If socialists needed more evidence that their economic model is financially disastrous, they can look no farther than the Modern Times Café in Minneapolis.

The 15-year-old neighborhood restaurant, owned by anti-capitalist Dylan Alverson, announced it will be closing permanently at the end of the year. In January, following the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents, Alverson eliminated all prices for a free/donation-based model open to everyone except ICE.

“Starting today, January 26th, and until the occupation of Minneapolis is over, we are a free restaurant,” he said on Instagram.

Alverson briefly closed in July and reopened with prices in August, but it wasn’t enough to save the business, which still collapsed under debt and unsustainable economics.

Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau, BlazeTV hosts of “Stu and Dave Do America,” think the demise of Modern Times is hilarious and predictable.

“You know, normally I'm not one to take joy in someone else's misfortune,” Dave says.

But given that this is the "inevitable outcome of someone's stupid choice, it's a little easier,” he says.

Stu reads Alverson’s announcement that the cafe will be permanently closing:

For the last 6 years, I’ve been trying to prove that Modern Times can continue to exist. I’ve exhausted every option without compromising the core fundamentals that make Modern Times what it is.

Because of this, we have made the choice to close at the end of the year. This has been an incredibly difficult decision and one that did not come lightly. I announce this decision now, with the hope that we can spend the next two plus months celebrating the nearly 16 years that Modern Times has stood for creativity over cost, kindness over profit, and uncompromising values as a business in this country.

This coming week I’ll start to explain how we got to this point and what the next couple months will look like. The only way for places like Modern Times to exist in the future is to actively challenge the reasons why it can no longer exist.

“[Alverson] doesn't believe in capitalism, but he does now believe in crippling debt,” Dave says.

But debt wasn’t Modern Times’ only issue. Stu reveals that “neighbors began to be crowded out of the restaurant by people who could not pay and who lingered around the restaurant all day.”

“Complaints mounted of open drug use, theft, discarded needles in the alley, and overdoses on the sidewalk,” he adds.

“That's strange. So they were stealing stuff even though it was already free,” Dave says.

Stu shares that Modern Times isn’t the only “pay what you can” restaurant to utterly fail. The EAT Café at Drexel University in Philadelphia closed in 2019 after just two and a half years for the same reasons that closed Alverson’s business.

“So in a country of people that are known … for taking advantage of every situation, including government programs that are there to help those that are in need — turned out to be awful? I can't believe it,” says Dave.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

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What has remained fan theory up until this point is now being openly discussed: Major sports leagues are likely to suffer when a new video game comes out.

The idea has been floated by fans for years, but for the highly anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto 6, athletes are openly saying they're OK with missing work.

'Scouts are going to be horrendous.'

NBA center Steven Adams broke the fourth wall recently when he sent out a warning to fans and media that when GTA VI drops in November, the entire league is going to suffer performance-wise.

"I will say, you guys should anticipate November," the Houston Rockets player told reporters. "The performance of the league, league-wide. GTA is dropping."

No matter if Adams is predicting his own temporary demise or recognizes the amount of gamers he plays ball against, either way, a reckoning is coming.

The New Zealand native went even further and suggested that coaching skill would drop and so would scouting efficiency.

"Scouts are going to be horrendous, mate," he warned. "Just for November. But it should bounce back in December hopefully."

Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton sent out a similar warning during the summer, joking that he might not be seen on the racetrack when the game is released.

"I'm dying for the new Grand Theft Auto to come out. GTA 6," Hamilton said in front of fans in Belgium.

"Yeah, that's the one I'm waiting for. I have to cancel all my work when that game comes out," he added.

RELATED: US Army unit grants soldiers 4-day pass to play Grand Theft Auto VI — there's just one little catch

GTA 6 comes out on November 19, the same day as the start of the F1 Heineken Las Vegas GP. It should go without saying that fans will be checking in to see if Hamilton is absent that weekend or possibly the following week for the Qatar Airways Qatar GP (Nov. 27-29).

While Hamilton appeared to be joking, athletes have seemed to be hinting at what has been suspected by fans for years; they are not immune to binge-playing their favorite games.

Circling back to Adams, the 33-year-old's warning extended to the NFL and other professional leagues.

"Look at NFL, look at all the leagues and watch them plummet, mate. Just for the month of November, performance is going to go down. It should come back up though. Most of the boys will get it done, but hopefully they finish the game."

Adams' warning about the NFL touches on a widely discussed theory that, in particular, NFL quarterback Kyler Murray has had performance dips when Call of Duty games have been released.

RELATED: This top video game company is betting its future on something gamers hate

Lewis Hamilton is so eager to play GTA VI that he is willing to cancel all his work to play it #f1

The "Kyler Murray Call of Duty theory" claims that Murray's performance drops upon the release of new Call of Duty titles, which come out yearly, and continues to suffer in subsequent weeks.

The theory claims Murray's fantasy stats between 2019 and 2021 suffered in conjunction with Call of Duty releases, and there's even advanced analytics that claim Murray typically has slight dips in performance when the games have "double XP" weekends.

Fans are expecting the same from the quarterback when GTA 6 drops, and maybe he should take them up on that considering the aforementioned theory landed him a sponsorship from the game in 2024.

Other athletes to toss out the idea of GTA 6 being a focus in their life were young soccer stars Tyler Fredricson and Lamine Yamal.

Fredricson, 21, said he is "all ready for GTA 6," while Yamal, 19, inexplicably posted a GTA VI logo to his social media after winning the 2026 World Cup.

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The rising cost of diesel is punishing millions of Americans — especially rural households. Every time a farmer fills his combine, a small businessman tops off his box truck, or a family fuels up the pickup, they feel the cost.

Prices have stayed stubbornly elevated compared with the pre-pandemic baseline. Because trucks move roughly 70% of America's freight tonnage, every extra dime at the pump ripples outward to grocery bills, hardware stores, and the operating margins of the mom-and-pop businesses that keep small towns alive.

Plastic is increasingly displacing steel, iron, and other heavy metals that would otherwise add hundreds of pounds per vehicle.

There are many familiar culprits policymakers can and have identified. These range from refinery closures and global supply chain disruptions to international sanctions and domestic regulations.

However, there is a coming legislative and regulatory threat that will raise prices even more for Americans. Proposals such as the Tracking Plastic Act of 2026 — introduced by Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) alongside Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) — would place tight reporting restrictions on plastics and make advanced recycling more difficult.

Few voters who will pay for it have any idea what is coming. That threat is the accelerating regulatory war on plastics.

At first glance, plastics and diesel seem unrelated. In reality, they are joined at the molecular hip. Both come out of the same barrel of crude, are refined in the same facilities, and are governed by the same interlocking economics.

Petrochemical feedstocks, such as the natural gas liquids that become polyethylene, are not simply landfill waste. They are co-products whose sale helps keep American refineries economically viable. Shrink that market through bans, caps, or mandates, and America won’t magically get more diesel. Refineries that lose their petrochemical outlet get older and dirtier, and eventually they get shuttered.

There is a second, more direct link that ought to alarm anyone who cares about affordability. According to the American Chemistry Council's 2026 report Plastics and Chemistry in Automobiles, the average vehicle assembled in North America last year contained 428 pounds of plastics. This accounts for nearly 10%of vehicle weight, but around 50% of its total volume. That plastic content has grown 18% in a decade, even as trucks and SUVs have grown larger.

Plastic is increasingly displacing steel, iron, and other heavy metals that would otherwise add hundreds of pounds per vehicle.

RELATED: The Gulf is America’s energy shock absorber

RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

Decreasing vehicle weight is the single most cost-effective way to squeeze more miles out of every gallon of gas or diesel. The same report notes that real-world fuel economy has more than doubled since 1975. This gain has been enabled not only by better engines but by lighter materials. Every pound of plastic that regulators force back into steel is an extra pound the engine has to haul down the interstate.

Multiply that across the 15 million vehicles produced in North America each year and across a national fleet of more than 280 million, and the fuel penalty is enormous. For the diesel pickups, work vans, and tractors that already do the heavy lifting in fuel consumption, the impact is measured in billions of gallons annually. This also translates to billions of dollars extracted straight out of the pockets of hardworking Americans.

The activists driving anti-plastic legislation and regulatory measures ought to think deeply about this. Rather than punishing material that makes modern life lighter, safer, and cheaper, policymakers should shift their focus. Making innovative advanced recycling techniques easier would reduce plastic waste and lower diesel prices, a rare win-win in Washington.

