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8 killed in ‘cataclysmic plane crash,’ including 20-year-old female co-pilot

A Learjet 60 traveling from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas to the Bahamas crashed near Cresthaven, Florida, around 12:50 p.m. on Sunday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Everyone on board was killed.

The co-pilot of the airplane has now been identified.

‘Some people think that it’s weird that I can fly planes, but I can’t drive a car.’

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that all nine people aboard the aircraft perished in the crash.

Dashcam footage of the crash shows the plane flying nose-first at an incredible speed into a Palm Beach County road and exploding into a fireball filled with debris.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) told reporters at the site of the crash, “Obviously this was a cataclysmic plane crash. It looked like a missile going down. It left a big crater on the side of the road.”

The governor noted that so far there were no reports of any fatalities or injuries among people who were on the ground at the time of impact. Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores noted, however, that roughly 600 people were affected by the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash and is set to hold a press conference on Monday.

The co-pilot has been identified as 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras.

Filgueiras’ mother, Camila, and her stepfather confirmed to the New York Post that the young aviator was the co-pilot of the doomed Learjet.

According to a recording of air traffic control radio calls reviewed by CNN, the pilot reported ice buildup on the aircraft, an outside temperature of -52.6 Fahrenheit, and moderate turbulence.

Shortly thereafter, the pilot told the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center, “We’re descending 8,000 — mayday, mayday! We’re descending 10,000 feet per minute!”

RELATED: Springfield residents say the crashes keep coming — and so do the bills

Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu/Getty Images

“We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” the pilot said. “We’re going to crash into the ground!”

The global flight tracking website ADS-B Exchange shows the jet with the tail number N722BD dropping from 35,025 feet to 8,750 feet in just over two minutes before the data stream cut out. The aircraft’s final recorded ground speed was over 268 miles per hour.

The Post reported that the female crew member’s final remarks captured in the audio recording were, “Holy f**k we’re out of time.”

Filgueiras was featured in a WPEC-TV report in October 2023, where she boasted about securing her pilot’s license.

“I definitely do brag because people say, ‘Ooh you can’t drive,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I can fly,'” she said at the time.

“Some people think that it’s weird that I can fly planes, but I can’t drive a car. I mean, I can but a lot of people think it’s funny,” she added. “I think it’s funny, and I now want my [driver’s] license really bad.”

Filgueiras also appears to have been the user behind the TikTok account “learjet_girl,” which features videos taken in Learjet cockpits with hip-hop music accompaniment.

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​Airplane, Federal aviation administration, Plane crash, National transportation safety board, Ron desantis, Florida, Politics 

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The US banned this Chinese tech — it just showed up in more American products

The FCC has been on a ban spree lately, shutting out new Chinese-made robot vacuums, humanoid robots, and Wi-Fi routers from sale on U.S. soil. Now two new devices are on the list — dashboard cameras and wireless video transmitters — both with ties to a previously banned brand.

To be clear, the ban doesn’t cover all dashboard cameras and wireless video transmitters. Most of these products available on store shelves are safe, by federal standards. Instead, the ban goes after two specific devices that contain technology from a Chinese company that has allegedly tried to steal U.S. tech secrets in the past.

HiSilicon uses some concerning language in its marketing materials.

The devices feature chips made by HiSilicon, a subsidiary of the Chinese tech juggernaut Huawei. Going back to 2012, a committee led by Mike Rogers deemed Huawei and fellow Chinese tech giant ZTE national security threats after neither could convince the group that they wouldn’t spy on Americans on behalf of the Chinese government.

What started as a warning for U.S. enterprises not to buy telecommunications products from the two companies ultimately led to President Trump issuing a national ban during his first term in 2019. The ban blocked Huawei from selling its smartphones in the U.S., blocked Huawei’s technology from being installed in the U.S. 5G network, and even prevented Huawei from using Google’s Android platform and apps on its devices.

Still, Huawei continues to be a leading tech giant with huge foreign influence. By pivoting away from Android to its own operating system, HarmonyOS, Huawei overtook both Apple and Samsung as the number-one smartphone manufacturer in China.

Even as the resilient tech giant focused on its domestic market, it still found a way into American products, thanks to a subsidiary called HiSilicon. Founded back in 1991, HiSilicon is a fabless semiconductor creator that designs the Kirin mobile processor for Huawei’s smartphones. It also designs chips for AI servers, smart home appliances, and other devices.

RELATED: How to protect yourself and your data during the PHP web meltdown

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Among those devices are dashboard cameras and wireless video transmitters. According to the FCC, the agency blocked two devices in these categories that contained HiSilicon chips, barring them from being sold or marketed to American customers in the United States.

