Category: blaze media

Internal documents have revealed that Amazon wants to avoid the costly human experience if it can.

A scathing report by the New York Times that compiled interviews, along with what was described as a cache of internal documents, showed that Amazon executives have aspirations of replacing approximately 600,000 U.S. jobs with robots.

‘Leaked documents often paint an incomplete and misleading picture of our plans.’

The corporate decisions would allegedly pass on savings to the customer of upwards of 30 cents per item, while at the same time avoiding the hiring of about 160,000 new employees in the United States that would be needed by 2027.

In the internal documents, Amazon executives told their board members it was their hope to avoid making new hires by ramping up robotic automation, which would negate the need for more than 600,000 human jobs. This would come at the same time that Amazon expected to double its sales by 2033.

The alleged stated goal in the documents was to automate 75% of facility operations, while simultaneously executing good faith initiatives to avoid angering communities that are disparaged by the job losses. This included hosting parades and Toys for Tots programs that built upon an image of Amazon being a “good corporate citizen.”

Disturbingly, the documents reportedly discussed the idea of avoiding words that remind people of robots, an approach that Amazon strictly denied adopting.

RELATED: CRASH: Amazon Web Services outage cripples apps, megacorps, and doorbells, shocking a fragile America

A robot prepares to pick up a tote containing product during the first public tour of the newest Amazon Robotics fulfillment center on April 12, 2019, in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The New York Times reported that Amazon contemplated avoiding terms such as “automation” and “A.I.” in reference to robotics and would have rather used terms like “advanced technology.”

Instead of “robot,” the word “cobot” was discussed being used because it implies collaboration with humans.

Amazon told the NYT, however, that executives are not being told to avoid certain terms when referring to robotics and that its community relations plans had nothing to do with its automation plans. It said the documents were incomplete and did not represent Amazon’s overall hiring strategy.

The Verge, which received a statement, quoted Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel to the effect that “leaked documents often paint an incomplete and misleading picture of our plans, and that’s the case here. In our written narrative culture,” Nantel continued, “thousands of documents circulate throughout the company at any given time, each with varying degrees of accuracy and timeliness. We’re actively hiring at operations facilities across the country and recently announced plans to fill 250,000 positions for the holiday season.”

RELATED: Microsoft rejects idea that company is replacing American workers with foreign labor after massive layoffs

Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Reporter Lewis Brackpool from Restore Britain told Return that while the numbers were troubling, the push for robotics could stand as a solution for the mass import of foreign workers.

“While in a perfect world citizens could thrive in their employment without the worry of being replaced by overseas workers, ditching foreign labor in exchange for robotics seems more preferable than our current situation,” Brackpool theorized.

“A socialist-communist journalist by the name of Aaron Bastani once wrote a book called ‘Fully Automated Luxury Communism,'” the commentator continued. “The book outlines a vision of a post-scarcity, post-capitalist society driven by technological advances such as automation, artificial intelligence, and synthetic biology. Even that is more preferable than to be replaced by the third world.”

Amazon employs approximately 1.1 million in the United States, representing about 70% of its global workforce, according to Red Stag Fulfillment.

The company peaked at 1.61 million employees in 2021 and has a minimum wage of $18 per hour for all seasonable employees.

Average pay reportedly increases by 15% for those employed for over three years.

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​Return, Robots, Amazon, Immigration, Economy, Jobs, Tech 

The Department of Homeland Security has provided the names and criminal histories of the illegal aliens who were arrested during an operation on New York City’s infamous Canal Street black market.

Federal agents swept through the area on Tuesday, as it is not uncommon for street sellers to be in the United States illegally. The operation turned chaotic after bystanders formed a mob to chase agents away, demanding they not target illegal aliens.

On Wednesday, DHS said the illegal aliens arrested have “violent rap sheets” that include allegations of robbery, burglary, domestic violence, assaulting law enforcement, counterfeiting, drug trafficking, drug possession, and forgery. Each of the men arrested is from Africa, and at least five of them were released into the United States by the Biden-Harris administration.

RELATED: Illegal alien shot after allegedly ramming car into federal vehicle was once honored by Democrat

— (@)

Mamadou Ndoye, “a criminal illegal alien from Mali, issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge in 2008, was previously arrested for crimes including assault, recklessly endangering, counterfeiting third degree, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, criminal sale of narcotics, possessing a controlled substance, possession of marijuana for sale, making false reports to law enforcement, and resisting arrest.”Muhammad Ndiaye, “a criminal illegal alien from Senegal, with previous arrests for domestic violence, robbery, receiving stolen property, burglary, fraudulent accosting, forgery, counterfeiting, sale of a controlled substance, obstruction, and disorderly conduct. He entered the U.S. on a B2 tourist visa that required him to depart in 1995.”Aboubakar Diakite, “a criminal illegal alien, with previous arrests for counterfeiting.”Sergigne Diop, “a criminal illegal alien from Senegal who entered the U.S. in April 2024 at the southwest border, was previously released into the U.S. by the Biden administration.”Alioune Sy, “an illegal alien from Senegal, entered the U.S. in May 2023 and failed to depart after his tourist visa expired.”Amadou Diallo, “a criminal illegal alien from Guinea who entered the U.S. November 2021 at the southwest border and was released by the Biden administration into the interior of the country.”Idy Sarr, “a criminal illegal alien from Senegal, issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge in 2010 and previously arrested for obstruction, possession of forged instrument, counterfeiting, failure to disclose origin of recording, drug possession, and criminal possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell.”Bokar Soko, “a criminal illegal alien from Mauritania, previously arrested for counterfeiting second degree THREE times. He entered the U.S. illegally on May 24, 2023, in a caravan of 26 people [and] was released by the Biden administration into the interior of the country.”Modou Mboup, “a criminal illegal alien from Senegal, previously assaulted Mexican law enforcement, and he entered the U.S. in September 2023 in a caravan of 140 people at the southwest border and was released by the Biden administration into the country.”

“Thanks to the New Yorkers who mobilized quickly. #ICEOutOfNYC,” New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said.

“Today [Trump’s] agents used batons and pepper spray on street vendors and bystanders on Canal Street. You don’t make New York safer by attacking New Yorkers,” Governor Kathy Hochul complained on X.

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​Politics 

House Democrats’ second in command provided a jaw-dropping justification for the suffering inflicted on American families during the government shutdown, and the White House is having none of it.

As the government shutdown approaches its fourth week, Americans are bracing themselves to miss paychecks and key government benefits like SNAP. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) admitted that the Democrat-induced government shutdown has been painful for families across the country but justified it because “it is one of the few leverage times [Democrats] have.”

‘At some point, the Democrats are going to have to take yes for an answer.’

“I mean, shutdowns are terrible,” Clark said in a recent interview. “Of course, there are going to be families that are going to suffer. We take that responsibility very seriously.”

RELATED: Democrat senator blocks vote to end shutdown to protest Trump’s ‘authoritarianism’ in drawn-out rant

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Democrats are holding federal paychecks hostage and using government benefits as leverage to accomplish a policy agenda Americans rejected at the ballot box last November. Rather than voting for the Republicans’ clean, nonpartisan funding bill, which notably keeps spending levels at the same rate Democrats voted for over a dozen times in the past, Democrats are set on ramming through their own policies.

The White House quickly condemned Clark’s comments, calling Democrats “sick” for using the American people as leverage.

“Not only are Democrats refusing to reopen the government and knowingly inflicting pain on the American people, but now they’re bragging about using struggling American families as leverage for their radical left agenda,” White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson told Blaze News. “These people are sick.”

The Democrats’ counter funding bill would cost taxpayers $1.5 trillion to effectively reverse every legislative accomplishment Republicans secured through President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Democrats are also demanding that Congress address Obamacare subsidies immediately despite the fact that they expire at the end of the year.

RELATED: Trump administration mocks outrage of ‘unhinged leftists’ as construction of ballroom begins at White House

Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Although Democrats have remained stubborn, their efforts are ultimately futile. Republicans hold a supermajority, meaning Democrats will never have the support to pass legislation on their own during this Congress. Even though Democrats are trying to force the GOP’s hand, top Republicans have maintained that they are not responsible for the shutdown and that it’s up to their colleagues across the aisle to do the right thing and reopen the government.