The next time a Beltway coalition insists that phasing out plastics is a costless moral upgrade, policymakers should consider how it will impact the bills of Americans across the nation. Working Americans deserve a break from rising bills.

A Florida police officer who discovered a dead man during a welfare check is accused of exploiting the man's death to carry out an elaborate scheme that allegedly continued for years, according to authorities.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that 35-year-old Brian Louis Sguros was arrested last Monday. Sguros — a Lauderhill Police Department officer — was booked on charges of official misconduct, criminal use of deceased personal identification, criminal use of personal identification information, offense against computer user, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.

'Sguros represented himself to the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office as West's friend, although there is no indication he knew West, and stated that West had no living family, which was untrue.'

WTVJ-TV reported that Sguros appeared in court Wednesday, when a judge set his bond at $25,000.

Following his arrest, the Lauderhill Police Department placed Sguros on administrative leave without pay.

On July 11, 2022, Sguros responded as a backup officer to a welfare check at the home of 71-year-old Dennis West in Lauderhill, which is about five miles west of Fort Lauderdale.

Police said West was found dead inside the home.

Citing Sguros' arrest affidavit, NBC News reported that the medical examiner determined that West died of natural causes from arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office said Sguros "became involved in West’s post-death affairs."

"For instance, Sguros represented himself to the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office as West's friend, although there is no indication he knew West, and stated that West had no living family, which was untrue," the police statement read.

Bodycam footage from the 2022 welfare check showed no indication that Sguros knew West, police said.

According to authorities, Sguros paid the property taxes and utility bills from the home in West's name.

USA Today obtained property records showing Sguros had paid over $2,500 in taxes on the home, though it remained registered to West's estate.

Sguros also used West's identification to secure a home repair permit from the city of Lauderhill.

A detective said Sguros forged West's signature on the home repair permit.

An August 2024 permit application seeking approval to replace windows and doors at the home for $8,000 listed West as the owner, and the application included his driver's license information and contained a signature purportedly belonging to him, despite his death two years earlier, according to USA Today, which added that the phone number on the application belonged to Sguros.

Officials with the home remodeling company believed the homeowner was alive.

Court documents said the notary whose name and information appeared on the permit told investigators that the signature was not hers and added that she did not believe the notary stamp on the documents was hers, either.

RELATED: Former therapist intern accused of sex with patient during sessions, arranging 'alibis' for him to leave rehab for trysts

Investigators also said Sguros utilized his access to law enforcement databases to obtain information about West.

Court records said Sguros launched seven database searches related to West, which were conducted from his work-issued computer between July 2022 and January 2023. Those searches disclosed West's Social Security number, date of birth, address, and other information, according to the court docs

The Broward County Sheriff's Office and the Broward County Property Appraiser began an investigation into Sguros after the Lauderhill Police Department provided information about a possible crime.

In February 2025, Sguros and his spouse filed paperwork with the Broward County Property Appraiser seeking to claim ownership of the home, according to the affidavit.

Months later, a real estate company bought the property from West's heirs, according to court documents.

USA Today reported that the real estate company raised concerns with authorities about Sguros' involvement with the property when one of its employees encountered Sguros when they attempted to take possession of the property in the fall of 2025.

The affidavit said Sguros surrendered the keys to the property to the real estate company, but he "demanded reimbursement for repairs and improvements he claimed to have made."

According to NBC News, Sguros filed a complaint against the real estate company in February, saying in filings that he found West in the home while he was on duty and adding that he subsequently began to clean, secure, and invest in the property.

NBC News reported that Sguros did not explain in his court filings how he obtained possession of the property.

Citing the arrest affidavit, USA Today reported that Sguros said in civil court that he spent at least $214,000 on repairs and improvements to the home, increasing its value to about $500,000.

Sguros claimed he paid for the work to prevent squatters and criminal activity, according to the affidavit.

Police noted that the investigation remains ongoing.

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Rapper Nicki Minaj became the topic of likely tongue-in-cheek speculation about a major White House vacancy after she took a ride on Air Force One.

Karoline Leavitt's departure from the White House in August left the Trump administration in desperate need of a similarly talented press secretary. Given Katie Zacharia's trial run lasted only five days, the role remains vacant.

'I think we may have found the new White House Press Secretary!'

Speculation abounds about whom the president might appoint to the role next, and several names have been floated, including CNN contributor Scott Jennings; White House communications aide Danielle Alvarez; White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly; and Katie Miller, the wife of President Donald Trump's chief of staff, Stephen Miller.

On Sunday, White House communications director Steven Cheung teased another potential contender: Nicki Minaj.

Minaj — a native of Trinidad and an enthusiastic supporter of Trump and Vice President Vance whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty — joined Trump onstage at his rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday.

After the rapper sang Trump's praises and denounced so-called "sex changes" for children, the president stated, "You see why everybody likes Nicki. Love, like. But she is a very, very special person. She gets it. Smart."

The rapper had flown to Michigan in style — on Air Force One — where she sat down for a conversation with Cheung, who later shared a video of part of their exchange on social media with the caption, "Ladies and gentlemen, I think we may have found the new White House Press Secretary!"

RELATED: Hello and goodbye: Katie Zacharia is out as White House press secretary

Sarah Rice/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The White House's X account replied with the eyeballs emoji, and the Trump War Room account responded, "Press Secretary @NICKIMINAJ has a nice ring to it!"

These posts have prompted widespread speculation about whether Minaj is indeed a contender, and there is some chatter about optics due in part to her husband's rape conviction, her brother's child rape conviction, and her admitted arrival to the U.S. as an illegal alien child.

The White House did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment by deadline. However, one person familiar with the situation told Semafor last week that a new pick will "definitely not" be named before the midterms.

Cheung told Semafor that the president and "his team are focused on the midterm elections."

Minaj, who said on Jan. 28 that she was finalizing "citizenship paperwork," did not immediately respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

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The Trump administration is not impressed by a "sob story" put out by "60 Minutes" meant to undermine the mass deportation efforts undertaken in the president's second term.

The story that aired Sunday highlights the struggles of the family of Moussa Diawara, a 57-year-old man who was deported in July and claims he eventually ended up in his native country of Mali. During the segment, his wife, son, and daughter tearfully speak to him while they continue to reside in Texas.

'Just in case you’re wondering how bad the immigration fraud problem is.'

A judge ruled in 2012 that Diawara, who had overstayed a visa, could be deported, but not to Mali after he claimed that he would be persecuted there, CBS News reported. Diawara was deported to Ghana, and soon after his arrival, Ghanaian officials sent him to Mali, he claims.

He indicated to "60 Minutes" that he feared persecution in Mali, a Muslim-majority country, because he had converted to Christianity. He eventually escaped to another African country but asked CBS not to identify it, the outlet reported.

The story was clearly intended to elicit sympathy from viewers, but the narrative did not survive a fact-check from James Percival, the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security who appeared in the segment.

"This illegal alien is @60Minutes poster child for what it claims are wrongful deportations," wrote Percival in a statement on social media Sunday night. "I pulled his file. His claimed reason for fearing Mali was that he is 'gay,' just in case you’re wondering how bad the immigration fraud problem is."

Percival suggested the family's sob story contradicted the father's claim that he feared persecution as a gay man.

A post from Immigration and Customs Enforcement reinforced the point and mocked the news program.

"The 60 Minutes sob story tonight highlighted an illegal alien and his wife and two children. One problem. The illegal alien claimed he was a HOMOSEXUAL in order to try and dodge deportation to Mali," read the statement.

"You literally cannot make this up," ICE added.

"60 Minutes" noted on social media and in the segment that the DHS had "questioned the credibility of Diawara's arguments for fearing persecution in Mali," without providing further details.

RELATED: ICE is deporting Mexicans to nations beyond Mexico — and their government is not happy

"I absolutely believe with all of my heart that these third-country removals have stopped crimes from happening and kept Americans safer and that is our fundamental obligation at the Department of Homeland Security," Percival said on "60 Minutes."

The report said that about 25,000 people who had been deported from the U.S. had been sent to countries other than their country of origin.

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I knew our mail-in ballots had been sent out because my friends were posting photos of their ballots on social media. This meant my mail-in ballot was probably waiting in my mailbox, as well.

But I didn’t retrieve it right away. I let it sit there. The truth is that I don’t like mail-in ballots. I don’t trust them. I experience a traumatic response just thinking about them.

In 2022, remembering what happened in 2020, I took my mail-in ballot directly from my mailbox to the dumpster.

Since mail-in voting was implemented in Oregon back in 1987, nothing good has happened here. The state has gone straight into the toilet.

