On a recent episode of his show, Tucker Carlson interviewed Christian commentator and theologian J.D. Hall on Christian Zionism, dispensationalism, and related topics.

During the discussion, Hall argued that Islam has historically been “kind” to Christians, especially under the Ottoman Empire.

Allie Beth Stuckey, however, believes this Muslim-sympathic interview is another attempt by Carlson to “whitewash Islam.”

On this episode of “Relatable,” Allie dives into the real history of Islam’s relationship with Christianity.

“When the Ottomans were in control of the promised land for 400 years in the millet system, they didn’t charge churches tax. Israel started just a few years ago,” Hall said, arguing that the Muslim rulers were actually “very kind to Christians.”

Citing the work of Raymond Ibrahim — a prominent historian specializing in Islamic history, the Middle East, and the historical and contemporary interactions between Islam and the West — Allie calls Hall’s claim about the taxes “misleading.”

“Churches weren’t specifically taxed, but Christians … had to pay an extra tax called the jizya that was imposed on non-Muslims. That was the only way to guarantee any kind of protection,” Allie corrects.

“It’s true that the Ottomans allowed religious communities to govern many of their own affairs … but non-Muslims remained second-class subjects. In addition to paying extra taxes, they faced restrictions on churches, on evangelism, legal rights, dress, bearing arms,” she continues.

Hall’s claim that Muslims were kind to Christians, however, “is just not true” at all, says Allie. “The Islamic Ottoman Empire persecuted Christians for centuries, killed them, enslaved them for centuries.”

She then gives the example of the Muslim takeover of Constantinople — “the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity” and “the last remnant of the Roman Empire.”

“So when the city’s defenses gave way, thousands of civilians crowded into the Hagia Sophia, the city’s largest church, seeking safety, and the Ottoman troops led by Sultan Mehmed II forced their way inside, and the refuge became the scene of looting, enslavement, widespread abuse, including mass rape,” says Allie.

She reads eyewitness accounts from Thomas the Eparch and Joshua Diplovatatzes (two Byzantine figures who witnessed and documented the city’s fall): “Then, he (Sultan Mehmed II) seized one of the grand duke’s daughters, who was quite beautiful, and made her lie on the great altar of the Hagia Sophia with a crucifix under her head and then raped her. Then, the most brutish of the Turks seized the finest noble women, virgins, and nuns of the city and violated them in the presence of the Greeks and in the sacrilege of Christianity.”

“Wow — things haven’t changed in centuries,” says Allie. “This is the same thing that happens to Christians today in very similar manners, certainly in places like Nigeria and Uganda.”

“It is not just the pillaging of Christian women; it is the purposeful blasphemy against the Christian God.”

To hear more of Allie’s rebuttal, watch the episode above.

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​Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Allie beth stuckey, Islam, Tucker carlson, Relatable 

The $850 million Obama Presidential Center opened last week in Chicago — but not without a performative “land acknowledgement.”

“We’d also like to take a moment to recognize the original inhabitants of the land upon which we are gathered today,” Valerie Jarrett, chief executive officer of the Obama Foundation, said. “We honor the Anishinaabe, the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi nations.”

“First of all,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments, “It’s the ugliest building on this planet, especially at the price that was paid to build that thing, $850 million.”

“Secondly, I’m so sick of hearing about stolen land,” he says. “If you’re on stolen land, Barack, give it back. How about that? Once again, the United States is the only nation on earth … that’s continually hammered with this stolen land stuff.”

“Every nation on earth, all of them have been taken from someone else. Every major nation on earth has been taken from some indigenous peoples either through conquest, displacement, colonial expansion, war, you name it,” he continues.

Executive producer Keith Malinak points out that the tribe names Jarrett repeated had all “defeated each other over history.”

“The indigenous people who stole it from each other,” Gray agrees. “The only nations on this planet that can say … that they’re not on stolen land now are the ones that weren’t inhabited in the first place.”

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​Anishinaabe, Barack obama, Council of three fires, Obama center, Odawa, Ojibwe, Pat gray, Potawatomi nations, Stolen land, Valerie jarrett, Pat gray unleashed 

While Democrats are hopeful about their chances to gain control of the U.S. Senate as well as the House of Representatives, a CNN political analyst says the former is very unlikely.

