The tension in the Women’s National Basketball Association is boiling over as star player Caitlin Clark continues to take what many commentators are describing as targeted abuse.

The Indiana Fever guard has been increasingly critical of the WNBA’s officiating while opposing teams have continued their physical play against her.

‘She is not being treated with any sort of respect.’

Clark recently complained about getting “a technical [foul] for clapping” (again), and added, “We should all just go on the calendar now and pick a game that I’m going to be suspended for if I’m going to get technicals for clapping.”

While the 24-year-old’s “emotion” and “passion”-fueled play may contribute to her rough treatment, the league seems ready to explode over recent incidents with her involving physical altercations.

On Monday, Clark narrowly avoided an elbow to the face from Phoenix Mercury player Alyssa Thomas, which resulted in a review in which officials still found Clark guilty of a foul.

Then again on Wednesday against the Mercury, things took a turn when Thomas seemingly pushed her fist into Clark’s throat while she was on the ground, but no foul was called during the game. This — and another incident that reportedly injured Clark’s back and resulted in a foul for the Mercury — seemed to be the final straw and set off a firestorm in the league, starting with Clark’s coach, Stephanie White.

“The fist in the throat is crazy,” White said after the game. “It’s crazy. It’s dangerous.”

“We have a generational talent and a WNBA superstar who had two cheap shots right there that weren’t called. And I just say again, absolutely unacceptable,” the coach yelled.

RELATED: Jason Whitlock: Nike and the WNBA fumbled the Caitlin Clark phenomenon

– YouTube

Sports media broadcasters did not bite their tongue after the fouls, either.

Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy shared a clip of the dangerous foul and asked, “What are we even doing here?”

“Brutal cheap shot. These women would still be flying commercial without Caitlin and this is how she is treated. Insane,” Portnoy said, referring to the WNBA players getting chartered flights in 2024, Clark’s first season in the league.

Former NFL MVP Boomer Esiason said after the foul that Clark should “seriously consider” going to play in a different league. Esiason claimed she would get “the royal treatment” if she went elsewhere.

“I think that there’s a petty, petty jealousy, and she’s a straight white basketball player. And she is not being treated with any sort of respect,” Esiason added.

RELATED: ‘Just follow the money’: NFL doctor reveals why so many players are getting injured

– YouTube

At the same time, legendary Fox Sports host Colin Cowherd accused the WNBA of “driving into a wall at full speed with Caitlin Clark.”

Cowherd pointed out that a brand-new poster put out by the league commemorating 30 years of history did not include Clark on it. The poster featured Angel Reese, who came into the league the same year as Clark, as well as Paige Bueckers, a rookie.

On Thursday afternoon, the WNBA announced it was giving Thomas a flagrant foul 2 for making contact with Clark’s throat, ESPN reported. This came with a one-game suspension.

Despite praising the league and its diversity in 2024, Clark has continued to be snubbed by women’s basketball. She was even passed for the women’s USA basketball roster for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Clark also only finished fourth in MVP voting for the WNBA in 2024.

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Pastor Kody Woodard has gone viral for claiming the Bible supports female pastors, but BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey disagrees, saying he’s building his argument on passages that don’t support the claim.

“For the record, I do believe that women can be pastors. And the reason I believe that is because Scripture shows me that,” Woodard said in a video on Instagram.

“I study the Scriptures, and I actually see that Apollos, who Paul compares himself to later, was actually taught by a woman. Read Acts 18. In Acts 21, four unmarried women prophesy in church. In Colossians, Nympha was the pastor of the church, and they met in her house. Chloe, same thing in first Corinthians 1. Romans 16, 1 and 2. Phoebe is a deacon. First Corinthians 11, women prayed and prophesied in the church,” he continued.

“OK, not a single one of these examples is of a female pastor. And I see this a lot. Oh, this woman taught this person, or this woman corrected this person’s theology, or this woman shared her testimony, or this woman was told by Jesus to go share what He had done for her,” Stuckey comments.

“I do believe that women are called to preach the gospel. I do believe that women can correct someone’s theology. I think women can talk about theology. I think women can love the Bible and teach Bible studies,” she continues.

“But none of the examples that were given were of a woman leading a church as a pastor. Even the passage about women prophesying or the Holy Spirit coming upon men and women to prophesy has nothing to do with women being pastors,” she adds.

