Pop star Billie Eilish got more than she bargained for when she made a charged political statement at the Grammys over the weekend.

The 24-year-old “Birds of a Feather” told her fellow Hollywood elites at the award ceremony that “no one is illegal on stolen land.”

‘We do understand that her home is situated in our ancestral land.’

The statement garnered raucous applause from the obviously liberal audience and was one of many shots taken at Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the safe space that was the Crypto.com Arena in L.A.

Show stealer

However following the show, Eilish’s statements — which included “f**k ICE” — seemingly backfired when viewers pointed out that her sprawling mansion should also be considered to be on stolen land.

Following the singer’s statements to their logical endpoint, the Daily Mail contacted the Native American tribe about Eilish’s statements to confirm whether or not she indeed lives on stolen land.

“We appreciate the opportunity to provide clarity regarding the recent comments made by Billie Eilish,” a spokesperson for the Tongva tribe told the outlet. “As the First People of the greater Los Angeles basin, we do understand that her home is situated in our ancestral land.”

Name check

The Daily Mail also stated that the tribe said celebrities should “explicitly” reference the native tribes if they wish to use them for virtue signaling.

RELATED: ‘No one is illegal on stolen land’: Grammys audience goes wild over anti-ICE speeches

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

“It is our hope that in future discussions, the tribe can explicitly be referenced to ensure the public understands that the greater Los Angeles basin remains Gabrieleno Tongva territory,” the comments concluded.

The tribe, which lays claim to about 4,000 square miles in California, noted that Eilish has not reached out to them herself, but they have contacted her team to express their appreciation for the comments.

According to the New York Post, Eilish has millions in property in her family, including the $3 million Los Angeles home. The outlet also reported that her brother, Finneas, who accepted the Grammy Award alongside her, sold his home in Malibu for $5.66 million in 2022.

RELATED: ‘False and defamatory’: Trump threatens to sue Grammys host Trevor Noah over Epstein snipe

Border security

Ben Leo, an English journalist from GBNews, visited Eilish’s property after the controversy to get comment on the ordeal.

While Leo was unsuccessful, he did note that Eilish seemed to believe in having a border of her own.

“Massive gates keeping people out. I thought Billy didn’t believe in borders,” he explained outside the sprawling property.

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​Billie eilish, Align, Grammys, Woke, Tribal land, Native american, Stolen land, California, Entertainment 

The Minneapolis City Council has voted to delay renewing the liquor licenses of two area hotels believed to have housed federal immigration agents.

On Tuesday, a committee comprising all council members voted 8-5 to delay a decision about renewing the licenses until the February 17 meeting. The committee also voted to schedule a public hearing.

‘Why are we setting ourselves up for another legal settlement?’

The two hotels affected by the vote are the Canopy by Hilton in the Mill District and the Depot Renaissance Hotel.

Some at the meeting expressed misgivings about recent actions by ICE and other immigration agents in the Minneapolis area for Operation Metro Surge, but the five who voted against the delay worry that the city has no grounds to hold up the license renewals.

LaTrisha Vetaw claimed that the liquor licenses have nothing to do with a hotel’s guests and that basing decisions on hotel guests could be a form of discrimination, the Star Tribune reported.

“Why are we setting ourselves up for another legal settlement?” Vetaw said, according to the Tribune.

RELATED: Minnesota police crack down on anti-ICE protesters, multiple arrests outside hotel

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Pearll Warren, who also voted against the delay, likewise claimed the decision “smells real discriminatory.”

Michael Rainville, another “no” vote, noted that the hotels in question have already incurred damage from anti-ICE demonstrations and are now losing “a lot of money.”

Elizabeth Shaffer and Linea Palmisano also voted against delaying the renewals. Jason Chavez, Aurin Chowdhury, Aisha Chughtai, Jamal Osman, Elliott Payne, Soren Stevenson, Jamison Whiting, and Robin Wonsley voted for the delay.

Osman, described by the Tribune as “Somali-American,” went so far as to express support for the anti-Trump and anti-ICE mobs that have caused disturbances and even violence in response to immigration enforcement.

“Our president called us garbage and sent troops here to terrorize us,” Osman said, according to the Tribune. “Agitators are our heroes.”

Quinn O’Reilly, an attorney for the city, claimed that city staff have determined that the two hotels have complied with liquor laws and are eligible for renewal.

Still, Chowdhury, the committee chair, indicated that she wants more time for the council to consider the renewals and to provide local residents with a chance to weigh in. Payne said the delay will allow for a “fact-based conversation.”

In the meantime, the hotels may continue serving liquor as usual, said Amy Lingo, the city’s manager for business licenses.

Canopy by Hilton and Depot Renaissance did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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​Hilton, Ice, Liquor license, Minneapolis, Minneapolis city council, Renaissance, Politics 

The man who tried to kill President Donald Trump outside his Florida golf course just before the 2024 election was given the maximum sentence on Wednesday.

Ryan Routh was spotted outside the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on September 15, 2024, by a Secret Service agent who opened fire and caused Routh to flee. He was later arrested and was found to be in possession of an SKS assault rifle.