Harry Enten explained the math problem plaguing Democrats in a segment focusing on the polling results on the Senate campaigns in several states.

In all of those states, Republicans are beating Democrats by at least 2 percentage points.

“So what’s the simple math here? Democrats need a net gain of four — four Senate seats to regain control of the upper chamber in Congress, and right now the math, simply put, isn’t there for them. … It’s a math problem,” Enten said.

Enten went on to show that the most likely Senate seat gains for Democrats are in North Carolina and Texas, where they are either ahead in the polling or even. However, they need at least two other seats to flip, and the most likely candidates are in Iowa, Alaska, and Ohio. In all of those states, Republicans are beating Democrats by at least 2 percentage points.

He went on to show that Democrats were basically tied in the election polling in Maine, a state where they should be further ahead.

“Even in Maine, a state that Kamala Harris easily won back in 2024. … You have a race that, simply put, is way too close to call. So really, on the mathematical march to four seats, there’s really only one seat at this point that Democrats can look like they can count on,” Enten explained.

CNN anchor John Berman noted that President Donald Trump’s popularity has suffered because of high inflation and the unpopularity of the Iran war. Enten countered that Democrats have still polled poorly in red states, where they need to pick up seats in order to win the Senate.

“These are states that are just very hard to win because, bottom line is, what is holding them back … is the fundamentals,” he added.

RELATED: ‘Blue wave’ expected for midterms looks more like a tiny ripple, says CNN’s Harry Enten

Enten ended by showing that prediction markets lessened the chances of Democrats winning the Senate from 49% in May to only 41% currently.

Republicans, meanwhile, have improved their odds to hold on to the Senate in the prediction markets from 51% in May to 59% currently.

Enten posted the video of his CNN segment to his official social media account on Wednesday.

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​Democrats, Donald trump, Harry enten, Midterm elections, Republicans, Politics, Senate 

Democratic Socialists of America continue to take out establishment Democrats at the ballot box. The latest casualty is a longtime congresswoman from Colorado.

On Tuesday, Gen Z upstart Melat Kiros trounced longtime incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District of Colorado, representing much of Denver. With 81% of the vote reported, Kiros holds a lead of nearly 10 points, 51.3% to DeGette’s 41.7%, according to NBC News.

‘This is the most anti-incumbent cycle we’ve seen in a really long time.’

As of Wednesday afternoon, DeGette had still not conceded the race on social media. Late Tuesday night, she posted to X that “it looks like we won’t have final results tonight.”

By all accounts, DeGette has established far-left Democrat bona fides. She was a manager in President Trump’s second impeachment effort, she supports “Medicare for all,” and she wants to abolish ICE.

Though she has a progressive track record, DeGette characterized Kiros’ platform as “extreme.”

Indeed, Kiros has been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, Justice Democrats, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and she espouses many of their radical views, especially regarding Israel. She even claims to have been fired from a law firm after writing a letter supporting Palestine after the October 7 attacks.

Kiros, a lawyer and a Ph.D. student, explained that once she began campaigning for office, she realized: “All these policies I’m calling for are democratic socialism,” Vox reported.

DeGette, 68, was first sworn in to Congress in January 1997, four months before Kiros, 29, was born.

RELATED: The People’s Republic of NY-13: Election results breakdown

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Kiros is just the latest democratic socialist to successfully primary a Democrat incumbent. In the New York primary races last week, 32-year-old Darializa Avila Chevalier took out 71-year-old incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat, and NYC Comptroller Brad Lander defeated anti-Trump radical Rep. Dan Goldman.

Democratic socialist Assemblywoman Claire Valdez also won the primary for the open seat in the 7th Congressional District of New York. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) is retiring at the end of the term.

Both Avila Chevalier and Lander had been endorsed by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a fellow democratic socialist who, like Kiros, was not born in America. Mamdani was born in Uganda to Indian parents, while Kiros was born in Ethiopia and brought to America as a baby.

Kiros views the 2026 Democratic primary races as an opportunity to reshape the party.

