A North Carolina mother was arrested for negligence almost a month after her toddler boy was found submerged in a container of water on a home’s front porch and later died, the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office said.

Deputies responded to a 911 call about a missing child in the 200 block of Old Timber Road in Jacksonville around 4:30 p.m. Dec. 11, officials said.

‘Don’t have kids if you’re not diligent about the care and protection you provide them! You are responsible for their lives! Literally!’

Shortly after deputies arrived at the home, they found a 16-month-old boy unconscious and submerged in water inside a container on the front porch of the home, officials said.

Deputies and emergency medical services personnel immediately initiated lifesaving measures, officials said, adding that the boy was taken to Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune, where he later was pronounced dead.

RELATED: Baby’s fingers amputated after mom leaves her alone with pit bull puppy, hears screams, finds dog chewing on child’s hand, officials say

Image source: Onslow County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Office

An investigation determined that negligence on the part of the child’s mother was a contributing factor in his death, officials said.

Elizabeth Marie Holderness, 30, turned herself in Monday to the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office, officials said.

The sheriff’s office said Holderness has been charged with felony involuntary manslaughter, felony negligent child abuse – serious bodily injury, and six misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.

Investigators determined that Holderness showed reckless disregard for human life, WCTI-TV reported, citing arrest warrants.

The warrants allege Holderness willfully ingested an illegal substance in a separate room for an extended period of time while the child was in her care, the station added.

She received a $75,000 unsecured bond after her first court appearance Monday in Onslow County District Court, WCTI said, adding that Holderness bonded out later Monday afternoon.

While a number of commenters posting under the sheriff’s office Facebook entry about the incident claim to know Holderness and caution against judgment, others didn’t feel that way:

“Maybe you shouldn’t do drugs,” one commenter said. “If you’re defending these actions, do better.””Everyone making excuses. This boy was 16 months [old]. Those children are never to be left unattended. Period,” another user declared, adding that “the mother got negligence for a reason.””Makes me sick! Don’t have kids if you’re not diligent about the care and protection you provide them! You are responsible for their lives! Literally!” another commenter wrote.

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​North carolina, Onslow county sheriff’s office, Mother, Child, Toddler death, Mother arrested, Crime 

Five Republican senators joined Democrats to defy President Donald Trump, voting to advance a war powers resolution to rein in military action in Venezuela.

The war powers resolution advanced in a 52-47 vote on Thursday, with Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Todd Young of Indiana joining 47 Democrats.

‘I oppose socialism everywhere but that’s not today’s debate.’

If passed, the resolution would limit Trump’s authority to enact military intervention in Venezuela without congressional approval.

Although the resolution is likely to pass the Senate, the House rejected a similar war powers resolution in December. Notably this resolution was blocked before Trump ordered the military operation to capture Nicolas Maduro.

RELATED: 9 Republicans aid Democrats to advance Obamacare subsidies

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Paul and Hawley justified their votes from a constitutional perspective, arguing that war powers belong to Congress and not the president.

“I oppose socialism everywhere but that’s not today’s debate,” Paul said in a post on X. “The question is simple: Does the Constitution allow one person to take us to war without Congress? The answer is no. War powers belong to the people’s representatives. Full stop.”

“With regard to Venezuela, my read of the Constitution is that if the President feels the need to put boots on the ground there in the future, Congress would need to vote on it,” Hawley said in a post on X. “That’s why I voted yes on this morning’s Senate resolution.”

RELATED: ‘Errand boy’: Mike Collins rips Jon Ossoff’s silence on Maduro, points to Laken Riley’s Venezuelan killer

Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for MoveOn

In contrast, Collins supported the war powers resolution to curb Trump’s authority because she disagreed with his vision for a post-Maduro Venezuela.

“I believe invoking the war powers act at this moment is necessary, given the president’s comments about the possibility of ‘boots on the ground’ and a sustained engagement ‘running’ Venezuela, with which I do not agree,” Collins said.

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​Donald trump, Senate, Senate republicans, Senate democrats, War powers resolution, War powers, Venezuela, Nicolas maduro, Josh hawley, Todd young, Lisa murkowski, Rand paul, Susan collins, Politics 

The Trump administration is uprooting the United States from another large money-sink as it continues to try to put America first.

On Thursday, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent announced that the U.S. is “immediately” withdrawing from the Green Climate Fund, a United Nations-aligned organization that has cost the U.S. billions in the last decade.

‘Continued participation in the GCF has been determined to no longer be consistent with the Trump administration’s priorities and goals.

