There’s a certain sadness to modern America that no statistic can capture. But this one comes close: with over 1.1 million American accounts on OnlyFans as of last year, and 84% of accounts globally belonging to women, the U.S. is on pace for a million of its young women to perform on the site in 2026, if it's not there already. A staggering sign, not of empowerment, but of a culture quietly eating its young.

For many of these women, the attraction is simple. Quick money. Fast validation. Digital applause that feels like affection. The promise is painted in neon: You can make more in a month than your parents made in a year. The platform markets itself like a modern miracle, offering flexible hours, creative control, and unlimited earnings.

And once in a while, someone does strike digital gold. Someone earns six figures. A few earn seven. One teen made a million in an afternoon.

Many of these creators are earning less than minimum wage.

But that’s the carnival barker’s pitch, getting the (relatively) innocent in the door. Most women make almost nothing. They join believing they’re one selfie away from superstardom. They discover they’re one of millions in a digital bazaar where the rich get richer and the rest get tired, discouraged, and drained.

The price is far higher than the subscription fee. More than just photos, OnlyFans sells dreams. Visions of one's future peace, future privacy, future opportunity, and, most damning of all, future dignity. One day. Maybe one day soon.

But the women who join for short-term relief end up trading away long-term hope.

The spiritual corrosion is slow but sure. What begins as a side hustle becomes a shadow that follows them everywhere. The digital trail never fades. It clings to job applications (those that OF girls still bother to submit). It lingers in background checks. It echoes in dating conversations. It stains marriage prospects in communities where character still matters.

A decade from now, many of these women will want real things — a husband, children, meaningful work — and they will discover that the internet never forgets what the heart desperately wishes it could erase.

The great irony is that many of these creators are earning less than minimum wage once time is counted. Yet the cultural machine sells them the fantasy of being “entrepreneurs,” when they’re really just the inventory. It’s empowerment dressed like exploitation and exploitation pretending to be liberation.

OnlyFans is arguably worse than prostitution. Not because of what it shows, but because of what it destroys.

RELATED: ‘Jesus loves all of you’: Charlie Kirk’s powerful message to OnlyFans creators

BENJAMIN HANSON/Middle East Images/AFP | Getty Images

Traditional prostitution, for all its evils, stays out of sight. OnlyFans turns intimacy into endless reruns — downloadable, screenshot-able, shareable, permanent. A mistake made once in real life becomes a scar. A mistake made online becomes a monument.

Add to that the spiritual damage — the slow destruction of the inner life, the steady erosion of self-worth, the growing sense that once you’ve sold pieces of yourself, you never fully reclaim them. And if anyone doubts evil still works in the world, remember the devil’s oldest trick was convincing people he didn’t exist. OnlyFans is proof that he does.

Most heartbreaking of all is that these young women aren’t evil. Some, of course, are reckless hedonists. But many are simply victims of a society that promised them everything and delivered nothing: rising rent, worthless degrees, sinking salaries, and a culture that treats young women as disposable entertainment.

Of course they’re looking for a way out. Of course they’re tempted by something that pays now, because everything else pays later, if it pays at all. Quick cash begets a slow crisis. The glow of instant income fades into the grim awareness that no one wants to build something lasting with a woman whose past is present on a server farm in California, waiting to be rediscovered by anyone with a wi-fi connection.

And this is where the tragedy deepens. Because the very thing that lured them in — visibility — becomes the prison they can’t escape. At 19, visibility feels thrilling. It feels catastrophic at 29, when HR departments are Googling you, in-laws are searching your name, and your own children, God help them, might one day stumble onto the digital debris of your 20s. The internet is merciless that way. It preserves everything, except innocence.

Meanwhile, the platform keeps expanding its reach, scooping up more and more young women who would never dream of standing on a street corner but will film themselves for strangers online. The stigma feels less severe when it’s filtered. Digital danger, at your fingertips, feels paradoxically distant. But the consequences are exactly the same and sometimes worse.

The truth every influencer-economy evangelist avoids is simple: The body isn’t a business model, and desire isn’t a pension plan. An entire generation of young women are being urged to monetize the very thing they’ll one day wish they had guarded. OnlyFans sells them the illusion of independence while turning them into sexual serfs — dependent on strangers’ attention, uncaring algorithms, and a market that gets bored faster than it pays.

This ends the same way every false liberation ends. A decade from now, when these women want stability, the past they broadcast will come roaring back. And the same culture that shouted, “You go, girl,” will look away, pretend it never egged them on, and then mercilessly judge them for believing the lie.

Philadelphia police said a suspected package thief engaged in a shootout with a homeowner and then soon fired at officers Sunday, WPVI-TV reported.

Police heard gunshots coming from the 400 block of East Rockland Street in the city's Feltonville section around 5:30 p.m., the station said.

'So everyone missed. Someone needs more training.'

Police rushed to the scene and found a man firing a gun, WPVI said, adding that the man then fired toward officers.

A nearby homeowner told police he saw the suspect stealing packages and confronted the suspect, the station said.

With that, the pair engaged in a shootout, WPVI said. There was no indication who fired first.

RELATED: Atlanta police make arrest in connection with homeowner who cops say shot 2 teenage porch pirates

The suspect ran away, but police recovered a gun from the scene, the station said.

No injuries were reported, WPVI said, and no arrests were made.

The incident remains under investigation, the station said.

"They'll do anything but get a job," one commenter remarked.

Other observers were just as disgusted:

• "So everyone missed. Someone needs more training," another commenter quipped.
• "Thank God no one was hurt," another user said. "And hopefully the other person that was protecting the packages [won't] be charged."
• "Damn, he lost the gun — probably worth more than the packages," another commenter added.
• "But, but, but [Democrat Pennsylvania Gov.] Josh Shapiro said crime is down!!" another user observed.

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On January 3, the United States conducted a military operation dubbed Operation Absolute Resolve in Venezuela. Airstrikes on military targets in and around Caracas enabled forces to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been widely accused of stealing the 2024 election from opponent Edmundo González Urrutia. Maduro now faces federal charges related to narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.

Glenn Beck’s head writer and researcher, Jason Buttrill, a former Defense Department intelligence analyst, is still reeling in excitement from this “watershed” operation, which shockingly took less than three hours from start to finish.

While most commentators are stuck on the obvious, framing the strike as retribution for Maduro’s narco-terrorism, drug trafficking, and alleged election theft; his regime's role in mass migration to the U.S.; and Venezuela’s alliances with Russia and China — or as a big oil heist — this lightning operation hides layers of genius the establishment will never admit.

On this episode of “The Liz Wheeler Show,” Liz and Jason break down three explosive implications of Operation Absolute Resolve.

1. No more excuses for forever wars

Liz, a self-described “anti-neocon,” says this military operation proved that forever wars — prolonged occupations that keep our troops overseas and our tax dollars invested in foreign affairs — are a choice, not a must.

“You should be thanking Trump for this military operation in Venezuela, because all other facts of the reasons why Trump went in Venezuela aside, we are never going to experience forever wars in our country again because the American people … can see so clearly now that they are a deliberate political choice. They are unnecessary,” she argues.

