Thousands of Americans gathered Sunday on the National Mall for Rededicate 250 — an event aimed not only at preparing the United States for its 250th birthday with prayer, Scripture, and song but also recommitting America to uniting as “one nation, under god.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, among those who addressed the multitudes, led believers in a prayer of rededication.

‘Quoting the Declaration of Independence is now putting God over the Declaration of Independence, I guess?’

In his prayer, Johnson noted that God’s “mighty hand has been upon our nation since the very beginning”; that God is the source of America’s many blessings; and that America is a nation premised on biblical and foundational principles.

Johnson also emphasized twice in the prayer that Americans’ inalienable rights derive from the Creator.

In the second instance, the Republican stated that individuals captive to “sinister ideologies” have “sought to distort the self-evident truth that we know so well and that our founders boldly proclaim in the Declaration: that our rights do not derive from the government. They come from you, our Creator and heavenly Father.”

MS NOW talking head Katy Tur evidently had difficulty processing the ancient and self-evident truth that rights aren’t sourced from men or their documents but from the Divine.

“What about this passage from Mike Johnson declaring that our rights do not derive from government? ‘They come from you, our Creator and heavenly Father,'” Tur said on Monday to panelists on her show. “Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?”

RELATED: When Archie Comics found Jesus: Strange artifacts from a once-Christian culture

Photo12/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The very document that Tur apparently fears being subordinated to the Creator states in its preamble, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

One of Tur’s panelists, Atlantic writer McKay Coppins, responded by noting that the “idea” that man’s rights come from God “is not wholly uncommon” and not “totally abnormal.”

Tur subsequently suggested that Johnson’s remarks, in the “context of this rally,” signal “the move toward Christian nationalism being more embedded in this culture.” She added that “the idea that the rights divine, or are divined from a higher power — you can say that across multiple religions, yes, but this is not representing multiple religions.”

Tur’s attempt to concern-monger over Johnson’s statements prompted swift backlash and mockery from conservatives and others familiar with the Declaration of Independence.

Sean Davis, co-founder of the Federalist, wrote, “Unreal. Literal retards.”

Texas state Rep. Mitch Little (R) tweeted, “Quoting the Declaration of Independence is now putting God over the Declaration of Independence, I guess? Someone run to the gift shop and get Katy a copy, pls.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz expressed confusion about how Tur could “be so historically ignorant.”

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​Ms now, Katy tur, Liberal media, Christian, Rededicate 250, Christianity, Faith, Religion, God, Self-evident truths, Rights, Unalienable rights, Divine, Government, Mike johnson, Politics 

A female candidate running for Congress in Michigan is testing the old adage that, when it comes to politics, there’s no such thing as negative attention.

Shelby Campbell, a 32-year-old apparently self-described “c***,” is looking to unseat far-left radical Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar in the 13th district of Michigan, which includes Detroit and some neighboring cities. Thanedar was first elected in 2022.

There is also at least one video in which she imagines the genitalia of one of her male commenters.

To draw attention to her campaign, Campbell has released dozens of TikTok videos discussing, among other vulgar topics, how “f***able” she is, the explicit alleged circumstances surrounding the conception of the unborn child she claims to have aborted in 2023, and the fact that she “got some last night.”

In multiple videos, Campbell flips the bird, while in other videos, she performs highly suggestive dance moves to songs with pornographic lyrics. In some, she even dances on a stripper pole, sometimes with a flag that reads “p***y power” in the background.

In one particularly uncouth alleged video that appears to have been deleted, she positions the camera to film up her shorts, then says, “I am a c***. Great. But would you know a cl** if you saw one?”

There is also at least one video in which she imagines the genitalia of one of her male commenters.

According to her campaign website, Campbell believes she can represent the 13th district well because she speaks the “language” of the people there and “can translate the lived experiences of working people into real policy.” Perhaps to demonstrate her street cred, Campbell admits on the site that she has “been to jail” and even provides mug shots that document four arrests between 2012 and 2015.

“I’m not here to pretend I’m perfect,” her website says.

“Leadership is shaped by lived experience, not perfection.”

Her crude videos may have made the news, but she does have a political platform. She supports the Green New Deal, denounces capitalism as obsolete, demands “housing justice,” slams “white women” for letting down their black sisters, and even though she claims to be a member of the United Auto Workers union and is vying to represent the Motor City, Campbell wants to increase public transportation and “reduce car dependency.”

