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A Georgetown University professor apologized for a deleted post where he offered his hope that Iran might issue a “symbolic” retaliatory attack after the U.S. devastated their nuclear weapons capabilities.

Islamic Civilization Professor Jonathan Brown deleted the message on the X social media platform and offered an apology after many reacted with outrage to the post.

‘I deleted my previous tweet because a lot of people were interpreting it as a call for violence.’

“I’m not an expert, but I assume Iran could still get a bomb easily. I hope Iran does some symbolic strike on a base, then everyone stops,” he wrote on Sunday.

He went on to make other observations that many perceived as his siding with Iran in the conflict.

After he was assailed by outrage from many who were accusing him of advocating the death of U.S. military members, he deleted the tweet and apologized.

“I deleted my previous tweet because a lot of people were interpreting it as a call for violence,” Brown wrote. “That’s not what I intended. I have two immediate family members in the U.S. military who’ve served abroad and wouldn’t want any harm to befall American soldiers … or anyone!”

He later protected his account and made his posts private.

A spokesperson for the university told the Jewish Insider that they were “appalled” at the comments by Brown.

“We are reviewing this matter to see if further action is warranted,” said the spokesperson.

Ironically, a limited missile strike is what Iran issued against U.S. bases on Monday, and CNN News even referred to the operation as “symbolic” in nature.

RELATED: DHS warns of attacks stateside after Iran bombings, years of open borders

Jewish students have accused Georgetown University of not doing enough to protect them from anti-Semitic intimidation from anti-Israel activists.

Later on Monday, President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, and he dubbed the conflict the “12 Days War.”

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Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas has declared a “mental health crisis” in America because of Donald Trump — but what she doesn’t appear to understand is that while there is a mental health crisis, it has very little to do with the president.

“I would say that the fact that Jasmine Crockett got elected shows she’s correct,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Program.”

But Crockett’s own election isn’t the only major indicator of a mental health crisis in this country. A much bigger one is what just occurred at the Oregon State Capitol, where two men dressed as women performed a drag show in front of state representatives.

“They’re all kind of just sitting out there, awkwardly trying to decipher what the appropriate reaction is to this,” Burguiere says. “By the way, the answer is to walk out.”

“Oregon, what are your elected officials doing? I mean, if you want to go to a drag show, that’s fine, but why in the middle of the workday in the House of Representatives?” Glenn agrees.

However, does a recent drop in corporate advertising for Pride signal an end to the mental health crisis plaguing the country?

A recent opinion piece in the New York Times details the significant loss of funds Pride parades are facing after large corporations have stopped supporting them.

“Consider BarkBox, a purveyor of pet toys and treats, whose leaked internal message in early June laid bare the new corporate zeitgeist: ‘We’ve made the decision to pause all paid ads and life cycle marketing pushes for the Pride kit effective immediately. We need to acknowledge that the current climate makes this promotion feel more like a political statement than a universally joyful moment for all dog people,’” reads the article, titled “We’ve Reached Rainbow Capitalism’s End.”

“Now, I don’t know if ‘dog people’ means the people who own dogs or people who identify as dogs. I could honestly go either way on that one,” Stu comments. “These are just capitalist decisions. They’re not decisions saying, ‘Hey, we agree that, you know, mutilating your child is a bad idea.’”

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President Donald Trump shocked the world on Monday when he announced that Iran and Israel had agreed on a ceasefire in the war that has rocked the Middle East.

The president said that the war should be called “the 12 Day War,” in an announcement posted on social media.

‘This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will!’

“CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions!), for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered, ENDED!” he wrote.

He said that Iran will begin the ceasefire, and 12 hours later Israel will join the ceasefire.

“On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, ‘THE 12 DAY WAR.’ This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will!” he continued.

“God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and GOD BLESS THE WORLD!” he added.

The message did not say anything about whether Iran had agreed to any concessions about a nuclear enrichment program.

Very soon afterward, Vice President JD Vance confirmed the agreement in an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News.

“We were actually working on that just as I left the White House to come over here, so that’s good news that the president was able to get that across the finish line,” Vance said. “I think what it means, Bret, is quite simple. First of all, the president — without, knock on wood, having a single American casualty — obliterated the Iranian nuclear program.”

— (@)

“We are now in a place where we weren’t a week ago. A week ago, Iran was very close to having a nuclear weapon. Now, Iran is incapable of building a nuclear weapon with the equipment they have because we destroyed it,” Vance continued.

“So that’s a very, very big thing,” he added. “Now, what that means, I think, is, we have to talk to Iran and of course to Israel about what the future holds, because while we have obliterated the Iranian nuclear program, our hope and our expectation is that they’re not gonna try to rebuild that program.”

He went on to say that the president’s goal was to obtain a “long-term settlement” that would secure “peace in the region.”

Editor’s note: This article has been edited after publication to include comments from Vice President JD Vance.

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has announced the end of an Obama-era program that involved spying on U.S. citizens — and cost those citizens hundreds of millions in tax dollars a year.

“Today I’m announcing that TSA is ending the Quiet Skies program, which involved having a federal agent follow U.S. citizens as they traveled by air. It was created by Obama in 2012 to supposedly track dangerous individuals, but instead it was weaponized against political enemies such as Tulsi Gabbard,” Noem said in a video posted to social media.

“Since its existence, it has failed to stop a single terrorist attack, while it cost U.S. taxpayers roughly about $200 million a year,” she added.

Independent journalist Breanna Morello has been on the frontlines of breaking this story and has uncovered just how American citizens would end up on these lists.

“What they used is a program called Evade, which was another Obama program that was started. And what they did is they used Evade to add people to the TSA terror watch list,” Morello tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“Evade was a private-sector company that was going out there looking at your social media posts,” Morello continues. “The reality of it is everyone I found who’s on these lists are all conservative.”

“So they intentionally went above and beyond to target people. Now, Tulsi Gabbard, the following day after she criticized Kamala Harris, was added to that terror watch list,” she adds.

Morello also explains that hundreds of Americans, including those who attended the January 6 rally, were added to the same watch list.

“For years, they were followed by air marshals, they were stalked by TSA, they went through additional groping that they didn’t have to go through,” she tells Gonzales. “But again, the TSA is not an investigative agency.”

This is why the TSA hired a private-sector company to do the work for them.

“So, chances are if you ever had a little four S’s on the bottom of your boarding pass and then you went through additional screening processes after already going through TSA, you were probably on the list, and you’re probably being followed by air marshals without knowing it,” Morello explains.

“So they’re just intentionally finding a loophole and subverting it,” Gonzales comments.

“And that loophole is a private-sector company, yes,” Morello responds.

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On June 21, the U.S. military conducted strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities — Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — in an operation code-named Midnight Hammer, which was aimed at destroying Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and preventing the Islamic nation from developing nuclear weapons. The strikes, which marked the first time America has been directly involved amid the Israel-Iran conflict, involved 125 aircraft, including seven B-2 stealth bombers dropping 14 GBU-57 “bunker-buster” bombs on Fordow and over two dozen Tomahawk missiles targeting Isfahan. President Trump called the mission a “spectacular military success” in his televised address from the White House.

Naturally, however, Americans are wondering what comes next. How will Iran respond? What does the future hold for the United States?

Monday morning on “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn broke it all down and explained the possibilities for the future.

“Hopefully this is a one-and-done strike, like it was when President Trump took out Soleimani during his first term,” but there’s also the possibility that we get “more involved,” says Glenn.

“What we cannot have is another prolonged military fiasco in the Middle East. We cannot have American boots on the ground, and I know President Trump, and I know he doesn’t want that either,” he explains.

However, it all depends on what Iran does next. Two possibilities scare Glenn: Iran might “begin targeting U.S. forces on the ground all over the Middle East,” or “the Iranian-backed terrorists [might] begin attacking us right here in the U.S.” Or perhaps the nation will play “the big ace up their sleeve” and close the Strait of Hormuz — a critical global oil choke point. Glenn notes that Iran’s parliament has approved a measure to close the strait in retaliation for U.S. strikes on its nuclear facilities, but the final decision rests with the Supreme National Security Council and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

If the latter happens and the Strait of Hormuz is indeed closed, “we will see a spike in our oil prices somewhere between $120 and $150 a barrel,” possibly even “as high as $200 a barrel,” Glenn warns, calling such a price increase “a very, very bad knockout punch” to the global economy, which is essentially being held together by “chewing gum and duct tape.”