President Trump already razed Iran’s nuclear capabilities in just 12 days with Operation Midnight Hammer back in June 2025. Venezuela is now the second example proving that war can be rapid and still effective.

“There's going to be no excuse ever again for forever wars,” Liz says.

2. U.S. fires cyber warning shot at enemies

Liz then recalls Trump’s comment in the press conference following the Caracas strike. He said, “It was dark. The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have. It was dark, and it was deadly."

He was hinting at how U.S. forces engineered a massive blackout across much of Caracas and surrounding areas to facilitate the surprise capture of Maduro.

While many countries have been developing cyber attack strategies for years, their programs have largely been kept under wraps. The fact that the U.S. deliberately revealed its cyber capabilities was intended to intimidate other nations, Jason speculates.

“I think it was a threat to the rest of the world that yes, we have this capability. We can completely shut your country down before we go over there. Air defense doesn't really matter because we'll just shut it down and then fly in anyway,” he tells Liz.

Jason assumes that it was specifically a threat against China, whose technologies power Venezuela’s air defense system, and Russia, which supplied the country with the missiles designed to target American warplanes.

“Now it looks like all those systems — foreign, bought by our enemies — were all purchased off of Temu. That's what it looks like. That’s what we did to them,” he laughs.

“There's Chinese military experts operating their air defense systems, Russian experts for the upkeep on their air defense missiles, and then you have the Cuban intelligence apparatus, which is all over the country, that is supposed to be informing everybody about what's going on, and we just sailed right through it.”

3. Oil denial: Starving China’s war machine

While many outlets are framing Operation Absolute Resolve as a means of gaining access to Venezuela's vast oil reserves, Jason says that’s the shallowest reading of the operation.

“Yes, it is about oil, but not in the fact that we want to take the oil. We don't want our adversaries getting their hands on [it],” he says.

By cutting off China's access to Venezuelan (and potentially Iranian) oil while Russian supplies remain heavily sanctioned, the U.S. has severely restricted China's fuel options, making a major military operation — especially invading Taiwan — far more difficult and risky due to potential energy shortages for its armed forces, Jason explains.

“3D chess is what you're describing,” says Liz.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the episode above.

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The 26-year-old man who allegedly attacked the Cincinnati home of Vice President JD Vance early Monday morning appears to be yet another radical transvestite.

Just hours after the vice president concluded his visit to the city and departed for the national capital, a suspect armed with a hammer was spotted by U.S. Secret Service agents running along the front fence, then breaching the perimeter of Vance's Ohio house.

'As far as I can tell, a crazy person tried to break in.'

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Cincinnati indicated in a release that the suspect, William DeFoor, was ordered to stop and drop the hammer after he allegedly attempted to break the window of a USSS vehicle blocking the driveway entrance. DeFoor allegedly refused to comply and proceeded to smash the front windows of Vance's house — windows apparently equipped with "enhanced security assets."

After reportedly inflicting over $28,000 in damage, the suspect attempted to flee the scene on foot but was swiftly captured by USSS agents and Cincinnati police officers.

William DeFoor was initially charged with criminal trespass, criminal damaging or endangering, obstructing official business, and felony vandalism. He has since been slapped with several federal charges: damaging government property, engaging in physical violence against any person or property in a restricted building or grounds, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers.

Vance noted in a statement on Monday: "As far as I can tell, a crazy person tried to break in by hammering the windows."

The vice president appears to have been right on the money.

RELATED: 'Something historic': CNN analyst GOBSMACKED by how Vance polls against Nikki Haley, others

Photo by Oliver Contreras-Pool/Getty Images

On social media, DeFoor — whom law enforcement identified as a male — appears to go by the name Julia.

A Facebook profile that appears to belong to the suspect claims that DeFoor, identified as Julia, is a student at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College who previously studied at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music and attended the Summit Country Day School, a private high school where he made the list of candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program in 2018.

DeFoor's account appears to have liked the Cincinnati-based leftist group Coalition for Community Safety as well as the trans advocacy group Heartland Trans Wellness.

FBI sources told Fox News that the suspect demanded to be called "Julia" at the time of his arrest.

Court documents indicate that DeFoor pleaded guilty in April 2025 to two counts of vandalism after he inflicted over $2,000 in damage upon an Ohio interior design company, reported WXIX-TV. DeFoor was sentenced to two years of treatment at a mental health facility and ordered to pay $5,550 in restitution.

In 2023, DeFoor was reportedly charged with trespassing at UC Health psychiatric emergency services but ultimately was found mentally incompetent to stand trial.

DeFoor's father, identified by the New York Post as William DeFoor, appears to be an affluent pediatric urologist who works as a professor at the University of Cincinnati's College of Medicine. Among his top research interests is pediatric genitourinary reconstruction. His bio on the Cincinnati Children's Hospital website states that he is an elder in his church, is married to a general pediatrician, and has three teenage children.

Blaze News has reached out to the professor for comment.

Dr. DeFoor is a longtime Democrat donor who sank thousands of dollars into Kamala Harris' first and second failed presidential campaigns and thousands of dollars into former President Joe Biden's presidential campaigns.

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There was a moment — maybe early 2000s? — when people began talking about a new frontier in American life.

I remember there was a "Nightline" episode about it and articles in magazines.

In Portland, where I live, the last 24-hour diner-style chain, Shari’s, closed all its restaurants earlier this year. Too dangerous to stay open that late.

They described a new territory that was open for exploration. A place where most people were still reluctant to go. But this new space held new opportunities and prospects for growth.

This new frontier was called “late-night America.” It wasn’t a geographical location. It was a time period. It occurred from approximately 11:00 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Crosstown traffic

The idea was as the world became more crowded, with more cars on the road, more people packing into office buildings every morning, a natural evolution was occurring.

People were opting to change their schedules to avoid the crowds. They were staying up later, working later, and beginning to inhabit late-night America.

These early adopters preferred a less hectic world, so they adjusted their lives toward the “off hours."

Think of Midtown Manhattan at lunch time. The Seattle Fish Market at 9:30 am. Or your own city during afternoon rush-hour traffic.

Now think of all those places at 4 a.m. Pretty different, aren’t they? Not so crazy. Not so overwhelming.

The worst thing you might encounter at 4 a.m. is a garbage truck or an impatient jogging enthusiast with an early work schedule.

As more people began to see the obvious advantages of conducting their business and personal lives at a later hour, other businesses sprang up to serve them.

Instead of just one 24-hour restaurant in your town, now there were a dozen. Many gas stations went 24 hours as did convenience stores. Big cities added more night buses. Supermarkets began staying open until 11, then midnight, and then 1 a.m.

With more people inhabiting it, the late-night world became a more active place. It was fun working the late shift. It was easier to drive to work. The vibe was more relaxed. People weren’t in such a hurry.

