While President Donald Trump tries to navigate high-stakes peace talks with Iran, Israel appears to have gone rogue.

Trump announced Monday morning that he would temporarily postpone strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure while the two powers continue peace talks. Trump categorized the negotiations as productive, saying they were a “great start for Iran to build itself back.”

This is not the first time Israel has launched strikes while the United States was mediating peace talks.

“We have had very, very strong talks,” Trump said. “We will see where they lead.”

Trump also said the negotiations would positively impact countries in the region, including Israel. Despite Trump’s attempts to find an off-ramp, Israel has continued conducting military ambitions in the region.

RELATED: ‘TOTAL RESOLUTION’: Trump orders temporary suspension amid Iran peace talks

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Mere minutes after Trump announced he ordered the Department of War to postpone strikes, Israel announced that it had launched a military campaign targeting Iran’s infrastructure.

The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed they struck several “Iranian terror regime headquarters” in Tehran as well as key military manufacturing facilities.

A senior Israeli official told Axios that they were aware of mediation efforts by several countries but that they were surprised by Trump’s remarks Monday, saying they “did not know things were moving that fast.”

When reached for comment about whether Trump had foreknowledge of the strikes, the White House directed Blaze News to Trump’s remarks to a press gaggle on Monday morning. The Department of War did not respond to a request for comment.

This is not the first time Israel has launched strikes while the United States was mediating peace talks.

RELATED: Trump’s hilarious response after intel reportedly tells him Iran’s new supreme leader might be gay

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Most recently, Israel struck Iranian power plants that prompted a series of retaliatory strikes that hit Qatari LNG gas fields last week. Trump took to Truth Social to claim that the United States had no foreknowledge of the Israeli strikes that led to military action against another American ally.

Additionally, Trump made Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologize to the Qatari prime minister in a trilateral phone call last September after Israel attacked Hamas leadership in Qatar, threatening ongoing peace talks.

Trump similarly claimed that Netanyahu approved the strikes without American foreknowledge, criticizing Israel for “unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Donald trump, Department of war, Benjamin netanyahu, Bibi netanyahu, Israel, Iran, Palestine, Ceasefire, Peace talks, Qatar, Iran war, Idf, Politics 

In a case stemming from a protest over a decade ago, the Supreme Court delivered a decision this week about qualified immunity.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in Zorn v. Linton that a Vermont state police sergeant is entitled to qualified immunity in a case brought by a protester following a dispute at the Vermont Capitol in 2015.

‘We reverse.’

In an unsigned per curiam opinion, the majority reversed the decision of a lower court, which had sided against the police officer’s use of force in the case: “The Second Circuit held that Zorn was not entitled to qualified immunity.

“We reverse,” the SCOTUS opinion stated.

RELATED: The next big Supreme Court shift might not be abortion or guns

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The case revolves around a protest at the Vermont governor’s inauguration on January 8, 2015. Shela Linton, a protester participating in an organized sit-in at the state Capitol building to demand universal health care, “anticipated being forcibly removed.”

After some other protesters were removed by police officers, Sergeant Jacob Zorn approached Linton and attempted to get her to comply. When she resisted, Zorn unlinked her arms from the human chain the protesters had formed, “put [her arm] behind her back in a rear wristlock, and twisted her arm.”

Linton alleged that Zorn’s actions resulted in “physical and psychological injuries including post-traumatic stress disorder,” the opinion stated.

Officials enjoy qualified immunity “unless their conduct violates clearly established law,” the opinion said. The bar for finding an official in violation is quite high since it generally demands both a precedent in case law as well as a “high degree of specificity.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling argued that the lower court relied too heavily on a 2004 case, Amnesty America v. West Hartford, which itself arguably did not clearly establish that the specific use of force employed by Zorn violated the Constitution: “Reasonable officials would not ‘interpret [Amnesty America] to establish’ that using a routine wristlock to move a resistant protester after warning her, without more, violates the Constitution.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the majority opinion and was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The dissenting opinion held that “the Second Circuit did not err in holding that Zorn is not entitled to qualified immunity at this stage. At the very least, the decision below was not so wrong as to warrant the ‘extraordinary remedy of a summary reversal.'”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Politics, Supreme court, Scotus, Vermont, Constitution, Second circuit court, Jacob zorn, Shela linton, Fourth amendment 

Despite his reported confession to placing explosive devices at two sites on Capitol Hill on Jan. 5, 2021, Brian Cole Jr.’s physical dimensions, gait, posture, and mannerisms are at stark odds with video clips of the hoodie-clad bomb suspect first released by the FBI more than five years ago.

