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Electric or gas? The battle over the future of the automobile is far from over. Trump may have killed the federal EV mandate, but California’s still pushing hard for zero-emission vehicles, with a plan to phase out new gas-powered car sales by 2035.

While most of the industry is taking a wait-and-see approach, six major automakers — Ford, Honda, Volkswagen, BMW, Aston Martin, and Volvo — are firmly on Team California, whether they like it or not. That’s thanks to contracts they signed in 2019 locking them into the state’s strict emissions rules through 2026.

Are Ford, Honda, and the others at a disadvantage, stuck with more costly standards? Or are they ahead of the curve, ready for a future where emissions rules only get tougher?

Bad bet?

California muscle

To be fair, the odds may have looked a little better six years ago. California isn’t just the land of beaches and Hollywood — it’s a regulatory powerhouse in the auto world. Thanks to Section 209 of the Clean Air Act, the Golden State has a unique privilege: It can set tougher vehicle emissions standards than the federal government as long as the Environmental Protection Agency gives it a thumbs-up.

Why? Decades ago, California started battling smog in cities like Los Angeles, and it’s been a trailblazer in clean air policy ever since. More than a dozen states — New York, Massachusetts, and Oregon among them — follow California’s emissions standards, impacting about a third of the U.S. auto market.

Back in 2019, things got messy. The Trump administration pulled California’s EPA waiver, aiming to enforce one federal standard for fuel economy and emissions under the Corporate Average Fuel Economy program. This move was like throwing a wrench into the auto industry’s engine. California pushed back hard, and automakers were caught in the crossfire, facing a patchwork of rules. Enter the California Framework Agreements — a deal that would tie six automakers to California’s standards, no matter what happened in Washington.

Locked in

In July 2019, Ford, Honda, Volkswagen, and BMW stepped up to the plate, signing voluntary but ironclad agreements with the California Air Resources Board. Aston Martin and Volvo later jumped on board. These Framework Agreements committed the automakers to boosting fuel efficiency by roughly 3.7% annually and slashing greenhouse gas emissions for vehicles sold in California and its allied states, all the way through the 2026 model year.

Why sign on to such a deal? For these companies, it was a calculated move. The 2019 revocation of California’s waiver created a regulatory nightmare — automakers faced the prospect of designing cars for two different sets of rules. By aligning with California, these six sidestepped potential lawsuits, gained a clear roadmap for compliance, and scored some eco-friendly street cred.

It was a bet that California’s influence would outlast federal flip-flops. But here’s the thing: These contracts are binding, no matter what the feds do. Even when the Biden administration restored California’s waiver in 2022, these automakers were still on the hook for the 2019 terms.

Federal trumps state

Not every company was ready to tie itself to California’s control. Big players like General Motors, Toyota, and Stellantis leaned toward the Trump administration’s push for a single federal standard, hoping to simplify their lives. This split has created a fascinating divide in the industry as well as some potential nightmares.

Imagine the auto market as a chessboard. The six signatories are playing a long game, betting on California’s standards becoming the industry benchmark. Meanwhile, their rivals have more flexibility, aligning with federal rules that might be looser or stricter depending on the political winds.

This raises a big question: Are Ford, Honda, and the others at a disadvantage, stuck with more costly standards? Or are they ahead of the curve, ready for a future where emissions rules only get tougher?

RELATED: GM’s electric gamble is failing — but Barra won’t hit the brakes

Photo by Bill Pugliano / Stringer via Getty Images

Consumer retorts

So what does this mean for the cars you drive? Meeting California’s standards is no small feat. It demands serious cash for research and development for hybrid systems, electric vehicles, and cutting-edge engines that sip fuel. For Ford, Honda, Volkswagen, BMW, Aston Martin, and Volvo, these costs are locked in through 2026. That could mean pricier vehicles for buyers in California and its partner states, as automakers pass on the expense of compliance to customers.

For you, the consumer, it’s a mixed bag. Cars meeting California’s standards might save you money at the pump with better fuel economy or lower emissions. But upfront costs could sting, especially for budget-conscious buyers. If you live in a state following California’s rules, your car options might differ from those in, say, Texas or Ohio, where federal standards apply. It’s a patchwork market, and these six automakers are navigating it under stricter rules than their rivals.

Read ’em and weep?

California’s ability to set its own standards has sparked heated debates. Supporters say it’s a vital check on federal inaction, pushing automakers to innovate and clean up the air. Critics argue it’s a bureaucratic headache, forcing companies to juggle conflicting rules and driving up costs. The Framework Agreements tilt the scales toward California, proving its influence even when federal policy wavers.

It’s not such a great deal for the six automakers who signed those agreements. If federal standards get tougher, they might face overlapping rules. If they loosen, their competitors could gain an edge. The outcome will shape the industry for years to come.

In the meantime, the six are already gearing up, pouring billions into EVs and hybrids even with lower sales and losses. Ford’s betting on electric vehicles with its new manufacturing processes, Honda’s refining its hybrid tech and continuing its partnership with GM, and BMW, Volvo, Volkswagen, and Aston Martin are trying to figure out how to balance electric cars with what car people want. It’s a tough situation.

If you want an electric vehicle, I suggest you move quickly and buy one before the end of September 2025, where the tax credit for new and used EVs disappears.

​California, Emissions standards, Ev mandate, Corporate average fuel economy, Gavin newsom, Donald trump, Lifestyle, Ford, Honda, Volkswagen, Aston martin, Align cars 

Picture the scene: a mother straightening her child’s collar before drop-off; a father whispering, “Be good, I’ll see you after school”; children filing into the sanctuary where an inscription proclaims it as “the House of God and the gate of Heaven.”

Then, horror. On August 27, an 8-year-old and 10-year-old were shot and killed when 23-year-old “Robin” Westman opened fire through the stained glass windows of Annunciation Catholic Church while children attended Mass. The shooting began just before 8:30 a.m. during a worship service to mark the first week of school.

We’ve discipled a generation to crave applause — even if it comes through destruction.

What should have been the safest place became a scene of carnage.

The suspect — armed with a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol — fired dozens of rounds into the sanctuary as children sat in pews, praying. Westman was later found dead in the back of the church from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI is investigating the shooting as an “act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics” — words that should make every Christian in America sit up and pay attention.

The facts reveal a pattern

Suspect Robin Westman graduated from Annunciation Catholic’s grade school in 2017, and a woman with the same name as Westman’s mother previously worked at the church where the shooting took place.

Westman identified as transgender, and in 2020, when he was 17 years old, his mother signed a consent form for him to legally change his name from Robert to Robin because he “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”

The attack was premeditated. Police say the shooter placed wooden two-by-fours through the door handles of two separate exits of the church, which police say required prior planning. The suspect also posted a manifesto on YouTube (since taken down) filled with angry rantings about, among many other things, a dream to “kill innocent children.”

This wasn’t random violence — it was a calculated assault on a Christian institution during worship.

And it’s eerily similar to a 2023 attack on the Covenant School in Nashville by a transgender killer who was also a former student and who wrote a manifesto revealing a vendetta against white Christian children.

The futility of identity without Christ

Our culture promises freedom in self-expression, but the writings of these shooters tell the truth: Self-made identities don’t set anyone free; they enslave.

When identity becomes idolatry, it demands worship. And when the idol disappoints — when the new name, the new gender, the new pronouns can’t deliver peace — the result is despair, rage, and destruction.

RELATED: Trans-identifying man with a ‘twisted mind’ said, ‘I want to die,’ before opening fire on Catholic Mass in Minneapolis

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Paul warned us in Romans 1: Exchange the truth of God for a lie, and futility follows. Darkened hearts, disordered passions, and ultimately death — that is exactly what we see in these stories. Young men and women convinced they could reinvent themselves apart from the God who made them, only to discover that the god of self is a cruel master.

The Covenant shooter’s journals revealed a heart consumed by confusion, obsession, and suicidal ideation. The Minneapolis shooter’s life echoed the same pattern — an identity unmoored from truth, a soul collapsing inward. These are not outliers. They are the predictable fruit of a culture that preaches, “You are whoever you say you are.”

The idol of infamy

The Covenant shooter’s journals revealed another obsession — not just with killing but with being known for it. The Minneapolis shooter also fantasized about being made famous in museum exhibits and imagined documentaries, and he dreamed of leaving a mark through blood. That’s not just violence. That’s worship.

This is the modern Tower of Babel: “Let us make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4). But the bricks aren’t stacked stones, they’re stacked bodies. The altar isn’t on a desert plain, it’s in a classroom. When identity fails to satisfy, the idol of infamy steps in to whisper, “At least they’ll remember your name.”

Our culture feeds that idol daily. TikTok fame. Instagram clout. The myth that 15 minutes of recognition is worth a lifetime of obscurity. We’ve discipled a generation to crave applause — even if it comes through destruction.

But Scripture reminds us: The only legacy that matters is one hidden with Christ. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). The names that endure are not the names carved into headlines but the names written in the Book of Life.

Minnesota’s gun laws couldn’t stop evil

In knee-jerk fashion, almost immediately after the news of the shooting broke, Minnesota’s local, state, and federal politicians began calling for more gun control. But here’s what they won’t tell you: Minnesota maintains some of the nation’s strictest gun control measures. The state requires universal background checks, enforces “red flag” laws, mandates waiting periods for handgun purchases, and prohibits certain firearm accessories. All three weapons used by Westman were purchased legally and recently.

