A pair of machete-wielding females beat up a Georgia homeowner in a robbery attempt late last month, but authorities said the victim grabbed a gun and shot both of the suspects with a single round.

Deputies with the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to Grove Mobile Home Park in Douglas on Feb. 21 concerning individuals who were shot, authorities said.

But the homeowner ultimately grabbed a shotgun and fired a single round, which struck both suspects, officials said.

Arriving deputies found two adult females — 35-year-old Stephanie Ann Nicole Castillo and 27-year-old Elisabet Gaspar — in a home with apparent gunshot wounds, officials said.

Emergency Medical Services rendered aid at the scene, officials said.

Deputies determined the shooting occurred at a different home after Castillo and Gaspar — who were allegedly armed with a machete — attacked the homeowner.

The victim told deputies Castillo and Gaspar arrived at the residence with the intent to commit a robbery.

RELATED: Police shoot New Jersey man who allegedly charged them with machete — then find gruesome scene inside his home

Image source: Coffee County (Ga.) Sheriff’s Office

A lengthy physical struggle ensued, officials said, adding that the homeowner was beaten and assaulted.

But the homeowner ultimately grabbed a shotgun and fired a single round, which struck both suspects, officials said.

After Castillo and Gaspar were taken to Coffee Regional Medical Center for treatment and medically cleared, officials said they were taken into custody and transported to the Coffee County Jail.

Castillo and Gaspar both were charged with two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of armed robbery, and one count of home invasion in the first degree, authorities said.

The sheriff’s office said aggravated assault involves attacking someone with a deadly weapon or something capable of causing serious injury and carries a penalty of one to 20 years in prison per count.

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​Georgia, Coffee county sheriff’s office, Armed robbery charges, Aggravated assault charges, Home invasion, Self-defense, Beating, 2nd amend., Guns, Gun rights, Shooting, Douglas, Mobile home park, Crime 

They used to mock him as a talking head. They said he wasn’t “serious.” On Monday at the Pentagon podium, Pete Hegseth looked deadly serious — a war secretary in command, unapologetic and unbowed, taking the fight to Iran and to the Beltway class that never wanted him there in the first place.

For half a century, American wars have been fought on two fronts: the enemy overseas and the narrative at home. Presidents have lost the second front before they lost the first. Hegseth made clear that he has no intention of repeating that mistake.

Hegseth is treating the media as terrain, not as background. He understands how quickly a negative narrative can harden into conventional wisdom, and he intends to contest it.

Joined by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, he gave a comprehensive rundown of the opening days of Operation Epic Fury. The unprecedented multinational campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran has already removed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and much of the top layer of government and military leadership.

Hegseth delivered a no-nonsense overview in his pugnacious style, while Caine smoothly supplied operational detail. The language was blunt and steeped in the Pentagon’s effects-based, systems-focused lexicon of war: synchronized, focused, deliberate, precise, lethal.

The real show came during the Q&A. Hegseth demonstrated the value of national media experience. He understands that journalists don’t just observe war. They shape it. Reporters like to cast themselves as neutral, hovering above the battlefield rather than operating inside it. But they are players, whether they admit it or not.

That tendency showed up in the very first question: “What is our exit strategy here, and when will it be deployed?” “Exit strategy” carries baggage — Clinton after Mogadishu, then the quagmire in Iraq. Hegseth said he would “never hang a time frame” on U.S. operations and stressed that the commander in chief sets policy and timelines.

The administration’s priority is victory — not optics, not schedules, not narrative management. Victory.

Hegseth also dismantled what he called a “typical NBC sort of gotcha-type question” about expected troop levels. Preset troop limits, timetables, acceptable loss benchmarks — these become anchors for the press and handholds for the enemy.

Vietnam offers a cautionary tale. President Lyndon Johnson’s arbitrary troop “ceiling” boxed him in. Even when communist forces were shattered during Tet and opportunities opened, Johnson’s self-imposed limits narrowed his options. When the moment came, he could not move quickly enough.

RELATED: Trump’s Iran week: The hidden wins you didn’t hear about

Photo by Mandel NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

That history explains Hegseth’s refusal to get pinned down on numbers and metrics. Say too much publicly, and the enemy listens. Say too much, and the press locks you into a storyline you can’t escape.

President Trump has made the same point by refusing to rule out “boots on the ground,” preserving options if contingencies arise. Reporters hate ambiguity. In wartime, ambiguity keeps the enemy guessing.

Hegseth also grasps what some journalists rarely admit: Many in legacy media treat war coverage as opposition work. They question plans and policies as a default posture, amplify anonymous critics, hunt for classified information, and publish it.

This tension is as old as the republic. During the Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman called reporters “gossips” and “paid spies” and court-martialed Thomas Knox of the Cincinnati Commercial. In Vietnam, the conflict was fought as much in headlines as in the field. Today, reporters chasing clicks can manufacture controversies — real or imagined — that distract from the mission.

