Democrat New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is under fire after a bizarre decision he made that many took as an insult to 9/11 victims.

The Muslim mayor signed a 9/11 remembrance declaration on Friday, just ahead of the 25th anniversary of the horrific terror attacks that claimed 2,977 American lives.

‘The families who lost loved ones on 9/11 have every right to be outraged. On the 25th anniversary, City Hall should be honoring their sacrifice with dignity, not forcing those families to endure yet another insult.’

While no one took issue with the declaration, many were offended when he handed a ceremonial pen to the NYPD commissioner to give to chief counsel Ramzi Kassem.

Kassem had previously acted as legal counsel for Ahmed al-Darbi, a convicted al-Qaeda terrorist whose brother-in-law hijacked the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.

New Yorkers and others expressed their anger on social media.

“I sincerely hope the rest of the country understands just how hard it is to be in New York City with this mayor, and especially as we’re approaching this most serious and solemn day for NYC: 9/11,” responded Maria Danzilo, a former state Senate candidate.

“He’s laughing at every American patriot who lost someone that day. He’s pissing on everyone who went in to try to save people in the towers. He hates you all,” replied one user on the X platform.

“Mamdani handed that guy that pen very f**kin intentionally,” said another critic. “It wasn’t an oversight or a gaffe, it was a totally intentional signal to the whole city that the worst event in its history doesn’t matter to him. He doesn’t give a f**k about survivors and he wants everyone to know it.”

“It shows exactly where his loyalties truly lie,” said Republican Council Member Joann Ariola of the “breathtakingly tone-deaf and disrespectful” stunt.

“The families who lost loved ones on 9/11 have every right to be outraged,” she added. “On the 25th anniversary, City Hall should be honoring their sacrifice with dignity, not forcing those families to endure yet another insult.”

RELATED: Prominent professor supported Mamdani’s socialist scheme — until he became a target

City Hall told Fox News Digital that Kassem was at the ceremony because his team drafted the declaration as Mamdani’s legal counsel.

Al-Darbi was sent to Guantanamo Bay on terror charges. He was convicted in 2017 and sent to Saudi Arabia a year later.

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​Zohran mamdani, 9/11, Islam, Muslim, Online outrage, Politics 

When Sean Duffy’s daughter announced she wanted to attend Harvard University, the transportation secretary’s reaction might have been torn apart by the left, but it couldn’t have been more relatable to conservative parents across the country.

In a clip from their series “The Great American Road Trip,” Duffy’s daughter Paloma tells the secretary that he “can’t say no” to Harvard.

“Well, me and Mom can say no,” Duffy responded.

Duffy and his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, went on to explain their reasoning.

“Catholicism, to us, is everything. It’s the basis of our marriage; it’s the basis of our family. So I’m nervous about the idea of Paloma going to Harvard. We spend a lot of time nurturing and providing formation for our kids, giving them an environment where they are steeped in faith and values,” Campos-Duffy said.

“And so the idea of dropping her off at a place that would undermine that or try to undo all those things makes me worried,” she added.

“And again, I don’t want them to get one viewpoint. I want them to get a lot of different viewpoints, but I don’t want them fed only one viewpoint that’s contrary to the way my kids were raised,” Duffy chimed in.

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck is all too familiar with their struggle, telling Duffy “congratulations” for putting his foot down.

“I saw the look on your daughter’s face in that video … when you said, ‘Well, your mom and dad can say no,’ and that is so hard, and parents are dealing with this,” Glenn comments. “Why do you feel so strongly about this?”

“I think American conservative families are having this conversation every single day because they know, whether it’s a family member or a friend or a neighbor who has sent their kid off to school, and … they come back and they’re unrecognizable. We don’t know who these kids are,” Duffy tells Glenn.

“They’ve been completely contorted and converted from these liberal institutions,” he adds.

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​Catholicism, Glenn beck, Great american road trip, Harvard university, Leftism, Liberal, Sean duffy, Transportation secretary, Blazetv show 

I knew Charlie Kirk. He was my friend, and that friendship changed my life. When he was assassinated on September 10, 2025, I did what you do when your own words fail. I went back to his.