A caption in a video Campbell posted in December said that Charlie Kirk “died for what he believed in quit crying about it.”

She also attended a No Kings rally in March and brought a sign reading “F**k ICE.” Another similarly themed sign reads, “I like my ICE crushed.”

RELATED: Democrat plagued by primary challenges announces 7 articles of impeachment against Trump

Photo of Rep. Shri Thanedar by Elizabeth Frantz; Washington Post/Getty Images

Campbell professes to detest the two-party system in America but claims that if forced to choose, she sides more with Democrats. The New York Post and some social media accounts have also characterized Campbell as a Democratic candidate, as does her Ballotpedia page.

However, the truth about her party affiliation is a bit more complicated.

Campbell confirmed in a statement to Blaze News that she completed “the necessary paperwork and collected enough signatures to qualify for the Democratic primary ballot” but ultimately decided to run as an independent.

“As an independent candidate, I have until July 15 to submit the required valid signatures for ballot access. I am confident I can do that because I already demonstrated the ability to organize and collect enough support during the Democratic primary process,” she told Blaze News in an email.

A spokesperson for the Michigan Bureau of Elections confirmed to Blaze News that, as of Monday, Campbell had not yet formally filed petitions to run for Congress either as a Democrat or as an independent and that the deadline to file as a Democrat has already expired.

Multiple Republican candidates have filed to compete in the race, but the district is considered deep blue. The Michigan primary election will be held on August 4.

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​Shelby campbell, Michigan, Shri thanedar, Democratic party, Democrats, Detroit, Politics 

As headlines surrounding hantavirus continue to spark fear of another pandemic, BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler is urging Americans to take a breath and look at the actual numbers.

While the virus carries a frighteningly high fatality rate for those infected, Wheeler argues the odds of even contracting hantavirus remain astronomically low compared to everyday risks Americans routinely ignore.

“So, here are your odds of dying from hantavirus: 1 in 30 to 35 million,” Wheeler begins. “That’s your odds of dying from the hantavirus. You can compare that, and I suggest you do, to your odds of dying from being struck by lightning: 1 in 15 to 20 million. So, you are more likely to die from being struck by lightning in the United States than you are to die from the hantavirus.”

“Your odds, by the way, of dying in a car accident: 1 in 8 to 9,000. Your odds of dying from a medical error: 1 in 1,000 to 1,400. By the way, dying from a medical error is the third leading cause of death in our country after heart disease and cancer,” she continues.

“If someone is telling you to be frightened of the hantavirus, they are lying to you. If someone is telling you to be more worried about a 1 in 30 to 35 million odds chance of dying from the hantavirus while ignoring the approximately 350,000 people in the United States who die from a medical error from doctors messing up every year, you should mute them,” she adds.

While the fatality rate for hantavirus is high, the amount of cases per year in the United States is not.

“There’s an average of 30 cases of hantavirus per year that result in approximately 8 to 12 deaths per year. So, that is a case fatality rate, by the way, that’s extremely high. That’s 35 to 38% case fatality rate, which is a frightening statistic,” Wheeler says.

Hantavirus cases also historically mostly occur in a concentrated region, with 94% of the cases occurring west of the Mississippi River.

“They all happen around spring cleaning time when people in the Southwest, you know, clean out a shed that has the feces of the deer mouse, for example. That’s where the deer mouse is, in the Southwest. The dust, they inhale the dust, and they contract the hantavirus from it,” Wheeler explains.

Patient zero on the cruise ship also happened to put himself in a dangerous situation before contracting the virus.

“Before he boarded the cruise ship, [he] visited a dump, a landfill, that was contaminated with rodent feces. He went there, as an ornithologist might, to bird watch, despite the fact that local residents avoided the area because they knew it to be contaminated,” Wheeler says.

“They knew it to be dangerous to health. He did this anyway,” she continues, pointing out that while it may sound harsh, it was his decision.

“We should have societal recognition of decisions made by individuals that are bad decisions. For example, … this man died, and so maybe people don’t want to talk about his decisions because he’s dead, but are we avoiding the personal responsibility entirely?” Wheeler asks.

