At least 25 states across the country will pause critical food aid programs for millions of Americans due to the Democrat-induced government shutdown.

Dozens of states will issue notices to recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that they will not receive their government benefits on November 1. SNAP is notably the country’s largest food assistance program, with over 41 million recipients.

‘I choose country over party.’

These crucial benefits are set to lapse exactly a month into the shutdown all because Democrats refuse to vote for a clean, nonpartisan resolution to keep the government funded. Instead, Democrats are insisting on passing their own hyper-partisan $1.5 trillion bill and renegotiating Obamacare subsidies even though they don’t expire until the end of the year.

“It’s becoming clearer by the day that Democrats don’t want an outcome, they want a political issue,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in a post on X.

RELATED: Democrat senator blocks vote to end shutdown to protest Trump’s ‘authoritarianism’ in drawn-out rant

Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“They’ve refused to reopen the government – 12 times,” Thune added. “They’ve refused my offer to discuss Obamacare’s failures. They’ve refused my offer to hold a vote on their own proposal to address a problem they created. They’ve refused to pay the troops and federal employees who are working without a paycheck. The only thing they’ve said yes to? The Schumer Shutdown and political ‘leverage.'”

Republicans have made multiple efforts to reopen the government, to pay federal workers, and to keep government programs afloat. Despite this, the majority of Democrats continue to stonewall their colleagues across the aisle and ultimately, the American people.

However, not all Democrats have stuck with their party’s position. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has largely made a name for himself by bucking his own party, and this shutdown fight is no exception. As the shutdown approaches the fourth week, Fetterman made it clear that he’s interested in “country over party.”

RELATED: Senate Democrats senselessly block GOP bill that would pay workers during government shutdown

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“Shut our government down and America loses,” Fetterman said in a post on X. “2 MILLION Pennsylvanians depend on SNAP to feed their families. For me, it’s hungry Americans over party. Paying our military over party. Paying Capitol Police and federal workers over party. I choose country over party.”

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​Snap, Snap benefits, Government benefits, Social safety net, John thune, Donald trump, Trump administration, Chuck schumer, John fetterman, Senate democrats, Schumer shutdown, Democrat shutdown, Senate republicans, Aca subsidies, Obamacare, Government shutdown, Shutdown fight, Politics 

John Reid, the Republican candidate running for Virginia lieutenant governor, ripped into his Democrat opponent for embracing transgender ideology.

Reid called out Democrat state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi for flippantly dismissing the issue of transgenderism among children, according to a video obtained exclusively by Blaze News. In the video, Hashmi brushes off concerns surrounding transgender ideology and even brags about teaching the very LGBTQ books that have been banned from children’s libraries.

‘Any public official who says they ‘don’t really care’ if children are exposed to sexually explicit material in schools is completely out of touch with Virginia parents.’

“One of my concerns is violence. We seem to focus on sexually explicit material,” Hashmi said in the video obtained by Blaze News. “I don’t really care about that.”

“We teach the books that other people try to ban,” Hashmi said another video clip.

RELATED: ‘Trans’ fad is dying out among American youth, and straightness is ascendant: Study

“That’s Ghazala Hashmi. Not protecting kids, but pushing the radical agenda. While parents beg for decency, she laughs it off. While explicit books flood classrooms, she says, ‘I don’t really care about that.'”

“I’m John Reid. I’m running for lieutenant governor because I do care,” Reid said in the video. “It’s time to stand up, clean up our schools, and move Virginia forward.”

Although Hashmi has brazenly supported this radical ideology, she hasn’t mustered the courage to debate it with Reid in a public forum. Because Hashmi refused to participate in a debate with Reid on Tuesday, the Republican candidate took matters into his own hands and instead debated an AI generated stand-in of his Democratic opponent.

In spite of Hashmi’s failure to appear on the debate stage, Reid said her words “speak for themselves.”

RELATED: Democrat senator blocks vote to end shutdown to protest Trump’s ‘authoritarianism’ in drawn-out rant

Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images

“Ghazala Hashmi’s words speak for themselves,” Reid told Blaze News. “Any public official who says they ‘don’t really care’ if children are exposed to sexually explicit material in schools is completely out of touch with Virginia parents.”

“Parents deserve to know what’s in their kids’ classrooms — and when I’m lieutenant governor, they’ll have a voice and a seat at the table.”

