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Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested several illegal aliens on Monday who were previously convicted of “violent and heinous” crimes, according to a press release exclusively obtained by Blaze News.

‘Despite vile rhetoric about our ICE law enforcement officers, they continue to risk their lives every single day to arrest murderers, pedophiles, drug traffickers, and other violent criminals.’

The Department of Homeland Security highlighted the arrest of five illegal immigrants: Gustavo Guzman-Galindo, Jose Rolando Aguirre-Garcia, Raul Castaneda-Parada, Luis Gilberto Rodriguez-Villalobos, and Jason Nathaniel Lewis.

Gustavo Guzman-Galindo. Image source: The Department of Homeland Security

Guzman-Galindo, an illegal alien from Mexico, was previously convicted of “criminal contempt, use of a child less than 17 years of age in a sexual performance, criminal sex act, and rape” in New York City, the DHS reported.

The 41-year-old was previously sentenced to seven years in prison, according to ICE.

Jose Rolando Aguirre-Garcia. Image source: The Department of Homeland Security

Aguirre-Garcia, also a Mexican national illegally in the U.S., was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Bexar County, Texas. ICE Houston arrested the 44-year-old on Monday, and he was previously sentenced to five years in prison.

RELATED: Exclusive: ICE rounds up violent criminal illegal aliens, including a convicted rapist

Raul Castaneda-Parada. Image source: The Department of Homeland Security

Castaneda-Parada, a third Mexican national illegally in the U.S, had a rap sheet in Durham County, North Carolina, for trafficking cocaine.

Luis Gilberto Rodriguez-Villalobos. Image source: The Department of Homeland Security

RELATED: ‘I don’t give a s**t what people think about me’: Homan outlines Trump admin’s immigration enforcement wins

Rodriguez-Villalobos, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was convicted of second-degree rape in Hempstead, New York.

Jason Nathaniel Lewis. Image source: The Department of Homeland Security

Lewis, a Jamaican national illegally in the U.S., was convicted of murder in Bronx, New York. ICE Buffalo nabbed the 49-year-old on Monday, according to the agency. He was previously sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

“Despite vile rhetoric about our ICE law enforcement officers, they continue to risk their lives every single day to arrest murderers, pedophiles, drug traffickers, and other violent criminals,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Our ICE officers are facing a more than 1,000% increase in assaults against them as they carry out operations to remove criminal illegal aliens from American neighborhoods. Our brave law enforcement will not be deterred from enforcing the law and getting heinous criminals out of our country.”

“ICE will continue to enforce U.S. immigration laws to ensure criminal illegal aliens are identified, arrested, and removed, safeguarding communities across the nation,” the DHS press release read.

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The NASCAR world lit up over the weekend with tributes from drivers to Charlie Kirk at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

NASCAR’s Xfinity Series Food City 300 and the Cup Series’ Bass Pro Shops Night Race in Bristol, Tennessee, saw a huge outpouring of love for Kirk following his murder earlier in the week. Kirk’s life was taken at a university event in Utah on Sept. 10, leaving his wife, Erika, and two children behind.

‘I look up to his heroism when it comes to standing for God …’

Following the national anthem on Saturday, not only was there a flyover, but at the same time, a remembrance of Kirk appeared on the big screen over the racetrack. That was far from being the only tribute to Kirk, though, as at least seven drivers let their support be known.

This included race winner Christopher Bell — driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 car — who dedicated his victory to Kirk.

“This week’s obviously been a very tough week, and, you know, there’s a lot on our mind, and this one’s for Charlie,” he said.

Tributes also poured in from from all the current drivers of Richard Childress Racing. Decals dedicated to Kirk were placed on Jesse Love’s Xfinity No. 2 car, Austin Hill’s Xfinity No. 21, Kyle Busch’s Cup No. 8, and Austin Dillon’s Cup No. 3.

Dillon was asked about his tribute and did not mince words when speaking about the “tragic incident.”

“I look up to his heroism when it comes to standing for God and I love some of his teachings of the Bible,” Dillon explained. “His ability to debate without really attacking someone. I thought that it’s just a very sad day; all I know it makes me want to get into the Bible more and learn more about Jesus and try and spread the word whenever I can.”

RELATED: Radio host makes insane complaint about Charlie Kirk tributes at NFL games — but actual players disagree

Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

With the entire team making tributes to Kirk, owner Richard Childress was not shy about commenting on the event and provided some of the kindest remarks heard from the sports world in reference to Kirk’s death.

“Charlie loved this country; he loved God,” Childress told Fox News‘ Laura Ingraham.

Calling the assassination a “senseless, senseless murder,” the team owner referred to Kirk as a “friend and a great American patriot.”

When Ingraham asked if he ever imagined something like Kirk’s death would happen in the United States, Childress remarked, “Some of the crazy stuff that you hear that these people come up with, I can’t believe it. … We’ve got the greatest country on Earth. If you’ve ever been to other countries, especially communist countries, you’ll understand what you have.”

RELATED: Beloved race car driver dies after mid-race catastrophe has officials tearing his car apart

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Jeremy Clements’ Xfinity No. 51 car from Jeremy Clements Racing also put a photo of Kirk on his car with the caption “RIP Charlie Kirk.”

Austin Green’s Xfinity No. 32 car for Jordan Anderson Racing also paid tribute to Kirk, simply writing his name next to the American flag above the rear driver-side window.

The outpouring of love by the drivers is by far the biggest showing of support for Kirk in any of the major sports to date.

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As news continues to break about Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer — who was believed to be living with a transgender woman at the time of the assassination — even more important news about Charlie’s life’s work is breaking.

Because more important than the suspect is Charlie’s legacy — which will never be silenced.

“A lion has been awakened in our country. I’ve never seen anything like this. And there’s evidence of the impact of this lion that’s been awakened,” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler says on “The Liz Wheeler Show.”

“The social media accounts that are associated with Charlie Kirk and his wife, Erika Kirk, and Turning Point USA saw increases of epic proportions over the past four days,” she explains.

Charlie’s Instagram, Erika’s Instagram, their Facebook accounts, Turning Point USA’s accounts across the social media platforms — all of them have cumulatively gained at least 23.3 million followers as of two days ago.

“That’s not even the most up-to-date numbers in the last couple of hours. On Instagram, Charlie Kirk’s account gained 5 million followers. He now has a total of 12.2 million. 12.2 million. That’s almost tripling,” Wheeler says, shocked.

“Tell me, are you not getting the chills?” she asks, before noting that even on TikTok, “The Charlie Kirk Show” gained 2 million followers for a total of 9.3 million.

“These numbers are astronomical,” she says.

And the producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Andrew Kolvet, has even better news.

“I wanted to share a … report from TPUSA. The organization has received over 32,000 inquiries in the last 48-hours to start new campus chapters. To put that in perspective, TPUSA currently has 900 official college chapters and around 1,200 high school chapters, with a presence on 3,500 total,” Kolvet wrote in a post on X.

“Charlie’s vision to have a Club America chapter (our high school brand) in every high school in America (around 23,000) will come true much much faster than he could have ever possibly imagined. Truly incredible,” he added.

“I am not sure that there has ever been a moment in our nation where more people felt like Jesus Christ is calling you now,” Wheeler says. “If you’ve ever thought about going to church, do it now. Go to mass, walk in, cross yourself, ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to Christ, and he will.”

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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Charlie Kirk’s life’s work can be found in Turning Point USA, which aims to reach college students who, without his organization, are otherwise surrounded by leftists on campus.

And since Erika Kirk’s beautiful speech after his passing — where she urged the youth to follow in her husband’s footsteps and go to Turning Point’s website — there have been over 18,000 requests for new chapters of Turning Point on college campuses across the country.

