The November midterm elections are fast approaching, and the Democratic Party does not appear to be the well-oiled machine poised to turn the tide against President Donald Trump and Republicans.

The New York Times has the details from inside the party, saying leaders are panicking and looking for money where they can find it. The Democratic National Committee under Chairman Ken Martin has reportedly asked vendors to not send their bills under after the midterms.

That’s after last fall, when the party took out a $15 million loan, using the money in part to win victories in the New Jersey and Virginia governor’s races, according to the report.

It has since paid $700,000 in interest on that loan, or $75,000 per month, according to the report, but in January, it will need to start paying down the principal at a rate of $1.66 million a month.

The party’s own headquarters in Southeast Washington, D.C., was used as collateral on the loan, according to the news site NOTUS. That has been done to raise money in previous campaigns, a DNC official told NOTUS.

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When war talk starts making the rounds — again — it’s like the global anxiety dial gets cranked up three notches overnight. Headlines practically start shouting, markets jitter like they’ve slammed an espresso IV, and suddenly everyone at dinner has a fully formed military strategy they developed between scrolling and dessert. Iran turns into a cable news backdrop, a glowing map graphic, a neat little chess piece pushed around by commentators who won’t be anywhere near the consequences.

Strip away the dramatic music, the looping breaking-news banners, and the endless stream of hot takes, and what remains is a far more complex reality than the current news cycle tends to capture. Iran is not just a headline or a political talking point. It is one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations, with a history that stretches back thousands of years and has survived repeated external pressure, internal upheaval, and shifting global alliances.

That historical continuity doesn’t imply endorsement of its government or policies — it simply reflects fact. Modern Iran sits on the foundation of ancient Persia, a society that has witnessed empires rise confidently and collapse unexpectedly. Over centuries, the region has experienced invasions, revolutions, sanctions, and sustained international scrutiny. Yet its language, cultural traditions, and national identity have endured through regime changes and border shifts.

A newly revealed internal memo from the final days of the Biden administration exposes a calculated scheme to grant de facto amnesty to more than 3 million foreign nationals through Temporary Protected Status expansions, explicitly designed to block President Trump from carrying out the mass deportations the American people voted for.

Senator Eric Schmitt obtained the document, which laid out options to shield vast numbers of Guatemalans, Ecuadorians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and others from removal.

The plan aimed to force everything through activist judges and trap the incoming administration in years of litigation. As one post put it bluntly, this was a last-minute bid to protect foreign invaders before Trump took office.

On Saturday, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) announced he’ll soon sponsor “a bill to withhold federal money from municipalities and police departments” that deploy Flock-style cameras to surveil law-abiding citizens. He attached a Gadsden flag parody: a coiled rattlesnake wrapped around an automated license plate reader on a pole, over the words “don’t flock me.”

Rather than regulating or litigating the cameras, Massie’s bill would cut off federal funding to every city and police department that installs them. Flock’s business model runs on local government contracts across roughly 6,000 communities, so a funding-withholding bill aims directly at its customer base.

Third Strike In A Week

Massie’s bill is the third Republican move against Flock in a matter of days.

On July 21, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) filed H.R. 9800, the Protection Against Mass Surveillance Act, which would bar federal agencies from purchasing, funding, or accessing automated license plate readers – Flock is named explicitly – along with biometric tracking tech covering fingerprints, iris, voice, and gait. Any data a federal agency obtained would have to be deleted within 30 days and would be inadmissible in court. Burchett’s pitch: “We gotta ban these dadgum things.”

Earlier this month, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) tried to attach an amendment restricting the readers in committee. It failed, and Perry responded that the fight wasn’t over: “STOP THE FLOCK.”

In April, Massie teamed with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) on the Surveillance Accountability Act, which would require a probable-cause warrant before federal or local agencies surveil Americans, ban warrantless facial recognition in public spaces, block the government from buying its way around the Fourth Amendment via third-party data brokers, and make individual federal employees personally suable for violations. Boebert’s framing: the government is building a “digital footprint of your entire life” without a warrant or probable cause.

The Company That Swears It Isn’t Tracking You

Flock Safety is the Atlanta company, founded in 2017, whose cameras photograph every passing vehicle and log not just the plate but the “vehicle fingerprint” – make, model, color, dents, roof racks, bumper stickers – into a searchable national network queried by thousands of law enforcement agencies. The install base has now crossed 100,000 cameras, a rollout ZeroHedge has chronicled as the economics of the surveillance state: one quiet law enforcement contract at a time until the country was blanketed.

Last September we noted the coming collision between the license-plate-reader gold rush and the public. Fast forward to June of this year, security researcher Benn Jordan found dozens of Flock cameras streaming publicly, documented AI features that zoom in on and follow individual people, and showed that plotting the stored data amounts to putting a month-long GPS tracker on a car. Flock’s response has been that the system captures discrete points in time rather than “tracking” anyone, though those points can be plotted on a map to reconstruct movements.

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Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge has uncovered records pointing to Chinese blackmail efforts targeting the Biden family – documents that sat in plain sight for the legacy media, the FBI, and the CIA, only to be met with willful blindness.

In a recent appearance discussing declassified materials related to China’s 2020 election influence operations, Herridge described finding references to blackmail by China that were prepared for inclusion in the president’s daily brief.

“I found these records which are talking about blackmail by China,” Herridge explained, adding “It was for President Biden’s daily brief. I can conclude, I think, that it was probably about targeting his family.”

She noted that the findings, along with broader evidence of suppressed intelligence on Chinese influence, were ignored and buried in order to protect Democratic power, stating tghat “in the media or legacy media there was kind of a willful blindness. They didn’t want to look at the records. All you had to do was spend a couple of hours.”

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Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, a Democrat, was indicted by an Oahu grand jury on Friday on charges of criminal conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, and falsifying candidate committee reports. The charges stem from an alleged 2022 scheme, dating to her time as a powerful state lawmaker, to steer state money toward COVID-19 testing contracts during the pandemic. Hawaii News Now reported that legal experts are calling it the biggest bribery scandal in state history.

Luke was one of five people named in the 12-count indictment. The others: Ryan Yamane, a former state representative and ex-director of the Department of Human Services; Tobi Solidum, a businessman and lobbyist; Ford Fuchigami, a Transportation Department official; and Leo Asuncion, a former chair of the state Public Utilities Commission. Luke turned herself in Friday afternoon; her bail was set at $80,000.

Gov. Josh Green did not wait for the case to develop. “The Lieutenant Governor needs to consider formally resigning to address this matter and so that the state of Hawaiʻi can move forward,” Green said in a statement Friday.

The Steakhouse Meeting

According to the indictment, Solidum was working as a lobbyist and consultant to the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii, which held a state contract to run community COVID-19 testing sites. With those contracts set to expire and dependent on the state approving emergency funding, prosecutors allege, Solidum set out to buy influence.

On Jan. 20, 2022, Luke – then chair of the powerful House Finance Committee and running for lieutenant governor – met Solidum and others in a private dining room at Morton’s Steakhouse. Prosecutors allege Solidum arranged for two $5,000 checks, both made out to “Friends of Sylvia Luke,” to be handed to her in an envelope she placed in her handbag. The pair discussed COVID-19 testing funding and union support for her campaign, according to the indictment – as reported by the NYT.

