A California-based, unmarried Chinese couple is under scrutiny for allegedly running a massive surrogacy fraud operation that deceived potentially dozens of American women and placed 21 young children in questionable circumstances.

Guojun Xuan, 65, and his partner, Silvia Zhang, 38, were arrested on suspicion of child abuse in May, then released on bond pending further investigation, NBC News reported. Their brief arrests were sparked by hospital staff’s reports of child abuse after their 2-month-old son sustained traumatic head injuries.

‘What you did — and what you continue to do by staying silent — is foul, reckless, and cruel.’

Video evidence obtained by the Arcadia Police Department allegedly revealed that the children in Xuan and Zhang’s care “were subjected to physical and emotional abuse” by nannies, abuse that authorities suspected the couple knew “was occurring and let … happen.” The footage allegedly showed a 56-year-old nanny violently shaking and striking the 2-month-old child.

Authorities found 15 children in Xuan and Zhang’s nine-bedroom home and another six children staying with the couple’s friends. The 21 children, who ranged from 2 months to 13 years old, were placed and remain in foster care.

It is unclear how many children were born through surrogacy. The couple is believed to have one child together naturally, and Xuan is believed to be the biological father of a 13-year-old daughter.

Surrogate mothers claimed they were told the couple had either no children or only one child and were seeking surrogates after failed in vitro fertilization attempts. They also alleged that they were not made aware that Xuan and Zhang controlled the surrogacy agency representing them.

RELATED: The sad truth behind Meghan Trainor’s surrogacy story

Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang’s home. Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Surrogates told the Wall Street Journal in August that they had been in contact with federal agents, who informed them they were investigating whether the couple was selling children.

“We never sell our babies,” Zhang told the WSJ. “We take care of them very well.”

Several surrogate mothers are fighting for custody of the children they carried for the couple. Xuan and Zhang have filed lawsuits against at least two surrogates who ended contact with them before giving birth last fall, claiming a breach of contract.

Kayla Elliott, a surrogate mother, told NBC News in July that she was led to believe she was helping a couple struggling to conceive and was unaware that they had many other children. Elliott is fighting to obtain custody of the child, telling NewsNation that she suspects “there’s some type of trafficking going on.”

Tronderrica James, 30, another surrogate, filed a lawsuit against the couple, arguing that they gave misleading and false information about their intentions.

James stated that she was contacted by an individual named Jasmine in 2023, who described the couple as “longing for their miracle baby,” according to court documents. Jasmine allegedly claimed the couple could not speak with James directly because of “a language barrier.”

In an email to Xuan and Zhang, James wrote, “You gambled with my life. You gambled with the life of a child. You misled me, misrepresented your role, and may have broken multiple state and federal laws in the process — and you still haven’t had the decency to provide a single truthful explanation.”

“What you did — and what you continue to do by staying silent — is foul, reckless, and cruel,” James stated.

Xuan and Zhang reportedly remain under investigation. No criminal charges have been filed.

In the past six months, the couple has had another five babies born to surrogate mothers, the New York Post reported.

RELATED: ’50 high-quality sons’: Chinese men are siring US citizen ‘mega-families’ via surrogacy: Report

Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images

Xuan and Zhang have denied any wrongdoing, claiming that they just wanted to have a large family.

The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office told Blaze News that the matter remains under review by the Arcadia Police Department.

The FBI declined comment.

Xuan, Zhang, James, and the Arcadia Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.

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Last week, Democrats flipped a formerly red county blue in a special election in Texas Senate District 9, which covers part of Fort Worth and the neighboring suburbs of Keller and North Richland Hills. Taylor Rehmet, a young machinist with no political experience, beat Republican Leigh Wambsganss by more than 14 points.

Political commentator Bill King flagged the scale of the shift. He noted that Republican Kelly Hancock won the seat by 20 points in 2022 and that Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris in the district by 17 points in 2024. A loss like this should worry Republicans heading into the midterms later this year.

In Texas and other red states, Republicans need to meet voters where they live.

So, what happened?

Some Republicans blame turnout. They argue the county hasn’t turned left; Democrats simply showed up and Republicans stayed home. On that theory, the result reflects motivation, not the district’s real preferences.

That explanation doesn’t hold.

A Republican candidate has the same opportunity to motivate voters as a Democrat. In a district with a large conservative majority, the Republican should enjoy a built-in advantage. She needs only a fraction of her base to turn out. The Democrat needs near-perfect performance from his side.