“If the Democrats want to talk about subjects unrelated to … getting the government open again, we’re happy to have those conversations,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday. “But we’ve repeatedly now gone through this, and at some point, the Democrats are going to have to take yes for an answer.”

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​Katherine clark, House democrats, Democrat leadership, Senate democrats, Donald trump, John thune, Senate republicans, House republicans, Obamacare, Aca subsidies, One big beautiful bill, Congress, Government shutdown, Continuing resolution, Spending fight, Snap, Politics 

More information has been released regarding Carlitos Ricardo Parias, the man federal authorities say attempted to use his vehicle to ram agents’ cars as they carried out his arrest before having to shoot him in self-defense.

Parias, originally from Mexico, was known to law enforcement prior to Tuesday’s shooting. He had established a social media presence by following U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol operations in the city and live-streaming their actions.

‘Vehicles are deadly weapons.’

Known as “Richard LA,” he was honored by the office of Democratic Los Angeles Councilman Curren Price with a “Certificate of Recognition” for documenting ICE operations on TikTok. Just after news broke of the shooting, Price’s official Instagram account posted a photo of Parias receiving the award, calling Parias a “fearless citizen journalist.”

Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli provided a screenshot of a video from the shooting incident on Tuesday appearing to show a suspect turning the wheels of his car while being boxed in by federal agents. Essayli identified the suspect as Parias.

“Parias rammed a Toyota Camry into the law enforcement vehicles in front of and behind him, spun the Camry’s tires, spewing smoke and debris into the air, causing the car to fishtail and causing agents to worry for their safety. An agent breaking the Camry’s driver’s side window was not enough to subdue Parias,” Essayli wrote.

A witness told Fox LA reporter Matthew Seedorff that agents attempted to arrest Parias for nearly 15 minutes before shots were fired. Sound from the video the witness provided indicated that someone was screeching car tires as Essayli described.

RELATED: DHS: Illegal alien shot after ramming federal vehicle during operation

City of Los Angeles

Parias and a U.S. marshal were wounded in the shooting. Both are expected to recover from their injuries, Essayli added.

Essayli revealed that Parias, “a 44-year-old illegal alien from Mexico living in South Los Angeles, is now charged in a criminal complaint with assault on a federal officer” and could face up to eight years in prison if convicted.

“Vehicles are deadly weapons,” Essayli continued. “Anyone who uses them against federal agents risks arrest, imprisonment, and life-threatening injuries. We will continue to use every tool in our legal arsenal to protect our agents and enforce immigration laws passed by Congress.”

As previously reported by Blaze News, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin blamed Democrats for creating a dangerous environment for federal agents carrying out lawful operations.

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​Politics 

A 42-year-old man followed another customer into the Pink Beauty Supply store in Compton, California, on Sunday afternoon and “groped her once inside” the store, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lieut. DeJong told KCBS-TV.

When employees told him to leave, the man allegedly refused and began to verbally assault them and some customers before he started throwing objects inside the store, KCBS added.

‘In this day and age where there are no boundaries and everyone believes that they can do whatever they want, without fear of prosecution or penalty, this is the proper way to handle it. Good for her.’

Employees and customers noted that the male had an object in his hand that they believed was a knife, the sheriff’s department said, adding that the male made verbal threats that he was going to kill and harm everyone in the store.

With that, one of the customers — not the one he allegedly groped — pulled out a gun, KCBS said.

Fearing for the store employees, herself, and other customers, the sheriff’s department said she fired a warning shot at the male. But the male turned toward her, officials said — and fearing she was going to be attacked, she fired a second shot, striking the male.

DeJong noted to KCBS that “he went down.”

RELATED: Gun-toting woman opens fire on career criminal amid alleged home burglary. Now crook’s career is over.

The sheriff’s department said the shooting took place just before 3:30 p.m. and that Compton Fire Department personnel responded and pronounced the male dead at the scene.

Investigators noted to KCBS that the woman who pulled the trigger was a customer at the store, and she remained at the scene to cooperate with officials.

Detectives added to the station that parking lot surveillance video indicates the man was loitering in the area and drinking alcohol.

“He alleged he was a gang member, and LASD says it appears he was a gang member; unknown if still active,” DeJong told KCBS while adding that the male had a lengthy criminal history that included assaults, robberies, thefts, and disturbing the peace.

The station said it’s unclear whether the woman will face any charges for the shooting, and it hasn’t yet been determined whether it was done in self-defense.

KNBC-TV said the woman is in her 50s, that she surrendered the gun, and that no one was arrested.

RELATED: Stalker shows up at woman’s workplace, begins punching her, cops say. But victim has a gun — and she uses it.

The sheriff’s department is asking the public for information about the shooting, noting that individuals can contact the sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Those who prefer to provide information anonymously can call “Crime Stoppers” by dialing 800-222-TIPS (8477) or use their smartphones by downloading the “P3 Tips” Mobile App on Google play or the Apple App Store or by using the Crime Stoppers website, officials said.

Nearly 5,000 comments have rolled into a Los Angeles Times story about the shooting, which Yahoo News republished. The latest reactions reflect strong support for the woman’s actions:

“Firing a WARNING SHOT was pure genius!” one commenter wrote. “Unfortunately, this criminal made a fatal decision by ignoring it! One less criminal on our streets! Congrats!””Another person [who] deserves to never pay for any alcohol in their area,” another commenter said. “Good job following through on the reason you carry in the first place. I know that was a very hard decision, but if it’s you or them, always choose them. She is a HERO and deserves a hero’s welcome.””In this day and age where there are no boundaries and everyone believes that they can do whatever they want, without fear of prosecution or penalty, this is the proper way to handle it,” another commenter noted. “Good for her.””Unfortunately, citizens are having to defend themselves more frequently these days, [and] her response was appropriate for the situation,” another commenter opined. “Given our legal system, he would have been out in hours and recommenced doing the same…””Justice can come swiftly and in different forms; he got his,” another commenter said. “Offenders beware: Many people [nowadays] are armed.”

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​Crime thwarted, Guns, Gun rights, 2nd amend., Los angeles county, Compton, California, Fatal shooting, Woman shoots male, Groping, Sexual assault, Beauty supply store, Threats, Self-defense, Crime 

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales has been called everything from a transphobe to a bigot for calling out drag performers as child groomers — but now she has some seriously damning receipts.

Kiba Walker, who goes by Salem Moon, is a man she has called out many times for his “all-ages” drag performances in Dallas, Texas. Recently, Walker even celebrated kicking Gonzales out of one of his drag shows.

“And in the words of our good friend who we removed from the building, Sara Gonzales, ‘The pressure worked, y’all.’ … She’s no longer here, and she’s not going to get in here and try to tarnish our amazing event,” Walker said.

While Walker sounded confident in his speech, Gonzales is having the last laugh.

“Well, it turns out that he was accused of trying to groom underage boys. Uh-oh,” she mocks. “Some trouble, some trouble for Kiba, who is the first to tell you that I’m the problem, I’m the crazy one.”

“I’m just a bigot for saying that perhaps it’s a bad thing when you have grown men who want to dress up and dance provocatively around young children. Maybe that’s a red flag we should be looking into,” she continues.

While she notes that Walker is “innocent until proven guilty,” she also has receipts.

“The victims have been posting about it online,” she says.

The first alleged victim goes by the online name “Blade” and posted a long exposé about Walker making advances toward him when he was a teenager.

“My experience with Kiba Walker (A.K.A. Kyle Davis or ElexVTuberEN). A recount of events from my teenage years that left me with lingering issues building trust and real connections with people. TW// Grooming, Pedophilia,” Blade wrote in a post on X, with a Google doc of his experience attached.

The grooming allegedly began when Walker slid into the 15-year-old’s DMs, offering him free singing lessons.

“Wow, what a nice gesture,” Gonzales scoffs. “That’s when he started littering in sexual references here, there. Oh, just a joke. They’re just jokes. Then that moved to flirting and then of course requests to trade nudes.”

Blade also recalled Walker sending him porn that he “liked” and making a “game out of trying to arouse him at school.”

“By the way, he also asked for videos of the kid jerking off. But I’m the witch, right? I’m just being transphobic. I’m just being transphobic for saying that any grown man who wants to perform like that in front of children is the problem,” Gonzales says.