San Francisco noir

I was always a night owl. My first job out of college I worked at a courier company in San Francisco. We did most of our business during normal hours, 9 to 5. But I quickly maneuvered myself into the swing shift position, coming in at 2:30 p.m. and staying until 11.

After 5, I was alone in the office. I routed the overnight shipping and spent the late hours on the phone with my cohorts at our company’s other branches in other cities.

The late-night crew got to know each other. We were the oddballs of our respective offices. We tended to be more eccentric, more interesting than the daytime employees.

When I was occasionally called in by my boss to work a normal 9-to-5 shift, I found the routine deeply disturbing.

Imagine waking up at 8 in the morning! Riding a packed, slow-moving bus downtown. Waiting in line for 10 minutes for a morning coffee. Standing in another line for a soggy sandwich at lunch.

All of this with robotic office workers crowded around me. Dan from sales. Sheila from billing. Their business outfits. Their terrible hairstyles. It was unbearable!

But to be on the late shift, alone in the office, with the radio on, my feet on the desk. That was heaven. And then leaving the building at 11, the downtown streets deserted, late-night San Francisco all to myself.

Truck stop scribbling

Later when I became a professional writer, I loved working in late-night cafes. Or 24-hour diners. Or truck stops, if there were one nearby.

I went there to work, but I liked having people around, a nice waitress, some foot traffic, someone to share a bit of conversation with.

Or on a bad weather night, there were the state troopers or the snowplow guys coming in from the cold at 2 a.m. for a hot coffee and a piece of pie — wasn’t that fun to be part of?

Thanks to late-night America, there were always such places available. It was a great time for a person like me. I always had somewhere to go. Some coffee to drink. And mostly good people to be around.

Closing time

By now, you probably know where this story is going. We are presently at the other end of the pendulum swing. Now NOTHING stays open late. Good luck finding a coffee shop that’s open after 4!

In Portland, where I live, the last 24-hour diner-style chain, Shari’s, closed all its restaurants earlier this year. Too dangerous to stay open that late. And nobody wants to work those hours.

The early-closing phenomenon had already begun before COVID, and then COVID finished the job.

Plus in many cities, there is now the constant presence of homeless and mentally ill people to contend with.

In response, business owners have decided it’s best to minimize their hours of operation. They lock their doors and lower their metal gates as soon as the sun goes down.

Last of the lounge lizards

Bars are still open, of course. But even that world is shrinking. Young people don’t go out as much these days. They have other ways to socialize, and they have multiple forms of entertainment right there in their homes.

Meeting people for romantic purposes was once the primary reason for being out late at night. But this seems to be on the wane as well.

Men are less eager to approach women in public places. And contemporary women, with careers and important jobs, don’t want to be out late at night. Swiping on dating apps during lunch hour is a much more efficient way to meet a potential partner.

Are there still jobs on the night shift? Sure there are. Trucking, loading, and delivering are still much easier during off-hours. But most of the other late-night jobs are ... well ... security guard, security patrol, security supervisor.

In other words, protecting people and property from the dangers of the night.

Goodnight, moon

So yeah, that last frontier? It’s closed.

For such a social space to function safely, you need a high-trust, high-functioning society. People need to feel safe. They need to trust each other.

Society is too fractured at the moment for that to happen. There is too much crime, too much drug abuse, too many zombies to venture into the dark.

But think of the romance lost! Think of the late-night walks you can’t go on. The moonlit skies you’ll never see. The late-night drives in a cozy car with the radio on.

These are not insignificant things for a culture to lose. The night should be ours. The night should belong to us.

Popular entertainment has always shaped the public mind in ways politicians can only envy.

Percy Bysshe Shelley once called poets the “unacknowledged legislators of the world.” The idea surfaces memorably in the 1984 Best Picture winner “Amadeus,” where Emperor Joseph II appears more invested in micromanaging Vienna’s opera scene than governing his empire.

Modern technology has magnified that cultural power. Today, many young Americans absorb more of their moral instruction from Netflix than from teachers, pastors, or even parents.

Now Netflix wants to expand that influence dramatically by acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, a media conglomerate that includes HBO, DC Studios, and franchises such as “Harry Potter” and “Game of Thrones.” The combined entity would control roughly a third of the streaming market and wield unprecedented cultural power.

Democrats understand that politics flows downstream from culture. Allowing Netflix to absorb Warner Bros. would give that worldview control over even more cultural territory.

The scale of the proposed merger raised concerns even for President Donald Trump, who warned last month that it “could be a problem” and confirmed his administration would take an active role in reviewing the deal.

Given the stakes, the question is not abstract. How does Netflix use the power it already holds?

Consider the company’s recent headline-grabbing film, “Queen of Coal,” described as the story of “a trans woman who dreams of working the coal mines” and must battle a town defined by “superstition and patriarchy.”

Inspiring stuff.

Or recall Netflix’s 2020 release of “Cuties,” a French film centered on 11-year-old girls twerking. The filmmakers claimed the movie criticized the sexualization of children. Perhaps that was their intent. Netflix’s marketing department missed the point entirely, replacing the original poster with one featuring preteen actresses in sexualized poses. Public outrage followed, and Netflix eventually apologized.

After George Floyd’s death in 2020, Netflix declared on social media, “To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter,” and then set about race-swapping characters across its catalog.

Zoom out further. A report by Concerned Women for America found that nearly half of Netflix’s children’s programming pushes LGBT themes.

Taken together, the pattern is unmistakable. Netflix uses its platform to advance a radical progressive agenda, and scrutiny only confirms it.

The company’s internal culture reinforces the point. Even by Big Tech standards, Netflix skews sharply left. In 2020, 98% of its political donations went to Democrats, compared with 84% at Apple and 77% at Facebook.

CEO Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-founder and longtime chief executive, donated $7 million in 2024 to a pro-Kamala Harris super PAC and $2 million to California’s redistricting effort last year. In 2017, Hastings told fellow billionaire Peter Thiel that his support for Trump reflected such “catastrophically bad judgment” that it called into question Thiel’s fitness to remain on Facebook’s board.

Hastings has made clear that conservative ideas do not merely deserve debate. In his view, they disqualify those who hold them from serious consideration.

Then comes the revolving door between Netflix and Democratic power.

RELATED: Netflix wants a monopoly on your mind

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

In 2018, Netflix signed a deal with former President Barack Obama reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars. The results included a slate of progressive documentaries and an apocalypse thriller featuring the line, “Trust should not be doled out easily, especially to white people” — a sentiment both racist and badly written.

Susan Rice offers another example. After serving as Obama’s U.N. ambassador and national security adviser, she joined Netflix’s board during Trump’s first term, left to lead Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, and has now returned to the company.

Democrats understand that politics flows downstream from culture. Allowing Netflix to absorb Warner Bros. would give that worldview control over even more cultural territory.

President Trump has signaled that he understands what is at stake. He has warned that the $82.7 billion deal must undergo rigorous antitrust scrutiny.

As Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) noted, the merged company would exceed the 30% market-share threshold traditionally viewed as “presumptively problematic” under antitrust law.