“Our nation will no longer fund radical organizations like the GCF whose goals run contrary to the fact that affordable, reliable energy is fundamental to economic growth and poverty reduction,” Bessent said in a statement on social media.

The Green Climate Fund is an affiliate of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The GCF was established in 2010, according to a timeline on its website.

In a press release, the Treasury Department said that while the administration “is committed to advancing all affordable and reliable sources of energy, … the GCF was established to supplement the objectives of the UNFCCC, and continued participation in the GCF has been determined to no longer be consistent with the Trump administration’s priorities and goals.”

RELATED: Biden seeks to blow $1 billion on a UN climate fund that has already diverted $100 million to America’s top adversary

Photographer: Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The GCF Board — directed by James Catto, an American, until Thursday’s announcement — is “charged with the governance and oversight of the Fund’s management.” The GCF, according to its website, “embodies a new and equitable form of global governance to respond to the global challenge of climate change.”

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the United States pledged $3 billion in a multi-year “replenishment” of the fund spanning from 2024 to 2027. The United States also seeded the fund at its inception, providing $2 billion, according to the same 2023 press release.

The Green Climate Fund did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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​Politics, Globalists, United nations, Gcf, Global climate fund, Biden harris, Unfccc, Secretary bessent, United states, America first, Trump administration, Treasury department, Un framework convention on climate change, James catto 

When gasoline surged past $5 a gallon in 2022, the impact landed on every household, every small business, and every industry that depends on transportation — which is to say, nearly all of them.

Families were reshuffling budgets, truckers were adding unavoidable surcharges, and businesses were raising prices simply to stay afloat.

It remains true that no president controls gas prices outright. But federal policy does shape how quickly American energy can be produced, moved, and delivered.

At the same time, Americans were told that there was little anyone in Washington could do to ease the burden. The message stayed the same for months: Global forces were responsible, and there was no quick fix for the pain drivers were feeling at the pump.

Yet while families struggled with the highest fuel prices ever recorded — a national average of $5.02 per gallon — the federal government was encouraging Americans to buy electric vehicles costing between $50,000 and $70,000.

All pain, no gain

Transportation officials suggested that the “more pain” people felt from gasoline prices, the more attractive EVs would become. Energy officials repeated that an electric car was the fastest way for families to reduce their gas bills to zero. For most households, though, the math just didn’t work. The average new EV price in 2022 was $66,000 according to Kelley Blue Book, while the median U.S. household income was around $74,000. A new electric car was not an immediate or practical solution.

Meanwhile, federal actions during those early years reflected a shift away from domestic oil development. The Keystone XL pipeline permit was canceled on day one, new federal oil and gas leasing was paused, existing Arctic leases were withdrawn, and a record 180 million barrels were released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Drilling permits decreased, and U.S. oil production fell below 2020 levels despite growing demand. Those choices — combined with refinery constraints and global volatility — kept domestic supply from growing at the pace needed to bring relief.

Supply high

The landscape looks very different today. By late 2025, U.S. energy production had expanded significantly. Federal lands reopened for leasing, permitting became faster, and producers were able to meet more of the country’s energy needs. American crude oil production climbed to an all-time high of 13.4 million barrels per day, and the number of active drilling rigs rose substantially from pandemic-era lows. More supply began moving through the system, helping stabilize markets that had been strained for years.

The results are unmistakable. The national average for regular gasoline sits near $3 per gallon — roughly 40% lower than the 2022 peak. Eighteen states now have average prices below $2.75. These aren’t isolated discounts; they are widespread indicators of stronger supply and more balanced market conditions.

RELATED: America First energy policy is paying off at the pump

Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Where the rubber meets the road

It remains true that no president controls gas prices outright. Global crude markets, refinery operations, seasonal demand, transportation costs, and taxes all influence what drivers pay. But federal policy does shape how quickly American energy can be produced, moved, and delivered. When supply is constrained, prices rise. When supply grows, prices ease. The past three years have demonstrated this in real time.

The contrast between the experience of 2022 and the reality of 2025 underscores a simple point: Energy policy affects everyday life in immediate, measurable ways. It determines what families pay to commute, what businesses spend to operate, and what consumers pay for goods delivered across the country. It is not theoretical. It shows up every time someone fills a gas tank.

For millions of Americans now seeing sub-$3 gasoline again, the numbers tell the story more clearly than any political argument.

​Joe biden, Lifestyle, Auto industry, Donald trump, Energy policy, Gas prices, Pete buttigieg, Align cars 

A gambling website is taking a stance on whether or not the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro constitutes an American invasion of the country.