Walker then apologized to the boy for making him uncomfortable by sexting him, and left him alone — but came back later when he was only 16 years old, at which point the unsolicited sexting got worse.

Another accuser compiled a document of similar evidence and shared it online as well.

“I know you’re sick. You’re sick to your stomach,” Gonzales tells her audience. “I’m sick to my stomach too. But I think it’s important that we expose these people for who they really are because I’m getting sick and damn tired of being told I’m just hateful.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Camera phone, Free, Sharing, Upload, Video, Video phone, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Drag queen, All ages drag show, Drag queen story hour, Dallas drag queen, Kiba walker, Salem moon, Grooming 

An Olympic gold medalist who failed gender testing has returned to competition for the first time.

Not to be confused with Algerian Olympic champion Imane Khelif — whose gender is confirmed to be male — Taiwan’s Lin Yu‑ting also brutalized women at the Paris 2024 Olympics under tough scrutiny.

‘Pan Yan-fei’s coach threw in the towel.’

The boxer dominated the women’s 57kg division last summer, despite having been disqualified by the International Boxing Association in 2023. That March, Lin was denied a bronze medal after failing to meet gender eligibility requirements. The IBA also disqualified Khelif from the same event, and the Algerian was later exposed as a male in three other reports.

Lin had not been seen in competition for over a year until his recent appearance at the Taiwan National Games. Reduxx reported that the competition does not have any known sex testing protocols in place, so the 30-year-old was allowed to compete in the women’s 60kg category.

It did not take long for Lin to overwhelm an opponent, defeating 19-year-old female Pan Yan-fei in just one minute and 34 seconds. After repeated punches to the head, Pan’s coach threw in the towel.

Pan was, “a little breathless because of being hit on the head,” Taiwanese outlet CNA reported. “Then Pan Yan-fei’s coach threw in the towel and gave up the game.”

If Lin wins the tournament, that would make six consecutive national titles for the controversial boxer.

The Trump Olympic ban

The controversy around Lin’s gender is parallel to Khelif’s, as the latter was proven by a multitude of sources to be, in fact, a male. However, less is known about Lin specifically, although it was discussed internally at the Olympics that the boxer had failed gender testing.

RELATED: Trump wins: US Olympic Committee bans men from women’s sports

Photo by MOHD RASFAN/AFP via Getty Images

The Guardian reported at the time that the International Olympic Committee had prior knowledge that Lin was “stripped of her bronze medal after failing to meet eligibility requirements based on the results of a biochemical test,” and noted such in its internal system.

This came after IBA president Umar Krevlev told Russian outlet TASS that both Lin and Khelif had “XY chromosomes.”

While the IBA has faced criticism over its credibility, it was proven to be right about Khelif.

Still, neither boxer is likely to see the ring at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. New IOC president Kirsty Coventry and President Donald Trump have made it clear that males will not be beating up females in the United States.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced a rules update in July that stated it would “ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201.”

Executive Order 14201, Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, bans males from participating in “all-female athletic opportunities” or entering “all-female locker rooms.”

After their Olympic performances, Lin and Khelif were not permitted to box in other competitions until Lin’s latest appearance.

Khelif, though, has vowed to compete in the 2028 Olympics and even submitted an appeal to World Boxing after being booted from a Dutch event in June. The boxer asked to be declared “eligible to participate in the 2025 World Boxing Championships from 4 to 14 September,” without having to submit to a genetic test.

The ban stood. Lin was also not permitted to compete at the world championships.

RELATED: New Olympic president strikes huge blow to transgender athletes ahead of 2028 games in LA

Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images

Lin’s latest opponent

Lin’s opponent, Pan, was a young boxer who was making her first appearance at the senior national games after winning a national high school title in 2023.

She previously competed in Taiwan’s under-22 category at 54-57kg.

Despite the brutal loss, event officials reportedly examined her after the fight, and she did not suffer any serious injuries. She was able to walk unaided and was described as stable.

Lin reportedly declined to be interviewed after the fight.

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​Fearless, Boxing, Women’s sports, Transgenderism, Woke, Olympics, Taiwan, Sports 

Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon is gunning for a record-breaking filibuster in hopes of blocking President Donald Trump’s “attempts to trample on the Constitution.”

Merkley began his filibuster Tuesday night in order to prevent Trump’s “authoritarianism” in the form of a clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution that Democrats have blocked nearly a dozen times. As of early Wednesday afternoon, over 18 hours into his Senate floor spectacle, Merkley appears to be aiming to beat New Jersey Democrat Sen. Cory Booker’s record-breaking 25-hour filibuster back in April.

Democrats’ $1.5 trillion funding bill aims to undo every policy implemented by Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Addressing an empty chamber, Merkley railed against Trump’s efforts to address crime in Portland after an appeals court ruled in favor of the administration deploying the National Guard.

“Portlanders have responded in a very interesting way,” Merkley said. “They are demonstrating with joy and whimsy.”

RELATED: Trump administration mocks outrage of ‘unhinged leftists’ as construction of ballroom begins at White House

Photo by Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images

The whimsical response from Portland residents included a horde of naked cyclists temporarily blocking an ICE facility’s driveway to protest the crime crackdown. Several arrests were later made after some protesters became rowdy, refusing to move out of the driveway.

“They want to make it clear to the world that what Trump is saying about there being violent protests or a rebellion in Portland,” Merkley said, “it’s just not true.”

RELATED: Appeals court rules Trump can lawfully order National Guard troops to Portland

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Due to Merkley’s drawn-out floor speech, the Senate has not been able to schedule another vote to reopen the government as the shutdown approaches its fourth week.

Democrats originally shut down the government after they blocked the Republican-led funding bill, allowing the September 30 deadline to lapse. Despite Democrat posturing, the GOP’s bill remains a clean continuing resolution with no partisan anomalies.

In contrast, the Democrats’ $1.5 trillion funding bill aims to undo every policy implemented by Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Democrats are also insisting on addressing Obamacare subsidies even though they expire at the end of the year.

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​Jeff merkley, Senate democrats, Filibuster, Cory booker, Government shutdown, Donald trump, Schumer shutdown, Portland, Crime crackdown, National guard, Politics 

As some of you may know, I am counsel to the plaintiffs, together with my co-counsel Ron Coleman, in the case 4chan Community Support LLC and Lolcow LLC dba Kiwi Farms v. the UK Office of Communications aka Ofcom.

That case concerns the question of whether the U.K. can enforce its domestic censorship laws within the United States. I am quite unable to talk about the legal aspects of the case, and I also do not discuss English law. This article is about general principles regarding cross-border enforcement of censorship codes, in particular EU law, as I observe a change of mindset among European lawyers as they start to ask hard questions about the offshore enforceability of their censorship laws.

This article also sets out a new doctrine for transatlantic free speech defense, a doctrine that can be used to beat inbound censorship and will eventually become more widely recognized in the U.S. and European legal communities, which I can sum up in one line: “The law of the server is the law of the (web)site.”

Or, for the more classically minded among you: Lex loci machinae.

We Americans already know that emailed demands from European speech and data protection regulators are not legally binding in the United States.

This article is prompted by a knowledge update published by London law firm Taylor Wessing about the 4chan litigation. TW correctly identifies the general legal point that, if Americans can obtain confirmation from U.S. courts that European notices sent by email are not legally binding, it’s not just the Online Safety Act that will become difficult to enforce — it’s the Digital Services Act and the EU General Data Protection Regulation too.

This is in contrast to other takes in the London legal market, such as this piece written by the London office of Katten — titled “A (Byrne &) Storm Is Brewing,” in reference to my law firm — warning Americans to not “ignore the Online Safety Act’s international reach.”

Respectfully, the United States, not Ofcom or the European Commission, sets the rules on what orders Americans may safely ignore in the United States. Although the Europeans may not know this, we Americans already know that emailed demands from European speech and data protection regulators are not legally binding in the United States. They’re also almost certainly unenforceable here even if validly served.

Although a new precedent would be nice, as a practical matter, we don’t especially need one — these points are largely settled law in the United States, and indeed there’s a recent example from February of earlier this year that, because it involved a couple of conservative social media websites, went largely unnoticed. Foreign censorship mandates are just something the U.S. judicial system hardly ever sees, because European censorship colonialism was fairly uncommon until this year. More on that below.