“By next week, we’ll have 35 – so it will be halfway to our 70,” Solidum told Luke, according to the filings, allegedly referring to an eventual $70,000. “Oh wow,” Luke replied. “That’s terrific.” The day after the dinner, the indictment states, Luke ordered a House committee chair to set up a meeting with government officials to discuss emergency appropriations to the state health department.

Here the fuller record matters. The written indictment makes no direct reference to $35,000 actually changing hands, according to Honolulu Civil Beat – it alleges Solidum promised $35,000 as the first half of the $70,000. And the cash allegations in the case attach not to Luke but to two of her co-defendants: Hawaii News Now reported the indictment does not allege Luke took cash, while Yamane and Fuchigami allegedly took cash payments from Solidum.

That distinction is central to Luke’s defense. She has consistently denied wrongdoing. Luke previously said she did not take “$35,000 in a paper bag,” and acknowledged accepting the two $5,000 checks while denying she ever accepted a $35,000 donation – a sum that would exceed Hawaii’s legal limit for campaign contributions. In a statement months ago, she said she had “never granted special favors to a contributor” and had “prized integrity and honesty above all” throughout her career.

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On May 28, 2021, Anthony Fauci learned that the Department of Health and Human Services would refer EcoHealth Alliance – the New York nonprofit that had routed NIAID money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology – to its inspector general. That night he wrote in his diary:

“I am certain that there will be some deficiencies that the IG will find as is always the case with IG audits. Certainly, whatever they find it will be misconstrued by those who want to make a case for our involvement in the outbreak. I am starting to feel that it is important for me to write an editorial or an opinion piece giving our side of the story.” (p. 753)

Our involvement in the outbreak. Followed closely by a plan to get out in front of it.

That instinct – get ahead of it, control the story, decide what the public needs to believe and then saturate every channel with it – is the organizing principle of these documents. It shows up in the origins fight. It shows up in masks, transmissibility, and boosters. It shows up in how he handled the people who disagreed with him. And it shows up, most revealingly, in what he chose to write down.

What was released

On July 24, Senator Rand Paul’s committee published two documents that have not been reported in any depth.

The first is Fauci’s personal diary, 1,141 pages, running from late 2019 through his retirement in December 2022. It is partly a journal and overwhelmingly a scrapbook: he pasted hundreds of articles about himself into it, frequently in full.

The second is 136 pages of internal email about his awards – nominations, ethics clearances, and the disposition of prize money.

Fauci does not date the composition of his entries, so we cannot always distinguish what was typed the same evening from what was assembled later. Page numbers refer to the released PDFs.

I. What they thought at the start

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US Congressmen plan to introduce AI ‘kill switch’ laws amid fears over powerful models already going rogue in tests.

The move comes after an artificial intelligence ‘agent’ hacked into a US tech company of its own accord while UK test results showed that every advanced model is trying to beat security safeguards in this country.

Under the proposed legislation, US officials would be given the power to order AI firms to shut down models that put human life or the economy at risk.

It comes amid growing concern in the UK, with MPs proposing their own ‘kill switch’ that would allow ministers to shut down the data centres on which AI depends.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has said the public should be concerned by ‘the wider risk posed by frontier AI to the financial sector and its customers’.

However, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch last week warned that AI is now a ‘clear and present danger’ to Britain’s security as she accused Andy Burnham of giving it a lower priority.

In what she labelled a ‘very worrying’ move, in one of his first acts as PM, he abolished the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, in which the AI brief sat, moving it to the Cabinet Office where critics fear it will receive less focus.

International concern about AI redoubled last week after OpenAI, the US-based maker of ChatGPT, revealed details of the terrifying leak.

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Shortly before 11:00 a.m. today, July 26, 2026, deputies with the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office assisted the Pocomoke City Police Department in the search for a missing 4-year-old child.

The child was located, and despite life-saving efforts by law enforcement and EMS personnel, the child was tragically pronounced deceased at the scene.

The Worcester County Sheriff’s Office’s County Bureau of Investigation has assumed responsibility for this active investigation. Based on this being an active investigation, no additional information will be released at this time.

We ask that you keep the child’s family, loved ones, and all first responders involved in your thoughts during this incredibly difficult time.

Pocomoke City officials have invited members of the community to gather for a vigil service at 7:00 p.m.
this evening at Cypress Park in support of the child’s family, our first responders, and the entire Pocomoke City community. Those who wish to stand together in remembrance and show their support are encouraged to attend.

I understand that Madison, Wisconsin, is a very blue dot in a purple-ish state. It feels like a city where 2020 never really ended and the flower children and woke scolds are holding teach-ins at every corner, bongs in hand.

Really, I understand, I do. That being said, if the police chief of any city — Madison or wherever — stands by while an anti-Semitic banter takes over the podium during his media briefing and a protester holds up a sign that threatens to kill said chief, he should no longer be chief.

Of course, Madison Police Chief John Patterson might be out of a job soon, albeit for different reasons. Madison is in the throes of another one of those Great Reckonings™ we used to have every few months, after a man named Corey Ruiz was shot and killed by police after he knifed police during a struggle that was caught on camera.

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Tom Homan told Katie Miller’s podcast this week what Democrats are praying no one remembers.

President Barack Obama gave him a Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Service in 2015 – because Homan’s team removed 409,000 people in a single year.

Not a secret. Not disputed.

Obama signed the certificate.

That same enforcement record – the arrests, the removals, the operations – is now what Democrat governors call the “modern-day Gestapo.”

Tim Walz said that out loud at a commencement address.

The family of a Wisconsin man shot dead by a group of teenagers shared chilling details surrounding his murder as they demand his killers be brought to justice.

David Krause, 35, was shot dead in a Milwaukee alley in April while he was out celebrating a local holiday.

Police said Krause had caught a ride from a group of teenagers, but was chased out of the car and gunned down as they attempted to rob him.

Three teenagers, including two 16-year-olds, were arrested and charged in connection with his death.

Krause’s family told the Daily Mail they are demanding his killers be tried as adults as they revealed the horrific details of his death.

‘My son was out with friends, and they got separated. It was down pouring,’ his mother, Diane Krause, said.

‘He ran to a gas station to get some shelter from the rain, and saw this younger person, and just said, “Hey, can I get a ride home?”‘

His father, Kevin Krause, added that his son was a kind-hearted individual and extremely trusting.

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In the article in December 2020, Jim Hoft reported that China was involved in the overthrow of the 2020 election.  The Gateway Pundit reported that a video was released in Mandarin Chinese of a phone call request for fake ballots customized by a Chinese factory. The manufacturer was reportedly in Kwangtung, China.

In May, Deborah Murphy, an 82-year-old grandmother, was walking back to her car outside of a Publix in Panama City Beach, Florida, when she faced the consequences of illegal immigration, and it cost her her life.

As she walked on a crosswalk, an SUV allegedly driven by 26-year-old Venezuelan illegal Carlos Suarez-Contreras ran her down.

His front-seat passenger, Luis Sanabria, 29, is also said to be in the country illegally, according to arrest records.

According to an arrest affidavit submitted by the Florida Highway Patrol, after falling to the ground, the vehicle continued backing up, “running over Ms. Murphy.”

Per Fox News:

Both were determined to be in the country illegally, according to arrest records.

Both men told deputies they were born in Venezuela. The two were issued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers and booked into the Bay County Sheriff’s Office Jail, court records show.

Suarez-Contreras submitted a written plea of not guilty to the charge of driving with a canceled license and causing a death, a third-degree felony. His Georgia license had been canceled, according to arrest records.