Maduro was arrested by U.S. forces at his home in Caracas, Venezuela. The socialist leader has since claimed that he is innocent.

‘Then what the f*** would be an invasion?’

The contention comes from Polymarket, a website bent on letting the user gamble on nearly anything, after posting the bet, “Will the U.S. invade Venezuela by …” with certain date ranges listed.

As reported by multiple outlets, Polymarket has decided it is not willing to provide payouts to those who said (with their wallets) that the capture of Maduro was indeed an invasion.

This caused outrage on website, with commentators leaving remarks such as “Everyone is calling it invasion.”

“Then what the f*** would be an invasion?” another user said, according to MarketWatch.

One commentator cited the death toll from the event, which was allegedly 80, and said, “So it’s not an invasion because they did it quickly and not many people died?”

RELATED: GAMBLE: In huge new deals, ESPN and Google cave to the online betting economy

Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

With the existing deadlines for the bet currently set at the U.S. invading Venezuela by January 31, March 31, or December 31, Polymarket has added “additional context” to its rules section for the page, defining what would constitute an invasion in the company’s eyes.

“This market refers to U.S. military operations intended to establish control,” it reads. “President Trump’s statement that they will ‘run’ Venezuela while referencing ongoing talks with the Venezuelan government does not alone qualify the snatch-and-extract mission to capture Maduro as an invasion.”

It further added, “This market will resolve to ‘Yes’ if the United States commences a military offensive intended to establish control over any portion of Venezuela between November 3, 2025, and January 31, 2026, 11:59 PM ET. Otherwise, this market will resolve to ‘No’.”

Rumors have swirled around an account created on December 26, reported to be anonymous by the Financial Times, which allegedly bet more than $32,000 that Maduro would be removed by the end of January. This would have garnered the trader a $400,000 profit.

RELATED: Trump DOJ ends battle with Polymarket after Biden’s FBI raided CEO following 2024 election

Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

There are still other outstanding bets surrounding Maduro, including whether or not bodycam footage of his capture will be released by Jan 31, with around $60,000 already wagered.

Also, almost $200,000 has been bet on whether or not the capture was staged.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) recently proposed legislation to prohibit insiders “from engaging in covered transactions involving prediction market contracts,” per the Financial Times.

For his own part, the first American pope, Leo XIV, recently called out gambling as a problem and a “scourge” that can tear families apart.

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​Return, Gambling, Polymarket, Invasion, Maduro, Trump, Venezuela, Tech 

Nick Shirley knocked on doors. That was all it took to crack Minnesota’s multibillion-dollar fraud scandal — and expose the failure of the institutions that were supposed to catch it.

Shirley visited Somali-run “businesses” that had received millions in taxpayer funds. His videos showed locked doors, covered windows, and empty buildings where thriving operations were supposed to exist.

When institutions feel threatened, they usually try to personalize the fight. That approach won’t work here.

Within days, the footage racked up more than 100 million views on X alone, triggered a flood of federal scrutiny, and helped force a political reckoning in a state where warnings had gone ignored for years.

Legacy media outlets initially dismissed the story as a “conspiracy theory” — until they couldn’t. Gov. Tim Walz (D) went from defending the programs to demanding crackdowns almost overnight. Federal authorities surged additional personnel and resources into Minnesota. What had been treated as untouchable suddenly became unavoidable.

What happened in Minnesota matters. But what happens next matters more.

You are about to see hundreds — perhaps thousands — of Nick Shirley imitators flood social media. Exposing government waste and fraud is no longer just journalism; it is an incentive structure and a business model.

Independent investigators armed with public records, smartphones, and social platforms will fan out across the country, documenting the gap between what government pays for and what actually exists. And the establishment has no effective way to stop them.

The old playbook no longer works.

When institutions feel threatened, they usually try to personalize the fight. Discredit the messenger. Destroy the movement by targeting its most visible figure. We saw this strategy deployed against the DOGE by turning government efficiency into a culture war about Elon Musk.

That approach won’t work here.

You can’t sue a thousand kids with iPhones. You can’t “fact-check” an empty building that’s supposed to be full of children. Calling something “misinformation” loses its power when the door is locked, the windows are covered, and fraud indictments follow months later.

RELATED: Fraud thrived under Democrats’ no-questions-asked rule

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

What’s emerging isn’t a movement with a leader — it’s a decentralized ecosystem. Accountability no longer depends on a single newsroom or institution. It comes from a generation that has figured out that exposing corruption is vastly more rewarding than working a shift at Starbucks.

That should terrify every political leader who has relied on the assumption that no one is really watching.