Romans 1 isn’t just theology; it’s predictive sociology.

Yet, two children are dead and 17 were wounded by gun violence in Minnesota’s largest city.

Every law the gun control lobby demands was already in place. Every “common sense” restriction leftists claim will stop mass shootings was on the books. Yet, evil found a way — because evil always does when hearts are darkened and truth is rejected.

The problem isn’t access to firearms — it’s the spiritual disease eating away at young hearts in a culture that worships lies and delusions. When identity becomes idolatry, when self-invention replaces submission to God’s design, when we tell children they can be whoever they want to be apart from their Creator, when truth is exchanged for lies, the result is predictably destructive and death follows. Romans 1 isn’t just theology; it’s predictive sociology.

The church in the crosshairs

Wednesday’s tragedy in Minneapolis marks another targeted attack on a Christian institution, and the pattern is impossible to ignore:

Nashville, 2023: the Covenant School massacre that targeted Presbyterian children and teachers.Minneapolis, 2025: Annunciation Catholic School is attacked during Mass.Nationwide since 2022: Dozens of pregnancy centers have been firebombed and hundreds of churches have been vandalized — Christian institutions are under relentless assault across America.

While schools of various affiliations have been targets of violence, since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Family Research Council statistics show a marked increase in attacks specifically targeting Christian institutions. FRC documented 57 pro-abortion acts of hostility against churches in 2022 alone, compared to only five such incidents combined from 2019 to 2021.

The pattern reveals directed hostility that goes beyond random violence.

Notice what we don’t see: Shooters storming mosques, gunmen targeting secular private academies, or attacks on progressive gatherings. The hostility is directed, deliberate, and spiritual in nature.

The massacre at Annunciation Catholic Church wasn’t just another tragedy; it was a revelation of where our culture now stands.

Jesus told us plainly: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you … because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).

This isn’t random violence; it’s targeted hostility against the cross. The spirit of this age is not neutral. It is anti-Christ. And Satan doesn’t waste bullets on secular idols; he wages war against the Bride of Christ.

The response that matters

Not surprisingly, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) used the tragedy as an opportunity for political posturing. He slammed those who offered their “thoughts and prayers” and tried to shift the conversation about the “real” victims of this tragedy, stating, “Anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community, or any other community out there, has lost their sense of common humanity.”

But asking hard questions about the spiritual and psychological state of mass shooters isn’t “villainizing” — it’s seeking truth about the cultural forces producing these tragedies. The mayor’s deflection reveals how our leaders refuse to confront the deeper issues.

Meanwhile, “within seconds” of the gunfire, Annunciation’s “heroic staff moved students under the pews.” Adults protected children. Older children shielded younger ones. Even in a time of panic and horror, the church demonstrated the sacrificial love of Christ.

The call forward: No more games

The massacre at Annunciation Catholic Church wasn’t just another tragedy; it was a revelation of where our culture now stands. Even in a city with some of the strictest gun laws in America, children died because we’ve created a society that worships lies about identity, celebrates self-invention, and rejects the God who defines us.

The world tells us to “find ourselves.” Jesus tells us to “lose ourselves.” One path ends in headlines of blood. The other ends in eternal life.

Two children went to school on August 27 and never came home. Their blood cries out, not only for our prayers, but for us to confront the spiritual crisis producing such evil, to reject the lies that fuel it, and to stand firm on the truth that transforms hearts.

This article is adapted from an essay originally published at Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center.

​Church attacks, Christianity, Christians, Evil, Demonic, Annunciation catholic school, Minnesota, Minneapolis, God, Jesus christ, Faith 

Riley Barnes appeared this week before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for his nomination as assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Normally, such a hearing would barely make the news. But then Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) spoke up.

You might remember the junior U.S. senator from Virginia as Hillary Clinton’s failed running mate in 2016. On Wednesday, he revealed he wouldn’t make a very good U.S. history professor either.

If rights come from God, then no politician — not Trump, not Kaine, not anyone — can take them away.

Barnes made a simple and obvious point — one that any elementary school student in a classroom still reading the Declaration of Independence (a rarity these days in public schools) would recognize. He said:

In his first remarks to State Department employees, Secretary [Marco] Rubio emphasized that we are a nation founded on a powerful principle: All men are created equal, because our rights come from God our creator — not from our laws, not from our governments.

That’s almost word-for-word from the Declaration of Independence.

Barnes continued:

We are a nation of individuals, each made in the image of God and possessing an inherent dignity. This is a truth our founders understood as essential to American self-government.

That second point, while not a direct quote from the Declaration, clearly flows from it. We have dignity because we are made by God, not by blind chance. And we have dignity above the rest of creation because we are made in His image, with rational souls and moral responsibility.

Most importantly, Barnes emphasized: “Natural rights are a blessing and an immutable reality.”

Governments change. Officials come and go. But America’s founders wanted human rights grounded in something unchanging. Rights granted by a government can be taken away by a government. Rights given by God cannot. That’s why the Declaration calls them “unalienable.”

The Kaine mutiny

Kaine’s response to Barnes was revealing. He worried that if we say rights come from God, we are on the brink of turning into theocratic Iran after 250 years of freedom from God. He insisted that governments — not God — give us our rights.

This is the logic behind much of the modern left. It explains why leftists defend ending a human life in elective abortion, treat children as property of the state that parents only borrow, and impose endless mandates on citizens — from useless masks to DEI speech codes. If rights come from the government, then the government can take them away whenever it wants.

This moment recalled then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) grilling Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas decades ago about his belief in natural law. “Which natural law?” Biden asked smugly, as if he had just delivered the ultimate gotcha. Like Kaine, Biden only managed to display his ignorance.

Can we know God?

Kaine claims that appealing to God makes America no different from Iran. But this ignores two things:

Christianity and Islam are not the same. Islam teaches that forgiveness comes through obedience to its five pillars. Christianity teaches that justification is by faith in Christ alone; even perfect law-keeping from this day forward cannot erase past sin.The real issue is knowledge, not theocracy. Can we know the true and living God? Or are we trapped in skepticism, left to rely on politicians’ shifting opinions?

Kaine assumes appeals to God are just private religious opinions with no claim to truth. He insists we must build our laws only on government authority rather than a religious leader. But this skepticism undermines knowing everything else — including government itself.

RELATED: Self-evident truths aren’t so self-evident any more

Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

If there is no unchanging standard, how does any ruler know what is just or unjust, good or evil? Personal feelings? Evolutionary accidents? Political popularity? That is an incoherent theory of law. And it tells us why Democrats rely so heavily on appeals to emotion rather than sound arguments.

Why this matters

What Kaine and others like him call us to do — unwittingly — is rise to the challenge. We must show that God is real, that His existence is clear, and that rights grounded in Him are unchangeable because they rest on divine reality, not shifting political power.

It’s helpful when Democrats like Kaine stumble so publicly. They expose the intellectual vacuum at the heart of modern secularism. The question for us is whether we will rise to the moment and defend the truths in the Declaration of Independence — truths that remain self-evident because they come from God, not government.

The American project anchors freedom not in government permission slips but in the God who created us. That is what Kaine and the left cannot admit. Because if rights come from God, then no politician — not Trump, not Kaine, not anyone — can take them away. And that truth, still self-evident after nearly 250 years, remains the foundation of American liberty.

​Opinion & analysis, Tim kaine, God, Government overreach, Rights, Natural rights, Declaration of independence, Iran, Riley barnes, Freedom, American founding, Thomas jefferson 

We all remember the famous Food Guide Pyramid developed in the 1990s that supposedly captures what a healthy diet looks like. The base of the model is made up of grains, followed by vegetables, fruits, dairy, proteins, and topped by a small section for fats and sweets.

It was a helpful tool that guided Americans in cultivating a healthy lifestyle for themselves and their families.

Except it wasn’t, because the model is fundamentally flawed.

On a recent episode of “Blaze News: The Mandate,” Blaze Media editor in chief Matthew Peterson sat down with Claremont Institute Salvatori Research Fellow Glenn Ellmers to dive into the lies behind the government’s “health” advice.

“Around the middle of the 20th century, we started to see what were called diseases of civilization. … We started seeing obesity and diabetes and coronary heart disease and all the things that go with the modern lifestyle,” Ellmers says. “The problem was, our scientific experts identified the wrong culprit. They thought that the problem was the foods that people had been eating for thousands of years.”

This led to foods like eggs, butter, and meat being vilified, hence their small category on the food pyramid. Instead, “experts” pushed for making carbohydrates — especially highly processed ones like breads, pastas, and cereals — the largest staple in people’s diets.

The idea that foods refined by man are superior to foods from the earth is rooted in the prideful assumption that science supersedes, and even controls, nature, Ellmers explains.

Even though the USDA has abandoned the food pyramid for a new graphic called MyPlate, which emphasizes balanced meals with roughly equal portions of vegetables, fruits, grains, and proteins, plus a small dairy portion, “it still hasn’t fixed the problem,” Ellmers says.

Sadly, this obsession with science over nature impacts more than just what food is elevated. It also heavily influences other lifestyle factors.

Instead of sunshine, exercise, and whole foods, “experts” push medications to “fix” people’s problems.