A full analysis of the hoodie-wearing suspect has been complicated by poor video quality, a manipulated video frame rate, black-and-white images, and cropping of some of the original footage. A careful viewing of the substandard video, however, still reveals clues that don’t fit the allegations that Cole is the bomber.

‘Two eyewitnesses … described the gray hoodie suspect as a white male.’

Blaze News analyzed video of the hoodie suspect released by the FBI, photographs and video of Cole, and evidence culled from independent investigations. This analysis indicates stark physical differences between Cole and the hoodie suspect, including the manner of walking, body shape and features, eyesight, shoe size, neck length, and mannerisms.

Cole, 31, of Woodbridge, Va., won’t be back in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., until April 21 for a status hearing on the two explosives-related felony charges that have kept him behind bars since his Dec. 4 arrest. He awaits a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals on his challenge to the detention order that is keeping him behind bars until trial.

Brian Cole Jr. denied involvement in the pipe-bombs case for two hours in an FBI interrogation, then changed his story, the DOJ claims. FBI, Prince William County Police Department photos

The FBI says that after two hours denying involvement in the pipe-bomb case, Cole suddenly gave a detailed confession during a Dec. 4 interrogation. His defense team, however, retorted in an appeals court filing seeking his release from custody that their client “contests each of the government’s factual claims.”

The hoodie-clad suspect went to some length to conceal identity, including a COVID-style face mask and a ball cap, but tools — including forensic podiatry and gait analysis — can shed valuable light on the investigation.

One of the most glaring conflicts in the case is an eyewitnesses who described the hoodie suspect as being a white male. Cole is black.

At a January hearing of the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Remaining Questions Surrounding Jan. 6, Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) said information received from the FBI leaves key questions unanswered.

“There are still critical details regarding this case that must be understood,” Loudermilk said at the opening of the first and only hearing since the subcommittee was impaneled in September 2025.

“The FBI operational updates note two eyewitnesses who described the gray hoodie suspect as a white male. Did this influence the FBI’s investigation?”

Blaze News examined the charges against Cole to see if his arrest and prosecution fit with the case history and facts developed by independent investigators. The list of conflicts, problems, contradictions, and lingering questions is extensive — and growing. This is Part 3 of our series. Part 1 was published Jan. 16, and Part 2 was published Feb. 6.

Autism disclosure a game-changer?

Among the most telling clues offered in Cole’s defense was the disclosure by his attorneys that he is afflicted with autism spectrum disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Each condition manifests in unique ways that can aid in identifying an individual on video or explain seemingly odd behaviors like wiping a cell phone back to factory settings more than 940 times over a three-year period, as Cole did.

Motion-based intelligence becomes especially useful in a case like the Jan. 6 pipe bombs where a suspect tries to disguise appearance by wearing oversized clothing, covering the face with a scarf, gaiter, or mask, or wearing a ball cap or other type of head covering under the sweatshirt hood. Clues can still be culled from the evidence.

Gergely Hanczar, a London-based expert in gait analysis, says the human body betrays itself, providing clues even if a person is trying to disguise identity. “Your body is a snitch,” Hanczar wrote in a recent Substack column.

“Before a single word is spoken, bodies have already decided what they want,” wrote Hanczar, an expert in biometric identification using digital tools. “The dilation of a pupil, a micro-adjustment of posture, the involuntary synchrony of breath are signals no sensitivity training can rewrite.

The gait of pipe-bomb suspect Brian Cole Jr. is starkly different from the hoodie-clad suspect sought by the FBI since January 2021.

“We are uncomfortable with movement-based intelligence probably because it exposes the primal reality of our hierarchies,” he wrote. “The body does not care about political correctness. It communicates a truth your lawyer would advise you to bury.”

Cole’s comportment and physical presence differ in many ways from the hoodie-clad suspect, from eyesight to manner of walking.

Cole does exhibit traits and mannerisms, however, that are consistent with those identified in research as common to individuals with autism spectrum disorder. A defense expert in the case provided an affidavit to the court in January stating that Cole suffers from autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

‘Criminals cannot hide their gait.’

According to the American Psychiatric Association, autism is a highly diverse neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests as “persistent social impairment, communication abnormalities, and restricted and repetitive behaviors.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of autism among children age 8 rose from 1 in 150 in the year 2000 to 1 in 31 in 2022.

The abnormalities found in autistic individuals were documented as far back as 1943 in a pioneering study by psychiatrist Dr. Leo Kanner, who profiled 11 children who displayed a “powerful desire for aloneness and sameness.” Kanner noted some of the children he profiled “were somewhat clumsy in gait and gross motor performances.”