“Charlie Kirk, in His Own Words” is the result. It gathers his social media posts, curated one by one from 2011 to the day he died, and weaves in never-before-seen photographs and testimonials from the people who loved him.

Charlie Kirk understood that when speech is controlled, power concentrates and people learn to keep their real thoughts to themselves.

I am not making a dollar from this book. All proceeds go to Carry the Torch, the nonprofit I founded in his honor. This book is a gift, my thank-you to a man who spent his life telling young people the truth.

The selections are Charlie unfiltered, saying exactly what he believed and inviting anyone who disagreed to come and say so to his face.

Freedom of speech and an invitation to debate

Free speech was one of Charlie’s clearest instincts in public life. He treated the First Amendment as a safeguard for ordinary people — especially those without power, status, or institutional cover.

He understood that when speech is protected, a country can argue, correct itself, and stay honest; when it is controlled, power concentrates and people learn to keep their real thoughts to themselves.

He also understood how censorship spreads: It rarely begins with the average person. It begins with a claimed emergency, a claimed harm, a claimed moral cause — and then the boundaries tighten.

Kirk liked the part of politics where you cannot hide — a microphone, a chair, a crowd, and a clock. Debate forced clarity: it made people define terms, defend claims, and sit with the consequences of their own logic.

Campus debates mattered to him for another reason too — universities were supposed to be places of open dialogue, and he watched that promise shrink under administrators who treated disagreement as harm. But when students still showed up, argued back, and kept listening, he saw proof that the story wasn’t finished.

His respect for debate was not limited to his own side. He wanted arguments in daylight. No censorship. No cowardice. No hiding.

The quotes that follow show what that commitment sounded like in Charlie’s own words — on free speech, censorship, disagreement, and the obligation to make your case rather than silence the other side.

RELATED: WaPo ordered to rehire anti-white radical fired over Charlie Kirk assassination comments

ISABEL INFANTES/AFP/Getty Images

Free speech as birthright

5 million followers! Thank you all.

And thank you @elonmusk for liberating this critical platform.

After spending three days in England, I truly mean this with renewed importance: May we always protect free speech as one of our most sacred American birthrights.

Government limited by rights

The First Amendment was written precisely to hamstring the government!!

They work for us. They serve us. We the People, the citizens, are the sovereign. Never forget that.

Chapter by chapter

Thank you, President Trump, for acknowledging the amazing work our @TPUSA team is doing on thousands and thousands of college and high school chapters. There is a whole new generation of free speech warriors rising up, with more every passing year.

Platform censorship

Twitter censored and banned the leader of the free world from its platform.

We should never forget just how wildly absurd that really is.

Questioning is essential

When you’re not allowed to question something at the risk of being banned, censored, or “cancelled” — it’s not science, it’s propaganda.

A double standard

The Packers and Eagles are scheduled to play this Friday in Brazil, where X has just been banned in a sweeping crackdown on free speech.

So let me get this straight…

The MLB took away the All-Star game from Atlanta because Georgia passed voting integrity laws.

The NCAA boycotted North Carolina because it had a law to keep mentally ill men out of girls’ bathrooms.

Thirty years ago, the NFL took the Super Bowl away from Arizona because voters didn’t vote to make MLK Day a paid holiday.

Why is the NFL bringing its road show to Brazil while the country is at war against free speech?

Young voters moved

Our Prove Me Wrong campus debate clips were seen 2.1 billion times this semester on TikTok, IG, X and YouTube.

The vast majority of those were viewed by 18-29-year-olds, and the Kamala campaign never knew how to counter.

YOUNG PEOPLE SHOWED UP FOR TRUMP

Refused to debate

This election brought the realignment we didn’t see coming. It was the Biden Basement Realignment.

Does it make sense now why Democrats hid in basements? Why they refused to debate?

Run on nothing, say nothing, debate nothing, just hide and harvest.

RELATED: Randi Weingarten fought Texas to let teachers celebrate Charlie Kirk’s murder. It didn’t go her way.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Nigeria’s future

Daniel Ogoloma (@Dcogoloma) was my debate partner at the Oxford Union, taking a stand against a large majority of the house as we took the negative position on the resolution “Trump Has Gone Too Far.”