The FCC also noted that HiSilicon uses some concerning language in its marketing materials, claiming that its chips contained in products are “designed for the surveillance market” with “[b]uilt in detection algorithms for human faces.”

The official announcement doesn’t name the brands or device models that contained Huawei’s chips. However, given the ongoing ban in the United States, one can only hope that the inclusion of these chips for American-bound products was an oversight by the device manufacturer. Either way, the FCC caught the discrepancy and dealt with it swiftly.

Given the increasingly precarious nature of online cybersecurity these days, we as a nation can’t be too careful about the products we allow into the country. Just last week, the world suffered from the largest cybersecurity event in human history. Before that, Chinese hackers broke into an enterprise cloud backup system that contained data for thousands of companies. Then there’s also the mass surveillance campaign currently under way through Flock’s ALPR camera network, though the company may be falling apart.

Still, we have enough problems to deal with here on American soil without giving China even more access to the American people through suspicious tech.

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​Fcc, Ban, Dash cam, Huawei, Tech 

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Democrat falls behind household-name Republican amid Somali fraud scandal in Maine

Paul LePage is closing strong in Maine amid a torrent of fraud cases that festered under the state’s Democrat trifecta.

Republican former Gov. Paul LePage leads Democrat Matt Dunlap 52% to 47% among likely voters in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, according to the University of New Hampshire Survey Center’s final Pine Tree State Poll. One percent back another candidate, and 1% are undecided.

‘Former Republican Governor Paul LePage has opened a small lead in Maine’s Second Congressional District.’

Six weeks ago, the outlook was dire for Republicans.

Dunlap led LePage 51% to 45% in UNH’s September survey. In just over a month, LePage has swung the projected outcome 11 points in his favor. UNH’s final poll was conducted less than a week before Election Day.

Democrats aren’t the ones bolstering LePage’s lead. Ninety-nine percent of Democrats remain in lockstep with Dunlap, according to the poll.

LePage, however, has reached 97% support among Republicans. Dunlap boasts 62% of independents, but it hasn’t been enough to stave off the polling landslide in recent weeks.

RELATED: Maine got robbed under Democrat Matt Dunlap’s nose. Now he’s running for Congress.

Graeme Sloan/Getty Images

Dunlap’s image has also taken a hit amid both reports of fraud and forthcoming prosecutions for alleged fraudsters, many of whom are Somali.

Thirty percent of likely 2nd District voters view Dunlap favorably, and 49% view him unfavorably. With those numbers, Dunlap is 19 points under water when it comes to favorability.

He was at +4 in the September poll. Sixteen percent of likely voters feel neutrally toward him, and 5% don’t know enough about him to say.

LePage’s favorability ratings aren’t spectacular either, but they have trended in the right direction. Forty-five percent of likely voters view him favorably and 52% unfavorably, a net 7 favorability rating. That’s a seven-point improvement since September, whereas Dunlap’s favorability has collapsed 23 points since UNH’s previous poll.

“Former Republican Governor Paul LePage has opened a small lead in Maine’s Second Congressional District,” UNH said in a poll summary.

The university surveyed 1,722 Maine residents via online form from Oct. 27 to Oct. 31, 2026. The 2nd District sample included 802 likely voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The poll isn’t a handout to Republicans. Other statewide candidates don’t fare as well as LePage.

Democrat Troy Jackson leads Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) 54% to 45% among likely voters, the October poll found. Collins trailed by 4 points in September. Her net favorability is -15, according to UNH. Jackson sits at -1 overall. Most Mainers still think Collins will win anyway, according to UNH.

Collins has a history of outperforming polls.

The now five-term incumbent senator trailed Democrat Sara Gideon in every independent public poll of the 2020 race, according to the Bangor Daily News. Quinnipiac gave Gideon a 12-point advantage as late as mid-September. Closer to Election Day, Collins sat 5.5 points behind Gideon, according to RealClearPolitics.

Collins ended up winning re-election by around 8 points.

“Democrats have effectively nationalized this election as a referendum on President Trump, and Democratic voters are more interested and motivated than Republicans,” UNH said.

LePage seems to have succeeded in making his race a referendum on State Auditor Matt Dunlap.

Blaze News’ Poll Watch average has LePage leading Dunlap by 1.9 points.

The LePage and Dunlap campaigns did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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​Election day, Susan collins, Troy jackson, Politics, Maine, Fraud 

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Hugh Hefner’s widow alleges d​isturbing abuse: ‘Not a good guy, was he?’

Recent allegations against Hugh Hefner are stomach turning, as his widow claims the reality behind the Playboy empire was far darker than its glamorous image.