Cole observed on body camera

There is ample video of the hoodie suspect on Capitol Police security cameras to use for comparisons. Police video of Cole at the scene of a 2024 Virginia traffic accident provides valuable clues about his physical demeanor that can be contrasted with the original suspect, a Blaze News analysis showed.

The 48-minute bodycam video, obtained by Blaze News under a Freedom of Information Act request, shows Cole interacting with a Prince William County Police Department officer and another driver. Cole’s vehicle rear-ended a pickup truck owned by a local church. The video has short segments that show Cole walking and standing.

The video shows that Cole walks with an outward foot angle, a stance sometimes referred to as a duck walk. The outward angle of his feet was also evident when he was standing and not in motion. An outward foot angle was not seen with the hoodie-clad bomb suspect in the footage that captured the masked bomber walking on Capitol Hill the evening of Jan. 5, 2021.

A relative told Blaze News that Cole has long had the outward foot angle in his walk.

Based on more than 20 minutes of video showing the hoodie suspect, that individual tends more to an inward foot angle, often referred to as being pigeon-toed. At several points during the walk around Capitol Hill on Jan. 5, the feet of the hoodie suspect cross over each other when their stride width is minimal. This is sometimes called “tightrope walking” or line walking.

The crossover of feet is especially noticeable in perhaps the most famous piece of video of the bomb suspect striding south on Rumsey Court before making a hard turn right toward the Capitol Hill Club. The hoodie suspect walked with a consistent, definitive right-leg drag — seen across more than 20 minutes of video.

These characteristics are not present in the limited amount of public video that shows Cole’s gait.

A 2024 research study of older children and adolescents with autism found that they had greater step width than the control subjects with no autism. Common traits in autistic individuals included shorter step length, increased cadence, and wider step width, according to the study, published in the journal Sports Medicine and Health Science.

The authors said the unusual gait patterns seen in autistic individuals were in part compensation for lower-extremity weakness.

‘I know him by his walk.’

“This unique gait pattern may represent a movement strategy used by the individuals with ASD to compensate for the weakness associated with their knee extensor muscles,” the study said. “Individuals with [autism spectrum disorder] who demonstrate these unique gait deviations may face reduced postural stability and an increased risk of fall-related injuries.”

“Risks related to muscular and coordination deficits may be exacerbated as movement difficulty increases (e.g., running, stepping stairs, carrying school bags),” the study said.

Cole appears to have a shorter stride than the hoodie suspect. The independent investigator known online as Armitas estimated the hoodie suspect’s stride (two consecutive steps) at 57 inches. Video and video stills of Cole at the 2024 accident scene show a fairly compact stride length compared to the hoodie suspect, he said.

Cole showed a pronounced lean of his head and neck, often to the left but sometimes to the right, both standing and walking, the video showed. The hoodie suspect shows no such posture on the FBI video. Cole tended to walk with his torso leaning forward, and he kept his arms close to his body while walking and standing, video showed.

He also exhibited a posture sometimes crudely referred to as “duck butt,” with a forward torso and a protrusion of the rear. A 2018 study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology found that children with autism showed a greater forward tilt of the pelvis throughout the gait cycle compared to a control group.

A 2025 study from Greece said motor impairments affect up to 80% of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The study, which reviewed findings from 17 research papers on autism and gait, said “individuals diagnosed with ASD generally demonstrate reduced coordination.”

Children with autism, the study said, tend to have “a less fluid and more effortful gait.”

‘Agents wondered if the injury could have accounted for the odd gait seen on security footage.’

Cole’s shoes appear much larger than the Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes worn by the hoodie-clad bomb suspect. In late December, Blaze News took measurements of the sidewalks and gutter pan along the Virginia street where Cole’s traffic accident occurred and of the sidewalk trod by the hoodie suspect outside the DNC building on Jan. 5. Based on those measurements, Cole’s feet are as large as size 12.5 — substantially larger than those of the hoodie suspect.

It appears that Cole’s feet are also disproportionately large for someone who stands 5 feet, 5 inches or 5 feet, 6 inches tall. The hoodie suspect’s feet, however, appear proportionate to that individual’s 5-foot, 7-inch frame.

Witnesses describe Cole’s walk

Two witnesses who have observed Cole’s gait over the span of at least a decade in his hometown told Blaze News that Cole’s walk is vastly different from that of the hoodie suspect.

Sunny Sandhu, owner of a 7-Eleven store on Minnieville Road in Woodbridge, not far from the Cole family home, said he has watched Cole come to and go from the store a “a minimum of two to three times per week” during at least a 13-year period.

After Cole’s arrest, Sandhu said he watched the FBI video of the hoodie suspect walking down an alley to place the second pipe bomb near the RNC.

