On Friday, Blaze News exclusively reported on the circumstances regarding the firing of a young operative by the Indiana Republican Party. That operative, Paul Tinkle, was fired last week for flashing the “OK” sign in a picture posted to social media. He was rehired by the state party on Monday after the Blaze News report.

Tinkle has worked on Republican politics since he was 16. After teaching in Japan for three years, where the “OK” sign is a common gesture when being photographed, he returned to manage volunteers for the Indiana State GOP.

‘I want to personally apologize to Paul for jumping to a conclusion that was not supported by the facts.’

His firing and rehiring quickly became a social media firestorm. Blaze News exclusively reported on Friday that Hamilton County GOP Chair Mario Massillamany allegedly played an outsized role in Tinkle’s firing, according to Tinkle’s supervisors.

“I was not instrumental in getting him fired,” Massillamany told Blaze News on Friday. “I have had nothing to do with firing him.”

“I did not know what his sign was,” Massillamany said.

Other sources contradicted Massillamany’s version of events to Blaze News.

“Mario thinks you dropped a white power symbol and no one will be able to convince him otherwise,” a supervisor told Tinkle just prior to his termination, one text obtained by Blaze News showed.

On Monday morning, Indiana Republican Party Chairwoman Lana Keesling admitted that she made a mistake by firing Tinkle and accepted responsibility for the move many saw as unjustified.

“I am glad to share that Paul Tinkle will be returning to his position with the Indiana Republican Party. After learning more about the situation, it became clear that I did not have the full picture,” Keesling said in a statement posted to X. “I made the wrong decision regarding Paul’s employment, and I take full responsibility for it. I want to personally apologize to Paul for jumping to a conclusion that was not supported by the facts.”

RELATED: Exclusive: Republican operative fired after flashing “OK” sign speaks out

Courtesy of Paul Joseph Tinkle; used with permission

Tinkle told Blaze News that he is just glad to get back to work as the November midterms approach.

“I would like everyone to unify around our wonderful candidates, especially Max Engling. I want to thank the countless Hoosier officials who stood up for me, especially: Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith, Representative Andrew Ireland, state Senate candidate Trevor De Vries, and County Councilman Brandon Harnish,” Tinkle said. “I also want to thank our Governor Mike Braun for his great service and for getting this all fixed.”

“Last but not least, I want to thank all the wonderful folks at Turning Point for their help,” Tinkle said. “I look forward to working with them in the future.”

The Indiana State GOP did not respond to a request for comment.

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​Censors, Fired, Japan, Mistake, Social media, Politics 

With Election Day less than a month away, keeping up with the midterm elections can mean sifting through a constant stream of polls, headlines, and competing narratives.

That’s why Blaze Media created Poll Watch — a new destination designed to streamline the process of following the races that matter to you.

Poll Watch brings Senate, governor, and House races together in one place, giving you a straightforward way to follow polling and see how races are shaping up as Election Day approaches.

Track more than 200 races in one place

Instead of jumping between different polling sites and news stories, Poll Watch puts the races together in one centralized destination.

The platform features more than 2,000 polls across 200+ races, covering major Senate, governor, and House contests.

Whether you’re following a competitive race across the country or keeping a close eye on an election closer to home, Poll Watch makes it easier to find the information you’re looking for.

See the Blaze polling average

Individual polls can tell part of the story, but a single survey can also be an outlier.

Poll Watch provides a Blaze News polling average designed to put individual polls into context. The average is calculated transparently and updated throughout the day as new polling becomes available.

The goal is simple: Give readers another way to look at the available polling data without having to interpret every individual survey in isolation.

And there’s an important distinction to keep in mind: Poll Watch shows polling averages, not predictions. Rather than telling you what will happen on Election Day, Poll Watch provides polling data so you can see where the races stand based on the information currently available.

Follow the elections in your state

National races can dominate election coverage, but many of the most consequential contests are happening closer to home.

Poll Watch includes a map that makes it easy to find major elections in your state. It’s a quick way to see which Senate, House, and governor races are on the ballot and follow the contests that matter most to you.