Offstage, we spoke about the future of Nigeria. He is a very talented young man and Nigeria will be lucky to have him.

Debate over censorship

Today I moderated a debate between Dave Smith and Josh Hammer on Israel. It was very fiery, fun, and mostly peaceful.

Debate is the way forward, not name-calling or censorship. At the end agreement was found between both Dave and Josh on many important things.

A chair caused ‘trauma’

The University of Arizona is offering “mental health services” because I sat in a chair and took questions for 2 hours yesterday on the campus quad.

College administrators are more worried about conservatives expressing their views on campus than they are [about] Hamas supporters who want to kill Jews.

America, circa 2023

Editor’s note: This article is excerpted from “Charlie Kirk, in His Own Words,” compiled by Christy Edwards (Post Hill Press). Reprinted by permission.

​Censorship, Charlie kirk, Debate, Double standard, First amendment, Free speech, Government, President trump, Rights, Social media, Speech, Truth, Opinion & analysis 

Fans of a popular Catholic superhero character were disappointed to learn that he is not returning to the “X-Men 97” animated series on the Disney Plus platform.

Nightcrawler is a blue-skinned mutant who first appeared in the pages of the “X-Men” comic books in 1975 and quickly became a fan favorite.

‘Wagner is extremely religious, and as a man of faith, he believes that sacrificing himself to save his sister’s life is the most righteous thing a person could do, which fits his character perfectly.’

The character, whose non-hero name is Kurt Wagner, is also deeply religious and would often refer to his Catholic faith in the comics and live-action adaptations of the superhero comics.

In an emotional climax of the second season of the animated superhero series, the Nightcrawler character sacrifices his life to save that of another superhero.

“I have faith” are his last words.

While most comic-book deaths are not final, the executive producer of the show said that Nightcrawler’s death would be permanent.

Eric Lewald told the Direct at the MultiCon convention in Los Angeles that Nightcrawler would not return to the series.

“The finale of Season 2 is very emotional, and it’s earned,” added Julia Lewald, another executive producer of the show. “It is earned because those are the characters that we’ve all spent 30 years marinating in and thinking of and loving.”

RELATED: ‘X-Men’ show has ‘nonbinary’ character turn into woman and confess love for Wolverine

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

The Direct entertainment writer Geraldo Amartey explains how the character’s Catholic faith is pivotal to explaining his last act in the show.

“It would have been great to see Nightcrawler return in future episodes, but he went out the right way. Wagner is extremely religious, and as a man of faith, he believes that sacrificing himself to save his sister’s life is the most righteous thing a person could do, which fits his character perfectly. It is painful to watch Nightcrawler go, but bringing him back would undercut the gravity of his sacrifice and look like a cheap cop-out.”

The third season of “X-Men 97” is scheduled for release in 2027.

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​Comic books, Catholicism, Religion, Faith, Politics, Entertainment 

Is your Virtual Private Network spying on your browser activity? According to a bombshell study by private email provider Proton, many VPNs installed in the U.S. are actually tracking users instead of helping them. Even worse, some of these offenders are registered to companies in China. Here’s what you can do to keep yourself safe.

VPNs are meant to encrypt your web traffic so that third parties — like your internet service provider, digital marketers, and hackers — can’t see which websites you visit. In order for this to work, though, a user has to trust that the VPN installed on his device does what it claims to do, and the VPN provider then has to deliver on its promise to shield web activity from outside sources.

Many Americans are being tracked by the VPN on their devices, and they don’t even know it.

Proton says that many VPN providers are failing to fulfill their side of the bargain.

In a statement published to its website, Proton says, “After a months-long survey of over 7,000 mobile VPN apps around the world, Proton has found that 85% of those downloaded in the U.S. contain trackers, and around a quarter of those actively track users’ physical location.”

Many of the trackers were found to send data back to foreign nations, including China, Russia, Israel, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Even more alarming, some of the tested VPNs were either outright owned by organizations based in China, or they were registered to shell companies intended to provide a facade of security.

In other words, many Americans are being tracked by the VPN on their devices, and they don’t even know it.