And when it was implemented nationwide, in 2020, well, then the rest of the country went straight into the toilet, too.

So yeah, I can barely stand the sight of a mail-in ballot. I am physically repulsed. I prefer not to have it in my house.

Utopian fantasies

I didn’t always feel this way. I was happy to participate at first. In the early 1990s, this new way of voting seemed fresh, modern, and convenient.

The envelope shows up in your mailbox. You open the outer envelope and there’s another envelope inside, along with the official ballot, with its ovals and government scan codes.

You fill out the ovals, fold it up, seal it, and sign your name. And then cheerfully drop it in a mailbox.

Safe and secure

Mail-in ballots are designed to look official, sanctioned, secure. They make you feel like the state is being extra careful with your personal ballot, your one precious vote.

But the reality is that your ballot is just beginning its journey. It gets driven here and there. It gets put into piles and bags and maybe gets dumped in one spot and then moved to another spot.

It ends up at the post office, or in a county warehouse space, or it gets fed into a counting machine. It might even get hand-checked by an election worker somehow trained to decide whether your signature looks enough like the one on file.

Really, who knows where your one precious vote goes? After it is opened, depending on who sees it first, it might go straight into the trash!

A feeling of helplessness

In Oregon, mail-in voting is the only way you can vote. The future of your state, your city, your business, your family — it all depends on a complex system of mailing and sorting and counting and verifying.

And then maybe more ballots show up later. And the ballots of dead people are floating around. Or the ballots of people who used to live in your building.

And then activists “harvest” other people’s ballots. “Here, Grandma, let me help you fill that out.”

RELATED: California makes 'massive concession' in lawsuit over 20,000 'likely noncitizen' voters, DOJ says

L-R: Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images; ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

The big night

After you have mailed in your ballot, a couple of weeks pass, and then election night rolls around. Often, one of the candidates will appear to have an insurmountable lead. The local news shows the tallies. The pollsters make predictions. Everybody gets excited. The projected winner might even dare to celebrate.

But after three decades of mail-in voting, we Oregonians know better. What matters is not who wins on election night. It is who wins in the weeks after, when those last bundles of wayward ballots finally make it in. Only then is the final count concluded.

In Oregon, the winner is always a Democrat. Maybe not for every minor local position. But if it’s important, the Democrat wins.

Since mail-in voting was first implemented in Oregon almost 30 years ago, all our governors have been Democrats.

And for the last 12 years, they have been exclusively LGBTQ, far-left, DEI Democrats. This, in a state once known for its balanced, centrist political climate.

Going national

In 2020, I used my mail-in ballot to vote for President Trump, who won handily on the night of the election, but then somehow lost by a late-arriving influx of mail-in ballots which — against all statistical probabilities — were almost all cast for his opponent.

In 2022, remembering what happened in 2020, I took my mail-in ballot directly from my mailbox to the dumpster.

This was partly out of disgust and partly because I had made an important discovery: While door-knocking for a local candidate, I was given an app that had remarkably specific information about the neighborhood I was canvassing. I could see which residents were Republicans, how often they voted, and whether any other voters lived in their house. Which meant that who you voted for was public knowledge, and not private and anonymous like you had been told.

But if there’s a chance ...

Fast-forward to now, and here I am, faced with another Oregon governor’s race. It is between two women, of course. But one of the women is a reasonable and straightforward Republican. And people say she has a real chance. So now I have to vote. Just in case it will make a difference.

So out to the mailbox I go. To retrieve my mail-in-ballot. I hold my nose. Fill in the ovals. And get it out of my house and into the mailbox as fast as possible.

Leftists and the Western liberal media rushed to congratulate radical socialist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday over his alleged victory in Brazil in the second round of the presidential election against Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the right-leaning son of a convicted former Brazilian president now under house arrest.

Behind this mad rush to legitimize what could be Lula's fourth nonconsecutive term is not only desperation on the part of liberals to halt a rightward shift in South America but incredible uncertainty over whether the election was itself legitimate.

'What took place is simply inexplicable.'

After all, there was high-level meddling in the final hours of the election — meddling executed at the request of the Lula campaign and that may have had a profound impact on the outcome.

His former boss' bidding

Cristiano Zanin long served as Lula's personal lawyer, defending the socialist against corruption charges and even helping him get out of jail in 2019.

Zanin — whose wife is the daughter of a former Lula lawyer — was rewarded for his efforts. Lula nominated him to the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil, and Zanin was sworn into office in August 2023.

RELATED: 'Cold civil war' about to heat up? DataRepublican exposes evidence of color revolution plot

Wagner Meier/Getty Images

Lula, a Beijing-friendly leftist, lost to Bolsonaro in the first round on Oct. 4, 47.03% to 45.16%. And though he was apparently in the lead early on Sunday, Bolsonaro managed to overtake him — at least temporarily.

Bolsonaro was, however, kneecapped around the time polling stations around the country were set to close when Zanin ordered the polling stations to remain open for another two hours.

While Bolsonaro had asked the election court for more time in a handful of regions where voters were affected by nasty weather — including the swing state of Minas Gerais — the Lula campaign demanded extended voting times nationwide, including in Bahia, a pro-Lula stronghold, reported Bloomberg.

The Lula campaign suggested that an extension was needed in part because of alleged voter suppression by pro-Bolsonaro mayors.

Zanin obliged his former boss with a universal extension even though: results from 1,225 polling sections had reportedly already been published by the Superior Election Court, some polling stations were reportedly already closed, and some stations' voting machines had been irreversibly shut down.

According to the TSE, the Superior Election Court of Brazil, Lula secured over 4.4 million more votes than Bolsonaro and won the election 51.79%-48.21%.

Illegitimate?

Bolsonaro rejected the outcome of the election and indicated that he will pursue an annulment of it in light of the last-minute rule-change by one of "Lula's friends."

As relayed by state media, Bolsonaro told reporters outside his campaign headquarters, "It is impossible to recognize the election results given the circumstances under which these events unfolded. We will engage our legal team and seek the annulment of this election. We are not here to play games. I will not accept the rules being changed in the middle of the game — once again, by Lula’s friends on the Supreme Federal Court," according to a translation.

The right-wing challenger emphasized that "what happened today was not normal. In fact, it was unacceptable."

Rogério Marinho, Bolsonaro's campaign chief, said that Zanin's decision was an "unfeasible action to disrupt the process of an election that they already lost at the ballot box," according to a translation.

Bolsonaro further said:

For the first time in history, a Supreme Court justice — who is also a former lawyer for Lula — issued a unilateral ruling at the request of a former law partner, changing the rules of the game while the game was already underway. At 5:01 PM, Justice Zanin — who is not even a member of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) — bypassed the specialized electoral judiciary and issued a decision extending the voting period by two hours. This had never happened before in the history of Brazil. There was a complete breakdown of equal treatment among Brazilians in different cities and states. I will never know how many votes I might have received in a state where the polls were not reopened. What took place is simply inexplicable.

The president of the Superior Electoral Court, Judge Kassio Nunes Marques, reinforced Bolsonaro's characterization, stating that Zanin's last-minute rule was legally groundless and unprecedented.

Nunes Marques said that there was "no regulation authorizing any extension" and that "never in the history of the TSE has there been any extension," according to a translation.

Despite these admissions, Nunes Marques defended the final result, stating, "There was no alteration resulting from the judicial decision. ... We have absolute security regarding the entire electoral process."

Raquel Machado, a professor at the Federal University of Ceará, told the New York Times that Bolsonaro can push for either a technical audit to determine whether the outcome was affected by unequal voting conditions or an abuse-of-power case through the TSE's inspector general, which could result in Lula's disqualification.

After claiming victory, Lula told supporters in Sao Paulo that "it was democracy that made this happen," according to the Guardian.

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A Massachusetts father has been convicted of repeatedly sexually abusing a teen girl aboard a JetBlue flight — while he was on the plane with his wife and four kids, according to federal prosecutors.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts announced in a statement that 48-year-old Jonathan Alan Lefman, following a three-day jury trial, was convicted Oct. 16 of one count of abusive sexual contact within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States.

'The defendant repeatedly sexually abused a minor who was simply trying to travel safely aboard a commercial flight.'

The charge is punishable by up to two years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and five years to life of supervised release.

On Aug. 30, 2024, Lefman was a passenger aboard a JetBlue flight — along with his wife and four children — that was flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Boston, Massachusetts.

The arrest affidavit says Lefman was sitting next to his 16-year-old son and directly behind the 17-year-old victim during the time of misconduct.