But Trump’s concern goes deeper. As an entertainer himself, he grasps the importance of the arts. That understanding explains his hands-on approach to reforming the previously ultra-woke Kennedy Center. It explains his plan to commission 250 classical sculptures for a National Garden of American Heroes. It explains his appointment of Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone as special ambassadors to Hollywood.

And it explains why he should not allow Netflix to build a woke media monopoly capable of doing more long-term damage to the country than any single election cycle.

A harrowing video showed a wild police chase after a routine traffic stop that led to the rescue of an alleged kidnapping victim and the arrest of his kidnapper in Florida.

The Flagler County Sheriff's Office said deputies pulled over a white Ford F-150 on U.S. Highway 1 on Wednesday after a 911 caller reported suspicious activity. They found a 60-year-old man identified as Darnell Hairston with two male juveniles.

'A caller that knew his background as a sex offender with two children in his pickup truck called us. And if it wasn't for that, we might be investigating a completely different crime.'

When deputies separated an 11-year-old boy, he told them he had been kidnapped by Hairston and feared for his life.

"He told us that he thought they were going to kill him," Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said.

Police video showed deputies taking down the man before the other juvenile passenger, a 15-year-old boy, got into the truck and fled from the scene. He comes within inches of driving over one officer's feet. When police followed the vehicle, he rammed one cruiser before crashing the truck.

The 11-year-old had been missing for three days and was treated at a hospital, according to police.

He allegedly told police that he had been lured to a wooded campsite at Flagler Estates, where he was choked unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he was gagged with duct tape and tied with an extension cord and shoelaces. He also said he was threatened with a knife and firearm.

The boy was forced to hide under a blanket on the floorboard of the truck while being transported, according to investigators.

Search warrants performed on the man's vehicle, his residence, and the campsite led to the recovery of duct tape, weapons, and video surveillance equipment. Police said these were consistent with statements given by the victim.

Investigators said the two juveniles were in a Snapchat group where the 11-year-old was warning others about Hairston being a sexual predator.

Video of the traffic stop was posted to the sheriff's office Facebook account.

RELATED: Man sentenced to 50 years for 'staggering' torture of his daughter that included force-feeding of laxatives

Hairston was eventually charged with kidnapping of a child under 13, aggravated child abuse, battery by strangulation, and robbery with a deadly weapon. He had been initially arrested for attempting to disarm a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest.

The 15-year-old boy was placed into the custody of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. He faces multiple charges and is being investigated as a possible co-conspirator.

Hairston is being held without bond at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility and may face additional charges.

"A caller that knew his background as a sex offender with two children in his pickup truck called us," Staly said. "And if it wasn't for that, we might be investigating a completely different crime."

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In the days leading up to New Year’s Eve 2025, the FBI uncovered and thwarted an alleged domestic terrorism plot dubbed Operation Midnight Sun. Headed by four radicals from the anti-government extremist group Turtle Island Liberation Front, the plan involved detonating improvised explosive devices simultaneously at midnight on New Year’s Eve at five locations targeting two unnamed U.S. logistics companies in Southern California.

While Turtle Island Liberation Front may sound unserious and even laughable, it is critical we keep a close watch on it, counterterrorism expert Ryan Mauro tells Glenn Beck.

“Turtle Island,” he explains, is a code word for the United States used by the majority of pro-terrorism groups. “The Native American tribes referred to the U.S. and Canada and Mexico as Turtle Island because they believed that the continent was created on the back of a turtle ... until the evil white settler capitalist came in and ruined everything,” he says.

Whether groups are Islamist, anarchist, or communist — or whatever anti-America sentiment fuels their crusade — they are all unified by the desire to “[liberate] Turtle Island.”

“It’s a way of calling for violence and the destruction of the U.S.,” Mauro says.

But their shared desire to see the United States fall is the only goal that unites them, Glenn adds. “This alliance with the indigenous people, with the Islamists, with Marxists — they’re all going to sort [the end game] out later. They just want to kill us first. They want to overthrow the government first. Then they’ll start eating each other,” he warns.

Right now, Mauro says, these temporarily united terrorist groups recognize that their anti-Israel campaign is floundering. In response, they have shifted their focus toward igniting “an anti- police movement,” primarily targeting ICE officials, but without totally taking Israel out of their crosshairs.

The Capital Research Center, where Mauro serves as an investigative researcher, predicted that these groups would target “companies that they can connect — even by some leap — to the Zionist infrastructure.”

“That way you’re hitting all the themes: anti-police, anti-Zionist, anti-capitalist, Turtle Island, and pro-Palestine,” he says, “and that’s exactly what [Operation Midnight Sun] was doing.”

“Although this plot was foiled, make no mistake about it — it is a marker in time for this new era, this new offensive that has begun,” he warns.

“How likely is this to become the next BLM movement?” Glenn asks.

“It’s extremely likely,” Mauro says frankly.

Just like BLM, which used America’s history of slavery to con well-meaning people into posting black squares, donating money, and joining protests, the new Turtle Island movement will draw on the plight of the Native Americans to fuel its death march.

From “terrorists” and “overseas governments” to “Turtle Island folks” and “Christian anarchists,” this is “all one seditionist movement,” Mauro says.

“Two things have to happen,” he urges.

One: “Put together a team to map out the Turtle Island intifada ... so action can be taken.”

Two: “[Preserve] history ... because the counter-narrative is going to require us to use historical documents to tell the truth of everything that went on with the Native American tribes — the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

To hear more of the conversation, watch the video above.

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The national spotlight has settled on the industrial-scale fraud uncovered in Minnesota, much of it linked to networks operating within the state’s Somali immigrant community. To date, coverage has focused on how operators allegedly diverted nearly $9 billion in public funds into shell businesses that existed largely to funnel money to friends and family through no-show jobs and inflated contracts.

That story matters. But it may not be the whole story.

Fraud at this scale almost never stands alone. Where investigators uncover massive deception, additional crimes often lie beneath the surface.

Most of the businesses implicated in the scheme presented themselves as child-care centers, autism service providers, and non-emergency medical transport companies. For readers unfamiliar with immigration enforcement, the reaction is straightforward: Criminals stole money intended for society’s most vulnerable.

For those who have spent decades working in immigration law and border security, a different question arises. Why build an end-to-end infrastructure of licensed service providers unless it served additional purposes?

Videos circulating online show many of these facilities sitting empty — unused day-cares, idle transport vans, and vacant offices. That does not prove the businesses were harmless.

In criminal investigations, fraud rarely exists in isolation. One axiom holds that following the money reveals the perpetrators. A second, less discussed rule also applies: Following the money backward often reveals additional crimes.

Illegal immigration provides a perfect example. The initial violation occurs when an alien enters unlawfully or makes false asylum claims. Additional offenses frequently follow: identity theft, illegal employment, fraudulent tax filings, and payments to smugglers to bring in relatives. Organized crime and terrorist groups have used similar layered fraud models for decades. Illicit revenue becomes seed money for broader criminal activity.