‘The trial was meticulously handled, and I would like to thank the Judge and Jury for their time, professionalism, and patience.’

On Wednesday, the 59-year-old was sentenced to life in prison by United States District Judge Aileen Cannon, the same judge who dismissed the president’s classified documents case.

A shocking scene unfolded in September 2025 during the reading of the verdict against Routh, when he grabbed a pencil and stabbed himself in the neck. Four U.S. marshals dragged him out of the court and later brought him back in with his waist and ankles shackled.

He was convicted of trying to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and a number of gun charges by a jury that deliberated for only three hours.

Prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence of life in prison, but Routh’s defense attorney requested 27 years in prison after citing Routh’s age and his mental health status.

“Ryan Routh’s attempted assassination of President Trump was a disgusting act — mere weeks before an election and only months after a separate assassination attempt came dangerously close to succeeding,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement after Routh was found guilty.

RELATED: Would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh tries to stab himself after guilty verdict

Trump also responded to the verdict on social media.

“The trial was meticulously handled, and I would like to thank the Judge and Jury for their time, professionalism, and patience. This was an evil man with an evil intention, and they caught him,” he wrote.

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​Ryan routh sentence, Man who tried to kill trump, Trump assassination attempt, Routh will die in prison, Politics 

Klingons are no longer proud warriors.

In a recent interview, a co-writer for the newest “Star Trek” television adventure, “Starfleet Academy,” revealed just how important it was to include gay lifestyles in the new series.

‘There are so many refugees at any given time in the world.’

Noga Landau gave an interview with Polygon about the latest episode of the show, which was positioned as redefining “what it means to be a Klingon warrior.”

While the Fandom page for “Star Trek” defines Klingons as a warrior species and a “proud, tradition-bound people who valued honor and combat,” Landau has not only blessed Trekkers with strange take on the lore but has completely turned it inside out.

Refugee soldiers

First, Landau remarked on the importance of citing the Klingons as refugees. This is not too far-fetched given that the species has faced extinction, but Landau said it was a key aspect to include in the storyline.

“There are so many refugees at any given time in the world. It is a part of the human condition,” she told Polygon. “We feel that on a show like ‘Starfleet Academy,’ it’s important to tell that story.”

RELATED: New ‘Star Trek’ DEI disaster flops despite airing for free: A ‘huge, gay, glee club middle finger’

Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

In episode four, “Vox in Excelso,” Klingon Jay-Den Kraag not only rejects his people’s tradition of hunting (he prefers medicine), but he is a pacifist who has a fear of public speaking.

Three-for-all

Landau did not stop there, though, and while Kraag’s decisions to reject his culture indeed upset his parents, it has also been revealed that he comes from a polyamorous household: two fathers and one mother.

“There are a lot of folks alive in the world right now, and there always have been, who have three parents,” Landau bizarrely claimed. “We put our heads together when we were [writing] the episode, and we said, ‘There are going to be people in our audience who’ve never seen their kind of family before on screen, so why don’t we do that?’ Klingons are fun. They seem like the sort of people who wouldn’t hold back from having a three-parent household.”

RELATED: Iron MAGA? Comedian Chris D’Elia rants that in ‘real life,’ Marvel heroes would all vote GOP

Final frontiers

As Align previously reported, the Klingon played by actor Karim Diane will reportedly have his sexuality “explored.”

“He doesn’t like to battle. He wants to love people and heal people and save people,” Diane recently said about the character. “He goes to Starfleet Academy, makes a ton of friends, and they help him be OK with who he is.”

Fans have also shared screenshots of the Klingon being caressed by a male, human character, who is allegedly “nonbinary.”

This is not a fresh angle for “Star Trek” lore, however. In 2022, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” reportedly introduced a nonbinary doctor played by Jesse James Keitel, an actor who believes he is female.

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​Align, Star trek, Woke, Lgbt, Transgender, Sci fi, Hollywood, Entertainment 

Images and video have surfaced online showing piles of trash and snow accumulating along streets and sidewalks across New York City. Since the surfacing of these videos and images, Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) has been under harsh scrutiny from critics and citizens of NYC.

Actor and comedian Michael Rapaport called the city a “dirty snow covered dump” with garbage mountains rivaling the snowdrifts.

‘Harshest winter stretch New York has ever seen.’

Other celebrities have piled on, amplifying the outrage.

YouTube star Casey Neistat released a video titled “New York City SCUM,” exposing the post-snowstorm layers of filth and garbage coating streets.

RELATED: Zohran Mamdani becomes first openly socialist mayor of New York City

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Video and photos circulating online show trash bags stacked eight feet high in places like the Upper East Side, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, often fused with dirty ice and slush from the storm.

Residents describe the scenes as a “f**king mess,” with overflowing bins attracting rats and narrowing sidewalks to dangerous widths.

The Department of Sanitation admitted trash collection is running about 24 hours behind, with some areas delayed even longer as workers juggle snow removal on 12-hour shifts.

Mamdani held a press conference on Sunday, during which he addressed New Yorkers about the lingering snow and sanitation issues following the massive winter storm that struck the city in late January.