“This is the most anti-incumbent cycle we’ve seen in a really long time,” she told Vox. “So I think this is an opportunity to change the party in a way that — I don’t think we’ll have another chance like this. To pass it up, I think, is irresponsible.”

“This isn’t just about replacing one generation of leaders with another,” she also told Vox. “It’s about replacing it with moral clarity, with urgency, with courage — and making sure that the will of the voters is actually being represented and fought for at the federal level.”

The 1st Congressional District of Colorado is heavily Democrat, and Kiros is expected to win the seat in November.

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​Politics 

The president has made a major announcement regarding the upcoming midterms.

President Donald Trump says he will be heading up a Republican midterm convention, the first ever, in September.

‘THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN!’

The midterm convention will be held in Dallas, Texas, according to President Trump’s post on social media. He previously pitched the idea in Aug. 2025.

“It will be fantastic! It has never been done before, and will be a truly Historic Event. We are going to celebrate the GREAT AMERICAN COMEBACK, and the incredible successes of the American People who transformed our Country through the America First Agenda,” he wrote Tuesday.

He lauded a list of his accomplishments that included the shutdown at the border, lowering crime, and increasing the nation’s energy dominance.

Trump went on to say the convention will prepare the country for another 250 years of success.

“At the Event, we will have hardworking Americans, our Great Innovators, Entrepreneurs, Manufacturers, First Responders, and Job Creators who are powering our Nation’s Golden Age, and proving that America’s best days are still ahead of us,” he added. “We will also have lots of Great Entertainment — It will be a RALLY like none other!”

Richard Hudson, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, praised the president in a statement on social media.

“President Trump has united Republicans behind a winning agenda that’s delivering results for the American people,” he wrote. “The Midterm Convention will showcase our strong Republican candidates, energize supporters across the country, and ensure House Republicans have the resources to protect and grow our majority in November.”

The midterm convention will run from Sept. 9 to 10.

Democrats considered returning their midterm convention but decided against it. Some suspect that their dwindling cash donations forced them to abandon the idea.

RELATED: ‘Blue wave’ expected for midterms looks more like a tiny ripple, says CNN’s Harry Enten

The convention should help galvanize Republican voters to show up at the ballot box for the midterm elections, which will determine whether Democrats will take over Congress for the rest of Trump’s second term.

“THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN!” the president concluded.

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Just days before America’s 250th anniversary celebration of our independence, the Democrats’ latest attempts to take away American citizens’ gun rights are being called out by the Department of Justice.

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice sued two different states, both of which are run by increasingly notorious Democrat governors, over their latest attempts to ban certain firearms.

‘On April 10, I promised Governor Spanberger that we would sue Virginia if she signed this unconstitutional weapons ban into law. I keep my promises.’

The DOJ sued California and Virginia for their so-called “Glock ban” and the semi-automatic-weapon ban, respectively.

The lawsuit against California is in fact two-fold: First, the DOJ is challenging the ban of Glock-brand firearms, a popular choice of handgun among gun owners.

RELATED: 2A win: Appeals court in DC strikes down high-capacity magazine restrictions

Jim Vondruska/Getty Images

Second, the DOJ is challenging the legality of California’s “Gun Roster,” which shows which pistols are allowed and which are banned.

The law triggering this ban was signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on October 25. The specific “Glock ban,” as well as the ban on any other guns removed from the gun roster on January 1, was set to take effect on Wednesday.

Nearly 40 Glock models were removed from the gun roster at the beginning of this year, meaning they “may no longer be sold, offered for sale, imported for sale, or manufactured in California.”

Additionally, more than 70 models from Auto-Ordnance; Magnum Research; Kimber; Sturm, Ruger & Co.; Kahr Arms; Phoenix Arms; Franklin Armory; Sig Sauer; and Nighthawk Custom were removed from the approved gun roster on the same day.

