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Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) threw gasoline on an already sensitive fire for Democrats and said that his party has no real leadership.

Fetterman is among the few Democrats who support Operation Epic Fury, a joint U.S.-Israeli military operation in Iran that has seen weeks of bombing and conflict.

‘I think the TDS — I think that’s the leader right now.’

During the episode of the “All-In Podcast” released Wednesday, Fetterman was discussing his popularity among Republican voters when he was asked to identify the leader of the modern Democratic Party.

“Oh, we don’t have one,” Fetterman told host David Friedberg.

“I think the TDS — I think that’s the leader right now,” he said, referring to Trump derangement syndrome, which typically refers to an inability to see any positives in what President Trump does.

Fetterman continued, “You know, right now our party is governed by the TDS. And now it’s made it virtually impossible, without being punished as a Democrat, to agree something’s good or [say] ‘I agree with the other side.'”

RELATED: Only one Democrat joins GOP as Senate rejects effort to halt Trump’s Iran strikes

The Pennsylvania senator then directly cited his support for the Iranian operation, saying he thinks it is “entirely appropriate” to hold the now-former Iranian regime “accountable.”

“What’s strange to me [is] that every single Democrat that’s run for president and anyone that I know in Congress says we must never allow them to acquire a nuclear bomb. When that happens, why not celebrate that or acknowledge that? … Like, yeah, you don’t have to agree on every single thing, but when a good thing happens, just because it comes from the different party — that tells me that you’re choosing the demand of the base or the party over country or what’s really, I think, appropriate, in that circumstance.”

Fetterman, 56, said that his party has become so inflexible that “you are not allowed” to show solidarity with Israel but that “it’s not a big deal if you have a Nazi tattoo on your chest.”

The senator was likely referring to Graham Platner, a Democrat Senate candidate from Maine, who allegedly has a Nazi SS tattoo. Platner previously said he did not realize the tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol and that he planned to have it “removed.”

“You have people in my party now who are trying to normalize that or to excuse that. I mean, that’s kind of where we are,” Fetterman added.

RELATED: Will Republicans fight for the SAVE Act — or fold again?

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

During the interview, Fetterman said he was not sure whether he is more popular with Republicans than Democrats, but suggested that if he is, it is because he does not label “MAGA” enthusiasts with pejoratives.

“They’re not Nazis. They’re not fascists. They’re not trying to destroy our country.”

According to Psychology Today, the term “Trump derangement syndrome” originates from late psychiatrist turned political commentator Charles Krauthammer, who is cited for coining the phrase “Bush derangement syndrome” in 2003, in reference to President George W. Bush.

Although Krauthammer was reportedly a harsh critic of Trump, he still defined TDS as a Trump-induced “general hysteria” that produces an “inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology” in Trump’s behavior.

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​News, Fetterman, Senate, Democrats, Republicans, Tds, Trump derangement syndrome, Iran, Politics 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation remains a crime scene.

Recent reporting by John Solomon and Jerry Dunleavy adds more evidence that a once-vaunted law enforcement agency was used for overtly political purposes for nearly a decade, starting in 2016. Documents and interviews cited by Just the News describe four consecutive code-named countersurveillance operations that cast a dragnet around President Trump and his supporters.

The time for mean tweets and angry letters is over. If the republic matters, fundamental reform must happen now.

The files for these operations — Crossfire Hurricane, Round River, Plasmic Echo, and Arctic Frost — were reportedly tucked into “prohibited access” files, shielding them from routine disclosure and keeping them under the control of senior FBI leadership and those who knew where to look.

This reporting reopens a question Washington keeps trying to close: What does real FBI reform look like?

We are not dealing with a handful of discreet scandals. We are dealing with a pattern that was enabled by a systemically broken and corrupted agency. A scalpel won’t fix it. Only a sledgehammer will do — followed by a rebuild.

The fork in the road

The road to FBI reform is long, and the last year has been bumpy — with more than a few premature victory laps. This moment offers an opportunity to get the agenda back on track.

The fork in the road is simple: Continue with a piecemeal approach — or revive the demand for total accountability, not only for individuals but for the institution itself.

Yes, good people work there. That’s not the issue. The problem lies in the parts of the bureau most capable of using FBI authorities for political ends — federal public corruption, counterintelligence, and domestic terrorism — where ideological activism too often becomes a job requirement.

A decade-long pattern

Over the last 10 years, the FBI has engaged in an unbroken series of ideologically driven investigations targeting conservatives. That includes scorched-earth investigations of President Trump on the thinnest of pretexts — while, at the same time, the bureau appeared to show far less urgency toward well-documented questions involving the Biden family’s foreign-influence and money-trail allegations, including reports of millions of dollars routed to multiple Biden family members through a network of 20 shell companies.

The bureau also deviated from law, policy, and investigative procedure in ways that protected Hillary Clinton from the full consequences of her misconduct, while applying a very different standard to President Trump and those around him.

Worse, recent reporting suggests a sweeping, coordinated effort — more reminiscent of the old East German Stasi than a constitutional law enforcement agency — to suppress politically damaging evidence under laughable pretexts.

RELATED: The next big Supreme Court shift might not be abortion or guns

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Far beyond a single case

The pattern extends well beyond these investigations.

The FBI interfered in elections on a scale Americans had never seen.The bureau helped censor First Amendment-protected speech at industrial scale.FBI directors and senior officials routinely misled Congress.The FBI stonewalled congressional oversight demands.The bureau smeared peaceful dissenting groups — including faithful Catholics — as potential domestic extremists, as if disagreement with progressive orthodoxies amounts to a predisposition to violence.The FBI routinely slow-walked or obstructed transparency obligations, including FOIA-driven document production.The bureau benefited from a stable of media stenographers at legacy outlets whose livelihoods depend on illegal leaks and unchallenged talking points that reliably advance the same ideological narratives.The FBI abused its authority in ways that look less like policing and more like intimidation: targeting families, punishing speech, and applying radically different enforcement standards depending on the target’s politics.

The FBI cannot fix itself

The FBI has not meaningfully corrected itself after repeated exposures. In case after case, the bureau offers the same ritual: Mistakes were made; things are not as bad as they look; reforms are under way; no one should worry. Then nothing changes.

One recent example says it all: A deputy assistant director of counterintelligence had the audacity to advise Congress that she had not read — or even been briefed on — the Durham report’s findings. That posture is not reform. It is contempt.

As of today, FBI senior leadership includes people who participated in these abuses or watched them unfold and did nothing. How many are now subverting efforts to expose the truth by slow-walking document production, limiting evidence releases, and dribbling out incomplete records?

The time for mean tweets and angry letters is over. If the republic matters, fundamental reform must happen now.

