Category: blaze media

United States Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra says Washington has lost patience with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s handling of trade negotiations — and sees little reason to make further concessions.

“We thought we had reached an agreement on two occasions with Canada. On two occasions now, Canada has walked away from an agreement,” Hoekstra said in an interview with Blaze News. “As people from our side look at it, you know, this is the best trade agreement that anybody in the world has been offered. And if that’s not good enough for Canada, you know, hey, we’ll wait. We’ll wait for Canada to come back and … ask to go back to the negotiating table.”

‘If the Canadian government wants the Canadians to see the elements of a trade deal, it’s the Canadian government’s responsibility to release them.’

Hoekstra suggested that repairing relations will require more than resolving differences over tariffs. Anti-American rhetoric from Canada’s federal and provincial governments, he said, has changed how Washington views its northern neighbor.

Hard bargain

“We no longer necessarily view Canada as Canadians liking America. You have multiple numbers of your premiers who are saying, ‘Do not travel to the United States.’ I think you now have 11 provinces and territories that ban American alcohol. You have another that has put 50% tariffs on it. So that’s 12 out of 13.”

The ambassador was particularly incredulous at Carney’s characterization of the trade dispute.

“You call a trade disagreement where, for a period of time, you were getting 93% to 95% of trade across the border tariff-free … you call that a trade war, OK?”

Canada’s rejection of the proposed agreement remains a source of contention. Carney has argued that American negotiators demanded concessions that would compromise Canadian sovereignty, including protections for French-language rights and Quebec culture. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has disputed Canada’s characterization of the negotiations.

Carney has refused to release the proposed agreement, even to Official Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre, leaving Canadians unable to examine the terms for themselves.

Asked whether Washington would make the proposal public, Hoekstra placed the responsibility squarely on Ottawa.

“If the Canadian government wants the Canadians to see the elements of a trade deal, it’s the Canadian government’s responsibility to release them. We have decided not to release them.”

European vacation

Meanwhile, Carney has been pursuing closer economic and political ties with the European Union. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently floated the possibility of making Canada the EU’s first “associate member,” an arrangement whose terms have yet to be defined.

Hoekstra indicated that Washington would assess the consequences once Ottawa decides how far it intends to go.

“We’re more than willing to let Canada go through this process, determine exactly what it’s going to do with the EU as an associate member, and we’ll then take a look at how that may impact the relationship with the United States, either militarily or economically.”

Canada’s growing relationship with China is another source of friction. Hoekstra warned that steel, aluminum, and other Chinese materials could enter the United States through Canadian products, circumventing American trade restrictions.

“Transshipment is a huge irritant,” he said.

Hoekstra argued that the practice allows Chinese producers to compete unfairly with American manufacturers.

“It’s not putting Canadians to work except maybe shaping the steel and the aluminum, but it’s putting Americans out of work through unfair competition because they are using … in some cases … slave labor.”

RELATED: Want to avoid fixing Canada’s problems? Just blame Trump.

Bloomberg/Shauna Clinton/Getty Images

Mission to Mars?

The ambassador was less concerned about the possibility of an outright military confrontation between the two countries.

Asked about a recent New York Times interview in which Carney acknowledged considering the “extreme tail risk” of an American invasion of Canada, Hoekstra recalled an American general’s response to a similar question in Vancouver.

“I think one of our generals answered that question very effectively when he was asked about this a couple of weeks ago in Vancouver. ‘Yeah, and after that, why don’t you ask me about our plans to invade … the Martian soil.’”

Hoekstra’s outspoken style has irritated Canadian politicians, some of whom have even supported a petition to have him sent back to Washington.

The ambassador joked that not all of the petition’s supporters would be Canadian.

“If you see an American out in front of Parliament gathering signatures, it very well could be my wife.”

​Us trade representative, Canada, Trade, Mark carney, Donald trump, Pete hoekstra, Ambassador to canada, Lifestyle, China, Eu membership, Letter from canada 

A 77-year-old woman was in the parking lot of a Florida veterinary clinic before 4:30 a.m. Monday when investigators said a male attacked her, WJXT-TV reported.

The woman was at the Macclenny location at that hour because she regularly volunteers to feed community cats at local businesses, Baker County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Dave Mancini told the station later that day.

‘We usually don’t have things like that happen here.’

Mancini added to WJXT that deputies and county residents know the woman well because of her work in animal rescue.

Deputies responded to the parking lot following reports of gunfire, the station said, adding that the 77-year-old woman opened fire in self-defense at the male who attacked her.

The male in question was identified as 57-year-old Alvin Tyrone Tisdale of Macclenny, WJXT said, adding that he was taken to UF Health in downtown Jacksonville, where he died from his injuries.

The sheriff’s office told the station that the woman called 911 to report the shooting and has been cooperating with law enforcement; no arrests have been made, and the shooting remains under investigation.

Veterinary hospital staff noted to WJXT that they arrived for work after the shooting scene had been cleared and did not witness the incident.

RELATED: Top 5 of 2025: Women who fought back when coming face-to-face with crooks

Local residents were shocked by the incident but were grateful that the woman was able to defend herself, the station said.

“We usually don’t have things like that happen here. It’s unfortunate for sure,” Todd McRae told WJXT, adding that while he is sad about the violence, he is glad that the woman protected herself.

Another Macclenny resident, Samuriah Major, told the station that she feels similarly: “I feel like everyone should use self-defense in that scenario, but it’s sad on both ends. Domestic violence is real these days, and women reacting and defending themselves, finally standing up for themselves, because usually in this case it would be the woman dying.”

Those with information about the incident are asked to contact the sheriff’s office at 904-259-0251 or submit an anonymous tip to First Coast Crime Stoppers at 866-845-8477.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Elderly woman, Physical attack, Florida, Gun, Gun rights, Self-defense, 2nd amendment, Fatal shooting, Crime 

Eleven years after Donald Trump’s rise, the Republican Party still has not broken with the business interests that depend on cheap, abundant migrant labor. A handful of conservatives want to shut off the employment spigot and reduce both illegal and legal immigration. But too much of the party remains willing to protect longtime illegal workers in agriculture, expand guest-worker programs, or legalize workers already here when employers insist they cannot operate without them.

That’s the real fault line. Almost every Republican says border chaos is bad. The harder test comes when immigration enforcement raises labor costs for industries dependent upon a large foreign workforce.

When a party’s voters and its governing class want fundamentally different things on a defining issue, eventually the contradiction must break somewhere.

For years, Republicans have talked about focusing deportations on criminal aliens while treating workers in agriculture, hospitality, and other favored industries differently. That approach leaves the cheap labor pipeline largely intact. If employers can continue hiring illegal labor with little consequence, the incentive to come and remain does not disappear.

Republicans simply won’t protect our nation’s sovereignty. Instead, they build up a false dichotomy that points to one solution: amnesty.

Senator Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) made the tension explicit last month. He told Politico that ICE can get “carried away” and questioned “dragging people away that have lived on your street corner for 15 years.” He later issued a statement saying he supports Trump’s immigration strategy “full stop,” while emphasizing the removal of dangerous criminals.

Justice serves one of the most anti-illegal alien states. He did not endorse blanket amnesty outright. He didn’t need to. His comments reveal how quickly the politics change once enforcement reaches local industries and communities that have become addicted to illegal labor.

The same pressure surfaced in southwest Kansas after ICE operations disrupted meatpacking towns. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) complained that local law enforcement had not received adequate notice and said the operations caused “mass disruptions to local communities and businesses.” Enforcement, he said, should be done “in a responsible and secure manner.” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) likewise urged coordination with local police and said DHS told him the operation targeted people with criminal warrants.

Their complaint was about tactics and coordination, not ICE’s legal authority to remove illegal aliens. Still, the episode underscores the problem: Enforcement remains popular in the abstract until it collides with an employer’s workforce. Clearly, the problem is worse than we thought.

Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R) of Florida has gone further. In a campaign ad, she told Trump that some enforcement efforts had “gone too far” and said Hispanic voters who backed him in 2024 “feel betrayed.” Salazar explicitly said she was not proposing amnesty. But she has long favored a “legal-status framework” for many illegal immigrants already living and working here. In other words, amnesty.

RELATED: Kansas Republicans muddy the waters on ICE enforcement

Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

The guest-worker side of the equation is even clearer.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson (R-Penn.) introduced the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act with 50 co-sponsors. The bill would allow H-2A labor certifications lasting up to three years, make it easier to transfer guest workers between employers, and let certain illegal farmworkers who were already here and had worked in agriculture apply for H-2A status. That is not citizenship, but it is a legalization mechanism tied directly to agricultural employment.

The administration has moved in the same direction on temporary labor. For fiscal year 2026, DHS and the Labor Department authorized up to 64,716 additional H-2B visas on top of the statutory cap for seasonal non-agricultural workers.

