2025 was a year for the history books, and BlazeTV host Steve Deace and executive producer Aaron McIntire have the top 10 stories that made this year so unforgettable.

Story number 10, McIntire announces, was the Democrats’ 43-day government shutdown that lasted over a month and kept Americans across the country terrified of losing their SNAP benefits.

“The media was happy to act as if a shutdown wasn’t actually happening for well over a month from October 1 till its conclusion in the middle of November, with a deal Democrats had previously turned down on numerous occasions in the process,” McIntire says. “Which begs the question: If a government shuts down and nobody noticed it, is it really a shutdown at all?”

Next on the list at Number 9 is the “Department of Crashout Efficiency.”

“Much had been made, probably rightfully so, about the role tech magnate Elon Musk played in the election of President Trump back in 2024. With the inauguration of Trump came the ceremonial creation of the Department of Government Efficiency,” McIntire explains, pointing out that this new entity discovered “reams upon reams of nearly unfathomable graft, corruption, and abuse.”

“But the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, went from being a fixture in the news for much of the spring to now being relegated to ghost or legend status depending on whom you ask,” he continues.

Number 8, McIntire says, is the “election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of the nation’s largest city.”

“New York City, in less than a generation after the largest Islamic terror attack of the 21st century struck it to its core … turned around and elected an Islamist to lead it,” McIntire says.

Number 7 is Trump’s hard stance on immigration, with deportations not appearing to be slowing down any time soon.

“The official numbers of how many foreigners have left the country is generally up for debate. But one thing that’s not is that the deportations must continue until morale improves,” McIntire says.

Number 6 is “Operation Midnight Hammer.”

“On June 22, and in conjunction with Israel’s Operation Rising Lion against Iran, the United States carried out what is likely the most technologically and logistically sophisticated air operation in the history of warfare,” McIntire says.

“The stunning operation not only sent a message to Iran, but every would-be enemy of the United States,” he adds.

Number 5 centers around the passing of Pope Francis, which led to the selection of a new pope on May 8.

“They shocked the world by selecting the first pope born in the United States,” McIntire says. Deace chimes in that the new Pope, Pope Leo, is “already worse than Francis.”

Number 4 is Liberation Day.

“On April 2, the Trump administration declared Liberation Day and enacted a series of tariffs on basically every continent, every land mass, every tiny little island in the middle of nowhere under the sun,” McIntire explains.

“The administration sold those sweeping tariffs as a way to grow government revenue and/or leverage for better trade deals,” he adds.

Number 3 is what McIntire calls “Trump 2.0,” which is the beginning of Trump’s second term, and Number 2 is the “future of the right” — which McIntire and Deace believe has fractured after major conservatives like Tucker Carlson have platformed, and essentially celebrated, voices they see as destructive to the right.

“What’s left to be determined is whether this is a movement going through growing pains, or a stillbirth,” McIntire says, before reading Number 1.

“Number one story of the year is Charlie Kirk, the American martyr,” McIntire says. “His murder that everyone saw prompted a number of moving tributes, including one of the best, I thought, from the White House.”

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A former teacher in Texas has been accused of inappropriate sexual contact with a child and possession of child pornography. Just days after the substitute teacher’s arrest, her alleged boyfriend was also arrested for child sex crimes.

On Dec. 19, Madison Paige Jones was reportedly charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child, two counts of indecency with a child sexual contact, and one count of possession of child pornography.

Jones is accused of having more than 500 visual depictions of child pornography in her possession.

According to Ellis County Sheriff’s Office jail records, Jones is being held on a $90,000 bond.

The Midlothian Police Department said in a statement that officers were “dispatched to investigate a report of a potential sexual assault involving a child” on Dec. 17.

Law enforcement reportedly zeroed in on the former 30-year-old substitute teacher and arrested her.

KDFW-TV reported that the Midlothian Independent School District said Jones worked as a substitute teacher four times in the past year at Heritage High School and Baxter Elementary School.

According to the district, Jones substituted for one day at Heritage High School on Nov. 19 and for three days at Baxter Elementary on Oct. 28, Oct. 29, and Nov. 3. The New York Post separately reported the same dates, citing the district.

The San Antonio Express-News reported that Jones is accused of possessing more than 500 visual depictions of child pornography.