Start with the sacred cow

The first step is taking on the FBI’s most protected function: counterintelligence.

Israel’s Shin Bet and Britain’s MI5 offer an important contrast. Their governments separate intelligence collection from law enforcement power. Those agencies gather intelligence. They do not carry routine arrest and prosecution authority. That structural separation limits the risk of domestic spying on political dissidents and helps prevent the rise of an unaccountable secret-police state.

The FBI has repeatedly proven itself incapable of maintaining that boundary. It has refused congressional oversight, abused its powers, and used intelligence authorities to subvert a duly elected president. That cannot continue.

Reform means separating intelligence collection from domestic law enforcement. Strip the FBI of its counterintelligence function and reassign it to an intelligence agency that lacks routine police powers and is subject to tighter controls.

RELATED: Trump promised ‘retribution.’ Congress keeps funding the machine.

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Reform that imposes consequences

This step should set the tone for what follows.

There must be prosecutions for civil rights violations committed under color of law. There must be large-scale reassignments for those involved — not only the shot-callers but the enabling middle management that kept the machinery running.

Transparency and oversight need a full overhaul. Selective briefings to a handful of congressional offices have become a substitute for systemic reform. That approach has trained the public to tune out. People can’t absorb yet another “shocking” revelation that produces nothing but hearings and headlines.

Instead, the government should dump documents directly to the public — at scale — so that independent investigators can mine them. What a few gatekeepers do now should be done by many. The oversight and FOIA machinery is broken by design, and bureaucrats use delay as a veto.

One example should alarm every American: the FBI’s cozy relationship with Netflix. If the country’s dominant cultural propaganda machine coordinated with federal law enforcement, the public has a right to know. Those documents should not be trapped in the decaying Hoover Building.

This won’t be easy. It was never supposed to be.

The first year has been rocky. Now comes the test: whether the people in charge will rediscover the courage to destroy what is broken — before it can be turned back against Americans again.

​Fbi, Netflix, Fbi reform, Arctic frost, Hillary clinton, Donald trump, First amendment, Intelligence networks, Opinion & analysis, Kash patel, J edgar hoover building, Weaponized justice 

A six-time convicted felon “with a history of scams” allegedly intimidated and stole cash from an 82-year-old woman amid a home repair swindle last month, CWB Chicago reported.

Sonny Miller, 32, and two other males arrived Feb. 2 at a home in the 5400 block of South Drexel on Chicago’s south side in a white pickup truck, the outlet said, citing a detention filing.

Prosecutors said Miller had more than $2,000 on him when he was arrested, the outlet reported.

Miller allegedly approached the victim’s daughter as she was walking into the home and told her he had performed roofing work on the home a decade earlier and was there to do additional work on the basement, CWB Chicago said.

The daughter walked Miller inside to speak with her mother, who requires a cane to stand and walk, the outlet said.

Miller allegedly told the daughter to boil some water as he would need it to mix concrete, CWB Chicago reported.

Prosecutors said when the daughter left the room, Miller told her elderly mother the basement work would cost $200 — and that if she refused to pay, she would face steep fines, a police visit, and a financial lien placed on her home, the outlet noted.

At that time, the two males who had arrived at the home with Miller were outside applying unnecessary concrete to the basement’s exterior, CWB Chicago said, citing the detention filing.

More from the outlet:

When the phony work was done, Miller went to collect payment. The elderly woman grabbed an envelope containing cash, which Miller allegedly snatched from her hand, then ran out the door and fled in the pickup with the other two men. The woman, the filing noted, “was not able to put up much of a resistance.”

The victim and her daughter called Chicago police, estimating that $900 had been taken. Responding officers collected a laminated solicitation flyer Miller had left behind, along with video footage gathered from neighbors, according to prosecutors. One video captured the truck’s license plate and images of the men.

Detectives circulated a bulletin to cops throughout the area, and Skokie police responded with information. Des Plaines police later spotted the truck when it triggered a license plate reader in their jurisdiction. Officers stopped the vehicle and detained its occupants.

CWB Chicago, citing the detention filing, said one of the males in the truck — identified as Miller’s cousin — admitted to performing the fake concrete work outside the victim’s home and allegedly identified Miller as the one who spoke to the elderly woman in her home.

Prosecutors said Miller had more than $2,000 on him when he was arrested, the outlet reported. Miller denied ever being at the woman’s home, CWB Chicago added.

Judge James Murphy III — who described Miller as a six-time convicted felon “with a history of scams” — ordered Miller detained, the outlet said.

Miller is charged with robbery of a victim older than 60, robbery, and aggravated home fraud by deception of a victim older than 60, CWB Chicago said.

Cook County Jail records on Thursday indicate Miller is behind bars on no bond; his next court date is scheduled for May 6.

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​Repeat offender, Chicago, Arrested, Jailed, Robbery charges, Robbery of a victim older than 60, Aggravated home fraud by deception of a victim older than 60, Swindle, Elderly victim, Scam, Crime 

Biden administration officials and so-called experts characterized COVID-19 vaccines as “safe and effective” during the pandemic. In the face of an avalanche of tragic evidence to the contrary, the powers that be waged costly and unsuccessful propaganda and censorship campaigns to cure Americans’ skepticism.

Although the Trump administration has alternatively acknowledged the risks and fallout associated with the vaccines — the Food and Drug Administration admitting, for instance, that the vaccines killed numerous children — a coalition of medical organizations is fighting to legally force the government to keep recommending the COVID jabs to healthy kids and pregnant women.

That legal effort appears especially questionable given the finding in a recent study that children spared from the vaccine also appear to have been spared from an unfortunate health complication.

‘I only feel more vindicated I didn’t take the COVID shot.’

The peer-reviewed study — conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford, the University of Bristol, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and published in January in the scientific journal Epidemiology — looked at the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine in healthy children ages 5-15 following the rollout that began in late 2021.

Using data from the OpenSAFELY-TPP database with the blessing of NHS England, the researchers compared the “effectiveness and safety of: (1) the first vaccine dose versus no vaccination and (2) a second dose versus a single dose only.”

Specifically, they compared 141,711 children ages 5-11 and 410,463 adolescents ages 12-15 who were given a first dose of the vaccine with equal numbers of unvaccinated children from the same age groups.

RELATED: ‘Rogue’ Biden judge blocks critical pieces of RFK Jr.’s vaccine reform

Photographer: Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The researchers found that the vaccination provided some benefits, including an “initial protective effect” that waned by 14 weeks as well as a lower incidence of emergency room visits than recorded among the unvaccinated cohort.

They noted, however, that “myocarditis and pericarditis were documented only in the vaccinated groups, with rates of 27 and 10 cases/million after the first and second doses, respectively.”