“I have friends on the right who try to eat healthy, get out, exercise, work out, get sunshine, run around on the grass barefoot. Then, I know a lot of friends who are deeply unhappy, on all kinds of prescribed medication, not physically fit, and they think that science can solve their problems,” Ellmers says.

“Has modern society really made people happy? … We have loneliness. We have drug addiction. We have people taking all kinds of medications to solve their problems. People are still too sedentary. People are in their homes ordering fast food, addicted to video games and internet porn,” he adds.

“In my experience, the people who can unplug, detach themselves from the screen, go out and run on the beach, eat a steak and an orange are actually a lot happier. So I’m not at all persuaded that the promise of science, that the conquest of nature, will lead to our happiness and our liberation.”

To hear more, watch the full interview above.

Want more from ‘Blaze News: The Mandate’?

To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Blaze news | the mandate, Blazetv, Blaze media, Matthew peterson, Claremont institute, Glenn ellmers, Food pyramid, Flawed science, Diet, Obesity epidemic, Maha, Blaze news the mandate 

New York City’s Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has soared to stardom within his party, championing socialist policies and promising affordability. Now, President Donald Trump may be attempting to tip the scales.

Trump has reportedly tried to trim down the playing field to weaken Mamdani’s chances of winning the general election. Although Mamdani has enjoyed a comfortable lead over the star-studded cast of candidates, consolidating the race would toughen the chances for the 33-year-old socialist.

‘Are we a party that rallies behind our nominee or not?’

Mamdani’s main challengers include current NYC Mayor Eric Adams and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both of whom boast lengthy political careers. Despite this, Adams has trailed significantly behind both Cuomo and Mamdani, sometimes polling in single digits.

Notably, polls show that Cuomo’s odds improve against Mamdani if Adams is taken out of the equation.

RELATED: Jasmine Crockett’s jaw-dropping defense of criminals: ‘They literally are trying to survive’

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

In light of this disparity, some reports claimed the White House was weighing offering Adams a position in the administration if he stepped out of the race. One such position included nominating Adams to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia, according to the New York Post.

Despite the cushy offer, Adams doubled down on staying in the race and running as an independent.

“Andrew Cuomo is a snake and a liar, I am in this race, and I am the only one that can beat Mamdani,” Adams said Friday.

RELATED: Exclusive: Tom Emmer torches Tim Walz’s ‘failed’ leadership, says he should ‘have his head examined’

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Even with the probability of Adams as a spoiler, high-ranking Democrats have refrained from making any formal endorsements in the race. As of this writing, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have all withheld from endorsing the Democratic nominee.

“We have a Democratic nominee,” Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York told reporters. “Are we a party that rallies behind our nominee or not?”

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​Zoran mamadani, Donald trump, Andrew cuomo, White house, Eric adams, New york mayoral race, New york city, Kathy hochul, Chuck schumer, Hakeem jeffries, Aoc, Alexandria ocasio-cortez, Socialists, Politics 

It isn’t enough for conservatives to push back against the liberal-spawned transgender movement that’s urging vulnerable children to take artificial hormones and undergo irreversible surgeries that mutilate their healthy bodies. We need people who have experienced the horrors of trans mania firsthand to speak out.

Thankfully, some detransitioners are doing just that. One of them is Chloe Cole, an activist in California who’s sharing her experience “transitioning” genders starting when she was just 12 years old to warn gender-confused minors against the pitfalls of the trans movement.

On an episode of “Back to the People,” BlazeTV host Nicole Shanahan sat down with Chloe to hear her heartbreaking yet hopeful story.

Chloe was 12 years old when she was introduced to the transgender community on social media. She started following the accounts of many young trans people because she felt a connection to them.

“They reminded me so much of myself in so many different ways. A lot of these people were artistic; they were creative; they had a unique fashion sense; they were very individual; they wanted to set themselves apart from the other people,” she says.

Their struggle with being bullied for being tomboys or effeminate boys resonated deeply with Chloe, who was also being bullied in school. On social media, she witnessed their “sense of happiness and wholeness” as they created new identities by cutting their hair short, wearing clothes of the opposite gender, and adopting new names and pronouns.

Tragically, many of these kids found that their new identity was more accepted than their genuine one. This often led them to pursue surgeries and hormonal therapy.

And Chloe was no exception. She was put on the drug Lupron, which was originally used for reproductive cancers, hormonal disorders, and chemical castration for sex offenders.

However, “a lot of facilities have stopped using this drug to castrate those sex offenders because it’s been deemed too cruel for use in that population,” says Chloe, pointing out the irony that it’s now marketed toward “perfectly healthy children.”

Convinced that she was truly a male, Chloe was put on testosterone and eventually had an elective double mastectomy at age 15. Her breasts weren’t just removed; they were intentionally reshaped to appear more masculine. All of this, she explains, was covered by insurance because California mandates that insurers cover all “gender-affirming care.”

Just a year later, though, when Chloe was 16, she began her detransitioning journey when she realized that she wanted to be a mother someday. She remains grateful that she didn’t pursue further surgeries that would have stolen that opportunity from her.

Today, Chloe is using her story and her voice to speak out about the dangers of transgenderism, offering hope to confused minors who feel stuck in the wrong body.

To hear Chloe and Nicole dive into the darkest parts of the transgender movement, including the horrendous grooming and predation trans-identifying kids are subjected to, watch the interview above.

Want more from Nicole Shanahan?

To enjoy more of Nicole’s compelling blend of empathy, curiosity, and enlightenment, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Back to the people, Nicole shanahan, Back to the people with nicole shanahan, Chloe cole, Transgenderism, Trans movement, Trans agenda, Blazetv, Blaze media, Detransitioner 

Team Late Night had weeks to prepare their best shots against Orange Man Bad over summer vacation. The results? Suffice it to say there’s a reason the late-night format is heading for the dustbin of history.

To be fair, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel managed an entire monologue without crying in his return from summer break. Otherwise, it was business as usual. Yawn.

The most depressing part? The not-remotely-biased media now treats ‘South Park’ like the Holy Grail, reciting every aspect of each new episode to maximize its cultural impact.

“Oh, you delicate, chubby little teacup. … You want us to be canceled because we make jokes about you? I thought you were against cancel culture. Unfortunately for Frosty the Snowflake, the only place we are going is to New York.”

Stop it … you’re killing us.

Comedy kingpin Stephen Colbert struck next, and suddenly the walls were closing in on the 47th president. The far-left propagandist had to remind his audience that rumors of President Donald Trump’s demise weren’t true and that wishing for a leader’s death wasn’t the decent thing to do.

Maybe spending a decade telling fans Trump is the veritable Antichrist has repercussions.

Then, Colbert turned his comic firepower on Vice President JD Vance, who endured a soupçon of hecklers at the suddenly crime-free Union Station in D.C.

“He’s in a train station; he’s going to bang a bench,” Colbert cracked about Vance. At least we know where “The Late Show’s” $100 million-a -ear budget goes. Comic gold like that does not come cheap …

RELATED: Libs are outraged at Jay Leno’s comments about politics in comedy amid cancellation of Stephen Colbert

Photo (left): Gary Miller/Getty Images; Photo (right): Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images

Goin’ ‘South’

Nor does access to all things “South Park.” Trey Parker and Matt Stone cozied up to Paramount to the tune of $1.5 billion a few weeks ago. The TV pranksters earned that cash with a show that never pulls its punches.

Left. Right. Up. Down. Pick a target, and “South Park” has smashed it over the years. And, along the way, earned the right’s respect for being an equal-opportunity offender.

Now? Each new “South Park” episode features another dreary bit where President Trump beds Satan. Literally. The show’s first four installments all featured the already stale bit, along with other smart bombs against GOP-adjacent targets.

Meanwhile, a Democratic Party that defends gang members, rising crime rates, and men claiming to be trans brutalizing women in sports gets off without a warning.

The most depressing part? The not-remotely-biased media now treats “South Park” like the Holy Grail, reciting every aspect of each new episode to maximize its cultural impact.

Weird that reporters did no such thing over the show’s 28-year-run …

Hope after ‘Nope’?

It’s been three years since Jordan Peele deposited his cinematic stink bomb “Nope” on an unsuspecting public. That 2022 dud marked a massive letdown from Peele’s masterful 2017 debut, “Get Out,” and solid 2019 follow-up, “Us.”

We’ve been waiting to see if Peele can return to his former glory. Now, we’ll have to wait a bit longer. He had originally staked out October 2026 as the date for his next, untitled project. That’s no longer in the cards.

Quentin Tarantino is currently stuck on his 10th and presumably final film. He can’t commit to a project or a release date. Peele, who seemed bound for greatness after “Get Out,” has reached a Tarantino-style impasse in less than 10 years. Impressive …

Wright and wrong

Some things in pop culture are inevitable. Whenever Hollywood gets creative with its casting decisions, a small but vocal segment of Comic-Con Nation howls in protest. Remember when Sony cast four comic actresses to take over the “Ghostbusters” franchise in 2016? Or when Disney cast black actress Halle Bailey to play the formerly white Ariel in 2023’s “Little Mermaid” update?

Some fans are simply purists, and that’s understandable. A much smaller contingent operate from a whiff of misogyny and/or racism. Not remotely cool.