H-2A has no numerical cap. In October 2025, the Labor Department changed the methodology used to set the program’s minimum wage. The department itself estimated the rule would produce $2.46 billion in annualized wage transfers from H-2A workers to employers. A federal judge ruled the methodology unlawful in August but did not vacate the rule, leaving the wage rates in place while the litigation continues.

Whatever one thinks of the legal dispute, the economic direction is obvious: Washington is making foreign farm labor cheaper and easier to use.

In July, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) led a bipartisan letter — joined by six Republican senators and a number of House Republicans endorsed by Trump — asking the administration to reduce processing delays and structural barriers in the H-2A program. The letter did not ask Congress to raise a visa cap, because H-2A has none. It asked the executive branch to make the existing pipeline work more smoothly.

Sadly, this is not a fringe position inside the GOP. The cheap-labor lobby remains deeply embedded in the party’s agricultural and business wings.

Consider Nebraska. Gov. Jim Pillen (R) has embraced Trump’s immigration-enforcement agenda, yet a New York Times and Flatwater Free Press investigation found that Pillen Family Farms had employed undocumented workers at at least 20 hog farms. Court records showed at least a dozen workers charged with using fake or stolen IDs between 2015 and 2024. Pillen and the company say they never knowingly hired illegal workers and that the business now uses E-Verify. Still, it’s worth noting that Pillen’s farms have never been raided by ICE.

RELATED: The promise was mass deportation. The policy is carve-outs.

Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Republicans often treat illegal farm labor as the least objectionable form of illegal immigration. In reality, it may be among the most transformative.

Over the past few decades, large agricultural employers have reshaped rural communities across the Great Plains by relying heavily on immigrant labor. In Schuyler, Nebraska, roughly three-quarters of the population is Hispanic, while 27% of students in the Central Nebraska school district are foreign-born — figures more commonly associated with major metropolitan areas like New York and San Francisco.

The political divide is less about whether mass immigration transforms communities than about where that transformation occurs. Democratic interests tend to favor it in large cities; Republican-aligned agricultural interests have helped bring it to rural America.

When a party’s voters and its governing class want fundamentally different things on a defining issue, eventually the contradiction must break somewhere. The Republican Party itself was born in 1854 when the old party system fractured over the expansion of slavery into the territories.

If Republicans cannot choose between an immigration policy built around American workers and one built around employers’ demand for ever more labor, voters may eventually make the choice for them — and let this party go the way of the Whigs.

​Agriculture, American workers, Amnesty, Deportations, Illegal immigration, Labor department, Republican party, Opinion & analysis 

An apparent fetishization of religious “diversity” had officials in an Iowa city permit a satanic invocation prior to conducting official business on Tuesday. While many at the meeting appeared willing to put up with the infernal appeal, one Christian man stood up and spoke out.

How it started

Ottumwa, a city in Southeast Iowa, adopted a policy on Jan. 20 allowing for invocations to be given at the start of official city council meetings.

‘That’s not welcome here.’

“This policy is intended to acknowledge and express the City Council’s respect for the diversity of both organized and unorganized religious denominations, as well as other faiths, belief systems, or the lack thereof, represented and practiced among the citizens of the City of Ottumwa,” the policy states.

Per the policy, invocational speakers are to be “selected without preference to any specific religion, belief, faith, or ideology, from amongst a diverse pool of Ottumwa citizens” and are asked not to proselytize, disparage other beliefs, and to keep their invocation under two minutes in length.

Summoning the devil

Matthew Dalbey, a former Ottumwa city council member, seized upon the opportunity not only to offer a prayer down to the devil but to violate the city’s policy by taking a general dig at the beliefs of others.

“Let us pray,” started Dalbey. “Dear dark father, let us stand now unbowed and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds in darkened times. Let us embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge and dissipate our blissful and comforting delusions of old.”

RELATED: Inside the mind of a Catholic exorcist: Fr. Chad Ripperger talks shop with Shawn Ryan

Dalbey is a member of the Iowa chapter of the Satanic Temple. While Dalbey told KTVO-TV that he and other members of the Satanic Temple don’t actually believe in Satan or worship him, the anti-Christian group and its members certainly behave as though they do.

After all, in recent years, the Satanic Temple has erected statues of Baphomet on government property around Christmastime; offered expectant mothers telehealth abortion services and promoted an “abortion ritual”; challenged pro-life legislation; distributed satanic literature to children; publicly performed “unbaptisms”; held a demonization ceremony in protest of the canonization of the Catholic Spanish priest Junípero Serra; and promoted euthanasia and pornography.

After imploring the devil to help the Iowans present to turn against ancient beliefs and deriding “arbitrary social norms,” Dalbey championed “agnosticism in all things” and called for opposition against any “arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty of one or all.”

The radical concluded his prayer with “hail Satan.”

Righteous indignation

New Life Center Pastor Rick Bick refused to let the satanic prayer go unchecked.

Bick — who made an invocation prior to a council meeting earlier this year and is set to do so again in December — declared, “Let’s just reverse that curse that was just put on our city.”

“That ending with, ‘hail Satan’ and ‘hail dark god’?” continued the pastor. “That’s not welcome here.”

‘I am a Christian man with Christian values so I chose not to participate.’

Bick reiterated that the satanic prayer was a curse on this city and noted, “Most of you know that, and we just need to stop and reverse it.”

Ottumwa Mayor Benjamin Foote attempted to defuse the situation by calling for a “moment of silence to reflect on whatever it is we need to reflect on at this time.”

Cara Galloway, the council member who cast the lone vote against the invocation policy in January and reportedly warned about the inevitability of a satanic prayer, noted at the end of the meeting on Tuesday that selectively objecting to invocations now may expose taxpayers to legal liability.

The City of Ottumwa issued a statement on Tuesday, noting, “It is very clear that many of you have watched at least the first two minutes of the October 6 City Council meeting.”

The city underscored that it “cannot discriminate against a denomination and everyone that is invited to perform the invocation has followed the correct protocol.”

Councilman Bill Hoffman told Blaze News, “We as elected officials are not aware of the content before hand. In my opinion, I do not believe this one invocation expresses the beliefs of most of Ottumwa.”

“Personally as a councilman, I only speak for myself, I did not stay in the room during the invocation as I do not agree with the content,” continued Hoffman. “I am a Christian man with Christian values so I chose not to participate, and I stepped into the hallway and did a personal prayer to God for strength and wisdom for myself and to watch over our city.”

Other members of the council and Mayor Foote did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ requests for comment.

The satanic invocation has prompted widespread outrage.

“WTF,” tweeted BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales.

Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines wrote, “Jesus, come back now.”

BlazeTV host Steve Deace suggested, however, that it is par for the course in the Hawkeye State: “To be fair, Democrat candidate for congress @SarahforIowa does preside over Satanic weddings.”

Sarah Trone Garriott, a leftist Lutheran minister who is presently running against Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, has helped oversee at least one “wedding” for satanists. In 2023, she discussed her efforts to accommodate disciples of the fallen on their big day, going so far as to consider readings about the devil “to make them feel more comfortable.”

As of Thursday morning, Blaze News’ Poll Watch has Nunn with a 6-point lead.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Satanic temple, Faith, Religion, Iowa, Christianity, Satanism, Prayer, Politics 

Apple Watch is many things — a techie timepiece, a notification aggregator, and perhaps a vital lifeline in an emergency. While some medical events are impossible to predict, you might be surprised to know that you have more early detection tools within reach than you think. Here are six features on Apple Watch that could save your life.

From the early days of Apple Watch, the Cupertino tech giant has focused heavily on fitness features to prolong longevity. Heart rate tracking, exercise goals, and activity badges can all help users lead healthier, more active lives. We’re not talking about those today, though. We’re looking at a set of features that can help you detect health problems you didn’t know you had and, in some cases, alert emergency services if you become incapacitated during a serious medical event.

It can tell you things you didn’t know about your body so you can seek care before an alert becomes a serious event — or worse.

To make the most of this guide, you’ll need a compatible Apple Watch, as well as a paired iPhone. However, the first couple of items are also iPhone-centric, so even if you don’t have all the necessary hardware, you can still enjoy some extra peace of mind.

Medical ID

Medical ID is the hub where you can store all of your important medical information — your name, age, medications, allergies, list of emergency contacts, health conditions, height, weight, and any other notes you wish to include.

To set up Medical ID, open the Settings app on iPhone, tap on “Apps” at the bottom, then “Health,” and finally, “Medical ID.” Then select “edit” in each section to add your information.

Not only is this a neat record to track your own health data, but Medical ID is also easily accessible to anyone who can reach your phone. Why? Because if you’re having a medical event, a stranger, a paramedic, or a health care worker may need quick access to your health conditions to help figure out what’s wrong. To bring up Medical ID, power on any iPhone from the lock screen, let the passcode fail to authenticate, then tap “Emergency” in the bottom left corner, and tap “Medical ID.”