In a state Senate hearing last year to discuss the bill before it was signed into law, the group Gun Owners of California argued against the passage of the bill, warning that the language was “overly broad” and not primarily concerned with the safety of the public:

“By specifically targeting the potential for modification, this bill disproportionately affects potential Glock purchasers and restricts access to one of the most popular handguns available, further demonstrating that this legislation is not about safety but about incremental firearm prohibition.”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a press release Wednesday: “The Second Amendment is a sacred right belonging to all Americans, even those in California. California cannot ban the most popular type of handgun in America. We will work to stop this blatant trampling of our rights by the California government to protect the rights of lawful gun owners.”

In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Newsom told Blaze News:

The Trump administration is once again trying to dismantle California’s commonsense gun safety laws. Our response is simple — these laws save lives. California has proven that strong, evidence-based gun safety measures can reduce gun violence while respecting the rights of responsible gun owners. That’s why we have one of the lowest gun death rates in America and historically low crime rates across the board. We won’t be intimidated by another politically motivated lawsuit. We’ll continue defending the laws that protect Californians and keep dangerous weapons off our streets.

In addition to the DOJ’s challenge to California, the Department of Justice is also suing Virginia for its newly enacted law that bans the purchase and sale of ordinary semi-automatic rifles.

The law, signed by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger on May 14, essentially freezes the markets for sales of “assault firearms” in the commonwealth.

Similar to the California law, Virginia’s ban was set to take effect on July 1, thus triggering the two lawsuits on the same day.

“On April 10, I promised Governor Spanberger that we would sue Virginia if she signed this unconstitutional weapons ban into law. I keep my promises,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a press release. “Law-abiding Americans should not have to live under threat of criminal sanction for simply exercising their Second Amendment right to possess arms owned by millions of their fellow citizens.”

Spanberger’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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​California, Democrats, Department of justice, Virginia, Second amendment, Abigail spanberger, Gavin newsom, Politics 

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales infiltrated the Texas Democrat convention in Corpus Christi — and it was every bit as insane as she expected.

First, Gonzales was not allowed any press credentials because of her views.

Then, she quickly found a Planned Parenthood booth where they were handing out free Plan B.

“They gave me not one, but two free Plan B’s because they hate babies in the womb and they love killing them. This is really disgusting stuff,” Gonzales says, before throwing the Plan B in the trash and saying, “They do the same to babies.”

Gonzales also spoke to some attendees, asking one woman, who was wearing a mask, what positions of James Talarico’s she supported the most.

When the woman refused to answer, Gonzales ventured, “Have you thought about maybe removing the mask? It’s 2026.”

The woman then pulled down her mask, got in Gonzales’ face, breathed heavily, and said, “I have chronic Epstein-Barr virus. Would you like it?”

“The masks don’t work, ma’am,” Gonzales replied. “Thank you for trying to give me a virus. Lovely people.”

Gonzales then approached another woman who was wearing an “I’m a Talafreako” shirt.

“What of James Talarico’s policies do you support the most?” Gonzales asked.

“The fact that he is a real Christian as opposed to a pseudo-Christian,” the woman replied.

“Have you heard the quote of his where he said he hates Christianity?” Gonzales asked.

The woman answered that “no,” she hadn’t, because he’s a minister.

“Somebody probably misquoted him. They do that all the time,” she added.

Gonzales also came face-to-face with another Talarico supporter, who claimed he didn’t care that Talarico’s friend, South Texan congressional candidate and musician Bobby Pulido, used to perform on stage with a bandmate who was convicted of indecent contact with an 8-year-old.

“I don’t care about his friend,” the man told Gonzales.

“You don’t care that he’s parading his convicted pedophile friend around on stage,” Gonzales replied, shocked.

“No, not really,” the man replied.

“He raped an 8-year-old girl,” Gonzales says, before the man tried to claim that Republicans are also guilty of pedophilia.

“I’m saying all pedophiles are bad and we should all agree, not just say, ‘But what about other pedophiles?’” she replied.

After even more insane interactions, Gonzales was then kicked out of the event for “agitating” the crowd.

“We were just standing there. We were told that many people told them we were agitating,” she says. “He brought two cops with him. I think one of them was trans, which really tracks with this mentally ill Democrat convention.”