Mamdani defended the crews during the press conference, “They are working with everything that they have to come up to speed.”

RELATED: Zohran Mamdani’s Soviet dream for New York City

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The mayor acknowledged that sanitation crews are prioritizing regular trash and compost collection over recyclables amid the ongoing winter conditions and delays: “We are speaking about already one of the coldest periods in New York City history and what could end up being the coldest period in New York City history.”

But for New Yorkers, the excuses are falling flat. Residents point out that other cities handle heavy snow without turning their cities into open dumps.

Mamdani and DSNY have not announced further immediate actions beyond urging patience.

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​Zoran mamadani, Nyc, New york city, Filth, Trash, Leadership, Citizens, Politics 

Police raided a house in northeast Las Vegas on Saturday managed by Ori Solomon, an Israeli national currently in the U.S. on an E-2 visa, and owned by Jia Bei Zhu, the criminally charged Chinese national linked to a secret biolab discovered in Reedley, California, in late 2022.

Inside Zhu’s Vegas property on Sugar Springs Drive, law enforcement agents found a “possible biological laboratory” complete with a “bio-safety hood, a bio-safety sticker, a centrifuge, multiple refrigerators, red-brown unknown liquids in gallon-sized containers, and refrigerated vials with unknown liquids,” according to Christopher Delzotto, FBI special agent in charge at the bureau’s Las Vegas office.

‘Not like a clean hospital but more of a foul, stale, stagnant air smell.’

The site of the illegal biolab in Vegas was allegedly also used as an Airbnb, where several people became deathly ill, according to documents obtained by KLAS-TV.

Blaze News has reached out to Airbnb for comment.

The documents reportedly indicate that the FBI received a tip last month about lab equipment and medical waste at Zhu’s Vegas property, which police previously indicated was home to three renters at the time of the raid. All of the renters were safely removed and are not presently entangled in the lab investigation.

Solomon was arrested over the weekend on a charge of disposing and discharging hazardous waste. The Israeli national — whom Zhu contacted 467 times last month while in federal custody — was subsequently slapped with a federal weapons charge for allegedly possessing multiple firearms, which he is precluded from doing as a foreigner with a non-immigrant visa.

Solomon, who has been accused of being a primary “agent and conspirator” with Zhu, has allegedly been managing 37 Airbnb properties.

RELATED: Another secret Chinese biolab found on US soil?

Las Vegas Metro Police Department

A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrest report reviewed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal indicated that a house cleaner claiming to work for Solomon and Zhu as well as for Zhu’s business partner and apparent lover, Zhaoyan Wang, contacted officials last month about a possible biolab at the home, which is a short-term rental.

The cleaner reportedly told police that there were three refrigerators in the garage along with beakers containing “reddish liquid.” She reportedly also complained that the garage smelled like a hospital, but “not like a clean hospital but more of a foul, stale, stagnant air smell.”

According to the police report, the cleaner and another individual became “deathly ill” after entering the garage — so sick with breathing issues, fatigue, and other symptoms that they “could not get out of bed” days later.

The report noted further that the tipster, referred to as “Kelly,” said that “a lot of people who have lived inside the house have gotten sick” and that “one female ended up in the hospital with severe respiratory issues.”

These reported health issues are especially troubling given the possibility that Zhu’s Vegas property may have had similar contents to the lab in Reedley.

According to a report published by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Zhu’s property in Reedley, California, was not only home to thousands of mutated mice but at least 20 potentially infectious agents including HIV, tuberculosis, COVID-19, and the deadliest known form of malaria. There was also a freezer labeled “ebola” found on-site.

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​Reedley, Biolab, Lab, Laboratory, Biological weapons, Disease, Pathogen, Las vegas, Ori solomon, Ori salomon, Jiabei zhu, Jia bei zhu, Zhu, China, Politics 

What once was simply a showdown between football teams has been turned into a clown show with a political agenda — and BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is tired of it.

“Roger Goodell and these idiots at the NFL have added to the Super Bowl. They’ve added something called the ‘chief kindness officer,’ and they’ve got some theme of ‘be kind to your rivals’ or whatever,” Whitlock says.

The newly appointed chief kindness officer is Dhar Mann, who has created “educational” films that are supposed to illustrate some kind of lesson to the world. One video Whitlock plays is titled “Racist Karen tries getting barista fired.”

“The actual video is a racial farce. I watched the video … so fantasy driven and so over the top. It’s an alternate false reality that Dhar Mann has created to portray white women as racist. And it’s completely removed from reality,” Whitlock says.

“And I’m looking at the NFL and Roger Goodell and like this is what y’all consider kindness … putting out a video that smears white women as the most racist people on the planet. This is kindness. This is an alternate reality,” he continues.

“This is bigotry that the NFL is promoting or has been commanded to promote,” he adds.

And as the Super Bowl date nears, Whitlock has decided he will not be watching.

“They don’t have enough money printed on the entire planet to get me to watch this year’s Super Bowl. I’ve just had it. Everything associated with this Super Bowl is gay and embarrassing. This is going to be the gayest, dumbest event in the history of sports,” he explains.