Hegseth is treating the media as terrain, not as background. He understands how quickly a negative narrative can harden into conventional wisdom, and he intends to contest it. The battlefield stretches from Tehran to the briefing room — and Hegseth just signaled that he plans to dominate both.

​Pete hegseth, Iran, Israel, Boots on the ground, Legacy media, Us iran conflict, Operation epic fury, Opinion & analysis, Media bias, Iran war, Corporate media, Left-wing media bias, Donald trump 

While many people have had their attention turned to the Middle East in the past week, the United States military has continued its mission of protecting the western hemisphere, launching joint operations in another South American country after arresting Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela in early January.

On Tuesday, U.S. forces launched joint operations against designated terrorist organizations in Ecuador, U.S. Southern Command announced in a press release.

‘Together, we are taking decisive action to confront narco-terrorists who have long inflicted terror, violence, and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere.’

U.S. Southern Command described the operations as a “powerful example of the commitment of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge of narco-terrorism.”

“Together, we are taking decisive action to confront narco-terrorists who have long inflicted terror, violence, and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere,” the press release added.

RELATED: ‘Start driving north’: US tourists stranded in Mexico after slaying of top cartel boss ‘El Mencho’ sparks chaos

Drugs seized in the joint operation carried out since January of last year. U.S. Embassy of Ecuador

“We commend the men and women of the Ecuadorian armed forces for their unwavering commitment to this fight, demonstrating courage and resolve through continued actions against narco-terrorists in their country,” said Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan, commander of U.S. Southern Command.

The press release included video footage from the operation. The video shows some shots of helicopters lifting off, and some aerial footage shows a group of men gathering around or loading into a helicopter.

The announcement of the operations in Ecuador was nearly contemporaneous with another large drug bust that resulted from the cooperation of U.S., Ecuadorian, and Europol forces, according to the U.S. Embassy of Ecuador.

This joint operation, which had reportedly been carried out since January 2025, reportedly successfully dismantled the transnational drug trafficking organization Hernán Ruilova Barzola, linked to the Los Lobos cartel. Los Lobos emerged as Ecuador’s largest drug trafficking organization in recent years following the assassination of the leader of a rival gang in 2020. By June 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Los Lobos as the country was engulfed in increasing violence, according to a press release at the time.

Authorities successfully apprehended 16 suspects, including a high-value target, and “significant quantities of cocaine and cash.”

The embassy lauded the conclusion of the operation as an “important milestone in disrupting the operations and finances of narcoterrorists, directly contributing to the security of the United States.”

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​Politics, Us southcom, Southern command, Ecuador, Designated terrorist organization, Us military, Iran, Middle east, Francis l donovan, Us embassy ecuador, Treasury department, Los lobos, Narcoterrorists 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the United States has killed an Iranian who plotted to kill President Donald Trump.

During a Wednesday Pentagon briefing, Hegseth gave reporters the latest military actions with respect to Operation Epic Fury, just days after the United States first struck Iran alongside Israel on Saturday.

‘We are fighting to win.’

“Yesterday, the leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed,” Hegseth said.

“Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh.”

RELATED: Lindsey Graham feverishly demands ANOTHER Middle Eastern conflict: ‘Fly with Israel’

Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images

Hegseth also announced that the United States struck and successfully sunk an Iranian warship with a torpedo, emphasizing the operation’s successful takedown of the Islamic state’s navy.

“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said. “Instead it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II.”

“Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department, we are fighting to win.”

RELATED: US service member death toll continues to rise amid Operation Epic Fury

Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images

Hegseth reiterated the United States’ objectives to debilitate Iran’s military capabilities, in particular its nuclear ambitions.

“As I said Monday, the mission is laser focused,” Hegseth said. “Obliterate Iran’s missiles and drones and facilities that produce them, annihilate its navy and critical security infrastructure, and sever their pathway to nuclear weapons.”

“Iran will never possess a nuclear bomb,” Hegseth added. “Not on our watch. Not ever.”

Hegseth did not elaborate on sensitive details or estimated timelines, but Trump has notably predicted a four- or five-week operation in the Gulf.

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​Donald trump, Pete hegseth, Pentagon, Department of war, Dow, Iran, Iran strike, Israel, Trump assassination attempt, Operation epic fury, Operation midnight hammer, Middle east, Politics 

In late February, the Paramount Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery was officially announced in a $110 billion deal after Paramount outbid Netflix.

BlazeTV host John Doyle celebrates the news as a massive win for American patriots.

Warner Bros. “owns everything from Harry Potter to HBO … Batman, DC Comics, Cartoon Network, [and] CNN,” he says, cheering the fact that “right-wingers and key Trump allies Larry and David Ellison” will now be the top dogs at a historically left-wing company.

Television programming, Doyle explains, is “somewhat indicative of the state of the American consumer’s mind — their soul, even.”

“It is far better in the hands of people who are expressly sympathetic to the patriot cause rather than being allowed to be acquired by people who are obviously subversive and hostile to it,” he notes.

While Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros is “one of Hollywood’s most dramatic takeover battles in recent years,” the implications “[extend] beyond entertainment,” Doyle says.