Create your own watch list

Because everyone follows elections differently, Poll Watch lets you customize the experience with the My Races feature. Star the races you want to follow and build a personal watch list of the contests you care about most. Your selected races are available across your devices, and you are able to see when new polling comes in. That means you can spend less time searching for updates and more time following the races themselves.

Poll Watch is included with your Blaze News subscription

Poll Watch is included at no additional cost for Blaze News, BlazeTV+, and Blaze Unlimited subscribers.

There’s no separate purchase or upgrade required. Simply sign in using the same email associated with your Blaze subscription. If you’re already signed in to TheBlaze.com, you can get started right away.

With Election Day approaching, Poll Watch offers a single place to keep track of the races, polling, and elections you care about most.

Start tracking the midterms with Poll Watch today.

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​2026 midterm election, Poll watch, Blaze media, Blaze news 

Two gun-toting males entered a Philadelphia corner store late last month and got violent with a store employee who couldn’t open a safe — and disgusted neighbors are fed up.

Police said two suspects entered Diaz Grocery at 1501 North 29th Street around 4 p.m. Sept. 29 while a third suspect kept watch outside.

‘I come here all the time, every day. Whoever’s around here that’s doing that, you should just chill out. … we’re not living like that no more.’

The suspects produced handguns, announced a robbery, and forced the victims to a rear stockroom, where they demanded access to a safe, police said.

Marianny Hernandez, a store employee, told WTXF-TV that her uncle and cousin were working in the store at the time, and the suspects wanted the “password for the safe” — but the workers didn’t know it, so one of the suspects resorted to “hitting my uncle.”

Police said one suspect pistol-whipped the store owner in the face, resulting in a large cut under the victim’s eye. Police said the suspects were unable to access the safe, after which the front point of sale area was ransacked, and they fled eastbound on West Jefferson Street with the victim’s keys, phone, and about $7,000 cash.

RELATED: Deadly shoot-out between off-duty cop and male who pistol-whipped him caught on police dashcam video

Police gave the following descriptions of the two suspects who entered the store:

Suspect #1: Black male, 25 to 30 years old, KMSL hooded sweatshirt and Sprayground backpack, armed with a black handgun.Suspect #2: Black male, 17 to 20 years old, ear-length twists/braids, black/white Spiderman backpack, armed with a black handgun.

Hernandez told WTXF that since the robbery, she and the other store workers are “watching the cameras 24/7,” along with “every weird car” that shows up, and if people enter the store wearing masks, “we tell them to take them off.”

Conchita Bradley told the station that the violent store robbery is “real sad and very scary because I could’ve been in there, I could’ve sent my granddaughter to the store, and she could’ve gotten caught in there.”

An unnamed man added to WTXF that he’s a regular at Diaz Grocery — and he has a message for the violent crooks: “I come here all the time, every day. Whoever’s around here that’s doing that, you should just chill out. … we’re not living like that no more, like, go get a job.”

Police added that if you see these suspects, do not approach them — instead contact 911 immediately. To submit a tip via telephone, dial 215-686-TIPS (8477) or use this electronic form to submit a tip anonymously. Police said all tips will be confidential.

Police also said that those who have information about this crime or these suspects should contact the Central Detective Division at 215-686-3047/3048.

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​Armed robbery, Philadelphia, Suspects at large, Pistol whipped, Physical attack, Crime 

The Pentagon wants you to watch the skies … again.

Last month, the War Department published a sixth release of declassified and historical files related to UAPs, while the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office continues to publish military footage of UAPs. Some cases have explanations. Others remain unresolved because of insufficient data.

Most of the people getting excited about ‘aliens’ have spent their entire lives being taught that nonhuman spiritual beings don’t exist at all.

“Unresolved” does not necessarily mean extraterrestrial. It does mean, however, that Christians should stop laughing at the question.

This wheel’s on fire

The Bible never says humanity is alone. From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture speaks of intelligent beings who are not human. Some serve God; others rebel against Him. Today, though some may call them “aliens,” changing the label does not change what they are.

Job 38:7 says that at creation, “the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” These heavenly beings existed before humanity and were not originally from Earth.