Despite the scale of the Minnesota fraud, little public attention has focused on whether these businesses were used for more than financial theft. There appears to be no comprehensive inquiry into whether any of the entities sponsored employment-based visas, concealed smuggled minors, facilitated labor trafficking, or enabled sex trafficking.

None of those allegations has been proven. But the structure of the alleged scheme bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the network of Health and Human Services contractors through which the Biden administration lost track of thousands of unaccompanied alien children.

According to a City Journal investigation, federal counterterrorism sources confirmed that millions of dollars from the Minnesota fraud flowed back to Somalia, where funds ultimately reached al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist organization. The report described Minnesota taxpayers as the group’s largest single funding source.

RELATED: Minnesota’s fraud scandal exposes a dangerously loose election system

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

If accurate, that finding raises a far more serious concern. Terrorist organizations do not stop at cash transfers when operational infrastructure is available. A network of licensed service providers — child-care centers, transportation companies, and health services — offers precisely the kind of cover such groups seek to move people, materials, and money discreetly inside the United States.

The full extent of al-Shabaab’s involvement remains unclear. Covert operations rarely reveal themselves all at once. They are built deliberately, in stages, with long timelines. Minnesota records suggest (and the explosion in Minnesota Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar’s personal wealth seems to indicate) that much of the large-scale fraud linked to Somali-run entities accelerated over the past decade. That timeline raises the possibility that the scheme was still maturing when investigators uncovered it.

If so, authorities may have disrupted a funding and logistics pipeline before all layers of criminal activity were fully deployed.

One point remains undeniable: Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Fraud at this scale almost never stands alone. Where investigators uncover massive deception, additional crimes often lie beneath the surface.

Federal authorities should pursue this case to its roots. That means examining every entity, every financial flow, and every operational link — not just to recover stolen funds, but to determine what else those structures were built to conceal.

Mark Zuckerberg, in a 2021 presentation that seemed less a business strategy than a fever dream, rebranded his company from Facebook to Meta. He was selling a future in which we would inhabit a digital utopia, a place where the friction of the physical world, the traffic, the decay, the awkward silences, would be smoothed over by the order of code.

It was a grand vision, one that presumed that the right combination of capital and engineering can solve the human condition.

However, Meta is now quietly retreating from its all-in bet, one of the most expensive experiments in business history.

It was a $60 billion attempt to fix a reality we still prefer to the simulation.

The premise was always seductive, in the way that the shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave were seductive: a world that promised to be more pleasurable, more malleable than reality. But the metaverse, as it began to take shape, was less a hyperreal paradise than a clumsy imposition. To enter this new world, one had to strap a computer to one’s face, a set of electronic “ski goggles” that isolated the wearer, blinded him to his surroundings, and demanded a total surrender of attention. The Quest traded the ease of the smartphone, which slides effortlessly into our pockets, for a device that induced sweat, fatigue, and the vague nausea of motion-to-photon delays.

Horizon Worlds, Meta’s flagship social platform, was intended to be the bustling town square of the new digital age. Instead, it became a study in desolation. By the fall of 2022, the platform struggled to retain 200,000 monthly users, a number that seems almost tragic when weighed against the tens of billions of dollars poured into its creation. Those who did visit found a landscape populated by legless, floating torsos, cartoon avatars that managed to be both childish and uncanny. It was a ghost town, a place where the silence was amplified by the vast, empty digital architecture.

This failure was not without precedent. In the 1990s, Nintendo’s Virtual Boy promised a similar revolution and delivered only headaches and monochrome red graphics, selling fewer than 800,000 units before vanishing into the landfill of bad ideas. In the early 2000s, Second Life was briefly the darling of pundits, who prophesied we would all soon be working and shopping in its pixelated aisles; by 2010, it had faded into a niche curiosity. The pattern is clear: The cultural imagination is enticed by the idea of VR, but the human animal balks at its practice.

There is a stubborn materiality to our existence that the architects of the metaverse failed to overcome. We are embodied beings. We like the warmth of a hand, the smell of rain, the ability to glance at a screen and then look away. The metaverse demanded we leave the physical world behind, a proposition that felt increasingly dystopian.

RELATED: Inside Zuckerberg's losing metaverse bet

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Marshall McLuhan warned that a medium pushed to its extreme can “implode” into something else, and the metaverse seemed to hit that breaking point, an implosion in which the medium devoured its own appeal. The users did not want to be immersed in a corporate-controlled simulacrum; they wanted convenience. They wanted the blue bubble of a text message, not a virtual meeting in a boardroom rendered in low-polygon graphics.

The retreat, when it came, was swift and brutal, in the way corporate corrections often are. By 2023, a metaverse winter had set in. Disney shuttered its division; Microsoft sunset its social VR platform. The world became captivated by a new technology: generative AI. Suddenly the conversation was not about new worlds but about automated intelligence that could write our emails and paint our pictures. Meta, reading the tea leaves and the plummeting engagement metrics, pivoted. The irrational exuberance for VR gave way to sober retrenchment.

The financial markets, at times the coldest arbiters of value, cheered the death of the dream. When news broke in late 2025 that Meta would cut Reality Labs’ budget and lay off staff, its stock jumped, adding nearly $70 billion in value overnight. It was a signal that the experiment was over. The Great White Whale of tech had once again slipped away, leaving the innovators holding the harpoon, exhausted.

John Carmack, the legendary game developer who tried to steer Meta’s VR ship before resigning in frustration, noted that the company had “a ridiculous amount of people and resources” but constantly “self-sabotaged.” The metaverse was not killed by a lack of technology; the Quest 3 is a marvel of engineering. It died from a lack of human necessity. It was a $60 billion attempt to fix a reality that, for all its flaws, we still prefer to the simulation.

The retreat is less a defeat than a recalibration. Meta is now looking toward “smart glasses,” wearables that overlay the digital onto the real rather than replacing it. The form factor concedes the stubborn fact that we want to remain in the world. The dream of the metaverse, that hyperreal paradise where models replace the real, has been deferred. We have chosen to keep the goggles off, to live for now, in Baudrillard’s words, in the desert of the real.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been officially dissolved by its board of directors after Republican cuts to funding for PBS and NPR.

The CPB provided funding for public news for 58 years but was plagued by criticism from the right that it supported left-wing policies and the agenda of the Democratic party.

'Americans will never again have to worry that a single cent will go towards CPB's radical programming.'

The organization released a statement Monday confirming the vote for dissolution.

"For more than half a century, CPB existed to ensure that all Americans — regardless of geography, income, or background — had access to trusted news, educational programming, and local storytelling," said CPB president and CEO Patricia Harrison.

She went on to call the vote the fulfillment of a "profound" responsibility.

"CPB's final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks," she added.

Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana welcomed the news and mocked the CPB.

"The Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which funneled your money to NPR and PBS to call birds, roads, and country music racist — is officially DISSOLVED," he wrote. "Good riddance."

Republicans had criticized public funding for NPR and PBS, while Democrats had criticized defunding efforts as deleterious for rural areas and other underserved communities.