“He did something unwise. He did something imprudent. He hurt himself. He hurt his wife,” she says, “He hurt other people.”

And while there has been speculation that it’s a new strain, Wheeler explains that “it is not a new strain.”

“Has the virus actually mutated?” she asks. “Well, according to the science, according to an analysis of what the DNA looks like, the answer to that is no. In fact, it’s very, very similar to the strain of hantavirus that caused an outbreak in Argentina in 2018.”

“That is not a new strain,” she adds.

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Americans, Blazetv host, Car accident, Case fatality rate, Concentrated region, Cruise ship, Deer mouse, Fatality rate, Hantavirus, Leading cause, Lightning strike, Liz wheeler, Medical error, Mississippi river, Odds of dying, Pandemic fears, Spring cleaning, The liz wheeler show, Rodent feces, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals 

An 18-year-old New Jersey male is accused of stabbing his elderly grandmother to death — and police found knives protruding from the victim’s body Monday morning.

Louis Brown of Jackson Township on Monday was charged with murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and unlawful possession of a weapon, all in connection with the death of his grandmother, 69-year-old Darlene Brown also of Jackson Township, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said.

‘An unbelievably nice person — the nicest person to talk to, intelligent, just always helpful, always kind.’

Jackson Township Police Department officers around 7 a.m. Monday responded to a residence on Justin Way in reference to a 911 call stating that someone had been murdered, officials said.

Officers found Louis Brown standing at the front doorway of the residence, officials said, adding that Brown exited the residence with his hands up and was immediately taken into custody while officers conducted their investigation.

Officers entered the home and found the body of a deceased female — later identified as Darlene Brown — in an upstairs bedroom with apparent stab wounds to her face and neck, officials said, adding that officers observed two knives protruding from the victim.

An investigation — which was conducted by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit, Jackson Township Police Department Detective Bureau, and Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit — revealed that Louis Brown was the individual who called 911 and was responsible for his grandmother’s death, officials said.

Brown was charged and taken to the Ocean County Jail, where he remained Tuesday morning. There is no hearing information in Brown’s jail record, which also lists no bail.

RELATED: Florida thug allegedly stabs his grandmother 11 times on Mother’s Day — after being asked to help carry in groceries

Image source: Jackson Township (N.J.) Police

Jasmina Perazic, a resident of the complex where the stabbing took place, told NJ.com Darlene Brown lived in a unit with her grandson, Louis Brown, a high school senior.

Perazic — the head women’s basketball coach at Georgian Court University — told the outlet that Louis Brown moved in with his grandmother after his mom died of sickle cell anemia. Perazic described Darlene Brown as a friendly person whom she spoke to at least five times a week, NJ.com added.

“An unbelievably nice person — the nicest person to talk to, intelligent, just always helpful, always kind,” Perazic said to the outlet in regard to Darlene Brown. “It just looked like she was working so hard to take care of him.”

Perazic added to NJ.com that Louis Brown was quiet and had been bullied in school, but she saw no warning signs that anything was wrong. In fact, Perazic told the outlet that his grandmother said Louis Brown was a good kid who was doing well in school.

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​Murder charge, Possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, Unlawful possession of a weapon, Jackson township, New jersey, Louis brown, Knives, Fatal stabbing, Elderly victim, Arrest, Jailed, Knives in victim’s body, Grandmother, Crime 

Former President Barack Obama joined other liberals earlier this year in championing an unlawful power-grab in Virginia that would have delivered to Democrats 10 of the state’s 11 congressional districts, and now they have a new plan cooked up in Georgia.

To Democrats’ chagrin, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled on May 8 that the costly gerrymandering scheme there was illegal, thereby preserving the 2021-era congressional maps in which Democrats and Republicans enjoyed a 6-5 split.

‘It’s unfortunate the other side, backed by money that’s from outside the state …’

On the eve of power-mad liberals’ humiliating defeat in Virginia, Obama turned his gaze southward to another opportunity for a potential increase in Democrat power.

“State supreme court justices play a critical role in defending your rights and freedoms, which is why the election happening in Georgia right now is so important,” wrote Obama. “Make sure you have a plan to vote for Jen Jordan and Miracle Rankin, the only two candidates in the race with strong records of standing up for all Georgians.”