But back to the firm’s article, Taylor Wessing writes:

Scope creep: If the challenge is successful, it has potential implications for a range of other extra-territorial effect UK and EU laws subject to the wording of the judgment and the wording of the legislation in question. It may impact both how to enforce (ie whether it can be done by email or whether the Treaty procedure has to be followed), and whether enforcement is even recognised under US law. The Trump administration is already pushing back on what it sees as foreign interference with US companies as a result of recent EU and (to a lesser extent) UK digital legislation, so this challenge, if successful, could impact more than just the OSA.

As a general rule, laws are contained by sovereign boundaries: Legal notices issued in or by one country are not legally binding on persons or entities in any other country. This is an ancient principle of international comity, practically as old as the Westphalian system itself.

This can present some coordination problems among countries that share significant links, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, or the United States and many of the member states of the European Union. For this reason, the United States has executed treaties with these countries, either reciprocal treaties such as Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties for criminal proceedings or the Hague Service Convention for civil proceedings, to deal with the issue of what happens when a legal process in one country needs to have legal consequences in another.

RELATED: Britain’s Big Brother ID law is the globalist dream for America

Photo by SOPA Images / Contributor via Getty Images

Taylor Wessing observes that Ofcom, under the OSA, has the power to serve via email. The firm points out that in many European countries, “emails are routinely used to exchange official correspondence.”

“Official correspondence” here means legal orders. America does not, as a rule, use email to communicate legally binding orders, because the U.S. Constitution imposes due-process requirements that require judicial supervision of any process that would deprive Americans of their constitutional rights or compel the disclosure of information or the seizure of property.

Ergo, as I said to the BBC about the 4chan case a month ago, having chosen my words extremely carefully, “Americans do not surrender our constitutional rights just because Ofcom sends us an email.”

I’m sure a lot of lawyers in London read that and thought I was firing off a snarky quote as bluster and/or in lieu of a coarser retort to the U.K., to which I would remind them that Americans are, despite our reputation, quite capable of subtlety. In fact, I was communicating to European politicians that, to get an American to do something, you cannot simply send them a message. You must send them process. That process must comport with American due-process requirements, and in the case of a foreign order, that means utilizing the relevant treaty.

This brings us to the subject of the European Union.

As the EU seeks to export its regulatory schemes to American shores, practitioners would do well to remember that, where U.S. law is concerned, the rule that we will wind up applying here after enough litigation works its way through the courts is simple: The law of server is the law of the site.

The ruling on a motion for a TRO by the plaintiffs in Trump Media and Technology Group v. De Moraes — which held, while denying the TRO, that the service of the Brazilian censorship orders outside of a treaty procedure is of no force and effect in the U.S. — is the first time a component of this principle has won in our courts. There will be more such wins as the Europeans try to enforce their rules here.

Per the Court’s ruling in Trump Media:

The Court finds that the pronouncements and directives purportedly issued by Defendant Moraes, (Dkts. 16-1, 16-2, 16-3, 16-4, and 16-5), were not served upon Plaintiffs in compliance with the Hague Convention, to which the United States and Brazil are both signatories, nor were they served pursuant to the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the United States and Brazil. The documents were not otherwise properly served on Plaintiffs. Additionally, the Court is aware of no action taken by Defendant or the Brazilian government to domesticate the “orders” or pronouncements pursuant to established protocols.

For these reasons, under well-established law, Plaintiffs are not obligated to comply with the directives and pronouncements, and no one is authorized or obligated to assist in their enforcement against Plaintiffs or their interests here in the United States. Finally, it appears no action has been taken to enforce Defendant Moraes’s orders by the Brazilian government, the United States government, or any other relevant actor.

Lex loci machinae holds that an American company engaged in constitutionally protected conduct through the operation of a website must comply with the legal rules where it actually operates, not the legal rules of a much wider world in relation to which it has no connection, save that its American servers may merely be accessed from there remotely via the Internet.

European speech rules don’t govern American metal, American communications, and American conduct on American soil.

The United States has fought multiple wars to settle that issue. The case law is out there, too, if you want to look it up. When speech or the hosting of speech is lawful in the U.S. and the hosting and editorial acts occur here, no foreign regulator may compel acts on U.S. soil or export penalties into the U.S. by email. They must use the treaty and clear U.S. constitutional review.

An American site is only obliged to obey American law, and any purported foreign attempt to the contrary — to be properly served — must also comply with American law, namely the applicable treaty. For that demand to then be enforced, it must comply too with the rest of our laws, including the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments.

Sending an email that demands unconstitutional censorship, data disclosure, or self-incrimination — for example — doesn’t comply with any of that. This has not stopped Europe from sending America a great many emails, or from planning to send a great many more. Nor has it stopped Americans, for the most part, from obeying those emails, even when they don’t have to.

The failure of lawyers on two continents to notice or do very much to stop Europe’s failure to adhere to our due-process requirements has occurred, in my view, for two principal reasons:

First, because international law firms have, historically, largely refused to represent U.S. companies who were targets of global censorship efforts and therefore have no experience in this area; andSecond, because the Big Tech companies those law firms represented have, historically, been willing to comply with European rules as they have domestic European establishments, meaning that it doesn’t make a lot of business sense for them to consider their U.S. constitutional defenses.

To give you some idea of how thin Big Law’s bench is in this area, until Ofcom tried to extract a fine from 4chan, as far as I am aware, the only time a U.S. company has refused a European censorship fine — ever — was when the most long-standing of the European online censorship laws, the German “Network Enforcement Act,” known also as the “NetzDG,” purported to enforce a fine on U.S. social media company Gab, which operates a strict moderation policy that explicitly follows the U.S. First Amendment. Accordingly, for nearly a decade, Gab has been targeted for destruction by politicians and activist groups alike.

That particular German case was, again to my knowledge, also the only time that a U.S. MLAT procedure has ever been knowingly and intentionally utilized by a foreign government to try to restrain constitutionally protected speech and conduct. (The German Federal Office of Justice also fined Telegram in 2022, but Telegram is a BVI company with operations in the UAE and no operations in the U.S., hence not entitled to American constitutional protection.) This happened under the first Trump administration and later the Biden administration. I had a word with a couple of Hill staffers about it earlier in the year, and the notices from Germany have since ceased, presumably because they are now being blocked by the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Justice.

When contacted by Der Spiegel to explain its refusal, Gab replied plainly that “Germany lost the chance to regulate American free speech in 1945.” Gab was also one of Ofcom’s American social media targets, all four of whom I represent against the agency, and all four of whom, lawfully exercising their constitutional rights, refused Ofcom’s orders. I note for the record that, despite eight years of attempts, the Germans have not been able to enforce the NetzDG on American soil.

Because they can’t.

It is therefore unsurprising that there are few direct precedents in this area. It’s also entirely expected that it never occurred to anyone working at big law firms — with one notable exception, chiefly, counsel for the plaintiffs in Trump Media from Boies Schiller and DLA Piper — that funneling an EU regulatory demand through a treaty, where it would presumably go no further or expose itself to U.S. judicial or executive branch scrutiny, was a viable option. This is why law firms, particularly European law firms, are only starting to write public-facing notes about this now and — judging from the hedging in those notes — still haven’t wrapped their heads around the applicable law.

I would expect that the U.K.’s blitzkrieg global rollout of the OSA was enough of a shock that larger U.S. companies are starting to review their global compliance posture and are beginning to figure this out for themselves.

Popular U.S.-based image-sharing site Imgur certainly appears to have gotten the memo. The company, in response to a threatened U.K. regulatory fine, pulled out of the U.K., invoked the Constitution, and told British regulators to go to hell — a move that is being referred to as the “4chan maneuver” online.

Taylor Wessing’s note correctly identifies that practically all European tech regulation, including the EU DSA and the EU GDPR, is potentially vulnerable if U.S. companies decide to force European speech and data protection regulators to behave like any other European state or non-state actor, and render service through the treaties — service which may not be waved through (in the case of MLAT) or, if it gets through one way or another, becomes vulnerable to constitutional attack the moment it is properly served, if not sooner.

It is difficult to see how the EU’s tech regulations will be effective at carrying out their objectives at all if U.S. lawyers begin to challenge them, through our actions and in our courts.