Western art often depicts angels as harmless babies or ordinary humans with bird wings, but biblical angels look very different. The original Hebrew mal’akh and Greek angelos mean “messenger” and are used to describe what these beings do, not everything they are.

Daniel described a heavenly being with a face like lightning, eyes like flaming torches, and limbs like burnished bronze. Ezekiel’s cherubim came with wheels within wheels covered in eyes. And Isaiah’s seraphim, the “burning ones,” were adorned with six wings each. If someone who rejected Scripture saw such a spiritual being today, what would they call it? Likely an alien or a god.

As Paul says in Ephesians 6, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. The idea of the unseen realm is not a modern conspiracy theory. Rather, it has always been part of the biblical worldview.

Deities … or demons?

Ancient archaeology provides another connection. Mesopotamian traditions from Eridu speak of the apkallu, sages associated with the age before the Flood. They were given the role of bringing knowledge to humanity. Centuries later, Assyrian palaces at Nimrud displayed human and eagle-headed winged figures connected with these sages. At Nimrud and Nineveh, enormous lamassu, which are human-headed winged bulls or lions, guarded royal thresholds. Ancient texts also speak of the Anunnaki, a group of powerful deities.

Now put these figures next to Ezekiel’s description. He describes each cherub as having four faces at once: a human, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. The apkallu looked like a human body under an eagle’s head and wings. The lamassu combined a human head with the winged body of a bull or lion. These same features keep showing up in Ezekiel’s description of a similar being.

This doesn’t prove the carvings are exact portraits of cherubim, but the resemblance is too striking to ignore. These cultures may have been deceived by real spiritual beings, represented them in their images, and worshiped the creation rather than the Creator. These artifacts show that early people were already telling stories about nonhuman beings, sacred knowledge, and contact between heaven and earth.

The biblical writers didn’t treat these pagan gods as harmless myths. Both Deuteronomy 32:17 and 1 Corinthians 10:20 say the sacrifices pagan societies offered were made to demons. That’s a different claim than what most people assume today, where the old gods get filed away as folklore.

But swinging too far the other direction causes its own problems, and Christians shouldn’t assume every strange light is a demon. A UAP could be a balloon, a drone, an aircraft, classified technology, a natural event, a hoax, or a simple misperception. Some encounters may still involve spiritual deception too. Christians should test the evidence and test the spirits.

RELATED: This little-known fact changes everything about Jonah and the whale

Blaze Media

The coming darkness

This connection between the pre-Flood world, ancient cities, and rebellious spiritual powers is one reason we wrote our biblical fantasy novel “Lightborn: Dawn of Darkness.” This world is not separate from what we see happening today. The novel explores where this spiritual rebellion began and imagines the ancient world behind the biblical account.

Archaeology shows that ancient civilizations believed in powerful nonhuman beings and worshipped them as gods. Scripture reveals the darker spiritual reality at play. These fallen spirits did not simply disappear along with the ancient world. They continued to influence people and nations, and that spiritual deception will play an important role in the end times.

Most of the people getting excited about “aliens” have spent their entire lives being taught that nonhuman spiritual beings don’t exist at all, and that’s the actual danger. Paul warned of this in 2 Thessalonians 2, describing a lawless figure who comes cloaked in false signs, wonders, and deception.

We believe the modern alien narrative could help prepare people to receive dark powers as teachers or saviors. Scripture does not say the Antichrist will arrive in a spacecraft. It does warn that supernatural appearances do not automatically come from God and that people may encounter angels without recognizing them.

If a shining being offers secret knowledge, a new religion, or a savior other than Jesus Christ, the church should not first ask which planet it came from. We should ask who it serves. Good angels refuse worship. Fallen ones seek it. Jesus Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life. Whatever future disclosure may reveal, that truth will never change.

​Angels, Assyrian, Bible, Christians, Earth, Extraterrestrial, Ezekiel, Military, Pentagon, Uaps, God, Lifestyle, Mesopotamia, Culture, Books, Faith 

Every Saturday for three quarters of a century, Canadians could walk through neighborhoods and see “Hockey Night in Canada” on living room TVs.