In another clip, Woodard explained that any verses interpreted to command women to be silent in churches or not preach in churches are taken “out of context.”

“People who make this kind of argument, you are banking on your congregation not reading the passage for themselves. That’s it … I saw someone in these comments say, ‘Oh, that was so textual. That was so scholarly.’ It’s not at all. It’s banking on you not reading Scripture for yourself,” Stuckey says.

“So that’s what’s going on here. And you can think that that is somehow oppressive or that is anti-woman. The truth is that women are just as made in the image of God as men, is that we have been given gifts, we have been given talents,” she continues.

“The Bible is not an anti-woman text, but it is an anti-egalitarian text. It is an anti-men and women are the same text and are called to the same function and purpose,” she says, adding, “We are not.”

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A woman allegedly caught on video dumping garbage all over a Manhattan street before stealing a special-edition New York Knicks trash bin has been canned from her corporate job. Reports say the viral trash-can culprit was later identified as a JPMorgan Chase executive.

More than 2 million people descended upon lower Manhattan on June 18 for the New York Knicks’ ticker-tape victory parade to celebrate the NBA team’s first championship in 53 years, according to the NYPD.

‘First, we would reiterate previous comments that dumping trash onto the street and stealing public property for your own personal use are both illegal, antisocial behaviors, and not what New Yorkers do.’

Prior to the championship parade, the New York City Department of Sanitation released limited-edition blue- and orange-colored garbage cans to commemorate the Knicks’ long-awaited NBA championship. The Knicks-themed bins were situated in the “Canyon of Heroes” corridor of lower Manhattan.

While the Knicks parade had several viral moments, one of the most widely shared videos from the celebration was a woman donning Knicks garb, emptying garbage from a Knicks-themed trash can on the street, and then stealing the receptacle.

A post on the X social media platform shared on June 18, with nearly 4 million views, shows a smiling woman posing with a Knicks-themed trash can for a photo in the subway.

On Tuesday, the New York Post identified the woman as 40-year-old Angie Baez.

Citing her LinkedIn profile, the Post noted that Baez was a JPMorgan Chase employee who was promoted to executive director of community and industry engagement for card and connected commerce over a year ago.

Sources told the Post that JPMorgan officials “looked into the incident after the video surfaced.”

The New York Post reported that Baez “was fired Tuesday over the incident.”

A JPMorgan Chase spokesperson told the Post, “This employee is no longer with the company.”

On Wednesday, a JPMorgan spokesperson confirmed to NBC News that Baez is no longer employed by the company.

“The spokesperson would not comment on if she left the company as a result of the video,” according to NBC News.

On Wednesday, the Department of Sanitation confirmed that the trash can was returned. The Department of Sanitation shared a post on Facebook of the Knicks-themed trash can with the caption: “Home sweet home.”

The Department of Sanitation issued a statement to NBC News that read:

First, we would reiterate previous comments that dumping trash onto the street and stealing public property for your own personal use are both illegal, antisocial behaviors, and not what New Yorkers do. On top of all that, doing both on camera is incredibly stupid.

RELATED: DEI went into hiding — but remains as dangerous as ever

On Saturday, the New York City Police Department informed the Post that it had not received any complaints related to the incident and that Baez has not been charged with any crimes.

Under New York State law, the theft of property valued at $1,000 or less is prosecuted under New York Penal Law § 155.25 as petit larceny, a Class A misdemeanor.

“Consequences are often minimal — usually a fine, summons, or community service for first-time offenders,” according to the Post. “The littering that accompanied the theft could bring additional penalties.”

The Department of Sanitation confirmed to Fox News that NYC Sanitation Police slapped Baez with two summonses following the incident: a $75 fine for littering and a $100 penalty for impeding sanitation operations.

A request for comment from JPMorgan Chase was not returned to Blaze News by the time of publication.

Baez did not immediately respond to NBC News and the New York Post.

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​News, Jpmorgan chase, New york city, Jp morgan, Manhattan, Politics 

On her last day as director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard released a bombshell report containing a collection of previously undisclosed communications that she says shed light on Dr. Anthony Fauci’s role in the pandemic response.

“Before the COVID pandemic, Dr. Fauci, as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, provided millions in U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Gabbard began.