The school district said there is no indication that the charges are connected to Jones’ work as a substitute teacher and that preliminary information shows none of the alleged conduct occurred on a Midlothian ISD campus or during a school-related activity.

RELATED: Ex-teacher who dodged conviction for allegedly asking teen lover to kill husband learns fate for sexually assaulting student

CBS News reported that the Midlothian Independent School District said in a statement that its process for monitoring employee criminal history “functioned as intended” and that the district was notified quickly by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The district said the substitute teacher is no longer employed and that it followed required reporting procedures with the Texas Education Agency.

Police said detectives with the Criminal Investigation Division continued the investigation and identified a second suspect, Zackery Dondlinger, 37, of Happy, Texas.

Authorities arrested Dondlinger on Dec. 23 in Loving County, Texas, according to police.

The sheriff’s office said Dondlinger was charged with sexual performance by a child and is being held at the Winkler County Detention Center awaiting arraignment.

Citing the Midlothian Police Department, CBS News reported that Jones and Dondlinger were in a dating relationship.

Law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation include the Midlothian Police Department, the Ellis County Children’s Advocacy Center, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Office of the Attorney General’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit, and the Loving County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities said the investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information related to this case is urged to contact Midlothian Police Detective Dawson Frazer at 469-672-0056.

The Loving County Sheriff’s Office, the Ellis County Children’s Advocacy Center, and the Texas Office of the Attorney General’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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Officials in Salem, Oregon, are facing a public backlash after appointing a man convicted of murdering a teenage girl to a city public safety and police oversight board.

Kyle Hedquist was convicted in 1994 of killing 19-year-old Nikki Thrasher and served 28 years of a life sentence without the possibility of parole before then-Gov. Kate Brown (D) granted him clemency in 2022.

‘Oregonians… are you tired of this kind of leadership yet? Are you ready to show up and vote these criminals out?’

Hedquist was 17 at the time of the crime. Prosecutors said he drove Thrasher to a wooded area, shot her in the back of the head, and left her body on a remote logging road. They described the killing as an “execution-style” murder.

According to prosecutors, Hedquist believed Thrasher had discovered he had stolen items from his aunt and killed her to prevent her from reporting him. Thrasher had asked him about the stolen items, which prosecutors said he interpreted as a threat.

Two years after his release, the Salem City Council appointed Hedquist to the city’s Community Police Review Board, which oversees police conduct and public safety matters. The council recently reappointed him to the position, prompting renewed backlash.

Some city officials have defended the decision, citing Hedquist’s rehabilitation and community involvement since his release.

Others strongly disagree. Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson criticized the appointment, calling it inappropriate for a public safety role.

“While I acknowledge there are appropriate ways for those who have completed their sentences and demonstrated rehabilitation to give back to our community, this is not one of them,” Clarkson said. “Our police and fire professionals have a right to expect better from city leadership.”

The Oregon Republican Party also condemned the decision in a statement, calling it “absurd” to place a convicted murderer on a board overseeing public safety and policing.

“Oregonians… are you tired of this kind of leadership yet? Are you ready to show up and vote these criminals out?” said a commenter on social media.

At the time of Hedquist’s release, Thrasher’s mother said the governor’s office did not notify her that clemency was being considered.

“He took the life of my daughter — in cold blood!” she told KOIN-TV. “He planned it!”

RELATED: Democrat mayor hit with brutal backlash after 8-year-old girl is killed by illegal alien

The Oregon Justice Resource Center, an organization that opposes mass incarceration, defended Hedquist’s appointment. In a statement on social media, the group said Hedquist has spent years contributing to his community and advocating for systemic reform.

“That kind of experience brings value to public institutions,” the group said in a statement, adding that criticism of Hedquist was “misdirected.”

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A bizarre scene unfolded in a small town in southern Italy when the mayor said that he noticed that one of the “three wise men” figures in the public Nativity scene appeared to be moving.

Galatone Mayor Flavio Filoni wrote about the incident in a post on Facebook on Dec. 10. He says that he was admiring the Nativity scene set up by the town’s tourism office when he made the startling discovery.

Rather than a wise man, the man was a foolish criminal migrant from Ghana, according to Filoni.

“I noticed a presence I had initially mistaken for part of the scene. A detail that seemed harmless, but turned out to be decisive,” Filoni wrote.