Eight of the Georgia Supreme Court’s nine justices are presently appointees of Republican governors. Two GOP-appointed, conservative-backed justices — Sarah Warren and Charlie Bethel — are, however, fighting for re-election on Tuesday, and another three GOP-appointed justices will face re-election in 2028.

RELATED: Perpetual victim Fani Willis cries RACISM and SEXISM again, this time over common-sense election law

Megan Varner/Getty Images

Obama and other Democrats, unhumbled by their blunder in Virginia, appear keen to ideologically flip the Georgia court over the next two years.

As Obama indicated, Justice Warren is facing off on Tuesday against former Democrat state Sen. Jen Jordan, while Justice Bethel, a former Republican state senator, is facing off against Miracle Rankin, a personal injury attorney. Both of the Democrat-backed candidates are pro-abortion radicals who enjoy the backing of anti-natalist groups.

“This is the first time we’ve gone on offense, and we have raised a bit of money for it,” Charlie Bailey, chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party, told CNN.

“It’s unfortunate the other side, backed by money that’s from outside the state, is trying to make a nonpartisan race political,” said Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is backing both Warren and Bethel. “That’s not how our judiciary works in our state. And I would urge people to vote for the incumbents. They have bipartisan support from people who really understand how important it is to have a nonpartisan judiciary.”

Outside money and influence are hardly the only issue that has come up in this race.

A special committee within Georgia’s Judicial Qualifications Commission revealed over the weekend that the Obama-endorsed candidates likely violated the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct, reported the Georgia Recorder. Not only did Jordan and Rankin publicly endorse one another; they apparently conveyed that they would restore abortion rights — problematic because judges and judicial candidates are not allowed to make statements about issues likely to come before the court.

These damning accusations were suppressed, however, ahead of Election Day by Leslie Gardner, an Obama-appointed federal judge who is the sister of failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

Gardener blocked the special committee from issuing its statement, claiming that the candidates’ apparent abortion pledges were constitutionally protected and not explicit enough to constitute violations.

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​Georgia, Supreme court, Georgia supreme court, Barack obama, Jen jordan, Bethel, Miracle rankin, Democrats, Power grab, Misconduct, Atlanta, Election, Politics 

A viral video from Memphis recently drew national attention for good reason. A woman was filmed at a gender-reveal party murdering her preborn baby with abortion pills.

In the video, she aired grievances about her “baby daddy” and announced that she would not complete the pregnancy. As friends watched, cheered, and even shouted “kill it,” she opened a packet of abortion pills while whooping and singing, “Thank you, Jesus.” Instead of announcing whether the baby was a boy or a girl, she declared the baby was “no gender” and swallowed the pills.

Tennessee Republicans understand perfectly well that Democrats have no real power in the state. They can govern as they please. And they chose not to abolish abortion.

The episode horrified pro-lifers. But much of the reaction missed a harder truth: Tennessee Republicans recently had a chance to stop this kind of killing and chose not to.

In a later interview, the woman said she had consumed alcohol throughout the pregnancy and that she and the father believed the baby would be born “slow.” That, she said, is why they decided on an abortion. She then celebrated the abortion with the interviewer, who joked that she had managed both a gender reveal and a “funeral” on the same day.

The whole episode stands as a brutal commentary on the culture. Some pro-life leaders still describe women as abortion’s “second victims.” But more women now openly and brazenly celebrate the killing of their preborn children. In recent years, a sickening “shout your abortion” culture has taken root among women who do not merely defend abortion, but praise it as liberation.

This case drew intense backlash. Yet the Christians expressing horror may not realize that Tennessee lawmakers had a chance only months ago to stop such violence and refused to act.

Many state and national pro-life groups insist that the abortion issue is basically settled in Tennessee. Americans United for Life says “abortion is illegal in Tennessee, with limited exceptions” and that “chemical abortion pills are tightly regulated.” Tennessee Right to Life claims “abortion is illegal in Tennessee” and that the state is “a national leader” in protecting preborn babies. Students for Life Action has even described Tennessee as “abortion-free.”

The Memphis video exposes those claims as false.