There’s also the possibility that the Iranian regime could “crumble and fall apart” and “the people rise up,” but that is looking more and more unlikely, as reports indicate that Iran’s “religious police” — one of the “most brutal police forces out there” — are roaming the streets in great numbers, arresting civilians, ordering people to stay in their homes, monitoring phones, and checking cars.

“Over the weekend, at least 100 religious dissidents have already been executed, called spies for Israel,” says Glenn.

One of the most “disturbing developments,” he says, is the fact that both China and Russia have condemned the United States for the strikes. “I read this morning that one of the top officials from Iran is going to Russia today to meet with Putin,” meaning “their alliance is not being deterred.”

Right now, nothing is certain, says Glenn. “Our future is complicated. … It will either be an amazing success or lead us toward a very dark future.”

However, to those “blaming Donald Trump” for the uncertainty of America’s future, Glenn says, “you can blame every president since 2000.” Trump’s presidential predecessors “have always said that they would never allow Iran to get a nuclear bomb. President Trump is just the first one to not send them a pallet of cash to try to bribe them.”

Operation Midnight Hammer was “decisive, bold, and courageous action. Now let’s prepare for fire and pray, pray, pray for peace.”

To hear more of Glenn’s analysis, watch the episode above.

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On June 21, 2025, the United States launched a military mission dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, targeting Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan to dismantle Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities and block its path to nuclear weapons. This marked the U.S.’ first direct engagement amid the Israel-Iran conflict. The U.S. deployed 125 aircraft, including seven B-2 stealth bombers that unleashed 14 GBU-57 “bunker-buster” bombs on Fordow, alongside over two dozen Tomahawk missiles striking Isfahan. In a White House address, President Trump hailed the operation as a “spectacular military success.”

And Mark Levin agrees. “What Donald Trump did as commander in chief is remarkable,” he says.

“It’s not just that he had the courage to order the attack on the Islamo-Nazi Iranian nuclear sites, but look how it came off,” he adds, referring to how all U.S. military equipment, including the seven B-2 bombers and other aircraft involved in Operation Midnight Hammer, along with American personnel, returned safely to their bases with no reported damage or casualties.

“This is what we should be used to — that is, a commander-in-chief, not an interventionist,” who “knows when and how to use the United States military … the most massive and powerful fighting machine on the face of the earth, ready to take action as needed, in any environment, against any enemy, in any way,” says Levin. “We should be cheering this.”

He looks back to how former President Bill Clinton was naive enough to give North Korea “billions and billions of dollars to feed their people” when right under his nose, the communist nation was building “a nuclear missile.” Obama was hardly better. His administration appeased Iran’s “Islamo-Nazi” regime with a nuclear deal that was overly lenient, allowing the terrorist nation to pursue nuclear weapons.

In 2018, Donald Trump set America back on the right path when he “ripped [Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] up” and put “the Iranian regime on its back.” Unfortunately, Biden then reversed course, reinstating Obama’s flawed JCPOA approach, surrounding himself with the same advisers, and providing Iran with billions in funds.

“And so Donald Trump comes in again — thank God, thanks to you — and he says, ‘Wait a minute, these guys are gonna have a nuclear weapon,”’ says Levin, noting that this threat was confirmed by intelligence and the IAEA. “And Donald Trump says … ‘I know there are people in our country that are isolationists; I know there are people in our country who claim to speak for MAGA and don’t. I, Donald Trump, I’m MAGA; I speak for MAGA, and MAGA doesn’t believe in suicide.”’

“And then he orders this in coordination with the Israelis,” says Levin, calling Operation Midnight Hammer “absolutely fantastic.”

To all those who are now drowning in “what if” questions about how Iran will respond, he says the far more important question is: “What if we didn’t stop Iran and they had nuclear weapons?”

“The fact is the enemy itself remains: It is Islamo-Nazi terrorism … wherever it is,” Levin insists. “They want to kill us; they’ve been wanting to kill us since long before the other day when we hit those sites … and they’re going to continue to try and kill us.”

The “Islamo-Nazi mindset,” he says, is “kill the Jews, kill the Christians, kill Muslims who don’t agree with us, kill the Hindus, kill the Buddhists, kill the West, kill the Americans — kill until we control the world.” This bloodthirsty mentality is deeply entrenched in religious creed, and so it will never go away. Operation Midnight Hammer “doesn’t change” Iran’s bent toward terrorism, but what it did accomplish is to remove its capacity to inflict it.

“The enemy is still there, but this particular element of the enemy and this particular program of the enemy has been destroyed,” says Levin.

To hear more of his commentary, watch the video above.

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security vowed never to allow Kilmar Abrego Garcia to “go free on American soil,” after a judge ordered his release from detention pending an immigration trial.

The fight over the fate of the accused gang member who had been living in Maryland has come to symbolize the opposition of Democrats to the mass deportation efforts of the Trump administration.

‘We have said it for months and it remains true to this day: he will never go free on American soil.’

On Sunday, the Trump administration was dealt a blow in that struggle when U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ruled that the government had not proven its contention that Garcia was a flight risk and ordered his release.

“Overall, the Court cannot find from the evidence presented that Abrego Garcia’s release clearly and convincingly poses an irremediable danger to other persons or to the community,” she added.

Holmes, however, acknowledged that the ruling was “little more than an academic exercise” because Garcia would likely be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin appeared to confirm Holmes’ suspicions in a response to the ruling.

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a dangerous criminal illegal alien. We have said it for months and it remains true to this day: he will never go free on American soil,” she wrote on the X social media platform.

Garcia was initially deported to the infamous prison in El Salvador for terrorists, but a campaign by Democrats and court challenges led the Trump administration to bring him back to the U.S. Then the Justice Dept. immediately filed far more serious charges against him related to an alleged human-trafficking ring.

He has pleaded not guilty to the new smuggling charges, and his attorneys argued that they were merely an attempt to justify his deportation after the fact.

Holmes scheduled a hearing on Wednesday to determine the conditions of his release, but the government has already filed a motion to appeal the order.

RELATED: Chuck Schumer says Trump’s refusal to follow Supreme Court edict is ‘dangerous and outrageous’

Supporters of Trump’s mass deportation plans have argued that it is simply too onerous a demand to provide due process to the millions, and possibly tens of millions, of illegal aliens who are present in the U.S.

“The Trump administration is very invested in making this a referendum on the immigration debate, which, as you know, has become coarsened and polarized,” said Chris Newman, an attorney for the Garcia family. “I view this as a core constitutional order case, a core due process case.”

President Donald Trump personally weighed in on the debate in April when he released a photograph of himself holding an image of tattoos on Garcia’s knuckles that allegedly symbolized his membership in MS-13, a heinous criminal gang.

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As the Trump administration continues its mission to enforce our nation’s laws and deport illegal aliens, violent resistance is becoming far more commonplace. However, many media outlets continue to report only part of the story to paint illegal aliens and their supporters in a better light than some deserve.

On Saturday, a Santa Ana suspect, identified as Narciso Barranco by his family, reportedly violently resisted arrest by U.S. Border Patrol agents.

‘Law enforcement is now facing a 500% increase in assaults while carrying out enforcement operations. But this will not deter CBP.’

One of the sons of the suspect told KTLA-TV that Barranco was “picked up by alleged federal immigration officers while he was working as a landscaper at the IHOP on Edinger Avenue and Ritchey Street.”

KTLA described the allegedly violent suspect as a “victim” and emphasized his role as a “father.”

KTLA also implied that the U.S. Border Patrol agents were not acting legitimately, saying, “Seven or more masked men wearing U.S. Border Patrol vests are seen violently detaining a father in Santa Ana before forcing him into the back of an unmarked car on Saturday.”

RELATED: DHS warns of attacks stateside after Iran bombings, years of open borders

— (@)

The video that KTLA included in its post apparently cuts out the beginning of the incident, in which the suspect is seen wielding a weed whacker and running from the agents as they attempt to detain him. Watch the full video above.

“On June 21, Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien who tried to evade law enforcement. The illegal alien ran, then turned and swung a weed whacker directly at an agent’s face. He then fled through a busy intersection and raised the weed whacker again at the agent. The illegal alien refused to comply every step of the way — resisting commands, fighting handcuffs, and refusing to identify himself,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Blaze News.

The DHS spokesperson also said: “Reports that officers dislocated his shoulder are FALSE. He was offered medical care, which he declined.” The office confirmed that the suspect is now in ICE custody.

On X, the DHS account replied to KTLA’s post regarding this incident, calling the outlet’s coverage a “completely slanted portrayal”: “He ASSAULTED federal law enforcement with a WEED WHACKER. Perhaps the mainstream media would like our officers to stand there and be mowed down instead of defending themselves?”