As late as January 2023, the U.K. Health Security Agency said that “the reported rate for heart inflammation (myocarditis and pericarditis) was 13 per million first doses and 8 per million second doses of the monovalent Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine” among those under the age of 18.

“That there were no cases of myocarditis or pericarditis in the unvaccinated group does not mean that such events cannot occur without COVID-19 vaccination, only that these events were not observed in the unvaccinated groups in our specific matched analyses,” the study noted.

Pfizer did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

For adolescents, the reduction in risk of COVID-19 hospitalization following vaccination was larger than the corresponding increase in risk of both myocarditis and pericarditis, said the researchers. The same could not, however, be said of younger children.

“The reduction in risk of COVID-19 hospitalization in children (−0.02 for first dose vs. unvaccinated) was lower than the increase in risk of pericarditis (0.22),” said the study.

Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who introduced legislation last month that would strip the liability shield from vaccine manufacturers, said in response to the study, “As it stands right now, families are limited as to how they can seek justice due to legal carveouts for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers.”

“We ought to pass my bill, the End the Vaccine Carveouts Act, to hold pharma accountable properly,” added Paul.

Turning Point USA contributor Riley Gaines said, “As more time passes, I only feel more vindicated I didn’t take the COVID shot. I feel sorry for the people who did.”

Last year, the FDA required Pfizer and Moderna to start noting the estimated unadjusted incidence of heart conditions following administration of the 2023-2024 formula of the BNT162b2 and Spikevax vaccines as well as the longitudinal results of a 2024 study concerning cardiac manifestations and outcomes of vaccine-associated myocarditis in American youths.

H/T Evie Magazine

Editor’s note: This article has been edited after publication to note that Blaze News reached out to Pfizer for comment but did not receive a response.

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​Clot shot, Jab, Vaccination, Vaccine, Covid-19, Comiranty, Comiratny, Pfizer, Pharma, Big pharma, Pharmaceuticals, Drugs, Inflammation, Myocarditis, Politics 

Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center under Donald Trump, abruptly resigned and accused both Israeli officials and U.S. media figures of orchestrating a misinformation campaign that led America into war with Iran.

“President Trump, after much reflection, I’ve decided to resign from my position as director of the National Counterterrorism Center effective today. I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent wrote in his resignation letter, which he posted to X.

“This is so damaging,” Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck comments. “This is Pentagon Papers stuff. This is as important as the Pentagon Papers. This is going to possibly change the course of America.”

Kent went on to claim that “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.”

“This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again,” he continued.

“This is going to set the world on fire,” Glenn says, disappointed.

“This is a senior official in intelligence saying in real time that the United States has entered a war under false pretenses, that Israel got us into the first war in Iraq and now they duped the American president into fighting this war,” he continues.

“This is going to fracture public trust. This is the worst letter that could be done, that I have ever seen … our allies now are going to be questioning our judgment,” he says, adding, “Our enemies are going to exploit this like crazy.”

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Joe kent, Iran war, Iran, Israel, Benjamin netanyahu, President trump, Joe kent resignation 

Ever since Marlon Brando sent Sacheen Littlefeather to decline his Oscar in 1973, celebrities have felt free to treat acceptance speeches as a kind of political pulpit.

Over the years, our socially conscious superiors have used the stage to advance a range of causes. Whether it’s Leonardo DiCaprio scolding us about climate change, Patricia Arquette reminding us that “wage inequality” affects even the most overpaid among us, or Joaquin Phoenix shaming milk enjoyers, many stars refuse to bask in the adulation without giving a little something back.

It was, by the standards of modern Hollywood, almost subversive.

Even moments that touch on family have often been refracted through politics. At the 2020 Golden Globes, Michelle Williams credited her success to the children she didn’t have: “I wouldn’t have been able to do this without employing a woman’s right to choose” — while in the same breath celebrating the two kids who presumably didn’t run afoul of her reproductive rights.

But Sunday night, Irish actress Jessie Buckley did something far more unusual: She praised marriage, children, and the ordinary drama of family life.

Accepting Best Actress for her role in “Hamnet” — a film that imagines the marriage of William Shakespeare and Agnes Hathaway and the grief they endure after the death of their young son — Buckley turned not to politics but to her husband and infant daughter, even revealing her daughter’s name publicly for the first time:

Fred, I love you, man. … You’re the most incredible dad. You’re my best friend, and I want to have 20,000 more babies with you. … And Isla, my little girl … I love you, and I love being your mom, and I can’t wait to discover life beside you.

It was, by the standards of modern Hollywood, almost subversive.

She returned to the theme later in the speech, noting that it was her first Mother’s Day in the U.K. and dedicating the award “to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.”

She was even more effusive backstage. Speaking to reporters, Buckley described the moment as a kind of “crazy alchemy,” noting that her Oscar win fell on her first Mother’s Day. Her daughter, she said, had just gotten her first tooth.

I woke up with her lying on my chest, snuggling me … what a gift to get to explore motherhood … and then to become one myself … and then to receive this recognition of the incredible role mothers play in our world on this day is something I will never, ever forget.

Buckley has suggested the role didn’t just portray motherhood — it stirred a longing for it. While filming “Hamnet,” she said she “deeply wanted to become a mother,” an experience she described as “quite intense” before it became real. Soon after, it was.

Some commentators wondered why Buckley didn’t thank her on-screen husband Paul Mescal, the film’s Shakespeare. Was it a calculated move to avoid being overshadowed by a bigger name?

More likely, they’re overthinking it.

Buckley has always seemed as grounded as she is talented. Born and raised in Killarney, County Kerry, one of five children, she comes from a large, close-knit family — a background that makes her ease with motherhood feel less like a rebrand than a continuation. She is married not to a fellow celebrity but to a man the public knows only by his first name. Her speech reflected that life: intimate, unvarnished, and oriented toward something other than careerism.

And that, in today’s Hollywood, is what made it feel radical.

In an industry that often frames family as an obstacle — something to be delayed, outsourced, or quietly regretted — Buckley spoke of it as the central adventure. Not a burden, but a joy. Not a limitation, but a calling.

For decades, Oscar speeches have tried to tell audiences how to remake the world.

Buckley’s suggested something simpler: that the most meaningful work might already be waiting at home.

​Culture, Hollywood, Jessie buckley, Motherhood 

The confirmation for President Donald Trump’s top choice for the next head of the Department of Homeland Security is off to a rocky start, thanks to one Republican senator.

Trump tapped Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to replace current DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. While most of Mullin’s Senate colleagues have praised Trump’s choice, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was not keen on the nominee.

‘Seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us.’

