Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the U.S. is moving away from funneling foreign aid funds through non-governmental organizations after criticism of fraud and incompetence.

Rubio explained that the U.S. government has used NGOs to try to accomplish foreign policy goals but that many have become far too costly and inefficient. The first benefactor of the new policy is the government of Kenya, which will receive foreign aid funds directly instead.

‘That is the model that we are breaking. We are not doing this any more. We are not going to spend billions of dollars funding the NGO industrial complex while close and important partners like Kenya either have no role to play …’

“The United States has spent billions of dollars over the years in helping with health strategies all across the world,” explained Rubio in a speech last month.

“What we learned over time, especially after coming here, is that oftentimes — and I am oversimplifying it, but this is an accurate description — what would happen is we would go to a country and say, ‘We’re going to help you with your health care needs.’ Then we would drive over to Northern Virginia somewhere, find an NGO, one of these organizations, give them all the money, tell them: ‘Go to this country and do their health care program for them,'” he added.

“That NGO would then take some percentage of that money for their overhead and administrative costs, and by the time it got down to it … only a percentage of the overall money ever actually reached the patients and the people on the ground that we were trying to help because of these costs,” Rubio said.

“This makes no sense,” he said.

The compact reached with Kenya includes the Kenyan government’s agreement to increase spending on health care by $850 million over the next five years.

“So why are we hiring American and international NGOs to go into other countries and run health care systems that are parallel and sometimes in conflict with the health care systems of the host country?” Rubio continued.

RELATED: Flyer posted on Antifa-affiliated website appears to call for laser attacks on police helicopters

“If we’re trying to help countries, help the country. Don’t help the NGO to go in and find a new line of business,” he added. “So that is the model that we are breaking. We are not doing this any more. We are not going to spend billions of dollars funding the NGO industrial complex while close and important partners like Kenya either have no role to play or have very little influence over how health care money is being spent.”

He concluded, “Bottom line is if you want to help a country, work with that country.”

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Nicolas Maduro pled “not guilty” during his first appearance in a United States court on Monday.

Just days after being captured from his home in Caracas, Venezuela, Maduro appeared in a New York City court for the first time alongside his wife, Cilia Flores. During the hearing, Maduro maintained that he is a “decent man” who is innocent of the charges levied against him by the United States.

‘They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.’

“I am innocent,” Maduro said. “I am not guilty.”

Flores’ attorney also claimed that she sustained “significant injuries during her abduction” over the weekend, with journalists present in the courthouse reporting that she was seen wearing bandages on her head during the hearing.

RELATED: Maduro captured following ‘large scale strike’ in Venezuela, Trump says

Photo by Donald Trump’s Truth Social Account/Anadolu via Getty Images

Following his capture, the United States indicted Maduro in the Southern District of New York on charges of “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States.”

“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said of Maduro and his wife. “On behalf of the entire U.S. DOJ, I would like to thank President Trump for having the courage to demand accountability on behalf of the American People, and a huge thank you to our brave military who conducted the incredible and highly successful mission to capture these two alleged international narco traffickers.”

The operation that captured both Maduro and Flores took place in the dead of night on Saturday, and they were both then transported to New York by American officials. The operation left Americans and Venezuelans with questions as to who would govern Venezuela while Maduro — whose presidency is not recognized by many countries, including the U.S. — faces legal battles in the United States.

RELATED: ‘We’re going to run it’: Trump reveals Venezuela’s fate following Maduro’s capture

Photo by JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images

Just hours after the capture, President Donald Trump told reporters that “we’re going to run” Venezuela.

“We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind,” Trump said Saturday. “We’ve had decades of that. We’re not going to let that happen.”

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​Donald trump, Cilia flores, Venezuela, Marco rubio, Pete hegseth, Southern district of new york, Pam bondi, Department of justice, Doj, Politics, Nicolas maduro 

A United States Postal Service worker in Florida late last month allegedly believed a kid on an electric scooter was making off with a package he had just delivered — and let’s just say the postal worker’s decision-making after that point was not the smartest.

Citing a Florida Highway Patrol report, the Pensacola News Journal said 41-year-old William White Jr. dropped off a package on Kingfisher Way in Escambia County on Dec. 27.

‘It’s not a normal porch pirate running up snatching packages that you just dropped off.’

The FHP report said a “child, whose family owns that residence, saw the package was meant for a different address,” the News Journal added.

With that, the child — a 10-year-old, according to WALA-TV — grabbed the package and put it on his electric scooter to deliver it to the correct address, the FHP said, according to the News Journal.