DHS reaffirmed its commitment to continuing deportations, despite a rising rate of violent resistance. “Law enforcement is now facing a 500% increase in assaults while carrying out enforcement operations. But this will not deter CBP — we will continue enforcing the law and protecting American communities.”

A GoFundMe page was started to raise funds for the suspect’s legal counsel. It describes the suspect as a “good, hard working man” who has “raised his family here and has established himself here.”

The GoFundMe page alleges that he was “pepper sprayed and punched in the face multiple times by these masked and unidentified ‘officers.'” It has raised over $95,000 since its launch on Saturday.

KTLA was contacted but did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily granted the Trump administration a victory in the president’s efforts to deport millions of illegal aliens from the U.S.

In a ruling of 6 to 3, the highest court of the land said the administration could restart deportations of illegal aliens to countries that were not their origin. The three liberal justices dissented.

Judge Murphy had also said the government needed to give migrants written notice about where they were going to be deported.

The emergency request against a lower court order had been issued to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who referred it to the full court. Jackson issued a scathing dissent after the ruling from the court.

The Trump administration had argued that Judge Brian Murphy of the District Court in Massachusetts had overreached the court’s authority when he ruled that the government needed to provide migrants with an opportunity to challenge deportation on the basis that they might be tortured if sent to other countries. Judge Murphy had also said the government needed to give migrants written notice about where they were going to be deported.

The judge had acknowledged the criminal histories of the migrants in question but argued that the administration was still required by law to provide them with due process.

RELATED: DHS releases details about ‘barbaric, dangerous’ illegal aliens on Sudan deportation flight after federal judge ruling

“In matters of life and death, it is best to proceed with caution. In this case, the Government took the opposite approach,” wrote Brown Jackson in her dissent.

“It wrongfully deported one plaintiff to Guatemala, even though an Immigration Judge found he was likely to face torture there. Then, in clear violation of a court order, it deported six more to South Sudan, a nation the State Department considers too unsafe for all but its most critical personnel. An attentive District Court’s timely intervention only narrowly prevented a third set of unlawful removals to Libya,” she explained.

“I cannot join so gross an abuse of the Court’s equitable discretion,” Brown Jackson added.

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President Donald Trump has endeavored to ram a stake through the heart of the federal DEI regime.

He kicked off his second term by requiring that the head of every federal agency, department, or commission see to the elimination of all DEI offices, positions, initiatives, programs, contracts, and performance requirements; ordering the government to eliminate DEI discrimination in the federal workforce as well as in federal contracting and spending; tasking his inbound attorney general with preparing a civil rights-focused pressure campaign against DEI practitioners in the private sector; and rescinding numerous race- and identity-centered executive orders issued by Democrat presidents.

While Trump has since enjoyed tremendous success in eliminating various DEI initiatives across the government, it appears that there is still much work to be done.

The 1792 Exchange, a corporate bias watchdog seeking to restore political neutrality in the boardroom and to educate lawmakers about the dangers of woke corporate policies, recently released an analysis of the top 100 federal contractors by dollars obligated in fiscal year 2023.

The report highlights the apparent ideological capture and woke policies of a number of corporate juggernauts on the list, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and the RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon.

“The American people have the right to know if our hard-earned money is subsidizing any corporation’s subversive ideological programs,” 1792 Exchange CEO Daniel Cameron said in a statement.

“President Trump has taken bold action to remove DEI programming from federal institutions, including government contractors,” continued Cameron. “This report empowers government agencies and legislators to align procurement decisions with that vision of neutrality and excellence.”

RELATED: Behind the rainbow curtain: Who is funding the trans agenda targeting kids?

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Of the 100 contractors that the 1792 Exchange analyzed, 36 were characterized as “high risk,” 16 as “medium risk,” and 46 as “lower risk,” on the basis of “publicly documented alignment with DEI-driven policies and practices.”

The watchdog noted that high-risk companies “have demonstrated a pattern of engaging in DEI practices that prioritize ideological conformity over merit-based considerations.”

Examples of such practices include recruitment, hiring, and promotion on the basis of immutable characteristics and sexual preference; requiring employees to suffer through training sessions on gender ideology and critical race theory; and corporate alignment on philanthropy and marketing strategies with “progressive social agendas.”

While some big organizations appear to have read the writing on the wall and reversed course on DEI — 1792 indicated that Accenture, AT&T, IBM, Booz Allen Hamilton, and IBM have rolled back at least some of their most divisive DEI policies — others have dug in their feet.

Seven out of the top 10 recipients of federal dollars on the 1792 Exchange’s list of U.S. government contractors were labeled “high risk.” They were, in order from biggest to smallest recipients of federal dollars obligated: Lockheed Martin, the RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon), the Boeing Company, Northrop Grumman, Optum360, Leidos, and McKesson.

‘Compliance with the CEI naturally leads to ceding nearly all facets of corporate governance to the HRC’s influence.’

BAE Systems and Honeywell, though farther down the list, similarly appear to be big offenders in terms of DEI initiatives.

Lockheed Martin, at the top of the list, “yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders”; “implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes”; and “embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues,” according to the 1792 Exchange.

Part of what gave the company away was its perfect score on the 2025 Corporate Equality Index from the non-straight activist organization Human Rights Campaign, as well as its receipt of the “Equality 100 Award: Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Equality” distinction from the activist group.

Many of the scoring criteria for both the 2025 CEI and the so-called equality award appear to require corporate violations of federal policy.

While the watchdog outfit did not go out of its way to put CEI scores as a top consideration when assessing risk, Dustin DeVito, the 1792 Exchange’s director of corporate research, told Blaze News that “compliance with the CEI naturally leads to ceding nearly all facets of corporate governance to the HRC’s influence.”

“1792 Exchange’s company ratings center around six criteria: ideologically driven cancellation, charitable work, employment policies, reputation, funding, and political action,” continued DeVito. “The CEI touches on all of these.”

When pressed for comment, Lockheed Martin referred Blaze News to its Jan. 23 statement, which claimed:

Merit-based talent management programs and compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, contracts, and directives have always been central to this mission. We are taking immediate action to ensure continued compliance and full alignment with President Trump’s recent executive order. We will not have goals or incentives based on demographic representation or affirmative action plans. Additionally, our training offerings are compliant with Executive Order 13950 from President Trump’s first administration.

The RTX Corporation was slapped with the same broad critiques as Lockheed Martin. A closer look revealed precisely why.

The company similarly rated high on the 2025 CEI partly because the company apparently “will not donate to non-religious charities unless they embrace controversial sexual identity policies”; requires employees to attend “multiple, controversial trainings on gender identity, sexual orientation, transgender issues, and divisive racial ideology”; covers medical transvestism costs for employees and their children; and publicly advocates for “controversial sex and gender ideology through local, state, or federal legislation or initiatives.”

When pressed for comment, RTX directed Blaze News to a Jan. 24 company statement that said, “RTX is taking the necessary actions to comply with the presidential executive orders.”

RELATED: Pride Month’s true competition? Faith, family, freedom

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Both Boeing — whose executive compensation plan the 1792 Exchange claimed “devalued the weight of product and employee safety in its operational performance metrics, in order to include diversity, equity, and inclusion as a consideration” in recent years — and Northrop Grumman also scored 100% on the 2025 CEI, meaning that it likely jumped through many of the same hoops as other “high-risk” organizations.

Blaze News reached out to Boeing and Northrop Grumman as well as to top “high-risk” companies McKesson, Honeywell, Leidos, Optum360, and BAE Systems for comment.

Northrop Grumman directed Blaze News to another months-old statement indicating that work was under way to ensure the company was in compliance with the president’s executive orders.

“We are actively reviewing our policies and processes and taking the necessary steps to ensure compliance with the presidential executive orders for the work entrusted to us,” said the Northrop Grumman statement. “Underpinned by our values, we hire, promote, and pay based on merit and performance, resulting in the best team to deliver for our customers.”

A company spokesperson for BAE Systems told Blaze News, “As a federal contractor, we continuously evaluate our policies and programs to ensure continued compliance with all applicable legal requirements, including executive orders, and we will continue to hire, promote, and compensate based on merit.”

The other companies did not respond by publication time.

The 1792 Exchange has invited any companies on its list to submit corrections to the data if they have taken meaningful steps to comply with Trump’s executive orders.

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President Donald Trump is scheduled to attend the NATO summit in the Hague, Netherlands, held on June 24 and 25, where world leaders are anticipated to cover a wide range of pressing topics.