A comical image of the scene shows the man trying to blend in among the mannequins of the holy display.

Rather than a wise man, the man was a foolish criminal migrant from Ghana, according to Filoni. He had previously been sentenced by a court in Bologna to nine months in prison but reportedly fled before completing his time. When he hid in the scene, the man was being sought for allegedly assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.

Filoni said law enforcement officials were able to capture the man without difficulty.

“A result that confirms, once again, how fundamental it is to place full confidence in the day-to-day work of those who guarantee safety and legality,” added the mayor.

RELATED: ‘Why would somebody have such hate?’ Churchgoers stunned at Nativity display vandalism

“A sincere thank you to all the women and men who guard our territory with competence, attention and dedication,” Filoni said.

Galatone is a small town of about 15,000 residents in the Lecce province of southern Italy.

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The reign of diversity, equity, and inclusion over America’s elite institutions is coming to an end — and BlazeTV hosts Christopher Rufo and Jonathan “Lomez” Keeperman believe those institutions may be coming to an end as a result.

But it’s not necessarily not a bad thing.

“That 10-year period … the BLM era, let’s call it. Did any of these institutions get better? … Did the journalism at the Times and the Post and the Atlantic improve? Were there sparkling, important, seismic essays that emerged in this 10-year period? … Did Hollywood produce better movies?” Rufo asks.

“The answer is absolutely not,” Lomez answers. “This isn’t even debatable. It is self-evidently the case that everything has gotten worse that these institutions were responsible for producing, and you can measure this along any metric you want.”

“Those things are dying, dead, in decline. What is doing better?” Lomez asks. “Well, all the places that these white men fled to. Crypto, you know, the frontiers of AI and tech, where they could find places to still ply their talents.”

“What happens to these institutions?” he asks. “I think we just let them — they sort of have to die.”

However, Lomez does believe there will be a “silver lining.”

“There has to be some reason this is happening and some way to make it better. And the answer I’ve come up with … these institutions actually needed to decline. They were already potentially in a sort of moment of secular decline anyway, and that this has freed a bunch of talent to go do other things,” he explains.

“I do believe these people and these impulses are going to find their way toward something productive,” he says. “And this is what’s going to arise out of this moment.”

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President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. military carried out a strike on Venezuelan territory, which he described as the first land-based attack in an escalating conflict tied to alleged narco-terrorism.

Trump made the remarks to reporters at the White House before a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said the strike targeted a dock area that he claimed was used to load boats transporting drugs.

‘Two nights ago we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard.’

“It doesn’t matter, but there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs, so we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area,” Trump said. “It’s the implementation area — that’s where they implement. And that is no longer around.”

When asked by a reporter whether additional strikes had occurred inside Venezuela, Trump declined to comment.

The Pentagon provided no details and referred all questions to the White House.

The president offered further details during a radio interview with WABC, saying the strike occurred two nights earlier and targeted what he described as a major shipping facility.

“We just knocked out — I don’t know if you read or you saw — they have a big plant or big facility where they send the, you know, where the ships come from,” Trump said. “Two nights ago we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard.”

The operation would represent the first direct U.S. strike on Venezuelan land during the current confrontation. The Trump administration has previously ordered strikes against vessels it says are operated by narco-terrorist groups smuggling drugs into the United States.

Critics of the administration have questioned those allegations and accused the U.S. government of acting unlawfully, including claims by human rights organizations that the strikes could constitute war crimes. Administration officials have rejected those accusations.

Tensions escalated earlier after the United States seized a Venezuelan oil tanker that administration officials alleged had violated U.S. embargo restrictions. Trump later ordered what the administration described as a full blockade of tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.

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

In response, Venezuelan officials announced military exercises that they said were intended to prepare the country to defend against a possible U.S. invasion aimed at removing President Nicolás Maduro from power.

Trump has previously said the United States could take military action to reclaim oil interests that were nationalized by Venezuela’s socialist government decades ago.

“It’s about — they took our oil, they took it, and they also sent millions of people in here from jails into our country,” Trump said in the WABC interview. “Some of the worst people on Earth.”

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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday said the federal government is launching a “massive” investigation into alleged fraud schemes and shared video footage from Minnesota. Earlier, FBI Director Kash Patel said Somali immigrants convicted of fraud could face possible denaturalization and deportation.