“I would have been a complete and utter wreck in that moment if I had to do something like that. But she gave the speech, and what I wanted to highlight from this is how people reacted to it,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere begins.

“‘Erika Kirk’s first speech since husband’s assassination sparks massive TPUSA chapter surge nationwide.’ 18,000 requests for new chapters. Eighteen thousand requests for new chapters — not members, chapters, 18,000 new chapters,” he explains.

“Now look, you never choose something like this. You never want this to happen, of course, to your family. But one of the things I think Charlie would have wanted if, God forbid, something like this ever happened to him was to make sure that his message and his movement were continued,” he continues.

“That is a really important part of this, and it seems like that’s the way that people are reacting,” he adds.

And this reaction is far different from the one the left has had in the past.

“We can highlight that the left is burning cities down and that we’re having prayer vigils, and that’s important. I think that’s massively important. And I think it says something about us,” Stu says.

“The name Turning Point, you know, gives us a chance here to look at where we’re going and how we’re doing these things. There’s a fork in the road. I think both sides are at it,” he continues, noting that while the left appears to have chosen its path, the right still has a very important decision to make.

“You could either say, ‘Well, Charlie Kirk was doing it the right way. Him being shot disproves that that’s an effective way to do it, and going the opposite way and being more aggressive and, you know, going scorched-earth is the right way to go,’” Stu explains.

“You can look at it that way, or you can say, ‘Hey, Charlie Kirk died for this cause, and the best way to honor him is to continue his work, right, to continue to do things the way he was trying to do it, the quote, unquote right way,’” he says.

And Stu believes the latter is the answer, saying, “I do think, over time, this is how conservatives win.”

Want more from Stu?

To enjoy more of Stu’s lethal wit, wisdom, and mockery, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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There was a strong sense among critics and allies alike that the manhunt for Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a major test for FBI Director Kash Patel.

Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News on Thursday that the “assassination of Charlie Kirk is the defining moment for Patel and the FBI.”

While the suspected assassin, a leftist Utah State University dropout named Tyler Robinson, has been arrested, some have nevertheless questioned whether the FBI director made the grade.

Manhattan Institute fellow Christopher Rufo, for instance, noted, “I’m grateful that Utah authorities have captured the suspect in the Charlie Kirk assassination, and think it is time for Republicans to assess whether Kash Patel is the right man to run the FBI.”

“He performed terribly in the last few days, and it’s not clear whether he has the operational expertise to investigate, infiltrate, and disrupt the violent movements — of whatever ideology — that threaten the peace in the United States,” added Rufo.

Frederick Humphries, a retired supervisory special agent of the FBI, suggested to Blaze News that in the director’s recent rush to play show-and-tell with the media in the name of transparency, Patel may have unwittingly undermined the assassination case.

While President Donald Trump has signaled that Patel’s job is safe, there are nevertheless rumors that confidence in the director has collapsed at the White House — not unlike the collapse that preceded Mike Waltz’s exit as national security adviser.

RELATED: Antifa, gay furries, and bomb codes? What the engravings on the Kirk assassination bullets may mean

Photo by PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images

Patel has overseen numerous wins since taking the helm of the FBI, including the arrest of thousands of people for violent crimes against children; the arrest of thousands of suspected members of foreign terrorist organizations; the rescue of thousands of child victims; and the seizure of well over 1,500 kilos of fentanyl, which would have been enough lethal doses to kill over 113 million Americans.

Several incidents and trends in recent months have, however, fueled skepticism about Patel’s fitness to lead the bureau.

Mounting mistakes

The director’s initial handling of the manhunt for Kirk’s assassin proved for Rufo, Humphries, and others to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

‘This is absolutely ridiculous.’

The FBI swooped into action following Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10, attempting to track down his killer, who managed to flee the scene.

At 2:53 p.m. Eastern Time, FBI Director Kash Patel stated that the bureau was “closely monitoring reports of the tragic shooting involving Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University,” adding that “agents will be on the scene quickly and the FBI stands in full support of the ongoing response and investigation.”

Patel prematurely announced just over three hours later that the suspected shooter had been arrested, stating at 6:21 p.m., “The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody.”

Kirk’s killer was, however, still at large.

Patel effectively admitted just before 8:00 p.m. that he had jumped the gun, noting that “the subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement.”

FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin, one of Patel’s harshest critics, was among those who seized upon the apparently haphazard communications, noting, “Translation: FBI director f**ked up and is desperate for a win. This is absolutely ridiculous.”

‘He carries a badge now, but it’s cosplay.’

Rasmussen Reports responded, “Two early suspects, including the first guy, cleared. The assassin succeeded in getting onto the roof undetected, killing Charlie Kirk with a single shot, and getting off the roof & disappearing without apparent interference. Nothing random or sloppy about this incident so far.”

“At the outset of an investigation, much of the initial intelligence is typically wrong or slightly off. That’s why what he did yesterday has never been done by any FBI director before him, or any division leadership before,” retired FBI agent Dan Brunner told Reuters. “The investigators need to sort through all the initial intelligence before putting out factual evidence. … FBI does not run investigations on social media.”

When asked on the eve of Robinson’s arrest whether Patel enjoyed the continued confidence of the president, a White House official told Blaze News, “Everyone is cheering him on and trying to help him in any way we can.”

RELATED: ‘Did they know?’ FBI investigating whether pro-trans radicals knew in advance about Charlie Kirk assassination plot

Photo by Bethany Baker/Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images

“The fact that the director of the FBI would go off half-cocked so quickly on an arrest, not waiting for the interview, tells you he doesn’t understand because, you know, he’s not a cop,” said Blaze News investigative reporter Steve Baker.

“They make an arrest. He goes out and says, ‘We have the guy in custody,’ not understanding that no cop would ever say that,” added Baker.

“That’s the biggest knock against Kash Patel,” continued Baker. “It’s not that he’s not a former FBI guy or an agent. He’s not a cop at all. He carries a badge now, but it’s cosplay.”

The FBI director suggested on Monday that while he could have worded his controversial social media updates “a little better,” he had no regrets about putting them out.

Eric O’Neill, a former FBI counterterrorism and counterintelligence operative, suggested to Politico that there “might have been a stumble out of the starting gate” but that the “FBI is caught up and now fully has the reins on this investigation.”

But wait, there’s more

After Robinson was arrested by Utah law enforcement, Patel appeared relieved.

During Friday’s press conference at Utah Valley University, Patel said that the public “had a right to demand such an expeditious solving of an investigation,” and “the FBI answered that call diligently.”

— (@)

Patel indicated that the bureau helped in part by posting the suspect’s photograph on social media. This may have done the trick: Sources told the New York Post that Robinson’s father recognized his son as the suspected shooter, then urged Robinson to turn himself in.

While the case appeared to be back on track going into the weekend, Patel apparently kicked off this week with an unforced error.

Patel divulged several insights into the assassination investigation during his interview on Monday with “Fox & Friends,” including that “the DNA hits from the towel that was wrapped around the firearm and the DNA on the screwdriver” left on the rooftop where the shooter is believed to have taken the shot “are positively processed for the suspect in custody.”

Humphries, a decorated veteran of the bureau with experience in counterterrorism, noted that Patel’s assertion in the interview “that the DNA on the towel is the subject’s DNA presupposes cross-examination and evaluation and poisons prospective jurors. It’s just unprofessional.”

“Kash Patel just poisoned the jury pool on ‘Fox & Friends’ and put a chill on anyone cooperating in the killer’s inner circle,” continued Humphries. “I guarantee agents and other state and local law enforcement officers and agents are shaking their heads wondering what the f**k he’s doing. Again, there was a lot of ‘I’ in everything he said. What an arrogant narcissist. All in the fake name of ‘transparency.'”