And once in a while, this kind of creative casting generates a collective shrug. No outrage. No hashtag complaints. That happened when actor Jeffrey Wright took over as Commissioner Gordon in 2022’s “The Batman.” Wright is a fine actor, and his addition to the cast was greeted as warmly as the rest of the geek-friendly film.

Zero controversy.

Tell that to Wright.

“I really find it fascinating, the ways in which there’s such a conversation, and I think even more of a conversation now, about black characters in these roles,” Wright said. “It’s just so f**king racist and stupid. It’s just so blind in a way that I find revealing to not recognize that the evolution of these films reflects the evolution of society, that somehow it’s defiling this franchise not to keep it grounded in the cultural reality of 1939 when the comic books were first published. It’s just the dumbest thing. It’s absent all logic.”

He’s a terrific actor and even better faux victim.

​Entertainment, Hollywood, Donald trump, Late night, Jimmy kimmel, Stephen colbert, Jordan peele, Nope, Movies, Toto recall 

Andrew Beck has articulated a thick version of the assimilation of immigrants (rightly so, in my view), which harks back to the spirit of Americanization prevalent from America’s founding to roughly the 1960s. Louis Brandeis, a liberal and political ally of the detestable Woodrow Wilson, expressed this common idea of assimilation in his July 5, 1915, “Americanization Day Speech”:

What is Americanization? It manifests itself, in a superficial way, when the immigrant adopts the clothes, the manners, and the customs generally prevailing here. Far more important is the manifestation presented when he substitutes for his mother tongue the English language as the common medium of speech. But the adoption of our language, manners, and customs is only a small part of the process. To become Americanized, the change wrought must be fundamental. However great his outward conformity, the immigrant is not Americanized unless his interests and affections have become deeply rooted here. And we properly demand of the immigrants even more than this. He must be brought into complete harmony with our ideals and aspirations and cooperate with us for their attainment. Only when this has been done will he possess the national consciousness of an American.

We could characterize Americanization as the highest form of assimilation: patriotic assimilation. When an immigrant and his first-generation children leave their previous people and join the American people, it means they have an emotional attachment to our country and instinctively identify with historic America — our principles, history, and culture.

Patriotic assimilation happens when our nation’s story has become part of their inheritance as Americans.

Even though the newcomers and their children may come from China, India, Guatemala, or Norway, they embrace Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Hamilton as their ancestors. When reading about the history of the War of 1812, they identify with historic America and think, “We fought the British in 1812,” as opposed to thinking that they (white males) fought other white males 200 years ago.

Patriotic assimilation happens when our nation’s story becomes part of their inheritance as Americans.

An emblem of assimilation

In the late 19th century, Rep. Richard Guenther (R-Wis.) epitomized patriotic assimilation. Born and educated in Prussia, Guenther didn’t emigrate to America until his early 20s. He was involved in the German-American community and Republican politics in Wisconsin before being elected to Congress in 1880.

Guenther came from an ethnic subculture, but Andrew Beck would be pleased that he recognized the primacy of America’s Leitkultur.

From 1887 to 1889, America was on the verge of a war with Bismarck’s Germany over a geopolitical crisis in the Samoan Islands. Understandably, other congressmen wanted to know where Guenther and his fellow German-Americans stood. Guenther responded in this way:

We will work for our country in time of peace and fight for it in time of war. When I say our country, I mean, of course, our adopted country. I mean the United States of America. After passing through the crucible of naturalization, we are no longer Germans; we are Americans. We will fight for America whenever necessary. America, first, last, and all the time. America against Germany, America against the world; America right or wrong; always America. We are Americans.

Principled pluralism?

Andrew Beck argues that building a “giant statue depicting the monkey-faced Hindu deity Hanuman” in Sugar Land, Texas, signals a failure of Indian immigrants to assimilate into America’s culturally Christian civilization. Mark Tooley counters that Beck need not worry, since religious freedom for minorities is part of the “principled pluralism” built into the American order.

How should we address this clash between Beck’s concern over assimilation and Tooley’s defense of pluralism?

Examining the issue through the lens of patriotic assimilation, the critical question is where the ultimate political loyalty of the architects and adherents of the Hanuman statue lies. If there were a war or a lesser conflict between the United States and India, where would the Hanuman advocates stand?

Would they echo Rep. Guenther and back the United States through thick and thin? Would they resoundingly say, “Always America. We are Americans”? Or would they share the sentiments of Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), who unabashedly stated that she’s “a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American”?

In the past, Americans from minority ethnic groups have chosen the path of patriotic assimilation affirmed by Guenther. One thinks of the German-Americans who fought Germans at the Argonne Forest in 1918, the Italian-Americans who killed Italians in Sicily in 1943, and the Japanese-Americans who fought Japan’s ally Germany throughout Europe in World War II.

Americanism: Idea or culture?

I agree with Andrew Beck, Mark Krikorian, Paul Gottfried, and James Hankins that our assimilation problem is self-imposed. The fault is with us, not with immigrants. More specifically, the “us” refers to our woke, progressive elite, which has successfully carried out a cultural revolution against historic America.

The lack of patriotic assimilation in contemporary America is, as Hankins notes, because “our public schools and cultural institutions, public and private, have embraced a new religious faith: that of multiculturalism.” He suggests undermining this new religion along with its evil siblings — diversity, equity, and inclusion, “anti-racism,” radical gender theory, and all forms of wokeism.

Krikorian, Gottfried, and Hankins all appear to hope that our schools and cultural institutions will once again transmit a patriotic civic religion to immigrants and the native-born. The American left will, of course, oppose patriotic assimilation in principle. It is no accident that the Biden administration prohibited the use of the word “assimilation” in government documents.

RELATED: National conservatism is the revolt forgotten Americans need

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Moreover, the question of who we are as Americans raises the issue of what exactly immigrants should be assimilating to. Does it mean assimilating to a set of universal principles and ideas or a particular people and culture? Or both? Does being an American have an ideological component?

During the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century, conservative thought leaders overemphasized the concept of America as a “proposition nation.” They taught that, unlike other countries, America was founded on ideas rather than culture or traditions. This attitude went hand in hand with support for mass immigration, coupled with little to no emphasis on assimilation. If our nation is based solely on ideas, then anyone in the world can easily become an American if they agree with them.

The American right’s overemphasis on the proposition nation narrative was a mistake.

Furthermore, liberal conservatives (today’s “FreeCons”) argued that since assimilation was successful in the days of Ellis Island, it would continue being successful. But this ignores the two main reasons assimilation worked in the early 20th century. American leaders, such as Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge, insisted on Americanization, and immigration was reduced drastically in the 1920s.

The American right’s overemphasis on the proposition nation narrative was a mistake. Not surprisingly, the American left adopted this ideological narrative and reinterpreted core American ideas as the revolutionary expansion of the progressive project, promoting DEI, LGBTQ rights, and the “fundamental transformation” of the United States.

Ideas and culture

In 2001, the eminent constitutional scholar Walter Berns wrote a magnificent monograph titled “Making Patriots.” Berns embraced America’s civic religion and affirmed the absolute necessity of a citizenship education that inculcates a “love of country” in both immigrants and the native-born and focuses on “how to transmit” that love “from one generation to the next.”

I have one crucial point of disagreement with Berns, however. He writes that American nationhood is unique because it is based “not on tradition, or loyalty to tradition, but on an appeal to abstract and universal and philosophical principles of political right.”

Because of this attachment to principled ideas, Berns asserts that Stephen Decatur, the greatest American naval hero of the early 19th century, was being somehow unpatriotic or “un-American” when he declared in a famous toast after defeating the Islamist Barbary pirates, “Our country, in her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be right, but our country right or wrong.”

RELATED: How woke broke the country

Photo by Eric Raptosh Photography via Getty Images

Decatur, who served his country with extraordinary bravery and prowess in war, revealed an instinctive love of America and a concrete attachment to American nationhood. These sentiments should not be disparaged as being beyond the pale of an acceptable form of patriotism. As Montesquieu argued, an emotional attachment and instinctive love of country are necessary for any republic to survive. We could use many more Stephen Decaturs today.

I maintain that American patriotism rests on both ideas and culture. Claremont Review of Books editor Charles Kesler said correctly, “The American creed is the keystone of American national identity, but it requires a culture to sustain it.”

American nationhood has an ideological component, and there are times when ideas trump culture. Paul Gottfried notes that 18th-century American colonists were shaped by a shared culture, including the King James Bible, Shakespeare, Protestant theology, Plutarch, and the like. True, American patriots and Tories shared the same culture, but from 1776 to 1783, they killed each other over what constituted the best regime.

So what is to be done today?

First, we must mobilize the emotion-laden concepts of Americanization and patriotic assimilation. We must pit these concepts against the left’s weaponized theories of multiculturalism and diversity, which have besieged universities, schools, foundations, nonprofits, civic organizations, corporations, faith-based institutions, and all levels of government

Second, Mark Krikorian is right that we must “reduce immigration across the board,” both legal and illegal. Current levels of immigration are clearly harming the prospects of assimilation.

America faced a similar situation in the 1920s when Calvin Coolidge argued, “New arrivals should be limited to our capacity to absorb them into the ranks of good citizenship. America must be kept American.” We need to act on Coolidge’s sage advice again.