“It’s in San Francisco, the gay area, for one. Bad Bunny, the Super Bowl halftime performance. There are reports that he’s planning to wear a dress to promote transgenderism and cross-dressing and all of that. Bad Bunny, who speaks no English or sings no songs in English. Bad Bunny, who is an anti-ICE, pro-illegal immigration activist,” he continues.

“That’s the Super Bowl halftime performance. They’re trolling us,” he adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Upload, Sharing, Video phone, Free, Video, Camera phone, Youtube.com, Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Chief kindness officer, Superbowl 60, Superbowl, Bad bunny, Bad bunny super bowl 

Car ownership used to come with an unspoken assumption: You bought the vehicle, and it was yours to maintain, repair, and service in any way you saw fit. That assumption is quietly eroding. And one of the clearest signs doesn’t involve software updates or subscription features.

It involves a screw.

Tasks once considered routine — such as clearing fault codes or accessing safety systems — now often require dealer-level credentials or paid subscriptions.

BMW has filed a patent for a proprietary fastener shaped like its iconic roundel logo. It is not a Torx, not a hex, and not a Phillips head. The circular screw is divided into four quadrants mirroring the BMW emblem. Two quadrants are recessed to accept a matching tool, while the others remain flush, making it impossible for standard tools to grip. The BMW logo is embossed around the outer edge, ensuring the branding remains visible even after installation.

From a design perspective, it’s distinctive. From a functional perspective, it is proprietary by design.

Tightening the screw

According to BMW’s patent filing with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office, conventional fasteners are considered too accessible. Common tools, the company argues, allow “unauthorized persons” to loosen or tighten screws in sensitive areas of the vehicle. The purpose of the logo-shaped fastener is explicit: restrict access by requiring a specialized tool.

What has drawn the most concern is not just the screw itself but where BMW suggests it could be used. The patent lists applications beyond cosmetic trim, including seat mountings, cockpit assemblies, center consoles, and interior-to-body connections. These are components that already demand precise torque and careful installation. Adding proprietary fasteners to those areas raises obvious questions about who will be able to perform even routine work.

BMW also notes that some of these screws could be installed in visible parts of the cabin — meaning owners would be regularly reminded that parts of their own vehicle are effectively off-limits without brand-specific tools.

Dealer’s wheel

The patent does not define who qualifies as “authorized” or “unauthorized,” but the repair industry has little doubt who would be excluded. Independent mechanics, collision repair shops, and do-it-yourself owners would likely need BMW-specific tooling to perform work that was once straightforward. Removing a seat for interior repairs could become a dealer-only task.

That concern is not hypothetical. Repair advocates and automotive media have long warned that proprietary designs widen the gap between modern vehicles and hands-on ownership. Independent shops may be forced to buy specialized equipment to remain competitive, while some repairs may no longer make economic sense outside dealership networks. For owners, the result is fewer choices, higher costs, and less control.

To be fair, proprietary tools are not new. Independent repair facilities already invest heavily in manufacturer-specific equipment as vehicles grow more complex. Advanced driver-assistance systems, electronic steering, and modern powertrains require specialized knowledge and tools. Even critics acknowledge that BMW’s logo-shaped screw is visually clever and consistent with the brand’s design philosophy.

But the issue isn’t aesthetics. It’s what the design signals.

RELATED: Locked out: How Big Auto could destroy the used-car market

Sepia Times/Getty Images

Bad ‘Gateway’?

BMW’s patent arrives as other automakers publicly emphasize repair-friendly engineering. Mercedes-Benz, for example, has discussed modular designs intended to simplify service. Against that backdrop, BMW’s approach appears to move in the opposite direction — favoring exclusivity and control over accessibility.

It’s also important to note that the fastener exists only as a patent. Automakers file thousands of patents every year, many of which never reach production. Still patents are not filed casually. They reflect internal thinking and future direction.

More importantly, BMW is not alone.

Stellantis, parent company of Jeep, Dodge, and Chrysler, uses a Security Gateway Module that restricts access to diagnostic functions. Independent scan tools are blocked unless registered and authenticated through company systems. Tasks once considered routine — such as clearing fault codes or accessing safety systems — now often require dealer-level credentials or paid subscriptions.

Volkswagen Group, which includes Audi and Porsche, employs Component Protection, preventing certain electronic parts from functioning unless validated through manufacturer software. Independent shops can install the part, but without official authorization, the vehicle may still display errors or limit functionality.

Other automakers — including General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Hyundai — control diagnostic software, telematics data, and vehicle information through subscription-based platforms. Lawmakers have warned that these practices undermine the very idea of ownership by placing essential repair information behind paywalls or limiting it to authorized networks.

Data grab

The common thread is not branding or engineering sophistication. It is control.

Modern vehicles generate enormous amounts of data, and automakers increasingly decide who can access it, who can use it, and under what conditions. Software locks, digital part pairing, cloud-based diagnostics, and proprietary hardware all steer repairs back toward manufacturer-approved channels.

This matters because repair access affects safety, affordability, and consumer choice. When independent shops cannot compete, prices rise. When owners cannot choose where — or whether — to service their vehicles, ownership starts to resemble a long-term lease with conditions attached.