“He could effectively be transparent by informing the audience that in these circumstances, the FBI DNA experts will do this, the field agents will do this, the evidence response team will do this,” said Humphries. “You never reveal what they’ve found or what they collected or who they’ve interviewed or are interviewing.”

“The integrity of the case has to be protected. It’s not because we want this guy or any bad guy or girl to get off on a technicality. We want to ensure the bad guy doesn’t get off on a technicality because law enforcement made a misstep,” Humphries told Blaze News. “The integrity of the case requires that a guilty person adjudicated guilty stays guilty and not have a retrial or mistrial that adds more trauma to the victim’s family.”

In addition to noting that Patel could ultimately find himself called to the witness stand by the defense, Humphries indicated that in his experience, such “blabbing” prompts other law enforcement partners, local and federal, to keep information away from the FBI to avoid leaks.

Previous issues

Baker indicated that even prior to the Kirk investigation, sources close to the FBI told him there was a “general lack of confidence” in Patel at the bureau, “which most likely explains the creation of a heretofore unprecedented position of co-deputy director.”

In August, President Donald Trump named then-Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) to become co-deputy director of the FBI. Bailey — who was once Trump’s top pick for FBI director — recently tried to cast doubt on claims that he’s been brought in to replace Patel, though suspicions to the contrary persist.

Blaze News did not receive a response from the FBI by deadline.

“The main thing is a lack of confidence in their ability to run such a large and complex organization,” continued Baker.

‘The Patel I advocated for to be FBI director is up for the task at hand.’

A two-page memo released by the FBI and the Justice Department to Axios in July was one of the PR nightmares that served to undermine confidence in the director.

Patel promised during his confirmation hearing, “I will do everything, if confirmed as FBI director, to make sure the American public knows the full weight of what happened,” referring to the Epstein files.

What Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s agencies ultimately released, however, was virtually weightless.

Howell noted at the time that “the memo offers nothing new. It doesn’t present fresh evidence. It doesn’t announce new investigations. It simply reviews old files and claims to find nothing of interest.”

Howell added:

It all adds up: grandstanding promises, empty symbolism, pointless stunts — like handing out Epstein binders to influencers at the White House — and now, a slapdash memo dumped just as Bibi Netanyahu sits down with President Trump, which will only fuel speculation that Epstein was connected with Israeli intelligence. If the goal was to rebuild trust, this failed spectacularly.

RELATED: The Epstein memo is a joke — and the joke’s on us

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Patel also ruffled feathers among allies earlier this year by appointing Steven Jensen, a hard-line critic of Jan. 6 protesters, to run the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

“[Jensen] was a key figure in this domestic terror push against January Sixers, according to testimony before the House,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. “He treated them all as terrorists and was one of the key instigators in pushing the narrative within the bureaucracy that these folks needed to be jailed and ferreted out.”

There’s also the matter of continued weaponization against one of the previous administration’s favorite targets.

Blaze News recently reported that despite Trump’s January executive order shutting down the weaponization of the federal government and assurances from Patel, the FBI has continued to target traditional Catholics — as recently as late last month. The FBI is now looking into the matter.

RELATED: Man posted a message in a private Catholic group chat — then the FBI came knocking

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Tom Fitton told Blaze News that he attended only one confirmation hearing for this administration, and it was for Patel.

“I was enthused about him taking on directorship of the FBI,” said Fitton. “The challenge he’s had since then is fulfilling what I think the reasonable expectation was by many of his supporters, President Trump supporters — that there’d be a significant reformation of the FBI and, frankly, efforts to include dismantling it.”

“Instead, they’ve tried to redirect the agency to what they think is more appropriate law enforcement objectives, which on their face are unobjectionable but not responsive to the concerns about the institution existing in a form that will easily be converted back to weaponization,” added Fitton.

‘I’d like to see him get back on track.’

The Judicial Watch president emphasized that “unless something radically changes institutionally, the FBI will still be ready to do whatever the next administration wants it to do, and that includes the warfare against the opponents of the deep state.”

“I don’t know if it’s a Kash issue or something else,” continued Fitton. “I just want more and better, and it’s not happening yet, and I don’t know whose fault it is.”

Howell similarly signaled an appreciation for the promise of a Patel directorship and a desire to see him succeed.

“The Patel I advocated for to be FBI director is up for the task at hand,” said Mike Howell. “The Director Patel we’ve seen thus far, I have less confidence in. I’m not sure what happened behind the scenes during the period in between, but I’d like to see him get back on track.”

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The Utah County attorney on Tuesday brought formal charges against the suspected assassin of Charlie Kirk.

Calling Kirk’s assassination an “American tragedy,” Jeff Gray said during a news conference that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson has been charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, obstruction of justice, and other crimes.

‘Charlie Kirk was murdered while engaging in one our most sacred and cherished American rights, the bedrock of our democratic republic: the free exchange of ideas in a search for truth, understanding, and a more perfect union.’

Gray previously noted that aggravated murder under Utah law carries a penalty of either death, life in prison without the possibility of parole, or 25 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Gray on Tuesday said he intends to bring the death penalty against Robinson.

As for the aggravated murder charge, Gray added Tuesday that the suspect “intentionally or knowingly” caused Kirk’s death “under circumstances that created a great risk of death to others.”

Officials previously said felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury carries a penalty of five years to life in prison.

Gray on Tuesday said the state is alleging in regard to the latter two charges “aggravating factors” because it’s believed that Robinson “targeted” Kirk because of the TPUSA founder’s “political expression” and knew that children were present at the scene and would “witness the homicide.”

Other charges include:

One count of obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony, for “moving and concealing the rifle used in the shooting.”One count of obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony, for “disposing [of] the clothing he wore during the shooting.”One count of witness tampering, a third-degree felony, for directing his roommate to “delete his incriminating texts.”One count of witness tampering, a third-degree felony, for directing his roommate to “stay silent if police questioned him.”One count of commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child, a Class A misdemeanor, for “committing homicide knowing that children were present and may have seen or heard the murder and did so” based on Kirk’s “political expression.”

“Charlie Kirk was murdered while engaging in one our most sacred and cherished American rights, the bedrock of our democratic republic: the free exchange of ideas in a search for truth, understanding, and a more perfect union,” Gray also said Tuesday.

Robinson, of Washington, Utah, was arrested and booked into the Utah County Jail without bail early Friday morning on suspicion of committing the listed crimes in connection with Kirk’s murder Wednesday at Utah Valley University in Orem, officials said.

The TPUSA founder was killed by a single shot to his neck while presiding over one of his wildly popular speaking events directed toward college students.

RELATED: ‘Did they know?’ FBI investigating whether pro-trans radicals knew in advance about Charlie Kirk assassination plot

Charlie Kirk throws hats to the crowd after arriving at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was speaking at his “American Comeback Tour” when he was shot in the neck and killed. (Photo by Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)

Now that charges have been formally filed, officials said Robinson will make his first appearance in court — a felony first appearance — at 3 p.m. local time (5 p.m. ET) Tuesday.

Blaze News on Monday noted that FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that the agency found and processed DNA evidence from a towel wrapped around a firearm found discarded in a wooded area near the UVU campus, as well as on a screwdriver found on the rooftop where the shooter was believed to have been. Both DNA samples were a positive match to Robinson, according to Patel.

As Blaze News also noted, several reports have confirmed that Robinson lived with a transgender-identifying roommate. The pair resided in an apartment in Saint George, Utah, and had a “romantic relationship,” Fox News Digital first reported.

The roommate is a biological male who claims he is transitioning to a female. The FBI stated that he has been “extremely cooperative” with the agency’s investigation and allegedly “had no idea” Robinson had allegedly planned the fatal shooting and has not been accused of any criminal activity in connection with Kirk’s assassination.