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​John reid, Ghazala hashmi, Abigail spanberger, Virginia, Lieutenant governor race, Transgenderism, Transgender ideology, Transgender children, Banned books, Parental rights, Virginia republicans, Virginia democrats, Politics 

President Donald Trump announced late Thursday evening that he was terminating all trade negotiations with Canada on account of a $75 million anti-tariff advertising campaign initiated last week by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

Trump leaned into his criticism of Canada Friday morning, stating, “CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!!” and accused the northern nation of using the ad “to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country.”

The purpose of the ad, which featured excerpts from former President Ronald Reagan’s April 25, 1987, radio address regarding the benefits of free trade and downsides of protectionism, was to make the case against American tariffs on Canada to Republican voters.

Ford evidently figured the ad was not worth the cost.

The premier said in an X post on Friday afternoon that after speaking to Prime Minister Mark Carney, his government “will pause its U.S. advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume.”

‘Let’s work together to build Fortress Am-Can and make our two countries stronger.’

“Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses,” Ford wrote. “We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels.”

While the ad will not run as planned next week, Ford indicated that he has directed his team to “keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend so that we can air our commercial during the first two World Series games.”

The Toronto Blue Jays host the L.A. Dodgers for Game 1 on Friday night and Game 2 on Saturday.

RELATED: Trump says he’s killing trade talks with Canada for ‘trying to illegally influence’ SCOTUS with anti-tariff ad

Photo by EVAN VUCCI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

“The people elected our government to protect Ontario — our workers, businesses, families and communities,” Ford continued. “That’s exactly what I’m doing. Like I said earlier today: Canada and the U.S. are neighbors, friends and allies. We’re so much stronger when we work together. Let’s work together to build Fortress Am-Can and make our two countries stronger, more prosperous and more secure.”

While Ontario is backing down, at least one other provincial leader appears eager to poke the bear.

The leftist premier of British Columbia, David Eby, revealed on Friday that his province was similarly making anti-tariff ads, stating, “Our wood faces higher US tariffs than Russia. Absurd. Truth will win!”

The Trump administration’s tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber were recently brought up to a combined 45%.

The Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly later told reporters, “We need to make sure that we reduce our dependency on the U.S. and that we support our businesses.”

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New York Attorney General Letitia James charged that she was being unjustly prosecuted by the Trump administration in a rant outside a Virginia courtroom after her first hearing as a bank fraud defendant.

James is accused of lying about the classifications of homes she owns in order to unfairly secure favorable tax and financial benefits. She pleaded not guilty to the charges on Friday.

‘I believe that justice will rain down like water! And righteousness like a mighty stream!’

She led a chant of “No fear!” with a handful of supporters who applauded her speech.

“This is not about me! This is about all of us!” James said. “And about a justice system which has been weaponized!”

The court proceeding under U.S. District Judge Jamar Walker lasted only 35 minutes. He scheduled James’ trial date for Jan. 26.

President Donald Trump has criticized James numerous times and called for her to resign over the allegations.

“Letitia James, a totally corrupt politician, should resign from her position as New York State Attorney General, IMMEDIATELY,” he wrote in April. “Everyone is trying to MAKE NEW YORK GREAT AGAIN, and it can never be done with this wacky crook in office.”

James made an enemy of the president when she filed civil charges in 2022 accusing him and the Trump Organization of exaggerating values of properties in order to obtain favorable financial advantages. Trump was fined over $450 million, but that fine was later tossed out of court and James was scolded by a judge for overestimating the damages.

RELATED: Trump calls on ‘wacky crook’ Letitia James to resign after troubling fraud allegation surfaces

“No fear!” James chanted before stating, “Because I believe that justice will rain down like water! And righteousness like a mighty stream!”

Walker was appointed by former President Joe Biden.

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The Department of Justice issued a warning to California after some of the state’s top Democrats said arresting federal agents for perceived violations of state law is on the table as immigration enforcement continues.

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), alongside Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.), said, “While the president may enjoy absolute immunity courtesy of his rogue Supreme Court, those who operate under his orders do not. Our state and local authorities may arrest federal agents if they break California law — and if they are convicted, the president cannot pardon them.”

‘Illegal and futile.’

Brooke Jenkins, the San Francisco district attorney, revealed her office has drawn up plans to arrest federal agents should they use force in her city as they have during violent protests and riots in Los Angeles and Chicago. Jenkins explained that the San Francisco Police Department is on board with the idea in cases of “clear, excessive use of force,” according to the New York Times.

The SFPD did not respond to a request for comment from the Times.

In a letter to Pelosi and Jenkins, the DOJ wrote that it views “any arrests of federal agents and officers in the performance of their official duties as both illegal and futile. Numerous federal laws prohibit interfering with and impeding immigration or other law-enforcement operations.”