Paul opened the confirmation hearing Wednesday by challenging Mullin to disavow political violence. Paul was specifically asking Mullin to address alleged past comments in which he said he “completely” understood why Paul’s neighbor attacked him in 2017, leaving him with severe injuries including broken ribs.

“You have never had the courage to look me in the eye and tell me that the assault was justified,” Paul said of Mullin’s comments. Paul also claimed Mullin referred to him as a “freaking snake.”

RELATED: Noem is OUT — and Trump has named her replacement

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Mullin addressed Paul’s claims, insisting that he and Paul had a conversation about their differences when Mullin was still a member of the House. Mullin also looked directly at Paul and said, “I’m very blunt and direct to the point. And if I have something to say, I’ll say it directly to your face.”

Mullin then added, “Seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us.”

Paul later said he would note vote for Mullin’s confirmation, saying Mullin’s “temperament was not suitable” and that his “anger issues are a problem.”

“They’ve had to have known for weeks that I couldn’t be real happy about a guy that won’t apologize and thinks that my assault was perfectly understandable,” Paul said.

A “no” vote from Paul could cost Mullin the confirmation. Mullin first needs to be approved by a simple majority of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Paul chairs. If senators vote on party lines, just one Republican defection could throw the whole nomination.

RELATED: Trump’s unusual Cabinet meeting may reveal which officials are on thin ice

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

If Mullin’s nomination advances through committee, he will need a simple majority in the Republican-controlled Senate.

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​Donald trump, Kristi noem, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Rand paul, Senate republicans, Markwayne mullin, Trump nominee, Senate confirmation, Confirmation hearing, Political violence, Politics 

Every March, without consent, the federal government steals an hour of sleep from hundreds of millions of people. Every November, it hands the hour back, as if that settles the debt. It doesn’t. The damage is already done. The bodies counted. The fender-benders filed with insurance.

This is the absurdity of daylight saving time: a policy dressed up as convenience that functions, in practice, as a twice-annual public health hazard. Two states — Hawaii and Arizona, apparently the adults in the room — do not participate.

The trade: preventable deaths in exchange for slightly earlier winter sunsets. It’s not a close call.

The carnage is well documented and almost comically avoidable. Heart attacks spike in the days after the spring shift. Strokes climb. Traffic fatalities rise during that first fog-brained week, when reaction times slow to something approaching drunk driving. Workplace injuries surge. Emergency rooms fill.

Physiological shock

The mechanism isn’t mysterious. The human body is exquisitely calibrated to light cycles, and ripping away an hour mimics the physiological shock of being flung across time zones overnight. Stress hormones spike. Melatonin craters.

The body’s rather elegant machinery gets jammed with a wrench — annually, on a schedule — by people who will never be held responsible for any of it.

If a pharmaceutical company produced a drug with this side-effect profile, the FDA would pull it from the market within a week.

Classroom chaos

Children absorb the worst of it. After the spring shift, school buses roll before sunrise, hauling kids whose biology insists it’s still the middle of the night. Adolescents — already sleep-deprived by group chats and the algorithmic abyss of TikTok — get hammered hardest. Attention fractures. Memory slips. Impulse control dissolves.

The classroom after the time change looks less like a learning environment and more like a hostage situation.

Billions get poured into fixing education, while a mandated sleep disruption quietly picks its pockets twice a year. The policy eats the investment. Test scores dip, classrooms destabilize, and learning suffers.

All to preserve someone’s evening tee time.

Mental health follows the same logic. Circadian misalignment fogs the mind. It destabilizes mood, amplifies anxiety, and deepens depressive episodes.

The human standard

Standard time — anchored to the sun rather than legislative preference — flips that script. Earlier morning light stabilizes serotonin, steadies metabolism, and synchronizes human rhythms with the environment humans actually evolved under.

The benefits aren’t philosophical. They’re measurable, reproducible, and stubbornly indifferent to the opinions of state legislators.

Enter California’s Senate Bill 1197.

What makes this legislation notable — beyond its merits — is who is championing it: Republican senators who actually read the research.

Not a talking point. Not a culture-war signal. Just data, reviewed and acted upon.

In a political climate where bipartisan cooperation on health policy feels about as common as a lobbyist who forgot to file paperwork, a group of Republican legislators looked at the peer-reviewed evidence on sleep disruption, cardiovascular events, traffic fatalities, and childhood cognition and reached the obvious conclusion: This is stupid, and we should stop doing it.

RELATED: Trump ‘fully on board’ with legislation to make daylight saving time permanent, senators say

Photo by SAMUEL CORUM/AFP via Getty Images

Votes are in

California voters agreed back in 2018. Legislative inertia is the only thing standing between the state and sanity.

The science here isn’t complicated, contested, or politically inconvenient. Even Sacramento should be able to handle that.

The economic case is just as compelling. Productivity losses from post-shift disruption cost tens of billions nationally every cycle. Sick days multiply. Error rates climb. Health care spending ticks upward.

Sleep debt correlates with obesity, metabolic disorders, and long-term cognitive decline — costs that don’t show up in the week of the shift but accumulate quietly across years.

Opponents of the bill will likely invoke evening leisure — longer summer nights for golf, grilling, gender-reveal parties, and so on — as if that justifies annual cardiac events and crashed school buses.

An obvious trade

Standard time still delivers long summer evenings. Sunset in Los Angeles in late June arrives around 8 p.m. under standard time. Nobody’s barbecue is getting canceled. Nobody’s constitutional rights are being trampled.

The trade: preventable deaths in exchange for slightly earlier winter sunsets. It’s not a close call.

The federal government could authorize a national fix tomorrow. Congress has simply chosen not to. In the meantime, California’s bill offers a replicable model: well researched, cross-partisan, and focused on whether a policy actually helps people rather than whether it polls well in October.

Pass S.B. 1197. Encourage every statehouse still running this cruel charade to follow.

The science on this one isn’t contested or nuanced. It’s stacked, overwhelming, and pointing in one direction.

Let noon mean noon. Let light arrive when it’s supposed to. And let people sleep without the government scheduling their insomnia.

​Daylight saving time, Make america healthy again, California, Sleep, Circadian rhythms, Time, Lifestyle 

The residents of a small town in Alabama were shocked to discover that a police officer and four faculty members of their school district were accused of possessing child sex abuse material.

The four teachers, as well as the police officer and school basketball coach, worked for the Pickens County School district in Aliceville, a town of only about 2,000 residents.

The officer had also worked as an assistant basketball coach at a Pickens County school.

Three of the teachers worked at the Aliceville High School, another worked at the Aliceville Elementary School, and the police officer worked for the Aliceville Police Dept.

The five suspects faced charges related to child sexual abuse material and are being held at the Pickens County Jail.