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​Bobby pulido, Democrat, James talarico, Planned parenthood, Sara gonzales, Texas, Texas democrat convention, Sara gonzales unfiltered 

On Thursday, Apple raised prices on basically every Mac, every iPad, the HomePod, the Apple TV, and the Vision Pro. Not a refresh-with-new-specs bump where they hand you a faster chip to soften the blow, but a global markup on hardware that didn’t change, live on the store the same morning. Apple’s stock fell 6.1%, its worst single day since April 2025.

The same day, Microsoft raised Xbox prices for the third time in 13 months.

Apple put the blame squarely on ‘the rapid expansion of AI data centers.’

I’ve been telling you that you’re already paying for the AI boom. You just weren’t getting an itemized bill.

Back in May, the evidence was your electricity. Residential power prices are up roughly 30% since 2020, and they climb worse the closer you live to a data center. The point I kept hammering was simple: The cost of this build-out doesn’t stay in Silicon Valley. It gets pushed downstream, onto you.

What actually got more expensive

The numbers tell it better than I can. Here’s the Apple damage:

Table by Josh Centers for Blaze Media

A fully loaded 16-inch MacBook Pro now tops out at $10,149.00. Five figures for a laptop. Apple’s short reign as the best value computer manufacturer is over.

Cook called it a ‘hundred-year flood’

Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal last week that Apple couldn’t keep shielding customers from what’s happening to component costs. He called it “a hundred-year flood” and said that in more than 40 years, he had never seen anything like it in any corner of the business.

Apple’s own statement ran in the same direction: It says component costs have spiked farther and faster than anything it has dealt with before, and it put the blame squarely on “the rapid expansion of AI data centers.”

Here’s the thing about that. When Apple tells you it can’t absorb a cost, believe it. This is the company with the most ruthless supply chain on Planet Earth, the one that squeezes suppliers for sport and gets first dibs on every new chip node. If Apple is raising your prices, the problem isn’t Apple being greedy this quarter. It’s a tell. The squeeze is real enough that even the apex predator is passing it down the food chain.

Xbox and the part that should make you mad

Microsoft’s hike lands August 1: A hundred bucks more on the 512GB consoles, $150 more on the 1TB models, and the 2TB version gets killed off entirely. The flagship Series X with a disc drive jumps to $800. It was $650 not that long ago.

Now, the first two Xbox hikes, back in May and September 2025, were about tariffs. Microsoft danced around it the second time with “changes in the macroeconomic environment,” but everybody knew what that meant. This time, Microsoft came right out and said console storage and memory are up 2.5x since October and the company expects those costs to double again by the fall of 2027. The story shifted from politics to physics.

And consoles are the worst possible place for this to hit, because of something most people don’t know: Microsoft sells the box at a loss. The whole model is to eat that loss up front and make it back on games, accessories, and Game Pass subscriptions over the life of the machine. So a memory spike doesn’t shave a margin here. It blows a hole in one.

RELATED: People still nagging you to get an Apple laptop? This news might silence them once and for all.

SvetaZi/Getty Images

Which brings us to the detail that tells you everything you need to know about where we are: buy now, pay later.

Microsoft is rolling out interest-free installments so you can finance an Xbox. Amazon is offering up to 12-month payment plans. The companies are rolling out a layaway program for a video game console and calling it a feature.

Follow the money, and you land on Micron

Micron just reported that quarterly revenue more than quadrupled. Its gross margin went from 39% a year ago to 84.9%. That’s fatter than Nvidia or Meta.

Memory makers are shoveling production toward high-bandwidth memory, the stuff that goes into AI servers, because that’s where the desperate, bottomless money is right now. Every wafer that becomes an HBM stack for some hyperscaler’s GPU cluster is a wafer that doesn’t become the plain old DRAM in your laptop or the storage in your kid’s Xbox. Consumer hardware and AI infrastructure are now fighting over the same finite supply, and consumer hardware is losing.

You’re not imagining the squeeze. You’re funding it. A video game console is now a layaway purchase in the same week a memory chipmaker posts a margin north of 80%. The money didn’t vanish. It just changed hands on the way to your living room.

This is the bubble, and you’re the collateral

Earlier, I wrote that the AI bubble wouldn’t burst with a headline. It would burst with a memo. A canceled license, a quiet budget revision, a company sheepishly rationing the miracle tool it told you would change everything.