"On multiple occasions during the flight and while on the ground waiting to deplane in Boston, Lefman engaged in abusive sexual contact with the minor victim," the statement said.

"Specifically, Lefman worked his hand in between the area between the back and bottom of the seat directly in front of him, where the minor victim was seated, and touched the minor victim's buttocks without her permission," the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts stated.

The victim said she saw "Lefman's reflection leaning between the seats in the seatback monitor in front of her" when he attempted to touch her on one occasion, authorities said.

RELATED: Ex-mayor convicted of child sex crimes walks free after 90 days — judge admits key mistake he made in sentencing

Video screenshots showing Jonathan Lefman reaching between the seats of a JetBlue flight.Image source: U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts

The victim told investigators that "a man touched me without my permission," the affidavit stated.

The affidavit added that Lefman also touched the backs of the victim's feet with his feet, under the seat.

"At first I thought he was stretching because we all get tired," the victim said. But later she "started to realize that he was really touching" her and "kept moving forward and side to side" to avoid being touched, according to the affidavit.

The statement read, "On the last occasion when he touched or attempted to touch her buttocks, the minor victim was able to use her cellphone camera to take a video of Lefman’s fingers protruding between the back and bottom of the minor victim’s seat."

Authorities said the teenager took a video of Lefman exiting the aircraft.

An adult female family member of the victim, who was sitting in a different row of the airplane, confronted Lefman after the flight and reported his conduct to a JetBlue supervisor, according to the statement.

The female family member told authorities that Lefman apologized and claimed he was only stretching, the affidavit said.

The victim's family member also told Lefman's wife that "she should be concerned about the man’s behavior as she has children," according to the affidavit.

RELATED: Serial rapist, heir to cosmetics empire, once sentenced to 124 years for 'sadistic sexual abuse,' walks free after 20 years

FBI Special Agent Jason D. Costello wrote in the arrest affidavit that Lefman "did knowingly engage in unwanted sexual contact with 'Minor A' by intentionally touching, through the clothing, the buttocks of Minor A with intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade Minor A or arouse or gratify his own sexual desire."

Lefman was arrested and charged in February 2025 and indicted by a federal grand jury in March 2025.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley said in a statement:

The defendant repeatedly sexually abused a minor who was simply trying to travel safely aboard a commercial flight. No one should have to fear being sexually assaulted, whether in the air or on the ground. Today’s verdict holds the defendant accountable for his disturbing conduct and sends a clear message that those who prey on vulnerable passengers will face justice.

Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI, Boston Division, added:

This verdict delivers justice for a young teen who showed remarkable courage following an appalling act. No one should ever be subjected to such harmful and predatory conduct— least of all in a confined, public space where she was entitled to feel safe. The FBI is fully committed to protecting children and ensuring those who exploit or abuse them, like Mr. Lefman, are brought to justice.

Lefman is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 12, 2027.

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The subscription options on X have evolved a lot since they launched in late 2022, then under the Twitter Blue name. Originally, they gave users longer posts and boosted their algorithmic reach, among other perks. Today, however, X’s paid plans have way more features powered by AI, and you can upgrade today for the same price or better.

When paid subscriptions launched on X, they came in three different tiers:

These plans offer far more capabilities than the old plans for the same price, and you may even save money.

Basic let users write longer posts, edit their posts after they were published, and upload longer videos.

Premium included everything in Basic, plus the coveted check mark for verification, higher algorithmic priority, higher usage limits on Grok, and access to the creator program that let users earn money for their posts.

Premium+ came with everything above, in addition to zero ads on X, reply priority boosts, and even higher limits on Grok.

A lot has changed, though, since Musk and company launched the first version of X’s paid subscriptions. Grok is a lot smarter, X is now part of SpaceXSI (formerly SpaceXAI and SpaceX before that), and Musk even acquired a hugely popular agentic AI coding platform called Cursor. With so much change, it only made sense that X’s paid options should change too, and they’re even better than they were before.

RELATED: Most of the internet is suddenly melting down, and there's only one fix

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Customers used to pay separately for X Premium, SuperGrok, and Cursor Pro, costing anywhere between $10 and $100 per month. Not anymore. As of mid-October, X brought X Premium, Grok, and Cursor together under one single subscription plan simply called the X Subscription.

This new option features four simple tiers with scaling capabilities:

Free offers basic X features, like sending posts, replying to other users, and following friends, along with limited AI access.

Plus adds a premium check mark, reduces ads on X, and unlocks broader access to Grok Chat for text-based AI queries, Grok Voice for live speech conversations, Grok Imagine to generate images and videos, and Grok Build for agentic coding. This plan is available for $8 per month.

Premium adds Grok Bot, the new agentic AI service powered by Cursor, unlocks access to the latest frontier Grok models, and provides faster performance. With four times the available AI usage capacity found in Plus, this option is the most popular tier at $30 per month.

Super unlocks the maximum power of the X Subscription, adding in 15 times more AI usage capacity and premier access to the most powerful Grok models during peak usage times of the day. This plan is available for $100 per month.

X.ai

By comparison, these plans offer far more capabilities than the old plans for the same price, and you may even save money if you previously subscribed to SuperGrok or Cursor. In this way, Grok’s more advanced features are easier to access, and you can do a lot more with the plan you pick than you could before the X Subscription rollout.

The brand-new Grok Bot is something that many will want to try. As a fully autonomous AI agent, it can do all sorts of things on your behalf, such as keep your calendar in order like a personal assistant, scan through emails to give you the latest updates on important matters, offer a daily brief with top news stories that you’ll appreciate, and tons more.

Musk even suggested you give Grok a photo of your credit card to let it shop for you online. I wouldn’t go that far, especially as the internet seemingly melts down over the newly discovered PHP vulnerabilities, but the fact that Grok Bot can do this is impressive.

New users can sign up for the X Subscription today. If you’re an existing X Premium or Cursor subscriber, your account will remain unchanged for now, unless you choose to upgrade to the X Subscription. Those who upgrade will have their old X Premium subscription canceled and may even receive a refund for unused time.

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John Arnold has been busy since leaving Enron.

His money has fueled research into probation leniency decried as "pro-criminal." In other states, Arnold backs nominally conservative energy groups prioritizing green energy and hostility to fossil fuels.

'Billionaires like him should stop bastardizing our nonprofit laws foisting their leftist beliefs on the American people.'

"The Arnold Pipeline," a new 28-page report from Power the Future, excavates the former trader's labyrinthine network.

Arnold, a former Enron natural gas trader turned billionaire philanthropist, has built a policy machine that funnels research and advocacy for progressive priorities into red-state capitals. Despite his background in fossil fuels, Arnold's money is aimed at weeding out those energy sources in favor of renewables.

Tracking IRS filings, grant records, and policy proposals across Ohio, Oklahoma, and Indiana, the report finds that Arnold isn't looking to flip Republicans into Democrats. Instead, the billionaire trader just needs them to put a patriotic veneer on a liberal agenda.

Power the Future founder and executive director Dan Turner told Blaze News why his group looked into Arnold in the first place.

"Since our founding, Power the Future’s north star has been holding the environmental left to account," Turner said. "As our efforts continued, we were surprised to learn about the role that John Arnold plays, not only as someone who used to work in the industry, but also as someone who holds himself out as a champion of common sense."

RELATED: 'Digger' is the canary in the climate change coal mine

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Arnold Ventures calls itself evidence-based and bipartisan. Its stated mission is to "maximize opportunity and minimize injustice."

The Laura and John Arnold Foundation ended 2024 with a whopping $4.77 billion in assets, according to its tax filing. Arnold's charitable and advocacy arms gave out over $190 million in grants that same year.

Arnold Ventures’ advocacy arm, Action Now Initiative, says Arnold Ventures gives it “coordination, assistance, and support services.” Action Now is a separate nonprofit from the Arnold Foundation, but John Arnold is on both groups’ boards. Action Now reported nearly $10.9 million in grants in 2024.

The portfolio doesn't stop with energy. Criminal justice was Arnold's largest named funding category in 2024, constituting 31% of grant-making. Action Now spent $2.8 million on getting ranked-choice voting passed in Alaska, then doubled down to defend the system from a repeal effort.

Arnold Ventures' November 2025 energy overview also calls for policies that "reduce emissions."

"Amid a surging data center and AI boom, America needs more forms of energy period," Turner told Blaze News. "It doesn't need the eco extremists who are obsessed with sacrificing oil, natural gas, and coal at the green altar."