Math teacher Roderick Granger, 41, was arrested Jan. 30 for possession of child pornography, failure to report, and an ethics violation. Online records indicate he was given a $1 million bail.

Aliceville High School teacher Antavious Belgrave, 28, faces a number of charges:

Three counts of failure to report;Three counts of sexual misconduct;Three counts of ethics violations;One felony charge for indecent exposure; andThree felony counts of distributing a private image.

Belgrave was also given a $1 million bail.

Fourth-grade teacher Lakethia Wilkins was charged with use of position for personal gain, possession of child pornography, and intent to disseminate pornographic and obscene matter.

High school employee Winston Bishop, 58, was charged with solicitation of child pornography, possession of child pornography, distribution of a controlled substance, and providing a minor with drugs. He was also given a $1 million bail.

Police officer Caminion Gary, 24, was given a $1 million bail and charged with the following:

Solicitation of child pornography;Sexual abuse, a first-degree felony;Production of child pornography;Felony count of transmitting obscene material to a child by computer; andFelony count of child molestation/enticing a child.

Aliceville Police Chief Tonnie Jones said the allegations were serious and Gary had been placed on unpaid administrative leave.

“We’re asking everyone who can — if you believe — to pray because there are a lot of a victims, a lot of victims,” Jones said.

RELATED: Elementary school teacher allegedly possessed thousands of files of child sex abuse material

Gary had also worked as an assistant basketball coach at a Pickens County school.

The Pickens County Sheriff’s Office said the Department of Homeland Security was assisting with the investigation as well as the State Bureau of Investigation and the Aliceville Police Dept.

Pickens County District Attorney Andy Hamlin said there may be more arrests and charges as the investigation continues.

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BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is raising concerns over disturbing scenes of youth violence, pointing to viral footage from spring break in Daytona Beach and the Washington Navy Yard as evidence of what he sees as a growing cultural crisis.

“I see these videos, I see these events, and it breaks my heart. And it breaks my heart because nothing’s being done about it,” Whitlock says.

“If you do any research, the first eight years of a child’s life — critical to their development. And if both parents aren’t on that job those first eight years, you virtually have no shot with course-correcting or fixing or properly adjusting that child,” he continues.

And when Whitlock plays a clip of spring break in Daytona Beach, gunshots ring out, teens are scattered all over, and he describes “women losing their weaves as they run away.”

In another video from the Washington Navy Yard, a fight breaks out between teenagers who appear to be, like in the Daytona clip, majority black.

“Oh, the black kids fighting each other. I’ve never seen that. That’s so unusual,” Whitlock says sarcastically.

“Part of the reason I bring this up is, like, there is an enjoyment that black people clearly have about seeing other black people fight with each other. We whip out our phones, and we record it. No one does anything to stop the fights or break them up,” he continues.

“It’s a recording opportunity,” he adds.

However, while Whitlock is pointing out his disappointment with how the next generation of black kids are turning out, plenty of people don’t seem to want to hear it.

“People are upset with me right now for talking about it,” he says, adding that people often point out that white kids have problems too.

“They have problems. Drugs, you know, sexual degeneracy and all that, feminism. They have problems, but they’re just not as acute because they still have families,” he says. “They still have mom and dad in the home in relatively large numbers.”

“There’s a crisis of black fatherhood, of divorce, dysfunction, kids unsupervised, kids raised by televisions and video games and iPhones,” he continues.

“This is the pandemic, the real pandemic, and it’s not being discussed,” he adds.

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The U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran are taking a toll on each American’s pockets as gas prices surge to the highest level in three years.

Iran responded to the decapitation strikes by confirming fears that it would shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a choking point for global oil tankers.

‘I would love to see the gas prices go down because everybody might not be financially able to meet the demands of these high prices.’

Oil prices have skyrocketed in the nearly three weeks since the strikes began, and Americans are paying nearly a dollar more per gallon at the pump.

That equates to about a 28.9% increase on average, from $2.98 at the beginning of the war to $3.84 on Wednesday.

The Associated Press spoke to drivers in Louisiana and Mississippi as they pumped gas into their vehicles.

“It’s pretty hard. I mean, times are tough for everybody right now,” Amanda Acosta said. “I’m getting way less gas and paying way more money.”

“I would love to see the war end,” said Thelma Williams, an Army Reserves veteran. “I would love to see the gas prices go down because everybody might not be financially able to meet the demands of these high prices.”

Meanwhile in Texas, Lubbock resident Clay Plant said the spikes in oil prices mean an immediate surge of jobs for workers in his region.

“It’s kind of a good sign for us in west Texas,” he said. “I look at it as my friends and family get to eat, and they get to go to work.”

Gas prices range from a high in California of over $5.56 per gallon to a low in Kansas of about $3.23.

RELATED: Gavin Newsom tries to hit Trump administration on energy prices — and gets humiliated online

Economists warn that the rise in oil prices increases the cost of all products that need to be transported and also leads to lower consumer spending as Americans readjust their budgets.

To provide some gas price relief, President Donald Trump temporarily suspended the Jones Act, a 1920 law restricting foreign-flagged ships, on Wednesday. The act has been excoriated by free market economists who argue that it leads to detrimentally higher costs on products shipped to the U.S.

About one-fifth of the world’s global oil supply flowed through the Strait of Hormuz.

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As the Maine Senate race heats up, BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler is calling out Senator Susan Collins not as a stabilizing moderate, but as a “subversive” within the Republican Party.

“What Collins is facing in the state of Maine is not a pretty picture. Susan Collins has portrayed herself to be a moderate Republican all her life, a sort of centrist Republican. You could call her a liberal Republican,” Wheeler explains.

“She’s not a social conservative. She’s not based. She’s not fully woke either. But what’s happening in the state of Maine is embarrassing for her because the state of Maine is about to elect a senator instead of Collins who’s not a moderate,” she continues.

And this politician who’s not moderate “has a Nazi tattoo on his arm.”

“A Democrat with a Nazi tattoo. A Democrat who has trained the militia, the transgender militia groups that seek to be the Marxist vanguard for a revolution. A man who not only claims to be a socialist, but claims outright to be a communist. I’m talking about Graham Platner,” Wheeler explains.

“Graham Platner, currently in Maine, is polling higher than Susan Collins. Susan Collins risks losing her seat to this whack job. Unless she gets a boost from you, unless people want to support her and turn out, unless people want to expose who Graham Platner is. But what would be our motivation to do that if Collins isn’t on our side?” she asks.

“What would be our motivation to make sure that Graham Platner loses if Collins votes in the exact same way that Graham Platner has promised to do? If Collins is subverting your vote by subverting the president’s agenda, is she on our side really, or is she set to lose everything that she has spent her entire career building?” Wheeler continues.