“I’m releasing never-before-seen communications and documents that expose exactly how Fauci worked with politicized career leadership in the intelligence community to suppress the truth about his actions, the virus’ lab-leak origins, and his role in directing U.S. funding for this dangerous research that caused immeasurable harm and countless lost lives,” she said.

Gabbard went on to explain that Fauci’s relationships within the intelligence community “enabled him to assume three key roles that shield him from scrutiny.”

“First, Dr. Fauci funded dangerous gain-of-function coronavirus research linked to Big Pharma and their pursuit of universal vaccines worth trillions of dollars,” she said.

“Second, Dr. Fauci was the behind-the-scenes adviser who … pushed the intelligence community to endorse a natural animal origin to hide his dangerous gain-of-function research that he funded using taxpayer dollars,” she explained.

“Third … he publicly pushed lies, disinformation, and censorship using every platform available,” she added.

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is disgusted, though not surprised.

“As she was speaking, I felt like I have PTSD. In fact, maybe a lot of us do,” she says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“They literally, purposely, intentionally let people die so that they could have an emergency mandate for a vaccine. They literally pushed ivermectin out of the way. … The rules all changed so that they could get everyone in America to inject themselves with an experiment,” she continues.

Following the report, the DOJ is now “weighing” a criminal case against Dr. Fauci.

“Just do it,” Gonzales comments.

“Why are we wasting another day not going after him on the things that we can go after him for?” she adds.

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​Big pharma, Director of national intelligence, Dr anthony fauci, Gain of function, Ivermectin, Pandemic response, Sara gonzales, Tulsi gabbard, Wuhan institute of virology, Sara gonzales unfiltered 

Liberal elites figured it was right and just over the past decade to admit into Europe millions of migrants from the third world.

Childless former Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel marked the consensus with an expression of misguided optimism, telling her countrymen, “We can do it!” and extending a warm welcome to military-aged men from Islamic terrorist hotbeds such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

‘It has no place in Denmark.’

Europe proved it could “do it” — but the consequences have been severe and far-reaching.

Migrants have, for example, helped drive a devastating spike in crime across Europe, especially rape — cases of which European Union data indicates increased by 141% between 2013 and 2023. The continent also saw a dramatic rise in Islamic terrorist attacks. In France alone, there were at least 53 attacks and over 290 related deaths between 2013 and April 2024.

Denmark, among the nations still dealing with the fallout of the migrant crisis, is now clamping down on a byproduct of its admission of migrants with alien cultures.

Morten Bødskov, the liberal government’s immigration minister, recently told the Danish news agency Ritzau that the government is planning to ban the Islamic call to prayer, stating that parts of the Nordic country now feel like “a suburb of Islamabad,” reported the Telegraph.

RELATED: ‘Beyond evil’: Nightmarish report reveals full scale of mass Islamic rapes of ‘250,000’ white British girls

Muslims hold their Friday prayer in Copenhagen’s Parliament Square. Ole Jensen/Getty Images.

“The call to prayer should not be heard over Danish rooftops,” said Bødskov. “It has no place in Denmark, and you shouldn’t be in any doubt whether you’ve ended up in a suburb of Islamabad when you walk around Denmark.”

Just as Denmark wasn’t sheepish about its reluctance to accept multitudes of migrants over the past decade, it similarly hasn’t been shy about pushing back against the attempted Islamic conquest of its public spaces and making the country unattractive to would-be migrants.

It has, for instance, ruffled the feathers of European Union officials and liberal commenters by cracking down in recent years on “parallel societies” and forcing migrants to relocate from an area if it has too many foreigners.

The government has also banned full-face Islamic veils like the burka and the niqab in public spaces and entertained lawmakers’ proposals to reinforce Danish culture by serving pork in public schools, compelling immigrants to celebrate Christmas, and removing prayer rooms from educational institutions.

While parts of the country reportedly already have bylaws in place forbidding the Islamic call to prayer from being blasted on loudspeakers, Bødskov — expressly concerned about a creeping “Islamization” taking “up too much of the public space” — wants a universal ban.

This will be the third time that a Danish immigration minister has attempted to ban the Islamic call to prayer. Previous investigations into the legality of such a ban have been held up by elections and corresponding changes in government.

According to the Danish government, Islam is the largest non-Christian religion in the country today with roughly 270,000 adherents presently residing in the country. In addition to the two mega-mosques in Copenhagen, there are an additional 100 mosques scattered throughout the country.