RELATED: Fraud, fraud, and more fraud: How Maine became a Somali scammer's paradise

Grant records show more than $23.2 million going to environmental and clean-energy groups, according to Power the Future's report. They include the Environmental Defense Fund, the Niskanen Center, and the Climate Leadership Council's carbon-dividend campaign. In 2019, Arnold gave Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends its first grant: $500,000.

Arnold's organization doesn't always deal directly with Republican states. It also pushes money and influence through aligned organizations.

In Ohio, the Arnold pipeline flows through the Energy Foundation, a national clean-energy grant-maker that received roughly $4.2 million from Arnold between 2017 and 2020. Ohio is a pivotal state for energy production, situated atop the Utica Shale oil and gas play. It also hosts the Ohio Conservative Energy Forum, which benefited from a chain of grants that starts with Arnold money.

The U.S. Energy Foundation gave the Conservative Energy Network $2,027,500 in 2024, according to its tax filing. CEN then paid $210,361 to the Ohio Conservative Energy Forum and funded conservative-branded clean-energy groups in eight other states, including Indiana.

The forum's executive director testified for House Bill 15, the sweeping 2025 energy law signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine. The law ended ratepayer subsidies for coal plants and backed solar projects at schools.

The Ohio Conservative Energy Forum called it a "win."

RELATED: Why is deep-red Oklahoma paving the way for Biden's Green New Deal?

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

In Oklahoma, there is no middleman.

Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) and Arnold Ventures announced a formal partnership on March 26, 2025. Arnold Ventures agreed to match state spending dollar-for-dollar, up to $10 million over four years, for as much as $20 million combined. The first programs cover tutoring, youth services, and adoption.

Stitt has a record of breaking with the right.

Blaze News reported in August that Stitt had established a National Governors Association immigration task force with Democratic governors and was pushing for state-issued work permits.

"Let's actually have the governors issue workforce permits," Stitt said.

Blaze News opinion columnist and podcast host Daniel Horowitz called Stitt's energy policies into question back in 2024.

"He’s [Stitt's]right. Oklahoma has enough oil and gas to fuel much of the world," Horowitz wrote.

"The trouble is the memorandum he signed does not promote reliable energy. Instead, it prioritizes inefficient and heavily subsidized forms of energy."

Under the Arnold deal, Oklahoma isn't the only one deciding which programs receive funding.

The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy helps identify applicable programs. Its president, Jon Baron, was Arnold Ventures' vice president of evidence-based policy from 2015 to 2021.

"The government needs help from the private sector," Stitt said regarding the partnership in March.

In Indiana, the former head of an Arnold-funded group now runs the state's health policy.

The Arnold Foundation gave the Employers' Forum of Indiana $474,222 in 2022 to build an online dashboard comparing what hospitals charge private insurers with Medicare rates. Arnold Ventures later called the group "an AV grantee."

Former Employers' Forum of Indiana CEO Gloria Sachdev is now Indiana's secretary of health and family services. Gov. Mike Braun's December 2024 announcement of her appointment highlighted the same hospital-price work Arnold helped fund.

Her agency is now openly using Medicaid payments to throttle private hospitals.

"We're using our financial authority in the Medicaid market to influence the commercial market," said Mitch Roob, secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration, Indiana's Medicaid agency.

RELATED: Trump-hating Republican governors conspire with Democrats to smuggle in even more migrants

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Republicans weighing proposals without knowing who bankrolled the research and the ultimate aims of those patrons are being deprived of crucial context, the report argues.

"Conservative officials and officeholders should know that most anything connected to Arnold's financial web runs counter to their ideological worldview and policy agenda," Turner told Blaze News.

Turner told Blaze News that Arnold keeps a low profile on purpose.

"The reason that Arnold disguises his motivations and intent is because he knows selling the priorities of extreme left-wing environmentalists in places like Indiana, Ohio, and Oklahoma would be an absolute nonstarter if the public knew," Turner said. "That's exactly what we're trying to do with this report: raise public awareness."

Asked what reform should look like, Turner pointed to Congress.

"Passing H.R. 8330, the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026, would be a good place to start," he said.

Introduced April 16 by Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), the bill would ban climate lawfare against oil, gas, and coal companies in federal and state courts. It would also void pending cases.

"The climate change movement in America is a big business, and lawsuits are how they make money," Turner said. "The courts are weaponized against one industry, driving up costs for every American while enriching some and bankrolling the campaigns of others."

"Billionaires like him should stop bastardizing our nonprofit laws foisting their leftist beliefs on the American people," Turner told Blaze News.

Arnold Ventures did not respond to a request for comment.

Gov. Kevin Stitt's office, Gov. Mike Braun's office, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, the Energy Foundation, the Conservative Energy Network, the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, and Sen. Jim Banks' office did not respond to Blaze News' requests for comment.

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Is the goal of prosecuting political opponents to punish the people in power — or to scare everyone else away from serving them?

The latter is the disturbing implication in Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s comments about using lawfare to pursue members of the Trump administration — and BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre is surprised by how plainly she said it.

“Slotkin went out there and basically said that we need to just destroy all of these people in the Trump administration, sue them into the ground, put them all in jail, you know, put pressure on these cases so that no ... conservative, young conservative who’s thinking about going into the Trump administration will ever do so,” MacIntyre tells guest News Fist.

“They’ll be so terrified that entire generations of conservatives will refuse to actually serve in the executive branch,” he continues.

“And of course, you know, this is what makes a presidential administration run,” he adds.

In the clip of Slotkin, she says, “I want to look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him. I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration? Like, that sounds fun. I might get an opportunity.’”

“I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that. I want that deterrence message sent,” she added.

“So, we can see right here, exactly the plan,” MacIntyre says. “If you can force all of these people out of the administration, you put them in jail, you can, you know, bankrupt them. Remember, the process is the punishment.”

While this might not end in their imprisonment, MacIntyre notes that they could spend “millions of dollars defending themselves in the court of public opinion.”

“And the whole purpose, what she’s saying out loud here is just, the only reason I want to do this is I want to intimidate future conservatives into not serving. And she’s perfectly aware — as you know, remember Slotkin was a CIA analyst,” he says.

“She’s saying, ‘I’m going to use this to make sure the deep state destroys any possibility of anyone ever serving in a Republican administration again,’” he adds.

News Fist is shocked that “these are the same people that promote things like enabling civil society and democracy.”

“Like, what is democracy? Well, democracy is when we undertake an intimidation and smearing campaign on the entire opposition to starve them of any talent,” he says, pointing out that this “would actually play into the Groyper infiltration” of the Republican Party.

“Because what kind of people would not really care about having their name blackened? It’s exactly the people that are already beyond the pale. This is always the limitation with these kinds of tactics,” he says.

“If you throw enough people out of, you know, polite society, if you put enough people beyond the pale, as it were, they wind up making their own counter-elite, their own alternative society,” he adds.

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A generation was promised a simple path to the American dream: Earn a four-year degree, get a good job, buy a house, start a family. For many Millennials, the diploma arrived. The rest of the bargain did not.

Now student loan payments compete with rent, mortgages, and the cost of raising children. Graduates work in jobs that never required the credentials they borrowed money to obtain. Meanwhile, socialism has reached its highest positive rating since Gallup began tracking it in 2010. Who sold Millennials the original promise?

You were lied to by leftist universities that gladly took your money and left you in ruin.

Gallup’s September report found that 43% of Americans viewed socialism positively, up from 39% in 2025. Among adults ages 18 to 34, the figure was 57%. It is an extraordinary development. If government-backed higher education helped saddle a generation with debt, why would more government look like the solution?

The financial burden is real. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported $1.65 trillion in outstanding student loans in the second quarter of 2026. In a separate Federal Reserve survey, 23% of adults with student loans reported recent difficulty making payments. Even a manageable loan bill is money a borrower cannot put toward a down payment or a family.

But why did so many people borrow so much for credentials whose value varies so widely? Because Americans were repeatedly told a four-year degree was the necessary ticket to adulthood.

Parents heard it. Guidance counselors repeated it. Politicians promised greater access. Universities gladly collected the tuition, helped along by a federal lending system that made borrowing easier today and paying the bill a problem for tomorrow.

And some of the professors who taught students to distrust capitalism were only too happy to work within this arrangement. Universities expanded administrative operations while students took on mounting obligations. The people selling degrees should have been the first to explain what those degrees could actually buy.

The gamble persists for younger graduates. Federal Reserve research using 2023 data on graduates ages 22 to 27 found an underemployment rate of 9.7% for nursing majors, compared with 56.5% for liberal arts and 67.2% for criminal justice. Underemployment here means holding a job that typically does not require a college degree. These graduates are working, but many are not using the expensive credential they were told they needed.