“I go, ‘No way. The kid doesn’t walk like that,’” Sandhu said. “This kid has no confidence in his stride at all.”

Cole has a “goofy walk” that does not resemble the FBI’s bomb suspect, Sandhu said. “There’s no way.”

‘He was always very robotic and socially awkward.’

Cole was a consistent regular at the 7-Eleven, always asking for two Cokes and a pizza, Sandhu said.

“Every time he came in here, it was always the same thing, same routine,” Sandhu told Blaze News in an interview. “Always had his headphones on. Always made it the same order, bought two Cokes and a pizza.”

A law enforcement source who lives in the same area as the Cole family told Blaze News that he saw Cole on a regular basis out walking his little dog in the neighborhood. He described Cole’s demeanor as “awkward.”

“We were super surprised to hear he was the subject arrested for the Jan. 6 pipe bombs,” the source told Blaze News. “The immediate thought was: There is no way he had the mental ability to plan and prepare something like that. He was always very robotic and socially awkward around the neighborhood.

“My second thought was, seeing how he behaved around the neighborhood, how could he function in downtown D.C.?” the source said. “I had no doubt he was the wrong guy and complete doubt that the FBI did a proper investigation to identify him.”

A Blaze News reporter and an investigator who witnessed Cole walk into a February court hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said Cole’s gait appeared distinct from the hoodie suspect’s.

Eyesight appears different

In the Virginia bodycam video, Cole kept his phone about six to eight inches from his face, indicating a likely nearsighted condition.

The hoodie suspect, in contrast, held the cell phone in the lap while sitting on the park bench behind the DNC building. This was about two feet from the eyes, which could indicate that Cole’s eyesight is significantly different from the eyesight of the hoodie suspect.

History of gait analysis

The FBI and state and local law enforcement agencies have used gait analysis in a variety of investigations. In fact, the FBI used gait analysis early in the pipe-bombs case to help rule out a suspect, according to “Injustice,” a 2025 book by two Washington Post reporters.

The FBI’s investigation of who purchased the same Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers worn by the hoodie suspect led the bureau to a gym employee who lived in the area near the crime scenes.

“The person came under further scrutiny after he initially lied to agents about a leg injury, according to people familiar with the investigation,” wrote Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis. “Agents wondered if the injury could have accounted for the odd gait seen on security footage.”

The FBI later concluded that the man had no other possible ties to the case and ruled him out as a suspect, Davis and Leonnig wrote.

More recently, gait analysis was used on security footage in the February 1 disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, mother of NBC “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie.

Gait analysis has been used in criminal cases in the West as far back as the 1830s. In an 1837 case in London, burglary suspect Thomas Jackson, 36, was convicted based in part on a policeman’s testimony describing his gait, according to the 1840 Central Criminal Court Minutes of Evidence.

Patrolman George Cheney told the court that he arrested Jackson on March 1, 1837, charged with the burglary of Heath and Company. Security guard William Meagle detained Jackson after discovering him overnight on the main floor of the building.

Two police officers identified burglary suspect Thomas Jackson by his gait in this 1837 case in Great Britain.Central Criminal Court Minutes of Evidence

“I have not a doubt of his being the man — I know him by his walk,” Cheney said in court testimony. “When he was remanded, I had to take him backwards and forwards three or four times, and he had a limp in his walk, having had an accident, and I know his features.”

Police constable Philip Parish told the court that Jackson had a “bow leg.” Sergeant George Teakle said the suspect had suffered a broken leg. “I observed him rather limp on one side,” Teakle recounted. “I said, ‘You have had a broken leg.’ He said, ‘I have not.’”

Forensic gait analysis has been used in criminal cases in the U.K. much longer than in the United States. It is sub-specialty of forensic podiatry. Forensic podiatrist Michael Nirenberg described forensic podiatry as “the application of sound and researched podiatry knowledge and experience in forensic investigations, to show the association of an individual with the scene of a crime.”

Nirenberg has testified in several criminal trials, using gait analysis and footprint and footwear evidence to tie defendants to crime scenes.

His testimony was key to the conviction of an armed robbery suspect in Wayne County, Tenn., in January 2017. Three men robbed the Berrys One Stop convenience store. Detectives did not find any physical evidence such as fingerprints or DNA. One of them did notice something peculiar about one man on surveillance video: his walk.

FBI officials search Brian Cole Jr.’s 2017 Nissan Sentra for evidence in the Jan. 6 pipe-bombs case, in Woodbridge, Va., on Dec. 4, 2025.Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

Detective Dusty Malugen asked Nirenberg to compare the robbery surveillance video to video of a subject who came into the convenience store days before the crime. Nirenberg found a match by observing the men.

