https://meenews.co/post/6a8a09262c5335ae1049d9d2 Federal judge blasts Rubio’s 75-country visa freeze as ‘Orwellian,’ strikes down policy te 2026-08-22T20:40:06.462Z Federal judge blasts Rubio’s 75-country visa freeze as ‘Orwellian,’ strikes down policy A federal judge struck down the Trump administration’s freeze on immigrant visas from 75 countries Friday, ruling Secretary of State Marco Rubio lacked the legal authority to order denials for applicants otherwise found eligible to enter the United States. U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas, a Biden appointee in Manhattan, vacated the State Department policy and any visa refusals based solely on it, directing the government to revisit those cases. "The Court holds that the Policy is contrary to law and was issued in excess of Secretary Rubio’s statutory authority, Vargas wrote in her 61-page opinion. The State Department enacted the policy in January, suspending immigrant-visa issuance to nationals of 75 countries the department deemed at high risk of becoming dependent on public benefits. The list spans Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. BOASBERG DELIVERS FRESH IMMIGRATION SETBACK TO TRUMP IN FREE-SPEECH CLASH Rubio’s policy told consular officers to review each applicant individually. But even applicants who passed that review, showed "additional evidence that demonstrates he or she overcomes the public charge refusal" and had no other reason to be denied were still refused visas if they came from one of the 75 designated countries. "While the Policy permits consular officers to exercise their normal functions up to a point, whatever determinations they make as to eligibility for the applicants subject to the Policy are ultimately irrelevant," Vargas wrote. "The outcome is predetermined. The visa will be refused." The judge said the directive effectively imposed a nationality-based ban on immigrants from nearly 40% of the world’s countries and sidelined the consular officers Congress charged with deciding whether individual applicants qualify for visas. FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN TRUMP’S $100K H-1B VISA FEE, RULING IT AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL TAX "The Policy thus displaces consular officers from the role Congress assigned them in the visa issuance process," Vargas wrote. "In addition to its other defects, the Policy also exceeds the statutory authority that the INA vests in the Secretary of State," Vargas continued. "Specifically, Secretary Rubio’s Cable directing consular officers that they 'must refuse' immigrant visas to nationals of certain countries cannot be reconciled with Congress’s express limitation on his authority as Secretary of State." The Trump administration argued the refusals were lawful because officers formally issued them under Section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, an existing provision governing visa refusals. Vargas rejected that rationale, saying the government had failed to identify a law allowing an officer to deny a visa to an applicant already found eligible. "The Government engages in what is best described as an exercise in Orwellian logic," Vargas wrote. She found the policy violated the INA’s bar on nationality-based discrimination in immigrant-visa issuance, as well as provisions allowing visa refusals only when an applicant is legally ineligible. The administration’s approach, she wrote, drew "pernicious distinctions based upon nationality." Vargas also rejected the administration’s argument that the policy preserved consular officers’ authority because they still entered the denials themselves. "The fact that the mandatory visa refusal is ultimately effectuated by the consular officer hardly means that the consular officer’s role in the statutory scheme has not been usurped," she wrote. TRUMP ADMIN SUED OVER VISA TIME RESTRICTIONS FOR FOREIGN STUDENTS, JOURNALISTS The judge distinguished the policy from the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling upholding Trump’s first-term travel ban. That case involved presidential authority over who may enter the country, Vargas noted, while this case centered on whether the State Department could refuse immigrant visas to applicants otherwise eligible under the law. The ruling does not invalidate visa denials based on other independent grounds of ineligibility, but it wipes out refusals based solely on the 75-country freeze and returns those cases to the government for further proceedings consistent with the decision. The lawsuit was brought by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC); African Communities Together (ACT), a Harlem-based immigrant advocacy group; five prospective employment-based immigrants; and six U.S. citizens seeking to bring family members to the country. Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8a06d12c5335ae1049d98c World Cup energy carries into Freedom 250 Grand Prix as global fans celebrate America's historic birthday te 2026-08-22T20:30:09.784Z World Cup energy carries into Freedom 250 Grand Prix as global fans celebrate America's historic birthday America has been heavily criticized from the political left, whether from citizens or politicians. Our nation has also received relentless condemnation from foreign citizens around the world, especially over the last decade. There seemed to be a shift during the World Cup, though. Fans from all over the world had the ability to experience the beauty of the United States of America through our unique culture, landscape, patriotism, hospitality and more. It was the best PR campaign I've ever seen for our nation. Now, with the Freedom 250 Grand Prix IndyCar race in Washington, D.C., fans from all over the world are flocking to our nation's capital and expressing that same love and respect we heard during the World Cup. While walking through the National Mall, with the United States Capitol building in the background peeking over the top of the grandstand, I spoke with multiple fans who had nothing but great things to say about America and the work Trump and his administration put in to make this race a reality. They urged their nations to take notes on how well America celebrates its history and brings people together through sports. A fan who lives "right by the track" in Silverstone, England, told me, "D.C. is one of my favorite cities. So much history," and went as far as saying, "I love America. It’s a beautiful country and beautiful people." INDYCAR STAR ALEX PALOU REFLECTS ON WHITE HOUSE, OVAL OFFICE VISIT WITH TRUMP: 'INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE' My follow-up was, "Isn't it a little weird to say how much you love America being from the UK?" He chuckled and said, "Yeah, but [America] 250. I won’t live to see another 250 [years of America], but it’s cool to see this one celebrated." He went on to compliment how well America celebrates its history, saying, "The UK is a much older country, but we don’t celebrate our history like you guys. You guys preserve it and look after it, and that’s really respectable." AMERICA'S 250TH BIRTHDAY EVENTS TAKING PLACE THIS SUMMER CALLED 'ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME' TRAVEL OPPORTUNITIES I also spoke with other European fans, including one man in an Erling Haaland jersey. He explained how events like the World Cup and now the Freedom 250 Grand Prix showcase "how great the country is and the people." No one expressed the beauty of how sports can transcend political divisiveness and bring a nation and the world together better than the fan from England, though. He said, "There are a lot of bad things in the world. Celebrate the good things. Celebrate unity and family and sport. It’s a great blessing we’ve got." RILEY GAINES: WORLD CUP VISITORS ARE REMINDING AMERICANS WHAT MAKES THIS COUNTRY GREAT Amen. I've always said that sports have the ability to bring us together better than any other outlet. An event like the Freedom 250 Grand Prix can and is doing just that. Whether you were lucky enough to get a ticket to attend the race or you're watching from home, whether you're an American or not, enjoy the majestic backdrop of historic American buildings and monuments like the Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol building as these drivers take every turn and accelerate down straightaways. America is a beautiful place and this race will showcase the best of it. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8a06d12c5335ae1049d983 Hayden Panettiere's co-star Justin Chatwin 'pissed off' over Hollywood culture after her passing te 2026-08-22T20:30:09.144Z Hayden Panettiere's co-star Justin Chatwin 'pissed off' over Hollywood culture after her passing Justin Chatwin is "pissed off" over Hollywood culture as he grieves the death of his "Sleepwalker" co-star Hayden Panettiere. In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Chatwin — who recently worked alongside Panettiere on what became her final film — said his grief has turned to anger over what he sees as a lack of support for people struggling with trauma and addiction in the entertainment industry. "I'm a man, so I process things by getting pissed off," Chatwin said. "And so I'm kind of angry that this is the culture that — and this is the industry — that people aren't taken care of." HAYDEN PANETTIERE AND THE CHILD STARS WHOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEIR MOMAGERS TURNED COMPLICATED "They get the work, they sell the product," he continued, "and there's just a lot of people in our industry that are dying from … inability to feel pain or heal trauma." Chatwin added that "there's not enough support or awareness around these issues," before saying, "Yeah, I'm grieving." Panettiere died Sunday, Aug. 16, at the age of 36.  The "Heroes" and "Nashville" star was found in cardiac arrest at her home in Greenville, South Carolina, according to the Greenville County Coroner's Office. Emergency personnel attempted life-saving measures before Panettiere was pronounced dead. An autopsy found no signs of trauma that contributed to her death. WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO MOURNS FORMER FIANCÉE HAYDEN PANETTIERE, VOWS TO KEEP HER MEMORY ALIVE FOR DAUGHTER KAYA Her official cause and manner of death have not yet been determined, and the investigation remains ongoing. Chatwin said the struggles he witnessed extend far beyond Hollywood, describing trauma and addiction as an issue affecting people across the country. "It's not just her," Chatwin said. "We've lost a lot of people, and not just Hollywood, in all of America. It's an epidemic that needs to be looked at." LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Chatwin said his final time with Panettiere came after the two finished working together on "Sleepwalker," when they went out to dinner following the film's wrap. "We went out to dinner after we wrapped the movie and, yeah, she was one of the top five, top 10 favorite people that I've ever worked with," he recalled. "She was super sweet." However, Chatwin said he could also sense that Panettiere was carrying significant pain. "I could sense a lot of pain that she had dealt with, from her family to her daughter," he said. "I could sense the heaviness and the weight that the toll of 20 years in Hollywood and … trauma and the fight to figure out the trauma and addiction can have on you." Panettiere had previously spoken publicly about her struggles with addiction and other personal challenges. She detailed many of those experiences in her 2026 memoir, "This Is Me: A Reckoning." GOLDIE HAWN SOUNDS THE ALARM ON CHILDHOOD CELEBRITY CULTURE: 'ALL I CAN SAY IS IT'S A NIGHTMARE' Chatwin first met Panettiere years earlier when she was in her 20s and starring on "Heroes." The two later reunited to work together on "Sleepwalker," a psychological thriller released in January. Panettiere starred as Sarah Pangborn, a grieving mother, and also served as an executive producer on the film. "She's just got one of the biggest hearts of anyone that I've worked with," Chatwin said. "And she's super sweet." But Chatwin said he noticed a difference in his co-star when they reunited. "Life had taken a toll on her, and she had a lot of unfortunate incidents," he said. The actor also opened up about the loneliness that can exist behind the glamour of Hollywood, describing the stark transition performers can experience when they leave a movie set. "Sometimes the pain is unbearable, and at the end of the day, you go home from a warm, fun movie set where everyone's telling you you're great, and you're alone in your house and you still got to order your coffee and eat your dinner," Chatwin said. "It's a really lonely career." On set, however, Chatwin remembered Panettiere as "super fun" and said he treasured their deeper conversations. "I really love having deep conversations with her," he said. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER Reflecting on Panettiere's experience while making "Sleepwalker," Chatwin also offered a warning to fellow performers about taking on roles that could force them to revisit unresolved experiences. "I think that actors need to consider what roles they play, especially if it's opening up a vulnerable trauma that isn't healed," he said. Panettiere rose to fame as a child actor before becoming widely known for playing cheerleader Claire Bennet on NBC's "Heroes." She later starred as country singer Juliette Barnes on "Nashville," earning two Golden Globe nominations, and appeared as Kirby Reed in the "Scream" franchise. WATCH: NEW DETAILS SURFACE SURROUNDING HAYDEN PANETTIERE'S DEATH Her death came a little more than three years after her younger brother, Jansen Panettiere, died in 2023 at age 28 from an enlarged heart coupled with aortic valve complications. Panettiere had spoken openly about the profound grief she experienced following his death. Despite the pain Chatwin said he witnessed, his description of how he hopes Panettiere will be remembered was simple. "She was a unicorn." And when asked what Panettiere had told him about returning to acting and what she wanted to do next, Chatwin said her focus wasn't on another role or career milestone. "I think the only focus was to be happy," he said. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8a06ca2c5335ae1049d962 Will the DOJ’s investigation into a16z spook other VCs? te 2026-08-22T20:30:02.868Z Will the DOJ’s investigation into a16z spook other VCs? On the latest episode of Equity, we wonder why the DOJ is investigating startup board seats. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8a04782c5335ae1049d93e Yankees star Giancarlo Stanton sustains new calf injury, makes possible return this season 'challenging' te 2026-08-22T20:20:08.234Z Yankees star Giancarlo Stanton sustains new calf injury, makes possible return this season 'challenging' Giancarlo Stanton’s nightmare season continued with another injury setback earlier this week. The 36-year-old was rehabbing from a strained right calf, with hopes of returning at the beginning of September, when he fell down running the bases and strained his left calf. The setback leaves his 2026 season in doubt. "It’s a moderate grade," New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "What that means moving forward, we’re not ruling anything out. He’ll obviously continue to work to try and get it right and hopefully be available but obviously we’re at a point in the calendar where it gets challenging, but you also never know, obviously bummed for him. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM "Been working his tail off every single day here trying to get this right. I think you all know how bad he wants to be on that field and contributing to a championship. So obviously that’s disappointing but hopefully we just continue to work and get him healthy." Stanton tweaked his calf while running between second and third base during the Yankees’ 12-4 win over the Houston Astros on April 24. He was nearing a return in June, but sustained another calf strain on the same leg, just in a different spot. He resumed running two weeks ago, and had even taken at-bats against Carlos Rodón while he was on the injured list with an elbow injury. "Obviously it’s been a tough road where he kind of reinjured a different part of the calf muscle halfway through here and now this. So tough news. You feel for G because I know how bad he wants to be in there for us, but at the same time it is what it is too and we got to just keep moving and try and hopefully get him right and hopefully get him right to where he still can be in the mix by the end." ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! The Yankees' offense has been one of the worst in baseball since Aaron Judge left the lineup with an injury at the beginning of June, and Stanton was being counted on to come back and provide some much-needed thump in the middle of the order. In 24 games this season, he was hitting .256 with three home runs and 14 RBI. Injuries have been a significant part of Stanton’s tenure with the Yankees, as he has not played a full season in pinstripes since his first in 2018. Following his debut season with the Yankees, Stanton missed 266 of 708 games over the next five seasons because of a series of strains of right biceps, right knee, left hamstring (twice) and left quadriceps, along with right ankle inflammation and left Achilles tendinitis. In 2024, Stanton missed 28 games with a strained left hamstring but helped the Yankees reach their first World Series since 2009 by hitting 27 homers and 72 RBIs in 114 games, adding seven homers in 14 postseason games, including four in the ALCS against the Cleveland Guardians. Stanton missed the first 70 games last year because of inflammation in the tendons of both elbows. After returning, Stanton hit .273 with 24 homers, 66 RBIs and a .944 OPS in 77 games. The Yankees, who entered Saturday three games back of the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East, will look to narrow the gap without their star slugger. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8a04772c5335ae1049d935 Nashville hospital medication error leaves at least 1 patient paralyzed after routine surgery, 3 others hurt te 2026-08-22T20:20:07.583Z Nashville hospital medication error leaves at least 1 patient paralyzed after routine surgery, 3 others hurt Four people who went in for routine joint replacement surgeries at a hospital in Nashville allegedly had the wrong drug injected into their spine, leaving at least one woman paralyzed, according to her family. Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown in Nashville on Friday acknowledged an alleged "medication error" in their pharmacy that led to the patients being injected with potassium phosphate instead of a regular anesthetic and experiencing "adverse health reactions," according to multiple reports. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation confirmed to Fox News Digital on Saturday that it is investigating the incident after receiving information Friday from the Tennessee Healthcare Facilities Commission. FLORIDA DOCTOR CHARGED AFTER ALLEGEDLY REMOVING WRONG ORGAN DURING SURGERY "The joint replacement went wonderful. Her knee is great. The rest of her is not," Kristina Dorton told WKRN-TV, saying that her mother-in-law was left paralyzed. "It was supposed to be the anesthetic. It was supposed to be Bupivacaine, and it was potassium, and we don’t know what quantity," Dorton said. Dorton said her mother-in-law currently has no feeling from her breastbone down. IOWA WOMAN DIED FOLLOWING HERNIA REPAIR AFTER NURSES DISMISSED PAINFUL POST-SURGERY SYMPTOMS: LAWSUIT "We don’t know what recovery looks like or if there is recovery," she said. The other three patients allegedly suffered serious complications from the mix-up, with CBS News reporting that a second patient is also saying they were left paralyzed. ORGAN HARVESTING BEGAN WHILE PATIENTS STILL SHOWED ‘SIGNS OF LIFE,’ FEDERAL INVESTIGATION FINDS Dr. Shubhada Jagasia, president & CEO of the hospital, said in a statement earlier this week, per WSMV, "Our hearts are with the four patients and their families impacted by this event. On behalf of our leadership and care teams, I am deeply sorry for the harm caused to our patients. We have met directly with each of the families to express our deep support, connected them with spiritual care teams, and ensured they have access to all appropriate resources and ongoing care needed." Jagasia continued, "Providing safe, high-quality care is at the core of everything we do, and any gap in meeting that standard receives our immediate, uncompromising attention. The day of the event, we self-reported to state regulators and launched a thorough investigation. We identified the cause and have implemented corrective safeguards." She added that the hospital’s clinical teams are actively using enhanced safety protocols to "ensure the highest level of safety at Midtown." But Dorton told WKRN that the treatment to help her mother-in-law recover isn’t working. TEXAS DENTIST ACCUSED OF FATAL MISTAKES AFTER 4-YEAR-OLD DIES DURING DENTAL PROCEDURE "This is life-changing. You don’t come out of this without some type of life-altering, catastrophic deficit," she said, adding that their family is hoping someone, somewhere will know how to help her mother-in-law. "Time is of the essence here for recovery," she added. Fox News Digital has reached out to the hospital for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89ffc92c5335ae1049d8b5 Alex Palou tops final Freedom 250 Grand Prix practice session that had multiple red flags te 2026-08-22T20:00:09.067Z Alex Palou tops final Freedom 250 Grand Prix practice session that had multiple red flags While the first practice session gave teams a chance to try out the wet tires, the second practice session started with a nice dry track, just hours before qualifying. And while more than a few drivers had moments earlier in the day, the first major moment of the weekend came when Graham Rahal's No. 15 Honda brought out a red flag. As the veteran approached a braking zone, the rear of his car stepped out and hit the wall, which ultimately left him stranded