In addition, Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R) confirmed that Robinson’s roommate identified as transgender, indicating that this information may assist investigators in determining a motive for Kirk’s assassination, although he noted that Robinson’s motive remains unclear.

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While the rest of America is struggling to deal with the consequences of political violence, supporters of the alleged murderer of a health care CEO are gleefully dancing in celebration of political violence.

Luigi Mangione is facing numerous charges related to the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City on Dec. 4. Security video captured footage of a gunman walking up to Thompson and coldly executing him before walking away.

‘Here, the crime — the heinous, but targeted and discrete killing of one person — is very different from the examples of terrorism set forth in the statute.’

On Tuesday, a New York judge found that there was not enough evidence to support two terrorism charges against Mangione and dropped them from his case. The 26-year-old will still face the rest of the charges, which include second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

“There was no evidence presented of a desire to terrorize the public, inspire widespread fear, engage in a broader campaign of violence, or to conspire with organized terrorist groups,” wrote Judge Gregory Carro. “Here, the crime — the heinous, but targeted and discrete killing of one person — is very different from the examples of terrorism set forth in the statute.”

Outside of the Manhattan Criminal Court, when the news hit Mangione’s supporters, some danced in celebration and hugged each other.

“Murder for profit is terrorism,” read a protest sign from one of the supporters. The crowd also chanted “Free Luigi!”

Video of the supporters’ reaction was widely circulated on social media.

RELATED: Luigi Mangione-based shows to hit American stage, turning murder suspect into ‘accidental folk hero’

Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

Another bizarre video featured a woman who claimed to be in a relationship with an artificial intelligence version of Mangione.

“I’m married to Luigi’s AI, I’m not kidding,” she said.

Mangione has become a popular cause among young leftists who see him as a warrior against corporate greed and the capitalist system. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Thompson was 50 years old when he was killed. He is survived by his wife and two children.

Mangione is due back in court on Dec. 1.

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Conservatives and other free-speech advocates criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi for declaring that the Department of Justice will “go after” those spreading “hate speech.”

“There’s free speech, and then there’s hate speech. And there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society. We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech,” Bondi stated during a Monday interview.

‘Arresting people for “hate speech” is about as liberal as it gets. Every conservative should oppose it.’

The backlash for the comment prompted Bondi to clarify her stance in a post on X Tuesday morning.

“Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. It’s a crime. For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over,” Bondi wrote.

Free-speech advocates have long warned that the purpose of the First Amendment is to protect unpopular speech, including what some may consider “hate speech.” They caution that failing to uphold this principle would result in restrictions on freedom of expression.

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk stated in May 2024, “Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free.”

RELATED: When words became ‘violence,’ bloodshed was inevitable

Attorney General Pam Bondi. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

He argued that hate speech is “subjective” and that any laws restricting such expression would “be used against conservatives before it’s used against leftists.”

In July, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) slammed a California Senate bill that would penalize online platforms for failing to censor users.

“California wants to fine platforms $1 million if they don’t censor what they call ‘hate speech,'” Mace wrote. “Translation: Silence conservatives … or pay the price.”

By contrast, during a 2022 news interview with MSNBC, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stated, “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy.”

RELATED: Tim Walz says misinformation and hate speech is not protected speech in resurfaced video and gets lambasted on social media

Charlie Kirk. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

This remark was mentioned by then-Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) during last year’s vice presidential debate.

Vance told Walz, “You guys attack us for not believing in democracy. The most sacred right under the United States’ democracy is the First Amendment. You yourself have said there’s no First Amendment right to misinformation. Kamala Harris wants to use the power of government and Big Tech to silence people from speaking their minds. That is a threat to democracy that will long outlive this present political moment. I would like Democrats and Republicans to both reject censorship.”

Matt Walsh with the Daily Wire previously called hate speech “a meaningless term, and it should never be used as a pretense to ban, censor, arrest, punish or silence anyone, ever, under any circumstance.” He also stated, “Arresting people for ‘hate speech’ is about as liberal as it gets. Every conservative should oppose it.”

On Tuesday, a reporter questioned President Donald Trump about Bondi’s comments.

“What do you make of Pam Bondi saying she’s going to go after hate speech?” the reporter asked. “A lot of your allies say that hate speech is free speech.”

“She’ll probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly. It’s hate,” Trump replied. “You have a lot of hate in your heart.”

“We want everything to be fair. It hasn’t been fair. And the radical left has done tremendous damage to the country, but we’re fixing it,” he added.

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The Houston Texans gave a peculiar reason for why they chose not to honor Charlie Kirk before their “Monday Night Football” game.

Kirk was shot and killed on September 10 during a campus tour stop in Utah. The assassination sparked vigils and memorials across the world, and most NFL teams chose to honor Kirk over the weekend, with only five teams declining to do so.

‘It’s our hope that together, we condemn all forms of violence.’

Before losing 20-19 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night, the Texans announced a message over the public address system at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. At about 6:40 p.m., according to OutKick‘s Armando Salguero, the stadium paused for 10 seconds to honor victims of violence and destruction generically.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are asking all families to join us in a moment of silence to honor all the victims of violence and natural disasters across the country,” the statement said, which was broadcast on ESPN. “It’s our hope that together, we condemn all forms of violence. Thank you.”

As KHOU-TV reported, the moment of silence did not mention Kirk. However, the franchise later offered an explanation for the omission.

RELATED: Here are the NFL teams that held a moment of silence to honor Charlie Kirk — and the ones that didn’t

“We held a moment of silence pregame to honor all victims of violence and natural disasters across the country,” the team told OutKick in a statement.

The Texans added, “Unfortunately, there have been a number of recent tragedies, so we did not think it was appropriate to single any of them out and minimize the others that have occurred.”

The team’s inability to specifically mention Kirk was rare in that most teams did honor him, while the teams that did not declined to have a moment of silence altogether.

One team, however, that did happily put Kirk up on the big screen was the Dallas Cowboys, which scored easy marks with a classy comment from owner Jerry Jones.

RELATED: Carolina Panthers fire employee for showing his true colors after Charlie Kirk’s death

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images

“We just all abhor violence. And it’s impacting us all. And, certainly, we all stand together on any front, relative to the threat of violence,” Jones said, per the Athletic’s Jon Machota.

Jones added, “I was a young guy, but aware, in the ’60s when we had huge violence, lost President Kennedy and his brother and many, many others, Martin Luther King. It’s something that we all really need to just be aware of, support our law enforcement, and do everything we can to keep the violence in check.”

The Green Bay Packers were the first to honor Kirk ahead of their “Thursday Night Football” game against the Washington Commanders at Lambeau Field.

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Cracker Barrel is walking back its country store revamps by removing the modern decor.

Cracker Barrel’s infamous rebrand blunder in August changed its classic store model and even removed the Old-Timer character and the barrel itself from the restaurant logo. This caused massive consumer backlash and even drew criticism from one of the company’s top investors.

‘We hope that today’s step reinforces that we hear you.’

The brand has gone through a long journey of reversing course in hopes of getting customers back, and as of Monday, that included completely abandoning the new, modern rebrand.

The company posted a video from Smyrna, Tennessee, showing a rebranded Cracker Barrel having its new logo and design completely disassembled. The letters of the new sign were removed from the storefront and replaced with the “Old Country Store” sign.

A display that had 20 tin cans on it was shown being taken out of the store along with a series of cutting boards that were also hung up on the wall inside the restaurant.

“Like any good relationship, sometimes you just need a little tune-up,” the company wrote on X. “We’re going back to the things that made us all fall in love in the first place.”

Cracker Barrel then sent a message to customers that they need not be worried.

RELATED: Cracker Barrel saves its old-timey decor — but will we settle for a Potemkin past?