“You can see how he’s walking,” Nirenberg told the Journal & Courier newspaper. “His feet and knees are out-toed. You can see the way his head is positioned on his shoulders. His head hangs forward.”

Nirenberg’s analysis was presented to a local grand jury, which indicted a suspect. Confronted with the evidence, the man confessed to the robbery and rolled over on his two accomplices. All three were sent to prison.

Nirenberg assisted police and the FBI with gait analysis in the April 2016 murder of Missy Bevers, 45, a fitness instructor in Midlothian, Texas. That case remains unsolved.

AI and forensic gait analysis

The use of artificial intelligence to analyze the movements of individuals shown on surveillance video is an emerging method that claims up to near-perfect accuracy. Europe-based consultant Cursor Insight says its gait-recognition system achieved 98.3% accuracy using video of a single gait cycle, measuring only thigh and shank flexion angles of both legs.

Using other factors such as segment lengths and analyzing several gait cycles can increase accuracy to 99.9% or higher, the company reported in a 14-page case study.

The AI-powered gait analysis has advantages over biometrics such as facial recognition, which often fails when the subject is far away, covered in darkness, or wearing a face mask, the case study said.

“Our AI-powered gait-analysis technology can transform seemingly worthless video into reliable forensic evidence,” the case study said. “Even when facial recognition fails — we can identify individuals by analyzing body dimensions, body pose, and motion patterns such as walking or running.”

‘Cole contests each of the government’s factual claims.’

Nirenberg said gait analysis will become a more prominent part of criminal investigations.

“The admission of video evidence in criminal matters will continue to grow, and with it, those perpetrating crimes will increasingly take measures to conceal their identity,” he wrote in Criminal Justice magazine. “Even so, criminals cannot hide their gait. This is a significant fact for attorneys on both sides of a criminal case.”

A U.S. intelligence community source told Blaze News that gait recognition technology is much farther advanced in China.

“Gait recognition will eventually be used as the most important law enforcement tool in identifying criminal suspects from the increased proliferation of CCTV,” the source said. “The downside is that it will also be used by authoritarian governments in establishing their social credit scores — tracking jaywalkers in crowded cities and other such undesirable behaviors.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Jan. 6 

The male accused of punching and knocking out a female crossing guard in the Philadelphia area last week ended up running from the law for four days and over 500 miles before his arrest in South Carolina.

Darby Borough Police on Friday announced the arrest of 27-year-old Rashiem Russell and said he is charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, stalking, recklessly endangering another person, terroristic threats, and harassment.

‘He may have been upset with having to wait for her to cross children off of the school bus there.’

Cops say Russell — who stands 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 235 pounds — assaulted a school crossing guard last Monday in an incident caught on video.

The assault took place outside Walnut Street Elementary School in Darby Borough during dismissal around 3:30 p.m. as students looked on, WPVI-TV reported.

Police said the guard told detectives that Russell was driving aggressively as she helped students cross the street and that she ordered him to stop, the station noted.

Russell then parked his car, chased down the guard, and hit her, knocking her unconscious, WPVI reported, citing court records. The suspect then took off.

Darby Borough Police Chief Joe Gabe told WPVI in a previous story that it is believed the suspect may have been angry about waiting in traffic: “He may have been upset with having to wait for her to cross children off of the school bus there.”

Gabe added to the station that the suspect was yelling profanities as he drove through the intersection prior to the attack: “When he was approaching her, he was yelling more obscenities at her before he grabbed her and struck her in the face.”

RELATED: ‘Disgusting’: Thug caught on video punching female crossing guard in face, knocking her out as elementary schoolers watch

While WPVI and other news outlets say Russell is 29, authorities — including Darby Police — say he’s 27.

Philadelphia Police on Wednesday stopped Russell’s 2009 gold Nissan Altima; two females — but not Russell — were inside, the station said, citing court documents.

One female told detectives that Russell fled to South Carolina, WPVI reported.

“The information was credible. So at that point we started scouring what possible connections, family members he may have, and we determined there was a very close family member in the city of Darlington, South Carolina,” U.S. Marshals Supervisory Deputy Robert Clark said, according to the station.

Darlington is just over 530 miles from Darby Borough.

RELATED: 3 females dragged Philly crossing guard off bus when she tried to escape brutal beating, detective says; suspects arrested

Russell on Monday morning was still behind bars in the Florence County Jail, records show. He is awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania, WPVI said.

Pennsylvania state Sen. Anthony Williams (D) had offered a $5,000 reward in the case, the station said: “As soon as the crime was solved, they showed and wanted their $5,000, and they will get their $5,000.”