in the run-off area just ten minutes into the session. START YOUR ENGINES: HERE IS YOUR CRASH COURSE ON THE INDYCAR FREEDOM 250 GRAND PRIX WEEKEND That unfortunately cost Rahal some valuable track time before qualifying gets underway. The lap times really ramped up in the second practice session thanks to the dry track, but also drivers getting more familiar with the deceptively tricky seven-turn street circuit. HERE ARE 5 DRIVERS TO KEEP AN EYE ON AS INDYCAR HITS THE STREETS OF WASHINGTON FOR FREEDOM 250 GRAND PRIX The same part of the track — the braking zone into Turn 6 — also caught out Rahal's RLL teammate Louis Foster. He lost control of his car after hitting a bump on the track surface that sent him into the inside wall, damaging his front wing, and bringing out the second red flag of the session. However, unlike Rahal, Foster managed to get his car to the pits after the entire nose had been removed, allowing the team to take a look at his car and get him back on track. That bump into Turn 6 is going to be something that drivers will really be paying attention to in both qualifying and the race on Sunday. Team Penske saved their best for last, sending Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 Chevrolet late in the "all-skate" session to drop the fastest lap of the day to that point, a 56.895 on the primary tire. DRIVERS JOSEF NEWGARDEN AND KYLE KIRKWOOD TALK INDYCAR'S 'ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME' FREEDOM 250 GRAND PRIX In the next part of practice, it was time for some drivers to start throwing on the faster, alternate tires, giving us a taste of their single-lap qualifying pace. After both groups took to the track, it was Alex Palou leading the way with a 56.615 on brand new red alternate tires, while right behind him was Kyle Kirkwood, whose fastest lap of the session was a 56.691 on the primary. It looks like Kirkwood, known to be one of the series' street aces, might have a little pace left in that car, but how qualifying shakes out will be anyone's guess. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89fb1a2c5335ae1049d831 Alabama Crimson Tide names starter for week one: Get to know Bama quarterback Keelon Russell te 2026-08-22T19:40:10.079Z Alabama Crimson Tide names starter for week one: Get to know Bama quarterback Keelon Russell With the college football regular season rapidly approaching, many position battles are starting to reach their logical conclusions. One position battle in particular that has garnered a ton of press is the quarterback competition between Alabama Crimson Tide signal callers Austin Mack and Keelon Russell. In an article I wrote about the battle last month, I said I wouldn't be shocked if the talented but inexperienced Russell seized the job from the elder statesman in Mack, and that is apparently precisely what happened. This is a pivotal year for head coach Kalen DeBoer, as he needs to show Bama fans and boosters that he can get the program back to the heights they achieved under the great Nick Saban, so it's interesting he decided to go with the younger of the two quarterbacks. However, I love the idea of picking the signal caller with the higher upside and more long-term potential for the program, and no quarterback in the country has higher upside than Russell. IDENTIFYING THREE BREAKOUT SEC PLAYERS WHO WILL BE HOUSEHOLD NAMES BY SEASON'S END IN 2026 The redshirt-freshman hails from the Dallas-Fort Worth area where he played for high school powerhouse Duncanville. The Panthers have produced an insane amount of Power 4 talent over the past several years, and I expect Russell to continue that trend. FIVE IMPACT FRESHMEN FROM THE SEC WHO ARE SURE TO TURN HEADS ON THE FIELD THIS COMING SEASON A former five-star recruit, Russell was the number one player coming out of the state of Texas, which if you know anything about high school ball, is an accomplishment in and of itself. He had an uncanny mix of arm talent and accuracy, punctuated by his 67% completion percentage with only four interceptions his senior year, as well as the elite athleticism head coaches drool over. Duncanville even captured a 6A state title with Russell at the helm, proving he's a winner even in a stacked league such as the highest classification of high school football in the Lone Star State. Russell will get plenty of runway too, and I believe this is the hidden genius in the decision by DeBoer to ride with the youngster. The Crimson Tide will open with East Carolina before traveling to Kentucky, and while you never want a redshirt freshman making his first SEC start on the road, getting to do so against a first-year head coach trying to rebuild a stagnant Kentucky program is about as good as it gets. By the time Alabama welcomes Florida State to Bryant Denny Stadium, Russell will have an SEC road start under his belt, and he can help the Tide get their revenge for last season's debacle in Tallahassee. Bama doesn't play a Playoff-caliber opponent until October 10 against Georgia, and by then, Russell will have half a season of experience to draw from. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! I believe Russell has the talent and pedigree to have the Crimson Tide firing on all cylinders by the end of the season, which is exactly when you want a championship contender to peak. And, if he does elevate the Tide to the promised land, he will still be young enough to stick around for a few more seasons to try and repeat his success, meaning DeBoer won't have to spend another offseason breaking in a new quarterback as he's done the previous three years in Tuscaloosa. This might be the spark DeBoer needs to reach the heights everyone thought he would when he accepted the Alabama job nearly three years ago. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89fb192c5335ae1049d828 Todd Blanche vows to 'come after' bad actors following 400M TikTok settlement te 2026-08-22T19:40:09.422Z Todd Blanche vows to 'come after' bad actors following 400M TikTok settlement Attorney General Todd Blanche praised the Justice Department's $400 million settlement with TikTok over allegations of children's privacy violations, saying the deal is a "fair, just and right result." Speaking on "Saturday in America," Blanche said the deal addresses TikTok's past actions while helping protect children online. "If companies and entities are not doing what they're supposed to do to make sure that happens, we're [going to] come after them," Blanche told host Kayleigh McEnany. TRUMP SAYS HE WILL NOMINATE ACTING AG TODD BLANCHE TO PERMANENTLY LEAD JUSTICE DEPARTMENT The DOJ announced the agreement Friday, saying TikTok, ByteDance and affiliated entities agreed to pay $400 million to resolve litigation concerning compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The DOJ filed the lawsuit under the Biden administration in 2024, and Blanche noted that TikTok has undergone major changes since the initial filing. He said the settlement underscores the U.S. government’s commitment to protecting young people. FRANCE BECOMES FIRST EU NATION TO BAN SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CHILDREN UNDER 15 "Since that lawsuit was filed, as folks know, TikTok has undergone a meaningful change in ownership, leadership, management and their practices. And so, this lawsuit and the settlement of it takes into account the changes the company has made since the lawsuit was