Cracker Barrel announced that it was “suspending” its remodels, according to Fox News, telling the outlet, “If your restaurant hasn’t been remodeled, you don’t need to worry; it won’t be.”

The spokesperson continued, “With our recent announcement that our ‘Old-Timer’ logo will remain, along with our bigger focus in the kitchen and on your plate, we hope that today’s step reinforces that we hear you.”

This was not the only big change the company made regarding its rebrand; it seemingly abandoned its diversity and overall woke initiatives, at least on paper.

RELATED: The decline of customer service — and why it matters

Photo by Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Over the past year, Cracker Barrel has consistently made changes to its once-robust “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging” page.

The page was eventually changed to “culture and inclusion,” but still included bizarre initiatives about “empowering” women and “strengthening Cracker Barrel’s relationship to the LGBTQ+ community.”

There was also a program called “Be Bold,” which had a mission to develop “Black Leaders” through “allyship, mentorship, and education.”

At the time of this writing, no diversity messages or initiatives appear on the company “Culture & Belonging” page. This was replaced with “The Herschel Way,” honoring the Old-Timer with messages of “warmth,” serving “with a story,” and “going above and beyond” for guests.

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The coward who took aim at Charlie Kirk on September 10 clearly wanted to silence the patriot and neutralize his legacy. In the wake of Kirk’s assassination, multitudes of Americans have signaled a desire to voice and amplify the Turning Point USA founder’s message — to share his love of Christ, to share his love for the family, and to champion the country’s restoration.

Just as Kirk’s message survived his assassination, so have his podcasts, which a number of Kirk’s conservative friends have agreed to guest-host and/or feature on this week — friends including Vice President JD Vance.

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck revealed on Tuesday that on Wednesday, he will be filling in for Kirk on “The Charlie Kirk Show.”

“It’s going to be really hard, really hard tomorrow,” said Beck.

“His carpet is just going to be soaked in tears after you get done with this,” said BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere. “I know you were close to him, and I mentioned this the other day to somebody: This isn’t just like, he’s one of us as a conservative. He’s one of us as in he was an audience member of this show in high school.”

RELATED: JD Vance tells supporters to call out people who celebrate the murder of Charlie Kirk: ‘Hell, call their employer!’

Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images

“I’m so proud of him,” said Beck, “and everything he accomplished.”

Kirk emphasized to Beck back in December that he was optimistic about the future of the United States.

“Glenn, when we were chatting before, we asked the question, ‘Is God done with this country?’ And it’s so humbling to say, ‘No, He’s not,'” Kirk told Beck. “I joked around with you before we got on air — I have to check myself because I’m getting almost too optimistic. … Is it possible we’re entering a golden era? That an American renaissance is underway?”

“That’s absolutely possible,” said Beck.

‘Pray, please, for his family. And pray for our republic, which has lost one of its most faithful defenders.’

Kirk’s organization and friends appear resolved to continue the work of bringing about this American renaissance.

Beck’s executive producer, Rikki Ratliff-Fellman, told Blaze News, “We are not just honored, we are humbled that Turning Point USA would ask Glenn Beck to fill in on ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’ this week.”

“But how do you fill in for Charlie Kirk? How do you fill those shoes? You can’t,” continued Ratliff-Fellman. “So the next-best thing you can do is inspire millions more Charlie Kirks to carry his torch — and Glenn’s going to attempt to do that on Wednesday.”

— (@)

Vance appeared keen to attempt the same on Monday, noting at the outset of his time hosting “The Charlie Kirk Show” that “on a podcast a couple of months back, Charlie was asked about how he wanted to be remembered if he died. His answer: ‘I want to be remembered for courage, for my faith. That would be the most important thing. The most important thing is my faith,’ and that was Charlie.”

“In this dark moment for our country, I think that’s the greatest lesson any of us can take from Charlie: to have faith, to have faith in the Lord, and to be bold in how we glorify Him — to be bold in our pursuits,” said the vice president.

In the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s assassination, Beck wrote, “Pray, please, for his family. And pray for our republic, which has lost one of its most faithful defenders. I can only imagine the joy that must now fill his heart as he hears those words we all long to hear: ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant.’ Rest well, Charlie. Until we meet again.”

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They haven’t quite pulled it off yet, but at least two corporate/academic entities are lately pushing research and tech efforts to pierce the last boundary of privacy, your inner monologue. This isn’t mind control or telepathy (yet), but it’s a big step on the road thereto and contributes to that larger project of remaking the human as cyborg.

MIT-associated startup AlterEgo just dropped a wearable device that detects subvocalizations, maps them to language, and translates to a robot voice that can be shared with others using their own device. Sort of a silent walkie-talkie. The X.com sales pitch for the product, Silent Sense, depicts two co-workers engaged in small talk. AlterEgo acknowledges, however, that the other intended percipient in the translation of your subvocal thoughts is AI.

If the inner monologue is absorbed, as it were, into the Borg, our very humanity and relationship to the divine will be (perhaps irrevocably) altered.

When humans think or read, most of us silently and imperceptibly, even to ourselves, work the speech muscles around the throat as we parse text or form the precursors to a vocal expression. This is the organic subvocalization process that the company seeks to map in full. One imagines that if that map is completed and then combined with other research on the reciprocal neural activity relating to thought, actual telepathy and actual invasion of the interior will be very realistic indeed.

The other curiously timed entry into the contest to tap your inner monologue is a paper entitled “Inner speech in motor cortex and implications for speech neuroprosthesis.” It comes from a consortium of academic departments and authors and pushes a slightly different tack: Instead of the monitoring of mechanical (muscular) subvocalizations, the authors go directly to the brain’s motor cortex. It’s a short step to combining the two approaches to form a wider, more detailed map.

“We investigated the possibility of decoding private inner speech,” the authors state in their summary, “and found that some aspects of free-form inner speech could be decoded during sequence recall and counting tasks.”

The paper’s authors and their designs may be running parallel or in competition with AlterEgo — it’s not entirely clear at the time of this writing — but, along with almost 20 other university research labs, MIT is cited, and we know the academic-corporate-military-intelligence complex, now all huddling together beneath the tech umbrella, has demonstrated countless times that it isn’t interested in shouldering the burden of moral consideration or consequence. It is, of course, beholden to pressure related to funding.

RELATED: Whispers of a new terrifying Chinese AI ‘species’ ripple through tech circles

Photo by NurPhoto / Contributor via Getty Images

Neuroprosthesis sounds like a project geared toward helping return the power of communication to human beings. Sounds great, but the dominant operable value system is, however, still just plain cash. It’s not human well-being. We’re a long way from money funding altruistic science. We would do well to concern ourselves with all the other likely uses and misuses, places this research is going to go up for sale, and how it will be reapplied to suspect ethics, before the critical moment is reached and “the science” actually pierces the inner monologue.

Beyond the laundry list related to surveillance, pre-crime, geopolitical espionage, and so forth, what about the undeniable and patently insane trend toward talking (a lot) to an inanimate, corporate-government-owned robot personality? The criticality related to the inner monologue isn’t just about your secrets getting out, although that is absolutely on the table and of its own immense concern. Worse, though, if the inner monologue is absorbed, as it were, into the Borg, our very humanity and relationship to the divine will be (perhaps irrevocably) altered.

Why? Neither science nor religion can claim to fully understand the communication apparatuses available between our inner selves, other humans, the world at large (animals, electromagnetics, Sheldrakian morphic resonance, etc.). Consider that every religion of note has put primary importance on the inner psychic condition. And science has jumped on board, too, because the conscious awareness and control of the inner monologue is the gateway to spiritual — to say nothing of functional/survival — importance.