The crossing guard suffered both physical and emotional injuries but is recovering, the station said. However, she has resigned from her position as a crossing guard and wants to remain anonymous, WPVI added.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Suspect arrested, Pennsylvania, Darby borough, Crossing guard, Elementary school, Male punches crossing guard, Rashiem russell, Aggravated assault charge, South carolina, Darlington, Crime 

We measure influence in the U.S. military by rank, command, sacrifice, and decorations. Another kind of influence never shows up in an evaluation report or an after-action review. It lives in barracks humor, in whiteboard scrawl, and in the jokes told seconds after a blast, when nobody knows what else to say.

For more than four decades, that language included Chuck Norris, who died Thursday at 86.

In a culture that trains people to suppress fear and keep vulnerability under lock and key, humor becomes one of the safest ways to admit the stress everyone carries.

To most Americans, Norris was a martial artist and action hero. To generations of service members, he also became the centerpiece of a strange, durable mythology. The Chuck Norris jokes — absurd, hyperbolic, endlessly recycled — turned into more than throwaway lines. They became part of the emotional vocabulary of military life.

My combat deployment was no exception. Chuck Norris jokes covered bathroom walls, T-barriers, and whiteboards. They showed up during rocket attacks, after sniper fire, and in the lulls between incoming mortar fire. In a world built on danger and uncertainty, those ridiculous one-liners delivered something surprisingly useful: familiarity, laughter, and a brief reminder of invincibility.

That mattered more than civilians might think.

Humor in combat rarely counts as trivial. It works as a pressure valve. It functions as resilience. In a culture that trains people to suppress fear and keep vulnerability under lock and key, humor becomes one of the safest ways to admit the stress everyone carries. A joke can cut the tension without breaking bearing.

The Norris myth worked because it exaggerated what warfighters hope to find in themselves and in each other: strength, competence, endurance, and an almost supernatural refusal to lose. “Chuck Norris doesn’t do push-ups. He pushes the Earth down.” The line was silly on purpose. The more impossible the joke, the better it mocked the impossible situations young Americans were asked to endure.

Over time, the jokes became a kind of oral tradition. They passed from senior NCOs to new enlisted troops, from one unit to the next, from one deployment cycle to another. Like much of military culture, they traveled informally. They still carried meaning. They created continuity between those who served before and those serving now.

RELATED: Here are some of the funniest ‘Chuck Norris facts’ memes fans have shared to honor his memory

Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

That’s how military culture often works. Doctrine and discipline matter, but shared rituals, symbols, and humor hold people together under pressure. The public tends to focus on the formal parts of service — uniforms, medals, salutes, speeches. The glue usually looks less official and more human.

It may sound odd to credit a pop-culture figure with shaping the inner life of the armed forces. Anyone who has deployed knows morale survives on unexpected things: coffee, music, dark humor, inside jokes, nicknames, and familiar reference points that make hardship feel survivable.

Chuck Norris became one of those reference points.

Warfare changes. Technology changes. The human side changes slower than people like to admit. Young Americans still deploy far from home. They still face fear, boredom, grief, and danger. They still need shared ways to absorb the psychological shock that comes with those experiences.

Whether the next generation inherits Chuck Norris jokes or builds a new mythology misses the larger point. Cultural touchstones endure because they give people a common language for courage. They turn anxiety into laughter. They remind troops that toughness isn’t only physical; sometimes toughness means smiling in the middle of chaos.

Norris did not shape strategy or write doctrine. But for a remarkable span of time, he held a small, steady place in the culture of the people who carried America’s wars.

That’s a real legacy.

Rest in peace, Chuck Norris.

​Opinion & analysis, Chuck norris, Memes, Jokes, Military, Mythology, Obituary, In memoriam, Combat, Deployment, Fear, Oral tradition, Armed forces, Philanthropy, Action hero, Culture, Entertainment, Movies 

A prolonged funding standoff in Washington is beginning to hit Americans where it hurts — at the airport. With the Department of Homeland Security still unfunded, tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration workers have gone weeks without pay.

The lack of pay is now contributing to long lines and staffing shortages across the country, and BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey’s father, Ron Simmons, argues that the Democrats are to blame.

“This is something that the Democrats are holding up. Any of you that are on spring break or coming off spring break while you’re listening to this, and you had these terrible long lines at some of your airports, then blame the Democrats,” Simmons says on “Relatable.”

“And if you live in a blue state, call your Democrat senator’s office. This is so crazy. They think they’re doing something to ICE, but what most people don’t know, this doesn’t even affect ICE or border security,” he says.

