims America’s land ownership is illegitimate because it rests on historic injustice. Challenge that sweeping conclusion — raise questions about legal continuity, generational distance, competing claims of sovereignty — and the response shifts: “Why do you not care about the suffering of indigenous peoples?”

RELATED: My school’s AI challenge raised a scary question: What do students need me for?

Andrei Apoev / Getty Images

That maneuver does not answer the question. It changes the subject. It turns a dispute about political legitimacy into a moral indictment: You lack empathy.

Under this logic, questioning policy becomes questioning compassion. Questioning compassion becomes moral failure.

Elon Musk recently offered a useful distinction: superficial empathy versus deep empathy. Whatever one thinks of Musk, the distinction clarifies the problem.

Superficial empathy reacts to appearances. Someone suffers, so someone else must be guilty. Someone lacks wealth, so the wealthy must have acquired it unjustly. Someone feels distress, so society must immediately reorganize itself to relieve that distress.

Superficial empathy has no patience for causes. It wants to relieve visible pain fast, typically by redistributing power. It externalizes blame and treats suffering as primarily the product of oppressive structures. Push back and you become the villain — a heartless person unmoved by human pain.

Deep empathy asks a harder question: What is truly good for a human being?

It recognizes that not all suffering comes from injustice. It acknowledges suffering can arise from folly, moral disorder, and the limits of living in a fallen world. It understands immediate relief is not always ultimate good. Tears do not decide what is right.

Deep empathy does not sneer at suffering. It refuses to treat feeling as the foundation of ethics.

Ethics cannot rest on the shifting landscape of emotion. It must rest on something objective and enduring. For Christians, that foundation is the law of God — the revealed moral order that defines justice, righteousness, and human flourishing. Love of neighbor is not a free-floating sentiment. God’s commands give it shape.

RELATED: Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘philosophy’ wasn’t deep — it was dirty

Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images

The Marxist professor tells students that love of neighbor means feeling empathy for economic deprivation. Biblical love makes heavier demands. It cares for the body, yes, but also for the soul. It refuses to affirm what destroys a person morally or spiritually, even if such affirmation might reduce discomfort in the short term.

Superficial empathy says: Remove suffering at all costs. Deep empathy says: Pursue the true good of the person, even when that path requires discomfort, responsibility, or repentance.

The irony is that the left’s empathy-driven politics often produce policies that entrench dependency, dissolve personal responsibility, and weaken the institutions — family, church, community — that sustain long-term human flourishing. It feels compassionate in the moment. It proves destructive in the end.

America does not need less compassion. It needs a deeper understanding of it.

The question is not whether we feel. The question is whether our feelings answer to truth.

Empathy can be a virtue. But it can become a dangerous master.

When compassion detaches from objective moral order, it becomes an easy tool for anyone seeking power. When appeals to pity replace rational debate about justice, a free people grows vulnerable to emotional coercion.

If we want to preserve liberty and genuine love of neighbor, we must recover a moral framework deeper than sentiment — one rooted in enduring truth.

​Empathy, Toxic empathy, Christians, Love of neighbor, Moral order, Opinion & analysis, Leftism, Leftists, Mercy, Compassion, Weakness, Pain, Emotions, Allie beth stuckey, Joe rigney, Motte-and-bailey, Caring 

Following the Department of Justice’s third and largest Epstein file dump, Bill Gates admitted to having two affairs — one with a Russian bridge player and another with a Russian nuclear physicist.

These confessions might land the tech billionaire in hotter water than the kind that results from typical cheating scandals, Glenn Beck says.

“This is not about infidelity,” he says, but rather about a potential “honeypot operation.”

Gates’ unfaithfulness is neither a “private” nor a “personal” matter, Glenn says, because the bridge player, Mila Antonova, whom Gates admitted to having an affair with, “was financially assisted by Jeffrey Epstein after Epstein had already been convicted of sex crimes.”

“According to the DOJ released emails, Epstein attempted to use that relationship to pressure Bill Gates. That’s not gossip. That’s leverage,” he explains.

But there’s another layer that paints an even more compelling picture: “Antonova, the Russian bridge player, she was photographed with Anna Chapman,” who was “part of a Russian spy ring that was rolled up by the FBI in 2010,” Glenn says, adding that Chapman is “the daughter of a former KGB officer [and] deported intelligence asset.”

The suggestion that these two women are “hanging out” sounds both “dangerous and strategic,” he argues.

“Because Bill Gates is not just one of the wealthiest men in the world. His foundation influences global health policy. … His technology platforms, even worse, are embedded in our government systems. He has real relationships tied to military and federal contracts,” Glenn declares. “He’s not a private citizen. He is a national security interest and risk.”

He then paints a hypothetical but chilling picture: “A wealthy American titan in a compromising relationship with a foreign national, facilitated or financially entangled by a convicted blackmailer with global connections.”