And Collins does not have a great track record when it comes to supporting the president’s agenda.

“It was Senator Susan Collins and Senator Bill Cassidy who torpedoed President Trump’s original nominee for the CDC, Dave Weldon. Dave Weldon is a congressman from the early 1990s who had the audacity, what, 30 years ago, to question whether the increase in the childhood immunization schedule had any correlation to the increase in chronic disease,” Wheeler explains.

Wheeler also points out that over the course of her career, Collins has taken “nearly three-quarters of a million dollars from the pharmaceutical and health products industry.”

This is why Wheeler crowns Collins as the “most destructive to the MAHA agenda within our own party.”

“The subversive that pretends to be one of us is Susan Collins,” she adds.

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A NASCAR driver apologized after he was suspended indefinitely for mocking another driver in a tone that he called his “gay voice.”

Daniel Dye, 22, was captured on a livestream video using the voice to ridicule IndyCar driver David Malukas after another person said Malukas “plays for the other team.”

In 2022, he was suspended for allegedly punching a high school classmate in the groin.

Dye, who was trading cards at the time, used the gay tone and bobbed his head in a mocking fashion, as described by NBC News.

“It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, yes! We race Indianapolis too! Love Indianapolis and Roger Penske. I love Roger. Love you, Roger,'” Dye said.

“As soon as I do a David Malukas gay voice I get a gold, so let’s keep it going,” he added, implying that the gay voice led to his finding premium cards. “I’m on fire!”

Nascar said the incident violated its policy against drivers making a statement that “criticizes, ridicules, or otherwise disparages another person based upon that person’s race, color, creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, or handicapping condition.”

Dye issued a lengthy statement apologizing for the behavior and promising to be better in the future.

“I want to first apologize to David Malukas. I recently went on a live stream with some friends and made some careless comments. I chose my words poorly, and I understand why it upset people. I’m sorry to anyone who was offended,” Dye wrote.

He added that he spoke to his friends in the LGBTQ+ community about the incident.

“I’m taking this seriously and working on being more aware and respectful moving forward. I’m sorry to everyone I let down,” he added. “I am committed to learning from this and better understanding … the impact that my decisions can have on others.”

RELATED: NASCAR tried to hide its Pride Month promotion, but fans found it anyway

Dye’s racing team Kaulig Racing also announced an indefinite suspension of the driver.

This is the second time Dye had been suspended over off-track antics. In 2022, he was suspended for allegedly punching a high school classmate in the groin. He was charged with a felony that was reduced to a misdemeanor and eventually dropped altogether.

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A Utah woman self-published a book in 2023 titled “Are You With Me?” — the story of a child who loses his father but is comforted by the knowledge that he remains with him in spirit. The description for the book claims it was “written by a loving mother” who personally faced the challenge of guiding “children through the difficult experience of losing a loved one.”

The problem? The 35-year-old author, Kouri Richins, was just convicted of murdering her husband and the father of her three sons.

‘Eric had to die.’

A Utah jury of eight unanimously found Richins guilty Monday of aggravated murder for lethally dosing her husband for pecuniary gain on March 4, 2022; attempted aggravated murder for trying to kill her husband on Valentine’s Day 2022; two counts of insurance fraud; and one count of forgery.

Kouri Richins faces 25 years to life in prison without parole for the aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder convictions.

Prosecutors called scores of witnesses who helped paint a portrait of an adulterous and conniving woman who racked up millions of dollars in debt; whose real estate business was on the rocks; who lacked rights to several of Eric Richins’ assets in the event of a divorce per the terms of a prenuptial agreement; and who fantasized about her husband’s death.

“She did not have the money to leave Eric or the money to salvage her business,” prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said in his closing argument, CNN reported. “Kouri Richins is an intensely ambitious person. She is a risk-taker. There was a way forward — Eric had to die.”

The victim’s life reportedly was insured for over $2 million through numerous policies, including a policy that prosecutors said Kouri Richins applied for fraudulently.

RELATED: Mother publishes book about grief for her sons — after she allegedly murdered their father

“Kouri Richins wanted to murder Eric Richins, thus took out an insurance policy on his life to get money for murdering Eric Richins,” Bloodworth said. “Then she murdered Eric Richins, and then she submitted a claim to get the money.”

Wendy Lewis — Kouri Richins’ defense attorney — challenged the monetary motive, suggesting that Eric Richins was of more use to Kouri Richins alive as evidenced by the fact that “Kouri spent that life insurance within a matter of weeks and was still in debt.”

Prosecutors said Richins added fentanyl to a Moscow mule drink that she gave her 39-year-old husband, and a toxicologist testified that the victim’s blood contained five times the minimum level of a fatal dose of fentanyl, CourtTV reported.

Bloodworth provided a reminder in court that Carmen Lauber, a house cleaner who worked for Kouri Richins, testified that Richins asked her repeatedly in 2022 for illicit pills — pills she procured for Richins both prior to the Valentine’s Day murder attempt and days before Eric Richins’ death.

In addition to hearing about an apparent attempt on the part of Richins to pin the purchase of the illicit drugs on Lauber, jurors reportedly heard at trial that a forensic examination of Richins’ phone revealed internet searches about how to delete iPhone messages as well as about death benefit insurance payouts and fentanyl poisoning.

The jury reportedly also saw the romantic messages exchanged between Richins and her then-lover, Robert Grossmann, including messages from Richins about their future together.

A spokesman for the Richins family said the victim’s sons will remain in the custody of his family and that his family was “relieved” by the verdict.

RELATED: Ex-teacher and boyfriend indicted on 39 child sex charges; she confessed to abusing 5-year-old at his direction, cops say

The victim’s obituary stated in 2022, “Eric was a family man, who always strove to be the absolute best father and husband. He was an attentive and loving father to his three sons Carter (9), Ashton (7), and Weston (5), and a devoted husband to the love of his life, and wife of nine years, Kouri (Darden) Richins. Eric did absolutely everything in his power to provide his family with every possible opportunity to learn, grow, and have fun.”

Richins is scheduled for sentencing on May 13.

She also has been separately charged with multiple counts of mortgage fraud, money laundering, forgery, and issuing a bad check along with a single count of communication fraud, KSTU-TV reported.

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Journalist Nick Shirley uncovered more than $170 million in alleged day-care and hospice fraud in California, surpassing the scandal he previously exposed in Minnesota.

On Monday, Shirley shared a 40-minute video featuring him and his team confronting alleged fraudsters living in luxury at the expense of American taxpayers.

‘It’s like somebody took a motel building and turned it into a hundred fraudulent organizations.’

“Here is the full 40 minutes of my crew and I exposing California fraud, Minnesota was big but California is even bigger,” Shirley wrote.