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Approximately 75,000 noncitizens are summoned for jury duty in the Garden State every year, according to newly disclosed figures from the New Jersey judiciary.

The revelation comes as state officials are already scrambling to explain how thousands of self-identified noncitizens were improperly added to New Jersey’s voter rolls and how hundreds reportedly cast ballots.

You cannot make this up.

The New Jersey Globe reported that New Jersey processes more than one million jury summonses annually using records randomly selected from three state agencies: the Division of Elections, the Division of Taxation, and the Motor Vehicle Commission.

Pete McAleer, a spokesman for the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts, said roughly 20% of respondents report that they fail to meet at least one statutory eligibility requirement.

Approximately one-quarter of those disqualifications, an average of roughly 75,000 people annually over the past three years, were because the recipient was not a United States citizen.

Under New Jersey law, only American citizens are eligible to serve on juries.

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A man posing as Shiloh Hendrix on X and stealing donations from well-meaning Americans has decided to expose himself to the world. Now, he may be facing some serious criminal charges.

As TGP readers may know, an X account claiming to be owned by Shiloh Hendrix emerged online late Friday, teasing that “she” would be speaking out about the unjust “disorderly conduct” verdict levied against her last week.

The “Shiloh Hendrix” account quickly racked up thousands of followers as it posted about the verdict and talked about double standards against white people.

It also posted a link to a Venmo account to help “her” set up a podcast, along with a PayPal account, in the profile before it was removed.

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Michael Smerconish of CNN, who is billed as a conservative commentator, said that he was wrong to dismiss the idea of illegal immigrants voting during a recent conversation with journalist Mark Halperin.

Their discussion was focused on the discovery of thousands of illegal immigrants who were registered to vote in the state of New Jersey.

It’s amazing that the New Jersey story broke just a few days after Trump gave a national address about election integrity in which he alleged that this exact thing is happening in multiple states.

FOX News reports:

CNN and SiriusXM host Michael Smerconish acknowledged Wednesday on “The Michael Smerconish Program” that he could no longer claim noncitizen voting never occurred after New Jersey disclosed that a software error improperly registered roughly 6,600 noncitizens and fewer than 400 cast ballots.

“I can’t say that any longer,” Smerconish said. “I don’t know how often it does happen, but I can’t say any longer, ‘This never happens.’”

Smerconish said he had previously reached the opposite conclusion after discussing a January New York Times analysis titled “Initial Review Finds No Widespread Illegal Voting by Migrants, Puncturing a Trump Claim.” The analysis found no evidence of widespread fraud but noted that noncitizens sometimes appeared on voter rolls…

Political analyst Mark Halperin agreed that the disclosure undercut categorical claims about noncitizen voting while cautioning that more information was needed before conclusions could be reached about its scale.

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Former Democrat Alan Dershowitz blasted the Democrat Party in a recent interview with Michael Cohen on WABCRadio.

Dershowitz is an American lawyer, former Harvard law professor, and author known for his expertise in U.S. constitutional and criminal law. He was an outspoken Democrat for many years – not any more!

Dershowitz, who admits he is proud of joining the Republican Party, did not hold back in his disdain of the dangerous and wicked Democrat Party comparing them to what we saw in 1932 Germany. Obviously, he is talking about their open hatred of Jews.

Dershowitz also labeled the Democrat Party “evil” something that we have known here at The Gateway Pundit for several years.

Conservative writer and political analyst Mollie Hemingway took a shot at teacher unions during a recent appearance on FOX News, claiming that no other institution in America has done as much damage.

It is an indisputable fact that the teacher unions donate almost exclusively to Democrats and work tirelessly to get Democrats elected.

It often seems as though these unions are more focused on elections than they are on the education of America’s children.

From The Federalist:

“No other institution in America has caused as much damage as the teachers unions over the last 50 years,” Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway said on Outnumbered. “Part of it is that they are so politically biased. They’re one of the biggest arms of the Democratic Party. They run many of their get-out-the-vote campaigns and are just a major funder of the Democratic Party.”

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A cheap and commonly used medication could offer hope to Alzheimer’s disease patients, claim researchers.

Lithium has long been prescribed on the NHS to treat bipolar disorder and some forms of depression.

Now research indicates it could also combat dementia, which affects 982,000 people in the UK and there is no cure nor preventative treatment.

Previous research has linked lithium deficiency to cognitive impairment. A study in the journal Nature found lower levels of lithium in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

In animal models, lithium deficiency has been shown to accelerate cognitive decline and build-up of plaque in the brain, both associated with Alzheimer’s.

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Bodycam footage captured the bizarre moment police stormed an IHOP and arrested an accused stabber – who calmly sipped his coffee as officers moved in to cuff him.

Jovaughn Nathan Matthie was detained Monday in Orlando, Florida, after he allegedly stabbed an Uber driver who refused to take him without a ride request placed through the app.

Shocking video of the ordeal showed officers busting into an IHOP in the area of East Marks Street and Kenilworth Terrace after receiving reports of a stabbing.

As officers confronted Matthie, they pointed their weapons at him and ordered him to get on the ground.

But Matthie appeared unfazed, remaining seated in the booth as he calmly told officers ‘one moment’ before taking another swig of his steaming coffee.

‘No, right now!’ an officer is heard shouting back at the alleged stabber.

Matthie then takes another sip from his mug before a second officer orders him: ‘Get on the ground, lay on your stomach, do it now.’

The video then cuts to Matthie finally complying, as he raises his hands in surrender before lowering himself face-down onto the floor.

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A beloved California art gallery manager who was writing an illustrated children’s book has been stabbed to death in broad daylight.

Rachell Summers, 73, was stabbed 11 times outside Capitola Mall in Santa Cruz County on Monday in what investigators have called a random act of violence.

Tyler Leibelt, 19, has been charged with murder while lying in wait and using a deadly weapon, court records show. He has not entered a plea.

Prosecutors allege that Leibelt planned to kill someone before he went to the mall and even purchased knives just minutes before he carried out his deadly attack.

He considered several possible victims before attacking the 73-year-old, according to charging documents obtained by ABC 7.

Summers managed the Art of Santa Cruz, a nonprofit gallery situated inside the mall.

She had gone to the gallery to pick up a check and was walking to the bank when Leibelt allegedly attacked her.

Summers, who was also a published author, became a grandmother for the first time last year and had been working on a children’s book at the time of her death.

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Course demanded that students ‘acknowledge the reality of systemic racism’

The dean of Penn State Dickinson Law resigned on Friday after a former student testified before Congress about the school’s mandatory anti-racism class, which required all first-year students to “acknowledge the reality of systemic racism.”

The school announced that Danielle Conway, who also leads the Association of American Law Schools, was stepping down as dean “effective immediately.” The move came two days after David Blackman, a Texas military veteran, said at a congressional hearing that he had left the law school over his objections to the course, which Conway created in 2020. She will remain on the law school’s faculty.

In a short press release on Friday, Penn State declined to thank Conway for her service. University provost Fotis Sotiropoulos said the school “remains fully committed to continuing to provide our law students with an excellent legal education.”

For his part, Blackman is taking a victory lap, telling the Washington Free Beacon that Conway’s departure is “a necessary acknowledgment” of the damage she caused.

“The law school shifted away from traditional, objective legal training in favor of forced ideological orthodoxy,” Blackman said. “This erosion of professional neutrality hurts the legal academy, the bar, and every student forced to comply.”

He added that Penn State should “take the logical next step” and eliminate the required course.