King also argues the result fits a broader trend. He says the numbers match polling over the last year and signal growing negativity toward Texas’ Republican leadership. Low turnout didn’t create the result so much as reveal it.

Rehmet’s win still doesn’t guarantee Democrats will take over Texas. But it does show a tactic that keeps working: Democrats run as generic moderates, keep the party label in the background, and dare Republicans to make the race about cultural signaling instead of daily life.

As writer Bill Scher noted in Washington Monthly, Rehmet didn’t “wrap himself in a Democratic flag.” Much like his counterparts in Virginia and New Jersey, he leaned on military service and blue-collar credibility. That presentation persuaded enough voters.

RELATED: This is what happens when a state elects a ‘moderate’ Democrat

Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

That strategy works in the short term. It doesn’t last.

If and when he’s seated, Rehmet will vote as a Democrat. He will support open borders, softer law enforcement, higher spending, expanded abortion access, and the full suite of progressive social priorities. At best, he will block conservative reforms. At worst, he will push the same policies that Texans have seen wreck other places.

Voters in Tarrant County will learn the hard way what “affordability” talk usually delivers under Democratic rule: higher taxes, fewer opportunities, rising crime, and sanctimonious lectures about “reproductive rights,” all while public services strain under the load.

So, what does this election signal?

More Democrats will copy the Rehmet template. They will present themselves as normal, moderate, and practical. They will try to bait Republicans into fighting on secondary culture-war terrain instead of hammering a concrete agenda on costs, housing, and public safety. Wambsganss fell into that trap.

RELATED: Democrats are running as Bush-era Republicans — and winning

Photo by Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto via Getty Images

In Texas and other red states, Republicans need to meet voters where they live. Prices keep climbing, and housing tops the list. I live in this part of the state and see the pressure every day.

Massive in-migration from other states (particularly California and Illinois), along with continued inflows from abroad (especially from South Asia), has driven up prices and changed the character of communities fast. Many newcomers are decent people. The economic effect still hits hard: higher rents, higher home prices, heavier traffic, and more strain on schools, roads, and emergency services. Property taxes keep rising to cover it.

Republicans should say that plainly, then offer an agenda that meets the moment. They should outline feasible steps to lower costs, expand housing supply where it makes sense, reduce regulatory friction, and protect public safety.

They should also draw the contrast without flailing: Democratic governance has turned too many prosperous places into expensive, dysfunctional messes. Texans don’t need to import that model.

Voters in red states also need to stop falling for the same performance. Democrats haven’t changed. They’ve changed the packaging.

They will do to the Lone Star State what they did to the Golden State. They will do to Dallas-Forth Worth what their allies have done to New York City. Texans should treat this moment as a warning, not a fluke: Stay alert, see through the ruse, and vote like it matters — because it does.

​Texas, Texas senate district 9, Texas senate, Gop, Democrats, Tarrant county, Taylor rehmet, Affordability, Opinion & analysis, 2026 midterms, Republicans, Donald trump 

Police are trying to determine how a mother of four children was found dismembered in the basement of a public housing building after she went out for a night on the town.

Michelle Montgomery, 39, left her home in Brooklyn on Saturday to have fun with her friends, according to Anthony Echevarria, who is described as her life partner and father of the youngest of the four children.

‘We will get justice. … I promise that.’

Montgomery’s sister said she got a strange call from the woman at about 10 p.m. that evening. She said she heard music in the background, but the call cut off after only one second. She wasn’t sure if her sister had intended to call her.

About an hour later, Montgomery posted a video on TikTok of herself dancing with two people at a local restaurant.

The next morning at about 9:30 a.m., a janitor at the Boriqunen Public Houses in Bushwick discovered her remains in the trash disposal area. WABC-TV reported that New York City Housing Authority workers found a trash bag that was suspiciously heavy in the basement.

When they looked inside, they found human remains in pieces.

Neighbors who lived in the building said they were shocked, and one reported hearing the workers screaming after making the discovery.

A medical examiner has not yet released the cause of death for Montgomery.

Echevarria told WABC that the family is devastated by the loss and the manner in which the woman’s remains were found.

“I wasn’t believing it at first. It was hard. I mean, I broke down because I couldn’t, I still can’t believe it. Still,” he said.

“So extreme. Like, I don’t even know how she ended up over there in a building, nevertheless in a (expletive) garbage bag. Mad extreme,” he continued.

RELATED: California couple ran over man until he was pinned under truck wheel, then pepper-sprayed him, police say

A close friend of Montgomery’s looked at the last video she posted and said she didn’t recognize the people Montgomery was dancing with.