filed, which is exactly what we should be doing," Blanche said. "It's a stark reminder and a real important note to anybody out there that we are [going to] protect children, and the internet has got to be a safe place for children," he added. PARENTS PUSH CONGRESS TO ACT ON KIDS' ONLINE SAFETY AFTER JURIES FIND META AND YOUTUBE LIABLE FOR HARM Fox News Digital reached out to TikTok and ByteDance for comment but did not immediately hear back. The DOJ said that TikTok has put in place several measures to protect young users, including age-related controls and enhanced parental oversight. "Those developments have materially advanced the public interests underlying the Department's litigation and have strengthened protections for millions of American families," DOJ officials wrote in a statement. NEW MEXICO SEEKS MASSIVE PENALTY FROM META AFTER JURY FOUND TECH GIANT LIABLE FOR ENDANGERING CHILDREN The attorney general said he was "happy" with the settlement. "It's a big number. It's a lot of money that they agreed to pay to kind of address what happened in the past to make sure it doesn't happen in the future," Blanche said. Under the terms of the settlement, TikTok and ByteDance will pay $300 million immediately and an additional $100 million "upon entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree entered against TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly." Fox News’s Brie Stimson contributed to this report. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89fb182c5335ae1049d81f Wendy Williams delivers blunt 3-word plea in rare sighting amid guardianship battle te 2026-08-22T19:40:08.722Z Wendy Williams delivers blunt 3-word plea in rare sighting amid guardianship battle Wendy Williams had three words for the cameras during a rare New York City appearance. On Wednesday, the former talk show host, 62, was spotted walking through the city, marking her first known public outing since February. In a video, Williams was asked what she wanted to tell fans about "what she is going through." She fired back with three blunt words: "I want out!" WENDY WILLIAMS CALLS HER $25K-A-MONTH ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY A ‘DUMP’ AMID GUARDIANSHIP Williams stepped out in a casual ensemble, pairing a black T-shirt with high-rise denim shorts and black boots. She carried a red handbag and walked alongside a male companion, chatting with him as they made their way through the city. The terse response comes amid years of questions surrounding Williams’ health, personal life and court-appointed guardianship. Williams was placed under the guardianship in 2022. Her daytime talk show was canceled that same year after 13 seasons, and she has largely stayed out of the public eye ever since. WENDY WILLIAMS SAYS SHE PASSED COMPETENCY TEST WITH ‘FLYING COLORS’ AFTER BEING RUSHED TO HOSPITAL In February 2024, Williams' team announced that she had been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2023, after years of speculation about changes in her behavior and speech. WATCH: WENDY WILLIAMS DEMANDS FREEDOM WITH BLUNT GUARDIANSHIP PLEA: ‘I WANT OUT!’ "Over the past few years, questions have been raised at times about Wendy's ability to process information and many have speculated about Wendy's condition, particularly when she began to lose words, act erratically at times, and have difficulty understanding financial transactions," her team said at the time. "In 2023, after undergoing a battery of medical tests, Wendy was officially diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Aphasia, a condition affecting language and communication abilities, and frontotemporal dementia, a progressive disorder impacting behavior and cognitive functions, have already presented significant hurdles in Wendy's life." Williams has disputed that she has dementia. PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE Her attorney, Joe Tacopina, took that denial further in December 2025, saying Williams had undergone an evaluation by New York City neurologist Dr. Samuel E. Gandy, who determined she "does not have frontotemporal dementia." Tacopina has also raised the possibility that alcohol addiction played a role in Williams’ health struggles. GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE "There’s something called alcohol-induced dementia. That may have been something Wendy was suffering from back in [2023], 24. She was an alcoholic, no question about it," Tacopina said during a "Nightline" segment. "Wendy was drunk almost 24 hours a day. She looked like she needed help. She did need help. She needed alcohol rehabilitation." LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Williams' struggles with alcohol addiction were previously documented in the Lifetime documentary series "Where Is Wendy Williams?," which examined the former star's life away from television. After her diagnosis was announced in 2024, Williams thanked supporters who rallied around her. "I have immense gratitude for the love and kind words I have received after sharing my diagnosis of Aphasia and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). Let me say, wow! Your response has been overwhelming. The messages shared with me have touched me, reminding me of the power of unity and the need for compassion. I hope that others with FTD may benefit from my story," she said in a statement to Fox News Digital at the time. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89f6662c5335ae1049d78a Parker at Needles 8-21 (2).JPG te 2026-08-22T19:20:06.554Z Parker at Needles 8-21 (2).JPG Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89f4102c5335ae1049d23a Red Lobster brings back Endless Shrimp after promotion helped push chain toward bankruptcy te 2026-08-22T19:10:08.655Z Red Lobster brings back Endless Shrimp after promotion helped push chain toward bankruptcy Red Lobster is once again offering its Endless Shrimp promotion, which contributed to millions of dollars in losses before the seafood chain filed for bankruptcy two years ago. The company told Fox News Digital it decided to bring back Endless Shrimp because the promotion still matters enormously to its customers, who "never stopped asking for it." "They continued telling us they missed it, showed up when we brought it back this spring and kept asking for more after that run ended," Red Lobster said. AMERICA'S CHEAPEST POPCORN SHRIMP BASKET AT A CHAIN RESTAURANT COSTS UNDER $9 "We weren’t going to walk away from something they love simply because the previous operating model did not work," the company added. "The better answer was to fix what didn’t work and bring it back in a way that is right for our guests, our restaurant teams and the company." According to Red Lobster, the spring run also proved the company could bring Endless Shrimp back in a way "that delights our guests and works for our restaurant teams and our business." Participating locations began offering the current Endless Shrimp deal for a limited time on Aug. 17. "Guests can mix and match five flavors endlessly throughout the meal for as much shrimp as they like, any way they like it," Red Lobster announced in a press release. The lineup includes new garlic-bread-crusted shrimp, shrimp linguini Alfredo, garlic shrimp scampi, Parrot Isle coconut shrimp and Walt’s Favorite Shrimp — hand-breaded, butterflied shrimp lightly fried and served with cocktail sauce. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER Red Lobster closed dozens of locations nationwide in May 2024 before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Fox News previously reported. Many analysts and media reports have cited the company’s decision to make Endless Shrimp a permanent offering as one factor behind its financial troubles. Endless Shrimp returned to select Red Lobster locations in the spring of 2026, but the chain’s 37-year-old CEO, Damola Adamolekun, made it clear in a statement to affiliate FOX 13 Tampa Bay that the promotion would be available for a limited time only. "The previous model did not work, so we did not repeat it," Red Lobster told Fox News Digital. "We rebuilt Endless Shrimp around much stronger operational and financial discipline, including better forecasting, kitchen flow, menu structure and restaurant support. We also designed the current offer to work as a dine-in experience, with pricing that can vary by market. The new standard is simple: Endless Shrimp has to work for the guest, the restaurant team and the business." CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS The spring run of Endless Shrimp "met and exceeded our expectations in several important ways," Red Lobster told Fox News Digital. "Guest satisfaction significantly outperformed the average for Red Lobster promotions, restaurant-team support was stronger than it had been in years, and our internal team Proud to Serve and Recommend scores both came in above historical levels," the company said. "Just as importantly, guests continued asking for Endless Shrimp after the promotion ended." In June 2026, Adamolekun said he was planning "the greatest comeback in the history of the restaurant industry." His plan includes streamlining operations, closing underperforming restaurants, increasing engagement with customers and tapping into their nostalgia. One of the biggest lessons Red Lobster said it learned from the previous Endless Shrimp promotion was that "guest demand alone is not enough." TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ The changes to Endless Shrimp are one example of how Red Lobster operates differently today, the company said. "We are focused first on the guest, but that guest focus is backed by greater operational discipline and financial rigor. With Endless Shrimp, we took an experience guests love, addressed what wasn’t working and proved we could deliver it successfully under a stronger model. That same approach is guiding the broader business," Red Lobster said. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89f40a2c5335ae1049d20d Inherent, founded by DeepMind alumni, says its AI ‘teammate’ just outperformed Anthropic and OpenAI at replicating research te 2026-08-22T19:10:02.766Z Inherent, founded by DeepMind alumni, says its AI ‘teammate’ just outperformed Anthropic and OpenAI at replicating research Built by DeepMind alumni, British AI lab Inherent released Faraday, an AI agent whose ability to replicate scientific papers could be a stepping stone for innovation. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89f1bb2c5335ae1049d1e8 MLW's Doc Gallows 'proud' of winning tag team championship with teammate Karl Anderson te 2026-08-22T19:00:11.027Z MLW's Doc Gallows 'proud' of winning tag team championship with teammate Karl Anderson Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson, the tag team duo collectively known as the Good Brothers, were finally able to dispatch The Skyscrapers and win the Major League Wrestling (MLW) Tag Team Championship on "Fusion." Gallows and Anderson defeated Donovan Dijak and Bishop Dyer (The Skyscrapers), ending their reign as champions after 317 days. COMPLETE PRO WRESTLING COVERAGE ON OUTKICK The Good Brothers have now held the tag team championship in almost every promotion they have appeared in, including WWE and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Gallows told OutKick in a recent interview that it was "another badge" on their vest. "It's a proud feeling," he said. "This makes 10 times as world tag team champions and there are very few sets of titles that have eluded Karl Anderson and myself and those MLW titles were on that list. And after almost a year of battling back and forth with The Skyscrapers, what a great tag team – dynamic, big, rough athletic dudes – getting that victory at the signal at Chattanooga on MLW ‘Fusion’ was great and it's the 10th time. Ten times’ the charm." Gallows has been in the pro wrestling industry for quite some time – as has Anderson. He made his WWE main roster debut in 2006 and has made a decorated career for himself. The 42-year-old said he and Anderson have felt as good as they have ever felt. ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! "… ‘Machine Gun’ and I, you know, we say it all the time, we feel better than we've ever felt," he said. "We feel more motivated than we've ever been. This past year has been great. Being able to go out and travel the world and go to Mexico, go to Japan, go to Australia, go to New Zealand, travel around the United States, Canada, and it was easy for us to kind of look at MLW as a home. I'm a fan of the show. I'm a fan of what they're doing on MLW ‘Fusion.’ So, the motivation is strong with us still." The MLW tag team division now gets to step up to the challenge. Gallows said whoever does want to become the first ones to challenge them for the titles, they’re in for some vintage trouble. "It’s the same old recipe, man. It's a Magic Killer one, two, three. It's just too sweet," he told OutKick. "The recipe proven time and time again. Every time they want us fall and every time you hear the clattering and you hear the chatter that the boys might be ready to hang it up, we pop right back up and we do something huge. "I mean, we came off of a massive Japan tour. We won tag team titles in Australia, feuded with The Skyscrapers relentlessly. Spilled a lot of blood with those guys and ended up coming out victorious. So, you know, it's a badge of honor. It's a pride thing and it's like I said, very exciting time to be a fan and to be one of the wrestlers in the business as well." What’s next in the immediate future? Gallows said "Talkin’ Shop Live" will return on Sept. 11 at The Windjammer in Charleston, South Carolina. The podcast is hosted by Gallows and Anderson and it will be held before MLW’s next round of tapings. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89f1b42c5335ae1049d1cf Nancy Kassebaum, First Woman to Chair a Major Senate Panel, Dies at 94 te 2026-08-22T19:00:04.396Z Nancy Kassebaum, First Woman to Chair a Major Senate Panel, Dies at 94 A moderate Republican from Kansas, she served three terms before tiring of political strife. “I couldn’t get elected today,” she said in 2013. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89ed042c5335ae1049cf8b NAU linebackers coach Max Silver adds to new-look Lumberjack defense te 2026-08-22T18:40:04.550Z NAU linebackers coach Max Silver adds to new-look Lumberjack defense ASU assistant linebackers coach Max Silver was NAU’s first pick to replace an outgoing coach heading to the SEC. He reunites with new defensive coordinator Trenton Greene in Flagstaff. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89eab02c5335ae1049cf4e Bill Maher blasts Democratic Party, says it is fine with religion 'as long as that faith isn’t Jewish' te 2026-08-22T18:30:08.109Z Bill Maher blasts Democratic Party, says it is fine with religion 'as long as that faith isn’t Jewish' Comedian Bill Maher took aim at what he portrayed as the Democratic Party’s double standard on religion Friday, quipping that a candidate’s public faith is welcome "as long as that faith isn’t Jewish." The segment came as CNN anchor Dana Bash discussed Texas Democrat James Talarico’s outspoken Christianity during a segment on "Real Time," saying he "wears his faith on his sleeve" in a way Talarico believes could help him. "Well, in the Democratic Party, as long as that faith isn’t Jewish, you’re good," Maher retorted. TEXAS DEM NOMINEE JAMES TALARICO INVOKES FAITH TO DEFEND ABORTION RIGHTS, ‘THE BIBLE IS SILENT ON ABORTION' "Well, you said it." Bash replied. Maher then interjected: "Yeah, I said it because it's true!" BILL MAHER OFFERS A STARK WARNING FOR DEMOCRATS CODDLING ANTISEMITES, CALLS OUT ‘WOKE IDIOTS’ IN THE PARTY The left-wing comedian's jab comes as Pew Research Center polling suggests a substantial percentage of shows 80% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (80%) hold an unfavorable view of Israel, up sharply from 53% in 2022. At the same time, 41% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents surveyed hold a negative view of the Jewish state. 58% of those right-leaning voters have a positive view.  BATYA UNGAR-SARGON EXPLAINS WHY SO MANY AMERICAN JEWS BECAME DEMS — AND WHY SOME NOW FEEL POLITICALLY HOMELESS The Democratic Party has also put forth a series of candidates, personalities and elected officials who espouse anti-Israel beliefs, including Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Far-left Twitch streamer Hasan Piker has repeatedly attacked Israel. When reached for comment on Saturday, Sam Markstein, Republican Jewish Coalition national political director and spokesman, agreed with Maher and spoke of the GOP as the only party still willing to accommodate Jewish people who are proud of their identity and support of Israel. "It’s a rare occasion when we agree with Bill Maher, but he’s right: there is only one party where American Jews can be proudly Jewish and loudly pro-Israel, and it’s the Republican Party," he told Fox News Digital. "Democrats prove it again and again: from Kamala Harris passing over Josh Shapiro in 2024 to the rise of communist elected officials who traffic in antisemitism in halls of power across the country," he continued. Markstein concluded by saying, "The Democratic Party is being remade by its radicalized base, and party leadership continues to fecklessly whistle past the political graveyard as American Jews flee." Fox News Digital reached out to the Democratic National Committee for comment, but did not immediately hear back. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89e8582c5335ae1049cf1b Wastewater rates could rise te 2026-08-22T18:20:08.997Z Wastewater rates could rise City conducted last rate study in 2018; goal is self-supporting funds Sedona wastewater users could soon be paying higher rates.  During its Aug. 11 meeting, the Sedona City Council received an update on the city’s wastewater rate study it authorized as a part of the 2026-27 budget sessions.  Since Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89e8572c5335ae1049cefa Israeli October 7 survivors conquer trauma alongside legendary rock icons in powerful new documentary te 2026-08-22T18:20:07.530Z Israeli October 7 survivors conquer trauma alongside legendary rock icons in powerful new documentary When Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, ten Israeli musicians lost loved ones, friends and homes. But they refused to let the music die. The new documentary "The Bridge," produced by "Friends" veteran Kevin Bright, follows these survivors as they team up with legendary rock icons in Los Angeles to turn their personal tragedy into a story of resilience and musical healing. Bright told Fox News Digital that one moment during filming made him realize the documentary was special. "[I] think for me, one of the campers talking about how he lost everything in the conflict that day and all that was left was the volume control of his guitar," he said. "And so, to hear him say, 'the music wasn't gone, I could still control the volume' was something that really hit me hard." ACTRESS SWELL ARIEL OR TAKES ADVOCACY FOR ISRAELI WOMEN FURTHER IN NEW FILM ‘TANKISTAS’ The group attended Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp in Los Angeles, where amateur musicians jammed alongside some of the most influential artists in rock history. Founder and CEO David Fishof has run the program for nearly 30 years. The Israeli musicians attended the camp only months after the October 7 terror attacks, which killed more than 1,200 people and saw more than 240 taken hostage. Their trip to the U.S. also came as anti-Israel protests spread across college campuses. During the program, they worked with members of bands including Guns N’ Roses, Van Halen and Black Sabbath. The experience culminated in a final performance at the Viper Room in Los Angeles. "That final performance at the Viper Room, they kind of tee it off by saying, this is the first time that Hebrew has ever been spoken on the stage of the Viper Room," Bright said. "While they enjoyed playing a song in English after that, I think that moment allowed them to really carry their country, their personal pride in that country and present it through music to the audience that was there," he added. HOLLYWOOD PRODUCER BEHIND 'APOLLO 13' REJECTS POLITICS IN HIS MOVIES, SEEKS TO UNITE AUDIENCES Brad Allgood, director and editor of the film, explained that during the final performance, many of the survivors were playing for loved ones lost in the conflict. "Tuval [Haim] was playing drums, and he was playing 'My Hero' for his brother. Bar was playing with everything he had in honor of his father. Raz and Dov were singing in honor of their friends who died that day," Allgood told Fox News Digital. "Everybody was playing for somebody else, and you could feel it in the music." Raz Shifer was one of the Israeli campers who participated in the program. She was at the Nova Music Festival when Hamas attacked on Oct. 7. More than 300 people were killed at the festival, and dozens were taken hostage. According to her biography on the documentary’s website, she escaped to a nearby kibbutz, but two of her friends were taken hostage, including Inbar Hayman, who died in captivity. MOTHER OF OCTOBER 7 HOSTAGE WHO WAS EXECUTED UNPACKS HER GRIEF IN NEW MEMOIR Allgood said Shifer’s connection to music was "affected in a really deep way" after the attack. He said she had an emotional breakthrough during a welcome event for the program, where she shared her story publicly and got up to play. "It was her first time really sharing her story in public," Allgood said. "After they shared their stories, they played ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ and some other songs. And it was the first time that she was able to get on stage and just sort of let everything out. And she says that in the film was ‘the time I was able to just let everything all out.’" He explained that the experience helped the survivors reconnect with music after the massacre. "They couldn't sleep, they couldn't eat, they just sat on their couch trying to figure out what was going on. And this, whatever it is about music, it allows you to connect emotionally both with yourself and with