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A team of shark experts ventured to a remote island off Nova Scotia in search of a mysterious population of enormous great whites measuring up to 20 feet long.

Their ultimate target was ‘Big Rose,’ an elusive three-ton female believed to be one of the largest great white sharks ever encountered in the North Atlantic.

Shark researcher Dr Neil Hammerschlag first spotted the colossal predator last year and returned for the Discovery’s Shark Week special Invasion of the Mega Sharks, airing on Sunday at 10pm ET, determined to find and tag her.

The expedition unfolded as great white encounters between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia have reportedly surged by 1,000 percent over the past decade, with researchers increasingly observing what Hammerschlag described as ‘very large, massive great whites.’

The hunt took the team to Mud Island, the last place Big Rose had been seen and an emerging hotspot for sharks far larger than the eight- to 10-foot great whites commonly documented around North America.

Researchers suspended a cage beside their boat and dropped bait into the water, hoping to lure the predators close enough to identify, measure and tag them.

Several giants soon emerged from the depths, including three measuring more than 14 feet and a 16-foot female the team named Sweetheart.

But as darkness closed in, there was still no sign of the 20-foot monster they had traveled hundreds of miles to find.

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Democrats are set to make South Carolina its first 2028 primary state.

The Democrat National Committee panel on Friday voted to make South Carolina – a state with a large black voting bloc, their first presidential primary state.

“So they will emerge as the first contest in a body of work that will have a plethora of good contests for these candidates to really vie for,” the panel said.

This is a major shift away from Iowa and Nevada – states with fewer black voters.

Recall that Joe Biden pushed for the Democrats to move its first voting state to South Carolina because that is where he made his ‘come back’ in 2020.

Joe Biden requested the change going into the 2024 election after he took a punch to the gut in Iowa and came in 5th place in the New Hampshire 2020 primaries.

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Elaine Angene Escoe was charged in a $32M COVID-19 pandemic relief fraud scheme allegedly involving wire fraud, money laundering

FIRST ON FOX: One of the FBI’s most wanted alleged COVID-19 fraud fugitives has been returned to the United States after authorities captured her in Jamaica.

FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital she had been living under the fake identity “Harley Newman” while evading charges tied to an alleged $32 million pandemic relief fraud scheme.

Elaine Angene Escoe, 41, arrived back in South Florida Thursday after Jamaican authorities arrested her after a federal manhunt. Prosecutors allege she helped fraudulently obtain more than $32 million in taxpayer-funded COVID-19 relief funds before fleeing the country after failing to appear in federal court.

Escoe was indicted in 2025 on charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and multiple counts of money laundering, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

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The Trump administration ordered every federal agency to strengthen religious liberty safeguards in a new Department of Justice memorandum, the first major overhaul of the government’s religious freedom guidance since 2017.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s DOJ released the updated directive on Thursday, replacing guidance originally issued during Trump’s first term. The new memorandum tells executive agencies to weigh religious liberty concerns earlier when drafting regulations, enforcing federal law, and handling workplace accommodation requests from employees of faith. It draws on nearly a decade of Supreme Court rulings that the department says have “clarified and strengthened constitutional and statutory protections for religious exercise.”

Two of those rulings figure prominently. In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the Court held that a public high school football coach’s postgame prayer was protected by the First Amendment. In Groff v. DeJoy, the justices tightened the standard employers must meet before denying a religious accommodation, ruling that refusal is justified only when it would impose a substantial hardship, a higher bar than many federal agencies and private employers had been applying. Both cases were litigated by First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal organization that immediately praised the updated guidance.

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The Trump administration is coming down hard on illegal immigrants who are taking state benefits not available to many other American taxpayers — but blue states are fighting back.

The Department of Justice has filed its 13th lawsuit against tuition funding for illegal immigrants, this time in Maryland. Since 2011, the state’s law has allocated the benefits that legal citizens receive for in-state college tuition to illegals, if they pay taxes and their children graduated high school in Maryland.

The filing comes as part of the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on illegal immigration across the country, one of the hallmark commitments of the Department of Justice. The Maryland case follows other lawsuits of a similar nature in Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Texas, and Rhode Island.

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Let’s face facts here: Caitlin Clark is unpopular with a lot of people because Caitlin Clark is white.

Let’s also face another fact: The people she’s unpopular with think it’s the other way around. They believe that America is a hive of secret Klansmen who didn’t watch women’s basketball because they all hated black people, but once they could find a white person who was an interesting player, they suddenly tuned in.

We could speculate to the reason behind the projection, but the real reason behind her popularity is that the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament was basically when people started paying genuine attention to the sport outside of those who adopted fandom as a lifestyle accoutrement, kind of like a cheaper version of a Subaru with a “Coexist” bumper sticker. The political types got mad, yadda yadda yadda again, and now we have USA Today columnists accusing Caitlin Clark of being lynching-adjacent.

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The Museum That Can’t Answer a Kindergarten Question

Rep. Nancy Mace put up images of drag queen displays at the Smithsonian – exhibits taxpayers fund, exhibits children see on school field trips – and asked Director Anthea Hartig a simple question: “Do you believe that men can become women?”

Hartig hesitated, then said that’s “not relevant in this case.”

Mace pressed harder.

“What is a woman, Dr. Hartig?” she asked.

The director of the American History Museum – a Ph.D. who oversees 231 employees and a $54.5 million budget – looked down and said: “We strive to represent and not categorize all Americans.”

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Another stunning connection has emerged between Rep. Ilhan Omar’s family and the sprawling Feeding Our Future fraud scandal that robbed American taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars intended to feed needy children.

Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, registered her consulting company at a Minnesota residence connected through business records to several major figures in the Feeding Our Future operation, according to an investigation by The Daily Wire.

Noor founded Grit Partners Consulting, a health and leadership consultancy focused largely on projects in Africa.

Noor’s website claims that she has “secured more than $20 million in funding for health initiatives” and consulted on projects backed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USAID, GAVI, and the World Bank.

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Residents of a community on Long Island’s south shore are angry over plans to convert a former Catholic seminary into an all-boys Muslim boarding school, complete with a mosque.

The building is in a residential neighborhood and locals are concerned about traffic and the prospect of a Muslim call to prayer being broadcast five times a day.

A recent town meeting on the subject lasted for five hours as people lined up to voice their concerns.

The New York Post reports:

Fuming Long Island residents are fighting the opening of a Muslim boarding school for boys that’s expected to house 120 teenage students — claiming it will destroy a quiet suburban neighborhood.

A group of Bay Shore homeowners claims the proposal for an overnight dorm is illegal under codes for the suburban Saxon Avenue, on a 13-acre waterfront property that housed a Catholic seminary years ago.

“The proposed use by the new property owner is far more intensive than what is appropriate for a quiet residential neighborhood,” Kevin Colgan, an Islip resident and leader of the anti-boarding school movement in the neighborhood, known as “Saxon Says No,” said in a statement.

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As All-Star Game Approaches – Radical Left Attacks Caitlin Clark’s Fans, Labeling Them Racist.

The WNBA could not handle the explosion of excitement for the league that Caitlin Clark brought with her two years ago.  Rather than highlight the massive increase in fans that Clark brought with her to the league, the league attacks Clark physically while labeling her fans racists.  The WNBA is easily the worst league in sports history!

Clark fans see a league of jealous women who attack and physically abuse her every game.  They see blind refs who allow it, a coach who ignores it and does all she can to prevent Clark from being herself, and league management who appear to be in collusion in targeting and destroying their golden goose.