The annual meeting provides Trump with an opportunity to promote American interests over globalist ideals while reducing the United States’ defense burdens, potentially reshaping the alliance.

‘President Trump will be calling on NATO allies to step up to the plate and invest in the defense of Europe.’

This will be the first NATO summit hosted in the Netherlands since the alliance’s founding in 1949. Approximately 9,000 attendees are expected, including 6,000 officials representing various countries.

Defense spending

A top concern for the Trump administration is ensuring that American taxpayers do not carry an unfair defense burden compared to their NATO counterparts.

Trump has maintained a firm stance with NATO allies, pressuring the countries to substantially increase defense spending from 2% of their GDP to 5% as part of the president’s efforts to push for burden-sharing among the nations.

Nile Gardiner, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom and Bernard and Barbara Lomas Fellow, told Blaze News that defense spending is expected to “dominate” most of the summit.

“This is the top priority for the U.S. administration. President Trump will be calling on NATO allies to step up to the plate and invest in the defense of Europe. I think you’ll be looking for all of the alliance members to pledge to spend 5% of GDP on defense,” Gardiner stated.

NATO’s 32 allies previously agreed to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

With ongoing concerns of escalation from Russia, NATO’s latest plan aims for 5% of GDP for defense budgets, including 3.5% for military spending and 1.5% for security-related infrastructure.

RELATED: Trump touches down in Canada for G7 summit. Here’s what’s on the menu.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Photo by SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP via Getty Images

Last month, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he expects the ally countries to agree to the new goal during the upcoming annual summit.

“Let’s say that this 5% — but I will not say what is the individual breakup, but it will be considerably north of 3% when it comes to the hard spend, and it will be also a target on defense-related spending,” Rutte remarked.

‘The reality right now is Europe is not in a position to defend itself.’

The Financial Times reported in late May that Spain was the last major holdout on NATO’s plan to increase defense spending.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated last month that when he met with José Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister, he “urged Spain to join Allies in committing 5% of GDP to defense.”

Albares responded, “There was an exchange [with Rubio], and both of us expressed our views very clearly. I insisted that it was a huge effort to reach 2% and that the debate right now needs to focus on capabilities.”

Spain currently commits only 1.28% of its GDP to defense spending. In April, Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, announced a plan to meet NATO’s existing 2% requirement for the first time in 2025.

A White House official confirmed to Blaze News that Trump “intends to secure a historic 5% defense spending pledge from NATO allies that will advance stability in Europe and around the world.”

NATO members reached an agreement on Sunday to increase their defense spending target to 5% of GDP. Yet Spain opted out.

Sánchez declared, “We fully respect the legitimate desire of other countries to increase their defense investment, but we are not going to do so.”

On Monday morning, Rutte held a press conference before the summit, confirming that NATO members had agreed to the new defense spending goals.

Peace through strength

The Trump administration has prioritized facilitating peace talks between Ukraine and Russia to end the war and reduce the United States’ aid commitments. Meanwhile, tensions between Israel and Iran also remain ongoing. The U.S. launched airstrikes against three of Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites over the weekend.

Resolving these conflicts is certain to be another key topic at the upcoming summit. U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker previously stated that the Trump administration will begin talks with allies later this year about withdrawing American troops from Europe.

While Whitaker previously stated that “nothing has been determined,” he noted that the administration would converse with NATO allies after the summit.

“It’s more than 30 years of U.S. desire [to reduce troops in Europe], President Trump just said enough, this is going to happen and it’s going to happen now. This is going to be orderly, but we are not going to have any more patience for foot-dragging in this situation. … We just need to work through the practical consequences,” Whitaker remarked.

RELATED: Lindsey Graham champions sending troops to Iran despite Americans’ weariness of endless war

US ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker. Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Earlier this month, Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, stated that Russia would not end the war with Ukraine until NATO withdraws its military forces from Eastern Europe, citing it as a central cause of the war.

Ryabkov stated that America must take actionable steps to address “the root causes” behind Russia’s security disputes.

“Among these causes, NATO expansion is in the foreground. Without resolving this fundamental and most acute problem for us, it is simply impossible to resolve the current conflict in the Euro-Atlantic region,” he said. “Given the nature and genesis of the Ukrainian crisis, provoked by the previous U.S. authorities and the West as a whole, this conflict naturally acts, well, if you like, as a test, a trial, which checks the seriousness of Washington’s intentions to straighten out our relations.”

Trump stated that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 14, mainly about the Iran conflict. He noted, “Much less time was spent talking about Russia/Ukraine,” but he indicated that there will be future discussions regarding that war.

“He is doing the planned prisoner swaps — large numbers of prisoners are being exchanged, immediately, from both sides. The call lasted approximately 1 hour. He feels, as do I, this war in Israel-Iran should end, to which I explained, his war should also end,” Trump wrote in a post on social media.

‘Trump will be urging strong support from NATO members for Israel unity, calling for an end to Iran’s nuclear program.’

Trump attended the Group of Seven summit in Canada, which was held from June 15 through 17, but left before the event’s final day when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Rutte joined a breakfast discussion about the ongoing conflict. Several Cabinet members, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, remained at the event to represent the U.S.

Zelenskyy, who will also be attending the NATO summit, has been pushing for allies to implement stricter sanctions against Russia.

Gardiner stated that he anticipated the Trump administration would press European allies to increase military production to ensure that they have the industrial capacity necessary to “produce large amounts of tanks, weapons, aircraft, [and] ammunition to use for the defense of Europe against Russia.”

“The reality right now is Europe is not in a position to defend itself,” Gardiner continued. “I think, also, President Trump will be urging European NATO allies to stop buying Russian energy.”

He noted that European NATO members purchased roughly €7 billion worth of liquefied natural gas from Moscow.

“They are directly helping to fund the Russian war machine,” Gardiner said. “In fact, European NATO allies spend more money buying Russian gas than they do in terms of military assistance in Ukraine.”

RELATED: A treacherous week for America First (and Israel, too)

NATO 75th anniversary celebratory event on July 9, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Gardiner added that recent conflict in the Middle East would also likely be front and center during the summit.

“Trump will be urging strong support from NATO members for Israel unity,” Gardiner stated.

Trump has repeatedly stated that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons.

“For 40 years, they’ve been saying ‘death to America,’ ‘death to Israel,’ ‘death’ to anybody else that they didn’t like,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “If you go back 15 years, I was saying, ‘We cannot let Iran get a nuclear weapon.'”

After bombing Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, Trump warned that Iran would face further strikes if its leaders fail to reach a peace agreement with Israel.

During the Monday press conference, Rutte addressed the United States’ recent strikes against Iran.

“When it comes to NATO’s stance on Iran’s nuclear program, allies have long agreed that Iran must not develop a nuclear weapon. Allies have repeatedly urged Iran to meet its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” Rutte stated.

A reporter asked Rutte whether he has concerns that the U.S. strike on Iran would result in the Trump administration deprioritizing NATO.

“I don’t think so,” he replied. “The news about Iran is, at this moment, grabbing all the headlines, and it is, of course, important news, but this summit is really about making sure that the whole of NATO, 1 billion people, will be safe, not only today but also three, five, seven years from now.”

“Let’s not forget, Iran is heavily involved in the fight of Russia against Ukraine,” Rutte continued. “No doubt it will emerge in the discussions.”

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Police in Michigan said the mother of the suspect accused of opening fire at a suburban Detroit church on Sunday is a member of the church — and that the suspect attended services there in the last year.

Wayne Police in a news release said they received multiple 911 calls just after 11 a.m. Wayne is about a half hour southwest of Detroit.

‘We are grateful for the quick actions of the church’s staff members.’

A witness told police he saw the suspect driving erratically in a silver SUV in the parking lot of CrossPointe Community Church after which the suspect parked the vehicle. The suspect — a white male wearing camouflage clothing and a tactical vest — was retrieving guns from his car and headed to the church, police said.

Police said minutes later, more calls poured in — this time saying the suspect was firing shots and that a church member driving a pickup truck hit the suspect.

Senior Pastor Bobby Kelly Jr. told the Detroit News that the church member actually drove over the suspect: “He was run over by one of our members who saw this happening when he was coming into church.”

What’s more, the gunman shot at the vehicle repeatedly, Wayne Police Chief Ryan Strong told the Detroit Free Press at a news conference Sunday evening.