A single viral video now generates more pressure than a year of congressional hearings. The Minnesota press corps had years to uncover what Shirley documented in an afternoon. They didn’t look — not because the evidence was hidden, but because looking wasn’t incentivized. Now it is.

This shift is part of the reason I created Rhetor, an AI-driven political strategy firm designed to track what people are actually saying and doing in real time. Using these tools, we’ve identified billions of dollars in questionable spending beyond Minnesota.

In New York City, for example, migrant-related spending is projected to reach $4.3 billion through 2027. Audits have flagged contractors billing the city for empty hotel rooms — charging $170 per night while paying hotels closer to $100 and pocketing the difference.

Chicago has paid at least $342 million to staffing firms charging $156 an hour for shelter workers. Illinois spent $2.5 billion in 2025 under emergency rules with minimal oversight.

These are not isolated incidents. They share the same ingredients as Minnesota’s scandal: emergency declarations, suspended procurement rules, inexperienced contractors, and little meaningful oversight.

And someone is going to knock on those doors too.

The old gatekeepers understand what this means — and they’re panicking. For decades, investigative journalism required institutional backing. Stories could be delayed, softened, or killed outright if they threatened the wrong people and interests.

That system is dead.

RELATED: ‘Without citing evidence’: NYT steps on a rake trying to attack Trump administration over fraud crackdown

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The new investigative journalism runs on virality, not permission. The reporter is a 23-year-old with a ring light and a Substack. The editorial board is the algorithm. The feedback loop is brutal, immediate, and unforgiving. Get it wrong and the internet will tear you apart. Get it right and the story spreads faster than any newspaper ever could.

This isn’t replacing traditional journalism. It’s filling the void left when traditional journalism stopped doing its job.

Minnesota was the proof of concept. The data was public. The facilities were visitable. The fraud existed for years. Nobody looked — until looking became profitable.

Now it’s profitable everywhere.

The bureaucrats and contractors who built careers on the assumption that no one was watching are about to discover that everyone is. The politicians who treated emergency spending like free money are about to learn that the emergency is over — and the receipts are coming to light.

A generation that treats views like oxygen just learned that fraud is the best clickbait.

Good luck stopping that.

​Opinion & analysis, Nick shirley, Video, Minnesota, Fraud, Health and human services, Daycare, Minneapolis, Somali fraud, Data, Investigations, Profit, New york city, Chicago, Emergency powers 

How to back up an iPhone

Many folks have a love-hate relationship with Apple’s iCloud service. On one hand, the backup feature is great for capturing everything on your device. It basically makes a carbon copy of your phone, freezing your data, settings, files, and the rest in carbonite and leaving it there until you need it. It’s one of the most robust backup services available, in my humble opinion.

When it comes to phone backups, it’s not a matter of if you’ll need it but when.

On the other hand, iCloud backup can take a huge chunk out of the measly 5 GB of storage Apple has offered to customers since iCloud launched in 2011. If I was a betting man, I’d guess you either haven’t backed up your iPhone in ages because you ran out of cloud storage years ago, or like me, you begrudgingly pay Apple every month for enough storage to save everything in your precious device.

Wherever you stand, device backups are non-negotiable if you value all the information stored in your phone. Here’s how to enable iCloud backup now:

Open the Settings app on your phone.Scroll down to the very bottom and tap “iCloud.”Select “iCloud Backup” after that.Finally, check the toggle beside “Back Up This iPhone” and then “Back Up Now.”

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw

If you want to optimize your iCloud backup settings even further, there are a couple things you can do. First, find “This iPhone” under the “All Device Backups” section and tap on it. Once you’re inside, uncheck any app that you don’t want to save. This could slim down your device backup and free up bits of valuable storage.

You can also completely remove old devices from the “All Device Backups” section. Simply click on the device, scroll to the bottom, and select “Turn off and Delete from iCloud.” Congrats! Your iCloud storage is now several gigs lighter.

BONUS TIP: iCloud backup works on iPad, too, but it’ll count against your cloud storage limit, so keep this in mind.

How to back up most Android phones

Regardless of make and model, all Android phones sold in the USA come with Google’s built-in cloud backup service that’s designed to save your most important data, including photos, videos, messages, call history, apps and data, and device settings. You can enable Google backup on your Android by following the quick steps below.

RELATED: Do blue-light glasses actually work?

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Note: Depending on your device and Android version, these steps may look a little different, but as long as you get to the backup section within your device settings, you will be able to save the correct data. For reference, the following screenshots were taken on a Google Pixel running Android 16.