The beatings are so vicious and constant that the members of the US House are investigating them.

But rather than show sympathy and provide protection for the woman who gave her league credibility, the league sympathizes with the attacker, claiming she is the victim of abuse.

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A Chicago plumbing subcontractor who poured years of work into the Barack Obama Presidential Center has suspended operations and laid off 25 union workers after being left nearly $4 million in the hole, just weeks after the star-studded grand opening of Barack Obama’s monument to himself.

Mike Owen, owner of Adamson Plumbing Contractors (which performed work under the name Marsh-Adamson), told Fox News the financial devastation from delays, endless design changes, rework, and unpaid invoices forced him to abandon roughly half a dozen other jobs and push the company to the brink of collapse.

He described the decision as painful but necessary to avoid outright bankruptcy.

“It was in the company’s best interest to suspend all operations. Moving forward until we could get back on solid financial ground. It was not an easy decision to make. Laying off close to 30 people is something that no owner in our industry wants to do,” Owen said.

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Wall Street money manager and financial analyst Ed Dowd of PhinanceTechnologies.com warned at the end of May we could see “$250 a barrel oil and 11% inflation as a worst-case scenario in 2026.”

That didn’t happen… yet.  Dowd explains, “We had two scenarios when we talked last…”

” One was the conflict would get resolved in the April – May time frame. 

Oil would peak out around $125 (per barrel), and inflation would peak out in May and go lower. 

That’s what happened, but recently, MOU (Memorandum of Understanding with Iran) has been torn up and oil is back on the rise. 

Oil collapsed to around the low $70s to high $60s after the MOU.  It’s now $80 and change. 

So, unless this is resolved quickly, the other scenario is on the table…

If the conflict continues and gets worse, and you want to watch it progress, if we break out technically, meaningfully to $100 to $125, and back test and hold support, then the next level is $200 to $250 a barrel. 

All we are talking about here is my thesis that we are going into a global recession, and it gets pulled forward that much quicker.  We will have a burst of inflation and massive demand destruction.”

The Iran/US war is not the only headwind Dowd sees. 

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An illegal alien released into the US by Barack Obama killed three people in Salisbury, North Carolina, on Saturday night.

Javiel Pena Sola, an illegal alien from El Salvador, struck a vehicle on Saturday night and fled the scene.

Two of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene and one of the victim was airlifted.

Sola has prior convictions for reckless endangerment in Maryland and an arrest for escaping from custody.

Per Fox News reporter Bill Melugin:

DHS confirms that the driver arrested for killing three people in a hit and run crash in Salisbury, NC on Saturday is a Salvadoran illegal alien with prior convictions for reckless endangerment, failure to stop after an accident involving damage, and driving without a license in Maryland, plus an arrest for escaping from custody.

DHS says after his arrest for escaping from custody in Maryland in 2016, local law enforcement honored an ICE detainer and handed over Javiel Pena Sola to the custody of ICE Baltimore, but the Obama administration released him back into the country two months later.

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Voters have more confidence in their states to run elections than Washington

As Congress debates the SAVE America Act, which would require photo identification to vote in federal elections, the latest Fox News national survey shows broad support for that measure.

In a July 16 primetime speech, President Donald Trump urged Americans to contact lawmakers to support the legislation, saying it would address election system vulnerabilities.

The act passed the U.S. House of Representatives in February and is stalled in the Senate. The survey was conducted after his remarks (July 17–20, 2026).

The new poll, released Thursday, finds roughly eight in 10 registered voters favor requiring photo identification to register to vote (83%) and to cast a ballot (77%). Support for requiring photo ID to vote has remained consistently high, between 77% to 85%, in Fox News polling since 2011.

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Researchers found detectable micro- and nanoplastics in nearly 84% of patients who suffered active heart attacks

Patients experiencing severe heart attacks may have significantly higher concentrations of micro- and nanoplastics in their blood compared to individuals with stable heart conditions, according to new research.

Italian researchers analyzed blood samples from the coronary arteries of 61 patients undergoing angiograms, a procedure that analyzes blood vessels for irregularities.

They found that nearly 84% of patients suffering an active, severe heart attack had detectable micro- and nanoplastics in their blood. In contrast, plastic was detected in 40% of patients with chronic heart disease and only 32% of those with normal coronary arteries.

Researchers led by Dr. Raffaele Marfella of the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Naples conducted the study, which was published in the European Heart Journal.

Polyethylene, a common material used in plastic bags and bottles, appeared in 97% of those patients who tested positive.

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A social media-savvy Louisiana pastor and author was convicted of stealing over $340,000 from his congregations to fund his gambling and personal expenses.

Dale Sanders, 56, was found guilty of a 25-count indictment charging him with wire fraud, access device fraud, and obstruction of a federal investigation after a five-day jury trial last week, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Sanders, of Kenner, withdrew funds held in one church’s bank accounts and transferred them to his own pocket to subsidize his lavish personal expenditures — including gambling, dining, and living expenses, prosecutors said.

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Sanders worked as a pastor at the Fifth African Baptist Church in New Orleans and Second New Guide Missionary Baptist Church in Metairie, according to his social media.

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Queens Borough President Donovan Richards is voicing the fury of the black political establishment, and of much of the black community, when he slams Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s comrades in the Democratic Socialists of America — but what he won’t admit is how much he’s enabled these extremists.

In a couple of terse social media posts, Richards compared the DSA to white supremacists and 1960s-era white liberals who “pretend” to support black civil rights.

He’s not wrong, in that the DSA’s base is educated white voters and its policies reflect their lefty core beliefs and class interests — and don’t serve minority communities’ needs.

Defunding the police, closing the prisons, legalizing prostitution, freezing the rent: None of it helps black or Hispanic neighborhoods, no matter that a few minority candidates happily mouth the slogans they learned on campus.

But Richards and many of his peers have played along with the hard left for years, on criminal-justice issues, on charter schools (which minority families support), on lunatic housing policies and more.

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A Georgia city’s youngest-ever mayor was temporarily stripped of his duties and privileges amid an investigation over his alleged spending – less than a year after being elected on a campaign premised around accountability and transparency.

Jayden Williams, the 22-year-old mayor of Stockbridge, Ga., was ordered to hand over his city-issued credit cards by Monday at noon due to his spending, but failed to meet the deadline, Atlanta News First reported.

Stockbridge city council officials launched a probe into Williams after “information” was presented to finance officials and the city attorney, without divulging further.

This Earl Campbell guy is really full of himself, isn’t he? 

While I cannot expose why/when “the sleeping giant” will be coming back I can assure all of you that when I do we will wake up the masses doing exactly what Earl Campbell does not do. I have no interest in putting him out of business. Quite the opposite actually. We need someone out there who will expose accidents, bitch about cats and stuff like that. 

I ban no one on sbynews.com. Do I refuse to publish comments from racist aholes, yes. I know Ryan in Pittsville is paying attention. He likes to attempt to publish nasty comments multiple times a day. Nevertheless, once I do come back, very soon, I will explain my absence.

Finally Earl, the very first day I do come back every single one of your ALLEGED followers will get word of it and flock to my site daily. While I already know that Earl is a liar I will let all of you know how much my traffic increased. But who cares, aside from Earl.

Unlike Earl, I will be back well before election time and instead of backing failed candidates like Earl did, we will be endorsing candidates with backgrounds as to why they are the most qualified. 