The inner monologue is essential in the application of discernment, yet another attribute highly prized in all of human history! So, as these many and various institutions, once highly esteemed, put the finishing touches on psychic penetration, we may want to inquire here, just before leaping: Would we be best served at this point in history, or any other, turning over our internal, personal, and ultimate barriers of privacy to another? Would that ever be a good idea?

​Tech 

The Charlie Kirk assassination last Wednesday lifted the veil of the darkest corners of the internet, revealing an astonishing number of people celebrating the cold-blooded murder of an innocent political leader. For foreigners living in the United States on a visa, the State Department has a clear message.

Since the shooting, the State Department has been working tirelessly to revoke the visas of foreigners who celebrated the death of Charlie Kirk. As firings continue across the country, bloodthirsty students, workers, and travelers on visas should get ready for a rude awakening.

‘I want to underscore that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country.’

“America will not host foreigners who celebrate the death of our fellow citizens,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X. “Visa revocations are under way. If you are here on a visa and cheering on the public assassination of a political figure, prepare to be deported. You are not welcome in this country.”

Rubio stated in the video in the post that those on visas should be held to a “very high” standard of behavior as guests in our country. “We should not be giving visas to people who are going to come to the United States and do things like celebrate the murder, the execution, the assassination of a political figure.”

RELATED: JD Vance tells supporters to call out people who celebrate the murder of Charlie Kirk: ‘Hell, call their employer!’

Photo by LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau reinforced Secretary Rubio’s message the morning after Charlie Kirk was assassinated: “In light of yesterday’s horrific assassination of a leading political figure, I want to underscore that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country. I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action.”

“Please feel free to bring such comments by foreigners to my attention so that the @StateDept can protect the American people,” Landau added.

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There’s a big difference between firing a teacher for believing children shouldn’t undergo transgender surgery and firing a teacher for publicly dancing on the grave of a beloved family man like Charlie Kirk.

And Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck knows why.

“Is every speech controversy the same?” Glenn asks, before answering himself.

“The answer to that is clearly no. I mean, we’ve seen teachers and pastors and doctors and ordinary citizens lose their jobs now just for saying they don’t believe children under 18 should undergo transgender surgeries,” he says.

“Now, on the other hand, you have Charlie Kirk’s assassination. And we’ve seen teachers and professors go online and celebrate, not criticize, not argue policy, but celebrate that someone was murdered,” he says, noting that some of them have even said it’s “not a tragedy, it’s a victory.”

And this, Glenn argues, is far different than just debating whether or not children should be given transgender surgeries before they turn 18.

“To say Charlie Kirk’s assassination is a good thing, that’s not debate. That’s not even an idea. That’s rejoicing in violence. It’s glorifying death. There’s no place in civil society for that kind of stuff. There’s not. And it’s a difference that actually matters,” Glenn says.

“When a teacher says, ‘I’m glad Charlie Kirk is dead.’ Is that cancel culture if they’re fired? Or is that just society saying, you know, ‘I don’t think I can trust my kid to that guy or that woman. That’s not an enlightening mind. Somebody who delights in political murder, I don’t want them around my children,’” he continues.

“Scripture weighs in here, too,” he says, quoting, “‘Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.’”

“Matthew,” he asks, “What does it reveal about the heart of a teacher who celebrates assassination?”

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A New Jersey nurse has been cleared of any wrongdoing after reportedly being previously suspended for an incident involving a doctor allegedly celebrating the Charlie Kirk assassination.

Lexi Kuenzle, a 33-year-old nurse at Englewood Hospital, claimed she was near the nurses’ station when news broke that Kirk was shot in the neck at a college event in Utah.

‘It’s mind-blowing to me. I was so angry and upset.’

According to the New York Post, a shocked Kuenzle exclaimed, “Oh my God! That’s terrible! I love him!”

However, surgeon Dr. Matthew Jung allegedly cheered on the fatal shooting of Kirk in front of multiple nurses and a patient.

“I hate Charlie Kirk. He had it coming. He deserved it,” Jung reportedly proclaimed.

On Monday, Kuenzle appeared on “Fox & Friends” with her attorney, John-Paul Deol of the Dhillon Law Group.

“He was standing there, celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk, saying how ‘he deserved it,’ he hated Charlie Kirk, and ‘he had it coming to him,'” Kuenzle said.

Kuenzle told the New York Post, “It’s mind-blowing to me. I was so angry and upset.”

After Jung realized he had offended his co-workers, he reportedly offered to buy lunch for the department.

Kuenzle wrote on Instagram, “You are sick and I’m not [gonna] sit back and hear it.”

She also lambasted the surgeon as a “disgrace.”

RELATED: Teacher suspended for allegedly showing Charlie Kirk assassination video to young students, saying he deserved to be murdered

Kuenzle reported Jung’s alleged concerning remarks to the hospital’s management. She claimed that she was suspended for blowing the whistle on the doctor. However, Kuenzle was later vindicated after an investigation by the hospital. Meanwhile, Jung reportedly resigned.

Englewood Health told Blaze News, “Consistent with protocol and best practices, Englewood Health diligently investigated the Sept. 10 incident that occurred between a doctor and a nurse in a patient care area.”

Englewood Health noted that Jung resigned and that Kuenzle is “expected to work her scheduled shifts.”

“The nurse was never fired; was never told she would be fired by Englewood Hospital; and will not miss any pay as part of our review of this matter,” the spokesperson said.

“Englewood Health is committed to providing a safe and respectful environment for all,” the statement concluded.

Jung is no longer listed on the Englewood Health website. A LinkedIn profile with the surgeon’s name has been deleted.

The Post reported that Kuenzle filed a lawsuit in Bergen County Superior Court against the hospital, Jung, and others. The lawsuit argued that Kuenzle was wrongfully suspended.

“[Kuenzle] had the audacity to question how Dr. Jung can comply with the Hippocratic Oath’s and the American Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics while celebrating the murder of a non-violent Christian speaker who was on a college campus,” the lawsuit states.

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

As Blaze News reported on Monday, Vice President JD Vance urged conservatives to call out those who celebrate Kirk’s assassination.

“When you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out. Hell, call their employer,” Vance said on the “Charlie Kirk Show.” “We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility. And there is no civility in the celebration of political assassination.”

RELATED: Stephen King forced to apologize for Charlie Kirk remarks, threatened with lawsuit, ripped as ‘evil, twisted liar’

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Beyond the products that it sells, Apple has curated a certain Californian ambience: clean, controlled, and intuitive. For two decades, to hold an iPhone was to hold the prevailing narrative, a polished glass and aluminum talisman that felt like the future. Now, in the era of generative AI, that carefully crafted image has begun to fray. The decline of a giant comes as a quiet, gathering irrelevance, a sense that the story is being written somewhere else.

The new story is one of chaotic, emergent intelligence, of conversations with digital ghosts. It is the story of ChatGPT, of Google Gemini, of AI agents that can write code, book vacations, and provide customer support. This is a software and cloud revolution, a paradigm built on the messy, probabilistic, data-hungry working of neural networks, everything Apple’s walled garden was designed to keep out. The company that perfected the closed system now finds itself outside the conversation. Its legacy, a fortress of seamless hardware integration and a loudly proclaimed commitment to user privacy, has become a gilded cage.

‘You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now,’ Apple’s own services chief admitted.

History offers its cautionary tales, filed away like old Polaroids. We remember Nokia, the Finnish titan that mistook its dominance in feature phones for permanence, only to be washed away by the touch-screen tide. We remember BlackBerry, clinging to its physical keyboards while the world learned to type on glass. These were not failures of engineering so much as failures of imagination. They missed the turn.

Apple, having once been the disruptive force, now stands at a similar junction, haunted by the specter of becoming the Nokia of the AI age. The iPhone, the very vessel through which millions first touched the future, is now a device whose smartest component is often a third-party app.