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​Islam, Prayer, Migrants, Denmark, Europe, Politics 

Don’t blame Trump for Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension last year, says former Disney CEO Bob Iger — it was purely an in-house decision.

“We thought it was in bad taste,” Iger told the Financial Times, referring to the late-night host’s on-air remarks about Charlie Kirk shortly after his death.

‘An ill-timed and probably inappropriate comment.’

Murderous monologue

Five days after Kirk was assassinated during a college tour stop in Utah on September 10, 2025, Kimmel addressed the killing in his opening monologue, declaring that the “MAGA gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”

Two days later, on September 17, Disney suspended production of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Production was resumed on September 23.

Iger, who was CEO of Disney from 2022 to 2026, denied speculation that complaints from the Trump administration were the real reason ABC and parent company Disney pulled the show.

Iger also revealed that Kimmel was asked to apologize for his remarks, saying “We just wanted him to acknowledge that it was an ill-timed and probably inappropriate comment.”

RELATED: Jimmy Kimmel picks host to replace him for a bit — and she’s a vitriolic Trump-hater

Michael Le Brecht II/Disney/Getty Images

Persecution complex

Speculation that the executive branch was behind Kimmel’s suspension stemmed chiefly from an appearance FCC Chairman Brendan Carr made on a podcast, where he said, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” regarding the talk-show host.

“These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” Carr remarked, per Variety.

Kimmel, too, claimed he was the victim of a government plot to silence him; however the alleged plot would only last five days. Upon returning to the network, Kimmel’s show aired a compilation of news stories surrounding his suspension, where multiple channel were shown calling his return to ABC a “huge” and “pivotal” moment in history.

RELATED: Jimmy Kimmel doubles down on Melania ‘widow’ jab — will this be the nail in his coffin?

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images/Disney

Hero to zero

As Blaze News reported at the time, Kimmel received multiple standing ovations from his audience, becoming visibly emotional as he recalled messages of love he had received for being the alleged target of a government censorship plot.

Kimmel’s remarks were a reversal of his previous comments, as he told his viewers that he was not actually trying to pin any certain ideology on Kirk’s assassin.

“I have no illusions about changing anyone’s mind,” Kimmel said. “But I do want to make something clear because it’s important to me as a human. And that is you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”

In April, Kimmel joked about first lady Melania Trump having “a glow like an expectant widow.”

Two days later, another assassination attempt was made on President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, considered the third attempt on the president’s life.

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Soccer fans attending the World Cup game at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, were greeted by a unique campaign as they entered the venue.

According to a viral photo on social media, the organizers set up a sign and passed out hospitality pamphlets to make Muslim attendees aware of their Islam-approved amenities.

‘It didn’t feel like simple visitor assistance. It felt like the promotion of a religion.’

Former Muslim and current Christian apologist Brother Rachid posted the image and questioned whether the campaign constituted an endorsement and promotion of the Islamic faith.

“Right after scanning your ticket at the entrance to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, there were groups of people handing out ‘Muslim Hospitality’ pamphlets. They showed where to pray and which food was halal,” he wrote.

Rachid, who is Moroccan, was attending the World Cup match between Morocco and Haiti on Wednesday.

“Then, just a few steps inside, there was a large sign with the same information. It didn’t feel like simple visitor assistance. It felt like the promotion of a religion,” he added. “The stadium doesn’t hand every fan a printed map, stadium rules, or event information, those are all available online. Yet for Islam, there were printed pamphlets being handed to everyone and an entire team dedicated to distributing them.”

He went on to point out that some Islamic scholars consider soccer religiously forbidden, or haram. His post went viral with thousands of likes, and some Muslims replied in defense of the accommodations.

“Yeah maybe it’s because Muslim[s] are the only devout followers of their religion in comparison to Jews, Hindus and lol, Christians?” mocked one user on X.

The next World Cup match at the stadium will be between the Congo Democratic Republic and Uzbekistan on Saturday. The latter country is a Muslim-majority country, although the government is secular in nature.

The online fan guide for “Atlanta Stadium” on the FIFA website indicates that they will have the hospitality pamphlet campaign at that game as well as specially staffed prayer areas for men and women and halal food.

A spokesperson for a company affiliated with the stadium told Blaze News that the accommodations were similar to those made for people on vegan diets and those with sensory sensitivity issues.