Unfortunately, Proton didn’t list all of the VPNs that are most likely to spy on users. The company also makes its own VPN service, which it’s trying to promote over competitors, regardless of their actual stance on user privacy. That said, if you use a VPN on your phone, tablet, or computer, it’s a good idea to understand how it works and whether or not you can trust it to shield your web activity from prying eyes.

RELATED: How to escape the surveillance state: Use a VPN

How to find a trustworthy VPN

There are several important factors to look for when shopping for a VPN you can trust.

Free vs. paid VPNs: Some VPNs on the App Store and Google Play offer completely free options where users don’t have to pay a cent to get VPN protection. Don’t trust these apps. If you pay nothing, you are the product, and your data is the monetization mechanism. Always choose a paid option instead. Remember that real protection is never free.RAM only: Like a computer, VPNs can have two types of storage options. VPNs with hard disk drives can save data in perpetuity, while VPNs that run on RAM-only servers physically can’t collect long-term data. Instead, the data is wiped from the server every time it’s rebooted, ensuring that your information isn’t retained.Registered country: VPN providers must operate according to the laws and regulations of the country where they are registered. If that country is allowed to collect company data like China, or spy on user activity like Russia, your browsing activity is not safe or protected. On the flip side, Panama, Switzerland, and Spain have some of the best reputations for maintaining user privacy.Open source: Open source software generally means that the source code for an app or service is made public for the sake of transparency and sometimes for modification. When it comes to VPNs, open source options allow third-party security groups to look through the code and verify its ability to properly encrypt and protect user data. This way, you know unequivocally if a service lives up to its promises.

Now that you know what to look for, you should have a good idea if the VPN on your device works as advertised. If for any reason you suspect your VPN is collecting, storing, or sharing your data, remove it from your device immediately. You’re better off not having a VPN at all than to trust one that’s actually compromising your safety, security, and privacy.

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​Vpn, Security, Privacy, China, Russia, Tech 

New allegations are emerging about the illegal immigrant from El Salvador accused of killing a Virginia mother after she purportedly exposed their affair to his girlfriend.

As Blaze News previously reported, 42-year-old Carmen Lizet Puch was found brutally stabbed to death around 6:45 a.m. on Aug. 17 at the parking lot of Difficult Run Park in Great Falls, Virginia.

‘All very premeditated.’

The Fairfax County Police announced in an August statement that 19-year-old Alexis Cedillos-Campos was arrested “in connection with the homicide” of Puch.

At the same time, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified Cedillos-Campos as an illegal alien who had been released into the United States under the Biden administration.

“The Biden administration hand-delivered Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos to the streets of Fairfax County,” the DHS stated. “Cedillos-Campos is a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador who was arrested by CBP in 2024, after illegally crossing the Biden administration’s open border near El Paso, TX.”

The DHS said Cedillos-Campos was released into the “interior of our country” after his arrest.

Cedillos-Campos knew Puch because they both worked at the Bitez restaurant in Herndon, sources told WRC-TV.

The suspect and victim were reportedly in a love triangle.

Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis stated last month, “There are other aspects of that intimate relationship that involve other people.”

“We have video footage of our suspect at the restaurant where he worked with our victim, arming himself with a fixed-blade knife, taking a pair of black latex gloves, taking a water bottle, and then off he goes with the intent to do harm and kill the victim,” Davis said, according to the New York Post.

Davis noted, “All very premeditated.”

Davis claimed Cedillos-Campos stabbed Puch multiple times and then attempted to burn the victim.

“No one deserves to be treated the way that our victim was treated,” Davis said. “And she was stabbed repeatedly – repeatedly – by our 19-year-old killer.”

“He ended up syphoning gasoline from his motorcycle,” Davis continued. “He filled the water bottle with gasoline after he dumped the water.”

Police said the suspect doused Puch with gasoline and tried to set her on fire, but was unsuccessful.

Cedillos-Campos was taken into custody in Prince George’s County on Aug. 19, and he attempted to flee from officers when confronted by police, prosecutors said.

WTTG-TV reported Cedillos-Campos was arrested in Maryland by officers with the Prince George’s County Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Service and extradited to Virginia.