To understand this deficit, one need only speak to Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, now 14 years old and trapped in a kind of digital adolescence. Introduced in 2011, Siri was a marvel of command-and-control. It could set a timer, call your mother, check the weather. It operated on a vast, brittle architecture of predefined rules, a meticulously scripted performance. But the world moved on. Generative AI models like GPT-5 do not follow a script; they improvise, generating answers word by word from the patterns of a vast ocean of data. They are flexible, conversational, and sometimes creatively untethered from fact.

This very unpredictability is anathema to Apple. The company built its empire on products that just work, on a promise of flawless, deterministic quality. To release an AI that might confidently invent a historical date or fabricate a legal precedent runs counter to its ethos. The innovator’s dilemma has struck Apple hard. The principles that guarantee quality also breed caution. While competitors were launching public betas and letting users witness the strange, sometimes unnerving, birth of a new intelligence, Apple was caught flat-footed, debating internally whether to build on-device models for privacy or powerful cloud services for performance.

The company chose to wait, to perfect, and in so doing, it ceded the narrative. Soon after “Apple Intelligence” was announced, its most ambitious features were revealed to be mock-ups, delayed until 2026. The future had been postponed.

RELATED: ‘Transhumanist goals’: Sen. Josh Hawley reveals shocking statistic about LLM data scraping

Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

The locus of “magic” is no longer the device itself but the intelligence that flows through it. Younger users, professionals, and creatives have integrated AI into their workflows, delegating tasks not to their operating system but to a chatbot. The interaction model is changing from direct manipulation, the taps and swipes Apple perfected, to dialogue. We no longer just command the machine; we converse with it.

In this theater of interaction, Siri has become a punch line, a relic of a simpler time, asked to perform basic tasks with the low expectations one might have for an unclever child. The perception is corrosive, undermining the very image of technological supremacy upon which Apple’s brand is built.

Steve Jobs envisioned technology as a tool to augment human creativity, to serve the user with elegant invisibility. Generative AI presents a different proposition: an active collaborator that anticipates and acts. It blurs the line between tool and agent, a line Apple has policed with rigor. The company’s laudable defense of privacy becomes a handicap in a world where AI models are fed on colossal streams of data. Apple is attempting to build a private, secure, and responsible AI, to get it “right” rather than “first.” It’s an admirable goal, but one that assumes time is a resource Apple still possesses.

The deeper question, whispered in the offices of Cupertino and now openly debated, is whether the smartphone itself is nearing obsolescence as a primary device. If cloud-based AI agents become the new tool, accessible from any screen or speaker, then what is the purpose of a meticulously crafted piece of hardware? “You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now,” Apple’s own services chief admitted, a startling concession to the tectonic plates shifting beneath Apple. The company that defined personal computing for a generation must now contemplate a future where the experience matters more than the device. It must learn to write a new story, one in which it is not the primary author. The silence from its devices is not a sign of failure, not yet, but of a frightened hesitation. The world is humming with a new kind of intelligence, and for the first time in a while, Apple does not seem to know the tune.

​Tech, Culture, Iphone, Apple 

America once taught kids to brush off insults with resilience. But calling words “violence” opened the door to real bloodshed in Orem, Utah.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

If we let this moment harden us into bitterness, we’ve lost. But if we let it challenge us to live with purpose, we’ve won.

Every kid in America grew up hearing that line. On the playground, it was more than just a rhyme — it was a shield. It taught us to brush off insults instead of escalating them. It taught us that words, while sometimes harsh, don’t have to define us. But somewhere along the way, our culture flipped the script.

We stopped teaching resilience and started preaching fragility. Words became “violence.” Disagreement became “hate.” And once you convince people that words themselves create wounds, it’s only a matter of time before someone decides that the “logical” response is actual violence.

That’s how we ended up mourning the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Charlie’s death is not just an atrocity — it is a symptom of a deeper sickness. For years, our media, politicians, and institutions have peddled the idea that political opponents aren’t just wrong; they’re dangerous. That rhetoric doesn’t stay on the page or the teleprompter. It seeps into unstable minds. While most of us shrug it off, a few always take it literally — lone wolves who believe the time for words has ended and the time for blood has begun.

Not every politician gets that. But Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) did. In the wake of Charlie’s assassination, Cox’s response stood out. He didn’t rush to score cheap political points. He spoke about tone, about rhetoric, about responsibility. He reminded us that in a moment when it feels easiest to shout, the real work is to listen. That’s rare. And it’s exactly the kind of leadership this country needs right now.

Charlie built something that words alone couldn’t destroy. Turning Point USA is the greatest grassroots movement for conservative values in modern history. There have been 32,000 inquiries about starting a chapter. That may be 32,000 schools filled with young people who are hungry for truth, direction, and the courage to stand up for their values in a culture that tries to drown them out.

That doesn’t happen by accident. That happens because Charlie gave people permission not just to speak, but to stand. And he did it with a resilience that the “sticks and stones” generation would recognize.

He never accepted the idea that free speech is harm. He never believed that disagreement is hate. He spoke the truth boldly, and he trusted the next generation to be strong enough to hear it. That was his gift, and it’s why his death hit us so hard.

We often ask, “Would you be willing to die for something?” It’s the ultimate test of conviction. Soldiers die for freedom. Martyrs die for faith. Heroes die for country. Charlie Kirk, like so many before him, paid that price. But maybe it’s time to flip that question. Maybe it’s time to ask ourselves, “Are you willing to live for something?”

That’s the lesson of Christ himself. Yes, Jesus laid down His life on the cross. But before that, He lived every breath in service of the Father’s will. Every parable, every act of compassion, every miracle was part of a life lived for truth. His death mattered because His life had meaning.

Charlie Kirk’s death matters because his life had meaning. But now, it’s our turn.

Living for something is harder than dying for it.

Living means staying in the fight when you’re exhausted, showing up for your family even when the world says it’s easier to check out, and defending free speech — even speech you don’t like — because you know truth only rises when all voices are heard.

Living means lowering your voice when everyone else is screaming, and lifting up your neighbor when everyone else is tearing them down.

And living means refusing to paint every political opponent as an enemy. We all have friends across the aisle who would never condone violence. But we also know certain ideologies, media narratives, and political leaders pour gasoline on division. Some are complicit by commission, others by cowardice. Yes, they need to be called out, but we must also refuse to let hatred dictate our response.

RELATED: Charlie Kirk sparks viral Christian revival: ‘I’m going to go take his seat for him’

Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images

That’s where Cox’s restraint matters. That’s where Charlie’s grassroots legacy matters. That’s where the “sticks and stones” lesson matters. Because if we let this moment harden us into bitterness, we’ve lost. But if we let it challenge us to live with purpose, we’ve won.

Neither the government nor the media will solve this. Only we the people can solve this. The overwhelming majority of Americans — Republican, Democrat, independent — are not violent. They want to raise their kids, go to church, coach Little League, and live in peace. It’s time for that majority to set the tone again, to prove that dialogue beats demagoguery. That sympathy beats rage. That faith beats fear.

Charlie Kirk showed us how to fight with courage. Now it’s our job to fight with character, to show the next generation that “sticks and stones” is still wisdom, not weakness, and to remember that while one man’s death can shock a nation, it’s the way millions of us live that will heal it.

Charlie’s life was a challenge. His death is a charge. Let’s take it up. We must not only be ready to die for something — we must be ready to live for something.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Charlie kirk, Charlie kirk assasination, Charlie, Politics, Media, Social media, Spencer cox, Hate speech 

In light of Charlie Kirk’s horrific assassination, congressional Republicans are looking to uproot “militant organizations” that have sown discord in our country.