This is the flip side of that exact coin.

Even as companies start trimming their AI spending behind closed doors, the hardware build-out they already committed to is still out there vacuuming up components by the trainload. The data centers are under construction. The memory orders are placed. And the bill for all of it lands on you, at the Apple Store, at the GameStop checkout, whether or not the AI revolution ever actually pays off the way they promised.

That’s the part that ought to bother you. Nobody asked if you wanted to subsidize this. You just woke up Thursday and the MacBook your kid needs for the fall semester costs $200 more than it did Wednesday, the Xbox now ships with a financing plan, and somewhere a server farm is coming online that will consume more power than a small city.

It’s not over, and they told you so

Apple all but announced the next round. iPhone increases are coming, probably aimed at the Pro models where buyers don’t flinch at a hundred bucks. Bloomberg Intelligence figures a $100 bump covers 78% of the added cost. There’s also a foldable model expected to clear $2,000. John Ternus inherits the whole memory mess on September 1 when he takes over as CEO.

And it isn’t just Apple bracing you for more. At the ISC 2026 conference, Lenovo warned, half in jest but pointedly, that memory prices have entered a structural climb that won’t reverse to early-2025 levels even as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron race to add capacity and that high DRAM and NAND prices will become the “new normal” in 2030 and beyond. An actual hardware maker is now telling its own customers to budget for pricier PCs, consoles, and phones straight through the end of the decade.

The through-line of everything I’ve written on this is one ugly sentence: The era of cheap, open, owner-controlled personal computing is closing, and AI is the thing closing it. Not with a ban. Not with a law. With a price tag, applied a little at a time, until one Thursday you look up and the floor has moved out from under you.

The hardware is all still for sale. You just can’t afford as much of it as you could last year. And next year you’ll afford less.

And if you were planning to do what I told you in May — buy your own hardware, run your own models, stop renting intelligence from a company that loses money on you — here’s the bad news. That hardware runs on the same memory everyone is now fighting over. The DRAM, the storage, the GPU you would buy to own your compute is exactly what is spiking. The escape hatch is closing.

Buy what you actually need now. It is not getting cheaper.

​Tech 

Philadelphia Police have issued arrest warrants for a pair of 16-year-old males in connection with the murder of a Penn State University senior less than a month ago.

The teens — Kaiseem Smith and Azzubair Outen-Fleming — are wanted for murder and related offenses, and police are urging those with information to contact their tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477), WTXF-TV reported.

‘They don’t deserve to get to walk away from what they did.’

Billy Schmidt, 22, was fatally shot around 1:30 a.m. June 6 in the 1900 block of Durfor Street in South Philadelphia, WPVI-TV reported.

The shooting occurred just blocks from his home in what his family has said may have been an armed robbery attempt, WTXF added.

Neighbors provided police with surveillance video that showed the moments just before gunfire erupted, WTXF reported, adding that Schmidt in the video can be heard asking for his phone back.

More from WTXF:

Police say the suspects were seen in the area of 20th Street between Ritner and Jackson streets before the shooting, and last seen near 22nd and Porter streets. One suspect is described as approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall with braided hair, wearing a gray “KONFUSED” brand hoodie with skulls and crossbones and a black mask. The second suspect, believed to be the shooter, is between 5 feet 3 inches and 5 feet 5 inches tall and was wearing all black with a camouflage face mask.

After the shooting, police say the suspects got rid of their masks and hoodies and were seen in white T-shirts.

“We are heartbroken over the tragic death of William Schmidt, and we share our deepest condolences with his family and friends,” Penn State officials said in a statement, according to WTXF.

RELATED: Penn State senior shot dead just yards from his family’s South Philly home — after thugs apparently stole his phone

Schmidt had been studying digital journalism and media and was planning to graduate in December, WTXF added.

The City of Philadelphia is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, WTXF reported.

“I hope they find them. I want [them] in jail. That’s what I want. They don’t deserve to get to walk away from what they did,” Matthew Segal of South Philadelphia told WPVI.