Blaze News reached out to FIFA for comment.

RELATED: NY Dems get annihilated with backlash after revealing which World Cup team they support

Evrim Aydin/Anadolu/Getty Images

Morocco went on to defeat Haiti by a score of 4 to 2.

Rachid is an apologist who defends Christian theology and spreads the gospel to Muslims through his Arabic Media Ministries organization.

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​Islam, World cup 2026, Religion, Politics, Mercedes-benz stadium 

A woman says she was treated like a criminal at a Detroit Tigers game because she was wearing a shirt that expressed her faith.

The incident happened on June 19 during a game between the Tigers and Chicago White Sox, where fan Paige Combs-Morgan was seen in the seats behind home plate.

‘Put it down, shut off the recording.’

Combs-Morgan told New Media Detroit that she was escorted out of Comerica Park in Detroit after staff told her the message on her shirt was offending other fans.

A video showed Combs-Morgan in the front row behind home plate — typically the most expensive seats — moving left and right with her arms out while wearing a hoodie that read, “Jesus Over Pride.”

In a self-shot video, Combs-Morgan can be heard saying, “They’re kicking me out because of my shirt,” as she is being escorted through the halls of the stadium.

“We have received a couple complaints,” a staff member can faintly be heard telling her.

After entering what appears to be a security office, one individual can be heard telling Combs-Morgan to “put your phone down,” before saying, “We’re not going to tape this.”

“Put it down, shut off the recording,” a man is heard saying.

The woman told the Detroit outlet that multiple police officers and stadium representatives escorted her out of the stadium after that.

“They acted like I committed a crime for existing there,” she claimed.

The Tigers organization said that Combs-Morgan’s ejection was not over her shirt; it was due to her conduct.

RELATED: MLB says warning Christian players was a mistake — but confirms 2 teams are allowed to push Pride propaganda

“We received several complaints from fans seated behind home plate during Friday’s game, who reported another fan’s behavior as being disruptive to their ballpark experience,” the team said in a statement to Blaze News.

The team said that Combs-Morgan not only made “frequent walks and poses” across the front row of seats in camera-visible areas that obstructed the view of others, but she was warned by staff that “she would be ejected if the behavior continued,” as it violated Tigers’ stadium rules.

The team pointed to their code of conduct, which contains the following directive: “Guests should refrain from any action that disrupts other guests’ enjoyment of the game.”

The Tigers spokesman concluded, “She was later escorted from the ballpark because the behavior persisted, and not because of her attire.”

The ball club provided multiple images of the fan making gestures in the 2nd and 6th inning, seemingly showing her making waving motions with her arms.

This was is in addition to video that showed Combs-Morgan walking across the front row of seats with drinks in her hands.

RELATED: Detroit Lions in the crosshairs for skipping Juneteenth — but an entire major sports league did too

Images courtesy Detroit Tigers/MLB

In her interview with New Media Detroit, Combs-Morgan told the host she did walk to the bathroom and “made my shirt known, but just like everybody else does when they want to make a point.”

As for her inspiration, Combs-Morgan said she took issue with the MLB’s warning to San Francisco Giants pitchers who wrote Bible verses on their caps and said these types of protests only seem to be an issue when they are supportive of Christianity.

“I have the right to wear that. And just like everybody else, like everyone else flaunts whatever they believe in, but you don’t see people wearing anything about religion because this is exactly what happens,” the fan stated.

She continued, “And I got kicked out not because of how I was acting in any sort of way. I was told specifically by two people that I was offensive for wearing that shirt.”

“I completely got kicked out because it offended people,” she added, contradicting the Tigers organization.

Combs-Morgan also said she felt the organization was trying to “intimidate” her and did not want her to “talk about my rights.”

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A Louisiana church pastor charged with battery this week said the male he is accused of beating up threatened to rape and kill his family.

Tony Spell, 48 — pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central — on Tuesday walked across Hooper Road and allegedly beat up a person who screamed “F**k you,” KLFY-TV reported, citing an affidavit.

‘They don’t like the church; they made that clear.’

The station said that during a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Spell indicated that the person he is accused of beating up said a lot more than that.