Cedillos-Campos was charged with second-degree murder. WUSA-TV reported that Cedillos-Campos is being held without bond.

RELATED: Brazilian au pair turns on former lover during murder trial, says he plotted wife’s death by luring stranger from fetish site

WRC-TV reported, “The night of the homicide, Cedillos-Campos left work early, upset that Puch ‘sent screenshots of their affair’ to Cedillos-Campos’ girlfriend, according to the criminal complaint.”

The witness told authorities that he overheard a phone conversation between Cedillos-Campos and Puch in which they made plans to meet, according to the criminal complaint.

A witness informed police that the suspect said he was going to kill Puch, court documents said.

The criminal complaint said Cedillos-Campos allegedly called the witness to say “he did it” before hanging up — which the witness interpreted to mean he had killed Puch.

WUSA reported, “Investigators say Cedillos-Campos confessed to a Fairfax County Police detective that he lured Puch to a Great Falls Park parking lot to kill her after she revealed their affair to his girlfriend.”

Puch was described by officials as a “loving mother of a 3-year-old girl,” according to the New York Post.

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​Crime, Murder, Love triangle, Alexis antonio cedillos-campos, Carmen lizet puch, Crimes of passion, Illegal immigration, Dhs, News 

An elderly Florida woman carried a gun into a police station last week, and video recorded the scary moment when she opened fire inside the Port Orange Police Department lobby.

Police told WPEC-TV the incident took place around 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

‘Sad situation … but also, as a mother with a child in daycare down the street, I appreciate the swift response and keeping everyone safe!’

Police told the station 71-year-old Linda Croteau entered the lobby with a handgun, pointed it at employees, and fired toward an evidence room where staff were present.

A male is then heard ordering her to put the gun down, but video shows her shaking her head “no” back and forth.

Croteau then exited the lobby with the gun and walked toward the parking lot, where civilians and responding officers were located, police noted to WPEC. It appears the male who ordered her to put the gun down was in communication with officers outside.

Officers outside repeatedly ordered her to drop the gun, but Croteau continued advancing toward them, the station said.

“Drop it! Drop the gun! Drop it! Drop it! I’m gonna shoot you, drop the gun!” one officer yelled at her.

Officers fired several rounds and stopped when Croteau dropped the gun, police told WPEC.

Police said officers continued ordering her to surrender, the station noted, adding that video from the police department shows Croteau on the ground and reaching for the gun before officers fired again.

RELATED: July 4 mob attack on female cops: 3 adults, 4 kids charged with possession of machine gun, theft of Taser, assault on police

Officers provided medical aid, and Croteau was taken to a hospital, where she later died, WPEC said.

Police said, “Earlier this morning, we learned that Linda Croteau passed away. Our thoughts are with our officers, employees, Ms. Croteau’s family, and everyone else affected by the shooting.”

More from the station:

Police initially said there was no threat to the community and that all officers and employees were safe and accounted for. The department’s lobby remained closed during the investigation.

Port Orange police released video and audio from the incident in an effort to promote transparency and dispel misinformation.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting, WPEC reported.

“Sad situation,” one commenter wrote before adding “but also, as a mother with a child in daycare down the street, I appreciate the swift response and keeping everyone safe!”

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​Florida, Police-involved shooting, Fatal shooting, Elderly woman, Police shoot woman, Police station, Port orange, Gun, Crime 

A 28-year-old man has been arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border after federal agents allegedly discovered more than half a million dollars’ worth of illicit drugs.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Blaze News that the arrest followed the inspection of a 2005 Chrysler Town and Country minivan on Thursday.

‘We are actively saving lives and dismantling the operations of criminal organizations.’

The van was trying to enter into the U.S. at the Del Rio Port of Entry between Texas and the Mexican city of Ciudad Acuña, according to CBP.

A CBP officer referred the vehicle to a secondary inspection, whereupon packages of alleged drugs were discovered through use of a nonintrusive inspection system and canine examination.

The packages included 4.45 pounds of alleged methamphetamine, 8.81 pounds of alleged heroin, and 12.69 pounds of alleged fentanyl, CBP claimed.