“Those were funded through the Big Beautiful Bill for the next three years. There’s $170 billion of funding already set aside for them. This, essentially, the biggest thing it hurts is TSA. Fifty thousand TSA employees have gone without a paycheck, at least one, and coming up on going without two paychecks,” he continues.

However, Simmons doesn’t believe the strain on TSA will last much longer.

“I do think they’re going to end up cutting a deal on this one pretty quickly because I’m sure the pain that some of these senators are feeling from their constituents is getting more than they want to bear,” he says.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Relatable, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Ron simmons, Tsa, Department of homeland security, Transportation security administration, Airport lines, Airport security, Democrats vs republicans 

On a recent episode of “The Drive with Lauren and Karl,” we ended up talking about two very different corners of car culture: a hyper-realistic driving simulator developed by our guest, automotive journalist Mike Harley, and the latest wave of Hollywood car movies built around classic, analog machines.

At first glance, those topics have nothing in common.

Traditional sims feel artificial, with exaggerated inputs and inconsistent feedback.

But taken together, they point to something bigger: Driving is splitting into two worlds. One is becoming more digital, more controlled, and more simulated. The other is maxing out on the emotional, physical experience that made people fall in love with cars in the first place.

A new kind of driving experience

Harley is co-founder of Idaho-based Marble Labs, the company behind new driving simulator XP1.

More than 10 years in the making, XP1 eschews the old-fashioned arcade mechanics in order to replicate real driving — how a car responds to steering input, braking, weight transfer, and grip. That may sound like what simulators have always promised, but most drivers know the difference immediately. Traditional sims feel artificial, with exaggerated inputs and inconsistent feedback.

XP1 is trying to change that.

Instead of force-feedback approximations, it uses a physics-based model designed to behave like an actual vehicle. The goal is simple: Make what you’ve learned behind the wheel of a real car carry over naturally into the simulation.

That has promising real-world applications. A teenage driver can practice without risk. A senior driver can regain confidence without the pressure of real traffic. An enthusiast can work on technique — braking, cornering, control — without paying for tires, fuel, or repairs.

And it doesn’t require a five-figure investment. Harley built it to run on a standard PC with a basic, affordable wheel-and-pedal setup.

That matters, because as driving becomes more expensive, more regulated, and in some cases less accessible, simulation starts to look less like a novelty and more like a practical tool.

The limits of going digital

But even as simulation improves, it highlights what can’t be replicated. You can model physics, recreate vehicle dynamics, and simulate environments.

What you can’t fully reproduce is emotion.

That came up repeatedly in our conversation when we shifted from simulators to real-world vehicles — especially performance cars. Automakers like Lamborghini and Porsche have already started pulling back from plans to go fully electric in certain segments, not because they can’t build fast EVs, but because something is missing.

Sound, vibration, feel. In other words, the mechanical connection between driver and machine.

A car that goes from zero to 60 in under two seconds is impressive. But if it does it silently, without drama, without feedback, many drivers — especially enthusiasts — find the experience incomplete.

RELATED: No new cars under $50K? Thank the government

NurPhoto/Getty Images

Hollywood still gets it

If you want to see where car culture still lives, look at what Hollywood is making.

Car correspondent Josh Hancock dropped by to show that studios get that driving is an emotional experience, not just a technical one. The upcoming reboot of “The Rockford Files” is reportedly looking at classic Pontiac Firebirds. The success of “F1” has already sparked a sequel. “Days of Thunder” is returning. New films like “Crime 101” are built around analog cars — Camaros, Challengers, V8 sedans — shot with practical effects, not just digital ones.

Filmmakers understand something the industry sometimes forgets: People don’t connect with cars purely because they are efficient. They connect with them because they feel something when they drive them.

And that’s something simulation, no matter how advanced, is still chasing.

Two paths forward

What’s emerging is not a replacement of one world by another, but a split.

On one side, driving becomes more digital:

simulators for training and practice; electric vehicles focused on efficiency and performance metrics; and increasing reliance on software and automation.

On the other side, driving remains physical:

internal combustion engines, especially in enthusiast segments; vehicles designed around feel, not just function; and cultural reinforcement through movies, media, and lifestyle.

These two paths can co-exist; in fact, they probably have to.

By reducing costs and expanding access to training, simulations can help drivers improve. But no amount of virtual sophistication can replace the reason people care about driving in the first place.

The bottom line

Technology is changing how we drive — and in some cases, whether we need to drive at all.

But it hasn’t changed why people care about cars.

The rise of advanced simulators like XP1 shows how far digital driving has come. The resurgence of analog car culture in movies shows how much of the experience still depends on something real.