It would be nice for the U.S. Congress to enact a law like the SPEECH Act that created more robust defenses for American companies and American internet users. In the meantime, American lawyers have plenty of procedural machinery available to us to bring foreign censorship to a grinding halt at our shores.

Europe will be able to do very little in the face of mass refusal of its orders and daring them to utilize a treaty procedure, and U.S. litigation, to attempt to enforce them in U.S. courts.

I doubt the Europeans have the stomach for that.

​Tech, Censorship, Uk, Eu 

Graham Platner, a Maine-based oyster farmer, announced in August that he was running as a Democrat to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins, quickly securing the endorsement of independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.).

While the entry of Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) into the race last week was undoubtedly bad news for Platner, competition from a geriatric fellow traveler is hardly the greatest threat now facing his campaign.

‘Graham has an anti-Semitic tattoo on his chest. He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff.’

Last week, a number of damning posts Platner previously made on Reddit came to light — including posts where he apparently identified as a communist, branded rural white Americans as racists, suggested service members worried about being raped should buy “Kevlar underwear,” and smeared all police officers as “bastards.”

Ken Martin, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told CNN that Platner’s posts were not disqualifying.

California Rep. Ro Khanna (D), who previously endorsed Platner, also rushed to defend the Democratic candidate, stating, “I respect Platner’s journey & the man he is today,” adding, “I stand by my endorsement. I won’t cower to the establishment.”

RELATED: ‘Cracks in the Schumer armor’: White House adviser says government shutdown may be ending soon

Rep. Rohit Khanna. Photo by PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images

Within days of Platner issuing an apology for his past remarks on Reddit and Khanna’s defense, the Collins challenger found himself once again having to address poor decisions from his past.

Footage recently went viral showing Platner lip-syncing to a Miley Cyrus song with his shirt off. Astute observers noticed in the newly resurfaced video that Platner had a “totenkopf” tattoo on his chest.

Totenkopf, which is German for “death’s head,” is a skull image popularized by Adolf Hitler’s Schutzstaffel elite guard and adopted as the symbol of the SS-Totenkopfverbande, the branch that guarded the concentration camps.

“It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” Platner said in a statement to Politico on Tuesday. “I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that — and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I am already planning to get this removed.”

Genevieve McDonald, who resigned as the political director of Platner’s campaign last week over the Reddit posts, noted in a Facebook post that “Graham has an anti-Semitic tattoo on his chest. He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff. Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means.”

McDonald suggested that Platner’s campaign released the footage “to try to get ahead of it.”

Blaze News has reached out to Sen. Collins’ office for comment.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee was among the groups that made hay of the tattoo, sharing a screenshot from the video and referring to the totenkopf image as a “Nazi tattoo.”

“This tattoo appears to be a ‘death’s head’ symbol used by the SS, the organization most responsible for the genocidal murder of 6 million Jews and millions of other victims during WWII,” Zach Schwartz, director of the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine’s Jewish Community Relations Council, said in a statement. “We hope that Mr. Platner would condemn, in no uncertain terms, the meaning behind this tattoo and everything it stands for.”

On the Monday episode of the podcast “Pod Save America,” Platner said, “I’m not a secret Nazi.”

“I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and anti-Semitism and racism in general,” added Platner, whose comment history on Reddit also hints at an affinity for Antifa.

Sanders has underscored his continued support for Platner’s campaign, suggesting to Politico that Platner got the Nazi tattoo while inebriated and is “not the only one in America who has gone through a dark period.”

“People go through that, he has apologized for the stupid remarks, the hurtful remarks that he made, and I’m confident that he’s going to run a great campaign and that he’s going to win,” added Sanders.

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) told Semafor on Tuesday that he too continues to support Platner, stating, “The Democratic Party needs to be big enough to accept people who have hard lives, who have made mistakes and have actually owned up to those mistakes. And that’s what he’s done.”

Heinrich, who has reportedly directed money from his leadership PAC to Platner, suggested that while he does not like some of the Maine candidate’s past remarks, he likes “what he’s campaigning on and the way he’s connecting to working-class voters.”

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​Graham platner, Platner, Bernie sanders, Ro khanna, Dnc, Senate, Susan collins, Leftism, Radical, Nazi, Totenkopf, Radicalism, Maine, Politis 

New details emerged Wednesday morning after a driver crashed a vehicle into a Secret Service barricade close to the White House.

On Tuesday night, a driver drove his vehicle into a Secret Service gate on 17th and E St, NW in Washington, D.C., at approximately 10:37 p.m. local time, a United States Secret Service spokesperson told Blaze News.

‘Charges for Unlawful Entry and Destruction of Government Property are currently pending.’

The suspect “was immediately arrested and transported to an area hospital for a mental health evaluation,” the spokesman added in an update to Blaze News Wednesday morning.

The Secret Service spokesperson said that “charges for Unlawful Entry and Destruction of Government Property are currently pending.”

RELATED: Suspect arrested after crashing vehicle into barricade near White House

Photo by Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

“We appreciate the swift actions of our Uniformed Division officers and are grateful for the Metropolitan Police Department for their prompt response,” the spokesperson concluded in the statement.

Blaze News contacted U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro’s office for comment on the pending charges.

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​Politics, White house, Secret service, Secret service spokesperson, Mental health evaluation, Unlawful entry, Destruction of government property, Jeanine pirro, Criminal charges, Us attorney jeanine pirro 

Like you, I take my phone everywhere. I check my email, I scroll X, I call my wife and ask her if there’s anything she needs me to pick up on my way home.

And I take photos and videos. Of everything. The lake, the gulls, the mountains, the houses, the flowers, the woods, my son, my daughter, my wife, my life. Every video in my phone is less than 30 seconds, and most aren’t more than 10.

Who would have thought that the iPhone would essentially eliminate what we used to call ‘home movies’?

A little clip of a deer behind the house. A shot of a kid cracking a wiffle ball or running the bases. My phone is full of these short little bursts.

That’s something different about our era. My parents didn’t take hundreds of five-second clips of my brother, sister, and me. They took long, 10-minute videos with a camcorder. Remember those?

Focus on the family

They’d record these long videos at birthday parties, in the car on family trips, or at my uncle’s cabin. A whole inning of Little League, the soft lull of conversation between Mom and Dad in the background. My mom would ask us questions, interviewing us kids like little adults for what felt like eternity, the zoom moving in and out as we reluctantly answered her questions.

Those old family videos feel so much slower and so much less frantic. I don’t know what it is exactly, but in the short ones on our iPhones, it feels like life is happening in a disjointed fashion. Or like people are performing. Or like everything is sped up 20%. I suppose it’s because we don’t get a sense for the scene or the place. We have no context. All we have is an eight-second clip and a question, years later, about where that was.

On the old videos, mom and dad would narrate in a kind of family documentarian way, as if curating historical footage for future reference. “So it’s August 17, 1996, and we are visiting Grandma at the cabin. It’s about 85 degrees, and this is the last trip of the summer. How’s everybody doing? What did you think, kids? Are you having fun?” Stuff like that.

Mom and dad would walk around the house with the camera, coming upon a kid in the bedroom reading or playing, film the kid from a distance, zooming in on fingers or eyes, the camera shaking.

They’d find my grandparents at the table and joke about a few things. My dad would zoom in on my mom getting dinner ready in the kitchen, the soft hum of the tape heard on the mic. My mom would frame a long shot of my dad, outside, smoking his pipe, reading.

Video vérité

Those long shots on the camcorders were slices of life as it really was. Watching the videos, you feel the time and place and even the real — or more real — behaviors of the people on the screen. Walking slowly with Mom or Dad around the house stirs memories of bedrooms, bathrooms, hallways, and living rooms in ways the short little iPhone clips can’t.

Realizing this, I bought an old camcorder. I found a Sony Handycam DCR-SR62 on eBay for 50 bucks and a battery on Amazon for 12.

It’s old-school but not too old-school. The most annoying thing about the old camcorders was the hassle of bringing analog footage into the digital age. If you want to transfer tape onto computer, it takes a long time. If you have a two-hour video, it takes two hours to get it on the computer.

What’s nice about the Sony Handycam model I bought is that there are no tapes or disks. All video is stored on an internal hard drive, which can then be transferred to your computer just as easily as you transfer photos from any digital camera. Essentially, you get the best of both worlds: digital transfer speed and long-form family video.