He asks pointedly: “If you were running an intelligence service in Russia, what would you call that? I would call that a honeypot operation.”

“If you were looking for leverage over someone with global vaccine influence, agricultural control, networks, data, infrastructure access, advisory roles across all kinds of administrations (his systems are tied into our Pentagon and everything else), you don’t need proof of wrongdoing. You’d only need the threat of exposure,” he adds.

“This is the convergence of Russian nationals, Epstein leverage attempts, … known intelligence-linked figures, government and military influence, and financial entanglement. That’s a very wicked brew.”

While none of this suggests that Gates is guilty of “espionage” or was “knowingly part a foreign plot,” it does suggest something else, Glenn says: “He was in the position where someone could apply pressure.”

Given Gates’ connections to government, military, the Pentagon, and AI development, the mere possibility that he was susceptible to foreign manipulation could be cause for prosecution, Glenn suggests.

Since similar scandals have already rocked powerful people in Europe and elsewhere, he wonders if accountability is finally “coming home to America,” where thus far, no elites have faced criminal charges or prosecution for ties to Epstein.

Will Gates be the first?

To hear more of Glenn’s analysis, watch the video above.

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The daily news cycle around President Trump moves at a pace that buries accomplishments most presidents would tout for weeks. Several developments in late February fit that pattern. The headlines fixated on Iran, but other wins piled up in the background.

On February 22, CNBC reported that the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 5.99%, its lowest level since 2022. A year earlier, the rate sat at 6.89%. That drop matters because mortgage rates drive affordability. When rates fall, more families can buy a home, refinance, or move without swallowing a punishing monthly payment. Home ownership still anchors the American dream for millions of households, and lower rates expand access.

In Trump Time, one week can carry the weight of a season.

The news barely lingered there.

Last week, Trump delivered his State of the Union address and used it to draw a bright line between two governing priorities. He framed the choice in plain language: “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” Republicans applauded. Democrats looked unsure how to respond, caught between the demands of their activist base and the public’s expectation that government first serve citizens.

A CNN poll afterward reported that 54% of respondents supported the president’s priorities and 64% reacted positively to the address. Trump notched another measurable win in a week already packed with news.

On Thursday, another development landed. Netflix dropped its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. That retreat looked like a setback for a streaming giant that critics often associate with a “woke” programming agenda. It also reopened the field for Paramount and Skydance to pursue a deal involving Warner Bros. Discovery.

If corporate maneuvering eventually places CNN under new ownership more sympathetic to Trump, the political and media implications could prove significant. Even the possibility signals a shift in leverage and influence.

RELATED: CNN’s biggest nightmare is one step closer to finally coming true

Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Democrats, meanwhile, appeared to watch one of their own tactics rebound.

For years, many on the left and in legacy media downplayed Jeffrey Epstein’s world, treated the story as politically inconvenient, or framed it as tabloid excess. When Democrats and their allies tried to turn Epstein-related scrutiny into a weapon against Trump, the blowback reached prominent Democrats as well.

Reports circulated about possible testimony and renewed scrutiny for figures long treated as untouchable. Bill Clinton again faced questions about his proximity to Epstein and Epstein’s network. And, once again, the former president insisted: “I know what I did and, more importantly, what I didn’t do. I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.”

Then Iran swallowed the rest of the news.

As reports surfaced about a rare gathering of Iran’s senior leadership, Trump authorized a combined strike with Israel that killed more than 40 prominent Iranian figures. Iran has served as a major sponsor of terrorism for decades and has threatened the United States and Israel openly, with chants of “Death to America” and repeated vows to destroy Israel. The regime’s proxies and partners have fueled violence across the region and beyond.

RELATED: Iran, China, and Trump’s ‘art of the squeal’

Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images

Trump framed the strikes as a turning point and spoke directly to the Iranian people afterward. He argued that past presidents refused to do what he did and urged Iranians to seize the moment. His message carried a theme he returns to often: American strength, applied decisively, can change the calculus abroad and open space for change at home in hostile regimes.

Democrats struggled to land on a coherent response. Many want to condemn the Iranian regime. Many also want to attack Trump for acting against it. That tension keeps surfacing in real time, especially when Trump moves quickly and forces the opposition to choose between moral clarity and partisan reflex.

Trump’s week ended with a dramatic shift in the U.S. posture toward Iran and the broader Middle East. At the same time, the mortgage story, the polling bump, and the corporate shake-ups showed how much else moved beneath the Iran headlines.

In Trump Time, one week can carry the weight of a season.

​State of the union, Warner bros, Iran, Democrats, Epstein, Mortgage rates, Affordability, Netflix, Israel, Terrorism, Opinion & analysis, War, Regime change, Donald trump, Media bias, Cnn 

The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily handed California a major loss related to the liberal state’s scheme to advance the transgender agenda in public schools.