In an expose published by Page Six, Crystal Hefner accuses the late magazine mogul of sexual abuse and coercion, including allegedly forcing women into degrading sexual situations. The headline reads: “Hugh Hefner’s widow, Crystal, accuses late Playboy founder of rape, incest as she details horrific sex acts.”

Crystal alleges that the Playboy founder abused her sexually throughout their relationship. In one of the more disturbing allegations, the widow accused her late husband of attempting to force twins to perform sexual acts on each other.

She also claimed that Hefner would force women to use “visibly dirty sex toys.”

BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere and co-host Dave Landau are disturbed but not surprised that Hefner allegedly wasn’t a “good guy.”

“It’s actually a really terrible story,” Stu says, “Hugh Hefner, not a good guy, Dave, was he?”

“No, not a good guy,” Dave agrees.

“But I do have to say, not to defend Mr. Hefner, who we know is in hell. I try to be a bit sympathetic always to the people in these stories, but if a 90-year-old man is trying to force dirty sex toys onto you, you can just leave,” he adds.

“As I used to say, you know, as any father I think has said, is like, you know, use your legs. Like move. Don’t just sit there and scream across the house,” Stu says.

“It’s not hard to get away from any 90-year-old, I feel like,” he adds.

“He’s at an age where one good kick could kill him … at the very least will bruise him for the rest of his life,” Dave says.

“Yeah, you kick him, I would say, hard enough, he just turns to dust. It just explodes into just a powder,” Stu agrees.

“It’s like a mummy,” Dave adds.

Want more from Stu and Dave?

To enjoy more of Stu and Dave’s lethal blend of wit, humor, and insightful commentary subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Stu burguiere, Dave landau, Crystal hefner, Hugh hefner, Allegations, Blazetv show 

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Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy’s team gives hopeful update after stroke

Democrat Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut is in the hospital after suffering a stroke.

According to Murphy’s office, the 53-year-old Democrat was taken to a hospital on Saturday after experiencing numbness in his arm at his son’s hockey game.

‘I understand all too well how much this impacts your life.’

Following confirmation that he had indeed suffered a stroke, Murphy was transferred to Johns Hopkins Medicine for “further monitoring.”

A stroke, also known as a “brain attack,” can leave a victim with permanent brain damage. Nearly 800,000 people suffer a stroke every year in the U.S. where it is a leading cause of serious long-term disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The senator’s office claimed on Sunday that “the doctors are encouraged by his progress, he is awake and alert, and we are optimistic he will make a full recovery.”

Murphy, who has been floated as a possible 2028 presidential candidate, suffered the stroke ahead of a planned campaign event with New Hampshire Rep. Chris Pappas (D), who is running for the U.S. Senate.

RELATED: Tantrums galore! Democrats crash out over Rep. Haley Stevens’ last-minute ‘betrayal’

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images

In the days leading up to the adverse medical event, Murphy — a gun control advocate who once identified illegal aliens as the people “we care about most” — was criticizing President Donald Trump, championing Ukraine, and trying to help get Democrats elected. He also claimed days earlier to have seen the president’s alleged plan to “restart war with Iran after the election.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who suffered a stroke in May 2022 that initially prompted concerns about his competence, was among the many politicos who wished Murphy a speedy recovery.

“As someone who survived a near-fatal stroke, I understand all too well how much this impacts your life,” said Fetterman. “My family is rooting for Chris and his family for a full and speedy recovery.”

Murphy’s stroke comes just months after Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) died of an aortic dissection and amid sustained concerns over retiring Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell’s health in light of his latest absence.

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​Chris murphy, Stroke, Connecticut, Democrat, John fetterman, Politics 

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2 Dan Sullivans, 1 Alaska ballot, and a very dirty trick

Even if Mary Peltola wins Alaska’s Senate race on Tuesday, I encourage Americans not to view her as a legitimate U.S. senator. That is her fault, and she and her party will have to live with it.

For years, the left hectored Americans about “attacks on democracy.” It built networks of groups with names like the Democracy Defenders Fund. A feeble Joe Biden stood in the Capitol and accused his opponents of holding “a dagger at the throat of America,” then delivered a prime-time speech in Philadelphia against a blood-red backdrop. Under that banner, the Biden administration and its apparatchiks destroyed lives, jailed people, and attacked reputations and livelihoods. To them, casting doubt on an election was the greatest sin imaginable, deserving severe punishment — fair process be damned.

Given what we now know, no Peltola victory should be called legitimate. The count may be certified in her favor when the dust settles, but there will forever be an asterisk next to her name.