“We ALL work way too hard and pay too much in taxes for this to be happening. These fraudsters have been able to defraud American taxpayers for years without any pushback from the public and politicians,” he continued. “It is time to EXPOSE IT ALL and end America’s fraud crisis.”

In the video, Shirley explained that California’s version of Medicare, Medi-Cal, has more than doubled from $108 billion in fiscal year 2022 to a proposed $222 billion in fiscal year 2026.

“One out of every 10 dollars of home health care in America is spent in Los Angeles,” Shirley stated. “It is estimated that the fraud in California could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.”

Shirley and his crew stopped at several claimed day-care locations, including some homes in residential areas, that seemed to have no children present. In one instance, the team visited a supposed day care in an apartment complex, where they found two young children playing outside. The children informed them that no adults were present.

RELATED: Mike Lee reveals the real victims of Somali fraud: ‘It is not the rich people who suffer’

Simone Lueck/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“The crazy thing is California allocates $6 billion to child-care and day-care facilities just like these, and there are over 39,000 facilities in the state,” Shirley said.

Shirley and his team also visited alleged hospice centers receiving millions of dollars in taxpayer funds. He explained that two of the facilities charged roughly $6,000 per beneficiary.

“It looks like there’s about 15 more hospice centers inside this one plaza we’re going to right now,” Shirley said.

He noted that some facilities had not even registered with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, suggesting they may be shell companies.

“It’s rumored that these are Armenian-Russian gangs,” Shirley said.

RELATED: Death threats, doxxing, and empty Dem seats: The high cost of Nick Shirley’s fight against Minnesota welfare fraud

PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA/AFP/Getty Images

One of the hospice locations Shirley visited reportedly received roughly $1.3 million. However, the location was empty, with no employees or furniture inside.

“Not only are these shell companies, these are shell buildings,” an individual on Shirley’s team stated. “It’s like somebody took a motel building and turned it into a hundred fraudulent organizations.”

Shirley highlighted the luxury vehicles in the parking lot, including Mercedes, Teslas, and BMWs.

Shirley explained that fraudulent hospices collect taxpayer funds by obtaining Medicare beneficiary numbers from individuals and enrolling them in care without their knowledge.

“Must be very lucrative, because a lot of these businesses, these doors right here have nothing on them; all the blinds are turned out,” he said. “This is what you call welfare maxxing.”

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The governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve have voted on interest rates — and President Donald Trump won’t be happy with the result.

The governors voted to keep overnight banking interest rates at their current levels despite pressure from Trump to lower them. The rates are currently in the 3.5%-3.75% range.

‘The US economy has really been just doing pretty well through a lot of significant challenges.’

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a media briefing Wednesday that holding the rates would contribute to fulfilling the dual mandate of maximum employment while keeping inflation down.

He emphasized that the economic effects of the tariffs, a Supreme Court ruling knocking down some tariffs, the attacks on Iran, and the spike in oil prices were all mostly unknown at this point.

“We are balancing these two goals in a situation where the risks to the labor market are to the downside, which would call for lower rates, and the risks to inflation are to the upside, which would call for higher rates, or not cutting anyway,” Powell said.

The stock market has tumbled downward since oil prices spiked following the U.S.-Israeli military strikes on the Iranian regime. Losses extended after the announcement from the Fed.

“The U.S. economy has really been just doing pretty well through a lot of significant challenges over the past few years. It’s been amazing to see,” Powell said.

He also rejected the assessment by some that the economy had entered a period of “stagflation,” which is low economic growth accompanied by higher inflation.

“I would reserve the term stagflation for a much more serious set of circumstances,” Powell added. “That is not the situation we’re in.”

RELATED: Supreme Court denies Trump emergency motion to fire Lisa Cook from the Fed — for now

Powell is also under investigation over claims that a billion-dollar renovation of the Federal Reserve building was being mismanaged. While those accusations appeared to have been defused when Powell hosted the president at the building to show him the renovation progress, the Dept. of Justice later issued subpoenas related to the claims.

Those subpoenas were rejected by a federal judge accused by the administration of being biased against Trump.

“There can almost be no inflation, but there can be a SLOWING of the economy unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW,” Trump said of Powell in April 2025. “Europe has already ‘lowered’ seven times. Powell has always been ‘To Late,’ except when it came to the Election period when he lowered in order to help Sleepy Joe Biden, later Kamala, get elected. How did that work out?”

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On Monday night, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Houston Rockets 100-92, with star point guard Luka Doncic scoring 36 points to extend the team’s winning streak to six games.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock thinks the reign of LeBron James is finally coming to an end — and even more, the longtime power broker may be OK with it.

“LeBron James seemed somewhat comfortable as the third leg, the third wheel,” he says, noting that even head coach JJ Redick is now referring to James as a third option.

Now that James, who Whitlock has long argued is a hindrance to the team’s success, is in his rightful place, will the Lakers finally reach their competitive potential?

On this episode of “Fearless,” Whitlock and guests Jay Skapinac, Dre Baldwin, and Steve Kim debate the future of the purple and gold.

“I know Charles Barkley will be upset with me for even suggesting this, but could the Lakers be a serious threat in the postseason?” Whitlock asks the panel.

For Baldwin, the answer is complicated.

“I say they are a threat because they have a very good player in Luka Doncic. They have Reeves, and of course, LeBron is still a very good third wheel. … As long as he’s OK with being in the third seat and staying there ego-wise, they are a threat,” he says.

“Now, are they actually going to win and come out of the West? I say no. They have all offense. They are not very strong defensively,” he caveats.

Kim is optimistic about the Lakers’ playoff prospects so long as the team continues to prioritize team performance over LeBron’s court time.

“You got to be able to play by the pecking order, and that’ll be the test for both JJ Redick and LeBron James,” he says.

Skapinac is more hesitantly optimistic.

“[LeBron] has actually muffled and suppressed his own ego for a couple games here, Jason. Can he do it for the next 16 games of the regular season and then for the remainder of the playoffs? … I still will hedge my bet and say no on that,” he argues.

Even if LeBron’s ego stays in check for the remainder of the season, however, he nonetheless has low hopes the Lakers will be serious championship contenders.

“It’s a stretch to suggest they’ll get out of the first round. They’re going to finish somewhere between three through six,” he predicts.

To hear more of the panel’s conversation, watch the video above.

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Former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl appears to be stealing the show as an analyst for the NCAA men’s tournament — and BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is already over it.

“There’s no reason for Bruce Pearl to be the most interesting man in the NCAA Tournament,” Whitlock says on “Fearless.”

“For him to be overshadowing the players and the coaches in this tournament — and he is — that’s a problem. You have legitimate stars in this NCAA Tournament, and everyone’s talking about Bruce Pearl,” he continues.