For the NHL’s 2026-2027 season, that tradition is finally over, replaced with a sport popular in South Asia.

‘A strong option for us to consider in our schedule.’

On Saturday, Canada’s public broadcaster — the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation — wasn’t showing the rivalry game between the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs, nor did it pick up the historic Montreal Canadiens game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Instead, it showed cricket.

Although, it turns out it didn’t really have to.

As first reported by Juno News, CBC said it is experimenting with a strategy of showing a wider range of sports, specifically Olympic sports, during the time slot traditionally held by men’s hockey. The CBC didn’t have to go with cricket for the first Saturday of the NHL season; it chose to and ran with the top cricket league in Canada called Super60.

“As a new Olympic sport, with a major event being held in Canada, the Super60 was a strong option for us to consider in our schedule as we bridge from summer to winter sports,” CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson told Juno News.

“The Canada Super60 was a unique and rare opportunity for us to offer live, world-class cricket, played in Canada on the public broadcaster,” Thompson added.

The cricket matches aired at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET, the two time slots typically assigned to a game airing from the East Coast and the Mountain or Pacific time zones, respectively.

RELATED: NHL launches ‘Hot for Hockey’ campaign to tap into ‘hockey romance’ culture — and the results are bizarre

Phillip MacCallum/Getty Images

“Hockey Night in Canada” began in 1952 and soon became an institution in Canadian television, especially when it featured former NHL coach Don Cherry and his “Coach’s Corner” segment starting in 1986.

Cherry was fired in 2019, however, after suggesting immigrants to Canada do not respect the country enough to wear a poppy on Remembrance Day to honor war veterans.

At the same time, CBC had already lost national broadcasting rights to the NHL in 2014, but it continued to sublicense games on Saturday nights from Rogers, one of Canada’s big-two comms giants.

This allowed “Hockey Night in Canada” to remain on the air — that is until this year when a new contract could not be reached.

“Despite best efforts, CBC and (Rogers) Sportsnet could not reach an agreement that worked for both parties,” Thompson said.

This comes as the CBC boasted a $1.38 billion budget in 2024-25, up from $1.29 billion in 2023-24.

RELATED: Fans accuse Chicago Bears player of performing Muslim prayer during national anthem: ‘Is this respectful?’

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images

Instead, Rogers has reached a 12-year sublicensing agreement with Prime Video, which will air “Wednesday Night Hockey in Canada” and some playoff games.

CBC, on the other hand, has become the official broadcast and streaming partner of the cricket league and will air select matches on television while the rest will go to CBC Gem, the network’s streaming app.

“As the public broadcaster and Canada’s Olympic broadcaster, we want to provide the biggest and brightest stage possible for Canadian athletes and major events held in Canada,” Thompson said.

“We will be live on CBC Sports Prime Time as much as possible,” he added.

The “Hockey Night in Canada” name, which belongs to the CBC, will now be applied to the Professional Women’s Hockey League when the PWHL season starts in December.

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​Hockey, Canada, India, Cricket, Nhl, Sports 

The banners were already changed on Tuesday morning when Skydance’s Paramount completed its massive merger with Warner Bros.

Skydance proudly lists on its website that its newly acquired brands include CBS News, HBO, and, of course, CNN.

CNN’s crew seemingly fears that Bari Weiss — whom Paramount appointed as CBS News editor in chief in 2025 — will be given similar powers to oversee CNN.

The massive $110 billion takeover seemed like it might never happen, even amid claims that Skydance and CEO David Ellison were open to moving their $30 billion in operations out of state if California blocked the deal.

On Tuesday morning, though, the Skydance-Paramount vs. Warner Bros.-Discovery era quickly came to an end, re-emerging as “Skydance,” per the AP.

The merger means the company controls brands like BET, MTV, HBO Max, Comedy Central, and more, all under the same banner.

This will, of course, include popular news programs like “60 Minutes” from CBS, “Anderson Cooper 360” on CNN, and “The Daily Show” from Comedy Central.

Much of the trepidation ahead of the merger has come from CNN, where staffers reportedly fear “programming and personnel changes could be driven by politics.”