BMW’s logo-shaped screw may never leave the patent office. But it has already made the debate tangible. It turns an abstract argument about software and data into a physical object drivers can understand.

After all, it doesn’t get much more basic than a screw.

Cars are no longer just machines. They are platforms, data centers, and branded ecosystems. The question for consumers is how much control they are willing to give up in exchange for innovation and design.

​Right to repair, Lifestyle, Screw, Bmw, Stellantis, Ford, Auto industry, Align cars 

A 45-year-old male has been arrested and charged in connection with a wild brawl involving apparent high school students at a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Texas — much of which was caught on video.

Buda Police said Chad Michael Watts of Kyle was charged Tuesday with two counts of assault causing bodily injury.

‘We see that all the time in law enforcement — that videos start at the 10-second mark. What happened in the first 10 seconds?’

Police previously said students from Moe and Gene Johnson High School in Buda were conducting a “walkout” protest Monday — then officers were dispatched for a fight in progress just before 3 p.m. Buda is about 20 minutes southwest of Austin.

Arriving officers were notified that a juvenile female on the sidewalk and an adult male in a vehicle were engaged in a verbal argument, police said, adding that the argument escalated into a physical altercation involving multiple people.

The adult male departed the scene prior to officers arriving, but he was soon located and interviewed, police said. Since officers didn’t witness the brawl, the adult male and the juvenile female were identified and released; no arrests were made at the time, police said.

RELATED: Video: All-out brawl erupts between adult male with MAGA hat and more than a dozen apparent HS students at ICE protest

However police said further investigation determined that Watts was the primary aggressor in the physical altercation, and probable cause was established for two offenses of assault causing bodily injury, a Class A misdemeanor.

Hays County Jail records as of Wednesday morning indicate Watts has no bond and no release date.

Police said the investigation is ongoing to determine if additional charges will be filed.

“We’re trying to get to the original videos and have those submitted by those people that took the videos so we can have a solid case and have that chain of custody for our evidence,” Matt Schima, public information officer with the Buda Police Department, told KXAN-TV.

Schima added to the station that “we see that all the time in law enforcement — that videos start at the 10-second mark. What happened in the first 10 seconds? That’s very important as to what happened for the rest of the video. So I think a lot of the public is really taking the last part of the situation, and they’re making their judgments. So what we have to do to have a solid investigation is what initiated all of this.”

As police noted, the adult male was in a vehicle when he verbally argued with the juvenile female — and then things got physical. Indeed one clip recorded from a distance shows what appears to be the adult male on the street swinging at a female as they move from the street to the sidewalk and to the grass.

A second clip recorded very close to the fight shows what appears to be the adult male holding a MAGA hat while swinging at a female and pushing her backward as she fights back; she momentarily grabs the MAGA hat before she falls to the grass.

A third clip shows the bulk of the brawl, and the adult male is outnumbered. At least a dozen apparent high school students punch and kick him, knock him to the ground, and even put him in a headlock until he’s able to get up and retreat to his vehicle. Those fighting and watching the brawl are heard yelling, “What the f**k?” and “Get him!” and “F**k ICE! You’re a bitch!” and “F**kin’ kill yourself!”

Once the adult male is back in his vehicle, one individual from the crowd is heard yelling at him, “Hey, you want another ass-beating, come on out!” The adult male eventually puts the MAGA hat on his head.

It’s still unclear why the adult male got out of his vehicle in the first place.

When Blaze News asked police if the adult male indicated why he left his vehicle and physically fought the juvenile female, police replied that it’s still under investigation.

If the public has original evidence, witness statements, or relevant information they would like to provide, they can contact Hays County Dispatch at 512-393-7896 or do so anonymously through Hays County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-324-TIPS (8477), www.callcrimestoppers.com, or through the “P3 Tips” phone application, police said.

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​Crime, Physical attack, Ice protest, Ice, Immigration and customs enforcement, Texas, Buda, Police, Arrest, High school students, Argument, Physical altercation, Brawl, Politics 

Border czar Tom Homan has announced that the Trump administration will immediately reduce the number of federal immigration agents in Minnesota by roughly 26%, citing “unprecedented cooperation” from local officials.

Homan held a press conference in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning to provide an update on Operation Metro Surge, which has been met with unrest from some community members, leading to numerous anti-immigration enforcement protests.

‘President Trump fully intends to achieve mass deportations during this administration, and immigration enforcement actions will continue every day throughout this country.’

Homan explained that President Donald Trump had asked him to go to Minnesota to “help de-escalate” the situation and further streamline the targeted operation. He pleaded with critics of the enforcement activities to stop the “hateful, extreme rhetoric” against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

He said that he warned in March that if the rhetoric did not stop, he was “afraid there would be bloodshed.”

“And there has been,” Homan remarked, presumably referring to the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti.

After “productive discussions” with local leaders, including Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (DFL), the administration decided to immediately withdraw 700 federal immigration agents, Homan declared. He cited increased cooperation that has allowed ICE agents to enter the jails and transfer illegal aliens to federal custody more safely.