RELATED: Forget streaming — I just want my Blockbuster Video back

James Laynse/Getty Images

Real to reels

In theory, we should be able to record 10-minute slice-of-life videos on our iPhones. But we don’t. The format of the technology pushes us in a different direction. Consuming reels on Instagram nudges our tastes toward short-form portrait and away from long-form landscape.

The technology we use shapes the way we live. That’s obvious, of course, but it’s a realization that seems to be continually rediscovered, or revealed, in ways that we never could have anticipated. Who would have thought that the iPhone would essentially eliminate what we used to call “home movies”?

I took my Sony Handycam to the beach at the end of the summer. I filmed my kids eating string cheese and sharing a can of sparkling water. I zoomed in on sailboats in the distance, walked up and down the beach recording the kids running in front of me, and interviewed them just like my mom interviewed us.

“So it’s September 30, 2025, and we are at beach. How’s the food? Can you believe we are swimming in September? Did you guys jump in the water? What do we think, was it cold? What was your favorite thing we did this summer?”

​Men’s style, Lifestyle, The root of the matter, Sony handycam, Home movies, Iphones, Instagram, Family, Tech 

Prosecutors said Lawrence Davison forced his way into a Chicago woman’s home in the 2800 block of North Milwaukee Avenue around 11:30 p.m. Oct. 8, pointed a gun at her temple and mouth, threatened to kill her if she made any noise, and sexually assaulted her twice before running off with her belongings, CWB Chicago reported.

But Davison allegedly made a serious error.

CWB Chicago said state officials revoked Davison’s parole following this latest arrest.

Turns out that among the items the 36-year-old reportedly stole from the victim were her keys — and they had an Apple AirTag attached to them, police told the outlet.

And wouldn’t you know the AirTag led them straight to Davison, who police said was walking on the South Side hours after the attack, CWB Chicago noted.

When officers stopped him in the 400 block of West 77th Street, they also found a black Ruger .22 handgun and the victim’s ID while searching his black bag for the AirTag, the outlet said, citing a police report.

RELATED: Thugs on parole, probation thrown behind bars after allegedly repeating same crimes that got them in trouble previously

Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune

Judge Luciano Panici Jr. ordered Davison detained on charges of home invasion while armed with a firearm, committing a sex offense during a home invasion, two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault while armed with a firearm, and being a felon in possession of a weapon, CWB Chicago reported.

More from the outlet:

At the time of the attack, Davison was on parole for another violent home invasion, according to state records.

In April 2015, he broke into a 40-year-old woman’s home in the 9500 block of South Wentworth Avenue and struck her in the head with a baseball bat after she caught him burglarizing the residence, a CPD report said.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for charges including home invasion causing great bodily harm and was paroled in November 2023 after serving about 85% of the term.

CWB Chicago said state officials revoked Davison’s parole following this latest arrest and returned him to prison to serve the rest of his 10-year sentence, which is scheduled to end in November 2026.

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​Air tag, Chicago, Arrest, Repeat offender, Home invasion with a firearm charge, Home invasion with sex offense charge, Aggravated criminal sexual assault with a firearm charge, Felon in possession of a weapon charge, Dumb crook, Stupid criminal, Crime 

My high school history teacher, back in 1989, asked our class to name the single biggest problem facing the United States. We wrote our answers anonymously, and he tallied the results. When he read mine aloud — “the federal government’s debt” — he rolled his eyes, as if I’d said something idiotic.

I didn’t name debt nearly 40 years ago just because I think borrowing is bad. I named it because elected officials were already pretending deficit spending wasn’t a problem — and because no one seemed willing to hold the government accountable for it.

The more the Fed prints, the weaker the dollar becomes. The weaker the dollar becomes, the more the world doubts it.

Almost four decades on, nothing has changed. The problem has only grown — as every neglected problem does.

In 1989, the budget deficit was $153 billion. The total national debt stood at $2.86 trillion.

By 2024, the annual deficit had exploded to $1.8 trillion, and the total debt hit $35 trillion. Interest payments now consume 3% of GDP, and they’re still climbing. Meanwhile, the country faces $210 trillion in unfunded liabilities, mostly Social Security and Medicare.

The United States is broke. And Americans act as if it doesn’t matter.

Washington pretends everything’s fine

The federal government has been shut down for three weeks. Republicans want to keep spending at ruinous levels. Democrats want to spend even more ruinously. Both sides ignore the obvious: We’re bankrupt. And nobody in America seems to care.

Congress hasn’t passed a real budget since 1996. For nearly 30 years, lawmakers have funded everything through “continuing resolutions,” which automatically renew old spending and add new layers on top. Every “temporary” increase becomes permanent.

The 2009 “one-time” $831 billion stimulus? Still baked in. The $4.6 trillion COVID “relief” binge? Never rolled back. Dozens of other “emergency” expenditures have quietly become fixtures of federal spending.

Year after year, Washington keeps the faucet open — and the debt grows.

By 2024, U.S. GDP was $29.2 trillion. Federal debt was $35 trillion. That’s a debt-to-GDP ratio of 123%. And Washington keeps spending as if it can print reality.

No one in America seems to care.

The world is awakening

The rest of the world is starting to notice.

To fund its deficits, the U.S. Treasury sells bonds — IOUs that investors buy with the promise of repayment plus interest. Lately, those auctions have gone poorly. The world’s appetite for American debt is fading.

As one financial analysis put it: “Given the poor state of the American fiscal situation, auctions will likely remain large for the foreseeable future. The risk that markets will push back is rising.”

Another report warned that persistent $2 trillion deficits during peacetime raise “important questions about what might happen during a recession or war.”

When investors balk, the Federal Reserve steps in, printing money to buy the debt. That fuels inflation — the same inflation that has already stripped 87% of the dollar’s value since we abandoned the gold standard in 1971.

The more the Fed prints, the weaker the dollar becomes. The weaker the dollar becomes, the more the world doubts it.

The emperor’s new clothes

The only thing still propping up the dollar is its role as the world’s reserve currency — the global default for trade and central bank holdings since 1944. That status lets America keep spending money it doesn’t have. But the illusion can’t last forever.

RELATED: The American dream now comes with 23% interest

wenjin chen via iStock/Getty Images

The BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — are challenging the dollar’s dominance. They’ve added members such as Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia, the world’s second-largest oil producer, has been invited to join. At least 40 other nations are lining up.

As Business Insider put it, “BRICS is consolidating its global power and influence. This should be a key cause of concern for the U.S., as new members could amplify de-dollarization.”

So what has Washington done? Cut spending? Tighten the money supply? Restore fiscal sanity? Of course not.

Instead, the government rattles sabers. President Donald Trump recently threatened a 100% tariff on the BRICS bloc countries if they move to undermine the dollar — as if bluster could paper over decades of reckless spending.

The United States is broke but still pretending otherwise. Washington spends like a drunk who keeps ordering drinks on a canceled credit card. The world is beginning to call the bluff.

And the American people? They’re still sleepwalking — as they have been for decades.

​Opinion & analysis, National debt, Insolvency, Debt ceiling, Debt crisis, Dollar, Reserve currency, Economy, Economic collapse, Brics, Tariffs, Deficit, Central banks, Interest rates, Debt to gdp ratio, Recession, War, China, Credit, Budget deal, Government shutdown, Donald trump 

An all-female video game tournament was turned on its head when it allowed a male to compete and win an enormous cash prize.

A Fortnite gaming tournament called the Milk Cup says that it was created to provide women with more opportunities to succeed in video game competitions.

“It’s a space designed for women to compete at the highest level, for serious money,” the company says. However, it took just one year since the tournament’s inception for it to become dominated by a male.

‘It felt crazy to lift that trophy.’

The 2025 Milk Cup in San Diego, California, boasted a $300,000 prize pool and alleged $78,000 first-place prize. This year’s top prize was award to a duo of gamers going by “XSet” Nina Fernandez and allegedly transgender gamer Vader, a male who believes he is female. The pair placed second in 2024.

Vader celebrated the win on his X page, exclaiming, “1st ($78,000) at [Milk Cup] LAN WE F**KING DID IT.”

Nina and the tournament organizers similarly celebrated the victory online.