RELATED: How a pro-life law in Kentucky lets mothers get away with murder

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

The woman and her friends were able to obtain the supposedly “tightly regulated” abortion pills, use them to kill a baby, record the act, and post it online for the entire country to see. They could do that because Tennessee law grants complete immunity to women who procure abortions. In practice, that means no deterrent exists to stop a woman from willfully murdering her preborn child.

The statute that supposedly makes Tennessee “abortion-free” states plainly that it “does not subject the pregnant woman upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to criminal conviction or penalty.”

In other words, the woman in the video cannot be held criminally accountable for intentionally killing her baby, no matter how openly murderous her intent was, because Tennessee’s pro-life laws shield her and every other woman from penalty.

Lawmakers had a chance to close that loophole this year through House Bill 570, which would have established equal protection for preborn babies. Instead of banning prenatal homicide only for third-party abortionists, the bill would have applied the same murder laws that protect those already born and criminalized abortion as murder for anyone willfully involved.

But when the bill appeared, pro-life establishment groups immediately pressured lawmakers to avoid supporting it. None of the Republicans on the Tennessee House Population Health Subcommittee even made a motion to grant House Bill 570 a hearing.

That failure matters because Tennessee is not some purple state with divided government. Republicans hold supermajorities in both legislative chambers. They recently pushed through redistricting and punished Democrats who objected. In other words, Tennessee Republicans understand perfectly well that Democrats have no real power in the state. They can govern as they please.

RELATED: Fleetwood Mac’s real breakup story: Death before motherhood

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

And they chose not to abolish abortion.

That means any woman in Tennessee, no matter how brazen or malicious, can commit prenatal homicide without fear of legal consequences.

The baby murdered in that video was no outlier. More than 5,000 preborn babies are killed every year in Tennessee through abortion pills obtained through telehealth providers. Thousands more die outside the formal medical system.

If Tennessee lawmakers want to stop this legally tolerated bloodshed, they must establish equal protection for preborn babies and treat them as the image-bearers of God they are. That means abolishing abortion and criminalizing it once and for all.

​Abortion, Abortion debate, Abortion drugs, Abortion pills, Pro life, Republicans, Tennessee, Pregnancy, Shout your abortion, Opinion & analysis 

The legacy media feverishly concern-mongered about COVID-19 and then tried unsuccessfully to generate similar hysteria over the gay-spread monkeypox virus.

Clearly desperate for a new health scare — especially after America formally rejected the World Health Organization — outlets seized upon reports of a deadly outbreak of hantavirus last month among passengers and crew of the MV Hondius, a Dutch cruise ship carrying 147 souls embarking from the southern tip of the Andes mountains in South America to the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco.

‘We should shy away from making bold pronouncements that may prove dangerously misleading weeks or months later.’

While some publications rushed to attack emerging theories about the nature of the virus, including the notion that it was cooked up in a lab — narrative attacks that neglected to mention a recent gain-of function experiment involving hantaviruses — others pushed alarmist headlines such as:

“Is hantavirus the next COVID? Is the U.S. response on point? An outbreak update” — NPR“Why hantavirus is giving us a ‘sinking feeling,’ despite experts’ reassurance” — Canadian state media“Fears rat virus has spread to seven countries” — The Telegraph“Could human-transmitted hantavirus be the next pandemic threat?” — The Week“Hantavirus: Many unknowns surround an ‘unprecedented and worrying’ outbreak” — Le Monde

Despite provocative headlines and framing, many media outfits and experts have acknowledged that it is extremely unlikely that there will be a hantavirus epidemic, let alone a pandemic — though a news article at CNN cautioned against “calm-mongering” over hantavirus lest “post-COVID anxiety” be triggered.

A new article in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, for instance, emphasized that while the suspected variety of hantavirus on the MV Hondius “can cause severe disease, high case fatality, and intense public anxiety when they emerge in mobile or closed settings,” such “outbreaks are not frequent” and are “unlikely to become a global outbreak.”

Hantavirus is a family of potentially deadly single-stranded RNA viruses that are naturally found in rodents. Only 890 cases of hantavirus were reported in the U.S. between 1993 and 2023, 35% of them fatal.

RELATED: Bizarre academic paper about releasing ticks resurfaces amid surging bites

The MV Hondius. Omar Havana/Getty Images

When spread to humans, hantaviruses can cause two diseases: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome — a condition affecting the kidneys — and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which affects the lungs.