RELATED: Mood at CNN is ‘like a funeral’ over looming Paramount takeover

Al Drago/Getty Images

CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter did not dispute those claims in an interview with the Wrap, but said journalists “value stability just like people in every other line of work.”

A CNN staffer told Variety that it would be “an enormous loss and disruption” to “shuffle leadership for the umpteenth time in the midst — finally — of reshaping the business.”

Another CNN staffer said that there was a strong concern that Paramount executives “don’t know or don’t care” about managing a news corporation for profit, the outlet reported.

“I don’t have glimmers of hope and don’t see reasons for any,” the staffer said, according to Variety.

CNN’s crew seemingly fears that Bari Weiss — whom Paramount appointed as CBS News editor in chief in 2025 — will be given similar powers to oversee CNN. Weiss is seen as too conservative for left-wing outlets, as she has criticized the Women’s March, questioned the idea that America is fascist, and is pro-Israel.

RELATED: Another $30 billion could leave California as state stands in the way of a massive corporate merger

Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images

In a press release, Ellison called the merger “a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry.”

“Our focus now turns to the future: building a company that empowers creatives, entertains audiences, and rewards shareholders,” he went on.

Last week, Ellison commented that Paramount and Warner Bros. coming together wasn’t a “rewriting” of history, but rather gives the studios “a more powerful engine.”

“We have big goals for Skydance, and we intend to pursue them with passion, imagination, and a willingness to take smart risks,” Ellison added.

To help control all of their new, major entities, Ellison recently announced Ynon Kreiz as his co-CEO.

Kreiz, who was born and raised in Israel, left his post as chairman and CEO of Mattel after eight years to fulfill the new role. He was also the chairman and CEO of Fox Kids Europe from 1997 to 2002.

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​Paramount, Skydance, Cnn, Cbs news, Warner bros, David ellison, Entertainment, Bari weiss 

After World War II, Britain and America arrived at much different conclusions about national identity, immigration, and patriotism — and according to Winston Marshall, the reason may explain why the two nations are now facing very different cultural futures.

“Today when someone on the left says, ‘You’ve offended me, I look back at them and go, ‘Good,’” Freitas says to the former Mumford & Sons musician, noting that meanwhile, the British are known for politeness.

“Do you think that otherwise very positive attribute has been used to silence the British people when it comes to pushing back against some of these claims?” Freitas asks.

“Absolutely,” Marshall answers. “Politeness is more than that. It’s doing tremendous damage to the country. It’s killing the country. We’re being polite to people and to ideas that don’t deserve politeness, and it’s because of fear of offense.”

“This has largely come from the progressive side. But those are the people with power,” he explains.

“It’s at the expense of the vulnerable people in Britain and that’s where it’s actually no longer acceptable. Very little consideration is given, let’s say, to the victims of the grooming gangs or the victims of mass migration,” he adds.

Marshall points out that just in the last month, there were “two synagogues in London firebombed,” “Jewish children chased down the street by a car,” and “two Jews stabbed in the neck.”

“In the last year, we had two Jews killed by a bloke whose literal first name is Jihad,” he tells Freitas.

“The prime minister is very reluctant to use the word Islamism. And it’s because there’s this fear of offending the Muslim community,” he adds.

Marshall believes this is directly connected to the aftermath of World War II.

“There’s many elements to it. I at the moment am inclined to think that something happened at the end of the Second World War, which is that we all rightly had to deal with the problem of what had just happened and the horrors of the Holocaust and rightly, we said, ‘Never again,’” Marshall says.

While Nazism and facism were now seen as evil, nationalism and religion were put into that category as well.

“Now the Americans learned a different lesson. They learned that American nationalism defeated facism. We should have learned the same thing, and I don’t quite understand how we didn’t,” he explains.

“We took this different lesson, and within that I think there was another set of ideas, which was the slightly later, the progressive, post-structuralist, that postmodernist school of thought, which is … a rehashing of Marxism where instead of it being economic classes, it’s classes based on identity,” he adds.

Start watching Nick Freitas NOW at blazetv.com and use the promo code NICK for $20 off your BlazeTV+ subscription.