You can listen to the full episode of “The Drive with Lauren and Karl” featuring Mike Harley below:

​The drive, Xp1, Driving simulator, Lifestyle, Culture, Tech, Hollywood, Muscle cars, Align cars 

More than willing to hold Americans’ ease of travel hostage, Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and his Democratic allies in the U.S. Senate initiated a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security last month, conditioning the passage of the FY2026 DHS appropriations bill on restrictions to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection operations.

This Democratic denial of funding that has survived over four votes on theme has manifested in long lines and headaches at airports across the country — especially at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, which urged travelers on Monday morning to “arrive at least 4 hours early” on account of Transportation Security Administration staffing constraints and the correlated “longer than normal wait times at security checkpoints.”

‘We thought we would be safe enough.’

While advising passengers to allow at least four hours for security screenings, the airport presently recommends budgeting additional time for checked baggage.

According to the airport traffic rankings released last year by Airports Council International, Hartsfield-Jackson was the busiest in North America, boasting over 108 million passengers and 796,224 aircraft movements in 2024.

On Sunday, only four of the 18 TSA screening lanes were open at America’s busiest airport, reported CNN. The general boarding line was reportedly backed up past the atrium, wrapped around the baggage claim, and jutting out the door at the drop-off area.

The frustration and uncertainty were apparently too much for some would-be travelers to bear. Police reportedly had to escort one woman out after she suffered an apparent panic attack.

RELATED: ‘I messed up’: LaGuardia Airport shut down after deadly collision

Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images

“We thought we would be safe enough but … it’s just insane,” Oliver Wanner from Minnesota told CNN. Wanner arrived at the airport at 4 a.m. ET for a 7:30 a.m. flight — but still ended up trapped in the line.

Aaron David, a traveler who was attempting to collect his bags on Sunday, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the experience was “absolute insanity and chaos.”

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens (D) announced on Sunday that help from Homeland Security Investigations and ICE was on the way, starting Monday morning.

The announcement came just days after President Donald Trump stated, “If the Democrats do not allow for Just and Proper Security at our Airports, and elsewhere throughout our Country, ICE will do the job far better than ever done before!”

“According to federal officials, these personnel will be assigned to support operational needs directed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), including line management and crowd control within the domestic terminals,” said Dickens. “Federal officials have indicated that this deployment is not intended to conduct immigration enforcement activities.”

“Our Administration remains hopeful the Federal Government can soon find a way to fully fund TSA and pay their employees to resume standard operations at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport — and all airports we connect to,” added Dickens.

To “help ease the burden on TSA officers who continue to serve” despite Democrats pulling TSA funding, the city of Atlanta and the Hartsfield-Jackson airport have been providing TSA officers with meal vouchers, free parking, free public transit passes, and discounted food options at airport concession stands.

Despite the support measures, around 30%-40% of agents have called out in recent days, reported WSB-TV. While some workers are not showing up after going weeks without pay, others have reportedly just quit.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Atlanta, Lines, Waiting, Democrats, Department of homeland security, Ice, Donald trump, Schumer, Traveling, Travel, Airport, Airports, Dickens, Tsa, Flying, Politics 

Weeks into the Democrat shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, Trump finally threatened to take matters into his own hands in the Transportation Security Administration lines on Saturday. And Trump gave an update on Monday, signaling his continued intention to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at major airports.

On Monday, Trump announced that he would accept a slight change in policy for the ICE agents covering for TSA workers, all while taking some jabs at his political opponents.

‘I would greatly appreciate, however, NO MASKS, when helping our Country out of the Democrat caused MESS at the airports, etc.’

“I am a BIG proponent of ICE wearing masks as they search for, and are forced to deal with, hardened criminals, many of whom were let into our Country by Sleepy Joe Biden and his wonderful ‘Border Czar,’ Kamala (she never even went to the Border!), through their absolutely INSANE Open Border Policy,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

RELATED: Trump threatens Democrats that he’ll fix TSA himself — and it involves ICE

Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images

However, he then added: “I would greatly appreciate, however, NO MASKS, when helping our Country out of the Democrat caused MESS at the airports, etc.”

In the first year of the second Trump administration, opponents of ICE repeatedly called for the removal of face coverings for the ICE agents, arguing that masks allowed agents to act with relative impunity. Supporters of ICE argued that the masks were employed for the agents’ own safety.

Trump said on Saturday that the ICE agents would “do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country.”

Travelers have faced extremely long screening wait times as TSA workers continue to work without pay, if they show up at all. Many have been forced to get temporary jobs during the shutdown to make ends meet.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Politics, Tsa, Ice, Trump, Trump administration, Ice agents, Masks, Ice masks, Airports, Democrats, Republicans, Kamala harris, Joe biden, Security, Immigration