Vader’s X profile seemingly lists him as “18” years old, with a transgender flag next to the age. A gamer ranking website also lists him as born in July 2007. His Twitch profile describes him as using “she/her pronouns.”

“[Our win at Milk Cup] shows you can be your true self and not be apologetic about it,” Vader said on a post-match press panel, per ESports Insider. “There are spaces for everybody, so never give up.”

“It felt crazy to lift that trophy,” Vader added, saying he wanted to “prove people wrong.”

“Anybody can participate in esports. Don’t let people stop you. Don’t let comments get to your head. Believe in yourself.”

While online communities often cater to such delusions, it may come as a surprise that the tournament itself is backed by a nonprofit organization that operates under the United States Department of Agriculture.

RELATED: Gen Z gets the freedom to voice chat with strangers — and they can’t handle it

The website “Gonna Need Milk,” representing the organization behind the tournament, claims that “in a world where male athletes take center stage,” the organization is “redirecting the spotlight to women.”

The company further explains it is making an effort to, perhaps ironically, “drive awareness to gender inequality in sport.”

The bottom of the page denotes that the website is maintained and funded by MilkPEP, the Milk Processor Education Program, which came into existence after the creation of the Fluid Milk Promotion Act of 1990. The USDA’s National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board sponsors both MilkPEP and Gonna Need Milk.

At the same time, MilkPEP boasts that the tournament is run by a collaboration of all-female teams and that its program is “funded by the nation’s milk companies.”

RELATED: CRASH: Amazon Web Services outage cripples apps, megacorps, and doorbells, shocking a fragile America

Dan Wheldon celebrates his winning of the 89th Indianapolis 500 by drinking milk. Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images

Blaze News reached out to MilkPEP and Gonna Need Milk to see if they took issue with a male gamer winning the all-female tournament; neither entity responded.

The USDA was also asked if the inclusion of the male violated federal orders. A representative for the USDA said the agency could not provide a response to the question within a reasonable time frame due to “the ongoing government shutdown.”

Gamers Vader and Nina were also asked to comment on what the determining factors should be regarding allowing a male in the female category and whether they had a response to the backlash; neither responded.

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​Return, Gaming, Video games, Fortnite, Transgenderism, Women’s sports, Equality, Usda, Government, Ngo, Tech 

Health officials in California recently confirmed that monkeypox, a virus spread almost entirely in the West by and among homosexual men, has once again reared its ugly head in the United States.

The Oversight Project, a government watchdog group, is calling on policymakers poised to tackle the latest outbreaks to drop the political correctness that tripped up previous approaches to the disease.

Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News, “Public officials should be honest about how and where monkeypox is spreading, should not be worried about offending anyone, and should pull the fire alarm if animals and children start catching it.”

Monkeypox is a nasty disease caused by a virus in the same genus as the virus that causes smallpox. While endemic in various African regions, monkeypox made a global play in early 2022.

Individuals infected with monkeypox may experience a painful rash that can look like pimples or blisters, respiratory problems, exhaustion, fever, swollen lymph nodes, and chills. The disease can be spread via respiratory droplets, through “direct contact with a rash or sores of someone who has the virus,” and through “contact with clothing, bedding, and other items used by a person” with the virus.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine noted that of the 528 infections diagnosed between April 27 and June 24, 2022, 98% of those infected were homosexuals and that “transmission was suspected to have occurred through sexual activity in 95% of the persons with infection.”

RELATED: ‘Trans’ fad is dying out among American youth, and straightness is ascendant: Study

Photo by Ronaldo Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Months after then-President Joe Biden stated in May 2022 that “everybody should be concerned” about the virus, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra declared that a “public health emergency exists nationwide.” Numerous states including Illinois and New York subsequently rushed to declare statewide disaster emergencies.

‘They should shut down gay bathhouses.’

While the Biden administration and various state health authorities appeared willing to admit that the spread was predominantly among homosexuals, they nevertheless generalized the threat, glossed over the nature and locations of the spread, and refrained from cracking down on super-spreader venues in the same fashion they had when tackling COVID-19 — while in some cases fretting both privately and publicly about feeding into homosexuals’ “sexual shame and stigma.”

Such efforts to gloss over critical facts and to pretend the virus presented a danger to the general population evidently caused consternation behind the scenes.

The Oversight Project flagged, for instance, a May 27, 2022, email in which Dr. Stephanie Cohen, then-medical director of the San Francisco City Clinic, noted to other officials at the San Francisco Department of Public of Health that while she supported the “desire to not stigmatize gay men/MSM and agree that other populations can be affected, I worry a bit that we are not being fully transparent about current [epidemic].”

The Oversight Project noted that “officials were primarily concerned with not stigmatizing, the exact opposite of the COVID response.”

The watchdog group further revealed that while health officials around the country were well aware that the disease was being spread at LGBT events and homosexual venues such as bathhouses, they refrained from seeking health crackdowns on such locations.

The disease, which the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under Anthony Fauci was reportedly cleared to conduct gain-of-function experiments on, has apparently made a comeback.

Last week, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the City of Long Beach’s health department both confirmed new cases of monkeypox in their respective jurisdictions.

The announcements by both health authorities appear to have once again been worded to avoid stigmatizing homosexuals. The Long Beach health authority noted, for instance, that “Mpox can spread through specific behaviors, regardless of a person’s race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation.”

The Los Angeles County DPH, echoing the state health authority, did, however, note that the disease primarily impacts “communities of gay and bisexual men” and that risk can be mitigated by reducing the number of sexual partners, limiting attendance at “sex or circuit parties,” and refraining from sharing “fetish gear” and sex toys.

“Monkeypox is back. We encourage policymakers to follow the science instead of political correctness this time,” stated the Oversight Project.

When asked what prioritizing science over political correctness would look like in practice, Howell told Blaze News, “It means they should shut down gay bathhouses if they’re again epicenters for monkeypox.”

Editor’s note: Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.

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​Health, Healthcare, Homosexual, Gay, Bathhouses, Monkeypox, Monkey pox, Epidemic, Spread, Woke, Politics 

Late Tuesday night, a suspect was arrested after allegedly crashing into a barricade outside a Secret Service facility in Washington, D.C.

According to NBC News, the suspect rammed into a Secret Service barricade on 17th and E St, NW, less than a mile away from the White House.

‘The vehicle was assessed by Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department and deemed safe.’

The car reportedly crashed into the facility at 10:37 p.m. ET.

“At approximately 10:37 p.m., an individual drove a vehicle into the Secret Service vehicle gate located at 17th & E St, NW, in Washington, DC. The individual was arrested & the vehicle was assessed and deemed safe,” the U.S. Secret Service Office of Communications said on X shortly after the incident.

The statement continued, “Our investigation into the cause of this collision is ongoing.”

RELATED: Trump administration mocks outrage of ‘unhinged leftists’ as construction of ballroom begins at White House

Photo by Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

In a statement to Blaze News Wednesday morning, the USSS shared similar information: “On Tuesday, October 21, at approximately 10:37 p.m., an individual drove his vehicle into the Secret Service vehicle gate located at 17th and E St, NW, D.C. The individual was immediately arrested by U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division officers, and the vehicle was assessed by Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department and deemed safe. Additional information will be provided upon conclusion of the investigation.”

The suspect’s identity has not been released. Authorities have not publicly shared any cause of the crash or whether it was intentional.

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​Politics, Secret service, White house, Vehicle crash, White house grounds 

This was supposed to be the year for ultrathin smartphones, with Apple and Samsung both debuting their thinnest flagships ever, the Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air. Seemingly breaking the boundaries of physics, both phones feature razor-thin chassis packed with the usual high-performance chips, sensors, and storage. However, instead of hailing a new era of uber-thin tech, recent sales paint a much more dismal picture for the emerging phone category.

When ‘thin’ is ‘too thin’

At first glance, the Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air are both stunning. Measuring just 5.8mm (0.22in) thick for the Samsung contender and 5.6mm (0.22in.) thick from Apple, they are manufacturing marvels, packing all of their important components into impossibly small frames — a feat that simply wasn’t possible several years ago.

Both phones are also surprisingly durable, with the Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air passing JerryRigEverything’s famous torture test. Unfortunately, while these phones are impressive to see and hold, their shortcomings are too big to ignore.