Emergency SOS

Emergency SOS works well in two situations. If you’re having a medical event and you’re still conscious, or if you’re in trouble and in need of emergency services, trigger the emergency command. Your phone will automatically dial 911 and alert your emergency contacts that something is wrong. This way, you’re connected to the people who matter most so that they can come to your aid if you’re in a dangerous situation.

To set up Emergency SOS, open the Settings app, tap on “Emergency SOS” near the bottom of the page, and comb through the settings. This part is important — you can customize the emergency call trigger to dial when you hold and release the side button and the volume button together, or simply when you push the power button five times in a row. Choose the option you’re most likely to remember during a medical event.

Make sure your emergency contacts are added to this page so that they receive your SOS alerts alongside emergency services.

RELATED: After a decade-long wait, Apple Watch just got the one feature it always needed most

Apple Watch Series 12/Apple

Crash detection

While we’re in the Emergency SOS section, find Crash Detection near the bottom of the screen. This feature uses your iPhone and Apple Watch to measure jarring movements via their internal sensors. If the motion is severe enough that the devices think you’ve been in a car accident, they will begin a noisy countdown to let you know that they’re about to call emergency services on your behalf.

If you’re awake and unharmed, you can disable the alarm before the call goes out. However, if you’re unconscious, a call will be made to emergency services and your emergency contacts. This will let them know that you were in an accident and that you need help.

Crash detection is available on Apple Watch Series 8 and up.

Fall detection

In addition to crash detection, your watch uses the same sensors to estimate if and when you suddenly fall off your feet and hit the ground. If the impact is hard enough, your phone will send an alert that it’s about to dial emergency services and your emergency contacts. If you didn’t actually fall, or if you survived the fall without a critical injury, you can dismiss the alert. However, if you’re unconscious or severely injured, the call will go through and help will be on the way.

To enable fall detection, open the Watch app on iPhone, tap “Emergency SOS,” and check that “Fall detection” is turned on.

Fall detection is available on Apple Watch Series 4 and up.

Heart notifications

The heart rate sensor on Apple Watch isn’t just meant for tracking activity and workouts. It also monitors your heart throughout the day, and it’s sensitive enough to pick up on slight rhythm changes, sometimes before you’re even aware they’re happening.

High heart rate alerts will tell you if your heart exceeds a certain limit — 120 BPM by default — while you’re at rest. If you receive this alert, you could be stressed, dehydrated, or you may be having a serious heart event, like atrial fibrillation.

Low heart rate alerts do the opposite — they’ll tell you when your heart rate dips too long, which is 40 BPM by default. An extremely low heart rate at rest could signify a problem with one of your medications, certain medical conditions like hypothyroidism, or heart disease.

Irregular rhythm notifications measure your heartbeat, looking for signs of atrial fibrillation where your heart beats out of rhythm. Brief episodes of AFib may not be an emergency, but if you receive this notification often, it’s best to see your doctor for a thorough checkup.

Hypertension notifications analyze your heart rate data for silent signs that you have high blood pressure. Apple’s software notes that not everyone who has high blood pressure will fit into their detection algorithm, but many people do. If you get this alert, it’s best to monitor your blood pressure daily for several weeks and let your doctor know if you have a real problem.

To enable heart notifications, open the Watch app on iPhone, scroll to the bottom and select “Apps,” then choose “Heart.” Then on this screen, make sure each feature is enabled.

Irregular rhythm detection is only available on Apple Watch Series 4 and up, while hypertension notifications are exclusively for Series 9 and up.

RELATED: Someone else’s Apple Watch might start spying on your conversations

bombuscreative/Getty Images

Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea, or an event where you briefly stop breathing at night, is a silent killer, and approximately 80% of patients don’t know they have it. Luckily, Apple Watch can help shed some light on any potential breathing issues you have at night.

Simply wear Apple Watch to bed, and it will monitor your breathing rate and oxygen levels to identify potential problems. If sleep disturbances are detected, it will let you know the next morning. While one or two breathing alerts may not indicate a chronic issue, regular alerts should prompt a visit to the doctor. You’ll likely want to get a formal sleep study to confirm whether or not you have sleep apnea so that you can treat it properly.

Sleep apnea alerts are available on Apple Watch Series 9 and up.

A real lifesaver

As you can see, Apple Watch isn’t just a fancy piece of jewelry or an expensive gadget that pairs with your phone. It can be a critical lifeline between you, your health, and emergency services. Even more importantly, it can tell you things you didn’t know about your body so you can seek care before an alert becomes a serious event — or worse.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Apple watch, Tech 

#IAmJaneDoe is trending after sexual assault allegations were levied against seven fraternity members at Cornell University by one woman, known as Jane Doe.

While TikTokers across the globe have picked up the story and have begun speaking out in defense of the young woman, BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey points out that social media outrage is not a substitute for due process.

“You’ve met Jane Doe before,” one TikToker said, in protest of the accused. “You might not have realized it at the time, but you have. You may have passed her in the street. She could have poured the milk into your coffee or helped deliver your wife’s baby, read your kid a story.”

“You might have said good morning to her on a walk,” she continued. “There’s a chance that Jane Doe has smiled at you as you’ve held open the door. Jane could even live in your house. She could put the kettle on after a long day, always know where your keys are, but has never made it known that she is Jane Doe.”

Another TikToker said that it broke her heart that “the guy that invited her to the frat house that night was her friend.”

She went on to claim that Jane Doe was a “minor,” which Stuckey explains is not true.

“She wasn’t a minor. I just want to say that. She wasn’t a minor. She was under 21. She was illegally drinking,” she says.

“These men were not her friend,” she continues.

“None of these men were her friend, because this is not what friends do. This is not what people do who respect another human being, respect women, respect anyone. They should have helped her get a ride home. If they noticed that she was intoxicated, they shouldn’t have propositioned her for group sex.”

However, Stuckey notes that “she also shouldn’t have participated.”

“She shouldn’t have been there. She shouldn’t have been doing drugs. She shouldn’t have been drinking. She shouldn’t have consented to any of this,” she says.

“Am I saying that she is responsible for every bit of it? Am I saying for sure that there was never a time that she couldn’t consent? I don’t know,” she answers. “Am I saying that because she said once that is saying yes every single time and so there is no part of the night where she became a victim?”

Stuckey explains that while she’s “not saying that for sure,” you also “can’t say anything for sure.”

“That is the point that I am making, that it is her word against these men’s word,” she says.

“And I will not just assume that she is correct because she’s a woman or she is correct because she is an accuser,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Allie beth stuckey, Cornell university, Due process, Tiktok, Cornell 7, I am jane doe, Blazetv show 

Prices once reflected the product and the market. Increasingly, they can also reflect what a company knows — or thinks it knows — about you.

Surveillance pricing uses personal data, behavioral tracking, and algorithms to estimate what a consumer may be willing to pay. If the system can infer that you are in a hurry, financially stressed, or unlikely to walk away, your vulnerability can become part of the calculation.

Companies watch us. We deserve tools to watch them back and make exploitation costly.

Websites, apps, and data brokers can collect or infer information from searches, purchases, location, browsing history, and even mouse movements. Combined, those signals can build a detailed profile of what you want and how price-sensitive you may be.

The Federal Trade Commission began investigating this market in 2024, issuing orders to eight companies. Its initial findings showed that intermediaries serving at least 250 clients could use granular data to tailor prices, discounts, and product offers. The FTC cautioned that its published examples were “hypothetical.”

Surveillance pricing differs from ordinary dynamic pricing, in which prices move with inventory, time, or demand. Surveillance pricing is personal: the price, discount, financing term, or product placement can vary according to a consumer profile or group. The change may be subtle — a withheld discount, a costlier product ranked first, or a different financing offer.

The idea is older than the AI boom

In 2012, a Wall Street Journal investigation found that Staples.com displayed different prices after estimating customers’ locations. Shoppers near an OfficeMax or Office Depot were more likely to receive discounts; those farther away could see higher prices for the same item.

In 2015, ProPublica found that the Princeton Review offered the same online tutoring package for $6,600 to $8,400 depending on ZIP code. Residents of heavily Asian ZIP codes were 1.8 times as likely to receive the higher price, even in lower-income areas.

The company said the pricing reflected regional business conditions rather than race. Regardless, the outcome shows how supposedly neutral data can produce serious demographic disparities.

RELATED: Seattle votes to ban grocery ‘surveillance pricing.’ Your data shouldn’t set your food bill.

urbazon/Getty Images

Orbitz also experimented with showing Mac users pricier hotel options first after finding they were more likely to book luxury rooms. It did not charge Mac and PC users different prices for the same room, but the lesson was clear: Even device type can become a signal about what a customer may spend.