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at the American Mind.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Immigration, Immigration crisis, Assimilation, Assimilate, National identity, National defense, Citizenship, English, Language, Customs, Culture 

As Blaze News recently reported, a Canadian homeowner has been charged with aggravated assault after fighting and injuring an armed male who allegedly broke into his Lindsay, Ontario, residence in the middle of the night last month.

Amid the growing outrage — including from Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who said “something is broken” in the system when one is punished for self-defense — the chief of the Kawartha Lakes Police Service fired off a scolding message to the public on Facebook, calling the criticism against cops “unjust and inaccurate.”

‘But as it stands, we know the best defense for most people is to comply.’

Chief Kirk Robertson added that the “law requires that any defensive action be proportionate to the threat faced. This means that while homeowners do have the right to protect themselves and their property, the use of force must be reasonable given the circumstances.”

Well, things are only getting more bizarre as the issue grows hotter up north.

Turns out the break-in suspect was armed with a crossbow while the homeowner was armed with a knife, the Toronto Star reported, citing court documents.

RELATED: Blaze News original: 5 infuriating times authorities punished victims of physical attacks — as well as a Good Samaritan

Photo by BfdF/RDB/ullstein bild via Getty Images

The break-in suspect — 41-year-old Michael Breen — is no stranger to law enforcement, either. The Star said in addition to the list of charges against him in connection with the Lindsay incident, recent court records show other outstanding charges against Breen, including illegal use of a credit card. The paper added that Breen also allegedly failed to appear in court, after which a warrant for his arrest was issued June 19.

RELATED: Pregnant Tesla passenger ‘injured by flying rock,’ police in Canada say — and observers have field day with cops’ word choice

Meanwhile, those who know the homeowner — Jeremy McDonald — told the Star he’s “distraught about” the charges against him.

Jesse Kalabic — who operates Thirteen Tattoo shop in the unit directly below McDonald’s second-floor apartment — added to the paper that McDonald is “concerned” and that “it’s become a very big issue now, and he doesn’t want to be in the spotlight.”

What’s more, Kalabic revealed to the Star an additional traumatic element for McDonald, saying the break-in suspect “went through his [young] daughter’s bedroom window. Luckily, she wasn’t there.”

Kalabic added to the paper it’s unfortunate that McDonald — who works in construction — is facing charges when he didn’t start the altercation. Kalabic also told the Star he hopes the government will investigate legal reforms concerning the level of force one can use in self-defense that “doesn’t leave the burden on the homeowner, who should always be seen as the victim.”

RELATED: Canadian pastor arrested again; prosecutor claims Artur Pawlowski influenced truckers to keep protesting after they agreed to stop: ‘Overt threat to violence’

A pair of Canadian writers for Blaze News — Joe MacKinnon and Andrew Chapados — couldn’t agree more.

“The fact that this homeowner was charged for non-lethally confronting an intruder not only is an indictment of the Canadian legal system but also serves notice to would-be criminals: Your victims are powerless under the law to take action against you. If a thug breaks into your home through your daughter’s window, you should be criminally charged for not putting him six feet under the ground,” MacKinnon told Blaze News.

Chapados added to Blaze News that “while sentiments from the premier are nice, federal laws need to change. In the meantime, Doug Ford needs to pressure the attorney general and Crown not to pursue charges against the homeowner.”

As concern and anger over the issue spread throughout Canada, another recent headline out of Ontario has only underscored the public’s frustration with police.

Amid a pair of violent home invasions — one that claimed a homeowner’s life — the chief of the York Regional Police actually told homeowners that if their residences are invaded, “don’t engage unless absolutely necessary,” the Star reported in a separate story.

“In the unlikely event that you find yourself the victim of a home invasion, we are urging citizens not to take matters into their own hands,” Chief Jim MacSween said. “While we don’t want homeowners to feel powerless, we urge you to call 911 and do everything you can to keep yourself and loves ones safe until police arrive and be the best witness possible. This could mean locking yourself in a room away from the perpetrators, hiding, fleeing the home, but don’t engage unless absolutely necessary.”

RELATED: ‘Time for the protesters to hear our jackboots on the ground’: Royal Canadian Mounted Police in group chat allegedly celebrate violence against protesters

The Star said MacSween sidestepped questions about politicians such as Ford who called for stronger self-defense laws in the wake of the Lindsay incident.

“The premier can make his own statement and his own mind up about that,” MacSween noted, according to the paper. “What I would say is as a police service, we’ll follow the laws as they’re written; if the laws change, we’ll change with the laws.”

The Star said the chief soon added: “But as it stands, we know the best defense for most people is to comply.”

As you might guess, commenters ripped MacSween just like they blasted the Kawartha Lakes Police Service after the Lindsay break-in:

“You just gave criminals a free pass,” one commenter said.”Instead of telling homeowners to ‘comply,’ why don’t you tell criminals that they will be tossed into prison [with] no chance of bail or parole and the key thrown away??????” another commenter wondered.”This clown is ridiculous. When seconds count, the cops are minutes away,” another commenter stated. “When a criminal enters my dwelling, my home, my family’s safe place, he/she/it forfeits his/her/zems life. The criminals can comply with the law and not enter my home.””Fire this coward immediately,” another commenter declared.

MacSween’s sentiments mirror a directive last year from a Toronto police official, who told residents amid a spike in car thefts that they should leave their car keys at their front doors so car thieves don’t harm them.

“To prevent the possibility of being attacked in your home, leave your fobs at the front door because they are breaking into your home to steal your car; they don’t want anything else,” Cst. Marco Ricciardi said, according to City News Toronto. “A lot of them that they’re arresting have guns on them, and they are not toy guns. They are real guns. They’re loaded.”

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​Canada, Self-defense, Lindsay, Ontario, Homeowner charged, Break-in, Police, Victim blaming, Comply with criminals, Crime 

A federal grand jury has indicted a far-left university instructor for his alleged actions during a federal raid of California pot farms over the summer.

On July 10, Jonathan Caravello, 37, was among a group of Cal State University Channel Islands faculty and students who protested federal agents carrying out search warrants at a state-licensed marijuana facility operated by Glass House Farms in Camarillo.

He ‘turned around, ran towards the canister, picked it up, and threw it overhand back at Border Patrol agents.’

The crowd of unruly protesters soon turned violent, throwing rocks at government vehicles that attempted to leave the facility, breaking windows and side-view mirrors, the DOJ claimed in a press release.

According to the criminal complaint obtained by Blaze News, Caravello engaged in several behaviors that impeded federal agents from doing their job. For one thing, the complaint said, he marched along the yellow police tape “loudly playing a siren sound on the megaphone” that he directed toward Border Patrol agents.

RELATED: Pot farm raid update: Trump’s DHS found convicted rapists and kidnappers working near migrant kids

Photo by BLAKE FAGAN/AFP via Getty Images

After agents began releasing tear gas “to assist with crowd control, ensure officer safety, and to allow law enforcement to depart the location,” a gas canister rolled near the feet of some protesters, including Caravello, the DOJ press release said. Caravello first attempted to kick the can, but it “rolled past him,” so he “turned around, ran towards the canister, picked it up, and threw it overhand back at Border Patrol agents,” it claimed.

The canister thrown by Caravello “came within approximately several feet above law enforcements’ heads,” the criminal complaint added. Other statements in the criminal complaint indicate that Caravello may have thrown multiple “canisters” at agents.

Caravello then left the scene, only to return a couple of hours later, having changed from a blue shirt into a pink shirt and wearing a different pair of shoes, perhaps in a failed attempt to “disguise” himself, the criminal complaint said. He was subsequently identified as the “agitator” who threw the canisters and arrested despite his apparent resistance.

“CARAVELLO would not comply and attempted to grab a BP Agent’s leg,” the criminal complaint said. He also “continuously kicked his legs and refused to give the BP agents his arms.”

‘We do not need to prove injury to prove assault with a deadly or dangerous weapon.’

The day after his arrest, the California Faculty Association claimed on Instagram that ICE agents had “kidnapped” Caravello by throwing him into an “unmarked vehicle” without explanation. The Instagram post also included a video of the protest, as well as a clip of Caravello’s appearance at a Camarillo City Council meeting the night before.

“Many of my students are undocumented,” Caravello said during the public comment period of the meeting, “and many of their families are undocumented. It’s my responsibility to protect them, and so I’ve been patrolling the city streets, following armed, masked thugs trying to kidnap my neighbors.”

During his public remarks, which he delivered almost exclusively in a dull monotone, Caravello denounced the “genocide” in Palestine, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and alleged instances of police misconduct in the U.S. dating back to the 1960s, as well as current ICE efforts at immigration enforcement.

The only moment in which Caravello’s voice became slightly animated was when he seemingly addressed members of the council but without lifting his gaze from his prepared statement to look at them. “You, our elected officials, should swear [ICE] off, if not in policy then in spirit, to at the very least pay back your undocumented community members for picking your f**king strawberries,” he said with emphasis, prompting a faint spattering of claps from the audience.

“No one is illegal. Power to the people,” he concluded, returning to his previous monotone delivery.

RELATED: ‘We got him’: Suspect who violently threw rocks at officers during LA ICE riots arrested after fleeing to Mexico, feds say

Screenshot of criminal complaint

Caravello is listed as a philosophy lecturer with the Mathematics Program at CSUCI. The university confirmed to Blaze News that he remains employed there and will be teaching this semester. The university also claimed that it will not be assisting with his defense.