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​Philadelphia, Murder, Fatal shooting, Billy schmidt, Suspects named, Arrest warrants, Penn state university, Crime 

Those license plate cameras hanging over highways and intersections are no longer just reading plates.

New technology now allows some of them to detect the electronic devices traveling with you: your phone, smartwatch, Bluetooth headphones, infotainment system, AirTags, and even some pet trackers.

Collect enough data points, and it becomes possible to identify where someone works, where they live, and who they regularly travel with.

In other words, the goal is no longer simply to identify your car. It’s to identify you. And most drivers have no idea this capability already exists.

Easy reader

Most Americans are familiar with Automatic License Plate Readers. Police departments, toll authorities, and private companies have used them for years. They photograph license plates, log the time and location, and store that information in massive databases.

These systems were originally sold as tools to find stolen vehicles and assist in Amber Alerts. But the databases have grown enormously, storing billions of scans and increasingly being used for purposes far beyond their original mission. Civil liberties groups have been raising concerns about that expansion for years.

According to Flock Safety, one of the largest providers of these systems, its cameras capture multiple frames of video and use motion detection to identify vehicles. The company says it does not use facial recognition technology and that its cameras are not designed to identify individuals.

Yet that distinction is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

ALPR cameras use optical character recognition technology to convert license plate images into digital text and compare that information against databases of vehicles of interest. Increasingly, however, the cameras are doing much more than simply reading plates.

Electronic fingerprint

Now, here’s where things get serious.

A defense contractor called Leonardo has been promoting a system called SignalTrace. It turns license plate cameras into advanced vehicle-tracking technology by combining plate information with signals transmitted by nearby electronic devices.

Even if you never gave permission for anyone to access your phone, smartwatch, Bluetooth devices, or your vehicle’s Wi-Fi system.

SignalTrace is essentially an add-on sensor that can be attached to existing license plate cameras. Instead of simply reading a plate, it searches for wireless signals coming from nearby devices: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID, and other identifiers.

Drive past one of these systems and it may detect the electronic signatures coming from your phone, smartwatch, Bluetooth headphones, infotainment system, AirTags, tire-pressure sensors, or other connected devices.

The system then links those electronic identifiers to a license plate. Leonardo calls this your “electronic fingerprint.”

In plain English, the goal is to connect vehicles with the electronic devices and people associated with them.

May the Fourth be with you

According to documentation referenced by multiple publications, SignalTrace isn’t limited to roadside cameras. The technology can also be deployed in parking garages, transportation hubs, event venues, and other public locations where wireless devices are present.

That means these systems can continue gathering information even when a vehicle isn’t the primary focus.

This raises two obvious questions.

First: Who controls the information about where you go and what devices you carry with you?

And second: How much of this surveillance is consistent with Americans’ expectations of privacy?

Privacy advocates argue that technologies like this raise serious Fourth Amendment concerns because they allow governments to collect detailed information about people’s movements and associations without individualized suspicion or a warrant.

Modern problems

That debate is only becoming more important as vehicles themselves become increasingly connected.

Modern cars already collect enormous amounts of information, including location data, driving behavior, route histories, voice commands, vehicle diagnostics, and in some cases information gathered through interior cameras and driver-monitoring systems.

Critics worry that systems like SignalTrace add yet another layer to an already expanding data ecosystem.

Most drivers don’t realize that they don’t fully control much of the information their vehicles generate. Manufacturers often determine who can access that data, whether it can be shared, and how long it is retained.

Now, layer SignalTrace on top of all that.

Not only can manufacturers collect information from connected vehicles, but external surveillance systems may now be able to detect the devices you bring into the car and tie those identifiers directly to your license plate.

Over time, that creates a remarkably detailed picture of your movements and routines.

RELATED: The latest ‘solution’ to reckless driving could limit freedom for all of us

United Archives/Getty Images

Pattern of life

Privacy experts often refer to this as “pattern of life” surveillance. Collect enough data points, and it becomes possible to identify where someone works, where they live, who they regularly travel with, and even sensitive locations they frequently visit.

Leonardo says the technology captures identifiers and frequencies, not the contents of calls or messages. That may be technically true. But once detailed information exists inside a database, history shows that its use often expands over time.

So what does this mean for ordinary drivers?