RELATED: House Democrats’ ICE ‘tracker’ will ‘put our lives in danger’: DHS agent

ICECHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

The DOJ further promised to prosecute any state or local official who violates federal law in the case of any arrests.

— (@)

Violent protesters have already gathered outside a staging area for federal agents in the Bay Area. On Thursday, protesters blocked the bridge that leads to Coast Guard Island Alameda, resulting in clashes and at least two arrests. Later in the evening, Coast Guardsmen had to shoot at a masked suspect who allegedly used a U-Haul in an attempt to ram the checkpoint and refused to listen to verbal commands to stop.

The Department of Homeland Security said no DHS personnel were injured in the incident. The driver was shot in the stomach and taken to the hospital. A bystander was hit with a bullet fragment and released from the hospital. The FBI is leading the investigation into the shooting.

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​Politics 

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Coast Guard security personnel fired upon a driver who was using a rental truck in what appeared to be a ramming attack at their base in Alameda, California, on Thursday night.

Anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters had gathered outside the base after hearing federal immigration agents were being housed at Coast Guard Island Alameda. The anti-ICE crowd had minor clashes with federal agents during the day, resulting in at least two arrests. A security guard working for a news crew was also reportedly attacked by anti-ICE protesters, leaving him with a gash on his face and a chipped tooth.

‘The vehicle’s actions posed a direct threat to the safety of Coast Guard and security personnel.’

In the late evening after most of the crowd had left, a masked suspect driving a U-Haul was filmed driving backward toward the Coast Guardsmen several times. The security officers can be heard on the footage yelling at the driver to stop. After the driver apparently continued his route into them, the Coast Guardsmen opened fire, video showed.

“Coast Guard personnel issued multiple verbal commands to stop the vehicle, the driver failed to comply and proceeded to put the vehicle in reverse — suddenly accelerating backwards at a high rate of speed directly toward them. When the vehicle’s actions posed a direct threat to the safety of Coast Guard and security personnel, law enforcement officers discharged several rounds of defensive live fire,” DHS said in a statement to Blaze News.

“No Coast Guard personnel were injured during the incident,” DHS continued. “Two civilians were injured and are expected to survive. The truck driver was wounded in the stomach and is being held for mental health evaluation. A bystander was struck by a fragment, treated at a local hospital, and released. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the lead agency for this investigation, and we are coordinating with our law enforcement partners.”

Anti-ICE agitators have increasingly used vehicles to attack DHS agents during operations targeting illegal aliens. Cars have been used to attack federal agents in Chicago, Los Angeles, and the Phoenix metro area.

RELATED: Illegal alien shot after allegedly ramming car into federal vehicle was once honored by Democrat

@USAttyEssayli/X

Carlitos Ricardo Parias, who was shot after allegedly ramming his car into agents’ vehicles after being boxed in, was recently honored by the office of Democratic Los Angeles Councilman Curren Price with a Certificate of Recognition for documenting ICE operations on TikTok. Price characterized Parias as a “fearless citizen journalist.”

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​Politics 

In Ireland, the priest was once as vital to a village as the pub or the post office. He baptized the babies, buried the dead, and kept the farmers from killing each other.

If the neighbors were at war over a hedge, he’d settle it before Mass and still have time for a fry-up. The priest wasn’t just a man of God but also a referee of rural life — part Joe Rogan in a cassock, part St. Patrick with a whistle. The church bell was the town clock. The confessional was the psychiatrist’s couch. And the parish hall was the beating heart of the community.

You can now ‘attend’ Mass online, complete with comment sections and buffering hymns. It’s efficient, yes — but as spiritually satisfying as watching someone else eat your dinner.

That Ireland is disappearing. This year, the entire country produced just 13 new priests — barely enough to fill a choir, let alone a nation. The waves of eager new recruits who poured forth from the seminaries are no more, leaving weary veterans to cover half a dozen parishes, driving from one church to the next like overworked delivery drivers of the divine.

What happened? “This is an immense question, requiring a book-length answer,” Irish journalist John Waters tells Align, after which he kindly attempts a summary anyway:

The explanations include: Ireland’s history of kindergarten Catholicism; the damage done by simplistic moralization; the liberal revolution; the infiltration of the Catholic clergy; the escalating implausibility of transcendent ideas (a contrived not a naturalistic phenomenon); the moral inversion unleashed by the LGBT revolution; the confusion created by the church leadership for the past 12 years and counting; et cetera.

Irish goodbye

The outlook is bleak. The number of priests in the capital is expected to fall by 70% over the next two decades. Since 2020, only two priests have been ordained in Dublin’s archdiocese.