But when White saw the child with the package, he believed the kid was stealing it, the paper said.

“White then purposely drove the USPS vehicle towards the child and ran over the scooter,” the FHP report said, according to the News Journal. “The child was able to get into the nearby yard prior to the scooter being hit.”

White then grabbed the scooter from underneath the USPS vehicle, placed it on the truck, and then drove off after yelling at the child, the paper said, citing the FHP report.

One of the child’s family members followed White to confront him, leading to White throwing the scooter into a nearby yard on Blue Jay Way, the FHP said, according to the News Journal.

Troopers said the child suffered an ankle injury in the incident and was taken to the Studer Family Children’s Hospital in Pensacola, WEAR-TV reported.

RELATED: Atlanta police make arrest in connection with homeowner who cops say shot 2 teenage porch pirates

White was interviewed and arrested on New Year’s Eve after he returned to work, officials told WALA.

He was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, petit theft, and criminal mischief, the News Journal said.

Jail records indicate White was released later on New Year’s Eve; his bond totaled $5,500, and his next court date is Jan. 23.

Florida Highway Patrol Captain Jason King told WEAR, “This isn’t just an oops crash with a 10-year-old. This is an intentional act by a United States postal worker trying to run over a 10-year-old.”

King added to WEAR that “it’s amazing what a small conversation would do in a situation instead of jumping straight to use of force. Putting your hands on somebody, or just really escalating way past where it should have been. It’s a 10-year-old on a scooter. It’s not a normal porch pirate running up snatching packages that you just dropped off.”

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​Florida, United states postal service, Usps, Porch pirate, 10-year-old, Delivery, Package, Electric scooter, Crime 

If it seems like the Democratic Party is divided — that’s because it is. Specifically Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck believes that “there are at least two different kinds of Democrats.”

“Democrats that, you know, might vote for Schumer and … don’t believe that there’s, you know, this great change coming, and they want the same kind of America that we want. There’s that Democrat, and then there’s the socialist, the revolutionary Democrat,” Glenn explains.

“Democrats became progressive in the early 20th century. And when they became progressives, they did it because the Democrats did not want a revolution. They believed in socialism, they believed in communism. Remember, this is before communism had been tried and failed over and over and over again,” he says.

The progressives had been making the case that “science was going to be able to control society,” and thus, “it would have all the answers.”

“Socialists were like, ‘Yeah, it is the right way, so let’s do it now.’ Progressives said, ‘No, we’ll get to your socialist utopia, but we’ll do it one step at a time.’ You can relate to this because how many times do we have to be Charlie Brown and our own side is Lucy with the football,” Glenn says.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking about as you were laying that out,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere chimes in.

“And what was the response from our side?” Glenn asks.

“Our side always said, ‘Look, we just need to win that next election. If we win that next election, we’ll move the ball down. Don’t worry, I’ll hold the ball right here so you can kick it. We just have to win that next election first,’” Burguiere answers.

“And when that was over, what did we do? We hired the world’s largest wrecking ball, Donald Trump. We’re like, ‘We’re done with that. We don’t believe you anymore,’” Glenn says.

After Trump’s first term, the Democrats then ran Joe Biden, who Glenn explains “allows all the chaos to happen.”

“The socialists want all of this chaos. They want all of this control. But so do the Democrats, the new kind of Democrat. They want control. They just want global control. They’re much more fascistic,” he says.

“What do socialists want? They want to control schools. Socialist communists. They want to control schools but so do the authoritarians. They want to control schools. They want a communist system where all the means of production are owned by the people through the state,” he continues.

While these two separate factions begin to look more and more alike, the Democrats still “need the illusion of America.”

“They want the Fed. Do you think the socialists want the Fed? No. The socialists don’t want the WEF. They don’t want just a restructured social order. They want a completely restructured social order. The Democrats, the authoritarian, they want friends in the media. They want friends in tech. Do you think the socialists want friends in the media?” Glenn asks.

“They’ll drag those people out in the streets and beat them to death so fast. And they’ll do the same with the people in tech,” he continues. “OK, that’s what will happen. That’s the difference. You have revolutionaries and then you have politicians.”

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​Sharing, Camera phone, Free, Upload, Video, Video phone, Youtube.com, The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Stu burguiere, Stu does america, Left vs left, Progressives vs democrats, Socialists vs democrats, Joe biden, Chuck schumer, Antifa, Radical leftists 

New York City’s newly sworn-in Democratic Socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has already started taking steps to advance his radical agenda by selecting an anti-private-property extremist to lead the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.