Spell said he was working on a church bus when he heard the neighbor’s son yelling at him, WBRZ-TV reported: “He said, ‘Tony, I’m gonna rape your wife, I’m gonna rape all of your grandchildren,’ and he said, ‘The next time you go out of town, I’m gonna kill them — and what the F are you going to do about it?'”

Spell added that he’s the “natural protector” of his family and church, and it was his job to take action, WBRZ reported.

“You’re not going to rape my wife. I can’t allow you to do that. You’re not going to rape my grandchildren and me live with the cloud over my head that if I leave, my children and wife are unprotected. I have a duty and an obligation to do what I did,” Spell said, according to KLFY.

WBRZ said sheriff’s deputies arrested Spell after the altercation with the 20-year-old.

“This has gone on for years now,” Spell also said at the news conference, according to KLFY. “Behind me are several witnesses who can attest to what was said; they have video, they have made numerous complaints to the police and sheriff’s department.”

Spell also said that the people across the street have stalked and intimidated church attendees, KLFY noted: “As a shepherd, I have not allowed the sheep to attack the wolves for what was said to them.”

WBRZ said it spoke with those neighbors — the Sherwins — who countered that Spell’s claims are false and stem from the recent conclusion of a legal battle that began after Spell was arrested for disregarding coronavirus mandates and holding church services while stay-at-home orders were in effect.

“This pastor is a bully who gets mad when he does not get his way,” the Sherwins said, according to WBRZ, which added that the family’s video cameras captured Tuesday’s altercation.

RELATED: Watch: Pistol-whipping carjacker picks wrong car — and has instant regrets when pastor gives him shock of his life

KLFY said arrest documents indicate that the beatdown victim sustained some injuries, including a possible broken orbital bone around his right eye.

Spell’s attorney, Jeff Wittenbrink, told KLFY there possibly was a law enforcement failure or a “gap” in the law regarding the ongoing problem with family across the street from the church, which he called “domestic terrorism.”

“They don’t like the church; they made that clear,” Wittenbrink also said, according to KLFY.

Central Police Department Chief Roger Corcoran responded to criticisms against law enforcement, KLFY added.

“Allegations that the Central Police Department has failed to investigate complaints lodged by Pastor or Mrs. Spell are untrue. Our records reflect only five incidents involving Pastor or Mrs. Spell in the past four years, and only one of those involved a complaint against their neighbors,” Corcoran said, according to KLFY. “All calls to our department are recorded, and all persons who visit our department to make in-person complaints are captured on video. If dates and times of complaints were allegedly made are provided to me, I will order an audit of our systems to investigate any claim of a failure to investigate.”

KLFY said Spell was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on a second-degree battery charge. WBRZ said Spell bonded out Tuesday evening; the bond was $25,000, KLFY reported.

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​Arrest, Battery charge, Church, East baton rouge sheriff’s office, Louisiana, Pastor, Threat allegation, Crime 

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and the Trump administration regarding when asylum-seekers officially “arrive” in the U.S.

In a 6-3 decision split along ideological lines, the Court held that aliens seeking asylum do not “arrive in the United States” until they physically cross the border into the country and therefore are not entitled to inspection by border officials until they have entered onto U.S. soil.

‘An alien “arrives in the United States” only when he crosses the border.’

The case stems from the federal government’s “metering” policy — first adopted in 2016 amid a surge of migrants at the southern border — that limited the number of aliens whom Customs and Border Patrol agents would inspect each day for asylum. When a port of entry reached capacity, officials physically prevented additional aliens from entering until capacity became available again.

In 2017, asylum-seekers and Al Otro Lado, an immigration advocacy organization, brought forward a class-action lawsuit arguing that the federal government was unlawfully denying aliens access to asylum procedures.

The federal district court in Southern California granted summary judgment in favor of the noncitizens and declared the government’s policy unlawful.

The metering policy was then discontinued in November 2021, though the second Trump administration has attempted to revive it.

A divided Ninth Circuit panel affirmed the summary judgment, ruling that an alien “arrives in the United States” when said alien — even while standing on the Mexico side of the border — encounters a U.S. official and thus must be inspected for asylum claims.

Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito reversed the lower court’s ruling. The court held that the meaning of “arrives in the United States” requires physically entering the country. Therefore, under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, an alien standing on the Mexico side of the border is not entitled to inspection by a U.S. official.