In a 6-3 ruling on Monday, the court reinstated a lower court order that blocked the California notification policies after the Thomas More Society filed a lawsuit at the behest of a group of Catholic parents.

‘California built a wall of secrecy between parents and their own children, and the Supreme Court just tore it down.’

California state law prohibits rules requiring teachers and other school officials to notify parents if their children change their personal pronouns or gender expression at school.

The Thomas More Society issued a statement praising the temporary ruling.

“The Court found that California’s secret transition regime likely violates parents’ rights under both the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the statement reads.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta argued in favor of the California policies in 2023.

“By enacting policies that forcibly out students against their own wishes, school districts violate these fundamental protections and risk breaching their obligation to serve these and all students equally,” he wrote.

“Research shows that protecting a transgender student’s ability to make choices about how and when to inform others is critical to their well-being,” reads a statement from Bonta’s office, “as transgender students are exposed to high levels of harassment and mistreatment at school and in their communities when those environments are not supportive of their gender identity.”

RELATED: Two trans-identifying men file lawsuit against ‘dehumanizing’ Kansas law that invalidated their driver’s licenses

“No more can bureaucrats secretly facilitate a child’s gender transition while shutting out parents,” said Thomas More Society Executive Vice President Peter Breen.

“California built a wall of secrecy between parents and their own children, and the Supreme Court just tore it down,” he added. “This groundbreaking ruling will protect parents’ rights to raise their children as they see fit for years to come.”

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The Pentagon said that Iran is getting pummeled by suicide drones using technology that Iran itself developed and used against U.S. allies, including Ukraine.

The U.S. attacked leaders and commanders of the Iranian regime in a joint operation with Israeli forces beginning Saturday morning. President Donald Trump said Monday that the operation was planned to last four weeks but that the military was prepared to continue “for as long as necessary.”

‘These low-cost drones, modeled after Iran’s Shahed drones, are now delivering American-made retribution.’

“CENTCOM’s Task Force Scorpion Strike — for the first time in history — is using one-way attack drones in combat during Operation Epic Fury. These low-cost drones, modeled after Iran’s Shahed drones, are now delivering American-made retribution,” reads a statement from U.S. Central Command.

The LUCAS drone was developed by Arizona-based SpektreWorks and costs about $35,000 each, which is significantly less than other options.

The use of the Iranian Shahed suicide drones by Russia against Ukraine is one of the many reasons Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy endorsed the U.S.-led strike against Iran.

He also warned that the U.S. must act decisively against Iran or risk depleting military supplies.

“It is fair to give the Iranian people a chance to rid themselves of a terrorist regime and to guarantee security for all nations that have suffered from terror originating in Iran,” Zelenskyy said.

“It is important to prevent the war from expanding. It is important that the United States is acting decisively,” he added.

RELATED: Poll: GOP voters’ lukewarm support for Iran strikes significantly lower than past conflicts

Zelenskyy said Russia fired over 57,000 Shahed-style drones into Ukraine.

Trump also refused to rule out the possibility of U.S. troops on the ground in Iran.

“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” the president said.

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While a viral video of Kash Patel putting a call from President Trump on speaker in the locker room after the U.S. men’s hockey team’s historic win at the Olympics had Americans everywhere proud and celebrating, some Americans took it a little differently.

Former U.S. women’s soccer player Megan Rapinoe criticized the idea of teams engaging with the president, suggesting that she never would have allowed him or Patel into a locker room during her leadership tenure.

“I can’t believe … how people have such a, like, a lack of self-preservation. But if you don’t think you’re in threat, then you’re not going to preserve. So they obviously didn’t think that having Kash Patel or having Trump on the phone was a threat, so they’re cool with it,” Rapinoe said on “A Touch More with Sue Bird & Megan Rapinoe.”

“But that’s why you don’t put yourself in this position, because to have the president of the United States on the phone … you get yourself wrapped in this moment. So, for me, the choice point is, like, I would have never, as a captain or a leader on my team … I think that would have been clear to our staffs and to the larger organization and, like, support staff, those people would never been allowed in our locker room,” she continued.

“When did we divide the country so bad that we don’t even have the American backing — the support of America — to go to the Oval Office or to the president of the United States? I don’t remember any sports team denying —because of policy — going to the White House for America,” Coach J.B. tells Whitlock.

“Now, it’s because they hate this man so badly that they’ll put that over America. It blows my mind. I’m so shocked. I don’t hate nothing, Jason,” he adds.

“She might be the captain,” Steve Kim chimes in. “Who the hell made her the boss?”

“I don’t think Kash Patel or Donald Trump would want to come into that locker room. I don’t think they would watch your games. I don’t think they care enough. Let’s have some perspective. I think they care about certain sports or certain teams. Yours ain’t one of them,” he adds.

Whitlock isn’t impressed either.

“It’s so childish,” he tells J.B and Kim.

“It’s the president of the United States,” he adds.

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