Immediately after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran in late February, a mysterious shortwave radio signal began broadcasting coded messages in Farsi. Twice daily, a man’s voice reads groups of seemingly random numbers — an old Cold War-era spy tactic rarely seen in recent decades. As of now, no one knows for certain who’s behind it.

To dive deeper into this curious resurgence of a classic espionage method, Glenn Beck speaks with his chief researcher and former Department of Defense intelligence analyst, Jason Buttrill.

Numbers stations, Buttrill explains, were “something that was used for very highly sensitive communications that one country — whether it was NATO country, U.S., or the Soviet Union — would send out all over the world.”

“People always kind of assumed it was meant for maybe sleeper agents or instructions for people outside the country to do something. … The numbers could represent words out of books or who knows what. But you’re not going to be able to break it very easily, if at all,” he adds.

What makes the numbers station currently broadcasting in Iran so suspicious, he says, is that we have no idea who’s behind it.

“We don’t know if the Iranians started this broadcasting that’s meant to go out of the country, or if this was something like a psy-op that we did, trying to broadcast in Farsi numbers into the country,” Buttrill tells Glenn.

Somebody, however — whether the U.S. or Iran — is actively trying to stop these communications because “five days after this started, … somebody tried to jam this signal,” he says.

“The jamming would take a state actor, right?” Glenn asks.

“Typically, yes, a state actor — someone with the means — but that would usually be, like, a nation-state,” Buttrill responds.

“Or, you know, Bezos or Elon Musk or somebody who now has more money than the United States will ever have,” Glenn quips.

In the next part of the show, Glenn and Buttrill address the broader developments and strategic implications of the ongoing conflict in Iran. To hear it, watch the video above.

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Democrats can learn. Political survival demands adaptation, and lately some on the left have started studying their Republican opponents with something like anthropological curiosity. They watch Republicans work a crowd and ask a practical question: What works?

One answer keeps recurring. Republicans like to quote the Bible.

Christians should stay alert. Not everyone who borrows the language of faith speaks truth.

You can picture the light-bulb moment. A candidate cites Scripture. The audience nods. Somewhere, a strategist thinks: Let’s find a guy who can do that for us.

Enter James Talarico, the Texas Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate who quotes Scripture all day long.

That tactic may sway voters who enjoy hearing a verse, even when it gets pulled out of context to bless ideas Scripture condemns. Christians who know their Bibles will spot the move fast.

Jesus warned about this exact type: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.”

A Bible verse proves nothing by itself. Wolves can quote Scripture, too. So can the devil.

The question is what the verse is being used to defend.

The abortion argument

Talarico claims Genesis 2:7 teaches that a human being becomes alive, and worthy of legal protection, only at first breath.

Wrong. The verse describes Adam’s creation. God formed the first man from dust and then breathed life into him. That account does not describe ordinary human development in the womb. It describes a singular act of creation.

Every other human life begins at conception. A distinct organism exists from that point, with its own DNA and its own trajectory of development. Scripture treats unborn children as living persons. Psalm 139:13-16 speaks of God knitting a child together in the womb.

Even if someone granted Talarico’s “first breath” premise for argument’s sake, the logic collapses quickly into moral absurdity. It pushes abortion right up to delivery. Some activists embrace that conclusion. Most Americans recoil, however, because they sense the truth: Killing a fully formed child moments before birth differs only in location from killing the same child moments after birth.

The ‘nonbinary God’ argument

Talarico also claims God is “nonbinary,” as if that settles the modern LGBTQ agenda.

God has no biological sex. God is spirit. That does not erase the created order for human beings.

Scripture speaks plainly: God created humanity male and female. Genesis 1:27 teaches it. Jesus repeats it when he addresses marriage: “From the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’”

Christian teaching on marriage does not float as an arbitrary rule. It rests on creation itself, and Jesus affirms it.

RELATED: Talarico self-owns when he warns fascism will ‘be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross’

Photo by Gabriel V. Cardenas/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The rainbow vs. the Ten Commandments

Talarico asks why a rainbow flag in a classroom counts as indoctrination while posting the Ten Commandments does not.

The answer isn’t complicated. The Ten Commandments summarize foundational moral truths about God, human life, and justice. They shaped the moral vocabulary of Western civilization for centuries.