More recently, a 2025 Consumer Reports investigation found that Instacart’s AI-enabled pricing experiments offered different prices for identical groceries at the same stores and times. About three-quarters of tested products varied, with some differences reaching 23%. The investigation did not show that personal profiles determined who received which price, and Instacart later ended the program. But the experiment showed just how easy it was to target basic needs.

Your urgency can become valuable data

The troubling question is what happens when individualized pricing meets urgency.

A search for an emergency plumber at 2 a.m., last-minute airfare after a family crisis, or a baby thermometer at midnight may signal that waiting is not an option. Searches for eviction help, payday loans, or emergency medical care can reveal pressure without a company ever seeing a pay stub or medical record.

Economist Benjamin Shiller showed why such information could be valuable. In a 2020 economic model using browsing data to estimate willingness to pay for Netflix, personalized pricing increased simulated profits by 12.99%, versus roughly 0.25% using demographics alone. It was a model, not proof of a retailer secretly charging desperate consumers more, but it showed the commercial value of behavioral data.

Data brokers have long packaged financial vulnerability. A 2013 Senate investigation found categories such as “Rural and Barely Making It,” “Retiring on Empty” and “Credit Crunched.” The report warned that such lists could appeal to sellers of high-cost loans looking for people who need quick cash.

RELATED: Welcome to the new traffic stop, where it’s your word against AI’s

VCG/VCG/Getty Images

The balance of power shifts

Two people can see different prices, discounts, products, or financing offers on the same website and each assume everyone else received the same thing. Algorithms do not need a field labeled race, age, sex, or income to make sensitive inferences; ZIP code, device type, location, and shopping behavior can act as proxies.

Targeted pricing is not inherently abusive. It could reward loyal customers or offer discounts to families under pressure. The problem is secrecy: Sellers can know far more about buyers than buyers know about the offer in front of them.

That imbalance can turn personal data into a tool for extracting the highest price a consumer will accept. It also weakens comparison shopping when prices quietly change according to profiles the shopper cannot see.

Transparency is the minimum

Companies should disclose when personal data or AI materially shapes a price or offer and identify the categories of information involved. Regulators have a role, but entrepreneurs can also build independent tools that compare prices across accounts, devices, and locations.

Companies watch us. We need better tools to watch them back.

When a company knows you are desperate, that desperation should never become a hidden advantage it can use against you.

​Ai, Algorithms, Data brokers, Prices, Exploitation, Ftc, Groceries, Discounts, Personal data, Opinion & analysis 

A 17-year-old girl told Mississippi police she was walking down the street in Cadet just before midnight on Thursday when she was kidnapped by one man and assaulted by him and another man.

The first man allegedly grabbed her and dragged her into a home, where he and another man raped the girl.

Detectives said they found a blonde hair when processing his boxers.

Deputies made a forced entry into the home at about 2 a.m. on Friday after the two men refused to follow orders in their native language.

Oscar Antonio Baltodano Lopez locked himself in a bathroom and only complied after being threatened with a firearm, police said.

Detectives noted that Lopez was wearing clothing that matched a description given by the victim. He also refused to hand over his boxers or allow a DNA swab. Detectives said they found a blonde hair when processing his boxers.

Another man in the home identified as Benjamin Santez Lopez told police he was home all night and denied having any sexual contact with the girl.

Police arrested the two men and booked them into the Washington County Jail without bail.

KSDK-TV reported that the two men are illegal aliens, and police said they could face deportation after the criminal prosecution process was completed.

Police believe a substance found at the home was methamphetamine.

RELATED: Transient illegal alien equipped a ‘rape dungeon on wheels’ to attack women in mountains of California, police say

Baltodano Lopez was charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, kidnapping, possession of a controlled substance, and resisting arrest, while Santez Lopez was charged with first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree sodomy.

A third illegal alien was taken into custody but was not charged.

There was no indication of where the illegal aliens are from originally.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Mississippi, Methamphetamine, Rape, Illegal immigration, Politics 

Every day, Americans send nearly 10 billion emails. Somewhere in that mountain of messages sits a job application, a customer complaint, a school announcement, a bill, or another annoying update from an organization you intended to unsubscribe from five years ago. Most people assume that when they hit send, their message has every chance of reaching its destination. They trust the system to deliver it. That trust deserves scrutiny.

The Republican Party has a $117 million reason to ask questions.

The distinction matters far beyond Republican fundraising.

A new study by researchers at the University of Iowa and the University of Alabama estimates that Republican fundraising lost $117 million in donations during two periods last year, when Gmail’s spam filters actively diverted campaign emails from supporters’ inboxes. Researchers found that first-time donations fell during those periods. They also reported that inbox placement returned to normal after Google stopped using the Spam URI Real-time Blocklist blacklist in September 2025.

Google disputes the study’s methodology, and the research doesn’t establish that political bias caused the filtering. But you don’t need to be a genius or a tinfoil-hat-wearer to connect the dots. Google’s algorithms may be neutral in theory; in practice, however, they have opened up a substantial, and all too predictable, gap in trust. Since the dark days of the Biden years, platform bias is less a conspiracy theory than a documented pattern. Today, elevated skepticism of dismissive claims is hardly unreasonable.

A double-edged sword

Google operates a service used by roughly 90% of the U.S. population. Some 75% of American adults use Gmail. Google’s spam filters perform a necessary job. Nobody wants an inbox packed with fake invoices, phishing attempts, miracle cures, or emails from an incredibly generous Nigerian prince. Spam filtering protects users from fraud and saves them time.

The trouble begins when a system designed to keep garbage out also blocks legitimate messages. A campaign email can disappear into a spam folder without the sender knowing why. The recipient may never realize that a message was sent. Everyone involved can go about their day believing that nothing happened.

That is a remarkable amount of power for a company to exercise through a setting most users never touch.

A government censor has to issue a ban, block a website, or punish a publisher. A technology company, by contrast, can affect what people see through an ordinary technical decision. The message is technically deliverable, yet it may never reach the person expected to receive it.

The distinction matters far beyond Republican fundraising. A small business can spend years building a customer list, only to discover that its emails are reaching fewer people. A charity can ask supporters for donations and wonder why the response has fallen. A local organization can send details of an event that nobody seems to know about.

The sender may blame a bad subject line or a weak appeal. The recipient may assume the sender has gone quiet. The platform sits between them, and neither party necessarily knows what happened.

And a double standard?

For conservatives, the new study raises an obvious concern about political communication. Campaigns depend on supporters receiving updates, invitations, and requests for help. If an email provider’s filtering decisions affect one party’s messages more than another’s, the consequences could reach beyond fundraising.

The same standard must apply to Democrats, Republicans, independents, and organizations with no political affiliation. A free society depends on people being able to communicate with one another. Private companies have a legitimate role in protecting users from scams. But their decisions should be open to meaningful scrutiny when they have major consequences.

With arguably the most consequential midterms in recent history just around the corner, we ought to ask a rather simple question: Who gets to decide which voices reach the American voter?

Google says its protections apply equally to everyone. Users can mark messages as spam. They can block senders or unsubscribe from unwanted emails. Those measures give people some control over what arrives in their inboxes. They offer less help when a legitimate message has already been filtered out.

RELATED: Seattle votes to ban grocery ‘surveillance pricing’. Your data shouldn’t set your food bill.

urbazon/Getty Images

Google’s new verified-sender program for political campaigns and political action committees raises another question. The program allows participating senders to reach inboxes at a higher rate if they meet Google’s policies. Sender verification can help protect users from impersonation and fraud. That is a reasonable goal.

The public still deserves to know how the program works. People also deserve to know what standards govern participation and whether the same rules apply consistently. Verifying a sender and giving that sender preferential access to an audience are very different things. Users should be able to understand the distinction.

Every reader has a stake in this matter. Email carries information that can affect daily life. A missed job offer can cost someone an opportunity. A filtered school announcement can leave a parent scrambling. A misplaced medical appointment reminder can create an expensive headache. Nobody wants to have to explain to a doctor that Gmail ate the appointment.

The $117 million estimate is a symptom of a broader issue. A handful of ridiculously powerful, notoriously deceptive companies control important routes through which Americans communicate and conduct business.

That power calls for transparency and a meaningful way to challenge unjustified decisions. Conservatives who believe in competition and individual choice have a particular reason to question a system in which so many people depend on a few private gatekeepers.

Americans can hit send whenever they like. The more important question is whether the intended recipient will ever see what they sent.

​Tech, Spam 

A Mexican national was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle a “staggering” amount of methamphetamine in at least one of the fuel tanks of a semitruck.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Blaze News the incident unfolded on Sept. 29 at about 11 a.m. when U.S. Border Patrol agents of the San Diego sector stopped a northbound semitruck on Interstate 15 in California.