RELATED: CS Lewis knew how clever people teach themselves to be fools

John Chillingworth/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

What did the colleges tell their applicants about those odds? If an 18-year-old is asked to borrow tens of thousands of dollars, the institution ought to disclose the likely costs, earnings, and risks. A degree is an investment only if the buyer has a realistic picture of the return. Universities should face the same scrutiny over misleading promises that we expect of any business.

Students also deserved a serious account of the alternatives: trade schools, apprenticeships, community colleges, military service, and employment without a four-year degree. These are legitimate paths to adulthood, not consolation prizes for people supposedly unfit for college.

There is a cultural problem, too. On too many campuses, students are trained to interpret society through oppression, power, and inequality. Let them study those arguments. But also make them confront the best defenses of markets, private property, entrepreneurship, and the limits of government. A university should teach students to examine competing ideas, not recruit them to a fashionable orthodoxy.

RELATED: Warning: This college course may be bad for your brain

Andi Purnomo/Getty Images

Professors who preach against capitalist exploitation might begin by examining the financial incentives of their own institutions. Some feed students a steady diet of anti-market rhetoric while they borrow heavily for degrees with uncertain returns. That is champagne communism for the faculty and a monthly payment for the graduate.

The irony is hard to miss. A generation taught to question capitalism and burdened by debt from a government-supported lending system may now look to government for relief. But another subsidy does not require universities to tell the truth about what they sell. Nor does it hold anyone accountable for promises that proved empty.

Accountability begins with honest disclosures in university advertising and recruitment. I am working on that problem through the Intellectual Nutrition Label project. If a school makes demonstrably deceptive promises, lawyers and class-action lawsuits may have a role. Institutions that charge families so much should not be exempt from answering for what they represent.

The lesson for Millennials is all too clear. You were lied to by leftist universities that gladly took your money and left you in ruin. It isn’t too late to see the leftist worldview for what it is: the road to serfdom. It’s time to hold the universities that pushed these lies accountable.

When J.K. Rowling’s "Harry Potter" series became a film franchise in 2001, it intensified an existing controversy among some evangelical Christians, who argued that its positive portrayal of witchcraft could desensitize children to the occult, blur the line between fantasy and real spiritual practices, and serve as a gateway to interest in actual witchcraft or Wicca.

Others argued that the magic in the series was purely fictional rather than real occult practice, that the series promoted moral values such as courage, loyalty, and self-sacrifice, and that it could be read with discernment or even used to illustrate Christian themes.

While the "Harry Potter" dispute is largely a thing of the past, the debate over whether or not it is sinful for Christians to watch movies about magic and witchcraft remains.

On a recent episode of “Live Free with Josh Howerton,” co-hosts and pastors Carlos Erazo and Paul Cunningham dove into the debate.

While Erazo and Cunningham disagree on the issue of movies with magic and witchcraft themes, they do agree that such entertainment falls into the “matters of conscience” category, described by Paul in Romans 14 as disputable issues on which Christians should follow their own convictions without judging others for having different convictions.

Erazo, who is more restrictive with entertainment, says he asks himself four questions before deciding whether or not something is OK to engage with:

• “What type of content am I consuming?”
• “What is it glorifying?”
• “Who is the author, and what's his intent or purpose?”
• “Is it redeeming that which the Bible calls a sin?”

When he applies these questions to the "Harry Potter" books and movies, for example, he walks away with a conviction to abstain from them.

“'Harry Potter' glorifies something the Bible explicitly condemns, and the specific things it glorifies, I believe, are spiritually dangerous,” he says, citing Deuteronomy 18’s forbiddance of practicing divination, fortune-telling, sorcery, charms, necromancy, and the like.

“'Harry Potter' portrays all of these elements as good, exciting, and heroic, and in many ways, we are invited to love these characters, see them as heroes, and love what they do. And so as a Christian, I reject that,” says Erazo, emphasizing that witchcraft is not fictional but a very real practice used by millions of people.

Cunningham sees the issue differently. He draws a distinction between committing a sin and watching a fictional character commit a sin.

He gives the example of the "John Wick" series, which Erazo says he enjoys watching. The film revolves around a retired assassin who goes on a sustained killing spree for revenge.

“If you use that train of logic,” Cunningham argues, “I think you have to land at the exact same place with 'Harry Potter' because both 'John Wick' and 'Harry Potter' … [have sins] that happen in the real world and can happen in the real world. In those movies, it glorifies them.”

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

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The grass isn't always greener on the other side. Sometimes there's no grass at all, just burning buildings and people defecting on the sidewalk.

Many Americans packed their bags when Donald Trump was re-elected, announcing to anyone who would listen that they were moving to enlightened Europe, where the culture is considerably classier and the quality of life infinitely better.

Some American expatriates interviewed by Wired described coldness, condescension, and outright mockery of their American identities.

Now, according to a new report in Wired, some of these political refugees are having second thoughts. Lower salaries, frustrating bureaucracies, disappointing health care, and the discovery that Europeans aren't necessarily thrilled to have them around have persuaded some to return to the country they were so desperate to escape.

Reality check

They treated fleeing America as a profound political statement, strutting toward passport control with the smug satisfaction of medieval monarchs dodging the plague. That smugness lasted until they received their first European paycheck and realized their homeland offered massive earning potential, dynamic job markets, and grocery stores open past eight o'clock.

Perhaps their biggest blunder involved confusing temporary dissatisfaction with the president for permanent hatred of a truly great nation. They emigrated to save their souls, only to discover that they couldn't even save a decent amount of money.

The Europe many Americans imagine — the Bernie Sanders-endorsed socialist paradise with free health care, happy families living in happy communities, and shorter working hours — looks considerably less appealing once the bills start arriving. The daily reality can involve crushing taxes, dismal customer service, tiny paychecks, and enough red tape to make Franz Kafka claw his way out of the grave and write a few more novels.

Americans fleeing Trump crossed the ocean to escape domestic dysfunction, only to discover that bureaucratic dysfunction translates perfectly into almost every European language.

These deluded liberals spent years enjoying the unmatched advantages of American life while loudly condemning the country providing them. They assumed those financial cushions and consumer comforts would automatically replicate overseas, minus the conservative voters they so openly and brazenly smeared. But respectable salaries, professional mobility, and a culture of getting things done aren't standard across the developed world.

It's a riot

Then there is the social instability, which might come as a shock to these Trump-fearing refugees.

Take France, for instance. The idyllic postcard of Parisian cafés and endless vineyards has lately given way to burning streets, smashed storefronts, and riot police struggling to contain violent unrest. Following nationwide riots on October 17 and 18 that resulted in thousands of arrests, authorities imposed curfews in several major cities. As of Friday, October 23, restrictions remain in place, with further demonstrations expected over the weekend.

Nor is the disorder confined to the occasional political demonstration. According to France's Interior Ministry, recorded physical violence rose 5% in 2025. Sexual violence also increased. The sophisticated European culture these Americans sought comes with rather more tear gas and police sirens than the travel brochures generally advertise.

The situation across the border in Germany offers little reassurance. The myth of Teutonic efficiency is increasingly difficult to reconcile with the experience of navigating modern Berlin's bureaucracy, public transportation, and employment market. One American who moved to Berlin and subsequently returned home told Wired that finding work had been extraordinarily difficult and the bureaucracy seemingly endless.

Knife to meet you

Then there is crime. According to German government figures released in October, federal police registered 14,049 violent offenses and 1,104 sexual offenses involving trains and railway stations during the first half of 2026. Among suspects in sexual offenses whose German or non-German nationality was known, non-Germans accounted for slightly more than half.

Knife attacks, sexual offenses, and violent confrontations in public transportation facilities are hardly advertisements for good old German law and order. The new arrivals banked on German efficiency to keep life running smoothly, only to discover that efficiency itself sometimes seems utterly out of stock.

Crossing the Channel to the United Kingdom offers no guarantee of sanctuary either. The belief that British manners, orderly queuing, and civilized teatimes still prevail everywhere is, at best, naive. The country recorded 48,615 knife-enabled offenses in the year ending June 2026. Although that represented a decline from the previous year, it remains an appalling number for a country once celebrated for its orderly public life.

Blighty in a burqa

The cultural transformation of Britain's major cities is equally difficult to ignore. Birmingham, the U.K.'s second-biggest city, has changed dramatically in recent decades. According to the 2021 census, nearly 30% of its residents identified as Muslim, up from roughly 22% a decade earlier, while the proportion identifying as Christian fell to 34%. The England of popular American imagination, with its village greens, parish churches, and reassuringly familiar customs, no longer provides a particularly reliable guide to the country as it exists today.