Across Ireland, the average priest is now over 70, long past retirement age. Some say the Church’s only hope is to let priests marry. It would make more sense than flying in bewildered clerics from Africa, men who can quote Scripture but not survive small talk in a Kerry kitchen.

It’s not that people stopped believing in God (though Ireland’s Catholic population has fallen to just 69%, down from nearly 78% less than 10 years ago). They just stopped believing the Church was worth the effort.

The pews that once held families now hold the few who remember when everyone came. Ireland changed faster than the Church could follow. Confession replaced by podcasts, pop psychology, and Pornhub. It’s a lethal mix of heresy and habit — busy souls, distracted minds, and a generation convinced that salvation can be streamed, scheduled, or outsourced.

Flickering faith

At the same time, people like my mother still light candles. They still bless themselves on long drives. They still mutter prayers when the doctor calls with bad news. Faith is still there; it has just learned to keep its head down. Weddings and funerals still draw a crowd, if only because even the most lapsed Irishman can’t stomach the thought of being buried by a stranger in a suit. The flame is still there, but it’s more a pilot light than a blaze.

The fading of show-up-every-Sunday faith has mirrored the fading of everything that once made Ireland feel Irish. The language is vanishing, the music sanitized, the dances replaced by drill rap and dead-eyed TikTok routines.

Even the local watering hole — the unofficial annex of every parish — struggles to stay open. What’s vanishing isn’t just religion; it’s ritual, the sense that life meant something beyond the week’s wages.

Mass exodus

Technology promised connection but delivered solitude. You can now “attend” Mass online, complete with comment sections and buffering hymns. It’s efficient, yes — but as spiritually satisfying as watching someone else eat your dinner.

Once, the whole community walked to church together, children skipping ahead, neighbors chatting along the road. After Mass came tea, gossip, and maybe even a few sneaky pints. These days, the only communion most share is over brunch — order taken by a Filipino, processed by a Nigerian, cooked by a Ukrainian, and blessed by a middle manager named Ahmed.

In rural towns, churches stand like sentinels — beautiful, empty, and slightly ashamed of their own magnificence. Some have become cafés or concert halls, serving flat whites where once they served faithful whites. It’s called progress, though it feels more like repurposed reverence.

RELATED: Church of England investigating vicar for calling a transvestite deacon a ‘bloke’

Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images

Let us spray

The same could be said across the pond. In Canterbury Cathedral — the cradle of English Christianity — artist Alex Vellis recently staged “HEAR US,” a graffiti-style art project inviting visitors to ask, with spray-can sincerity, “What would you ask God?”

The answers, splattered across medieval stone, came from “marginalized communities” — Punjabi, black and brown Britons, the neurodivergent, and the LGBTQIA+ faithful. A veritable clown car of the aggrieved, somehow granted front-row parking in the house of God. It was meant as inclusion; it landed as intrusion — like stringing jockstraps across the Vatican altar.

When critics like Elon Musk and U.S. Vice President JD Vance rightly accused the project of desecrating beauty in the name of diversity, Vellis fired back not with argument but with anatomy, accusing his detractors of “small d**k energy.”

Virile virtue

The phrase, unserious on the surface, hinted at something deeper: Both sides — the artist and the church that hosted him — seem afflicted by the same crisis of conviction. The Church, once roaring with moral certainty, now offers apologies to everyone and inspiration to no one. Its critics, meanwhile, confuse provocation for courage. Between them lies a vacuum where virtue used to be.

And this isn’t just an English problem. Across the Christian world, churches of every stripe — Catholic, Protestant, evangelical — have lost their fortitude. Too timid to offend, too eager to trend, they’ve traded conviction for comfort. “Small d**k energy” has gone liturgical.

Even in Ireland, where the Church once thundered with certainty, cowardice now calls the homily. The pulpit peddles activism instead of absolution, politics instead of prayer. No wonder so many stay home. And no wonder young men won’t answer the call. Who wants a life devoid of sex, love, and laughter?

If Catholicism is to last, it needs less talk and more testosterone. The next revival won’t come from a press release but from those who still believe life means something. If the Church in Ireland and beyond wants people back in its pews — and its pulpits — it best man up.

​Lifestyle, Culture, Christianity, Catholicism, Ireland, Uk, Canterbury cathedral, Immigration, Mass, Priesthood, Faith 

Certain decisions are best not left to machines, the Army has revealed.

A United States Army general made headlines last week when he told reporters at a media roundtable he had been using an AI chatbot to “build models to help all of us.”

‘He is helping the Army explore how artificial intelligence can strengthen decision-making.’