‘The vigilance of our agents, the reliability of our K-9 units, and our strong multi-agency partnerships are vital to dismantling these illicit smuggling operations and keeping deadly drugs off our streets.’

A Newton-Azrak Border Patrol Station agent and his K-9 partner detected characteristics of liquid methamphetamine and had the truck transported to the station.

A hazardous response crew safely extracted the liquid from the tank.

The 115 gallons of liquid was found to weigh about 962 pounds and tested positive for methamphetamine.

CBP officials estimated the street value of the narcotics to be about $1 million.

The semitruck was seized by Border Patrol, and the driver was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations.

“This massive seizure of liquid methamphetamine highlights the lengths these transnational criminal organizations will go to smuggle hard narcotics into our communities,” said Justin M. De La Torre, chief patrol agent for the San Diego sector of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Photographs from the investigation showed the barrels of methamphetamine that were seized as well as the tank that was cut open.

RELATED: 6 people found dead in boxcar in Texas border town, police say

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

“The vigilance of our agents, the reliability of our K-9 units, and our strong multi-agency partnerships are vital to dismantling these illicit smuggling operations and keeping deadly drugs off our streets,” he added.

The K-9’s name is Loki.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Methamphetamine, Us customs and border protection, Smuggling, California, Us-mexico border, Politics 

In the wake of sexual assault allegations at Cornell University, the victimization of women on college campuses has returned to the public conversation.

Cornell’s 2025 state-mandated sexual misconduct survey reported that 35% of undergraduate women said they had experienced sexual assault since arriving at the university. The undergraduate response rate, however, was only 13%. Cornell’s presidential task force itself warned that the low response rate limits estimates and makes the results difficult to interpret.

People will sacrifice their daughters on the altar of the university for status. Imagine what else they will sacrifice.

If you take the headline number at face value, though, sending your daughter to Cornell sounds insane.

Conservative parents correctly tell a parallel story about the ideological and spiritual dangers of college. They complain that universities teach women to hate men, become atheists, sleep around, embrace progressive politics, and borrow enormous sums for degrees of dubious value. Everyone has seen the meme: a smart, pretty, well-adjusted high school graduate goes off to college and returns tattooed, purple-haired, pierced, and wearing a “down with the patriarchy” T-shirt.

Yet both sides keep sending their daughters.

The left describes campuses as rape factories. The right describes them as camps for progressive indoctrination. Still, liberal and conservative parents drill their daughters for the SAT, pack their schedules with extracurriculars, hire admissions consultants, and sweat over essays for the privilege of attending places like Cornell.

And that privilege is expensive. At 2026-2027 rates, four years of tuition at Cornell’s endowed colleges would approach $296,000 before housing, dining, books, and other expenses. New York residents in Cornell’s state contract colleges get a discount, but four years of tuition still comes to roughly $199,000.

Why would parents fight so hard for access to institutions they routinely describe as dangerous?

The easy answer is that neither side believes its own rhetoric. That is too simple. Conservatives and progressives exaggerate, but many genuinely believe the dangers they describe.

The better answer is status.

For most of American history, college was attended by a small minority. It was a finishing school for elites, a pipeline into the learned professions, and an ivory tower for scholars. Most Americans did not need a bachelor’s degree to enter respectable middle-class work.

The G.I. Bill dramatically expanded access after World War II. Federal aid and student lending expanded it further. As attendance grew, the degree increasingly became more than an education. It became a credential.

The Supreme Court’s 1971 decision in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. accelerated that logic. Griggs did not ban aptitude tests, as is sometimes claimed. It held that employment practices with discriminatory effects had to be justified by business necessity and job relevance. Broad employment tests became legally riskier, while a college degree became a convenient screening tool.

RELATED: The ‘Cornell 7’ case should terrify every father of boys

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

That doesn’t mean Griggs single-handedly created credential inflation. It did not. But the larger phenomenon is real. Employers began requiring bachelor’s degrees for jobs that previously did not need them, turning the diploma into a proxy for intelligence, discipline, conformity, and class position.

Eventually the credential became self-reinforcing. A degree was valuable because employers demanded one, and employers demanded one because so many desirable applicants had one.

The result is familiar. Jobs once open to high school graduates now ask for bachelor’s degrees. Jobs once open to bachelor’s graduates increasingly prefer master’s degrees. The education itself may have little relationship to the work, but the credential still sorts applicants.

The economic incentive is only part of it. College has become a rite of passage for the professional class. Parents want the sweatshirt, the move-in photos, the graduation pictures, and the reassuring sense that their children have entered the respectable world. The name on the diploma matters because other people recognize it. The campus experience matters because other high-status people shared it.

A student who attends Cornell does not merely buy classes; she buys membership in a hierarchy that exists long after commencement. This is why attacks on higher education so often fail to change family behavior. Parents can hate the professors, mock the administrators, and denounce the politics while still fearing that opting out will leave their children below the people who stayed in.

College also confers something money alone cannot buy: entry into a social network.

Elite universities connect students with other ambitious, well-connected people. Fraternities, sororities, internships, fellowships, alumni networks, and campus organizations create relationships that can shape careers for decades. Even if every lecture were useless, the network would retain enormous value.

That is why parents who despise universities still want their children admitted to them.

The pressure is especially strong for daughters because women now dominate higher education. Women make up a clear majority of undergraduate enrollment and earn about 59% of bachelor’s degrees. Whatever conservatives may think about the culture of universities, telling a daughter to skip college can mean telling her to surrender access to the credentialed professional world in which many of her peers will compete.

This is the trap.

RELATED: The American dream now comes with upgrade fees

Blaze Media Illustration

Progressives may believe campuses expose women to unacceptable rates of sexual assault. Conservatives may believe universities corrode faith, family, and femininity. Both groups understand that status institutions control access to other status institutions.

That contradiction reveals something deeper than hypocrisy.

Status is the one commodity that is always zero-sum. People are status-seeking creatures, and institutions that confer status therefore acquire enormous political power. If Cornell can make parents compete for the privilege of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars while those same parents describe the campus as dangerous, then Cornell has something more valuable than an educational product.

It has the power to certify who belongs.

Conservatives spend enormous energy winning arguments about college. They complain about ideology, debt, useless majors, campus sex, and administrative bloat. Then they celebrate when their daughter gets into an Ivy.

That should tell them something.

People will sacrifice their daughters on the altar of the university for status. Imagine what else they will sacrifice.

If conservatives truly want to win the political battle, they should spend less time arguing with institutions that confer status and more time building institutions capable of conferring status themselves.

​Higher education, Cornell 7, Sexual assault, Left wing, Ivy league, Gi bill, Conservatives, College, Opinion & analysis 

The tea leaves are spelling doom for France. Roughly €3.6 trillion in public debt, rapidly approaching budget decisions, and political unrest in the streets indicate collapse is on the horizon.

To calm the riots, politicians are pitching debt cancellations, but Glenn Beck sees the writing on the wall — the same writing that preceded Greece’s catastrophic crash in 2009.

Roughly a year after the killing of a 15-year-old boy by a police officer that sparked mass riots, “The new government opens up the books and admits the old government lied: The deficit was not what they said; it was more than double that,” says Glenn.

“All markets stopped lending to Greece. And on May 5, 2010, the day before Parliament voted on its first bailout, a general strike filled the streets. It was chaos,” he continues.

Amid the unrest, a “neo-Nazi party called the Golden Dawn” and “a coalition of Marxists and Maoists and Trotskyists” rose to political prominence. From the latter emerged Alexis Tsipras, who became prime minister after promising to tear up the bailout. He called a referendum, and 61% voted no, but he signed a third bailout — one “with harsher terms than the ones the people had just rejected” — anyway.

“That’s how the story ends with Marxists every time,” says Glenn.

“Three bailouts, 289 billion euros, the largest rescue of any country in history — and the Greek economy shrank by 25%; unemployment hit 27%; and for the young, it was over 40%. A whole generation got on planes and left,” he continues.

The only reason Greece is even still standing today, he explains, is because “[Germany] could afford to save it.”

But France, Glenn says, is in a predicament far worse than the one that nearly destroyed Greece. “Greece’s whole debt was 300 billion euros. France is 3.6 trillion euros. That’s more than 10 Greeces combined.”

And even worse, this time, there’s no lifeguard to pull the drowning country out of the deep end of the swimming pool.

America certainly can’t do it, Glenn argues. “We’re $40 trillion in debt. For 80 years when the world got in trouble, it always looked at us … but a lifeguard who can’t swim is just another body in the water.”

The truth, he says, is that all the lifeguards are gone.

“What happens when the world can’t bail everyone out — when it isn’t one small country that lied about the books but three or four of the biggest ones that told the truth but kept spending anyway because they had absolutely no discipline?” he asks.