He also noted the operation’s target list of criminal illegal aliens has decreased due to the successful arrest of many high-risk individuals.

RELATED: Majority of Americans approve of Trump’s response to anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis: Harvard poll

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Homan stated that about 2,000 ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers will remain in Minnesota for the time being. However, the administration aims to end the operation and withdraw agents as quickly as possible, returning the local field office to the pre-operation level of roughly 150 agents. He stated that the speed of the complete withdrawal will depend entirely on the cooperation of local officials and whether the threats and disruptions caused by protesters cease.

He also stated that the Department of Homeland Security has implemented a “unified chain of command” as part of the ongoing enforcement operation, at his recommendation.

RELATED: Memo to Trump: Stop negotiating and ramp up deportations

Photo by Octavio JONES/AFP via Getty Images

Homan rejected rumors that the Trump administration was abandoning its immigration enforcement goals. He described the changes as “smarter enforcement” and “not less enforcement.”

“President Trump fully intends to achieve mass deportations during this administration, and immigration enforcement actions will continue every day throughout this country. President Trump made a promise, and we have not directed otherwise. I heard rumors we have: untrue,” he remarked. “We’re not surrendering our mission.”

He announced that Operation Metro Surge has led to the arrest of 14 individuals with homicide convictions, 139 with assault convictions, 87 with sexual offense convictions, and 28 gang members.

“We’re taking a lot of bad people off the street. Everybody should be grateful for that,” Homan stated. “Everyone has a constitutional right to peacefully protest. President Trump and I, we completely support that. At the same time, professional law enforcement officers should, and need to be able to, perform their sworn duties without being harassed, impeded, or assaulted.”

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​News, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Tom homan, Trump administration, Trump admin, Customs and border protection, Cbp, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Tim walz, Jacob frey, Operation metro surge, Politics 

Atheism likes to present itself as the adult in the room. Faith, by contrast, is cast as a childish indulgence for people afraid of the dark.

Christopher Beha’s “Why I Am Not an Atheist” examines this framing and demonstrates, with real precision, why atheism itself may be the most adolescent worldview of them all.

Atheism has a curious habit. It borrows Christian language — dignity, justice, compassion — while denying the metaphysical foundation that gives those words meaning.

This isn’t a book of defensive apologetics. Beha doesn’t hurl Scripture at doubters or claim that God can be demonstrated like a physics equation. Instead, he treats atheism as a coherent position and then tests it against reality. He walks its reasoning to its natural conclusion and reports back on the damage. What he finds there isn’t liberation but emptiness — sometimes dressed up as sophistication, sometimes as certainty, but emptiness all the same.

Godless

Beha’s journey begins in familiar territory. Like many sane, decent people, he wanted honesty. He wanted to “look the world frankly in the face,” to set aside inherited beliefs that, at that stage of his life, he believed couldn’t withstand scrutiny. God, to him, seemed unnecessary. Worse, He seemed embarrassing. Atheism, on the other hand, felt like intellectual courage.

Beha embraced the godless creed at first, wholeheartedly. But it didn’t take long for cracks to appear.

Rather than joining the professional atheist class — the permanently outraged and faintly condescending set, à la Harris and Dawkins, who mistake self-indulgence for insight — Beha asks a far riskier question: What replaces God once He’s gone? Not as a thought exercise, but in real life. In daily choices. In suffering. In death.

Here, the book begins to shine.

Motion and chaos

Beha identifies two dominant atheist positions. The first is scientific materialism, which holds that only what can be measured is real. Everything else — mind, love, conscience, beauty — is reduced to physical process. Choice becomes brain chemistry. Human life is explained as motion and chance, sorted into probabilities.

The second is a newer, trendier alternative: romantic idealism. Instead of reducing the world to atoms, it centers everything on the self. Meaning is something you create. Truth is something you feel. The highest good is authenticity, and the highest crime is judgment. God disappears, and the individual assumes His place.

Both, Beha argues, fail in opposite but equally revealing ways.

Materialism reduces the human person to a biological incident. Consciousness becomes a chemical glitch. Love becomes an evolutionary strategy. It is an impressively sterile system, one that explains everything except why anyone should bother getting out of bed.

Romantic idealism reacts against this coldness by putting the individual will on the throne. The view seems warmer, and perhaps it is, but it is still incoherent. If everyone creates meaning, meaning ceases to exist. If truth is personal, truth dissolves. The self becomes both king and casualty, crowned with responsibility and locked in solitude.

Between them, Beha shows, modern atheism swings between delusion and despair. That may explain why so many of its most visible champions — from Bill Maher to Ricky Gervais to Penn Jillette — sound less liberated than irritated. Atheism can take things apart, but it can’t hold them together.

RELATED: Did science just accidentally stumble upon what Christians already knew?

CSA-Printstock/Getty Images

Philosophical freeloading

What makes this critique effective is Beha’s refusal to hide behind abstractions. He doesn’t pretend that these systems fail only in theory. They fail in lived experience. They fail when existential angst arrives uninvited.