Police told Blaze News that this photo shows the vehicle that a church member used to hit the shooting suspect. The shooting suspect reportedly fired repeatedly at the vehicle.Photo by Emily Elconin/Getty Images

Upon hearing the gunfire, police said the church security team locked the church’s front doors and exchanged gunfire with the suspect outside. Police said a member of the security team shot and killed the suspect. First responders pronounced the suspect dead after performing life-saving measures, police said.

One member of the church’s security team was shot in the leg and taken to a hospital, where he was last listed in stable condition after a successful surgery, police said. The wounded security team member did not fire a weapon at the gunman, Deputy Chief Finley Carter III told Blaze News, adding that he was one of three security team members involved.

Kelly told the Detroit News the attacker didn’t enter the church building, but several shots were fired into the church. Carter added to Blaze News that police haven’t yet determined how many rounds the gunman fired. No other church members were hurt, the Detroit News added.

Police said an investigation has identified the shooting suspect as 31-year-old Brian Anthony Browning of Romulus, Michigan. Romulus is about 12 minutes south of Wayne.

Police said the suspect was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and had more than a dozen fully loaded magazines as well as a semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

The suspect’s mother is a member of the church, police said, adding that he attended services there two or three times over the course of the last year.

Police said a search warrant was executed at the suspect’s residence where additional rifles, several more semi-automatic handguns, and an additional large amount of ammunition were seized and confiscated.

Police said the suspect had no previous contacts with Wayne police or criminal history — but police added that the investigation suggests he may have been suffering a mental health crisis. Deputy Chief Carter added to Blaze News that the image of Browning shown above is not a mug shot but rather his driver’s license photo.

Police also said in its news release that there is no evidence that the act of violence was connected with the Middle East conflict.

In addition, police confirmed that a livestream video of church members reacting to gunfire indeed shows Sunday’s incident:

A Wayne resident on Monday recalled to Blaze News the sounds of the shooting, noting that what actually was happening wasn’t immediately apparent to him.

“I heard everything,” the man recounted to Blaze News on the condition of anonymity, adding that “I was in my backyard and heard loud noises coming from the church.”

The resident — who was just a few hundred feet from the church — added to Blaze News he “thought it was construction” and “then I go to my job and see police cars.” He added that he later learned the details of the shooting and that it was “really sad.”

“I know people who go to the church,” the man told Blaze News, adding that they’re dealing with some trauma but are managing it.

Police said about 150 people were at a special Vacation Bible School service when the suspect began shooting, the Detroit News said, adding that Strong said more children than usual were in attendance.

“We are grateful for the quick actions of the church’s staff members, who undoubtedly saved many lives and prevented a large-scale mass shooting,” Strong told the Detroit News. “I would add that the church parishioners and staff members were trained in responding to emergency situations, which also saved lives.”

Strong told the Detroit News the suspect’s motivation is not yet clear.

Church members launched a security team about 10 years ago in the wake of violence committed at other places of worship around the country, Kelly added to the Detroit News while noting that CrossPointe hadn’t received threats of violence.

Kelly added to the Detroit News that children in attendance Sunday were “doing good” and that members were being mutually supportive: “We will be convening our leadership to put a formal plan in place for the aftermath.” It isn’t clear when the church will resume holding services.

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CBS has released a report detailing the FBI’s intensified surveillance of Hezbollah sleeper cells in the United States — and the timing of their release could not be more curious.

Kyle Shideler, a senior analyst for the Center for Security Policy, is well-versed in these sleeper cells and has a theory as to why the FBI is warning Americans about them.

“One of the things to pay attention to is the tricky semantics of sleeper cells,” Shideler tells BlazeTV host Jill Savage and Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson. “When you’re talking about a sleeper cell, are you talking about a group of terrorists who completely blend in with the American mainstream, are not otherwise observable, and then just one day receive a coded radio message and go blow things up?”

“That’s usually not how it works. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but typically what we see from cells inside the United States linked to terror groups is that they’re actually very active. They’re usually engaging in propaganda, they’re engaging in fundraising, they’re engaging in recruitment, especially when you’re talking about Hezbollah,” he continues.

These sleeper cells, Shideler explains, like to “buy up U.S. military hardware like night vision goggles” and ship them out of the country.

“So do you think the CBS report is a genuine scoop, or is this a strategic leak linked to something larger going on?” Peterson asks Shideler.

“My instinct is it’s a strategic leak,” Shideler responds. “Someone inside the FBI or the DOJ either wants to make sure that everybody knows that they’re doing their job, which part of your job is not letting everybody know what you’re doing, so fail on that part.”

The other reason they might have strategically leaked this information is to “play into a narrative that if Donald Trump should decide to act, we are likely to be hit here.”

“I think that’s the subtext to the timing of the leak,” Shideler says.

And while most Hezbollah sleeper cells are “fundraising and propaganda cells,” Shideler believes there is cause for concern, as there’s “good evidence that many of them do have some level of military training.”

“What they would be capable of could vary broadly,” Shideler warns. “Anything from large-scale vehicular IEDs to small-scale small arms attacks, suicide vest bombings, anything in between.”

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Former President Joe Biden and the rest of his left-wing comrades may be out of office, but cancel culture is still alive and well — especially in states like Washington.

The case of Matthew Mastronardi, who is a Spanish teacher in Washington state, couldn’t make this clearer. Mastronardi was “canceled” for reading from the book “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Specifically, he quoted a passage that contained the N-word.

“It takes a special person to appreciate context, and that’s really what is necessary to understand this story,” Mastronardi tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“On April 17, I was walking around my classroom, pacing the room, and the students were working on an independent assignment,” Mastronardi continues. “I overheard this conversation between these two girls, and they were talking about the book ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’”

The girls were discussing the book since they’d been assigned to read it in their English class, and Mastronardi overheard them say they were forced to skip over a certain word.

“And I just thought, ‘That’s silly.’ Like, you are told to read these books, and you’re told to skip words, and as a lover of literature myself, I think that undermines the historical context. You distance yourself from what the author intended you to feel,” he explains.

“So I just sort of calmly expressed disagreement, and it started a whole conversation about it,” he continues. “And a girl asked me point blank in front of the class, ‘Well, if you were reading the book, would you say the word?’”

“And I sort of laughed, but I said, ‘Of course, I would read every word if I was reading from the book,’” he says, explaining that’s when another student whipped out his copy and asked him to read it.

That’s when Mastronardi did it, as he wanted to show his students that “you can read books honestly.”

“So I was secretly recorded, and that video made its rounds, and now I’m facing the loss of my job,” he tells Gonzales. “I received a verbal reprimand, saying that I behaved unprofessionally and uncivil with students.”

“I thought that was the end of it, I disagreed with it, but at least I still had my job,” he continues, noting that it’s only escalated since.

“Now, I’m facing my final appeal at the school,” he says, adding, “Pray for me.”

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While oil markets had been showing fear of a possible retaliatory attack from Iran, the missile attack on U.S. bases actually elicited a positive response.

Iran issued a very limited and almost symbolic response when it fired 11 missiles against bases in Qatar and Iraq on Monday. No one was hurt, and some reports say Iran informed Qatar ahead of time.

‘The market is pricing in a scenario where things de-escalate gradually.’

Crude oil markets had ramped up their futures prices after tensions escalated in the Middle East and put oil trade at risk, but after seeing the scale of the response from Iran, markets responded positively and futures prices dropped.

U.S. crude oil dropped by 4.1%, and Brent crude oil prices — a global benchmark — fell by 4.35%, according to a CNBC report.

The Dow Jones meanwhile jumped by 300 points, signaling a positive response to the attacks.

The markets likely saw the limited attack as a de-escalation of tensions, as Iran signaled that it needed to save face but did not want to antagonize the U.S. any further.

Brent had previously jumped by over 5% as a result of the U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

“The market is pricing in a scenario where things de-escalate gradually,” said Rystad Energy geopolitical analyst Jorge Leon to CNBC.

RELATED: Rubio warns Iran against ‘suicidal’ closing of Strait of Hormuz; Vance says retaliation will be met with ‘overwhelming force’

Leon went on to warn that Iran could still roil global markets if it chose to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade waterway.

“The worrying thing is that the other extreme scenario where there is a threat to close the Strait of Hormuz is still realistic,” he said. “Things could go south very, very rapidly.”

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Iran that such a move would be “suicidal” because closing the strait would hurt the U.S., but it would also damage other countries that would turn on Iran.

About 20% of oil trade, or 20 million barrels, flows through the strait, according to the Energy Information Administration.