RELATED: NPR hit with scorn over 'insulting' article on self-care tips for anxiety from war headlines

"Excellent news," replied Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri.

"Now, Americans will never again have to worry that a single cent will go towards CPB's radical programming," Schmitt continued.

The CPB previously announced in August that it would begin winding down operations, scale down its employees, and hand out whatever funds it had left over after the Republican cuts.

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The hosts of "The View" offered a wide spectrum of responses to the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces.

Maduro was captured at his home in Caracas and flown out of the country alongside his wife in a daring mission on Saturday evening. On Monday, he pleaded "not guilty" in a court in New York City.

'I think you can still celebrate that this murderous, corrupt, sadistic son of a b***h is out of Venezuela!'

Some on the left have criticized the Trump administration for the manner in which the operation was conducted. Sunny Hostin offered her critique on Monday's episode of the talk show.

"Isn't anyone concerned about the fact that what we're doing is almost piracy? It's like imperialism," said Hostin, who claimed that the president violated international law.

"We're going to another country, and we're taking their natural resources for ourselves," she added. "And on top of it, if we can do something like this, who is to say that Vladimir Putin, then, doesn't go to Ukraine and arrest Zelenskyy?"

Hostin was referring to statements President Donald Trump made about seizing oil tankers from Venezuela and returning oil drilling assets that had been seized by the communist government and nationalized. She pointed out that Venezuela has control of nearly 20% of the world's oil reserves, more even than Saudi Arabia.

Ana Navarro, however, said she was full of joy that Maduro's reign was over and said Venezuelans and Cubans in south Florida were overjoyed about the arrest.

"For us, this is a very, very happy day when we see a dictator who has been part of oppressing and abusing the Venezuelan people for 25 years, when we see him in handcuffs and held to some sort of accountability, it brought me to tears," Navarro said. "It brought me great joy."

She added, "I think you can still celebrate that this murderous, corrupt, sadistic son of a bitch is out of Venezuela!"

RELATED: Venezuelan freedom fighter wins Nobel Peace Prize — and immediately dedicates it to Trump

Maduro is facing charges of "narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States."

Video of the full segment on Venezuela can be viewed on the show's YouTube channel.

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When President Trump boycotted the U.N. climate summit, many Americans who aren’t buying the elites' climate fearmongering were pleased, hopeful that Trump’s move might weaken the globalist plans.

But after the global elites appeared to use the president’s absence to push extreme climate policies, some are wondering if the president could have made a mistake.

“We’ve got Trump in the White House, and of course he actually boycotted the summit. We reached out to the State Department. They told us they deliberately chose not to send anybody. So there was no U.S. delegation for the first time in 30 years of these, and that made for a very interesting situation,” journalist Alex Newman tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck.

“And you know, a lot of Americans thought that was great. Hooray. And a lot of the climate skeptics also thought so. But some of the globalists at the U.N. conference also said, ‘Hey, this is a great opportunity, because the United States is still involved in the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, but they’re not here to obstruct passage of an ambitious deal,’” Newman explains.

“‘So let’s do some great stuff, and then when Trump is gone in three and a half years, we’ll impose that on Americans,’” he adds.

And the agreement they passed without Trump’s presence included “mention of a carbon budget.”

“They claim that four-fifths of the CO2 that humans can be allowed to emit has already been emitted,” Newman tells Glenn.

“I think the strategy for these people, Glenn, is ‘Hey, we’ve got Trump for three and a half more years. Let’s just keep our heads down. We know that he doesn’t believe us. We know that the American people don’t believe us. So let’s just not talk about it too loudly,’” he adds.

“So was this a mistake by not showing up?” Glenn asks.

“I don’t know,” Newman answers. “I know some of the people down at the U.N. summit thought this was a good opportunity for them, but you know, Trump’s not done.”

“I’ve spoken with people at EPA; I’ve spoke with people at the State Department, who have said that they are seriously considering the possibility of withdrawing from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change,” he continues.

“We have to,” Glenn interjects.

“Yeah, that seems like a no-brainer. … In fact, before he went into the White House, he said one of the top priorities for the MAGA movement and the United States needs to be to decisively crush this climate hysteria hoax,” Newman says, adding, “So he’s really serious about it.”

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President Donald Trump responded with a scathing statement to a report that the 2024 failed Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was considering dropping out of his re-election campaign. Walz later confirmed he was dropping out.

Walz has been dogged by accusations of obstruction in the investigation into government relief and welfare fraud in the Somali community in Minnesota. He has denied any involvement and claimed that his administration has tried to investigate the schemes.

'I feel certain the facts will come out, and they will reveal a seriously unscrupulous, and rich, group of 'SLIMEBALLS.' ... NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!'

The president mocked Walz and named other Democrats he believes are also guilty of crimes, including Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

"Minnesota’s Corrupt Governor will possibly leave office before his Term is up but, in any event, will not be running again because he was caught, REDHANDED, along with Ilhan Omar, and others of his Somali friends, stealing Tens of Billions of Taxpayer Dollars," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

"I feel certain the facts will come out, and they will reveal a seriously unscrupulous, and rich, group of 'SLIMEBALLS.' Governor Walz has destroyed the State of Minnesota," he added.

He went on to accuse California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, all Democrats, of more dishonesty and incompetency.

"NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!" he added.

Walz said Monday that he would be unable to put all his effort into a re-election campaign that would have meant a third term, if he had won.

RELATED: Tim Walz tries to dunk on Trump and gets pantsed on social media

"Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can't spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences," he wrote. "So I've decided to step out of the race and let others worry about the election while I focus on the work."

One poll found that Walz had a disapproval rating of 48%, and over 69% of respondents said that he needed to do more to stop fraud in Minnesota.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested murderers, rapists, and other violent offenders over the first weekend of the new year, according to a press release exclusively obtained by Blaze News.

The Department of Homeland Security recently announced “a historic 120% increase in manpower,” stating that it has added over 12,000 new ICE officers and agents following a successful recruitment campaign that received over 220,000 applications.

“With these new patriots on the team, we will be able to accomplish what many say was impossible and fulfill President Trump’s promise to make America safe again,” the DHS stated.

A DHS press release highlighted 15 “worst of the worst” criminal illegal aliens arrested by ICE over the first weekend of the new year.

'Over the weekend, ICE arrested murderers, stalkers, rapists, and gang members.'

Jose Cano-Cruz, a Mexican national, was previously convicted of homicide and aggravated stalking in Muscogee County, Georgia.

RELATED: Leftist radicals doxx ICE agents with ‘WANTED’ flyers in Pennsylvania

Jose Cano-Cruz. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Waheed Allah Mohammad, an Afghan national, was convicted of attempted murder and first-degree assault in Monroe County, New York. A 2009 NPR report stated that the then 22-year-old admitted to stabbing his 19-year-old sister, whom he reportedly described as a “bad Muslim girl” for trying to leave her family to start a new life in New York City.