Atheism, Beha observes, has a curious habit. It borrows Christian language — dignity, justice, compassion — while denying the metaphysical foundation that gives those words meaning. It wants human rights without a human giver. What looks like intellectual bravery is closer to philosophical freeloading.

Beha is especially critical of the arrogance that often accompanies unbelief. Atheism flatters itself as fearless while demanding a strangely narrow universe — one small enough to fit inside a laboratory or a podcast episode. Anything that resists measurement is dismissed as childish. Transcendence is treated as something reserved for uncultured troglodytes.

Christianity, by contrast, has never sold comfort by making reality smaller. It doesn’t reduce the world to what feels manageable. It claims that meaning is real whether we want it or not, that God isn’t a projection of human wishes, and that right and wrong aren’t personal inventions. It doesn’t erase suffering. Instead, it meets it head-on. To be alive is to bear pain, and to bear pain is to be alive.

The way back

It is from within that hard-earned contrast — after years in the wilderness of unbelief — that Beha finds his way back, not to a vague faith, but to Christianity itself and finally to the Catholic Church. This isn’t a story of conquest. It’s an acknowledgment that atheism, however confident it sounds, left him more miserable and taught him to call that misery freedom — something he came to see clearly when his brother Jim nearly died in a car crash and later when he himself faced death with stage-three lymphoma.

Crucially, Beha isn’t arguing that faith banishes doubt. He would laugh at that idea. He remains a skeptic in the classical sense — aware of human limits, suspicious of tidy conclusions, allergic to ideological shortcuts. Faith, as he presents it, is the decision to live as though truth, goodness, and meaning are not clever hallucinations generated by neurons killing time.

For conservative Christians, “Why I Am Not an Atheist” matters because it doesn’t preach. It doesn’t wring its hands over secularism or bulldoze unbelievers. It does something far more damaging: It lets atheism talk, at length. Given enough space, its confidence begins to crack, its claims lose shape, and its bravado gives way to a worldview that can’t deliver what it promises. Atheism isn’t undone here by counterargument, but by relentless exposure.

In an age when disbelief markets itself as adulthood and faith as regression, Beha offers a bracing reversal. Atheism, he suggests, is a creed without the slightest bit of substance, built entirely on what it denies.

Christianity, whatever one’s denomination, remains the only worldview bold enough to say that life matters, suffering is not pointless, and belief answers to what is, not what we want.

​Faith, Atheism, Christianity, Lifestyle, Books, Why i am not an atheist, Christopher beha, Review 

I remember being a young Hill staffer, cheerfully emerging from the staircase at the Capitol South Metro station. On the walk to work, you would pass a few far-left cranks waving scary, hand-lettered signs demanding REAL! CHANGE! NOW!

Back then, you could roll your eyes and keep moving. Today, the cranks work inside the building.

President Trump promised accountability. He has the mandate. He has the tools. He should use them now.

When I arrived in Washington 20 years ago, the baseline assumptions still held. America was good. The Constitution mattered. Terrorists were the enemy. That consensus has collapsed. Over the last several years, political violence has risen and elected Democrats have poured gasoline on the flames instead of trying to put them out.

If a radical had murdered Ann Coulter in 2006, Democrats in Congress would have condemned it. After Charlie Kirk’s assassination last year, Democrats offered little beyond silence, snide distancing, or moral equivocation — while much of the progressive ecosystem treated it as a punch line.

Americans have had enough. They’re sick of protesting without purpose, for-profit rioting, and the endless indulgence of radicals who would rather watch the country burn than let it thrive. That disgust helped carry President Trump back into office on a red wave. He promised to crack down on left-wing extremism. He needs to deliver now more than ever.

In recent months, reports have described widespread Somali-linked fraud in deep-blue Minnesota, elected Democrats flirting with open defiance, and physical attacks on federal law enforcement. Conservative voters keep asking the same obvious question: Why hasn’t the administration used federal tools — IRS audits, DOJ investigations, and financial tracing — to identify who finances this fraud and violence?

RELATED: Trump has the chance to end the welfare free-for-all Minnesota exposed

Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

None of this looks organic. It looks organized. Someone trains the activists, coordinates the logistics, pays the legal bills, and bankrolls the infrastructure.

Recent reporting by Gabe Kaminsky at the Free Press suggests senior advisers and Republican donors have urged restraint, warning that investigations of left-wing networks will trigger retaliation when Democrats regain power.

President Trump should reject that advice — decisively. No more playing Mr. Nice Guy with these maniacs.

Democrats don’t need “provocation” to use government power against their enemies. They do it because it works. They did it under Obama. They expanded it under Biden. They will do it again the moment they get the chance.

Trump should listen to the silent majority of law-abiding Americans who are tired of watching violence, fraud, and abuse go unpunished while ordinary citizens get lectured to accept disorder as the price of “progress.”

The pattern isn’t subtle.

During Obama’s first term, the IRS targeted Tea Party groups for lawful political activity. The people responsible faced little accountability. Many stayed in government. Senior leadership protected them after Lois Lerner’s misconduct became public. Our enemies in the corporate left-wing press called it “scrutiny.”