‘These criminals didn’t just engage[] in historic fraud, but tried to subvert justice as well.’

In a statement Sunday, Patel said the FBI previously dismantled a $250 million fraud scheme involving COVID-19 relief funds intended to provide meals for children in Minnesota.

Patel said the case resulted in 78 indictments and 57 convictions. He identified several defendants — including Abdiwahab Ahmed Mohamud, Ahmed Ali, Hussein Farah, Abdullahe Nur Jesow, Asha Farhan Hassan, Ousman Camara, and Abdirashid Bixi Dool — who were charged with crimes ranging from wire fraud to money laundering and conspiracy.

“These criminals didn’t just engage[] in historic fraud, but tried to subvert justice as well,” Patel said. He added that Abdimajid Mohamed Nur and others were charged with attempting to bribe a juror with $120,000 in cash. Those defendants pleaded guilty and were sentenced, including one individual who received a 10-year prison term. Courts also ordered nearly $48 million in restitution in related cases, Patel said.

Patel described the scheme as the “tip of a very large iceberg,” adding that the FBI would “continue to follow the money and protect children” and that the investigation remains ongoing.

Noem said Homeland Security Investigations agents are currently operating in Minneapolis as part of what she described as a “massive” investigation into alleged child-care fraud and other fraud schemes.

Video shared by the DHS showed investigators questioning a man outside a facility, while another clip depicted agents entering what the DHS described as a “suspected fraud site.”

“MASSIVE fraud in Minnesota is finally being exposed. Time for accountability,” the White House wrote in a post on social media.

RELATED: News outlet is getting wrecked for story on Somali migrants’ economic impact on Minnesota

— (@)

The increased scrutiny followed the publication of video by independent journalist Nick Shirley, in which he is seen confronting proprietors of day-care centers in Minnesota. Shirley blamed Gov. Tim Walz, the failed 2024 Democrat vice presidential candidate, for overseeing the state while the alleged fraud schemes flourished.

A spokesperson for Walz pushed back by noting that the state had investigated the fraud claims and that the governor had spent years working to “crack down on fraud.”

Nevertheless, a group of former state health workers have accused Walz of obstructing efforts to uncover the scams.

“Tim Walz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota. We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud, but no, we got the opposite response,” read a statement from the group.

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Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck stunned the crowds at Turning Point USA’s AmFest 2025 when he took on the lies force-fed to younger generations — and why it’s more important than ever that they wake up and lead the country to a better place.

“I wanted … to warn you that today the times have changed and you are desperately needed,” Glenn began. “Desperately needed. But there’s something else that I think is more important that you need to hear. We must stop fighting with one another. It is important to stand for the truth, but people are not your enemies. Lies are your enemies.”

“You can’t stop darkness with more darkness. You can’t stop hate with more hate. You only dispel the darkness of lies with the light of truth,” he said. “A single candle will light up a room.”

That’s when Glenn turned his focus toward the youth — as the America they’ve come to know has been one full of turmoil and deception.

“If I were you, and I’m 25, I was 1 when the World Trade Center came down. I would have no memory of that,” he explained. “And I certainly wouldn’t have a memory of the United States before that.”

Post-9/11, the United States these children grew up in was a surveillance state that has been constantly “on the verge of global war” — complete with the 2008 financial crisis that bankrupted many of their parents.

“Nobody went to jail. And you and your family paid the price that none of them had to pay. Then 2008, 2009, the cell phone comes out, social media comes out. It’s supposed to connect us so we can talk to our friends, and it does just the opposite. It divides us; it changes us,” Glenn recalled.

“Then 2020 hits, COVID happens. … Once again, you saw the entire system turned upside down and the little guy get screwed,” he added.

Not only did the youth see what happened to their parents, but they were told that if they went into debt to go to college, they would see great returns. Instead, the debt has only continued to pile up, and they received an “education” in which instructors insisted on telling blatant lies, like “men can be women.”

“And there are no jobs for you,” Glenn said. “Everything. Everything. If I’m 25 years old, I would think absolutely everything is a lie.”

“The biggest lie that you were told is that you don’t matter. Here’s the thing. I want you to understand: A broken system does not erase human agency. It reveals who still has agency. Every single generation since the beginning of time has inherited a mess,” he continued.

“Only the great generations turn that mess into a mission,” he said. “And that’s your calling.”

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