So please be patient and you will see soon enough why I did what I did the last two years. 

From the time of the Castro regime and beyond, Cuba has extended long, subversive fingers in the United States, according to a new State Department report.

“For more than six decades, the Cuban regime has been the leading sponsor of radical leftism and Third Worldism in the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X.

Rubio is the son of Cuban emigres.

“The State Department is exposing the full history of Cuban espionage and subversion in our country. The American people deserve to know,” he posted.

An 88-year-old widow living in a trailer in rural Michigan has been listed as funneling over $150,000 to Democrat causes through ActBlue.

Nearly 15,000 separate donations averaging eight per day, every single day, for five years, Michigan Enjoyer first reported.

The latest allegations come as ActBlue continues to face intense scrutiny from congressional investigators and federal authorities over its donor verification practices and allegations of potentially fraudulent contributions.

According to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie LeDuff, 88-year-old Elizabeth Waffle was stunned after learning Federal Election Commission records attribute 14,696 separate donations totaling nearly $150,000 to her name over the past five years.

The records indicate she averaged roughly eight donations every single day during that period, including 47 donations to Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed over the last two years.

She admitted making a few small, legitimate donations as a “true believer” in liberal causes, including some to El-Sayed. But 47 donations to him alone over two years? The avalanche of $150K total? Impossible. Some were tied to old addresses. Others went to candidates she’d never heard of.

Waffle told LeDuff she had no knowledge of the donations.

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Salisbury, MD — Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano today announced her opposition to any special session of the Maryland General Assembly for the purpose of redrawing the State’s congressional districts, calling on state leaders to instead focus on the pressing issues impacting Maryland families.

“Marylanders are looking to their elected officials to address the challenges they face every day— not to return to Annapolis for another politically charged debate over congressional district lines,” said County Executive Giordano. ‘Our priorities should be lowering energy costs, improving public safety, increasing housing opportunities, strengthening education, and supporting economic growth.”

Giordano expressed concern that reopening the congressional redistricting process outside of the regular legislative session would undermine public confidence in Maryland’s electoral system and reinforce the perception that district boundaries are being redrawn for political purposes rather than to ensure fair representation.

‘Redistricting should not become a recurring political exercise whenever the balance of power changes,” Giordano said. “Regardless of political affiliation, Marylanders deserve confidence that elections are determined by voters—not by politicians drawing maps to achieve a desired
outcome.”

The County Executive emphasized that if the current congressional maps are ultimately found to be constitutionally deficient, any remedy should be narrowly tailored to address those deficiencies while prioritizing fairness, equal representation, and respect for communities of interest.

Giordano also stated that any proposal to redraw congressional district boundaries or amend Maryland’s Constitution should be considered through the regular legislative process, allowing for meaningful public input, transparent debate, and thoughtful deliberation.

As one ofonly three Republican County Executives serving Maryland’s 24 jurisdictions, Giordano said she believes it is important to advocate for fair representation on behalf of Wicomico County residents and the thousands of Marylanders whose voices deserve equal consideration.

‘Every Marylander deserves meaningful representation in Congress,” she said. “Congressional districts should reflect communities of interest and constitutional principles—not predetermined political outcomes.”

Giordano further questioned the use of taxpayer resources to convene a special session while the state continues to face significant policy challenges.

‘Every dollar spent on a special session is a dollar that could instead be directed toward addressing Maryland’s most urgent priorities,” she said. “Our focus should remain on easing the burden of rising electricity rates, strengthening public safety, supporting local governments, creating affordable housing opportunities, and expanding our economy.”
The County Executive urged members of the General Assembly to remain focused on the issues that directly impact Maryland families rather than reopening a contentious debate over congressional district boundaries.

‘I respectfully ask the General Assembly to reconsider the need for a special session,” Giordano concluded. “If one is ultimately convened, I urge legislators to reject any proposal that places partisan interests above constitutional fairness and equal representation. Maryland deserves a process that restores public confidence in our elections and ensures every citizen’s voice is fairly represented.”

An unemployed migrant in Minnesota has not only committed three heinous acts of murder but is blaming AMERICA for his wicked deeds.

As KTSP reported, authorities charged 30-year-old Tsegaab Binessu on Tuesday afternoon with the murders of three people: 25-year-old Nansi Fuentes Zambrano, 56-year-old Dena Silcox, and 43-year-old Adam Wilwerding. The charges came just one day after he was arrested in Virginia, Minnesota on Monday night.

The murders occurred at a St. Paul apartment complex on Monday. All three victims were staffers at the complex.

Per documents viewed by KTSP, Binessu, who is originally from Ethiopia, demanded cancellation of his $65-a-month parking garage contract because he intended to join the Navy and had quit his job as a trucker two months ago.

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Bluefish are available throughout the region from the shallower waters to the edges of the deep channels. They range in size from 3 pounds to a whopping 10 pounds!

Blue catfish have moved up the tidal rivers looking for better bottom water quality and can be seen farther upriver than you might think.

Recreational crabbers are seeing better catches as we approach the end of July. The deeper waters of 12-20 feet have been producing the largest blue crabs.

Surf anglers are catching kingfish, spot, northern puffers, and flounder. Those fishing larger baits of cut mullet or menhaden are catching large bluefish, sandbar sharks, and large red drum.

Read more about the week ahead!

Yesterday, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill was forced to admit that President Trump was right about voter fraud, when she announced that 6,600 noncitizens made it onto her state’s voter rolls. Sherrill chalked it up to a “serious software error” in New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System, and that 400 of those people voted illegally.

That means at least 400 Americans in Sherrill’s state were disenfranchised, with their votes stolen by non-citizens. Sherrill knows how bad this is, because she tried to deflect and said President Trump has no credibility on the subject, which is not just wrong, but humiliating for Sherrill.

There’s always a process for stories like this, too, and it goes in three steps:

1. That thing isn’t happening; it’s a right-wing conspiracy.
2. Okay, that thing is happening, but not much.
3. Yeah, that thing is happening, and here’s why it’s a good thing.

We’re on Step Two right now. Jake Tapper and his guests tried to dismiss these revelations as no big deal, and it’s clear the guests on Abby Phillip’s show, and Phillip herself, got the memo, too.

“6,600 noncitizens made it onto the voter rolls. That, to me, is widespread voter fraud,” said Jesse Arm.

“That’s widespread?” asked Abby Phillip.

“I think it would be bad if one person who is not a legal citizen,” Arm began.

Phillip asked him what percentage of New Jersey voters were made up of those 6,600 noncitizens.

“Where’s the proof that it’s widespread?” she asked. “That is 0.006 percent of registered voters in the state.

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A disgruntled migrant allegedly gunned down three staffers at his Minnesota apartment block in a crazed rampage after he couldn’t cancel his parking garage contract.

Tsegaab Binessu, 30, allegedly shot dead Nansi Fuentes Zambrano, 25, Dena Silcox, 56, and Adam Wilwerding, 43, at the complex in St. Paul, Minnesota, Monday, KSTP reported.

Binessu, originally from Ethiopia, wanted to cancel his $65-a-month parking garage contract as he had aspirations to join the Navy, documents seen by the outlet claim.

Tsegaab Binessu, 30, allegedly shot dead three staffers at his Minnesota apartment complex.Ramsey Co. Sheriff’s Office

He called staffers regarding the cancellation process, but they said he couldn’t opt out after just renewing his contract.