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Iran began its retaliatory attack against the U.S. in a missile barrage against U.S. bases in Qatar and Iraq, according to CNN, Fox News, and other sources.

The reports included firsthand claims of explosions at both bases at about 8 p.m. local time.

‘They’re going to find overwhelming American force from the American military. That is really the choice before the Iranians.’

The report initially stated that 10 missiles attacked the facility in Qatar and one missile in Iraq. Further reporting from Fox News puts that number at six.

CNN anchor Becky Anderson called the mission “highly symbolic” rather than a substantive strike. A CNN correspondent in Tehran, Iran, said that officials confirmed the attack on television.

In another sign that the attack was intended to be limited and symbolic, Iran reportedly gave Qatar prior notice of the missile barrage, presumably to avoid casualties.

A top Qatari official condemned the attack in a statement on social media and confirmed that no lives had been lost.

“The State of Qatar strongly condemns the attack that targeted Al-Udeid Air Base by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. We consider this a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the State of Qatar, its airspace, international law, and the United Nations Charter,” read the statement.

“We reassure that Qatar’s air defenses successfully thwarted the attack and intercepted the Iranian missiles,” he added.

U.S. officials warned Iran against retaliation on Sunday.

“If they make smart decisions, I think they’re going to find us willing to work with them,” said Vice President JD Vance. “If they continue to support terrorism, nuclear weapons programs, then they’re going to find overwhelming American force from the American military. That is really the choice before the Iranians. And that’s a choice only they can make.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened Iran if the country tried to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a key water channel for trade.

RELATED: Rubio warns Iran against ‘suicidal’ closing of Strait of Hormuz; Vance says retaliation will be met with ‘overwhelming force’

“If they mine the Straits of Hormuz, the Chinese are going to pay a huge price,” said Rubio. “And every other country in the world is going to pay a huge price. We will too. It will have some impact on us. It will have a lot more impact on the rest of the world, a lot more impact on the rest of the world. That would be a suicidal move on their part because I think the whole world would come against them if they did that.”

There are about 40,000 American troops stationed across the Middle East.

This is a developing story, and additional information may be added.

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Multitudes of Syrian Christians gathered for mass Sunday evening inside the Greek Orthodox Church of the Prophet Elias in Damascus — and dozens of them never returned home.

Their prayers were interrupted by a jihadist who opened fire on the faithful, then detonated an explosive vest, killing at least 25 Christians and wounding 63 others. The explosion reportedly caused extensive damage to the structure of the church.

This terrorist attack — yet another reminder of the unrelenting persecution of Christians worldwide — was supposedly executed by a member of ISIS.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa — the Islamic terrorist also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, who rose through the ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq before founding an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra — condemned the attack and expressed condolences, reported the state-owned network Alikhbaria Syria.

Al-Sharaa called the attack a “heinous crime” that serves as a reminder of the importance of solidarity and unity of the regime and people in the face of security threats.

Christian persecution watchdogs have warned in recent months that the al-Sharaa regime cannot be trusted. After all, the regime is largely composed of and led by elements of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, an Al-Qaeda spinoff terrorist organization linked in its formative years to the late leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and whose current leader was until recently a specially designated global terrorist who fought against American forces in Iraq.

Jeff King of International Christian Concern, for instance, noted after the reported massacre of Syrian Christians by regime-aligned jihadists in March that the government is “Al-Qaeda and ISIS in a new guise.”

Despite his personal history with ISIS and Al-Qaeda, it is nevertheless in al-Sharaa’s interest to respond forcefully to the attack, not only to remain on good terms with President Donald Trump — who vowed to “protect persecuted Christians” ahead of the 2024 election and whose administration lifted U.S. sanctions last month — but to counter the internal threat to his rule. After all, ISIS now regards the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham-led regime as illegitimate.

RELATED: Progressives’ Middle East meddling keeps costing innocent lives

Photo by Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images

Al Jazeera reported that ISIS has repeatedly attacked government forces in recent months, labeling the government an “apostate regime.”

Mazhar al-Wais, the Syrian minister of justice, called the bombing a “cowardly crime targeting the unity of Syrians,” suggesting that al-Sharaa’s regime would not tolerate terrorism.

A senior U.S. official told Blaze News, “This is just another reminder that global jihadists see innocent unarmed Christians as legitimate targets.”

“The new government in Damascus will be measured in large part by its willingness to protect minorities and neutralize groups like ISIS,” added the official.

Ever distrustful of the regime, the Syrian Network for Human Rights insisted Sunday that “protecting the crime scene at Mar Elias Church is a necessary first step toward establishing the truth and achieving accountability.”

‘People were praying safely under the eyes of God.’

The watchdog group suggested that extra to securing the site’s perimeter and preventing unauthorized entry and tampering with evidence, it is essential that Syrian authorities “regulate the movement of personnel and media to ensure that only authorized forensic teams are allowed to work on site” and to “implement accurate documentation procedures.”

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch said in the immediate wake of the attack, “The treacherous hand of evil struck this evening claiming our lives, along with the lives of our loved ones who fell today as martyrs during the evening Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Prophet Elias in Dweilaa, Damascus.”

Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I asked Patriarch John X, the primate of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, to convey his heartfelt condolences and support to the families of the victims, and prayed to “the All-Good God to rest the souls of the innocent victims of the attack.”

RELATED: Why are Islamists targeting Catholic priests?

US President Donald Trump meets with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) along with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (R) on May 14, 2025. Photo by Bandar Al-Jaloud/Saudi Royal Court/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Witnesses indicated that when the suicide bomber entered the church and began firing, parishioners heroically charged him, reported the Associated Press. Once confronted, the masked terrorist detonated his vest.

“People were praying safely under the eyes of God,” said Fr. Fadi Ghattas, who was present when at least 20 Christians were killed by the explosion. “There were 350 people praying at the church.”

Issam Nasr, a witness who was praying inside the church, said he observed some victims get “blown to bits.”

“We have never held a knife in our lives,” said Nasr, underscoring the defenseless nature of the Christians targeted in Damascus. “All we ever carried were our prayers.”

According to International Christian Concern, parish priest Fr. Youhanna Shehata assisted in carrying the remains of over 20 victims out of the church in the wake of the attack.

Blaze News reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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The assassination of a top Minnesota Democratic lawmaker has taken a bizarre turn, with accused murderer Vance Luther Boelter telling the FBI that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) told him to kill U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) so that Walz could run for U.S. Senate, a Minnesota newspaper reported.

A handwritten letter Boelter allegedly left in a Buick sedan abandoned hours before his June 15 capture said the Democratic Minnesota governor ordered him to kill Klobuchar and others, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. The “rambling, conspiratorial,” and “incoherent” letter included a claim that he was trained “off the books” by the U.S. military, the newspaper said.

Boelter had ‘on the ground experiences combined with training by both private security firms and by people in the US military.’

Alpha News first reported that the letter, addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel, placed the blame for the shootings on Gov. Walz.

A spokesman for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office told the Star Tribune that “we will state only that we have seen no evidence that the allegations regarding Governor Walz are based in fact.”

A spokesman for Walz, the failed 2024 Democratic U.S. vice presidential candidate, did not issue a denial, but said the governor is “grateful to law enforcement who apprehended the shooter, and he’s grateful to the prosecutors who will ensure justice is swiftly served,” the Star Tribune reported.

In a June 20 statement, Klobuchar said: “Boelter is a very dangerous man, and I am deeply grateful that law enforcement got him behind bars before he killed other people,” the newspaper said.

Blaze News contacted Walz’s office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Twin Cities, but did not receive a reply before publication time.

Boelter, 57, is charged in federal court with murdering Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, and shooting state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman. Boelter will also face first-degree murder and attempted murder charges in Hennepin County District Court.

On June 15, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office shared a photo of Boelter’s arrest and described him as “the face of evil.”

Boelter allegedly left behind a handwritten “hit list” with the names of more than 50 Democratic lawmakers from Minnesota, Texas, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, according to court records and law enforcement sources quoted by local media. The list also included officials from abortion provider Planned Parenthood North Central States, police said.

RELATED: The stuff of nightmares: Boelter allegedly sought to kill 4 lawmakers

Vance Luther Boelter allegedly wore a silicone mask disguise at the first three homes he visited on June 14, but appears to have ditched the mask before arriving at the home where a key Minnesota lawmaker and her husband were assassinated. FBI

A biographical profile for Boelter on his Praetorian Guard Security Services business website states Boelter had “on the ground experiences combined with training by both private security firms and by people in the U.S. military.” The bio said Boelter “has been involved with security situations in Eastern Europe, Africa, North America and the Middle East, including the West Bank, southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.”