“Here’s what happens. The same thing that happened in Athens, except nobody comes to rescue.”

France, Glenn argues, is a “dress rehearsal” for what could come to America. Between our own debt and the planted “seeds” of the Marxist-Islam coalition, he fears destruction is knocking on our door.

“The good news is the seed is not a harvest,” he says. “Greece came back. 2019, the Greeks voted out the Marxists.”

“The thing you have to remember is Greece had time and had somebody else’s money to buy it. We only have ours.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Debt crisis, France, Glenn beck, Blazetv show 

Watching. Waiting. Commiserating.

That’s what Blink-182 singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge was doing alongside thousands of his fellow San Diego Padres fans Tuesday night, as the team fought to keep its postseason hopes alive.

‘Can’t imagine the feeling.’

Some crying in baseball

The Padres were leading the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning of Game 3 of the National League Division Series. Having lost the first two games, San Diego needed a win to avoid elimination.

That’s when “All the Small Things,” Blink-182’s 1999 hit, came blasting through the speakers at Petco Park.

It has become a tradition at Padres home games whenever the team leads heading into the bottom of the eighth. Thousands of fans sing along, and Tuesday night was no exception.

But this time, the cameras found DeLonge himself in the stadium. The singer and guitarist appeared to tear up as the crowd sang his song. For a moment, he seemed lost in thought. Then he joined in, waving a rally towel and singing into the camera.

RELATED: There’s now a scary, powerful way to send a text if the internet and cell towers go out

Hometown heroes

“What a cool moment here in San Diego,” one of the announcers remarked.

“Blink-182, especially for those of us of a certain age, we all know they have an extensive, very impressive catalog of late ’90s and 2000s pop-punk music,” he continued. “But to be in the ballpark when 43,000-plus are singing one of your biggest hits to you — can’t imagine the feeling.”

DeLonge grew up in Poway, just outside San Diego, where Blink-182 formed in 1992. He’s been a devoted Padres fan ever since, with the band’s rise to fame coinciding with one of the most successful periods in the team’s history.

In 1998, the Padres won the National League pennant and reached the World Series for only the second time. Unfortunately, they ran into the New York Yankees, who swept them in four games.

The following year, Blink-182 released its breakthrough album, “Enema of the State,” featuring “What’s My Age Again?,” “Adam’s Song,” and “All the Small Things.” The album sold millions of copies and helped make the band one of the biggest names in pop-punk.

While Blink-182 went on to fill arenas around the world, the Padres struggled to repeat their 1998 success.

They didn’t return to the postseason until 2005 and then endured another drought after 2006, finally making the playoffs again in 2020. They reached the National League Championship Series in 2022, losing to Philadelphia, but haven’t been back to the World Series since 1998.

The team has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, reaching the playoffs five times in seven seasons, although that elusive first World Series championship remains out of reach.

RELATED: ‘They’re going to steal it’: Mark Ruffalo says GOP will rig midterms — then his 2020 remarks resurfaced

Longtime fan

DeLonge has been there for the ups and downs. He’s a frequent visitor to Petco Park and has even recorded himself reacting in disbelief as the crowd sang his band’s biggest hit.

In a 2023 interview, DeLonge described what the tradition meant to him.

“It’s magical,” he told reporters. “It’s an honor. … I’m a massive Padres fan.”

DeLonge went so far as to suggest he was probably the team’s number one fan, although he did have some “comments” about which Blink-182 songs should be played at sporting events.

Tuesday night offered a pretty strong argument for sticking with this one. The Padres held on to beat Milwaukee 4-3, forcing a fourth game in the series tonight.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Blink 182, Tom delonge, Mlb, Baseball, Entertainment 

An 18-year-old man allegedly paid $600 in exchange for an AK-47 and 200 rounds of ammunition before getting arrested by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud allegedly plotted a terrorist attack on non-Muslims at the Mall of America for two years, according to U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen.

‘This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched.’

The suspect believed he was purchasing the items for his attack from a member of the ISIS terrorist group, but the person was in fact an undercover FBI agent.

Among the evidence gathered by the FBI were messages Mohamud allegedly exchanged with an FBI informant about his terrorist mission.

Mohamud was arrested on Tuesday after allegedly making the exchange, prosecutors revealed Wednesday.

“The FBI rendered the AK-47 rifle inert prior to the transaction,” the DOJ said.

“During the sale of the firearm and ammunition, Mohamud reaffirmed his plan to use the firearm and ammunition to shoot people at the Mall of America,” it added.

Mohamud allegedly indicated that he wanted to attack the Minneapolis mall on Oct. 24, the day of an arts celebration for the Hmong people, an ethnic group from China and Southeast Asia. He also allegedly claimed to have picked the site because it is owned by Jews, the DOJ press release said.

Rosen described Mohamud as an American citizen of Somali descent.

The messages obtained by the FBI allegedly showed that he wanted to go to Somalia to join ISIS but decided to attack the mall instead because he could not afford to travel. He intended to kill between 30 and 60 people at the mall, and he sought martyrdom, according to the FBI.

He has been charged with one count of knowingly receiving a firearm and ammunition in order to commit a federal crime of terrorism.

“This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched,” Rosen said.

FBI Director Kash Patel posted a statement about the operation on social media.

“ARRESTED before he could hurt a single American,” he wrote. “This FBI doesn’t wait for terrorists to attack. We find them, disrupt them, and put them in handcuffs. Outstanding work by our Minneapolis team. We are staying on offense. America First. ALWAYS.”

RELATED: Houston gang members allegedly rapped about their violent crimes on social media — until ‘massive’ FBI arrest

The FBI said it began tracking Mohamud in Dec. 2024 and had spoken to his parents about his radicalization.

“What I would say to parents all over Minnesota, and all over America: If you get any indication — especially if you hear from federal law enforcement — that your son or daughter is being radicalized, to the point where federal law enforcement wants to come and give you that warning, those are warnings that ought to be heeded,” Rosen said.

Booking records indicated that Mohamud is 5’11” tall and weighs 120 pounds.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Terrorism, Federal bureau of investigation, Islam, Minnesota, Crime, Politics 

What can America’s most successful movies tell us about America itself?

Steve Deace, Todd Erzen, and Aaron McIntire set out to answer that question by examining the 25 highest-grossing films in U.S. history — when adjusted for inflation of course.

From “Gone with the Wind,” “The Ten Commandments,” and “The Sound of Music” to “Star Wars,” “Titanic,” and today’s blockbuster franchises, the list offers a window into the stories that once united the culture.

“The Graduate” made the end of the list, which Deace calls “the only intentionally subversive film on this list.”

Erzen notes that it’s a “really well-crafted” film about “people living hollow, empty lives.”

“They’re just, you know, going in any direction they can think of to find some level of meaning and purpose. That’s a conversation worth having,” he says.

“That is the conversation that’s being buried by most people. Like there’s a lot of young white men who are struggling for meaning and purpose, and they’re choosing video games over a lot of other things,” he continues.

“Today,” he adds, “it’s just about victim culture and whiny grievances and DEI, and you know, who wants to be a part of that?”

McIntire points out that there’s “a gap there from 1999 to … 2014, 2015.”

“That was the era of ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘Lord of the Rings,’ ‘Avatar.’ … Those were, I thought, cultural icons. They are cultural icons,” he says.

“And then on top of that, once you get past that 14-, 15-year gap, the movies that are on this list, the entries that are on this list, what do they have in common?” he asks, answering himself, “They’re franchises.”

“So nothing original,” Deace comments. “Everything’s a derivative.”

“That’s not a good trend line in my estimation, but it kind of fits hand in glove with not only the big picture culturally that we’re seeing, but particularly in Hollywood,” McIntire adds.

However, while the left has run Hollywood for quite some time, Deace points out that the right is gaining ground in this part of the culture war.

“To our credit, if you look at films like ‘Young Washington,’ you’re seeing us, you know, beginning to seize the opportunity,” he explains. “It does show right now, the opportunity that exists to gain a serious beachhead within the most powerful pop culture medium in the history of this entire planet.”

And this is important, he explains, because “who controls a culture’s stories and myths controls a culture every single time.”

“If we gain a serious beachhead in the storytelling realm, folks, then that’s worth five to ten Senate seats,” he adds.

Want more from Steve Deace?

To enjoy more of Steve’s take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Dei, Hollywood, Culture war, Steve deace, Todd erzen, Aaron mcintire, Blazetv show 

Donald Trump says Democrats don’t have a “deep bench” of future leaders. BlazeTV host Pat Gray believes the party’s 2028 speculation isn’t exactly proving him wrong — especially one of the most likely contenders, Gavin Newsom.