The hantavirus affecting people on the MV Hondius, the HPS-associated Andes strain, is unique.

Whereas other strains leap from rodents to humans, the Andes virus — symptoms of which appear anywhere from four to 42 days after exposure — has been reported to transmit from person to person via saliva droplets and other oral fluids, although this transmission theory has not been definitively proven.

The breakout on the cruise ship, which has so far claimed the lives of three people, is hardly unprecedented in terms of alleged mass human transmissions of the disease — at least where South America is concerned.

From November 2018 through February 2019 in Chubut Province, Argentina, there was, for instance, a person-to-person outbreak that resulted in 34 confirmed infections and 11 deaths.

Amid continued uncertainty over the genesis of the latest outbreak and media fearmongering, a wide range of theories have emerged about the rodent-borne virus.

Having heard for years about the various efforts to enhance the transmissibility, virulence, or host range of certain viruses, some have speculated that human-to-human transmission of hantavirus points to gain-of-function experimentation.

While there’s been nothing yet to suggest that the virus responsible for the breakout on the Hondius was the result of intentional genetic meddling, scientists have previously modified viruses incorporating hantavirus components and increased their viral fitness in a lab setting. This is similar to the controversial work done on bat coronaviruses at the lab in Wuhan, China.

Hantaviruses are considered a bioagent requiring Biosafety Level 3 containment for research and viral propagation. Consequently, BSL-2 laboratories won’t cut it.

However, a peer-reviewed study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in 2019 by the American Society for Microbiology describes how researchers developed a work-around for conducting hantavirus research in a lower biocontainment-security BSL-2 laboratory.

Researchers tried to make a safer chimeric virus — which is a hybrid virus created by piecing together parts of two different viruses. They used a relatively weaker virus, vesicular stomatis virus, as the main body, and then attached the entry proteins from the more dangerous hantavirus to the outside so that it could infiltrate and infect cells.

This new recombinant virus — the result of an artificial mash-up of genetic material — apparently started acting just like a real hantavirus and underwent a series of mutations to become more infective:

Serial passage of the rescued rVSV-HTNV Gn/Gc virus markedly increased its infectivity and capacity for cell-to-cell spread. This gain in viral fitness was associated with the acquisition of two point mutations: I532K in the cytoplasmic tail of Gn and S1094L in the membrane-proximal stem of Gc. Follow-up experiments with rVSVs and single-cycle VSV pseudotypes confirmed these results. Mechanistic studies revealed that both mutations were determinative and contributed to viral infectivity in a synergistic manner.

The lead researcher on the 2019 study declined Blaze News’ request for comment.

This study is anything but a smoking gun. Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have originated in the neighborhood of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where dangerous gain-of-function experiments were being conducted on coronaviruses, the Hondius outbreak seemingly took place a world away from this ostensibly low-danger hantavirus study.

Still, researchers have yet to provide a comprehensive and satisfying explanation for how the Andes virus spreads, prompting speculation that members of the scientific community that possibly manufactured the SARS-COV-2 virus are again not being entirely forthright about what they know and don’t know regarding the Hondius outbreak.

“Public health officials have to be more honest and more humble about how this virus actually spreads,” noted Joseph Allen, professor of exposure assessment science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “An essential lesson from COVID is that officials should be candid about communicating that we are often learning in real time, and we should shy away from making bold pronouncements that may prove dangerously misleading weeks or months later.”

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​Andes strain, Andes virus, Argentina, Epidemic, Gain in viral, Gain of function, Gain-of-function, Hantavirus, Hondius, Liberal media, Media, Outbreak, Outbreaks, Research, Rodent, Scaremongering, Science, Strain, Virus, Wuhan, Wuhan institute of virology, Politics 

Meta was one of the first tech giants to bring smart glasses to the mainstream market, thanks to a partnership with Ray-Ban. Unfortunately, Meta’s reputation for spying on users just landed a vicious blow to its hardware ambitions. According to a former business partner, Meta is secretly recording and saving everything its users see through its Meta Ray-Ban glasses, from simple outings to much more intimate encounters.