What is happening in Alaska shreds whatever credibility that crusade had left.

Underhanded gamesmanship and dirty tricks are as old as politics. This is not that. A New York Times investigation, drawing on a dozen sources, text messages, and internal documents, describes an elaborate operation involving Peltola campaign aides, lawyers, and staffers at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The purpose was to confuse voters by recruiting another Dan Sullivan to appear on the ballot alongside the actual Republican incumbent, Senator Dan S. Sullivan.

The Times, no friend to conservatives, quoted Peltola’s former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, saying Peltola herself was “definitely aware.” Rios later sought to retract her remarks. Peltola denies knowing about the operation. But the messages and documents reported by the Times cannot be waved away with a press release.

When it comes to dirty tricks, this is a difference in kind, not merely degree. The victim isn’t just the real Dan Sullivan. It is the voters and the electoral system itself. The Justice Department amended its lawsuit to incorporate the Times reporting. Alaska’s governor ordered an investigation, and House Republicans opened a probe of their own.

On Sunday, a federal judge dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit, finding that the government lacked standing and had proposed no workable way to examine ballots without compromising voter secrecy. The department plans to appeal. The dismissal resolves neither the Times’ reporting nor the underlying question of who arranged the scheme.

Recall that the Biden Justice Department prosecuted my friend Douglass Mackey over an election meme. When Mackey was sentenced, Biden’s U.S. attorney in Brooklyn declared:

One of the foundational rights we hold as Americans, a right that many fought so hard to obtain, is the right to vote. The defendant weaponized disinformation in a dangerous scheme to stop targeted groups, including black and brown people and women, from participating in our democracy. … This groundbreaking prosecution demonstrates our commitment to prosecuting those who commit crimes that threaten our democracy and seek to deprive people of their constitutional right to vote.

The government never produced a single voter who was tricked out of casting a ballot. In July 2025, the Second Circuit unanimously overturned Mackey’s conviction and ordered an acquittal because prosecutors had failed to prove he knowingly joined the alleged conspiracy.

RELATED: Alaska may ‘stop’ election certification due to alleged Democratic ‘Decoy Dan’ scheme: Governor

Nathaniel Wilder/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Biden Justice Department’s certainty about Mackey far outran its proof. Yet the language of its denunciation describes the Peltola operation perfectly. Our constitutional republic depends on an informed and virtuous citizenry. Recruiting a candidate to mislead that citizenry is beyond the pale and devoid of virtue.

A few hundred confused voters could decide a Senate race. And in this contest, a few hundred votes could help decide control of the chamber.

Democrats have largely minimized the matter or said nothing. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who personally courted Peltola into this race, had a spokeswoman say he knew nothing of the scheme and wasn’t involved. Notice what that statement leaves out: any suggestion that it was wrong. The DSCC’s response was to change the subject to Republicans.

For five years, the left insisted that silence in the face of election lies is complicity. Fine. By their own standard, the Peltola campaign’s conduct attaches to the Democratic Party’s political apparatus, especially given the reported involvement of its Senate campaign committee. Every one of them should have to answer for it.

RELATED: Republicans keep losing because they won’t take hostages

Jacquelyn Martin – Pool/Getty Images

But we shouldn’t let Lisa Murkowski off the hook either. Although the Republican senator has now condemned the scheme, she helped create the conditions for it.

In 2020, Alaska abandoned its traditional partisan primaries for a top-four “jungle” primary and ranked-choice general elections. Under ranked-choice voting, the candidate leading in first-choice votes can lose as the lowest finishers are eliminated and their ballots transfer to voters’ next choices. The top-four primary is how the other Sullivan made the November ballot.

The whole arrangement was designed to insulate Murkowski from a primary challenge, and her longtime political operatives helped put it in place. Scott Kendall, a leading architect, had worked on her campaigns. A campaign manager for the ballot measure later worked on communications for Murkowski’s 2022 re-election. Alaska Democrats even derided it as the “Lisa Law.” It is inside this system that the deception documented by the Times can do damage.

Recall that Murkowski endorsed Peltola for the House twice and went out of her way to praise her character.

Given what we now know, no Peltola victory should be called legitimate. The count may be certified in her favor when the dust settles, but there will forever be an asterisk next to her name. This sinister plot was designed to sow confusion in Alaska’s elections. The people who ran it don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt, and neither does any Democrat who refuses to condemn it.

​2026 midterms, Dan sullivan, Douglass mackey, Joe biden, Justice department, Lisa murkowski, Mary peltola, New york times, Opinion & analysis, Democratic party, Ranked-choice voting, Fraud, Alaska