A mobile phone associated with Boelter’s home in Green Isle, Minn., pinged in overseas locations between 2022 and 2025, including Turkey, Dubai, Africa, India, and Nepal, according to the Washington D.C.-based Oversight Project.

Boelter was wearing a police-style uniform and tactical vest when he allegedly went on his shooting rampage, the FBI said. He drove a dark Ford SUV with an emergency light bar on the roof. He left the vehicle in the Hortmans’ driveway before allegedly forcing his way into the home and murdering the couple and the family dog, the FBI said.

Boelter allegedly intended to shoot at least two other Minnesota legislators in the overnight hours on June 14. He went to the home of state Rep. Kristin Bahner (DFL-Maple Grove) and state Sen. Ann Rest (DFL-New Hope). Bahner was not home. New Hope Police Department officers arriving to check on Sen. Rest scared off Boelter, who was sitting in a parked car a block away.

Boelter allegedly donned a “hyper-realistic” silicone mask that covered his head. When he allegedly pounded on the Hoffmans’ door just after 2 a.m., he was wearing the silicone mask. According to the FBI affidavit filed in federal criminal court, Boelter was also wearing the disguise as he sat in his vehicle a block away from Sen. Rest’s home.

But by the time he allegedly attacked the Hortmans 90 minutes later, it appears he no longer had the mask on, according to video taken from a Brooklyn Park police vehicle.

Who is Vance Boelter?

Based on court records, public databases, interviews, and news archives, here is what is known about one of the most infamous criminal suspects in Minnesota history.

The son of a small-town hero high school baseball coach, Boelter grew up in Sleepy Eye, a southern Minnesota town of 3,400 souls named for Chief Sleepy Eye, onetime head of the Sisseton Dakota tribe. Vance is the youngest of six children born to Donald Boelter and the former Yvonne Strate. A sister died in infancy. His siblings include two sets of twins.

According to a Minnesota newspaper, Mrs. Boelter gave birth to fraternal twins during a March blizzard in 1956. “At Ceylon, Minn., Mrs. Donald Boelter became the mother of twins in her trailer home during the height of the blow Saturday night,” The Minneapolis Star wrote two days later.

His father was a high school athletics standout at New Ulm High School and a basketball and baseball star at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Don Boelter coached baseball at Ceylon High School and Sleepy Eye Public High School.

Don Boelter won nine conference titles, was runner-up for six more, and had 309 career wins and a .620 winning percentage. His Sleepy Eye Indians teams went to the state tournament three times, winning the title in 1981 and finishing second in 1976. He died in 2013.

Vance’s brother, Tarry Boelter, 69, joined his father in the Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame after a 350-win baseball coaching career.

Vance Boelter married the former Jennifer Lynne Doskocil on Oct. 4, 1997, in Winona, Minn. They have four daughters and a son. The daughters are named for Christian virtues and gifts. The son is named after a missionary Boelter knew who was killed in the New Adams Farm Massacre in Zimbabwe in November 1987.

Political views

The question of what role politics played in the killings took a sudden twist with news that the letter Boelter allegedly left in the Buick blames Gov. Walz.

The political finger-pointing began as soon as Blaze News’ Julio Rosas first reported that police named Boelter as the primary suspect in the killings. Early on, Gov. Walz called the crime a “politically motivated assassination,” although he did not say what evidence backed up that contention.

As word spread of Boelter’s identity, the sides squared off to argue whether Republican or Democratic politics were to blame for Boelter’s alleged evil rampage.

Left-leaning MSNBC blamed the crime on President Donald J. Trump’s alleged rhetoric. Political analyst Anthony Coley tied Trump’s pardon of some 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants into the equation. “Just four months ago, we saw this president pardon violent January 6 offenders, people who were convicted,” Coley said. “Fifteen hundred, he just pardoned. That, to me, normalized political violence.”

Others chimed in on social media, including tennis legend Martina Navratilova, who posted, “This is on [T]rump.”

The pendulum swung the other way as word got out that Boelter had been appointed to a workforce development board by two successive Democratic governors, Mark Dayton and Walz, in 2016 and 2019.

FBI agents stage in a neighborhood in Green Isle, Minn., on June 15, 2025. Law enforcement agencies were searching for Vance Boelter, a suspect in the killing of DFL state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman. Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

An appointment proclamation signed by Walz in December 2019 read in part, “Because of the special trust and confidence I have in your integrity, judgment, and ability, I have appointed and commissioned you to have and to hold the office of Business Member, Governor’s Workforce Development Board.”

Boelter was named to the county-board-appointed Dakota-Scott Workforce Development Board in Dakota County, Minn., in 2013. He later became its chairman. A LinkedIn post described Boelter as “a true workforce leader” who “walked the walk.”

The ties to Democratic governors, along with news that police found fliers in Boelter’s fake police vehicle that said, “No Kings,” brought blowback from the right. Nationwide No Kings protests against President Trump were staged across the nation on June 14.

The fact that Boelter allegedly had a hit list loaded with Democrats in his vehicle could be a significant factor in analyzing a motive. Boelter’s childhood friend, David Carlson, said he never saw Boelter take an interest in state or local politics. He told Minneapolis reporters that Boelter was a Trump supporter.

There are no records in the Federal Election Commission database or Minnesota Campaign Finance Board records that show Boelter ever donated to a political candidate, political party, or political action committee.

The Oklahoman newspaper and the Independent claimed that Boelter was a registered Republican in 2004 when his family lived in Muldrow, Okla. Neither paper cited a source beyond “voting records.”

According to the Oklahoma State Elections Board, there are no voter records going back that far. “Voter registration information is only kept for approximately six years following the deletion of a voter; then it is destroyed,” said Misha Mohr, public information officer for the Oklahoma State Elections Board in Oklahoma City. “We do not have voter registration data dating back to the early 2000s.”

Ruby Brunk, secretary of the Sequoyah County Elections Board, told Blaze News that Boelter is not listed in that system. She confirmed that records “do not go back that far.” Muldrow is a town of 3,300 residents in Sequoyah County.

Employment

Boelter spent much of his career in the food-processing and convenience-store industries, working for companies including Gold’n Plump chicken, Gerber Products Co., Del Monte Foods, Johnsonville Sausage, Lettieri’s/Greencore Group, and 7-Eleven.

At Lettieri’s in Shakopee, Minn., Boelter was a plant manager responsible for production operations, quality, maintenance, safety, and research and development, according to an October 2013 article in the Star Tribune. The company, which was purchased by Ireland-based Greencore Group in 2014, produces food-to-go items for retail outlets such as convenience stores.

Boelter moved his family many times with job changes. According to property records, the Boelters owned residential properties in Fort Smith, Ark.; Muldrow, Okla.; Sleepy Eye, Minn.; Shakopee, Minn.; Sheboygan, Wis.; Arcadia, Wis.; Inver Grove Heights, Minn.; and Green Isle, Minn. They also rented apartments or homes in some locations, including Gaylord, Minn.

Members of the Minnesota State Patrol block a road as law enforcement officers search in Belle Plaine, Minn., for assassination suspect Vance Boelter.Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Boelter attempted to establish his own companies at least twice. He and his wife founded Praetorian Guard Security Services LLC in September 2018, according to Minnesota Secretary of State records. The business registration with the state of Minnesota lapsed in February 2022, but was reinstated in June 2023. Registration was again terminated, then quickly reinstated in January 2025, records show.

Praetorian Guard was founded to provide armed security services to residential and commercial customers. Boelter had the official title of director of security patrols, while his wife was listed as president and CEO. The company drove Ford SUVs, “the same make and model of vehicles that many police departments use,” the website said.

Praetorian Guard did not have a website for several years after the business was founded. The domain name pguards.net was registered in March 2021. Domain information was updated in April 2025, according to the WhoIs website. The domain registration is valid until March 2026. The website is no longer connected to the internet.

From April 2016 to November 2021, Boelter was working for 7-Eleven as an operations manager, according to his three-page resume posted online by journalist Ken Klippenstein.

Boelter left that job to found Red Lion Group, a company that appeared to be just him and his wife. Red Lion’s mission was to establish and develop “farm to fork” food production projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between 2021 and spring 2025, Boelter made several trips to the DRC that lasted up to two months.

In one of his online biographies, Boelter said he had worked for Schwan’s Company, based in Marshall, Minn. He did not provide any dates or details. Schwan’s sells food and ice cream in grocery stores and formerly sold directly from freezer trucks that call on residential customers. It was formerly named the Schwan Food Company.