​Britain, Islamism, Mass migration, Winston marshall, World war ii, Grooming gangs, Nick freitas, Blazetv show 

The most populous county in Arizona appears incapable of facilitating a federal election without running into problems.

The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, headed by Republican Justin Heap, revealed on Sunday that thousands of early ballots were mailed out prematurely owing to an alleged vendor error.

‘Maricopa is a very, very dishonest county.’

Heap’s office noted that it was informed on Friday by the vendor, Runbeck Election Services, “that it had mistakenly mailed 3,126 early ballots the previous day, six days before the scheduled October 7 mailing date. The premature mailing was not authorized by the Recorder’s Office, which was notified only after it occurred.”

RES claimed in a statement shared by the recorder’s office that the vote-by-mail envelope mailers were sent to the U.S. Postal Service Business Mail Entry Unit by its logistics team last Thursday. They weren’t supposed to be delivered until this Wednesday.

“These 3,126 packets were processed separately from the primary mailing because they did not qualify for USPS automated mail processing,” said RES. “Non-automation mail requires separate handling and processing before being presented to the USPS.”

RELATED: Here we go again: Ex-USPS worker charged for allegedly tossing hundreds of mail-in ballots in the trash

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

RES claimed that the vote-by-mail envelope mailers “had been completed and were being staged at our facility for their scheduled presentation,” but the pallet holding them “was included with mail released that evening.”

“The affected packets were part of the first voter request file provided to RES for processing,” continued the vendor. “They are valid packets, produced from the authorized voter data provided to RES, and are addressed to voters who requested them.”

Jeff Ellington, the CEO of RES, emphasized that the county was not to blame, stating in an interview, “It was pure accident, just a human error,” reported the Associated Press.

“We regret it. But it was by no means intentional,” added Ellington.

Arizona Rep. Abraham Hamadeh (R) noted that “this isn’t their first ‘mistake.’ One error is incompetence. A pattern is a system.”

Hamadeh’s distrust is well-earned.

After all, according to the White House, Maricopa County experienced a significant election data breach just days ahead of the 2020 general election. The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency subsequently characterized that election as “the most secure in American history.”

During the 2022 election, the county had widespread ballot printing and reading issues at voting centers. In the 2024 election, the county not only had mailing and processing problems but saw thousands of registered voters incorrectly flagged as needing to provide proof of citizenship.

A recent investigation found that numerous noncitizens were erroneously registered to vote.

President Donald Trump blasted Maricopa County on Monday over its latest election-related “error,” calling the county “crooked” and suggesting that local officials “should be ashamed of themselves.”

“Maricopa sent out thousands of ballots illegally, and they got caught,” the president told reporters. “Now they’re saying it was an error. Maricopa is a very, very dishonest county.”

The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office noted that “upon consultation with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, it was determined that the ballots remain valid and do not need to be voided or reissued. Voters may complete and return them normally. Any ballots received before early voting begins will remain unopened and securely stored until processing begins.”

The Maricopa County Elections Department did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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​Midterm election, Arizona, Maricopa county, Abe hamadeh, Donald trump, Stop the steal, Us postal service, Voter fraud, Election security, Politics 

OpenAI says it’s newest artificial intelligence model didn’t quite meet the bar; that seems like an understatement.

A little more than a month after its internal AI attacked another company, OpenAI’s capabilities may be getting out of control.

‘… unsanctioned attack activities more often than the previous OpenAI models.’

OpenAI said this week that it has canceled the release of its latest model, GPT-6.1 Astra, which was expected to come out in October and be capable of handling complex tasks without the need for a human.

As it turns out, the AI took it’s lack of human direction pretty seriously and routinely decided to take matters into its own (digital) hands.

During the testing phase, Astra reportedly showed high levels of deception and a willingness to mislead users about its actions.

The New York Times reported that the AI agent was also willing to go beyond what it was originally asked, without being given instructions to do so.

OpenAI’s head of safety systems, Saachi Jain, said that “for anything regarding safety and alignment, there’s always a trade-off.”