Even Americans who welcome these changes may find that British society is considerably less welcoming than expected. One American interviewed by Wired complained about colleagues mocking her accent and culture. She and her husband are now planning to return to the United States.

RELATED: How Europe turned illegal immigration into a 5-star vacation package

Carlos Jasso/Getty Images

They hate America too

Compounding this rude cultural awakening is a growing wave of anti-American sentiment. A Pew Research Center survey published in June found that majorities in nine of the 10 European countries surveyed held unfavorable views of the United States. Europeans may disagree about their own politics, but disapproval of America is one subject on which many seem remarkably united.

The New Yorkers and Californians who left home expecting a hero's welcome may discover that sharing a European's dislike of Donald Trump doesn't automatically make them honorary Europeans. Some American expatriates interviewed by Wired described coldness, condescension, and outright mockery of their American identities. Apparently, denouncing one's homeland is no guarantee of acceptance in somebody else's.

Ireland remains, in my admittedly biased opinion, about the only country in Western Europe where genuine affection for Americans still comes naturally. Golf enthusiasts like Bill Murray can tour the Irish countryside and find real warmth and friendly conversations. As an Irishman, I understand if some readers say I'm biased. Perhaps, but I'm also right. You don't need to be a Hollywood legend to be warmly embraced. The Irish have a genuine, heartfelt appreciation for our transatlantic cousins, though calls to kick Rosie O'Donnell out are increasing by the day.

Elsewhere, the reception can be considerably frostier.

Social media feeds and shameless influencers convinced credulous Americans to abandon their lives and embrace a supposed utopian paradise. They mistook strangers' advice for a practical relocation strategy. They imagined a continent without America's political divisions, only to discover that Europe has plenty of its own, along with economic stagnation, immigration controversies, and governments that can make Washington's bureaucrats look positively energetic.

Some are now returning home with their tails firmly between their legs, embarrassed and, one hopes, slightly more grateful than before to be citizens of the United States. One American who returned from Berlin told Wired he had begun to wonder whether he had overreacted to the political situation back home.

It's an expensive way to discover that America has rather more going for it than the people who spend their lives complaining about it care to admit.

Since 9/11, Western leaders have repeatedly insisted that radical Islam has little to do with the religion’s mainstream teachings — and that Islam, as a whole, is good.

But historian and author Raymond Ibrahim argues that this comforting narrative ignores centuries of religious texts, legal traditions, and historical precedent.

“Unfortunately here in the West, it’s become so mangled and, you know, apparently an impossible question to answer,” Ibrahim tells Freitas.

Islam, Ibrahim says, is “actually very simple, and every Muslim knows what Islam teaches.”

Some of what people believe is simply “radical Islam” are beliefs like “killing the apostate or having slaves, having sex slaves, concubines, treating the non-Muslim inferior, as an inferior subject,” and “killing someone because he blasphemed against Muhammad.”

“All of these are 100% Islamic. There’s no question to this, and anyone who wants to argue otherwise, be he Muslim or non-Muslim, is either an idiot or a liar,” Ibrahim says.

“This is just not even open to debate, OK, it’s in the scriptures. It’s in the Quran. It’s in the Hadith. All the scholars and schools of law have agreed to it,” he explains.

“The Muslim who does not do those things … they do exist, OK, he’s good, but he’s not the representative of Islam. We want to convince ourselves that Islam is by nature the good guys. And then you have the few crazy guys,” he continues.

“It’s, like you said, the opposite. Islam by nature is radical because it teaches things that are inherently antithetical to Western norms,” he adds.

Radical Islam, he says, “is the mainstream way.”

“It’s always been understood. You want to know what Islam is? OK, stop listening to the American apologist who no Muslim even has heard of,” he tells Freitas.

“Go to the Muslim world and see what happens there. You will find Christians are subjugated. They’re being persecuted. They’re sometimes being killed. They are not allowed to have churches. They’re being thrown in jail because they shared a Facebook post that’s negative about Muhammad, OK, that’s real Islam. It’s happening now,” he continues. “So why on earth would I think it’s not the real thing?”

“Making the Argument with Nick Freitas” is available on BlazeTV+, YouTube, and major podcast platforms.

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After several stops in pivotal cities, America’s most theory-fueled tech titan, Peter Thiel, came to Nashville to deliver his four-part lecture series on the Antichrist. To make an extremely long story extremely short, Thiel portrays the Antichrist as a biblical figure we should take seriously — and think seriously about how to keep him off our timeline.

Thiel’s answer begins with America. In his telling, only the United States has the size and power to prevent the Antichrist's rise to global domination, thanks to our singular combination of relatively strong Christianity and relatively strong technology. It's the kind of counterintuitive position that has marked Thiel's second career as a public intellectual.

Obsessing over the Antichrist turns him into the perfect enemy, whose evil seems to justify monopolizing your attention. It's a hugely tempting way to forget all about Christ Himself.

For Thiel, the secret is that the Antichrist is not only anti-Christian — opposing Christ while seemingly usurping His role — but also anti-technology.

Herein lies the twist.

Reading St. Paul's warning about the promise of “peace and safety,” Thiel imagines an Antichrist offering protection through immense technological power, then opposing further technological progress that might threaten his own authority.

One seems forced to conclude that keeping the Antichrist at bay requires an open-ended commitment to both more Christianity and more technology. But to make this line of argument compelling, certain countervailing dynamics must be left on the cutting-room floor.

Even on its own terms, the Antichrist — or the Anti-Christian impulse — would surely embrace whatever tools best empower the wielder to “prove” that anything Jesus could do, he can do better. Those tools are obviously technological, especially the forms of tech used to make other tools still more powerful, all-consuming, alluring, and seemingly salvific.

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Mark Schiefelbein/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

It's extremely difficult to mentally model the mysterious point at which the Antichrist or his forerunners would insist we halt technological progress. Why would another breakthrough necessarily expose their pretensions rather than increase their power? Why would the fiends suddenly fear the same machinery they used to make themselves seem rapturously godlike?

The problem is worsened by Thiel's related remark, in a conversation with Joe Rogan, that a civilization capable of faster-than-light travel would have to be a civilization of “angels or demons.” He was speculating about alien societies and the terrifying military power of hypothetical warp-drive weapons, not claiming that literal angels and demons pilot spacecraft.

Still, the comparison invites questions. If even a demonic civilization could command such technology, why would an Anti-Christian regime reject it? And if angelic power already dwarfs ours, why imagine our technological acceleration is the decisive defense?

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Ole_CNX/Getty Images

These questions have a place in the holy tradition of the Christian church. But for most Americans, amid the insane intensity of today's accelerating technological transformation, they are enough to make your head spin. Paying close attention to what's going on, especially if you're not paid to do so, is an invitation to being, as techies and gamers say, “one-shotted” by the experience — knocked out at a single stroke.

It's important that some skilled people devote serious energy to discerning how to avoid a smothering global control system that persecutes and seeks to replace Christ and Christianity. But listening to Christ Himself, for starters, it's essential that many more people at every socioeconomic level not devote their lives to identifying and defeating the Antichrist.

The Christian focus is simple: judging yourself before others; combating your own sin rather than obsessing over external enemies; trusting that God is in control rather than trying to build an independent victory system.

And funnily enough, much as the Lord promises that your temporal needs will be met if you seek first the eternally needful, the difficult practice of your own spiritual purification and endurance may be the best way to steer your neighbors away from false gods and false Christs. Not by lecturing or controlling them, but by silently attracting them to God with the fruits of godliness, as a flower attracts a bee.

Obsessing over the Antichrist turns him into the perfect enemy, whose evil seems to justify monopolizing your attention. It's a hugely tempting way to forget all about Christ Himself. Those with important things to say about preserving American sovereignty in an idolatrous and totalizing world would be especially well served by remembering the deepest reasons why silence is so golden.

California Highway Patrol-Monterey officials shared photos of what they said came from a recent arrest of a 19-year-old driver for DUI.

The CHP said in their Facebook post that "if you’re under 21, the message is simple: Don’t drink, and always stay sober behind the wheel."

'That’s gonna be an expensive shirt!'

Officials added, "Driving under the influence puts your life and the lives of others at risk. One bad decision can have lasting consequences."

"Make responsible choices, stay sober, and never get behind the wheel impaired," the CHP also said.