In a recent interview, Newsom attempted to sound reflective and statesmanlike when discussing his political future — but BlazeTV host Pat Gray and his panel aren’t buying it.

“That moment will arrive when it arrives. You’ll know it,” Newsom said.

“It, you know, sort of hits you, not just here,” he continued, pointing to his head, “it hits you here,” he added, pointing to his chest.

Newsom went on with an incoherent sentence that included “congruency” and “there’s no such thing as a deadline.”

“What did he say?” executive producer Keith Malinak asks, confused.

“He’s trying to sound like he’s, you know, intelligent,” Gray says. “And, as usual, comes off the opposite.”

Jeff Fisher notes that AOC is also attempting to “sound more presidential,” before rolling a clip of the congresswoman saying, “like, whatever.”

“Newsom-AOC 2028,” Malinak says.

“She wants to be president; she doesn’t want to be vice president,” Fisher says. “So Newsom isn’t going to be her vice president.”

“She would … take that spot on the ticket,” Malinak disagrees.

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Donald trump, Gavin newsom, Pat gray, Aoc, 2028, Presidential election, Blazetv show 

A Texas mother is accused of stabbing her young children — ages 3 years and 10 months — and her husband early Tuesday morning, KXAS-TV reported.

Northlake Police officers were dispatched to a home in the 1200 block of Daylily Drive around 4:20 a.m. regarding a stabbing in progress, the station said.

‘More of a stare — didn’t really say a whole lot.’

Police said a man called 911 and reported that his wife had a knife and was stabbing him, KXAS said.

Northlake Police Chief Robert Crawford said he listened to the 911 calls and noted that the man was trying to get to the couple’s children, who were in another room, the station noted.

“He was trying to get to the children, and the children were in another room, and she was actively trying to stab him, so he had to retreat outside,” Crawford said, according to KXAS.

Arriving officers detained a woman, the station said, adding that police said the 34-year-old man suffered a stab wound to the head and is expected to recover.

Officers found the couple’s 3-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son with stab wounds to the chest, police told KXAS, adding that they were taken to a Fort Worth hospital and are expected to survive.

The detained woman, identified as 37-year-old Holly Leeann Flores, was taken to a Denton hospital for observation and possible injuries, the station said, adding that police said she was treated, released, then taken into custody and transported to the Denton County Jail.

Flores is charged with two counts of attempted capital murder and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, KXAS reported. Flores’ jail record lists no bond or court date for her.

Crawford told the station that Flores did not say a lot to officers after she was detained: “More of a stare — didn’t really say a whole lot.”

RELATED: Mother ‘very invested’ in Lindsay Clancy case accused of killing 2-year-old son, had chilling plans for husband: Prosecutors

Police said officers had been called to the home five times since March for welfare checks, KXAS reported.

Neighbor Brittany Flores noted to the station that she was troubled that police had previously been called to the home.

“I think it’s awful that the police were here multiple times, and it sounds like something like this could have been prevented if there was some kind of intervention,” she told KXAS. “I don’t know all what was in place or her mental state or whatever. I’m just absolutely shocked.”

Neighbors added to the station that they knew the suspect through neighborhood gatherings and that she ran a balloon business.

Brittany Flores told KXAS that she and the suspect previously spoke about their common parental experiences: “It was just camaraderie, and we related to what we were going through. But there was a lot more that was going on underneath the surface than what you talk about at a birthday party.”

Neighbor Ally Barfuss added to the station that the incident has shaken the neighborhood.

“It breaks my heart for both of them — the kids and the mom,” Barfuss told KXAS. “I feel really sad for all of them. I hope everyone is OK, including her.”

Northlake Police told the station the investigation is ongoing.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Stabbing, Mother, Arrest, Physical attack, Family, Attempted capital murder, Texas, Crime 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that he has “no plans at this time” about a potential 2028 presidential run and doesn’t know “what the future holds.”

“He is still young, and smart in both policy and politics, and is keeping his options open for the future,” one person familiar with the matter recently told NBC News. “If you asked him if he’s interested in 2032 or 2036, he would probably say sure.”

‘We must win together.’

While America’s top diplomat — who recently polled third among potential candidates favored by Republicans for 2028 — is supposedly uncertain about what course he will personally chart in two years, he is confident about what direction America must take in the here and now.

In a speech Wednesday at the Acropolis in Athens, Rubio emphasized the imperative for America and other Western nations to unapologetically pursue national power; prioritize their own people; cease feeling guilty for being exceptional; and reclaim the “classical understanding” that “power requires not only having the means to defend yourself; it requires the credibility that you are willing to use it.”

With the Parthenon as his backdrop, Rubio buttered up the Greeks by emphasizing the influence that their forebears had on America and, more broadly, on Western civilization.

“The history of America, the history of my country, is covered with the fingerprints of antiquity,” said the secretary.

After first alluding to the architectural, linguistic, narrative, philosophical, and political influence that the ancient Greeks had on America and its people, Rubio noted, “The civilization of Athens and Rome transformed an infant seaboard republic into a continental empire.”

RELATED: Keeping the West’s flame burning

“The greatest Americans of every generation have carried the unmistakable features of their forefathers,” he continued, “born in Athens, formed by Rome, baptized in Christendom, hardened in the furnace of medieval Europe, endowed with the English genius for liberty, and then carried across the Atlantic to be reborn on the shores of a new world.”

The secretary’s speech was, however, about far more than tying former Greek excellence to continuing American excellence.

Rubio underscored that America and the “whole of our civilization” are at an “inflection point” — that “national interests did not vanish in the face of international institutions”; that peace is not inevitable; that there is renewed competition between great powers and a “whole universe of new threats” that must be addressed; and that it is critical now, more than ever, to rebuild institutions and alliances.

The secretary has been discussing various bilateral and multilateral alliances including NATO on a European tour that landed him in Athens on Wednesday.

During a joint press conference with Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis held just prior to his speech at the Acropolis, Rubio said that “the nations of Europe need to take on a greater share of the burden in defending their continent” and that Greece is on track to satisfy its minimum NATO obligation.

He noted further that the U.S. and Greece have signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a joint security program to bolster binational counterterrorism information-sharing and that Greece is joining the National Guard’s Bureau of State Partnership Program.

Rubio noted in his speech — which was reminiscent of his Feb.14 “civilizational erasure” speech in Munich — that the purpose of such alliances “is not to abolish the sovereignty of the nations that constitute them. It is to defend them. And nations need not abandon their distinct identities in order to recognize their common interests.”

“We want to win together,” said Rubio. “We must win together.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Marco rubio, Nato, Military alliance, Western civilization, Politics, Greece 

An American may have helped facilitate a mass murder at a school in Canada earlier this year committed by a teenage adult man pretending to be a woman.

On Feb. 10, Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old trans-identifying man, murdered his mother and half-brother, then traveled to a secondary school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, where he proceeded to injure 25 people and murder a 39-year-old female teacher, three 12-year-old girls, and two boys, ages 12 and 13, before taking his own life.

‘I know I can like, save lives I guess but idk.’

Now it seems Van Rootselaar plotted the massacre with the help of a radical from Washington state. James Cody Bryant, a 30-year-old Bellingham resident, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country.

“The Tumbler Ridge Secondary School shooting was a horrific tragedy for that small community and for all of Canada. Indeed, here in the Pacific Northwest we felt the pain of those families devastated by this violence,” acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said in a statement. “It is even more profoundly disturbing to learn that a resident of Western Washington had a role in the attack and took steps — providing counsel, technical advice, and money to the shooter planning such a tragedy.”

The FBI noted that the duo first met online on the chat service Omegle before it was shut down in 2023.

The criminal complaint alleges that Bryant began conspiring to murder innocents with the Canadian-based trans radical in August 2025; “agreed to record J.V.R.’s livestream of the planned murders and post it over the internet for the public to view”; ensured that the livestream “look[ed] solid”; and even provided the shooter with tactical advice on how best to execute the massacre.

The FBI obtained Discord messages that allegedly show Bryant and Van Rootselaar discussing optimal ways of maximizing carnage.

RELATED: ‘Our results shocked us’: HHS report confirms your darkest suspicions about trans ideology

Blaze Media Illustration

In early August 2025, the shooter allegedly discussed previous Canadian mass shootings, noting, “Getting 14 kills is a lot easier than getting 22, though if I got more than 22 it’d be simply the deadliest shooting in Canadian history period.”

After Van Rootselaar articulated his desire to best previous school shooting kill counts, Bryant allegedly responded, “Hallways also mean a lot of ways people can escape. Corners to turn. Wide open spaces mean numbers.”

Justice Department

In addition to discussing places where the shooter could play “hide and seek” with the greatest number of potential victims, Bryant advised the trans radical on which weapons to use, prosecutors alleged in the complaint.