Waheed Allah Mohammad. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

ICE agents nabbed Carlos Danilo Barrera, a known Florencia 13 gang member from El Salvador. He was previously convicted of second-degree murder in Los Angeles, California.

Carlos Danilo Barrera. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Federal immigration officials detained Ruben Pulido-Cortes. The Mexican national was convicted of rape in Queens, New York.

Ruben Pulido-Cortes. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Leonel Rodriguez-Garcia, from Mexico, was also picked up by ICE agents over the weekend. He was convicted of kidnapping in Kern County, California.

Leonel Rodriguez-Garcia. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Uriel Segovia-Leon, a Mexican national, was convicted of battery resulting in serious bodily injury in Lake County, Indiana.

Uriel Segovia-Leon. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Federal agents arrested Duane Alando Spence from Jamaica. His criminal history includes a conviction for aggravated battery resulting in great bodily harm in Miami, Florida.

Duane Alando Spence. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Patricio Hernandez-Gomez, a Mexican national, was convicted of first-degree unlawful imprisonment in Perry County, Kentucky. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

Patricio Hernandez-Gomez. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

ICE arrested Mexican national Yessenia Monserrat Monje-Orozco. Her criminal history includes convictions for possession of prohibited ammo and a controlled substance, as well as vehicle theft in San Luis Obispo, California.

Yessenia Monserrat Monje-Orozco. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Thinh Troung Nguyen, a Vietnamese national, was previously convicted of armed robbery in Lexington, Oklahoma.

Thinh Troung Nguyen. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Federal agents arrested Esteban Reyes-Cortes, an illegal alien criminal from Mexico. He was convicted in Tallahassee, Florida, for battery and disorderly conduct and in Decatur, Georgia, for entering an automobile with intent to commit theft.

Esteban Reyes-Cortes. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Jose Antonio Poblete-Velasquez, from Chile, was convicted of burglary in Ventura, California. According to the Irvine Police Department, officers observed Poblete-Velasquez and an accomplice distract an elderly shopper at a grocery store to steal her wallet and phone. Police were surveilling the Chilean national following reports of a separate incident where credit cards from a stolen wallet were used to make several fraudulent purchases.

Jose Antonio Poblete-Velasquez. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Immigration agents captured Luis Alberto Medel-Miranda, a Mexican national who was previously convicted for driving while impaired in Rockingham County, North Carolina.

Luis Alberto Medel-Miranda. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Kevin Ruiz-Gonzalez, an illegal alien from Honduras, was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon in Bronx, New York.

Kevin Ruiz-Gonzalez. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

ICE also nabbed Harvy Gomez-Alaniz, from Nicaragua. He was previously convicted of evading arrest or detention in San Antonio, Texas.

RELATED: Making a list and checking it twice: ICE’s year-end roundup of the most heinous illegal alien invaders

Harvy Gomez-Alaniz. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

“The first year of the Trump administration marked record-breaking progress in removing criminal illegal aliens, and DHS will be doubling down on those accomplishments in 2026 with our more than 12,000 new officers and agents,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated. “Over the weekend, ICE arrested murderers, stalkers, rapists, and gang members."

President Donald Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem "unleashed ICE to get criminal illegal aliens off our streets and out of our country," McLaughlin added.

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The Department of Homeland Security has publicly called out Hilton Hotels over what DHS says was an organized act of obstruction against immigration enforcement.

The agency posted screenshots showing the well-known hotel chain had "maliciously" canceled reservations for DHS officials at a Minneapolis-area location.

'Why is Hilton Hotels siding with murderers and rapists to deliberately undermine and impede DHS law enforcement from their mission to enforce our nation’s immigration laws?'

"NO ROOM AT THE INN!" reads a statement from DHS on social media.

"[Hilton Hotels] has launched a coordinated campaign in Minneapolis to REFUSE service to DHS law enforcement. When officers attempted to book rooms using official government emails and rates, Hilton Hotels maliciously CANCELLED their reservations. This is UNACCEPTABLE," the agency continued.

"Why is Hilton Hotels siding with murderers and rapists to deliberately undermine and impede DHS law enforcement from their mission to enforce our nation’s immigration laws?" the statement concluded.

One of the screenshots of the email responses included a statement from the hotel specifically citing the presence of ICE agents as the reason for the cancellation.

"We have noticed an influx of gov reservations made today that have been made for DHS, and we are not allowing any ICE or immigration agents to stay at our property. If you are with DHS or immigration, let us know as we will have to cancel your reservation," the email read, according to the screenshot.

In an email statement to Blaze News, a spokesperson for the hotel chain responded to the accusations.

"Hilton Hotels serve as welcoming places for all," the statement reads.

"This hotel is independently owned and operated, and the actions referenced are not reflective of Hilton values," the spokesperson added. "We are investigating this matter with this individual hotel and can confirm that Hilton works with governments, law enforcement, and community leaders around the world to ensure our properties are open and inviting to everyone."

RELATED: Postal worker allegedly tried to help detainee escape from ICE — and was on duty at the time

Some on social media responded by saying they would cancel their Hilton reservations and avoid the chain.

In a second statement emailed to Blaze News, a spokesperson for Hilton said the independently owned hotel apologized for the incident.

"We have been in direct contact with the hotel, and they have apologized for the actions of their team, which was not in keeping with their policies," said the spokesperson. "They have taken immediate action to resolve this matter. Hilton’s position is clear: Our properties are open to everyone and we do not tolerate any form of discrimination."

Everpeak Hospitality, the owners of the Hampton Inn hotel, also posted a statement.

"Everpeak Hospitality has moved swiftly to address this matter as it was inconsistent with our policy of being a welcoming place for all," the statement reads.

"We are in touch with the impacted guests to ensure they are accommodated," the statement continued. "We do not discriminate against any individuals or agencies and apologize to those impacted. We are committed to welcoming all guests and operating in accordance with brand standards, applicable laws, and our role as a professional hospitality provider."

Editor’s note: This article has been edited after publication to include a statement from Everpeak Hospitality as well as a second statement from Hilton Hotels.

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Art created by artificial intelligence is an attempt to reduce a society's sense of humanity, according to one Hollywood director.

This sort of treatment of art is "always a prelude to fascism," the director also warned.

'That is always the prelude to fascism.'

No ifs, ands, or bots

While accepting an honor from Variety at its 10 Directors to Watch and Creative Impact Awards, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro continued his recent onslaught against the use of artificial intelligence for art.

"Be kind, be involved, and believe in your art," del Toro said, emphasizing that when art is minimalized, bad times are ahead.

"In a time where people tell you art is not important, that is always the prelude to fascism. Always. When they tell you it doesn't matter, when they tell you a f**king app can do art, you say, 'Well, if it's that easy and if it's that unimportant, why the f**k do they want it so bad?'"

The director answered his own question, warning that the reduction of art to a line of code removes a certain degree of humanity.

"The answer is because they think they can debase everything that makes us a little better, a little more human. And that, in my book and in my life, includes monsters."