Vance and Jennifer Boelter founded Praetorian Guard Security Services in 2018, but it is not clear if the business was ever operational beyond purchase of a police-style SUV.Google Maps/Praetorian Guard website via the Wayback Machine

To try to support his business and charity ventures, Boelter took jobs in the funeral industry from 2023 until mid-2025. According to a video he posted online, Boelter’s duties included body removal and transport for Wulff Funeral Homes and Metro First Call LLC. The work also included body removals from crime scenes for delivery to medical examiners’ offices such as in Hennepin County, Boelter said.

Tim Koch, owner of First Call, told Blaze News, “As far as Vance Boelter is concerned, he worked for our company from August 28, 2023, until he voluntarily left on February 20, 2025. To say anything more at this time would be irresponsible, as the investigation continues.”

Boelter also left his job with Wulff Funeral Homes prior to June 14, a general manager told several Twin Cities media outlets. Blaze News reached out to Dignity Memorial, the owner of Wulff Funeral Homes, but did not receive a response before publication time.

Boelter had also enrolled in mortuary science courses at Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, Iowa. The school, which offers online and on-campus courses, told WOI-TV in Ames, Iowa, that Boelter enrolled in mortuary science classes in 2023 and 2024.

Charity and faith

Boelter and his wife also tried their hands at running tax-exempt charities at the same time that Red Lion Group was operating in the DRC, records show.

They founded You Give Them Something to Eat Inc., an anti-hunger charity based on the Gospel story of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. The Internal Revenue Service approved it as a tax-exempt charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code, effective June 28, 2021. The group only filed one IRS tax return, in 2022, and reported no income or expenses.

The Boelters also established a religious nonprofit organization, Revoformation Ministries Inc. According to IRS records, Revoformation filed 13 tax returns between 2007 and 2023. Because the charity’s income was under $50,000, Revoformation was not required to state the amount.

Vance Boelter dances with enthusiasm during a sermon at a Christian church in Matadi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, in September 2021.Centre Évangélique Francophone La Borne Matadi/YouTube

On the Revoformation website, Boelter’s biography states that he was ordained in 1993 and “has enjoyed speaking in different parts of the United States as well as in several international cities such as Jerusalem, Israel.” It said prior to the attacks on America on Sept. 11, 2001, he had made “several trips” to Gaza and the West Bank, where he “sought out militant Islamists in order to share the Gospel and tell them that violence wasn’t the answer.”

Robert Spencer, an internationally recognized expert on Islam, told Blaze News that Boelter likely would have been killed or taken hostage for preaching to Islamists with a Christian message.

Boelter earned a diploma in 1990 at the Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas.

Boelter delivered sermons on several occasions between 2021 and 2023 at the Centre Évangélique Francophone La Borne Matadi in far Western Democratic Republic of the Congo. He visited the country as part of a missionary group from the Global Impact Center in Columbia Heights, Minn.

The Matadi church, the Global Impact Center, and Christ for the Nations issued statements after Boelter was charged with the murders distancing themselves from him and decrying the violence.

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​Politics, Crime, Minnesota shootings 

The season of family road trips is upon us, and the open highway stretches ahead. You’ve packed the snacks, filled the tank, and are bracing yourselves for the first backseat skirmish over disputed elbow territory.

You consider keeping the peace via the usual distribution of digital Xanax — a screen and headphones for each underage passenger. But then a crazy idea hits you: Couldn’t we spend this time together? You know, making memories and such?

From cave rescues in Thailand to high-seas hostage escapes, ‘Against the Odds’ is the kind of storytelling that gets everyone quiet in the car (a rare feat).

“When do we get there?” The plaintive query, no doubt the first of a series, breaks your train of thought. Twenty-two minutes in — a new record. Then, the kicking starts.

Little thumps on the back of your seat, soft enough for plausible deniability and maddeningly off-rhythm, the kind of thing that could break a man once that white-line fever sets in …

May we suggest putting on a podcast? Nothing like good, old-fashioned, audio-only entertainment to make the miles fly by. Here are five family-friendly favorites to get you started.

RELATED: What moving my family to Budapest has taught me about America

nedomacki/Getty Images

‘Intentionally Blank’

Hosted by bestselling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson and sci-fi/horror writer Dan Wells, “Intentionally Blank” is like hanging out with your two funniest friends and listening to them shoot the breeze about everything from what makes a good villain to a running tally of notable food heists.

Try this episode: Ranking Our Favorite Cryptids
You’ve heard of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster — but what about the Mongolian Death Worm?

‘Sports Wars’

Serena vs. Venus, Kobe vs. Shaq, Hulk Hogan vs. the world. Each season of “Sports Wars” takes you on a journey through some of the most intense rivalries across every sport, from basketball and tennis to football and wrestling. By turns hilarious and tragic, these stories of big personalities and high stakes will keep the attention of fans and non-fans alike.

Episode: Brady vs. Manning: Family First
Quarterbacks Tom Brady and Eli Manning are two of the most dominant players in the history of the NFL. Pit them against each other, and you’re looking at the most epic rivalry since the Pirate’s Booty ran out six exits ago.

‘Against the Odds’

Never give up! That’s the core message at the heart of “Against the Odds” and it’s thrilling real-life accounts of survival. From cave rescues in Thailand to high-seas hostage escapes, it’s the kind of storytelling that gets everyone quiet in the car (a rare feat). Be prepared for a few intense moments but nothing that crosses into R-rated territory.

Try this episode: Thai Cave Rescue: Lost
Seven summers ago, the world held its breath as courageous rescuers worked against the clock to save a boys soccer team trapped in a treacherous Thai cave. This six-episode season’s compellingly vivid account is gripping but not graphic — ideal for older kids who like suspense.

‘How I Built This’

Every product you use has a story, whether it’s the socks (Bombas) your son just threw at his sister or the chicken fingers (Raising Cane’s) that she spilled all over her car seat. “How I Built This” host Guy Raz gets some of today’s most successful entrepreneurs to spills the beans on the ups and downs of launching a brand. If you want to know how to succeed and be inspired by people who’ve battled back and made their mark on the world, this is the podcast for you.

Try this episode: Spikeball: Chris Ruder
Ever dream of kicking off the latest sports craze? That’s what Chris Ruder did when he revived a favorite game from childhood and turned it into Spikeball — and he tells the whole story here. Bonus points for inspiring kids to think beyond apps and startups.

‘Spooked’

When the headlights start coming on and the sugar crash hits, there’s nothing like a ghost story to keep the blood pumping. The unique thing about “Spooked” is that its stories are true — and told by the people who experienced them. With a runtime of around 27 minutes per episode, the stories are long enough to suck you in but not so long that they drag on. Yes, some hauntings can get a bit intense (more than one takes place during the Vietnam War), but generally the vibe is eerie without tipping over into nightmare fuel.

Try this episode: Borderlands
A U.S. Border Patrol agent encounters something strange while on night patrol in the Arizona desert; and a Sri Lankan woman’s mysterious illness requires a supernatural cure. Suspenseful and atmospheric while leaving plenty to the imagination.

​Lifestyle, Podcasts, Road trips, Vacation, Summer, Culture, Recommendation 

The unfolding fallout between Elon Musk and the Trump administration over the past month hasn’t stopped Musk’s companies from breaking new ground in their industries. Tesla’s newly launched service may change transportation as we know it.

Following years of delays and hype from Elon Musk, Tesla launched the long-awaited, fully autonomous Cybercab in Austin, Texas, on Sunday. The service uses brand-new Tesla Model Y cars with no add-ons, meaning that all Model Y Teslas are capable of fully autonomous driving.

RELATED: Jeff Bezos jolts Tesla with $20,000 Cybertruck killer

Photo by Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Musk shared his excitement about the announcement on X, calling this achievement a “culmination of a decade of hard work.”

On top of being fully autonomous, Robotaxi also “automatically syncs your media & streaming settings before picking you up.”

Tesla invited a small group of users to test out the new service in the capital city for a flat fee of $4.20, Business Insider reported.

Tesla’s X page reposted several users’ first experiences with the fully autonomous ride service. Many of them reported that the ride was smooth and enjoyable. One user posted a screen recording of his attempt to leave a tip, which was met with a humorous error message.

While this service is currently only available in Austin, Texas, following the soft launch, Tesla has created a new portal for users to receive updates about Cybercab coming to their area in the future.

​Tech, Tesla, Model y, Cybercab, Robotaxi, Elon musk, Austin texas