Under the next phase, left-wing NGOs leaned on social media companies to suppress conservative viewpoints and blacklist influential outlets. Under Biden, federal law enforcement treated ordinary dissent as suspicious. Justice Department initiatives, such as “Arctic Frost,” and task forces consistently aimed their rhetoric — and often their resources — at the right. Merrick Garland’s Justice Department smeared concerned parents as domestic threats for protesting radical gender ideology in public schools.

Americans don’t want persecution. They want basic law enforcement.

They want an IRS that applies the same level of scrutiny to left-wing networks that obstruct law enforcement as it applies to small business owners and seniors who make honest accounting mistakes. An agency that can ruin someone’s life over paperwork can spare resources to investigate whether donors and nonprofits fund violent criminal activity.

If top Treasury officials like Ken Kies and Kevin Salinger cannot meet that simple standard, they need to go.

RELATED: Trump declared war on leftist domestic terror. The IRS didn’t get the memo.

Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images

This isn’t a witch hunt. Legitimate questions exist about whether charitable dollars move through nonprofit networks to finance criminal obstruction, coordinate rioting, or facilitate fraud against U.S. taxpayers. If charitable organizations fund efforts to intimidate and obstruct ICE agents, the public deserves to know. If nonprofit lawyers coach migrants on how to defraud federal programs, consequences should follow — including professional discipline.

Equal justice under law means equal. It can’t mean impunity for the left’s allies while government reserves its full weight for targeting conservatives.

President Trump promised accountability. He has the mandate. He has the tools. He should use them now.

We’re no longer dealing with a few amateurs loitering outside the Metro station. The extremists moved inside the institutions. If the administration still acts like the old norms apply, it will lose the country it just barely won back.

​Left wing violence, Radical left, Ice, Dhs, Ice protests, Riots, Democrats, Opinion & analysis, Political violence, Donald trump, Antifa, Charlie kirk, Assault, Assassination, Immigration and customs enforcement, Mass deportations, Lawfare, Weaponization of the federal government 

Rapper Nicki Minaj has been setting off a social media firestorm since declaring her support for President Trump.

After making a live appearance with the president last week, Minaj — whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty — has been steadily accusing the music industry of awful conduct.

‘If you ever vote DemonCrat again, you’re just as soulless as they are & will perish.’

Particularly Minaj spent some time on Sunday evening accusing the music industry of partaking in satanic rituals and cult-like behavior.

‘The jig is up’

“Your favorite artist has been practicing rituals in a satanic cult where they take babies from other countries & mutilate & kill them as a form of a blood sacrifice to their God,” she wrote on X. “You see, when your master is satan, you must constantly shed blood. However, the JIG IS UP.”

Minaj then took aim at rapper Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, posting images purporting to show the artist in his late 20s alongside famous singers while they were teenagers.

RELATED: Trump’s ‘number-one fan,’ Nicki Minaj, praises the president, shreds Gavin ‘Newscum’

“Are y’all understanding that these ppl have been sacrificing children as a way of gaining & maintaining power? If you ever vote DemonCrat again, you’re just as soulless as they are & will perish,” the female rapper wrote.

Photo finish

Attached to the statement were two photos of Carter — one with the late singer Aaliyah and one with Beyoncé Knowles, whom he married in 2008 — each overlaid with labels identifying the alleged year of the photo and the corresponding ages of the people pictured.

The photo with Aaliyah is labeled “1996,” with Carter identified as 26 and Aaliyah as 15. If the photograph were in fact taken in 1996, that age attribution would be accurate: Aaliyah was born on January 16, 1981, and would most likely have been 15 at the time.

However the dating of the image appears to be incorrect.

Multiple photographs archived by Getty Images, as well as reporting from the Hollywood Reporter, show Carter and Aaliyah wearing the same outfits at a Fourth of July party hosted by Sean “Diddy” Combs in East Hampton, New York, on July 2, 2000. If the image dates from that event, Aaliyah would have been 21 and Carter 30.

Destiny’s children

A second image, showing Carter with Beyoncé Knowles, is also overlaid with age labels, identifying Carter as 27 and Beyoncé as 16. The image appears to originate from an event at the Prime Time 21 nightclub in North Dallas, Texas, on January 31, 1998, as reported in a 2024 Daily Mail article. While the label misstates Carter’s age — he was reportedly 28 at the time — Beyoncé was indeed 16, having been born on September 4, 1981.

RELATED: Nicki Minaj stuns crowd in surprise appearance at TPUSA conference, praises Trump and Vance

Kevin Mazur via Getty Images

The image posted by Minaj appeared to be a crop of a photo from that evening, in which Jay-Z is pictured with the four members of Beyonce’s group, Destiny’s Child.

Nevertheless Minaj had commentary to share on the whole ordeal.

“Imagine if a 30 year old rapper was out here with a 16 year old in this day & age — and how y’all would have his head on a platter. The guy was hugging & humping on teens in broad day light,” she wrote on X.

The newest Republican supporter said she still has more to reveal about the music industry and will shed light on some of the indiscretions of the biggest hip-hop players.

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​Nicki minaj, Align, Rappers, Hip hop, Music industry, Satanism, Jay-z, Beyonce, Cult, Entertainment