It means the privacy expectations many Americans still have on public roads may be changing quickly.

It means the data ecosystem surrounding your vehicle is becoming larger and more interconnected.

And it means lawmakers need to have serious conversations about who can collect this information, how long it can be stored, and what can be done with it.

I’m not saying every police department will abuse these capabilities tomorrow. But once the technology exists and the infrastructure is already in place, the temptation to use it more broadly becomes very real.

We’ve seen that happen with other surveillance tools.

Protect yourself

So what can you do right now?

First, familiarize yourself with your vehicle’s privacy and data settings. Many cars allow you to disable certain forms of data sharing or location tracking.Second, be mindful of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. If you’re not using them, consider turning them off. These are precisely the types of signals systems like SignalTrace are designed to detect.Third, if you use AirTags, fitness trackers, or pet trackers, understand that those devices can also become part of your electronic footprint.Fourth, when you sell or trade your vehicle, factory-reset the infotainment system and remove all paired devices. Many people leave enormous amounts of personal information behind without realizing it.Finally, support serious data-privacy legislation and efforts to give consumers greater control over the information their vehicles generate.

Because technologies like this rarely arrive with a major announcement.

They appear quietly in police budgets, vendor contracts, and infrastructure projects.

And by the time most people notice, the system is already in place.

Bottom line: Your car is supposed to work for you, not the other way around. When surveillance systems start linking your license plate to the devices you carry every day, it’s worth paying attention — and asking some hard questions before these technologies become the new normal.

I’ll keep watching this space and bringing you updates as more departments adopt or test these systems. And I’ll let you know about the wins too.

If you’re wondering, “Where are all these cameras?” you will be shocked. Check out websites like deflock.org, an open-source project mapping license plate readers. Or look on eyesonflock.com, an aggregating Flock Safety Transparency Portal data, and haveibeenflocked.com, where you can enter your plate number to find out more.

​Airtags and trackers, Connected vehicles, Data control, Fourth amendment, License plate cameras, Privacy concerns, Surveillance systems, Electronic fingerprint, Tech, Flock cameras, Leonardo, Signaltrace, Automotive 

A new report from Punchbowl News has revealed new details about the recent hospitalization of longtime Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Last month, news broke that McConnell was hospitalized on June 14. Spokesperson David Popp released a statement that day that said little more than that the senator had been “admitted to the hospital” and that he was “receiving excellent care.”

The dispatcher requests ‘ALS’ services, which Thompson said referred to ‘Advanced Life Support.’

No updates have been released in the weeks since. However, a Punchbowl News report released Wednesday revealed that McConnell was “unconscious” when first responders were sent to his home in Washington, D.C.

The report cited an emergency dispatch recording shared on X by D.C. journalist Desirée Thompson. Thompson claimed the recording came from “Washington, D.C., Fire and EMS dispatch.”

On the recording, the dispatcher requests “ALS” services, which Thompson said referred to “Advanced Life Support.” The dispatcher also notes that the emergency relates to someone who is “unconscious.”

Blaze News reached out to McConnell’s office to confirm that the senator had been unconscious at the time and to learn the current status of his condition and whether he has been discharged from the hospital. The office did not respond.

RELATED: Longtime GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell hospitalized

Photo dated June 1, 2026, featuring Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Justice of West Virginia; Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images

Punchbowl News reported that multiple senators, including Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), have claimed to have spoken with McConnell. Thune said the day after McConnell’s hospitalization that McConnell remained “dialed in to what’s going on” in the Senate.

Thune’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News about whether he has been in touch with McConnell since that time.

McConnell’s health has been the subject of concern for years. The 84-year-old has apparently frozen up, tripped, fallen down stairs, and used a wheelchair on multiple occasions, including in early June. Back in February, he checked himself in to a hospital after experiencing “flu-like symptoms.”

About 10 days before his latest hospitalization, a noticeably frail-looking McConnell required assistance from two men as he made his way through the U.S. Capitol to vote on a reconciliation bill, a photo showed. His most recent message on X was posted on June 12.

McConnell announced in early 2025 that he would not seek another term.

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​Mitch mcconnell, Kentucky, Politics