CBP estimated the street value of the alleged drugs to be about $557,589.

Homeland Security Investigations special agents arrested the 28-year-old male driver and initiated an investigation, while CBP seized the suspected drugs.

The driver is a U.S. citizen, CBP says.

RELATED: MILLIONS worth of METH seized in leek shipment at US-Mexico border, CBP says

“By stopping these hard narcotics before they can enter our country, we are actively saving lives and dismantling the operations of criminal organizations,” said Del Rio Port Director Liliana Flores.

“We will continue to maintain a high state of readiness to address all threats attempting to enter the United States,” she added.

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​Customs and border protection, Methamphetamine, Fentanyl, Us-mexico border, Politics 

The Donald Trump administration is used to getting sued, but having a legal run-in with the makers of Tetris likely wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card.

It has become par for the course for musicians to lash out at the White House over the use of their music in promotional videos, but a recent release from the administration brought new challenges.

‘Sort the school lunch to Make America Healthy Again.’

Before the Labor Day weekend, the White House officially unveiled a new website and a new way to promote its most prized legislative pillars.

“ARCADE.GOV,” the administration posted on X, linking to a new batch of point-and-click games released on the official government website.

Among the five games was a parody of Flappy Bird and games about deportations and making America healthy again.

At the same time, the White House launched the game Build the Wall, which the Tetris Company was not too happy about. As one could imagine, users build a wall along the southern border in a game that looks, allegedly, strikingly similar to a classic game of Tetris.

Tetris posted on an image on social media on Friday that said, “At Tetris we believe in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them.”

A caption for the post added, “P.S. The Tetris Company was not involved in the creation of ‘Build the Wall’. P.P.S. We take copyright infringement very seriously.”

At the time of this writing, Build the Wall no longer appeared on the White House arcade, but can still be seen in the administration’s promotional video on YouTube.

RELATED: EU regulators just slapped these top US companies with an invasive new ultimatum

The remaining games included Flappy Bill, where gamers fly a bald eagle down the national mall.

Rio Run has users policing the southern border, instructing them to “patrol the line along the river. Pick up every crosser in the lot [and] never double back over the line.”

Through either user error or the site not working, Blaze News could not get the controls to work; therefore, no one got deported.

Supply Line has users “sort the school lunch to Make America Healthy Again.”

Punch seed oils, junk food, candy, artificial colors, and items that need to have their labels checked off the assembly line to save the children of the cafeteria.

Lastly, Trump Savings Tycoon has users filling their kids’ Trump accounts by catching gold bars and money with a net. The first turn saved $150,500.

If only it were that easy in real life.

RELATED: ‘Pendragon’ takes the long road to King Arthur — and makes it worth the journey

While the website is not much more than a clever way to get people talking about the administration’s core values — and there is a promise of more to come — the Trump White House may have more cease-and-desist letters coming in relation to the same project.

The administration’s X post features a startup video that many may recognize as being similar to that of Microsoft’s Xbox.

As well, the YouTube video features a similar boot-up to Sega’s and the accompanying music of Sonic the Hedgehog. However, perhaps American Microsoft and Japan’s Sega are a little less hostile toward the administration than the Russian creators of Tetris.

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​Video games, White house, Tetris, Xbox, Sega, Tech 

The exciting return of college football turned tragic in Iowa City last weekend after a band member collapsed in the heat and suffered catastrophic brain injury.

The hometown University of Iowa Hawkeyes were set to take on the Huskies of Northern Illinois on Saturday in the first matchup of the 2026 season for both teams.

‘Music was the language of his soul.’

Temperatures reached a scorching 94 degrees, and the Hawkeye marching band announced that they would “forgo” the halftime performance on account of the heat.

At about this time, Derek Phillips, a third-year student at Iowa and a member of the marching band, suddenly collapsed.

In a post on Instagram, Phillips’ family confirmed that he suffered “sudden cardiac arrest” that resulted in “severe” brain damage. As a result, the family “made the heartbreaking decision to remove life support.”

According to the Daily Iowan, life support was removed Monday.