“We hold that an alien who is standing in Mexico does not ‘arriv[e] in the United States’ by attempting, and failing, to set foot in this country. An alien ‘arrives in the United States’ only when he crosses the border,” Alito wrote.

RELATED: Ketanji Brown Jackson melts down over SCOTUS ruling against Hawaii gun law: ‘The court’s objective is protecting guns’

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justices Samuel Alito (L) and Clarence Thomas (R).Chip Somodevilla/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

The court highlighted the text of other INA provisions and subsequent amendments to the statute to indicate that Congress intended asylum and inspection rights to apply only after an alien enters the country.

“That Congress amended §1158(a) in IIRIRA to replace ‘at a land border or port of entry’ with ‘arrives in the United States’ suggests that we should not read those phrases — which carry different ordinary meanings — to have the same meaning.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented, arguing that Congress intended border officials to inspect and process all aliens who present themselves at ports of entry, regardless of whether they have physically stepped into the U.S. The dissent contended that the majority’s decision “ignores the statutory context and history” of the INA and weakens the asylum protections Congress created for people fleeing persecution.

“The Court today holds that the Executive Branch may circumvent all these mandatory procedures by having U.S. immigration officers stand at the border and physically block noncitizens from setting a foot onto U.S. soil.”

Sotomayor added, “The Court’s illogical interpretation is driven almost entirely by a fixation on a single word: ‘in.'”

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​Justice samuel alito, Supreme court ruling, Politics, Asylum, Immigration 

The anxiety surrounding TikTok was never difficult to understand. Parents worried about what their children were watching and how much time they were spending online. Politicians sounded alarms about biased algorithms. Experts warned about mass manipulation.

Letting a foreign-owned app into a teenager’s hand felt like a reckless gamble, because it was. Yet a smartphone still requires a conscious choice to unlock a screen and tap an icon.

Interactive teddy bears, on the other hand, require nothing but an innocent child’s trust. When that cuddly toy rolls off a Chinese assembly line, as most of them do, it opens a pipeline from the playroom straight to a foreign government. American households are welcoming data collection hubs directly into the family circle, by way of devices that arrive packaged as comforting companions.

When toys become spies

The scale of this threat surpasses the reach of traditional social media. TikTok captures keyboard strokes and viewing histories. A conversational toy captures the raw psychology of a developing child. It records bedtime fears, family schedules, and background arguments. Children speak to their favorite toys with total honesty. Into tiny microphones, they whisper secrets they would hide from their own parents or not even think to share.

Parents must recognize that convenience carries a hidden cost.

This intimate surveillance apparatus serves the strategic ambitions of the China’s Communist Party. Article 7 of China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law mandates that all domestic organizations cooperate with state intelligence efforts. Every audio file, voiceprint, and psychological profile collected by these toys belongs to Beijing on demand. Chinese tech firms must comply with state security services. American stores hand valuable shelf space over to surveillance tools funded by Washington’s primary adversary. The software inside these items acts as a digital Trojan horse.

Every conversation helps these toys learn more about the children using them, from their interests and fears to how their thinking changes over time. The underlying systems log levels of vocabulary, emotional triggers, and psychological vulnerabilities. Voice data creates a permanent biometric print. The microphones pick up everything spoken in the room, capturing financial anxieties, parental disputes, and daily routines. This data provides a detailed map of the American household. Chinese manufacturers program these devices to deliver those family secrets directly to state security agencies.

Cascading perils

The immediate danger to children operates on physical and ideological levels. These toys rely on large language models trained on uncurated datasets. They frequently hallucinate, generating false information with absolute confidence. A plastic dinosaur might tell a child that eating pennies unlocks a secret treasure. It might explain that electrical outlets are actually secret doors meant to be explored with a fork. Physical safety depends entirely on the erratic outputs of a remote server.

The ideological conditioning is equally deliberate. When a child asks a DeepSeek-connected toy about human rights or international history, the toy’s response reflects Chinese state-trained data. The toy may repeat approved talking points in a soothing, reassuring voice. It may reframe authoritarian propaganda into nighttime fairy tales and nursery rhymes.

RELATED: AI is killing the how-to book — and literacy is its next victim

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Current legal frameworks offer no protection against this encroachment. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act dates back to the days of dial-up internet. The law stops at regulating website cookies, completely missing the fact that smart toys can now record and copy a child’s speech. Market incentives ensure that retail supply chains favor these products. Store owners buy these devices at low wholesale prices to maximize holiday profit margins. Corporate compliance departments check for physical choking hazards, battery security, and lead paint. They ignore the open server connections, routing data straight to Hangzhou.