“We are aware of the recent indictment involving Jonathan Caravello. As this matter is currently before the courts, we will not be commenting on the details of the case. We respect the legal process and believe it is important to allow it to proceed without speculation. Our focus remains on our ongoing work and commitments to our students,” CSUCI said in a statement to Blaze News.

Caravello has been charged with one count of assault on a federal officer using a deadly or dangerous weapon. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He is currently free on $15,000 bond.

Neither Caravello nor the California Faculty Association responded to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Public affairs officer Ciaran McEvoy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California did not directly respond to Blaze News’ question about whether any agents were injured on account of Caravello’s alleged actions, but did state, “We do not need to prove injury to prove assault with a deadly or dangerous weapon.”

After clarifying that agents were not executing an “immigration raid” on the day in question but “judicially approved search warrants in connection with an ongoing investigation,” McEvoy added, “We have no further comment.”

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​Glass house farms, Immigration, Border patrol, Jonathan caravello, Cal state university channel islands, California faculty association, Politics 

President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been engaged in an ongoing legal battle to remove Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal alien from El Salvador, from the United States.

‘That claim of fear is hard to take seriously, especially given that you have claimed (through your attorneys) that you fear persecution or torture in at least 22 different countries.’

A letter obtained by Fox News revealed that ICE has plans to deport Abrego Garcia to Eswatini, a small country in Southern Africa.

Last month, a federal judge blocked ICE from deporting Abrego Garcia to Uganda.

“As you know, the United States seeks to remove you from the United States based on your final order of removal,” ICE wrote in a letter to Abrego Garcia on Friday. “Currently, you are designated to be removed to Uganda. Your attorney has informed us, however, that you fear persecution or torture in Uganda.”

The letter went on to list nearly two dozen countries — including El Salvador, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras — where Abrego Garcia expressed similar fears.

RELATED: Federal judge forbids Trump to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia while legal defense proceeds

Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“That claim of fear is hard to take seriously, especially given that you have claimed (through your attorneys) that you fear persecution or torture in at least 22 different countries,” ICE continued. “Nonetheless, we hereby notify you that your new country of removal is Eswatini, Africa.”

Abrego Garcia was previously deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT prison, but returned to the U.S. in June to face human trafficking charges. He pleaded not guilty.

The federal government has accused Abrego Garcia of engaging in “extensive criminal activities since he has been in the United States,” including being an MS-13 gang member, which he denies.

RELATED: MS-13 associate Kilmar Abrego Garcia urges Obama judge to silence DHS, DOJ officials

Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

Abrego Garcia is currently being held in a detention center in Farmville, Virginia, while he awaits deportation following a judge’s 2019 order of removal.

“This man is a suspected terrorist known to affiliate and be friends with MS-13 members. He’s an extremely dangerous individual,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Newsmax. “A known wife-beater. This is someone that should never be free in the United States of America, and bringing him to justice is incredibly important to the safety of the American people.”

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​News, Kilmar abrego garcia, El salvador, Illegal immigration crisis, Illegal immigration, Immigration crisis, Immigration, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Eswatini, Deportations, Trump administration, Trump admin, Kristi noem, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Politics 

It’s been 56 years since NASA landed the first humans on the moon. Since then, our knowledge and technology has exploded. Today, we know more than ever about space exploration, computing, robotics, and materials science — far surpassing the capabilities and innovations that made the Apollo 11 mission possible.

So why haven’t we been back?

Former nominee for NASA administrator Jared Isaacman tells Glenn Beck that the bureaucracy at NASA is what’s barring America from achieving her potential in space.

“There needs to be some sort of a reorganization of the agency so you can kind of get back to concentrating on the real needle movers — the things that if NASA doesn’t do it, no one will, or if it is done, it’ll be done by the Chinese or the Russians,” he says.

Another moon landing is important, says Isaacman, because of “what we may learn from a scientific perspective,” the potential for “economic benefit,” and for reasons related to “national security.”

But “despite having a space station up there for 20 years, the biggest accomplishment we’ve had is keeping people alive continuously for 20 years in the harsh environment of space, which is good. But we haven’t figured out that magic wand” that “treats cancer” or “improves technology,” he says.

The problem isn’t that we can’t get to the moon; it’s that we keep standing in our own way.

“There’s a lot of bureaucracy [at NASA] that’s impeding progress,” says Isaacman.

For example, “NASA has yet to approve iPhones to go to the space station for their astronauts,” even though Russian astronauts have consistently brought theirs to the space station and even share them with American astronauts.

Isaacman says this is a “petty example,” but it paints a picture of just how severe NASA’s bureaucracy is.

One of the main problems, he says, is that “we’ve become very risk averse.”

But “there are some risks worth taking. Exploring the worlds beyond ours is a risk worth taking. You’re not going to get there if you’re not accepting some risk,” he says.

But how can we even begin to take calculated risks when there are “50 different departments” at NASA dedicated to safety?

“That’s not to say safety isn’t important, but if you have lots of people in a position to say no rather than bubbling it up logically to a single organization, it’s going to be easier to just say no,” says Isaacman. “I mean the best way to keep astronauts and pilots safe is don’t fly and don’t go to space.”

To hear more of the conversation, watch the full interview 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.

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The federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority is the largest public utility in the country, providing electricity to Tennessee and six surrounding states. And because the president appoints its board, it’s also a political football.

Democrat administrations have stacked the TVA board with green energy zealots committed to phasing out carbon fuels in favor of wind and solar. Donald Trump has responded by firing directors who embraced that faux utopian agenda, along with those who allowed the executives to reward themselves with high seven-figure compensation packages while outsourcing jobs to noncitizens.

The blue-collar working class has become a key element in the Trump coalition. If Trump moves to privatize the TVA, it will feel like a betrayal to the very people who have had his back.

Now a new tempest is brewing: Should the TVA be privatized?

Usurped by green zealots

The TVA was established as a public corporation in 1933 to provide flood control, rural electrification, and economic development in the Tennessee River Valley, as well as the surrounding areas of Appalachia. For almost a century, it has delivered abundant, inexpensive, and reliable electricity.

Most of its electricity comes from nuclear (42%) and natural gas (31%), while coal and hydroelectric account for about 23% combined.

Despite years of agitation from anti-carbon activists and Obama- and Biden-era appointees, the TVA’s power mix has remained overwhelmingly carbon-based — for one reason: It works.“Renewable” energy sources (primarily solar) only constitute about 4% of its total electricity production. And, as always, solar energy drops to zero at night.

A third way

The debate has focused on two extremes: Keep the TVA under federal ownership or privatize it. However, a third option offers a middle ground: Transfer ownership to the seven states that rely on it.

Moving ownership — and board appointments — to the seven primarily red states that rely on the TVA would ensure that green activists can’t destroy its ability to provide inexpensive, reliable electricity, while also maintaining the TVA’s status as a public utility.

The argument for keeping the TVA federally owned is that it has been very successful for a century now in providing electricity and flood control to much of Southern Appalachia. It also provides significant employment to the region.

Current corporate culture driven by private equity slashes employment to reduce labor expenses; relaxes quality and safety controls to meet budget-cutting goals; terminates the most experienced employees to eliminate their salaries; and outsources as many jobs as possible to non-Americans. Naturally, the fear of privatization is legitimate by those who rely on the TVA for electricity and employment.

Though the Trump administration hasn’t yet formally announced that it is considering privatization, many speculate that it is on the table. As the Atlantic reported recently:

Trump hasn’t spoken recently about privatizing the TVA. But in his first term, he proposed selling off the TVA’s power lines to a private buyer in 2018 and again in 2020. Now, he is positioned to stack the TVA’s board with new members. That, combined with his administration’s relentless push to shrink the federal government, has revived speculation about privatization — which many in Trump’s MAGA orbit have long argued should be the utility’s fate.

Most of the TVA’s 11,000-plus employees are skilled tradesmen and women who belong to unions. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers represents about 10,000 TVA employees. It has issued a pre-emptive warning to the Trump administration, stating:

The TVA is the primary reason the Deep South became the economic force it is today, and IBEW members have been there every step of the way. It’s an American success story that required skilled, union labor. We will fight tooth and nail attempts to turn it into a for-profit corporation whose only concern is ultra-rich shareholders.

I have had occasion throughout my career to work with companies that employ IBEW electricians, as well as companies that contract out for electrical work using the IBEW. These skilled tradesmen are overwhelmingly patriotic, America-first MAGA voters who detest the anti-carbon activists on the left. They also detest corporate America’s war on American labor.

The blue-collar working class has become a key element in the Trump coalition. If Trump moves to privatize the TVA, it will feel like a betrayal to the very people who have had his back.

Real concerns

Libertarian purists recoil at any level of government owning a utility. Yet privatizing the Tennessee Valley Authority as a regulated monopoly offers little difference from government ownership. Without a free-market competitor willing to build nuclear plants and hydroelectric dams, the result is the same.

Chattanooga’s Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R), whose district includes the highest concentration of TVA employees, strongly opposes privatization. Knoxville Republican Rep. Tim Burchett, whose district houses TVA headquarters, is more open. He has said:

Any organization that pays their head $6 million a year plus bonus needs to be evaluated. For too long, the Tennessee Valley Authority has operated in the shadows with closed-door meetings and minimal transparency. I have sponsored, passed, and supported bills to fix these issues. I am a believer in capitalism and the free market. Any option that maximizes efficiency, incentivizes transparency, and keeps prices low for ratepayers should be explored.