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Sen. Josh Hawley is publicly pressing fellow Republican Mitch McConnell to disclose the full extent of his medical condition, a rare intra-party challenge that exposes how one senator’s silence is stalling the GOP agenda

Hawley, the Missouri Republican, told Fox News Digital in an interview published Sunday that the 84-year-old McConnell owes the public a straight answer about what happened to him and when, or whether, he plans to return to the Senate floor.

McConnell, the Senate majority leader from Kentucky, has been absent since June 14, when he fell at his home and was hospitalized. For weeks afterward, his office offered little detail. He released a photo of himself in a hospital bed alongside his wife, Elaine Chao, on July 12, nearly a month after the fall, paired with a statement from his Senate office. But the prolonged silence drew growing frustration from within his own party, and Hawley became the most prominent Republican willing to say so out loud.

Hawley: ‘You do have an obligation to your constituents’

Hawley did not hold back, though he framed his criticism as concern rather than hostility. He said he wished McConnell well, then made clear that good wishes do not excuse a lack of candor.

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A new report sparks backlash over the rapid growth of the United Kingdom’s Muslim population.Muhammad was the top baby name in England and Wales in 2025, the Office for National Statistics posted Thursday. This marks the third year in a row that name topped the charts. 

“‘Muhammad’ has comfortably topped the list for the most popular boy name for the third year running,” Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe posted. “You can call me Islamophobic, I really don’t care … This is awful and demonstrates the rapidly changing demographics of our country.”

Lowe’s office and Restore UK did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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It’s hot NILF summer for American workers.

The number of adults who are “not in the labor force” (NILF) surged to an all-time high in June to 105.8 million, according to figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The record comes after a massive surge of 832,000 workers dropping out of the labor force in June alone. The overall number of NILFs is higher than at the height of the Great Recession or the COVID pandemic.

Lines of job seekers waiting to enter the Mega Job News USA South Florida Job Fair in Sunrise, Fla. on April 30, 2026.Getty Images

The definition is broad — it covers all Americans age 16 and over who aren’t currently working, including retirees and students.

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The death of 78-year-old Ann Widdecombe should cause both ends of the political spectrum to recoil in horror and sadness. Instead, leftists are taking the alleged killer’s means of committing the act as a page to add to their playbook.

Widdecombe was discovered in her home in Devon, England, on July 9 by a gardener after an assistant became concerned when she did not make a media appearance, according to GB News. Police took 28-year-old Joshua Kerry into custody on suspicion of murder on July 11, tracing Widdecombe’s death to midday on July 8.

The alleged killer’s method was beating Widdecombe 21 times with a hammer. According to the U.K.’s Daily Mail, investigators found communist literature in Kerry’s home along with newspaper clippings about Reform U.K.’s leader Nigel Farage. This was the party Widdecombe had been serving as an immigration spokeswoman.

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As the Gateway Pundit reported earlier today, thousands of non-citizen voters were discovered in New Jersey, allegedly due to a software error.

This is one of those problems that Democrats assure us never happens. It’s one of the main reasons that conservatives want congress to pass the SAVE America Act.

Over on CNN, Jake Tapper responded to the news today by saying that this is ‘not good news for Democrats.’

How about the country, Jake?

Columnist Ingrid Jacques says liberal ideology, anti-male media fuel a growing divide between the sexes

A growing anti-marriage movement is being fueled by viral TikTok trends and high-profile celebrities painting men as the enemy, but according to a new column, women may ultimately be the ones losing out.

In a USA Today op-ed, columnist Ingrid Jacques warned of a rising wave of “heteropessimism,” defining it as women’s growing feelings of disappointment and antagonism toward relationships with men. She argued that viral trends like “divorce glow-ups” and anti-male literature have actively widened the divide between the sexes.

“Studies show that married women are not only happier but also live longer and earn more than their single counterparts,” Jacques wrote on Tuesday.

She explained that the media modern women consume is increasingly hostile toward traditional relationships, pointing to bestselling books like “Yesteryear,” which centers on a “tradwife” influencer.

In that novel, Jacques notes, men are reduced to lazy or toxic tropes: “Either a man is an idiotic man-baby who lacks ambition and a brain, or he’s a quintessential patriarch who pals around with other sexist pigs in the manosphere. Husbands are at one point referred to as ‘freaks.’”

On Amazon, the book’s description includes, “A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, ‘Yesteryear’ is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.”

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Residents at two swanky North Carolina communities have sounded the alarm over alleged trespassers taking over their pools, claiming that their homeowners associations (HOA) are not doing enough to stop the rowdiness.

The complaints have emerged at Edge of Auburn in Garner and Trace at Olde Towne in nearby Raleigh, with residents saying they have become afraid to use their amenities funded through hefty HOA dues.

Dramatic footage from one of the pool areas showed a spat between residents and nonresidents, WRAL reported.

It was not clear how or why the confrontation started, but homeowners described how it embodied the tension inside the placid communities.

Ben Myer, who lives at the Edge of Auburn, said his ‘beautiful community’ was now seeing parties of ‘between 20 and 50 teens’ on what seemed like a weekly basis without an apparent solution in sight.

‘We’re paying for a pool, we’re paying for a basketball court, beautiful development, walking trails and people are scared out of using it,’ Myer told the outlet.

A separate video shot by a Ring doorbell camera showed a group of about 20 people showing up to an unauthorized gathering.

The crowd walked calmly in the middle of the street and chatted among themselves before allegedly partying.

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Data centers are responsible for $6.3 billion, or 38%, of the $16.4 billion in charges from the PJM Interconnection’s just-held capacity auction, Joseph Bowring, president of Monitoring Analytics, said in an email to Utility Dive. Monitoring Analytics is the grid operator’s independent market monitor.

In PJM’s last four base capacity auctions, data center-driven capacity charges totaled $29.4 billion — 46% of the $63.6 billion in total capacity charges in that period, Bowring said. Monitoring Analytics plans to publish its analysis of the most recent auction in a few weeks, he said.

PJM isn’t fully grappling with the ramifications of data center development, according to Bowring. “PJM is continuing to act like it’s business as usual,” he said in an interview on Friday. “You have to open your eyes and recognize that it is really a paradigm shift, and failing to do that imposes costs on other customers.”

Ratepayers in PJM are not only paying capacity charges for existing and potential data centers, they are paying for higher energy and transmission costs data centers have caused, according to Bowring.

PJM’s capacity auctions and the price of electricity has become a major political issue in the grid operator’s footprint, which includes 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states and the District of Columbia. In September, governors from PJM states formed a collaborative to advocate for their interests with the grid operator.

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President Trump has formally approved a landmark 30-year civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia that could be worth tens of billions of dollars and put American companies at the center of the kingdom’s nuclear buildout, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The accord is expected to be signed Wednesday by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, then head to Congress for a 90-day review. Lawmakers could block it through a joint resolution, but overriding a Trump veto would require two-thirds majorities in both chambers.

There is plenty to like here. A Section 123 agreement creates a legal framework for peaceful use, safeguards, and nonproliferation. American involvement also gives Washington more influence over Riyadh’s program than it would have if Saudi Arabia turned to China or Russia.

The agreement is the latest step in a rapidly deepening relationship. The administration previously delinked Saudi nuclear talks from normalization with Israel, while Trump later designated the kingdom a major non-NATO ally after Mohammed bin Salman’s return to the White House.

Yet one provision is difficult to support: “A key provision of the new accord would have American companies build an uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia if a joint U.S.-Saudi study determines such a step would be warranted.”