Mamdani announced on January 2 that Cea Weaver would join his team, noting that she had previously led Housing Justice for All, a coalition of groups representing tenants and homeless New Yorkers, and its sister organization, the New York State Tenant Bloc.

‘Private property including any kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy.’

Mamdani credited Weaver for helping to pass “landmark legislation that closed loopholes landlords used to raise rents and push apartments out of stabilization.”

“Now she’ll work with us to hold landlords accountable and ensure New York City tenants are living in safe, clean homes,” Mamdani wrote.

Following Weaver’s appointment, an undated video resurfaced on social media of the activist discussing her goal to eliminate private property ownership.

“I think the reality is, is that for centuries we’ve really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good,” Weaver stated in the video. “And transitioning to treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity will require that we think about it differently. And it will mean that families, especially white families but some [people of color] families who are homeowners as well, are going to have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.”

RELATED: ‘Money hungry Jews’: Mamdani appointee abruptly quits after her anti-Semitic online posts resurface

Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon reacted to the resurfaced video of Weaver.

“I don’t think so,” Dhillon wrote. “We have federal housing laws that trump any collective Marxist fantasies.”

Weaver once urged Americans to “elect more communists” in a 2017 post on her now-deactivated X account, the New York Post reported.

She also called to “seize private property.”

“Private property including any kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy,” Weaver reportedly wrote in 2019.

RELATED: Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accuses NYC Mayor Mamdani of anti-Semitism after his first day in office

Zohran Mamdani. Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

Weaver has previously expressed support for freezing rent, writing in a January 2025 post on Bluesky, “There are lots of things the mayor CANT [sic] do on housing, but freezing the rent is one of the only things they can unilaterally do for 2.4 million New York renters. Policy plans are great, so is a rent freeze.”

According to New York City’s Tenant Protection Cabinet, 65% of the city’s residents are renters.

Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

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​News, Cea weaver, Zohran mamdani, Mamdani, Kathy hochul, New york city, Nyc, New york, Property ownership, Homeownership, Private property, Tenants, Renters, Communism, Communist, Democratic socialism, Democratic socialist, Socialism, Socialist, Politics 

With everything on the line, a Catholic priest’s blessing may have changed the outcome of the NFL playoffs on Sunday.

The Pittsburgh Steelers hosted the Baltimore Ravens at Acrisure Stadium for “Sunday Night Football” with the season on the line. The game would decide who topped the AFC North and the final playoff spot.

‘The Catholic community in Pittsburgh is very strong.’

A perfect, dramatic ending was set up for the last game of the season, after the Steelers went ahead 26-24 with a late touchdown. After blocking their opponent’s extra point, the Ravens converted a pivotal fourth-down play to get into position for a 44-yard game-winning field goal.

However, kicker Tyler Loop pushed the ball right, and the Ravens lost in dramatic fashion.

Just after the game, NBC commentators Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth decided to sprinkle some Catholic lore on the ending and revealed that a priest may have been involved in the missed field goal.

At 6:15 p.m. local time, Tirico revealed, a priest was seen “spreading holy water” in the Steelers’ defending end zone, where the kick was missed.

“The Catholic community in Pittsburgh is very strong … and down at that end zone, Tyler Loop misses the … field goal … and allows the Steelers to win,” Tirico explained.

“So it’s not Tyler Loop’s fault,” Collinsworth laughed.

RELATED: Pope Leo calls out gambling addiction and ‘demographic crisis’ in Vatican meeting

The priest in question has since been named by local outlets as Father Maximilian Maxwell. Maxwell currently serves as the prior of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. According to WJCL, the Steelers have held their training camp at the college since 1966.

At the same time, Benedictine Military School in Savannah, Georgia, was quick to claim Fr. Maxwell as one of its own and proudly boasted on the school’s Facebook page.

“Check out former Benedictine Military School theology teacher Fr. Maximilian Maxwell blessing the Pittsburgh Steelers’ football field with holy water before the game Sunday night!” the school wrote.

Following the dramatic ending, Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward was asked about the potential blessed outcome.

“I’m not gonna ask questions,” Heyward said, per WJCL. “The good Lord made a good decision tonight. I’m thankful, and we keep moving on.”

RELATED: New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan resigns; pope appoints his replacement

Photo by Mark Alberti/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

On the other side of the ball, Ravens players still kept their faith, particularly Loop, who said he will be leaning on his religion to get him through the tough moment.

“I had written down a little prayer before the game. … Faith is a big part of my life and right now I’m reading the book of Romans, and in Romans 8 it says God works for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.”