Major General William “Hank” Taylor told media at the annual Association of the United States Army conference that “Chat and I” have become “really close lately,” prompting more questions than answers about the Army’s use of AI.

Williams is the top United States Army commander in South Korea and makes decisions for thousands of troops. He explained to reporters that he is indeed using the technology to make decisions that affect those under his command, but to what end was unknown.

Now, the Eighth Army office has revealed to Return what exactly the high-ranking officer meant. The office said that Taylor’s remarks were actually regarding the Army’s “ongoing modernization efforts,” which specifically relate to how technology can assist leaders in making timely and informed decisions.

At the same time, the spokesperson said that the Army does not plan on replacing human decision-makers, especially in key areas.

RELATED: From West Point to Woke Point: The long march through the ranks

Photo by KIM Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

“All operational and personnel decisions remain the sole responsibility of commanders and their staff, guided by Army policy, regulation, and professional judgment,” media relations chief Jungwon Choi told Return.

He added that while Eighth Army recognizes the opportunities and risks associated with AI, it is only looking at how to integrate “trusted, secure, and compliant systems that enhance — not replace — human decision-making.”

The Army reiterated that point, stating that Taylor does not use any AI-assisted tools to make personnel, operational, or command decisions, and his remarks were only referring to using “AI-assisted tools in a learning and exploratory capacity.”

The Army is not looking at “delegating command authority to an algorithm or chatbot,” either, Choi reinforced.

The Department of War is tinkering with AI chatbots for its forces on the ground, however. As Return previously reported, training scenarios have already included experimentation with an offline battle-ready chatbot.

The technology, called EdgeRunner AI, allows soldiers to get instant information about mission objectives, coordinates, and other details instantaneously in an offline environment.

EdgeRunner recently wrapped up military exercises in Fort Carson, Colorado, and Fort Riley, Kansas.

RELATED: Democrats once undermined the Army. Now they undermine the nation.

Photo by JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images

At the same time, Choi said that like many leaders, Major General Taylor has “experimented with publicly available AI-assisted tools to understand how generative AI functions, its potential uses, and the safeguards required for responsible employment.”

Taylor has also explored HQDA-approved large language models to “assess how secure, compliant AI systems” can support leadership development or improve operational efficiency, for example.

The spokesman said Taylor does not endorse any specific commercial platform, and the Army did not answer as to whether he was referring to using ChatGPT when speaking to reporters, which tech outlet Futurism claimed last week.

“MG Taylor’s engagement with HQDA-approved AI platforms reflects a forward-thinking approach to leadership and modernization,” the army representative concluded. “By responsibly experimenting with these emerging tools, he is helping the Army explore how artificial intelligence can strengthen decision-making, improve efficiency, and prepare leaders for the evolving demands of the modern battlefield.”

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Actor Jeff Daniels, angered by Trump’s AI video response to the No Kings protests — which featured a left-wing activist being covered in feces that dropped from the sky — took out his frustration in a song he performed live on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” this week.

Daniels’ song is titled “Crazy World,” and he explained that it is how he copes with the current political situation.

“I’ve seen a young girl smiling at something he just said. / I watched him fall into her pretty green eyes, his cheeks turned Valentine red. / I’ve seen an old man walking with his wife by his side. / I watched him reach down, take her hand, damned if I didn’t cry,” Daniels sang as he played his guitar.

“This crazy world’s gone crazy. Who am I to judge? / It’s nice to know in a world full of hate, there’s someone out there still making love,” he continued.

Before taking the stage, Daniels lamented the lack of “decency” from President Trump for the AI meme he posted where he was “spewing excrement all over the people down below.”

“Would Lincoln have done that?” Daniels asked host Nicolle Wallace.

“I don’t think Nixon would have done that,” Wallace answered.

“Nixon wouldn’t have done it. Reagan wouldn’t have done it. Bush wouldn’t have done it — either Bush. I think people in the Midwest, where I am … we value our decency and our civility,” Daniels said.

BlazeTV host Pat Gray notes that former presidents like Nixon, Reagan, Bush, or Lincoln couldn’t have done what President Trump did, as artificial intelligence did not exist in their time.

“This is the ‘Dumb and Dumber’ actor who sat on a toilet and took a loud crap for two minutes. But he can’t take the potty humor of President Trump,” executive producer Keith Malinak adds.

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​Upload, Camera phone, Free, Sharing, Video phone, Video, Youtube.com, Pat gray unleashed, Pat gray, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, President trump ai meme, President trump, Jeff daniels, Jeff daniels msnbc, Nicolle wallace, Trump administration, No kings protests