It certainly was not an unusual arrest — but the driver's T-shirt choice is most definitely eye-catching ... for all the wrong reasons.

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Image source: California Highway Patrol-Monterey

That's right. The T-shirt's message said, "This is no time to be sober."

One has to wonder what thoughts the CHP officer who made the arrest had going through his head when he got a gander at the driver's rather damning piece of clothing.

Some commenters who reacted to the CHP's post shared a few gems:

• "That’s gonna be an expensive shirt!" one commenter wrote.
• "Wow, wear that shirt and drive impaired, underage? 'Don't blame others for the road you are on, that's your own asphalt!' Thanks CHP for teaching this young man a lesson and helping keep us safe," another user said.
• "This is why prison is needed for 1st time offenders," another commenter said. "Make them think twice."

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Years ago, my wife and I walked into a Nashville restaurant and found every waiting bench occupied. Young men took up many of the seats.

Gracie was using two canes. Her prosthetic legs were clearly visible. The young men appeared oblivious.

If our manners depend on applause, we have more learning to do ourselves.

“Which of you is going to offer her your seat?” I asked pointedly. Embarrassed, they all jumped up. They recognized what the moment required once someone brought it to their attention. Embarrassment can be a good teacher.

But boys shouldn’t have to wait for a stranger in a restaurant to teach them consideration. Men can teach those lessons much earlier, often through gestures so ordinary that a boy absorbs them before he understands their meaning. Removing a hat is one of them.

In 1 Corinthians 11:4, Paul addresses men praying with their heads covered. For generations, Christian men removed their hats during prayer and in church. Women followed a different tradition, rooted in the same passage. A woman’s Sunday hat and her husband’s uncovered head could both express reverence.

Military and civilian customs also made uncovering a gesture of respect. In 1745, the Coldstream Guards instructed soldiers to salute by bringing their hands to their hats and bowing rather than removing them, helping shape the modern hand salute. The Emily Post Institute still advises men to uncover during worship, meals, and the national anthem.

I learned the gesture before I learned the history. My father wore a Navy captain’s cap adorned with an eagle. When he entered a building, he removed it and cradled it in his hand. He didn’t announce that he was demonstrating respect. I just watched him do it.

I’ve seen men remove their hats as funeral processions passed, honoring people whose names they didn’t know. At gravesides, they stood bareheaded beside grieving families. They didn’t need an introduction to recognize someone else’s sorrow.

From my usual perch at the church piano, I’ve watched younger men arrive for worship or funerals with their hats still on. Some may dismiss the custom. Others may never have been taught.

In a country arguing over what a woman is, perhaps we ought to spend some time teaching boys what a man is. Particularly a gentleman.

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Peter Rosenberger

Holding a door for a woman is another place to start. Any door. Most women respond graciously. Occasionally, one responds derisively or remains absorbed in her phone. Hold it anyway. Her response needn’t dictate your manners.

My father expected that courtesy of me. If our manners depend on applause, we have more learning to do ourselves.

I taught my sons to stand when a woman leaves or returns to the table and to help seat her. When I extend my hand for a handshake, I remove my glove. Even in a Montana winter, though I try to keep the introductions brief.

One of my sons told me how sad he finds it that so many in his generation, and the one following, struggle with basic introductions: shaking a hand, looking someone in the eye, and speaking clearly. Those moments can open a friendship, begin a job interview, or help someone feel welcome. Boys need men willing to practice with them.

Why do these things? Because consideration ought to require something of us. We rise from a comfortable chair. We pause to hold a door. We expose a hand to the cold to greet someone properly. We recognize that “Yeah” is a poor replacement for “Yes, sir” or “Yes, ma’am.”

Sometimes we surrender a restaurant bench to a woman standing on prosthetic legs.

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Karla Ann Cote/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Some boys have no father at home. Some grown men never had one to teach them either. Grandfathers, uncles, pastors, coaches, and neighbors can pass along what someone once taught them. When necessary, a stranger can speak up too.

Keeping males out of women’s sports is only part of the work. Being male doesn’t automatically make someone a gentleman. We have to teach boys what mature manhood requires, and expect it of grown men: consideration, restraint, and a willingness to put someone else’s needs ahead of our own.

Those lessons take shape in small gestures, repeated until they become habits. A seat offered. A door held. A hat removed.

After moving to Montana, we attended our first rodeo in the community. The announcer asked the men to remove their hats. As I remember it, he called them “lids.”

The invocation echoed through the stands, and we remained standing for the national anthem. Beyond the grounds rose the purple, snowcapped Rockies. A woman on horseback carried the American flag as the crowd joined in singing. Cowboy hats and a few ball caps rested over hearts.

That rodeo reminded me these values are still being taught. A little boy stood in boots and jeans with his cowboy hat over his heart. Someone had taught him. Around him stood men modeling the same lesson.

Sometimes the way back is paying attention to the small things.

Over the summer, an archeological team led by Turkish archaeologist Cenker Atila in partnership with the U.S. group Noah’s Ark Scans began drilling and scanning the long-known boat-shaped Durupınar mound near Mount Ararat in Turkey.

The hundreds of soil samples they collected are still being tested in labs. Thus far, however, there has been no proof it’s Noah’s ark, despite a wave of headlines and social media posts claiming the ark had been found.

Dr. Jeremiah Johnston — a New Testament scholar who has written extensively on biblical artifacts, including the Shroud of Turin, the James Ossuary, and Dead Sea Scrolls — joined BlazeTV host and pastor of Lakepointe Church Josh Howerton.

Howerton begins with a straightforward question: “Why haven't they just dug the thing up yet?”

“I wish they would. If you have a half-million dollars, I'll go there and start excavating today,” Johnston jokes.

One of the main reasons the ark hasn’t been excavated, he explains, is because the nation of Turkey is predominantly Muslim.

“They want you to go to Konya and see the whirling dervishes. They want you to go see Muhammad's beard and cry over that. …So there is a resistance from the government to anything that would confirm the biblical narrative for Christianity and Judaism,” he tells Howerton.

Johnston suspects that the archeological team likely had to resort to “bribery” just to conduct scans and collect samples. “I'm sure they've had to pay a few people off just to get the exceptions to do it,” he says.

But even without a proper excavation, there are several facts Howerton says have people believing that the ark is indeed Noah’s, most notably: The length and width of the Durupınar formation is consistent with biblical measurements for the ark; the location (near Mount Ararat) is consistent with the Bible’s description of where Noah’s ark landed; ancient pottery fragments were discovered near the formation; and the Arzap stones — large upright stones with holes drilled near the top — were found in villages near the Durupınar formation, which some believe to be drogue anchors (weights) from the ark.

Howerton points out that the evidence has been convincing enough for some outlets to report that the Durupınar formation has been “100% confirmed” to be Noah’s Ark.

The following day, the official Noah’s Ark Scans account posted: “We are 100% sure that the Daily Mail will come under fire for this headline. But knowing what we know now, we are also 100% sure that they are not going to have to issue a retraction. We will be releasing more information soon.”

Johnson takes a cautiously hopeful approach.

“I want to see what all of the evidence actually has to say,” he says, “and so I'm all for digging. I'm all for finding it.”

“I hope that we find parts of Noah's ark someday in our lifetime. … I believe we're living in a time, thanks to technology, where there is a controlled revelation based on technology where God is using the stones to cry out that totally authenticate the Word of God. It's the most exciting time ever to be a Christian,” he continues.

However, there are still many questions to be answered.

“We got to have discernment,” says Johnston, citing 1 Thessalonians 5:20’s directive to "Prove all things."

“Durupınar is named after the captain that saw it. He went back in 1960 to Durupınar and studied it with geologists, who concluded that it is a freak of nature. It is a natural geological formation, not Noah's ark,” he says.

Further, the formation, he explains, is in a “valley” of the Ararat Mountains, not on the peaks, as scripture indicates, meaning “there’s an elevation issue.”

Thirdly, the reigning consensus among archeologists, both secular and Christian, is that the Durupınar formation is not Noah’s ark.

“Archaeology is a full-contact sport,” says Johnston.

“To get an archaeologist to agree with another archaeologist is a miracle. The one thing that 100% of credentialed archaeologists agree on is that Durupınar is not the site of Noah's ark.”

To hear all the reasons why the long-standing view among geologists and archaeologists who have studied the site is that the Durupınar formation is a natural geological feature, and not the remains of a wooden vessel or Noah’s ark, watch the episode above.

Join BlazeTV+ and start watching Josh Howerton today at blazetv.com/JOSH. Use promo code JOSH to get $20 off your subscription.