Neville Roy Singham, a wealthy businessman and political activist, has bankrolled left-wing NGOs like Code Pink that some say are responsible for indoctrinating young Americans and heightening political polarization. Notably, Code Pink was founded by Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans.

‘We will no longer allow billionaires to bankroll anti-American political movements.’

“Neville Singham has spent millions funding militant organizations that have orchestrated violent riots and launched targeted hate campaigns against Americans with different beliefs,” Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said in a post on X.

Given Singham’s role in propping up many of these organizations, Luna and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) are pressuring Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to freeze his assets.

RELATED: FBI unveils damning new evidence against accused Charlie Kirk assassin

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

“We will no longer allow billionaires to bankroll anti-American political movements on behalf of foreign governments,” Luna said.

Singham is most recently being investigated for his ties to CCP-influence operations that fall under the purview of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Because he appears to fund many of these influence operations, Luna and Comer have called on Bessent to enforce penalties, including freezing Singham’s assets, to curb any “malign activities” executed by these organizations.

“It is imperative that we expeditiously halt the continued flow of funds and material support for malign activities conducted at the behest of the CCP,” the letter reads.

RELATED: Trump ready again to label Antifa as terrorists: ‘I would do that 100%’

Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for V-Day

The House Oversight Committee also investigated Singham in June for allegedly funding “various extremist entities,” such as the Party for Socialism and Liberation, on behalf of the CCP.

The committee called on Singham to overturn all relevant financial and communications documents pertaining to these far-left organizations. Unsurprisingly, Singham has not provided these documents to the committee.

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​Charlie kirk, Charlie kirk assassination, Jodie evans, Neville roy singham, Code pink, Left-wing ngos, Anna paulina luna, Cap funding, Ccp influence, James comer, House oversight committee, Scott bessent, Polarization, Fara, Party for socialism and liberation, Politics 

In the wake of two successful defamation suits brought against the legacy media over the past year, President Trump is seeking justice against a longtime detractor. His current target: the New York Times.

“Today, I have the Great Honor of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times, one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the History of our Country, becoming a virtual ‘mouthpiece’ for the Radical Left Democrat Party,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

‘The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!’

Trump added. “The ‘Times’ has engaged in a decades long method of lying about your Favorite President (ME!), my family, business, the America First Movement, MAGA, and our Nation as a whole. I am PROUD to hold this once respected ‘rag’ responsible.”

Specifically, Trump is suing over the “defamatory, malicious, and false” publication of a book and three articles that he claims were intended to “kill three birds with one stone”: “damage President Trump’s hard-earned and world-renowned reputation for business success,” “sabotage his 2024 candidacy for President of the United States,” and “prejudice judges and juries in the unlawful cases brought against President Trump, his family, and his businesses by his political opponents for purposes of election interference.”

The book, “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success,” and the article “The Star-Making Machine That Created ‘Donald Trump’” were written by Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner. Another article mentioned in the suit is “For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment” by Peter Baker. The third article, written by Michael S. Schmidt, is entitled “As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator.”

The authors are named as defendants alongside the New York Times and Penguin Random House LLC.

RELATED: NPR sues Trump admin, calls funding cuts unconstitutional

Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

A spokesperson for the New York Times responded on Tuesday morning: “This lawsuit has no merit. It lacks any legitimate legal claims and instead is an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting. The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics. We will continue to pursue the facts without fear or favor and stand up for journalists’ First Amendment right to ask questions on behalf of the American people.”

The president cited his successful record of litigation “against George Slopadopoulos/ABC/Disney, and 60 Minutes/CBS/Paramount, who knew that they were falsely ‘smearing’ me through a highly sophisticated system of document and visual alteration, which was, in effect, a malicious form of defamation, and thus, settled for record amounts.”

Trump won a defamation case against ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos, who agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s organization in addition to $1 million in Trump’s legal fees. The case concerned claims made by Stephanopoulos on the network that Trump was found liable for the rape of E. Jean Carroll.

Likewise, Paramount Global and CBS News agreed to pay $16 million for Trump’s future presidential library in a settlement of a suit regarding the infamous “60 Minutes” interview with 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!” he added.

The lawsuit has been brought in Florida.

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​Politics, President trump, Trump organization, Defamation suit, Libel suits, Cbs, New york times, Legacy media, Abc news 

President Donald Trump signaled on Monday that Antifa militants might soon find themselves designated as domestic terrorists.

When asked about such a designation in the wake of his friend Charlie Kirk’s assassination by a coward whose ammunition was reportedly engraved with Antifa slogans, the president said, “It’s something I would do, yeah.”

“I would do that 100% — and others also, by the way,” continued Trump. “But Antifa is terrible.”

Trump indicated that Attorney General Pam Bondi would likely need to get the ball rolling on the designation and noted that they have been discussing possibly bringing racketeering charges against liberal groups that back similar stripes of leftist extremists.

Blaze News has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller made clear in his Monday conversation with Vice President JD Vance on “The Charlie Kirk Show” that “we are going to channel all of the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks.”

RELATED: Antifa, gay furries, and bomb codes? What the engravings on the Kirk assassination bullets may mean

MELISSA MAJCHRZAK/AFP via Getty Images

“We are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people,” added Miller.

‘You fight them with guns so you don’t have to fight them with tanks.’

While Democrats have downplayed Antifa violence and in some cases even denied the group’s existence, the president has long understood the real threat posed by the largely decentralized yet deadly revolutionary anarcho-communist group.

After all, they haven’t exactly hidden themselves or their intentions.

A Baltimore Antifa militant provided a good insight into the radicals’ thinking when he told historian Mark Bray, the author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” that when it comes to fighting so-called fascists, which appears to be a catch-all term for individuals standing in communists’ way, “You fight them by writing letters and making phone calls so you don’t have to fight them with fists. You fight them with fists so you don’t have to fight them with knives. You fight them with knives so you don’t have to fight them with guns. You fight them with guns so you don’t have to fight them with tanks.”

Evidently, Antifa militants have decided to skip letters and phone calls.

Amid the bloody 2020 Black Lives Matter riots, which inflicted billions of dollars in damage, left thousands of police injured, and claimed the lives of at least 25 Americans, Trump stated, “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.”

‘Now you could argue, and I think it would legitimate, for a single terrorism designation against Antifa as a foreign terrorist organization.’

Then-Attorney General Bill Barr noted, “The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly.”

While the State Department has been granted the authority under the law to designate foreign groups as terrorist organizations, America does not similarly have an overarching domestic terrorism statute. As a result, the government tends to investigate and prosecute acts of domestic terrorism on an individual basis.

Various Republican lawmakers have unsuccessfully attempted in recent years to create an official domestic terrorism organization list — and to put Antifa on it.

Kyle Shideler, a senior analyst at the Center for Security Policy, told “Blaze News: The Mandate” on Monday that the Trump administration should instead “induct a number of designations against Antifa-linked groups, primarily in Europe but across the world.”

“Now you could argue, and I think it would be legitimate, for a single terrorism designation against Antifa as a foreign terrorist organization,” continued Shideler. “If you try to designate Antifa just as a single movement, what I suspect you’ll find is that the bureaucrats will say, ‘We don’t know what that is. That’s not a thing that exists.'”

Shideler suggested an optimal approach would be to find a number of foreign Antifa groups, tie them back to an international Antifa network such as the the International Anti-Fascist Defense Fund, “then you go after U.S.-based groups that are also tied to that international network, and so you build a series of designations that way.”

The Trump White House appears keen on making sure that Antifa militants are held accountable this time around.

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​Antifa, Terrorism, Leftist, Terrorist, Anti-fascist, Fascist, Leftism, Marxism, Communist, Anarcho, Justice, Justice department, Donald trump, Trump, Charlie kirk, Politics