The rainbow flag represents a moral program that rejects the biblical account of sex, marriage, and human nature. The two messages do not belong in the same moral category.

Fruit tells the truth

Jesus gave a practical test for identifying false teachers: Look at the fruit.

When someone uses Scripture to justify abortion or to deny the created order of male and female, the fruit shows itself. The apostle Peter warned about this kind of manipulation: “Untaught and unstable people twist [the Scriptures] to their own destruction.”

Christians should not get impressed because a politician can quote a verse. Even Satan did.

The question is whether the Bible is being handled faithfully or weaponized to sanctify fashionable sins.

Stay awake

Christians should stay alert. Not everyone who borrows the language of faith speaks truth.

Know the word of God. Test what you hear against it. Teach your children to do the same.

That’s how you recognize wolves, even when they show up in sheep’s clothing with a Bible in hand.

​Opinion & analysis, First amendment, Freedom of religion, Bible, Truth, James talarico, God is nonbinary, Fascism, Patriotism, Genesis, Abortion, Sin, Christianity, The devil, Satan, Scripture, Pride flag, Education, Ten commandments, Transgender agenda, Leftism, False prophets, Faith, Democrats 

About 11 million people on the island nation of Cuba have lost power after the country’s electrical grid completely collapsed on Monday.

Cuba relies on oil to run the power grid, and a U.S. embargo has worsened the energy crisis it was already suffering under. The U.S. ended oil deliveries to Cuba from Venezuela and threatened other countries with steep tariffs if they provided oil to the nation.

‘Taking Cuba in some form, yeah, taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.’

The state-owned power operator said efforts were under way to restore power to the island. In the meantime, energy has been rationed and many services have shut down.

“The impact [of the blockade] is tremendous. It is most brutally manifested in these energy issues,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on Friday. “This causes anguish among the population.”

Díaz-Canel said Cuba had not received oil in about three months.

“Officials in the U.S. [government] must be feeling very happy by the harm caused to every Cuban family,” said Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío in a statement about the blackout.

Electricity generation is plagued by aged power infrastructure and a lack of spare parts that are also blocked by the embargo.

President Donald Trump said he had designs for a takeover of the island.

“I do believe I’ll be … having the honor of taking Cuba. That’s a big honor,” the president said to reporters at the White House. “Taking Cuba in some form, yeah, taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth.”

RELATED: Massive blackout hits Cuba after entire power grid fails; communist government blames the US

He added, “They’re a very weakened nation right now. They were for a long time. Very violent leaders.”

Protesters have also risen up against the communist government in anger over the blackouts and a shortage of food.

Díaz-Canel said he’s having talks with Trump in order to find “areas of cooperation.” Some anticipate there will be a deal soon to allow some private businesses to operate on the communist island.

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With tensions rising in the Middle East and concerns growing over oil supply, many Americans are wondering what the latest developments mean for the economy — and financial expert Carol Roth may have some answers.

“It’s difficult to have mobility in this economy right now, and it’s, you know, sort of a tough thing for everyday people to deal with,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere tells Roth, noting that recent developments in Iran are affecting not only the price of gas, but food prices.

“How should we be thinking of this right now, Carol?” Stu asks.

“So, I think that we should be thinking that we hope that there is a short end to this conflict both from a moral and human perspective as well as from an economic perspective,” Roth explains.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty. There’s a lot of risk, and we don’t know what the duration is going to be. And so as that information comes out and then gets, you know, kind of extrapolated and increased by algorithmic trading and hedge funds, you see a lot of volatility, but we’ve seen that somewhat normalized,” she says.

“The challenge is that, you know, a lot of the tampering of inflation … had a lot to do with the fact that oil had been in a very good and attractive place, particularly for consumers. Maybe not as much for producers, but at least for consumers,” she continues.

Roth believes that in order to combat these issues for everyday Americans, the Trump administration needs to focus on things like small businesses.

“I’d like to see more policies that remove barriers. If you remove barriers, particularly from small businesses, they are the biggest job creators and drivers. They’re also, by the way, the ones who are going to be least susceptible to AI changes,” Roth tells Stu.

“And so, that would be a really good and easy thing to do,” she adds.

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