Echevarria said she had been an exceptional mother to their children and had provided for their every need.

“We will get justice,” he added. “I promise that.”

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Until Saturday night, Texas Senate District 9 had been represented by a Republican for over 30 years. In 2022, Kelly Hancock won the seat by 20 points. Last November, Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris in the district by 17 points. So when Hancock stepped down to accept the appointment as controller, Republicans had little reason to think the seat would be in jeopardy.

But on Saturday, Democrat Taylor Rehmet trounced his Republican opponent by over 14 points — a 31-point swing since the 2024 election. The results have sent shock waves through the Texas Republican establishment.

For the last two decades, Republican leaders have governed the state to satisfy their base — pandering to the issues important to those voters and ignoring what most Texans wanted.

Some Republican pundits have discounted the results because it was a special election with a very low turnout. It is certainly true that the turnout in Saturday’s election was much lower than last November (15% versus 64%). But the results are consistent with polling over the last year, signaling that Texans have been turning increasingly negative on the Republican leadership of the state.

Over the last year, the University of Texas Polling Project has conducted seven polls asking voters whether they approved or disapproved of the job various state leaders were doing. Trump and all statewide Republican leaders began the year with positive approval ratings. By the end of the year, all were in negative territory. The average move downward was 24 points.

The crosstabs in the polls show that the groups who have turned most negative are independents, Latinos, and young people. Of course, there is considerable overlap between these because Latinos and young people eschew both parties at higher rates than other groups. Nonetheless, the moves within these groups in 2025 were breathtaking.

Even more startling is that Trump’s approval rating with Republicans dropped by 17 points (from 88% to 71%) — and this was before the debacle that has played out in Minnesota or his threat to invade Greenland. One political operative I spoke with, who closely followed the Tarrant County race, estimated that 15%-20% of Republicans voted for the Democrat candidate.

RELATED: Conservatives can’t barbecue their way through national collapse

Blaze Media Illustration

I think the poll’s questions on what issues Texas voters are most concerned about are telling. The issues garnering the most response were “political corruption/leadership” (18%), inflation (16%), and the economy (14%). Another 67% said they were very concerned about the cost of health care. Two-thirds of Texans believe that Trump’s tariffs are leading to higher prices. Texans also disapprove of state leaders’ handling of abortion (-17), regulation of marijuana/THC (-20), and public education (-23).

Let me tell you what was not on the list at all: the danger that Sharia law would take over the state.

For the last two decades, Republican leaders have governed the state to satisfy their base — pandering to the issues important to those voters and ignoring what most Texans wanted. That was largely because independents, even though they frequently disagreed with the positions state leaders were taking, found Democrat candidates even farther outside their comfort zone.

But the Tarrant County results and the polling trends over the last year suggest Republican leaders may have gone so far that independents now view Democrats as the lesser of the two evils.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

​Texas, Texas senate district 9, Texas senate, Gop, Democrats, Taylor rehmet, Tarrant county, Cost of living, Affordability, Tariffs, Opinion & analysis, Blue wave, 2026 midterms, Donald trump 

America is navigating a moment of intense polarization. Widespread civil unrest over federal immigration enforcement, deepening distrust in institutions, and a sharp surge in gold prices have much of the nation steeped in economic and institutional anxiety.

Many Americans are fretfully asking the question: What’s next for our country?

News outlets, influencers, and podcasters are all answering that inquiry differently using various metrics, opinions, and filters, but Glenn Beck’s prediction comes from none other than history itself.

And when he holds the current state of the nation up against historical patterns, he sees it all — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

“If we were an early warning system, there would be some lights on the panel that are flashing today. Some would be red, some would be yellow, and some would actually be green,” he says.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn delivers an honest reading of America’s dashboard and predicts what comes next.

Red lights

1: “Loss of nuance”

This light is “blinking really hard,” Glenn warns.

He points to the dialogue surrounding the death of Alex Pretti — the 37-year-old U.S. citizen fatally shot by federal agents on January 24 in Minneapolis during an anti-ICE protest — as the best current example of America’s lack of nuanced conversations.

“A healthy society can hold two ideas at the same time. An unstable society cannot do that,” Glenn says. “And right now, we’re losing the ability to say somebody can be really guilty and a bad guy and mistreated; law enforcement can be necessary, needed, doing their job, and fallible; protests can be legitimate and infiltrated by insurrectionists.”

“Those things are all true, but America can’t see that anymore,” he laments. “When everything collapses into all good or all evil, there is no moral clarity anymore.”