Sama says Meta is watching

The claim comes from Sama, a Kenyan-based AI company that partnered with Meta starting in 2017. According to its website, Sama helps train AI and machine learning models by annotating, validating, and evaluating large swaths of data. It’s also part of the Everest Group, an organization recognized by former President Clinton and the Clinton Foundation for outsourcing jobs to “underserved communities.” During their partnership, Sama provided moderation services to Meta that are no longer part of its business portfolio.

Privacy is more at risk now than ever.

In 2022, Sama filed a lawsuit against Meta over poor working conditions, unreasonable pay, poor mental health support for employees, and infringement on employee privacy. As part of their moderation partnership, some employees were forced to view and flag distressing content on Meta’s platforms, including murder and sex crimes involving minors. However, the companies continued to work together for many years, leading up to this year.

In April 2026, Sama employees filed new complaints expressing that they reviewed intimate footage captured by customers’ Meta Ray-Ban glasses. While not as graphic as the scenes from 2022, content included users visiting the bathroom, undressing in their bedrooms, and even engaging in private adult relations.

Weeks after these details emerged, Meta severed its contract with Sama, forcing its former partner to fire more than 1,000 staff members to account for the financial loss.

The worst part

It’s honestly hard to pick out the worst part of this story. Is it Meta’s alleged negligence of Sama’s employees? Is it the illegal content that requires human moderation on Meta’s platforms? Is it the fact that Sama continued to work with Meta, despite the poor conditions?

It’s all terrible. But looking at the story from a tech angle, it’s particularly disturbing that Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses captured footage and uploaded it directly to Meta’s servers to be saved and reviewed, especially when users weren’t aware this was happening. The news is a clear violation of user privacy, and it highlights Meta’s blatant lie that “you’re in control of your data and content.”

Clearly not.

RELATED: Trump phones begin shipping as liberal media melts down: ‘You got scammed’

Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Meta’s privacy policies

The marketing drivel Meta pushes on a webpage is one thing though. What do its legally binding privacy policies say? Several times, the original policy mentions that humans may review user content for various purposes, especially to “combat harmful or unlawful behavior,” including scenes deemed to be troubling until a person reviews it and decides otherwise. The page reads:

The Meta products are designed to research and help ensure the safety, integrity, and security of those services and those people who enjoy them, on and off Meta products. We process information we have associated with you and apply automated processing techniques and, in some instances, conduct manual (human) review.

A second policy specifically for “supplemental Meta platforms” includes AI-powered smart glasses like Meta Ray-Ban. Under the photos, videos, and audio section, it states:

You can use the AI Glasses to take photos and video recordings with audio. … We will process your Media when you turn on cloud processing on your AI Glasses, interact with the Meta AI service on your AI Glasses, or upload your Media to certain services provided by Meta (i.e., Facebook or Instagram). You can change your choices about cloud processing of your Media at any time in Settings.

In other words, Meta Ray-Bans may process footage on Meta’s servers when cloud services are turned on, and this feature can be disabled in settings. Unfortunately, the only thing that mentions human review in the policy references audio processing for Meta VR products, like the Meta Quest. That means, as far as the supplemental privacy policy is concerned, Meta employees should not have the right to review footage captured on Meta Ray-Ban glasses.

Yet, Sama says it does.

Maybe don’t trust that camera on your face

Smart glasses are a niche product that haven’t fully caught on with the general public, and no one’s exactly sure how to feel about them. On one hand, smart glasses can be used for noble causes, like making the streets safer from illegal aliens and criminals. On the other, it opens Pandora’s box for mass surveillance of the American people. Clearly, Meta is choosing the latter, even if it doesn’t say it out loud.

The moral of the story is that Meta Ray-Ban glasses can’t be trusted, whether you wear a pair yourself or you know someone who does. These devices can record everything they see, with that footage accessible to third-party contractors and Meta employees.

Of course, this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone familiar with Meta’s business practices. The company has found itself in plenty of privacy-related legal trouble over the years, from WhatsApp’s questionable encryption to its now-defunct Onavo Protect VPN data-tracking scandal, and more.

At their core, Meta Ray-Bans are intrusive with huge privacy implications for their users and the people around them. This is the same problem Google Glass faced more than a decade ago, and now that extended reality glasses are on the rise again, privacy is more at risk now than ever.

​Meta, Ray-ban, Surveillance, Privacy, Tech