Loop continued, “Ultimately, I’m here to love on the guys around me. I’m here to try and have their back … reminding myself that ‘hey, God’s got my back even when stuff sucks.'”

Ravens running back Derrick Henry told reporters that he advised Loop to keep his faith and trust in God’s plan.

“I just told him the story after this is gonna be great for him because God put him in this position to use him as an example,” Henry revealed.

The Steelers will host the Houston Texans in Pittsburgh on January 12.

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U.S. Secret Service personnel captured a 26-year-old man who allegedly attacked the Cincinnati home of Vice President JD Vance early Monday morning.

Hamilton County Justice Center records indicate that the suspect, William DeFoor, has been charged with criminal trespass, criminal damaging or endangering, obstructing official business, and felony vandalism.

Vance expressed gratitude to the U.S. Secret Service and the Cincinnati police and noted, “As far as I can tell, a crazy person tried to break in by hammering the windows.”

‘We try to protect our kids as much as possible.’

The vice president indicated that he and his family were not home at the time of the “attack” as they had already returned to the national capital. While the Vance family was in Cincinnati last week, they reportedly left on Sunday afternoon.

Two law enforcement officials who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity indicated that the Secret Service heard a commotion at the house around midnight and found that an individual had not only vandalized a Secret Service vehicle parked in the driveway but had smashed a window and was attempting to steal into the house.

RELATED: ‘Something historic’: CNN analyst GOBSMACKED by how Vance polls against Nikki Haley, others

Photo by Oliver Contreras-Pool/Getty Images

According to an arrest report obtained by WLWT-TV, the suspect — who has since been taken into custody by the Cincinnati Police Department — was spotted both by a USSS agent as well as on security footage damaging four windows along with the vehicle.

USSS spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that the suspect was detained shortly after midnight.

Court documents indicate that DeFoor pleaded guilty in April 2025 to two counts of vandalism after he inflicted over $2,000 worth of damage to a Ohio interior design company, reported WXIX-TV. DeFoor was sentenced to two years of treatment at a mental health facility and ordered to pay $5,550 in restitution.

There has been an outpouring of support for the vice president in the wake of the incident. While many have signaled relief the Vance family is OK, others have questioned how a miscreant could get so close to their home in the first place.

In the wake of the incident, Vance emphasized that “we try to protect our kids as much as possible from the realities of this life of public service,” and he intimated that the news media shouldn’t circulate images of his home with holes in the window.

This is hardly the first time that a maladjusted individual has descended on one of Vance’s residences.

In April, a mob of liberals rallied outside the vice president’s Washington, D.C., residence, vilifying him and calling him a “fascist” as well as “America’s Himmler,” referring to the architect of Nazi Germany’s so-called “final solution,” Heinrich Himmler.

One month earlier, another mob of liberals assembled outside Vance’s Cincinnati home to protest actions taken by the Trump administration.

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The Department of War is ramping up its efforts to punish Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona over his involvement in what President Donald Trump and his administration have described as a “seditious” video.

At Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s direction, the department is set to cut Kelly’s military retirement pay for an alleged “pattern of reckless misconduct,” namely the video of Democrat lawmakers calling for servicemen to disobey “illegal orders” from the president. The DOW also issued a letter of censure to Kelly, which “outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct.”

‘Kelly’s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability.’

“Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,” Hegseth said in a post on X. “As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice.”

“And the Department of War — and the American people — expect justice.”

RELATED: ‘Ridiculous charade’: Bill O’Reilly torches Democrat senator over ‘seditious’ political stunt

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Hegseth justified the response by arguing that Kelly’s prominence as a senator does not give him special privileges, citing specific articles Kelly may have violated.

“Captain Kelly’s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action,” Hegseth said. “These actions are based on Captain Kelly’s public statements from June through December 2025 in which he characterized lawful military operations as illegal and counseled members of the Armed Forces to refuse lawful orders.”

“This conduct was seditious in nature and violated Articles 133 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to which Captain Kelly remains subject as a retired officer receiving pay.”

RELATED: Pentagon says court-martial possible for Sen. Mark Kelly after Trump calls him a ‘traitor’ for ‘seditious’ video

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Kelly fired back at Hegseth, calling him unqualified and accusing him of targeting lawmakers for simply opposing the administration.

“Over twenty-five years in the U.S. Navy, thirty-nine combat missions, and four missions to space, I risked my life for this country and to defend our Constitution – including the First Amendment rights of every American to speak out,” Kelly said in a post on X. “I never expected that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense would attack me for doing exactly that.”

“Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn’t like, they will come after them the same way,” Kelly added. “It’s outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that.”

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