Bryant allegedly told the shooter in an Aug. 26 message, “[You] should have a handgun if you can manage a print tbh,” then allegedly added, “You’ve got solid plans.”

A modified handgun and a long gun were recovered at the scene of the massacre, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Justice Department

In December, Bryant allegedly told Van Rootselaar that he “definitely would” have fans after committing the murders and suggested further that people would “probably” be mad if the shooter were romanticized after the planned massacre.

Prosecutors further alleged that Bryant provided Van Rootselaar with financial support “to purchase items for use during the attack, including the shoes Van Rootselaar intended to wear, a lighter Van Rootselaar would use to ignite an explosive device, and stickers to decorate the firearms Van Rootselaar would use to commit the murders, and discussed possibly sending the shooter a 3D-printed firearm kit and related gear.

The shooter shared an image on Discord in August 2025 showing a sticker depicting the trans flag superimposed on the planet Saturn that he had apparently put on the receiver of a shotgun. Bryant allegedly said of the picture, “Love the stickers. [] stickers would be so funny to be seen in photos of the incident.”

Bryant and Van Rootselaar also allegedly discussed whether the livestream of the attack should contain an audio feed.

After the shooter expressed concern about about how his voice might sound while slaughtering innocents, Bryant allegedly suggested silence, stating, “No lasting evidence of your voice, just a pretty girl gunning ppl down.”

When the topic of alerting the relevant authorities to the murder plot came up, Bryant allegedly emphasized on multiple occasions that he would not “snitch,” allegedly stating in one instance, “I could. I don’t want to honestly. I know I can like, save lives I guess but idk.”

Despite allegedly egging on Van Rootselaar for months and failing to alert authorities, Bryant apparently had a change of heart just weeks ahead of the shooting.

On Jan. 4, the American allegedly told the shooter, “I truly hope you reconsider today. I wish there were any other path for you, you shouldn’t have to do something like this. I wish I knew what I could say or do to change your mind.”

Despite this alleged attempt to dissuade the shooter from acting on his bloodlust, Bryant allegedly made clear that he was ready to lend his support on the day of the massacre.

According to prosecutors, Van Rootselaar allegedly sent Bryant photos of himself prepared for the attack. In one photo, the shooter is dressed in women’s clothing and the boots that Bryant allegedly bought for him and armed with a rifle that appears to be equipped with a suppressor painted in the colors of the trans-radical flag.

Van Rootselaar began masquerading as a woman roughly six years ago, and Wikipedia, the liberal media, and the Justice Department continue to falsely refer to him as a female.

Justice Department

During the shooting, Bryant allegedly confirmed that he was watching the feed — which U.S. Attorney Floyd indicated had been terminated by Twitch after approximately 20 seconds — and even allegedly counseled Van Rootselaar on how to start the vehicle that Van Rootselaar drove to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.

If convicted, Bryant could be thrown in prison for the rest of his life.

When asked on Tuesday whether Bryant might be sent to Canada to face prosecution, Floyd noted that the alleged crimes were committed in the U.S. and that the “penalties may be higher” in America.

“On behalf of the FBI, I want to express heartfelt sympathy for the victims of this tragedy and their loved ones,” said W. Mike Herrington, special agent in charge of the FBI Seattle field office. “No investigation can undo the fear and suffering caused by the horrific events of this February or bring these individuals back to their families, school, or community. We mourn with you.”

Elija Rain, acting commanding officer of the British Columbua RCMP, said in a statement, “Today’s arrest and charge announcement by the FBI reflects the months of investigative effort, cooperation, and coordination between our two agencies”

The RCMP apparently contacted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after receiving information from one of the online platforms used by the shooter.

“I would like to thank the FBI Seattle and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington for their partnership, professionalism, and commitment throughout this complex investigation,” continued Rain. “Their cooperation and expertise have been invaluable in advancing the work across jurisdictions and ensuring that all available evidence could be thoroughly examined.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Transgender, British columbia, Rcmp, Fbi, School shooting, Massacre, Politics, Crime 

History can tell you what happened at Lepanto. G.K. Chesterton can make you hear it.

On October 7, 1571, a fleet of the Holy League met the Ottoman navy off western Greece in one of the largest galley battles ever fought. The Christian victory halted Ottoman naval momentum in the Mediterranean and became one of the defining military events of early modern Christendom.

We are not observers of a glorious Christian past.

Four hundred and fifty-five years later, the battle itself is rarely discussed outside history books and Catholic circles. Chesterton’s “Lepanto” helps explain why that is a loss.

The poem does something a chronology cannot. It takes an old battle and makes it present.

That distinction matters because we have largely forgotten how to teach history as inheritance. Too often, the past arrives as a clinical sequence of dates and events — or worse, as a catalog of embarrassments for which the living are expected to apologize. Our ancestors understood that memory had to be cultivated.

I was fortunate enough to grow up partly outside that system. My homeschool education included memorizing and reciting some of the great poems of the Western canon.

Memorization itself was useful. But those poems did more than exercise the mind. They taught me to love and remember the heroes, soldiers, saints, and scholars who built the civilization I inherited.

A textbook can explain the Crimean War. Tennyson makes you hear the cavalry moving: “Half a league, half a league, half a league onward.” A history of Rome can tell you the legend of Horatius at the bridge. Thomas Babington Macaulay puts the choice in the mouth of the man himself:

Then out spake brave Horatius
The Captain of the gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers
And the temples of his gods.”

The same is true closer to home. A paragraph about the British march on Concord can explain what happened. Longfellow’s “Listen, my children, and you shall hear” makes a child want to remember it.

RELATED: Remember the Battle of Lepanto

Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

These works are literary masterpieces, but that is not the whole of their value. They are meant to stir the imagination. They give history rhythm, voice, courage, tragedy, and glory.

Chesterton’s “Lepanto” belongs in that company.

He wrote it in 1911, before World War I and more than a decade before he formally entered the Catholic Church. Yet the poem’s religious imagination is already unmistakable. Chesterton does not treat Lepanto merely as a naval engagement. He presents it as civilizational and spiritual combat, with Don Juan of Austria riding into a struggle that reaches backward through Christian history.

The poem’s movement is part of its power: drums, gongs, guns, trumpets, waves, banners, and cannon fire. Chesterton does not ask the reader to stand at a safe academic distance. He drags him onto the deck.

At one point, the Ottoman side hears something older than the fleet approaching it:

But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know
The voice that shook our palaces four hundred years ago:
It is he that saith not “Kismet”; it is he that knows not Fate;
It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey in the gate!

Chesterton uses “Kismet” to dramatize what he saw as a contrast between fatalism and the Christian refusal to surrender to supposedly inevitable defeat. Richard the Lionheart, Raymond of Saint-Gilles, and Godfrey of Bouillon appear not as museum pieces but as members of the same inheritance. Godfrey, leader of the First Crusade, became ruler of Jerusalem under the title Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre.

The poetry lets the reader place himself in that line. Christian history ceases to be a collection of remote episodes and becomes a living inheritance — something received, loved, defended, and handed on.

That spirit has become difficult for the modern West to summon.

One line from the poem has always stayed with me. Describing a Europe divided by religious conflict while the Ottoman threat advanced, Chesterton writes: “And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise.”

He was writing about a particular historical moment, but the line captures something recognizable now: spiritual exhaustion disguised as sophistication. We have seen so much, mocked so much, qualified so much, that conviction itself begins to look embarrassing.

Chesterton’s Europe is divided, distracted, and half-convinced that resistance is pointless. The pope calls for “swords about the Cross,” while other rulers hesitate or look elsewhere. Even the Christian captives below the Ottoman decks have nearly stopped expecting deliverance.

Then comes Don Juan.

Dim drums throbbing in the hills half heard,
Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred,
Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half attainted stall,
The last knight of Europe taketh weapons from the wall.

That is the great appeal of the poem. Don Juan does not enter because victory is guaranteed. He enters because something must be defended.

RELATED: After 800 years, why do we still treat St. Francis as a glorified garden gnome?

Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images

Chesterton reminds the reader that courage often arrives from an unexpected quarter. Don Juan, the illegitimate son of Charles V, was hardly born into the tidy life of a storybook hero. Yet he became the man who took command when command was needed.

That is what the old poems can still teach us. We are not merely observers of a glorious Christian past, reading about better men in safer times. We inherit what they defended, and inheritance creates an obligation.

We owe a debt to the saints and heroes who came before us. Honoring it does not require pretending we are Don Juan of Austria. It requires the willingness to take responsibility for what has been handed to us — and the courage to defend what is true when resignation would be easier.

History can tell us that Lepanto happened.

Chesterton reminds us why anyone should care.

In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,
Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.

​Courage, Gk chesterton, Heroes, History, Inheritance, Jerusalem, Western canon, Europe, Islam, Ottoman empire, Poetry, Civilization, Opinion & analysis