Open the Settings app.Scroll down and tap on “System.”Then select “Backup.”Tap on “Photos & videos,” then check the backup toggle at the top.Go back one screen inside the backup section in the Settings app.Tap on “Other device data” and check the “back up other device data” toggle above your name.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw

Keep in mind that many of these saved pieces count against your 15 GB of free Google Drive storage, so if you run out, you won’t be able to back up your phone completely until you upgrade your cloud storage with a Google One plan.

While Google’s backup service keeps most of your data safe in the cloud, there are some holes in its system. For instance, Google backup may not save the settings on all of your apps; currently, developers have to opt in to allow this, and while many apps do support it, there are plenty of apps that don’t. Google’s backup solution also doesn’t save local files on your device, including documents in your Downloads folder or password-protected secure folders. Make sure you manually move these to another device or cloud service before you reset your old phone.

How to back up a Samsung Galaxy phone

Google backup works perfectly fine on Samsung phones, but Galaxy owners need to take some extra steps to back up Samsung’s first-party apps. In order to save your call logs, messages, alarm clocks, voice recordings, home screen layouts, and settings, you need to enable Samsung Cloud via the following steps:

Open the Settings app.Scroll down and tap “Accounts and backup.”Under “Samsung Cloud,” tap “Back up data.”Check each item you want to save and then click “Back up now” at the bottom of the screen.Then go back one screen, tap on “Back up data” under the “Google Drive” section, and follow the steps above to make sure Google’s backup service is active too.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw

​Tech 

Months before Rolling Stone published its false 2014 article about a gang rape at the University of Virginia that never happened, former President Barack Obama told the nation that “it is estimated that 1 in 5 women on college campuses has been sexually assaulted during their time there.”

This statistic — an apparent reference to a federally funded 2007 study that was reliant on an online survey of students at two universities that had a low response rate — has been treated as the gospel truth, with the media dutifully repeating the notion of American campus “rape culture” ad nauseam over the past decade.

A new study suggests, however, that the real rate of female sexual victimization on campus might be closer to 1 in 100.

‘The campus anti-rape movement has coincided with college-enrolled women’s risk of sexual violence victimization now exceeding that for non-enrolled women.’

A pair of researchers at Washington State University’s criminal justice and criminology department set out to “estimate the risk of sexual violence against 18-to-24-year-old women with comparisons between college students and non-students, between residential and commuter college students, and between the years before and after the mainstreaming of the campus anti-rape movement in 2014.”

According to their peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of American College Health, previous estimates not only suffered from issues of generalizability but failed to account for the “impact upon victimization risk of increasing activism against sexual violence on college campuses.”

RELATED: Horror in Ohio home: Male accused of raping, beating pregnant woman over course of 2 days. But that isn’t the half of it.

Photo by Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Image

Keen on correcting for such issues and on gaining a clearer idea of the threat of predation on campus, the duo analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau-administered National Crime Victimization Survey regarding 61,869 women ages 18 to 24 years, who were interviewed a total of 112,624 times between 2007 and 2022.

The sexual violence recorded in the NCVS data apparently “includes rapes (any forced/coerced sexual penetration) and sexual assaults (any unwanted sexual contact including fondling or grabbing) whether threatened, attempted, or completed.”

The researchers found that the six-month rate of sexual victimization was 0.17% for female students living on and off campus from 2007 through 2014, and 0.46% for female students on and off campus from 2015 to 2022.

The numbers were higher for students living on campus during both periods under review but still nowhere near 20% — 0.34% in the former and 1.05% in the latter.

“The above estimates indicate that the mainstreaming of the campus anti-rape movement has coincided with college-enrolled women’s risk of sexual violence victimization now exceeding that for non-enrolled women,” the study said.

The researchers expressed uncertainty about why the victimization rate had increased during the “anti-rape movement” and the #MeToo era but suggested that misogyny cultivated online might be to blame or alternatively “college student sexual violence victims’ increased acknowledgement of their victimization as rape or sexual assault.”

When asked by the College Fix about the significance of their findings — particularly as they cast doubt on previous estimates that the victimization rate was 1 in 5 — Kathryn DuBois, one of the authors and an associate criminology professor at Washington State, said, “Our results cannot speak to earlier estimates of sexual violence occurring over a 4-year college ‘career’ because NCVS questions only deal with victimizations experienced during a 6-month period.”

“As such, we really cannot say if 1-in-5 or 1-in-100 is a more reliable estimate of risk,” DuBois added.

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​Sexual violence, Rape, Assault, Crime, University, College, Education, School, False narrative, Narrative, Rapist, Rape culture, Metoo, Politics