She added, “The new model didn’t quite meet the bar in terms of staying within scope and authorization and how it communicates back to the user about the type of work it’s done.”

Simply put, the AI didn’t seem to be letting the user know what it was doing.

RELATED: Woman asked ChatGPT for spiritual guidance. The bot assumed a creepy identity and dismantled her life.

Heather Diehl/Getty Images

Through its AI Security Institute, the U.K. government just released its own report on GPT-6 Astra, the canceled model’s predecessor that launched this month.

The study said that while inside a simulated, offline environment, Astra conducted a range of unsanctioned attack activities more often than the previous OpenAI models.

The model was caught “creating fake identities, which it used to deceive developers,” posted comments from fake accounts that argued against the results of accurate security reviews, and delivered “malicious payloads to open-source codebases.”

After the research team updated its instructions in the simulation to specify that Astra should focus on specific, listed parts of its environment, the AI still “occasionally” conducted “full supply-chain attacks” on simulated targets.

RELATED: Google’s data-devouring AI wants everyone’s personal information

Heather Diehl/Getty Images

Compared to its predecessors, GPT-5.5 and GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra is far more manipulative and dishonest, nudging critics closer to considering its behavior out-and-out evil.

Astra develops and tests an attack at a rate of 38.8%, over four times more often than GPT-5.6 Sol.

It “influences a human reviewer” more than six times more often, creates a fake identity almost three times more often, and “delivers a malicious payload” almost five times more often than GPT-5.6 Sol.

It should be noted that GPT-5.5 conducted these activities at a near-zero percent rate, although it was tested fewer times due to prioritization on the new models.

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​Sam altman, Chatgpt, Openai, Gpt-6.1 astra, Tech 

A left-wing commentator had a bizarre explanation for the homelessness crisis in blue cities during a debate on Bill Maher’s show Friday.

Anand Giridharadas, a frequent guest on MS NOW, argued on “Real Time with Bill Maher” that much of the problem of homelessness is because of religious families choosing a Scripture verse over the welfare of their children.

‘We are holding a lot of your people who you failed to love and take care of.’

Giridharadas was reacting to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, who pointed out that many big cities spend “crazy” amounts of money but have not solved the homelessness crisis.

Although Giridharadas said Zakaria was right to say Democratic-controlled cities privilege the homeless over other residents who have to deal with the fallout from homelessness, he went on to defend blue cities.

“Cities are very unfairly labeled as these problem centers by Donald Trump and others,” he said.

“And one thing is worth remembering. If you look at the population of all people in cities, particularly people who come to cities from elsewhere, but particularly homeless and other vulnerable people in cities, look at youth homeless: A pretty large chunk of those people [who] end up in cities were failed in some other parts of this country,” he added.

“The fraction of youth homeless or LGBTQ, whatever, [is] pretty high,” said Giridharadas.

“So there are a lot of families in this country who fail the first duty of family, which is to love your kids more than any other thing. And there’s a lot of families in this country that look at some verse in some book and their child’s face and choose the verse in the book over their child’s face and drive their children out of Nebraska or out of Florida or out of Idaho,” he added.

“And those kids come to San Francisco, and those kids come to New York, and those kids go to Chicago, and we have friends giving dinners with them. You live in L.A., you are surrounded by people who have those kinds of stories,” Giridharadas concluded. “And so cities — every time someone is sleeping on a subway bench in a city, the rest of America can sort of say, ‘Ugh, look at these cities.’ But we are holding a lot of your people who you failed to love and take care of.”

RELATED: Family of man sought for alleged murder says liberal activist was threatening to release sexually explicit vids

Giridharadas got a lot of applause from the audience for his point.

The Human Rights Campaign estimates that LGBTQ-identifying young people have a 120% greater chance of being homeless than other youth, but a total percentage of LGBTQ people among all homeless is difficult to measure.

Giridharadas previously made headlines when he opined that perhaps Fox News should not exist anymore because its reporting had goaded viewers into committing “terrorism” during the January 6 melee at the U.S. Capitol.

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​Anand giridharadas, Homeless crisis, Ms now, New york, San francisco, Politics, Bill maher