“The former Auburn coach, the man that is still taking money, as we learned yesterday, from Auburn, while promoting Auburn, while taking a dump on Miami, while taking a dump on SMU. The former coach at Auburn and Tennessee should not be the most interesting man in any NCAA Tournament. He never won one,” he adds.

“I want to walk you through why this is a problem,” Whitlock says, pointing out that there are incredible stories all over the NCAA Tournament that aren’t getting the attention they deserve — because it’s all on Pearl.

“There’s more conversation about Bruce Pearl today than there is about Cameron Boozer at Duke. Cameron Boozer is a 6’9″ post player — power forward — who’s led Duke to the number one overall seed. He’s a fascinating story,” he explains.

“He has a twin brother on the Duke team that’s going to be starting. I believe his name is Cayden Boozer … the Boozer brothers and Duke. Fascinating story. Overshadowed by Bruce Pearl,” he says.

“He’s sucking up all the oxygen in the room. He’s launching this television career, which I hope ends after this year. He’s done enough damage,” he adds.

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Brent crude, the primary global benchmark for oil prices, rose higher than $120 per barrel in early summer 2022, largely on account of the fallout from the war in Ukraine and increased demand in countries reopening after suffering through years of self-imposed COVID restrictions.

At the time, this generated a great deal of excitement and consternation, especially when U.S. gas prices soared to a record high of roughly $5 a gallon.

Americans may soon long for the days of $120 per barrel.

‘Consumers continue to feel the sting of rising oil, gasoline, and diesel costs as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East remain elevated.’

Analysts at Citi said in a note on Wednesday that Brent crude — which recently saw an intraday high of nearly $120 a barrel and is presently trading over 65% above its level at the beginning of the year — could hit $200 a barrel if Tehran executes “broad energy infrastructure attacks” or keeps the Strait of Hormuz blocked until June, Investing.com reported.

Iran appears keen to satisfy both of these conditions.

Following the initial joint U.S. and Israel strikes on Feb. 28, Iran targeted energy facilities in its backyard, prompting various companies to wind down their production and shutter their facilities.

RELATED: Trump blasts allies over reluctance to join Iran conflict: ‘WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!’

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Qatar’s state-run QatarEnergy, for instance, shut down its LNG production complex following Iranian drone strikes at two of its facilities. OilPrice.com recently noted that even if the hostilities in the region ended immediately, it could take several weeks to restart production.

On Wednesday, Tehran issued a warning via state media to several Middle Eastern oil facilities — the Samref Refinery and Jubail Petrochemical Complex in Saudi Arabia; the Al Hosn Gas Field in the United Arab Emirates; and the Mesaieed Petrochemical Complex, Mesaieed Holding Company, and Ras Laffan Refinery in Qatar — notifying them of imminent strikes “in the coming hours,” Reuters reported.

“These centers have become direct and legitimate targets and will be targeted ⁠in the coming hours,” the warning said. “Therefore, all citizens, residents, and employees are requested to immediately leave these areas and move to a safe distance without ⁠any delay.”

The warning, which was followed by a jump in the per-barrel price of Brent crude, came in the wake of airstrikes against the South Pars gas field, the world’s largest natural gas reserve which is shared by Iran and Qatar.

A source confirmed to the Jerusalem Post that several energy facilities in South Pars and the Iranian city of Asaluyeh were struck by the Israeli Air Force on Wednesday. Two senior Israeli officials told Axios that the attack was coordinated with and approved by the Trump administration.

Amid the attacks and threat of attacks on energy infrastructure, analysts at Citi wrote, “Brent prices will rally as the conflict continues over the coming days, to $110-120/bbl,” adding that could be the “price or market event which drives the U.S. to end its military operation” or alternatively drives global powers to “forcefully reopen the Strait.”

President Donald Trump has implored the international community to aid the U.S. in reopening the strait, emphasizing that China and other nations are far more reliant than America on the supply flowing down the strait.

According to Reuters, China received 1.6 billion barrels of crude oil over the past 14 months via the Strait of Hormuz; the rest of Asia collectively received 1.6 billion barrels; India received 1 billion barrels; Japan and South Korea each received 800 million barrels; the U.S. and Europe each received around 200 million barrels; and the rest of the world received a combined 300 million barrels.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that Vice President JD Vance and other administration officials plan to meet at the American Petroleum Institute on Thursday to meet with oil executives.

“We look forward to convening key officials — including Vice President Vance, Energy Secretary [Chris] Wright, bipartisan leaders in Congress, and governors — to discuss the role of American oil and natural gas in supporting reliable energy supply amid global volatility,” Andrea Woods, a spokeswoman for the institute, told Bloomberg. “Our industry is focused on providing insight into market dynamics and strengthening American energy leadership and resilience for the long term.”

The price-tracking service GasBuddy noted that as of Monday, the national average price of gasoline was up 80 cents per gallon from a month ago and 66.1 cents higher than a year ago.

“Consumers continue to feel the sting of rising oil, gasoline, and diesel costs as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East remain elevated, pushing gasoline prices to their highest levels in years while diesel could soon approach the $5-per-gallon mark nationally,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

“Until we see a meaningful resumption of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, upward pressure on fuel prices is likely to persist,” De Haan continued. “At the same time, seasonal forces are beginning to intensify as several regions complete the transition to summer gasoline, creating a double headwind that could continue driving pump prices higher in the weeks ahead.”

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The New York Post has uncovered a bizarre music video starring Bobby Pulido, an Emmy-winning musician who won the Democratic nomination for a U.S. congressional seat in Texas.

In the video titled “Dias de Ayer,” Pulido portrays several characters, including a gun-wielding gangster in the mold of “Scarface,” a pervert who pleasures himself in public spaces, as well as a gay male who is attracted to the pervert.

‘This freak is who Democrats chose to run in Texas?’

The embarrassing video from 2010 might complicate the campaign effort by the political neophyte.

The Post noted that he had made somewhat derogatory comments to users on social media implying that he might be gay.

“I can swear on the Bible that I’m not,” said Pulido in Spanish to questions about his portrayal of a homosexual in the video.

Pulido is hoping to unseat Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz for the 14th congressional district in Texas. President Donald Trump won the district easily in 2024, and De La Cruz trounced Democratic opponent Michelle Vallejo by more than 14 percentage points.

Democratic polling found Pulido was trailing behind the incumbent by only three percentage points in September.

His campaign did not respond to a Post request for comment.

RELATED: Rep. Al Green forced into runoff with candidate half his age after failing to get 50% of Democratic primary vote

The Republican National Committee did have a comment on its official account on the X social media platform.

“This freak is who Democrats chose to run in Texas?” said the account.

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