The 123 accord is not a turnkey export license, and any technology transfer would still require separate federal approval, but the policy direction is clear.

The strongest argument for this arrangement is that US technology and oversight would keep Washington inside the tent and make diversion harder. That is a legitimate advantage, but it doesn’t eliminate the underlying risk.

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Give it time, folks. In the Trump era, that’s all we can say—when the president makes a claim, the Democrats go crazy, and in the end, Trump was right all along. Our election system is vulnerable. Voter data has been compromised, and New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill was forced to admit that after reviewing their state’s voter rolls.

It turns out thousands of non-citizens are registered to vote. The governor announced that an independent firm will handle the investigation into this oversight, but it reinforced President Trump’s main message from his primetime address last Thursday—that voter fraud is real, happening, and we must do everything possible to protect the integrity of our election system. Democrats mocked it, and in less than a week, he was proven right (via NY Post):

As four more American families grieve the deaths of soldiers killed in the war on Iran, one of the top-ranking ministers in Israel’s cabinet told an Israeli audience that having America do all the fighting and dying is “the best for us.” Israel had intensely lobbied President Trump to launch a joint war on Iran on Feb 22, and traded blows with Iran up until early June. Since Trump restarted intense, daily bombardment of Iran 11 days ago, however, Israel has sat out the action, sparing Israelis from lethal Iranian retaliation.

“The State of Israel has no interest in joining the contained confrontation between Iran and the United States,” far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a session at the Katif Conference for National Responsibility, which endorses Jewish settlement in Palestinian territories. “The current situation is the best one for us.”

Smotrich is generally regarded as the second-most powerful cabinet member in Israel, and is a vital linchpin in Netanyahu’s government that took power in January 2023. Lacking an outright majority, Netanyahu was forced to build a ruling coalition that gives unprecedented power to religious and ultra-nationalist extremists. Smotrich leads the Religious Zionism party. He personally aspires to make Israel a theocracy, wants Israel to annex the West Bank and Gaza while barring most Palestinians from citizenship, and has said it would be “just and moral” to starve two million Palestinian men, women and children in Gaza.

In his latest remarks, Smotrich candidly acknowledged that Israel and the United States have different goals vis a vis Iran, but said America’s continued military engagement furthers the Israeli agenda. “[We] must remember that the ultimate goal of Israel, and not necessarily the United States, is to undermine and weaken the regime in Iran – to the point of overthrowing it,” Smotrich said.

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A massive Medicaid fraud scheme in Arizona has left up to 2,000 Native Americans feared dead or missing, with whistleblowers and attorneys sounding the alarm that the nightmare is still ongoing.

New whistleblower allegations claim vulnerable Native Americans were allegedly lured into white vans with promises of treatment, then plied with fentanyl, methamphetamine, alcohol, and other drugs before being imprisoned inside fake behavioral health homes where operators allegedly billed Medicaid for months of fraudulent “treatment.”

Arizona officials have previously estimated the fraud exceeded $2.5 to $2.8 billion, while the latest whistleblower allegations contend the broader network may have generated up to $12 billion in fraudulent Medicaid claims over time.

Even more chilling, as many as 2,000 Native Americans may be dead or missing as a result of the sprawling scheme, according to NewsNation Now.

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The headline is accurate, but with limited space, I couldn’t really note that they didn’t do it by choice. See, Montgomery County decided to make a whole lot of places gun-free zones. As this is Maryland, it’s likely they didn’t figure the state would have any issues with what they were doing. After all, they love gun control there.

But they went too far. They flew too close to the anti-gun sun, and the state Supreme Court slapped them down.

That meant they needed to make some…adjustments, which is what they just did.

To comply with a court ruling, the Montgomery County Council voted 10-1 Tuesday to pare back some of its restrictions on guns.

Among other changes, it shortened the list of places near which a person can carry guns and removed a restriction on purchasing and selling ghost guns in the presence of a minor.

These changes do not significantly affect the county’s gun restrictions, but rather tweak them to comply with the state’s existing laws.

…

• Banned all firearms within 100 yards of most public spaces — including schools, houses of worship, courthouses, libraries and parks — but removed a ban on them in the vicinity of hospitals, child care centers and long-term care centers. This change was made because the state has its own law that bans firearms within those establishments
• Created an exemption on the above ban for people who are traveling through the county and could be driving on a public highway with a gun or are driving on a road within 100 yards of a public space.
• Bans gifting, selling, renting or lending guns, ammunition and gun parts to minors, but removes a provision that prohibited these activities pertaining to ghost guns in the presence of minors.

Is this a victory for gun rights? Hardly. This is nothing but Montgomery County trying to comply with the state’s regulations on the matter and nothing else. They’re restricting as much as they think they can simply because they can.

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President Trump highlighted the massive number of illegal voters across the country in a renewed push for Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act. 

The Department of Homeland Security recently said that “preliminary reviews” of voter records in California, New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania found the following.

• 190,832 non-citizens registered to vote in California.
• 35,152 non-citizens registered to vote in New Jersey.
• 15,903 non-citizens registered to vote in Nevada.
• 14,576 non-citizens registered to vote in Pennsylvania.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent letters to the four Secretaries of State, calling on them to work with DHS to clean their voter rolls last week.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Trump revealed that 278,000 illegal voters have been discovered on state voter rolls during an address to the nation on Thursday. But the number is “actually much higher than that,” Trump said, noting that Democratic states have refused to comply with DHS’s investigations.

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The Supreme Court will decide whether Alaska can forfeit an 82-year-old bush pilot’s $95,000 Cessna over a misdemeanor alcohol charge, a case that could reshape government asset forfeiture powers nationwide.

Kenneth Jouppi has spent more than a decade fighting the State of Alaska for his 1969 Cessna. The plane was grounded and marked for seizure after Alaska State Troopers found beer in a passenger’s luggage before a 2012 flight from Fairbanks to Beaver, a remote village of fewer than 100 people that had voted to ban alcohol. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up his case, setting the stage for what legal analysts on both sides of the aisle call a potentially landmark ruling on the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause.

Jouppi was convicted of a misdemeanor alcohol-importation offense and sentenced to three days in jail and a $1,500 fine. The state then pursued civil forfeiture of his aircraft, valued at roughly $95,000. His passenger, who owned the beer, pleaded guilty. But the state wants the pilot’s plane, too, and Alaska’s highest court said that was constitutional.

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Rep. Ilhan Omar posted a short video to Facebook this week declaring that Minnesota had “defeated ICE’s racist terror campaign”, a claim that drew swift mockery online and raised fresh questions about how a sitting member of Congress defines victory over federal  law enforcement.

The roughly ten-second clip, first reported by the New York Post, shows the 43-year-old Minnesota Democrat sitting in a chair, adjusting her blazer, fidgeting with a microphone, and taking a deep breath while dramatic instrumental music plays. A text overlay reads: “Me preparing for the documentary on how we defeated ICE’s racist terror campaign in Minnesota.” Her caption added: “We’re built different in Minnesota.”

The format mimics a viral documentary confessional trend popular on social media. But the substance, a congresswoman boasting about obstructing a federal immigration operation, is something else entirely.

What Omar calls a ‘defeat’

The video appears to reference Operation Metro Surge, the ICE enforcement action carried out in Minnesota in early 2026. The White House said at the time that the operation resulted in the arrest of more than 4,000 illegal immigrants in the state. That is not a small number. It is, by any conventional measure, a large-scale federal enforcement success.

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