No comprehensive legislation bans foreign-controlled AI from interacting with minors. No regulatory agency has the authority to audit the source code of imported smart toys. Politicians treat the issue as a distant problem, ignoring the shipping containers currently arriving at American ports.

Asleep at the wheel

Parents assume that product safety extends to the software inside a colorful box. They expect the government must somehow vet items sold by reputable retailers. That assumption is an illusion. The market moves faster than Congress or bureaucratic regulators. The pursuit of low-cost electronics ensures that families remain the primary target of data acquisition. The defense of the playroom relies entirely on a parent turning the power switch off.

It’s a corporate playbook that depends on parental exhaustion. A busy parent views a responsive toy as an affordable, good-enough babysitter. The device never grows tired of hearing the same story. It never snaps or loses its patience. It merely listens, logs, and transmits. The child receives a tireless friend, and a foreign intelligence service receives a permanent listening post in the American bedroom.

Moreover, this dynamic transforms childhood into a commodity. In previous generations, children enjoyed a period of unmonitored development. They processed thoughts, threw tantrums, and invented games without creating a permanent record. Smart toys end this privacy. A child’s formative years become training data for algorithms designed to predict and shape human behavior.

Securing the home requires a fundamental shift in consumer awareness. The immediate solution remains low-tech. Parents must recognize that convenience carries a hidden cost. The safest toy lacks an internet connection. It contains no microchips, no microphones, and no software updates. It requires imagination rather than automated code. Until federal policy confronts the reality of digital espionage in consumer goods, the boundary of the home depends on a basic refusal to connect the playroom to the internet.

​Tech 

The U.S. Supreme Court has given President Donald Trump a major victory in his mission for mass deportations of migrants from the U.S.

SCOTUS ruled Thursday that the Trump administration was within its power to strip Temporary Protective Status from hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians. The 6-3 ruling overturned a lower court ruling that had postponed the termination of TPS for 6,000 migrants from Syria and 350,000 migrants from Haiti.

‘The Trump administration continues to lawfully end the egregious abuses to our immigration system that have hurt Americans for years.’

“The TPS statute plainly bars consideration of respondents’ nonconstitutional claims,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito in the majority opinion.

While the defendants’ attorneys had argued that the administration had acted out of racial animus, Alito noted that “the current administration, which has terminated every TPS designation that has come up for renewal, simply opposes the TPS program, at least as it has been implemented in the past.”

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the dissent written by Justice Elena Kagan, who wrote that the plaintiffs “deserve better” than the decision made by the majority.

“True enough that TPS is a temporary program, and that it did not promise the plaintiffs never-ending humanitarian protection,” wrote Justice Elena Kagan.

“But the law prevents the program from ending as it likely did here — without the required consultations about country conditions and, as to Haiti, with impermissible race-based considerations tainting the decision.”

Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, praised the ruling and reiterated the administration’s claim that previous Democratic presidents had misused the TPS program to grant de facto amnesty to migrants.

“It was never intended to be a pathway to permanent status or legal residency, and it is committed to the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security,” she said. “The Trump administration continues to lawfully end the egregious abuses to our immigration system that have hurt Americans for years.”

RELATED: Springfield officials, Ohio activists brace for end to TPS protection for Haitian migrants

Ahilan Arulanantham, a UCLA law professor who argued on behalf of the Syrian plaintiffs, called on Congress to vote to pass legislation in favor of TPS protections.

“Without TPS, millions of individuals who are part of our communities are at risk of being sent back to countries in crisis,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York responded that Democrats are eager to intervene on behalf of the migrants affected.

“In a cruel and inhumane decision, the Supreme Court just turned its back on more than 300,000 Haitians and thousands of Syrians who have worked and raised families here because they faced violence and instability back home. TPS exists for exactly this reason,” he said in a statement on social media.

“I have introduced legislation to extend TPS for Haitians and will keep fighting to protect Haitian and Syrian families from being forced back into danger,” he added. “America should not turn its back on people who came here seeking safety.”

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​Migrants, Temporary protective status, Us supreme court, Immigration, Politics, Haitians, Syria