RELATED: Guillermo del Toro stops awards show music to drop 'F**k AI' bomb

Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Monster high

Del Toro's tirade came on the heels of similar remarks last month at the 2025 Gotham Film Awards, where he made a point of announcing that his widely praised "Frankenstein" was "willfully made by humans for humans."

After praising the movie's "designers, builders, makeup, [and] wardrobe" teams, the director paused and added, "F**k AI."

The 61-year-old — one of the most prominent Hollywood power players to speak out against the dangers of AI — also hinted at why he prefers to work in the horror/fantasy genre: "Sometimes the world gets so complicated, you can only explain it with the power of monsters."

"We are in a time like that right now," he added.

RELATED: The Oscars will leave TV — and may never come back

'Death' wish

Despite his anti-AI stance, del Toro is far from a techno-phobe.

In 2023, he praised Japanese video game auteur Hideo Kojima's "paradoxical creation" and his ability to "break the barrier between cinema and games."

Del Toro appears as the character Deadman in Kojima's 2019 game "Death Stranding," as well as its 2025 sequel.

When the White House unveiled the Presidential Walk of Fame, which features a portrait of former President Joe Biden replaced with the image of an autopen, one reporter was especially excited to see it.

“Every time I walk by it, I laugh to myself because I helped the president decide whether or not he should hang that photo of the autopen in Joe Biden’s spot,” Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese told BlazeTV host John Doyle at AmFest.

“I interviewed the president in August. I sat down with him for an hour in the Oval Office, and in the middle of the interview, he says, ‘Have you seen the work I’m doing in the Rose Garden?’ I’m like, ‘No, Mr. President, I haven’t,’” she continues.

That’s when the president decided to show her.

“I walk out to the Rose Garden with him, and he’s showing me everything, and we walk back inside and he has assistants on hand, and he says to them, you know, ‘Go show Reagan the portraits; get Reagan the portraits,’” she tells Doyle.

“So in walk his assistants, and they have these giant gold frames, and it’s George Washington, it’s Abraham Lincoln, it’s Ronald Reagan, who I told the president I’m named after. And I say, ‘Mr. President, are you going to hang Joe Biden’s portrait?’ And he was like, ‘All right, show her,’” she explains.

The president then had his assistants show her the photo of the autopen.

“He’s like, ‘I want to hang this photo in the place of Joe Biden’s portrait. Do you think I should do it?’ And I was like, ‘I think it would be very you, sir. I think you have to do it,’” she recalls.

“And he was like, ‘I think I will,’” she adds.

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A Florida man wearing a lace bra, a G-string thong, and fake breasts was caught trespassing at a construction site, according to police. However, authorities said the bizarre situation escalated when a deputy discovered something alarming under his prosthetic silicone breasts.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd began his Monday morning briefing by stating: "Now occasionally I bring you stuff that you just can't believe, that you'll never get over, that may even scar you for life."

'Can you imagine? He's mad at us for trying to find out why he's wearing lace bras with guns and G-strings or G-somethings.'

According to the affidavit provided to Blaze News by the Polk County Sheriff's Office, a deputy encountered 39-year-old Matthew Zaccarino of Altamonte Springs at a construction zone around 1:19 a.m. Dec. 14.

The affidavit states Zaccarino's vehicle was parked on private property with signs posted that read: "No Trespassing."

A deputy made contact with Zaccarino, "who was standing next to the vehicle's open passenger-side door and putting on female clothing (bra and panties)," the affidavit said.

Judd added, "We see this dude wearing a red lace bra, with prosthetic silicone breasts. Then we noticed he's wearing a G-string — showing off the boys. You know what I mean?"

Judd said the deputy believed the situation was "highly unusual."

Zaccarino told the deputy he was on his way to a "costume party," according to Judd.

However, when the deputy pressed him about the costume party, Zaccarino couldn't answer the question, Judd said.

The affidavit states that Zaccarino was "unable to provide a location, direction, or identify individuals who would be present" at the supposed party.

The affidavit also states the deputy issued several lawful commands for the suspect to stop moving, but he "refused to comply, removed his bra and silicone breast prosthesis, and began reaching inside the vehicle."

At that time, the officer handcuffed the suspect.

Sheriff Judd stressed that these kinds of strange encounters can be extremely dangerous for officers.

RELATED: WATCH: Florida man says he 'teleported' into stolen BMW, blames 'X-Men,' thanks cop for rescuing him from 'aliens'

See on Instagram

According to the affidavit, the deputy was looking down at the bra and breast prosthesis and noticed a "loaded H&K 9mm firearm under the items" on the passenger-side floorboard near where Zaccarino was standing.

"Such loitering and prowling occurred under circumstances that warranted justifiable and reasonable alarm for the safety of people or property in the vicinity," the deputy wrote in the affidavit.

Zaccarino then clammed up and refused to talk to law enforcement, according to Judd.

"Can you imagine? He's mad at us for trying to find out why he's wearing lace bras with guns and G-strings or G-somethings," Judd stated.

"Oooh, it was ugly. It was so ugly," Judd remarked.

Zaccarino was arrested and charged with armed trespass, resisting without violence, and loitering and prowling.

According to Polk County Sheriff's Office jail records, Zaccarino was released on a $6,250 bond.

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Hot on the heels of a highly publicized dinner with Donald and Melania Trump, Elon Musk will continue his work with the federal government through a new agreement that will affect the daily workflows of Department of War employees.

Last July, Musk's xAI entered a $200 million contract with the Pentagon to adopt advanced AI capabilities for sectors like national defense. Now, both the DOW and xAI are shedding light on some of the details surrounding their partnership in other areas.

'xAI will make available a family of government-optimized foundation models.'

In late December, the DOW announced its internal AI platform would be expanded to include xAI for "frontier-grade" capabilities.

"This initiative will soon embed xAI's frontier AI systems, based on the Grok family of models, directly into GenAI.mil. Targeted for initial deployment in early 2026," a press release stated.

This will enable the "secure handling" of "Controlled Unclassified Information" in the daily workflows of government employees, who will also gain access to "global insights" on X, which will allegedly provide a "decisive information advantage."

However, there is no indication what those insights include.

RELATED: DOGE didn’t die — it moved to the states

Photo by Didem Mente/Anadolu via Getty Images

The xAI company announced in its own statement that it would be providing access to its AI models, "agentic tools, research platform, and API," unlocking real-time insights.

The systems can be embedded into the daily work of the DOW's some 3 million military and civilian employees, "from the Pentagon to the tactical edge."

"xAI will make available a family of government-optimized foundation models to support classified operational workloads," the press release added.

The DOW has also entered into contracts with other advanced technology companies like EdgeRunner AI and Palmer Luckey's Anduril.

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Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The expanded partnership between the DOW and Musk came just days after xAI announced a new artificial voice generation application.

The Grok Voice Agent API operates essentially as a search engine optimizer that acts as a voice for a chatbot. The company released a series of sample voices, which "speak dozens of languages, call tools, and search realtime data."

The product is currently being rolled out in Teslas to relay vehicle status, search directions, and control navigation.

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