Burchett has built a reputation fighting pork in Washington and is right to question the TVA’s waste and secrecy. But full-scale privatization isn’t the answer.

A better path would be to transfer ownership to the states. That compromise could deliver efficiency, accountability, and local control — while keeping the TVA safe from both federal meddling and Wall Street overreach.

RELATED: Tennessee Valley Authority gets a Trump-style reckoning

Photo by CHUNYIP WONG via Getty Images

Well-intentioned defenders of federal ownership, from Fleischmann to the IBEW, assume that the TVA’s future will look like its past. It won’t. Democrats in Washington will never allow the TVA to remain a major provider of carbon-based energy. The most conservative region in America should not gamble its power supply on the whims of left-wing swamp creatures.

Delivering for the people, not bureaucrats

The mechanics of ownership among the seven states would require negotiation, but one model could grant Tennessee 40% ownership — reflecting its dominant use and production — with the other six states dividing the remaining 60%.

That structure would put accountability where it belongs: in the hands of state leaders answerable to the families and businesses who depend on the TVA. Local officials would bear political responsibility for keeping the lights on and the air conditioning running — not distant bureaucrats in D.C.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Tva, Tennessee valley authority, Wall street, Private equity, Green energy, Green new deal, Nuclear power, Donald trump, Waste, Secrecy, Transparency, Unions, Maga, International brotherhood of electrical workers, Public utilities 

With Congress back in session after the August recess, pressure has once again been mounting for more answers surrounding the Epstein case. In a surprise moment during an interview, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) claimed Trump’s disgust with Epstein’s actions dates back decades — and involved an “FBI informant.”

In a walking interview with CNN reporter Manu Raju on Friday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson addressed concerns over the Epstein files and the efforts of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) for disclosure.

‘When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.’

Speaker Johnson criticized Massie and his “antics,” claiming that Massie’s “attacks” were “totally unfounded.” Massie has led the charge in pushing for disclosure of the Epstein files in the form of a discharge petition.

Johnson called the discharge petition “mooted” and “not necessary,” adding that six women who came forward on Thursday “represent as many as a thousand other women, most of whom are not comfortable coming forward.”

RELATED: Thomas Massie leads pressure campaign, forcing Congress to address Epstein

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The reporter pressed him on Trump’s calling the Epstein debacle a “hoax,” leading to an unexpected statement.

“I’ve talked to him about this many times. … It’s been misrepresented. He’s not saying what Epstein did is a hoax. … It’s a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself,” Johnson said. “When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.”

It is not clear whom Speaker Johnson was referring to as an “FBI informant.” However, it is not publicly confirmed whether Trump or Epstein ever worked in this capacity for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Blaze News contacted Speaker Johnson’s office and the White House but did not receive a response.

This is a developing story.

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​Politics, Jeffrey epstein, Thomas massie, Donald trump, Speaker mike johnson, Speaker of the house, Fbi, Federal bureau of investigation, President trump, Maralago 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) was expected to make an “important campaign announcement” on Friday afternoon, which further fueled speculation that he was considering ending his re-election campaign.

A report from the New York Times, citing anonymous sources, claimed Adams may soon leave the race to pursue a position with President Donald Trump’s administration as the ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

‘Those reports are wrong; I’m not.’

Adams held the press conference outside Gracie Mansion on Friday afternoon. He stood behind a sign that read “Re-elect Eric” to announce that he has no plans to withdraw from the race.

“This polo shirt that I’m wearing that says, ‘Eric Adams, Mayor of the City of New York,’ I’m gonna wear that for another four years,” he declared.

“I have two spoiled brats running for mayor,” Adams said, presumably referring to Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo. “They were born with silver spoons in their mouths, not like working-class New Yorkers. I’m a working-class New Yorker. They are not like us. They’ve never had to fight. They never had to struggle. They never had to go through difficult times like you and I had to go through.”

RELATED: Radical left poised to redefine America’s cities

Democratic mayoral nominee and state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

He rejected reports claiming that he has plans to travel to Washington, D.C., on Monday.

“Those reports are wrong; I’m not. I’ll be moving throughout this city, in the five boroughs that made me mayor in the first place,” he continued. “I’m running for re-election.”

Adams left the press conference without taking questions from reporters.

An Adams spokesperson previously denied the Times’ rumors in a statement to Newsmax on Friday ahead of the scheduled announcement.

RELATED: ‘It’s a culture thing’: Top Eric Adams adviser stumbles through explanation for handing reporter cash-stuffed bag of chips

Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

“Serving New Yorkers as their mayor is the only job I’ve ever wanted,” the statement read. “I’m proud of the progress we’ve made lowering crime, improving schools, building housing, and cutting costs for working families — and I remain the best person to lead this city forward.”

“While I will always listen if called to serve our country, no formal offers have been made. I am still running for re-election, and my full focus is on the safety and quality of life of every New Yorker,” the statement added.

Trump has stated that he would like to see two mayoral candidates drop out of the race to increase the chances of beating Mamdani, a Democratic front-runner. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and disgraced former Governor Cuomo (D) also remain in the race.

“I don’t like to see a communist become mayor, I will tell you that,” Trump said of Mamdani.

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​News, Eric adams, New york city, New york, Nyc, New york city mayor race, New york city mayoral race, Zohran mamdani, Andrew cuomo, Curtis sliwa, Politics 

Ex-MSNBC host Joy Reid appears to have gone off the deep end as, during a recent appearance on former MSNBC colleague Katie Phang’s Youtube channel, she questioned the veracity of the assassination attempt on President Trump.

“He’s got these magical doctors who claim that he was shot in the ear, but his ear, I guess, grew back,” Reid began. “He had a Dukal bandage on one minute, no bandage the next. We can’t get a medical record from this alleged assassination. He was supposedly shot. We have nothing.”

“Where are the investigative records? One day, he slapped a maxi pad on his ear. The next day, the ear is totally fine,” Phang jumped in.

“Isn’t it odd that we’ve never asked for his medical records?” Reid said.

“You’re not allowed to even say, ‘Isn’t that weird?’” she said.

“And the mainstream media isn’t demanding his medical records. They’re not demanding anything. They’re terrified of this man,” she added.

“This is weird. This is so weird. Like, we can agree that, yeah, we don’t have enough information about Thomas Crooks or any connections he might have had with some people in the government. We need to get to the bottom of that,” says Keith Malinak, executive producer of “Pat Gray Unleashed.”

“She’s hung up on, ‘I don’t think he was shot,’” he continues. “That’s what she’s hung up on.”

“That’s the big conspiracy theory on the left,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray agrees.

“These people are unhinged,” Malinak adds.

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.

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Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who was previously known as Tim McBride, is the first “out” transgender person elected to Congress — and he is adamant that conservatives are the “weird” ones.

“They are obsessed with culture war issues. The Republican Party is obsessed with culture war issues. It is weird, and it is bizarre. And the American people deserve serious legislators, serious elected officials who are focused on bringing people together,” McBride said

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is not even close to being on the same page.

“If you are to believe this man, who believes that he is a woman, that’s your first mistake, is trusting anything that this person says,” Gonzales says. “If you are to believe Tim McBride, the right is weird because we believe in biological truths and that biological men are men and women are women.”

“That is so weird. That is so bizarre,” she mocks, before pulling up a selfie McBride posted to Instagram in the women’s bathroom in 2016.

“Here I am using a women’s restroom in North Carolina that I’m technically barred from being in. They say I’m a pervert. They say I’m a man dressed as a woman. They say I’m a threat to their children. They say I’m confused. They say I’m dangerous. And they say accepting me as the person I have fought my life to be seen as reflects the downfall of a once great nation,” McBride wrote in the caption.

“I’m just a person. We are all just people. Trying to pee in peace. Trying to live our lives as fully and authentically as possible. Barring me from this restroom doesn’t help anyone. And allowing me to continue to use this bathroom — just without fear of discrimination and harassment — doesn’t hurt anyone. Stop this. We are good people,” he added.

“This is a man entering a woman’s bathroom and taking pictures of himself in a woman’s bathroom and posting it on social media for likes and clicks is telling you that it’s weird that you care that he’s doing this,” Gonzales comments, adding, “That is so mind-boggling.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred take to news and culture, 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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As has been the case since Miss United States Lindsey Langston came forward to accuse Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) of making threats of violence and revenge porn after their breakup, the hearing about her petition for a restraining order against him was filled with drama.

Langston testified at Columbia County Courthouse on Friday morning about her growing concerns about Mills’ mental health at the tail end of their three-year relationship as well as her increasing terror afterward on account of his behavior. According to Langston, Mills repeatedly contacted her after the breakup in February, pleading with her to reconcile and progressively threatening greater and greater harm to himself and others if she did not agree.

‘I’m up against this person who is intimidating, and I don’t know what to do.’

Langston testified that in March he threatened to commit suicide if she would not take him back.

Despite these alleged alarming comments, Langston said she continued to speak with Mills, even mentioning to him in late April or early May that she was struggling with an IRS- and tax-related problem, though she noted that she eventually had to ask him to stop contacting her.