It’s hard to convince folks to spend so much money on a phone that does less.

The first big downside is battery life. There’s only so much battery that can fit inside a 0.22-inch body, and with dated lithium-ion tech still the powerhouse of choice, it’s no wonder that these ultrathin phones struggle to get through a day of mild to heavy use on a single charge. The Galaxy S25 Edge reportedly ran for 12 hours and 38 minutes in Tom’s Guide’s battery test, and the iPhone Air netted 12 hours and 2 minutes in the same test. To compare, that’s about five hours less battery life than the Ultra/Max versions, respectively.

The second major drawback is the camera system. Both phones have fewer camera modules than their Pro counterparts, and they’re also missing the hybrid zoom features found in the flagship versions. So if you’re a photographer who wants the best camera on a smartphone, Galaxy Edge and iPhone Air are nonstarters.

Third is the price. They’re expensive, with the Galaxy S25 Edge starting at $1,099.99 and the iPhone Air at $999. Impressively sleek designs aside, it’s hard to convince folks to spend so much money on a phone that does less, especially when the base models are cheaper and the flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max continue to outsell all other models.

The underperforming Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air.Image credit: Zach Laidlaw

Dead on arrival

While Apple and Samsung thought they could wow consumers with their ultrathin phones from the future, users thought otherwise. After five months on the shelf for the Galaxy S25 Edge and half that time for iPhone Air, both phones are lagging in sales.

According to investment banking firm Mizuho Securities via the Elec, Apple already cut production of the iPhone Air by 1 million units, a move that could seriously impact the future of the product line. As for Samsung, the news is even more dire. South Korean outlet Newspim reported that the next-generation Galaxy S26 Edge was shelved due to poor S25 Edge sales.

The ultra-slim phone category is effectively dead for Samsung, and it’s on life support for Apple. If the two largest phone manufacturers on the planet can’t make thin phones stick, there isn’t much hope for other OEMs.

Can anything save the ultrathin phone market?

Users will continue to reject ultrathin phones until some of their drawbacks are addressed. Luckily, the biggest hurdle has a solution that’s currently in development — batteries. Despite all the advancements in consumer technology, batteries have largely remained the same. Lithium-ion technology, which first emerged in the 1970s, is still the gold standard, thanks to its durability, longevity, and high power capacities. But as the limits of lithium-ion batteries meet their match inside the thinnest phones ever built, the industry needs a next-generation solution that can hold even more power in tight spaces.

RELATED: These new smartphone cameras make spying on you as easy as point and shoot

Photo by VCG/Getty Images

Silicon carbon and graphene batteries are the most likely candidates. Both alternatives hold more power than their lithium-ion cousin, which is exactly what manufacturers need. Unfortunately, there are several fatal flaws that, so far, have kept them from going mainstream.

Silicon carbon batteries aren’t as structurally stable as lithium-ion. They swell over time, a big red flag in a sleek device where every millimeter of space counts. Graphene batteries, on the other hand, suffer from low yields and mass production issues that make them difficult to produce at scale, at least for now.

Ultrathin smartphones are stunning pieces of tech, with their slim designs, durable frames, and feather-light materials, but aside from sheer vanity, they’re a tough sell. They come with too many compromises to make them a good buy for most users. Manufacturers like Apple and Samsung must solve these shortcomings before the ultrathin phone market has a shot at success. Sadly, by the time they figure it out, there may be no room for an ultrathin phone category at all.

​Tech, Culture 

A Michigan woman has been arrested after several children allegedly described horrific sexual abuse while she babysat them over many years, according to police.

Gaila Bennett, 63, from Midland was charged with 48 counts related to the alleged abuse after a family contacted Tri-City Post police in October.

Bennett is also alleged to have given the children unknown medication.

The family said that Bennett babysat their children at her home in Midland and sexually assaulted them between 2013 and 2020.

Troopers obtained Bennett’s electronic devices while serving a warrant at her home on Prairie Road in Midland County on Oct. 17.

Four days later, she was arraigned on dozens of charges, including 24 counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, 12 counts of criminal sexual conduct in the second degree, and 12 counts of assault with intent to commit sexual penetration.

The children said that she would pose them in sexually explicit situations and create images of them. They alleged inappropriate touching and sexual penetration.

Bennett is also alleged to have given the children unknown medication as well as rub soap in their eyes.

One of the children said that Bennett allegedly threatened to lock the girl in a woodshop all day if she refused to participate in the abuse.

The children underwent forensic examination at the Bay County Child Advocacy Center after reporting the abuse on Oct. 5.

RELATED: Kidnapped 5-year-old saved after she yelled to her neighbors about a ‘monster’ who allegedly killed her father

Police said that additional counts could be filed against Bennett as the investigation is ongoing.

Bennett was arraigned in Midland County District Court on Monday. She remains in custody on a bond of $5 million.

Bennett’s next court hearing is Nov. 4.

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​Gaila bennett, Horrific child sex abuse material, Midland michigan abuse, Babysitter abuse, Crime 

For decades, we’ve been told America’s wars are about drugs, democracy, or “defending freedom.” But look closer at what’s unfolding off the coast of Venezuela, and you’ll see something far more strategic taking shape. Donald Trump’s so-called drug war isn’t about fentanyl or cocaine. It’s about control — and a rebirth of American sovereignty.

The aim of Trump’s ‘drug war’ is to keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

The president understands something the foreign policy class forgot long ago: The world doesn’t respect apologies. It respects strength.

While the global elites in Davos tout the Great Reset, Trump is building something entirely different — a new architecture of power based on regional independence, not global dependence. His quiet campaign in the Western Hemisphere may one day be remembered as the second Monroe Doctrine.

Venezuela sits at the center of it all. It holds the world’s largest crude oil reserves — oil perfectly suited for America’s Gulf refineries. For years, China and Russia have treated Venezuela like a pawn on their chessboard, offering predatory loans in exchange for control of those resources. The result has been a corrupt, communist state sitting in our own back yard. For too long, Washington shrugged. Not any more.

The naval exercises in the Caribbean, the sanctions, the patrols — they’re not about drug smugglers. They’re about evicting China from our hemisphere.

Trump is using the old “drug war” playbook to wage a new kind of war — an economic and strategic one — without firing a shot at our actual enemies. The goal is simple: Keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

Beyond Venezuela

Just east of Venezuela lies Guyana, a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map a year ago. Then ExxonMobil struck oil, and suddenly Guyana became the newest front in a quiet geopolitical contest. Washington is helping defend those offshore platforms, build radar systems, and secure undersea cables — not for charity, but for strategy. Control energy, data, and shipping lanes, and you control the future.

Moreover, Colombia — a country once defined by cartels — is now positioned as the hinge between two oceans and two continents. It guards the Panama Canal and sits atop rare-earth minerals every modern economy needs. Decades of American presence there weren’t just about cocaine interdiction; they were about maintaining leverage over the arteries of global trade. Trump sees that clearly.

RELATED: A war on Venezuela would be a war on reality

Photo by PEDRO MATTEY/AFP via Getty Images

All of these recent news items — from the military drills in the Caribbean to the trade negotiations — reflect a new vision of American power. Not global policing. Not endless nation-building. It’s about strategic sovereignty.

It’s the same philosophy driving Trump’s approach to NATO, the Middle East, and Asia. We’ll stand with you — but you’ll stand on your own two feet. The days of American taxpayers funding global security while our own borders collapse are over.

Trump’s Monroe Doctrine

Critics will call it “isolationism.” It isn’t. It’s realism. It’s recognizing that America’s strength comes not from fighting other people’s wars but from securing our own energy, our own supply lines, our own hemisphere. The first Monroe Doctrine warned foreign powers to stay out of the Americas. The second one — Trump’s — says we’ll defend them, but we’ll no longer be their bank or their babysitter.

Historians may one day mark this moment as the start of a new era — when America stopped apologizing for its own interests and started rebuilding its sovereignty, one barrel, one chip, and one border at a time.

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​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Venezuela, Venezuelan strike, Drug war, Drug wars, Us caribbean drills, Monroe doctrine, Trump doctrine, Donald trump, National defense, National interest, Navy, Marco rubio, Guyana, Colombia, Cocaine, Fentanyl, China, Russia, Oil, Energy independence, Rare earth minerals, Realism