2: “Faction over truth”

Truth, Glenn contends, is “meant to be argued about, wrestled with, thought about,” but in America today, truth has become about which team you’re on.

“Facts no longer persuade. All they do now is signal allegiance,” he says, calling it “a late-stage indicator” of America’s path to collapse.

“Once truth bends to faction, power then replaces persuasion every time in every civilization in all of history.”

3: “Organized disorder”

Glenn differentiates “organized disorder” — the coordinated, professionally funded, strategically disruptive actions that go beyond peaceful expression — from constitutionally protected protests.

“You have a right to protest the law. … You have a right to go protest the people who make the law to get them to change the law. You have a right to go and stand peacefully and protest the cops, if that’s what you want, or ICE,” he explains, “but you do not have the right to engage and disrupt the law.”

But unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s happening in Minneapolis right now. Many demonstrations involve breaking the law and physically engaging with law enforcement. And the scariest part is that these kinds of protests are rarely grassroots. They’re professionally organized and well-funded thanks to deep-pocketed donors who aim to collapse the country from within.

“When unrest becomes coordinated, when it becomes professionally funded, strategically disruptive, and shielded by moral confusion, … that’s no longer a spontaneous civic expression,” Glenn explains.

What we’re seeing on the streets of Minneapolis is intentional “internal destabilization,” and it’s a flashing red light that America is catapulting toward its demise.

Yellow lights

1: “Currency confidence”

Glenn calls the skyrocketing price of gold a yellow light because it’s “serious” but “not fatal at this point.”

“The way gold is rising — it’s not a collapse announcement. It is a stress gauge,” he says, noting that gold has recently been “trading at as high as $5,600 an ounce.”

Gold reflects “trust or the lack of it,” and the fact that people are buying it up, even at exorbitant amounts, indicates their uncertainty in certain “promises.”

“What promises are those?” Glenn asks. “Promises of, we’re a stable society; we are not going to spend ourself into oblivion; that our government and our Congress gets it, and they’re going to stop spending so much and borrowing so much.”

The people buying up gold right now “know things are beginning to get really dicey. It’s a yellow light, and it is trending hotter every day,” he warns.

2: “Debt saturation”

“Debt isn’t immoral, but debt that can’t be discussed honestly and paid back is immoral — and it’s dangerous,” Glenn says.

This is the predicament America finds itself in. We’re no longer asking, “How are we going to pay this bill?” but instead, “Who bears the burden of this bill?”

“That’s when debt becomes corrosive and deadly,” Glenn cautions. “And we’re not Rome yet, but this gauge is rising.”

3: “Institutional distrust”

“Skepticism,” Glenn argues, is good and necessary. The five rights listed in the First Amendment — freedom of speech, religion, assembly, the press, and petition — are proof that “skepticism is our first amendment.”

Distrust, however, is “paralyzing,” he declares. “When people believe the courts are illegitimate, … if they believe elections are meaningless, law enforcement is either sacred and can make no mistakes or evil and can do no good, the system loses its elasticity.”

This light, he warns, is “getting deeper yellow.”

Green lights

1: “We’re still arguing about right and wrong.”

Glenn celebrates that public debates are still normal.

“Collapsing societies stop arguing about morality. They argue only about power, and we’re still arguing about justice and what it means — limits, rights, responsibility,” he says. “That’s not decay. That’s conscience. It’s still alive.”

2: “The Constitution still exists, and it’s still being cited.”

It’s a very good sign that the majority is still cognizant of and concerned about upholding the Constitution.

“It’s getting a little sketchy,” Glenn acknowledges, “but we’re still arguing it, and that tells you something powerful: People still believe rules matter, even when they break them.”

For now, this light is “green, but it’s fragile.”

3: Warnings are still being issued on both sides.

In a nation on the verge of collapse, the warnings go silent.

“I’m able to get on the air and speak to you about these warnings. MSNBC is able to get on the air and speak to you about what they see as warning signs,” Glenn celebrates.

Before its historic collapse, Rome “silenced its warnings,” he recalls. “We are today still able to have them on the air legally — both sides.”

“That alone means this system is not finished.”

For those who look at the red and yellow lights and see inevitable ruination, Glenn has an encouraging message: “Red lights do not mean doom. They mean choice. … Civilizations don’t collapse because warnings exist; they collapse because warnings are mocked, politicized, or ignored. So the question is not, ‘Are we Rome?’ The question is, “Will we do what Rome didn’t do and respond to the warning signs while the lights are still on?”’

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

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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

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