“This is political in nature. … The left recognizing this is in total shambles, which is awesome,” he quips.

Several prominent Democrat politicians and officials, most notably Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, have publicly decried the merger as a potential “antitrust violation,” citing risks of reduced competition, higher prices for consumers, job losses, and undue concentration of media power in light of the Ellisons’ alliances.

“They would say absolutely nothing when Netflix was the main contender. They had no interest in invoking antitrust laws to break up monopolies. This is literally only because they recognize this to be a threat to their cultural hegemony,” Doyle declares.

“They are being threatened culturally, and they’re trying to sell that in terms of higher prices … [but] American families would be willing to pay more money for not having their kids just stumble across content that’s about sexualizing them and grooming them.”

The left can frame the merger however it wants, but at the end of the day, “all this means is that media is going to stop being deliberately subverted,” says Doyle. “We’re going to stop lying to people and trying to inundate them with just completely disordered propaganda.”

But will it also shape the culture in a conservative direction?

Doyle says yes, but not the way the left is framing it. If Paramount “just [tells] the truth,” he contends, culture will be “right-wing by nature of that.”

“We are winning. We gave up on our little stint in Hollywood. We gave up on trying to make freaking movies. Now we are just going to buy the people who make movies and tell them, ‘Hey, cut it out with the gay stuff,’ and then just like that, we have the American golden age,” he chuckles.

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from John Doyle?

To enjoy more of the truth about America and join the fight to restore a country that has been betrayed by its own leaders, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​The john doyle show, John doyle, Blazetv, Blaze media, Ellisons, Ellison, Larry ellison, David ellison, Paramount, Paramount network, Netflix, Warner bros 

Storage is one of the most vital components in a smartphone, and when you run out, it can completely break your user experience. You can’t download new apps, you can’t take any more photos, you can’t receive text messages, and your apps may even crash or refuse to open. Now you have two choices — upgrade to a new phone with more storage, or take advantage of the storage purging features built into iOS and Android.

Check the storage on your phone

Before you do anything, you’ll need to check the storage capacity on your device to see how much storage is taken and how much is still available. As a general rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to leave at least 10%-20% of the storage on your device unused so that your operating system and apps have plenty of room to expand and shrink as data comes and goes.

Although apps are some of the biggest storage hogs, other items can also contribute.

To check the storage capacity on iPhone, open the Settings app, tap “General,” and then open “iPhone Storage.” Here, you’ll find a chart that includes a breakdown of everything that’s downloaded to your device, including apps, music, photos, iCloud Drive files, messages, iOS itself, and system data.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/iPhone 17 Pro Max on iOS 26

For Android, the process will look a bit different depending on your device. Samsung Galaxy users can navigate to the storage capacity page by opening the Settings app. Then scroll down, tap “Device care,” and select “Storage” from the menu.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 on Android 16

It’s easier for Google Pixel users. Simply open the Settings app and select “Storage.” From here, you’ll see a clear breakdown of your downloaded files, including games, apps, images, trash, audio files, videos, documents, the operating system, and temporary files.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/Google Pixel 10 Pro XL on Android 16

Although these pages look different depending on your phone’s make, model, and OS, the purpose is the same — to clearly show which files are taking up the most storage on your phone so that you can target them for archival or deletion.

Free up storage on your phone

Now that you know which apps and files are taking up the most space, you can do something about it. Both iOS and Android offer ways to offload or delete unused apps and files so that you can free up space for more important things.

RELATED: How to put your text messages on the strongest privacy setting

On iOS, tap “Enable” in the “Offload Unused Apps” section. This will essentially remove unused apps from your phone while keeping their data and settings in the cloud, ensuring you can re-download these apps at any time if you need them. Later, if you decide you don’t want to archive apps any more, you can disable this feature again by simply going to Settings > Apps > App Store, and uncheck “Offload Unused Apps.”

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/iPhone 17 Pro Max on iOS 26

On Samsung Galaxy, tap “Unused apps” at the bottom of the page. On this screen, you can easily archive apps to reclaim a bit of storage or uninstall them to take back even more space. Unarchived apps will still show up as grayed-out icons in your app drawer; simply tap on one to redownload the app and its data when you need it. Uninstalled apps, however, will have to be completely reinstalled and set up to use them again.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 on Android 16

For Google Pixel, tap “Free up space.” On the next screen, you’ll see a list of duplicate files and unused apps. Choose which one you want to purge, select the files to uninstall, and confirm. Note that if you want to archive an app instead of deleting it, you will need to go back to the main Settings page and select “Apps.” Choose the app you want to archive from the menu and tap the “Archive” icon.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/Google Pixel 10 Pro XL on Android 16

More ways to free up phone storage

Although apps are some of the biggest storage hogs, other items can also contribute to inflated storage numbers — photos, videos, music, PDFs, and various documents. The easiest way to get these off of your device’s local storage is to upload them to a cloud service, but wait! Before you jump to that next step, there are specific ways to handle these properly. Keep an eye out for more guides on how to back up your photos, videos, and music, all coming soon.

​Tech