RELATED: 5 wounded, including 3 students, in shooting near University of Iowa; police release photos of persons of interest

Matthew Holst/Getty Images

“Derek brought so much light, humor, and kindness into this world,” the family statement said. “He was a phenomenal musician — whether he was playing jazz, singing his heart out, or marching under the lights, music was the language of his soul.”

The statement added that Phillips is “comfortable, surrounded by family, and enveloped in the music he loved so much.”

The family requested users who knew Phillips to post memories of their time with him, and many friends and former bandmates responded graciously.

“He made me laugh so much, definitely an unforgettable person,” wrote one user.

“Derek was one of the kindest individuals I have ever met. I am going to miss you so much man,” said another.

“Derek was one of the first people that I talked to during auditions, and being able to joke with him throughout the season were some of the highlights of my summer,” wrote yet another user.

The Hawkeyes, who were favored by 31.5 points, ultimately trounced the Huskies, 40-0.

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​College football, University of iowa, Politics 

The debate surrounding Lindsay Clancy has become about far more than one criminal case. While prosecutors argue that Clancy intentionally killed her three children, many supporters have rallied around the Massachusetts mother as a victim of mental illness, postpartum struggles, and impossible expectations placed on women.

While the supportive response from such a large number of women has confused Americans, Dre Baldwin believes he has the answer as to why it’s happening.

“Lindsay Clancy is to overwhelmed mothers what O.J. Simpson was to the angry black person in 1995,” Baldwin tells BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock on “Fearless.”

“People didn’t identify with O.J. Simpson because they thought O.J. didn’t kill Nicole and Ron Goldman,” he explains. “They identified with O.J. Simpson because they were angry black people who felt like America as an institution and the police as an institution had been terrorizing black people.”

Like Clancy has become a symbol for postpartum mothers, “O.J. was a symbol for some get-back for black Americans.”

“That’s why people celebrated when he got found not guilty,” Baldwin says.

“It’s the same thing that a lot of women, mothers who see themselves as overwhelmed housewives who are doing too much, and this is not the role that was supposed to be for them,” he continues. “And they just feel themselves being overwhelmed through all the challenges of motherhood and being a wife and taking care of a home.”

While Baldwin doesn’t believe these moms would ever actually murder someone, let alone their children, he does believe that Clancy is being propped up as a “symbol of ‘somebody is finally seeing this.’”

“And if it means a woman beating a murder charge, then so be it. The same way that people looked at people celebrating O.J. with incredulity back then, 30 years ago, is the same way that many people are looking at this Lindsay Clancy case and her supporters today,” he adds.

Whitlock couldn’t agree more, commenting, “That’s a brilliant take.”

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​Dre baldwin, Jason whitlock, Lindsay clancy, Mental illness, Motherhood, Oj simpson, Postpartum, Women, Blazetv show 

The New York Times’ reporting on AI is like its reporting in general: partisan, erroneous, sensationalist, and misleading in the extreme.

The tone is apocalyptic, characterizing AI as an imminent threat, much like the Times’ characterization of Iraq’s alleged WMDs. Worse still is the wokeness of it all, the politicization of AI, in which everything — including the survival of the United States — depends on the wisdom and selflessness of the anointed.

Consumer protection, monopoly, economic opportunity, enforcement of existing law, the Constitution — about these things, the Times is silent.

Call it a sign of the times, or a sign that the Times is in decline, because when the supposed newspaper of record soft-pedals the work of rationalists and effective altruists, the result is propaganda with a corporate caption.

That the Times not only “skews left” but skews its coverage in favor of specific policies, that it champions export controls on technology, and that it portrays Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as a champion of AI safety are reasons the paper reads like a rag with a games section.

Safety is the watchword of the Times’ emphasis on control. All other issues, such as liberty, opportunity, privacy, and democracy, are irrelevant. Or so the Times would have us believe. But first we must believe that AI is a doomsday device, that it is more destructive than the hydrogen bomb and cleaner than the neutron bomb, that it can end mankind not with a bang but a whimper.

Such is the reasoning of rationalists and effective altruists, whose views the Times legitimates.