Sometime in May, she began ignoring his messages, she said, and by late May, she started blocking him on her phone and social media accounts. However, she said the messages continued — and that they promised to harm her future love interests and even to share revenge porn with them or with the Miss United States organization.

Blaze News previously viewed screenshots of those messages, some or all of which were then introduced into evidence on Friday. They include:

“You want to date or be with someone else. Be my guest. But they need to know well in advance that if we cross paths, I don’t care this week, this month, or this decade. They better damn well know it’s coming every time.””May want to tell every guy you date that if we run into each other at any point. Strap up cowboy.””I can send him a few videos of you as well,” followed by “Oh, I still have them.”

Messages that she received in June were so specific that she worried he was somehow monitoring her activities in Columbia County, she told the court.

Langston previously indicated to Blaze News that on June 12 she told him once and for all to leave her alone, and her attorney, Bobi J. Frank, noted at the hearing on Friday that Langston asked him “10, 11, 12 times” to stay away.

Between the escalating rhetoric and his previous boasts about engaging in violence, Langston testified that she felt she had no choice but to involve law enforcement.

“I’m up against this person who is intimidating,” she said through tears on the stand, “and I don’t know what to do.”

“I thought I could handle this, and I can’t. I can’t handle it by myself. Please help me. Someone please help me because I don’t know what to do, and I’m scared,” she added.

RELATED: Drama continues as Rep. Cory Mills prepares for looming court hearing against Miss United States

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

When it was Mills’ turn to take the stand, he did not deny contacting Langston after their breakup, noting that they had broken up and reconciled before and that he believed that they were on a path toward reconciliation once again. When his attorney, Aaron Delgado, asked about the messages that Langston found worrisome, Mills seemed to suggest that they were inside jokes between two Southerners raised in the “country.”

“I grew up in the country,” Mills said. “You know, I grew up hunting and fishing in Perry and Mayo and things like that. We grew up with subsequently the same backgrounds. … We used to talk about how country folk are a little bit different than those up North.”

He indicated that he was merely adopting her type of “voice” and language.

Mills at first said his last conversation with Langston ‘was around the June 12th time frame,’ but when Delgado pressed further, asking whether he had any contact with Langston after that point, Mills equivocated.

As far as the messages seemingly directed at a new man in Langston’s life, Mills said they were responses to threats that the man had first given about him. “She even sent me a text that was cropped that just said, ‘Good luck,’ saying that this was his response,” Mills asserted.

Langston testified Friday that while she had gone on dates, she had not been involved in another relationship after Mills.

Mills further stated that while Langston had sent him explicit videos of herself during their relationship — a fact that Langston confirmed during cross-examination — he had deleted those videos and that the phone on which he had received them was later damaged. He denied ever contacting the Miss United States organization or the county GOP group of which Langston is a member about the explicit photos and videos.

RELATED: Rep. Cory Mills to appear in court following bombshell accusations from Miss United States

Photo courtesy of Lake City Reporter

Mills, who is still believed to be married to Rana Al Saadi despite reportedly telling Langston in 2024 that his divorce had been finalized, gave an ambiguous answer when Delgado asked him to pinpoint the last time he had contacted Langston.

Mills at first said his last conversation with Langston “was around the June 12th time frame,” but when Delgado pressed further, asking whether he had any contact with Langston after that point, Mills equivocated. “No, sir, only to the fact of I have heard …” Mills began before he was cut off multiple times by Frank, Judge Fred Koberlein, and Delgado that he was engaging in hearsay.

At the prompting of Judge Koberlein, Delgado eventually redirected the line of questioning, and Mills’ testimony concluded shortly thereafter.

Langston had testified earlier that after she contacted law enforcement and the media, Mills, his current girlfriend, and his chief of staff sent her a flurry of messages and phone calls, begging her to retract her story. She told Blaze News on August 5, the day our story on the accusations broke, about this alleged harassment.

The hearing Friday extended well beyond the time allotted, with other critical procedures, including cross-examination of Mills and closing statements, left undone. After both attorneys petitioned for more time, Judge Koberlein suspended the hearing, demanding that by 4 p.m. Friday they agree upon another date and time to continue the proceedings.

After the court was recessed, Mills promised the gaggle of reporters in attendance, including Steve Baker of Blaze News, that he would address them outside the courthouse, but he never appeared, instead exiting the building from another door.

Delgado did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News, and Frank declined to give one.

The court had previously dismissed Langston’s emergency petition for a restraining order. As of the time of this writing, no follow-up hearing has been scheduled.

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​Cory mills, Miss united states, Lindsey langston, Restraining order, Florida, Revenge porn, Harassment, Threats, Politics 

Homeland Security Investigations announced a massive raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia that resulted in the arrest of hundreds of individuals.

HSI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other federal agencies participated in an operation on Thursday into “unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes.”

‘As of today, it is our understanding that none of those detained is directly employed by Hyundai Motor Company.’

Federal law enforcement agents arrested 475 individuals who were “illegally present in the United States or in violation of their presence in the United States,” according to Steven Schrank, a special agent in charge of HSI for Georgia and Alabama.

“Yesterday, Homeland Security Investigations, in coordination with our law enforcement partners, executed a judicial search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices and serious federal crimes,” Schrank stated during a press conference on Friday.

“This was not an immigration operation where agents went into the premises, rounded up folks, and put them on buses,” he continued. “This has been a multi-month criminal investigation where we have developed evidence, conducted interviews, gathered documents, and presented that evidence to the court in order to obtain a judicial search warrant.”

He stated that the arrested individuals, the majority of whom were South Korean nationals, were “working unlawfully.” Schrank explained that some of these individuals had either crossed the border illegally, overstayed their visas, or entered the country through visa waivers but were not permitted to work.

RELATED: After ICE removes illegal workers, job applicants flood meatpacking plant to replace them

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Lee Jaewoong, a spokesman for South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, stated Friday, “The economic activities of our investment companies and the rights and interests of our citizens must not be unjustly violated during U.S. law enforcement proceedings.”

The raided facility was a construction site for HL-GA Battery Company, a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution. This plant will supply batteries to the nearby Hyundai electric vehicle manufacturing plant.

The arrested individuals worked for “a variety of different companies that were on the site.” Those determined to be illegally in the U.S. were turned over to ICE custody, according to Schrank, who called the raid “the largest single-site enforcement operation” in HSI’s history.

No criminal charges were announced as of Friday.

RELATED: Not tired of winning: Trump’s 200 victories in 200 days

Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Hyundai Motor Company told Blaze News, “We are aware of the recent incident at the HL-GA Battery Company construction site in Bryan County, Georgia. We are closely monitoring the situation and working to understand the specific circumstances.”

“As of today, it is our understanding that none of those detained is directly employed by Hyundai Motor Company. We prioritize the safety and well-being of everyone working at the site and comply with all laws and regulations wherever we operate,” the statement added.

Blaze News contacted HL-GA Battery Company for comment.

Mary Beth Kennedy, senior public relations specialist with the HL-GA Battery Company, previously told WSAV-TV, “HL-GA Battery Company is cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities regarding activity at our construction site. To assist their work, we have paused construction. We do not have further details at this time.”

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​News, Immigration, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Homeland security investigations, Hsi, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Georgia, Hyundai, South korea, Raid, Politics 

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, announced charges against two teenagers accused of fatally shooting a congressional intern.

‘This killing underscores why we need the authority to prosecute these younger kids, because they’re not kids; they’re criminals.’

Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, a 21-year-old University of Massachusetts student and intern for the office of Republican Rep. Ron Estes of Kansas, was killed near D.C.’s Mount Vernon Square in June when a group of people exited a car and opened fire. Two others were injured in the attack, including a 16-year-old.

“The scene involved two rifles, one 9 millimeter, and 79 rounds on the ground,” Pirro said on Friday.

Pirro announced that two 17-year-olds had been arrested and charged with first-degree murder for the shooting. She noted that authorities are also pursuing a third suspect. The teens will be tried as adults.

“[Tarpinian-Jachym] was an innocent bystander who was caught in a violent act that was not meant for him,” Pirro stated. “His death is a stark reminder of how fragile life is and how violence too often visits us in the nation’s capital.”

RELATED: 21-year-old congressional intern killed in triple shooting in Washington, DC

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Pirro stated that Tarpinian-Jachym was shot four times.

“The D.C. Council thinks that these kids need to be protected. They don’t need to be protected. They need to be made accountable,” Pirro said. “This killing underscores why we need the authority to prosecute these younger kids, because they’re not kids; they’re criminals.”

Blaze News reached out to the D.C. Council for comment.

Pirro mentioned that violent acts like this are the reason President Donald Trump has launched a law enforcement initiative in D.C. to restore order.

RELATED: DC mayor and AG at odds as lawsuit challenges Trump’s anti-crime operation

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“Eric, you didn’t die in vain,” Tamara Tarpinian-Jachym, the victim’s mother, told the Washington Post. “If we would’ve known the city was so dangerous, we wouldn’t have let him go.”

She told the news outlet that listening to President Donald Trump gave her hope.

“Hope that my son won’t just be a statistic. And hope that these changes will mean no other innocent people will get shot,” she added.

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​News, Washington d.c., Washington dc, D.c., Dc, Eric tarpinian-jachym, Jeanine pirro, Pirro, Dc crime, Politics