Whatever else these views are, they are not politically neutral. But because the Times puts “safety” first, and thus sacrifices liberty on the altar of security, there is no room for criticism.

Consumer protection, monopoly, economic opportunity, enforcement of existing law, the Constitution — about these things, the Times is silent. So is Anthropic, which is no accident.

The two, the Times and Anthropic, would use export controls to stifle competition, not promote it. The two would restrict the sale of Nvidia chips to China. Never mind that China continues to buy these chips through intermediaries or on the gray market. Put aside, too, the fact that export controls only serve to goad China into subsidizing the manufacture of its own chips. Or that companies like DeepSeek and Huawei have their own chip ambitions.

RELATED: How to renew American scientific research

BSIP/UIG/Getty Images

Chatham House similarly concludes that hardware export controls alone will not stop China’s advancements in AI. If the controls were effective, policymakers would not have to continually redraw them: banning this or that chip, policing third-country affiliates, responding to smuggling networks, only to authorize new sales anyway. The result is not a technological blockade but a prolonged game of whack-a-mole, which encourages China to be more self-reliant at our expense.

Consider, too, the expense of having the Bureau of Industry and Security involved in this issue in the first place.

Like most government agencies, BIS has a reputation for dysfunction, little productivity, and low morale. Perhaps the New York Times should do a series of stories on BIS instead. Or maybe the paper should stop printing nonsense about “AI safety,” as the term is a catchall for more regulation and higher prices.

A newspaper committed to rigorous journalism would interrogate the interests served by these narratives, confront the failures and contradictions embedded in them, and give serious attention to workers, consumers, civil liberties, democratic accountability, and America’s capacity to out-innovate its rivals.

Instead the Times too frequently amplifies the assumptions of the powerful leftist institutions and woke agendas it should be challenging.

​Anthropic, New york times, Propaganda, Constitution, Ai, China, Nvidia, Woke, Opinion & analysis 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has cultivated a network of social media influencers to amplify his policies online, and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is warning that it follows a pattern seen in failing socialist movements throughout history.

“I regret to inform you … that the Muslim commie mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, has been rolling out his next phase of this communist takeover plan. And you now, I’m just going to predict it’s not going to go well,” Gonzales says.

Mamdani has begun implementing his city-run grocery stores, which Gonzales notes will “effectively run real grocery stores out of business.”

“He’s like, ‘We’re pricing everything lower.’ Real grocery stores can’t do that. It’s only the government. It’s only the government that when they’re playing with someone else’s money, when they’re playing with your money, they can do things like that,” she says.

“And then once you’ve got that, once you’ve got that government control, well, a real communist wants to control the way that people think. And so as we’ve seen time and time again in all these other communist countries, they have to control the airwaves,” she continues.

And Mamdani, Gonzales says, “has done this quite masterfully.”

“He’s turning up the communist propaganda machine,” she explains, noting that the Columbia Journalist Review first exposed Mamdani for recruiting “a bunch of TikTokers and social media influencers to get his message out.”

“They created this Signal group, and the Signal group gets all the talking points from the socialist overlords,” she says.

The group receives talking points and clips they’re instructed to use in their posts.

“America is fighting for its life right now. Meanwhile, New York City is just living in Zohran Mamdani’s Disney Channel movie, ‘Mayor of Uncontrollable Joy.’ I’m not like jealous or anything though,” one TikTok influencer said in a video.

“Luckily Republicans are freaking out because there are mini-Mamdani’s popping up all over the country,” she said.

“You deserve hope-core everywhere, not just New York,” she added.

“These people are getting paid for it,” Gonzales says.

And according to an expose from the New York Post, it’s getting funded by the taxpayers.

“The taxpayers are paying for good messaging and PR for their mayor. Now, money is always bad to these communists. You hear about all this dark money: ‘dark money, evil billionaires, evil trillionaire, Elon Musk.’ It’s always bad unless you can use other people’s cash to push your communist agenda,” Gonzales says.

“And by the way, this is not like a small amount of money that we’re talking about. Some of these people are getting paid up to $20,000 to do this,” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​New york city, Zohran mamdani, Influencers, Social media, Communism, Taxpayers, Grocery stores, Blazetv show