others. It's a universal language and just there's something special about it that, you know, just jump-starts that process," Allgood said. AFTER 1,000 DAYS OF WAR: MANY ISRAELI CHILDREN CARRY TRAUMA INTO SUMMER BREAK Bright said the documentary avoids the political debate surrounding the Oct. 7 attack and instead focuses on the survivors’ experiences. "This was a human story, a human situation. People were traumatized and hurt. And it was about giving them a path forward to reach out and give something of yourself to give a path forward," he said. "I think the music took all of the politics and religious judgmental aspects of it out and just made it about the music. Made it about having a good time. Made it about getting back on your feet and playing again," Bright continued. "And you'll also hear in the film that many of these survivors were not able to even think about playing music for several months after the attack happened. So, it just provided a conduit for them to get back into the world and to deal with the unfortunate trauma they had suffered," he added. I HAVE JUST 90 SECONDS TO GET TO SAFETY FROM ANOTHER DEADLY ATTACK. THIS IS OUR NORMAL As for the title, Bright explained that it symbolizes the difficult transition from grief back to life. "The bridge is between trauma and healing, and music being the conduit or the suspension of that bridge that people walk through to come to the other side," Bright said. "The Bridge" will roll out across select venues in North America starting Oct. 5, ahead of a wider theatrical release in November. The documentary premiered in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Aug. 19, with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and his wife in attendance, along with former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89e6002c5335ae1049ceb8 FBI asked 'Sammy the Bull' if ex-Gambino mob prosecutor Comey knew meaning of '86': court filing te 2026-08-22T18:10:08.468Z FBI asked 'Sammy the Bull' if ex-Gambino mob prosecutor Comey knew meaning of '86': court filing The FBI interviewed Salvatore Gravano, the former underboss of the Gambino crime family known as "Sammy the Bull," to ask if ex-FBI Director James Comey likely knew what the term "86" means, according to court documents. Gravano, who had familiarity with Comey due to Comey's role as the lead prosecutor in United States v. John Gambino et al. in the 1990s, told an FBI case agent during a May 2026 phone call that Comey "had to know" what 86 meant, according to a sworn affidavit from his lawyer Patrick Fitzgerald supporting Comey’s motions to dismiss the case. Comey is facing a case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Eastern Division, accusing him of threatening President Donald Trump through his May 2025 "8647" seashell Instagram post. "On May 8, 2026, the case agent had a telephone conversation with Salvatore 'Sammy the Bull' Gravano, the former Gambino crime family underboss who was one of the cooperating witnesses at the United States v. John Gambino trial," the affidavit, filed last month, reads. "During the telephone conversation to discuss the logistics of his forthcoming interview, Mr. Gravano stated his belief that Mr. Comey had to know what the term '86' meant 'as it related to killing someone,'" the court documents say. JAMES COMEY '86 47' SEASHELL CASE PROSECUTOR SUDDENLY STEPS DOWN, ASSISTANT US ATTORNEY STEPS IN The U.S. Department of Justice brought two federal charges against Comey – threatening the president and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce – in April for a social media post Comey made displaying a photo of seashells arranged on a beach to say "8647." BLANCHE TURNS THE TABLES ON COMEY INDICTMENT CRITICS: ‘REST ASSURED’ CASE GOES BEYOND INSTAGRAM POST Prosecutors alleged the photo was a reference to killing Trump, with "86" referring to a slang term for killing and "47" referring to Trump as the 47th U.S. president. Comey’s defense lawyer cited the FBI’s interview with Gravano to challenge the claim that Comey’s Gambino prosecution meant he understood "86" as a reference to killing. Though Gravano told agents Comey "had to know" the term’s mob meaning, he said he did not recall ever discussing it with Comey. The filing also says FBI searches of the Gambino case materials found no references to "86." "During the recorded interview, which lasted 25 minutes, Gravano said that '86' generally means to 'get rid of' and to him, as a 'gangster,' it means 'to kill,'" the affidavit said. SAMMY GRAVANO REVEALS THE MOMENT HE DECIDED TO COOPERATE WITH THE GOVERNMENT AGAINST JOHN GOTTI Gravano added that he believed Comey's post was a call for violence, but not an admission that Comey himself would be carrying out said violence. "While Gravano claimed that the post was a call for violence against President Trump ('let’s kill Trump'), Gravano did not claim Mr. Comey’s seashell post to be a statement threatening that Mr. Comey would personally kill President Trump," the affidavit read. Comey has claimed that he found — and did not arrange — the seashell display and did not realize some people interpreted "86 47" as a violent message. FORMER FBI AGENT SAYS COMEY CHARGES HINGE ON INTENT EVIDENCE AND JURY INTERPRETATION "I don't see it the way some people are still saying it is, but again, I don't want any part of any violence. I've never been associated with violence, and so that's why I took it down," Comey told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace in May 2025, alluding to the fact that he removed the post shortly after putting it up on Instagram. Comey said he didn't think it had any dark intentions. "I actually didn't think of it as political speech by me, but I thought, ‘What a clever way to express a political view.' The shells were the same color for each of the letters… It took a lot of work. Somebody with artistic flair did that, and I have a hard time believing it was anybody with a dark intention, and it certainly was no dark intention on my part or my spouse's part," he said. Fox News Digital contacted the FBI and a legal representative for James Comey for further comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89e1512c5335ae1049ce18 Baker Mayfield's contract frustration and Mike Evans departure cloud Buccaneers' 2026 outlook te 2026-08-22T17:50:09.007Z Baker Mayfield's contract frustration and Mike Evans departure cloud Buccaneers' 2026 outlook When a franchise successfully transitions out of a legendary era without collapsing into a total rebuild, maintaining momentum becomes the ultimate goal. Few teams in the NFL have managed that post-superstar transition quite like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With head coach Todd Bowles entering another year at the helm and quarterback Baker Mayfield firmly entrenched as the franchise leader, Tampa Bay is aiming to prove that its reign atop the NFC South is far from over and that its postseason pedigree is here to stay. The Buccaneers once again found themselves locked in a tight divisional battle, ultimately losing out on the NFC South crown. At their best, Mayfield was playing with confidence, pushing the ball downfield and making big plays in high-leverage situations while the offense operated with real rhythm. At their worst, defensive secondary lapses and occasional offensive lulls kept opponents in games longer than necessary. Mayfield looked like an MVP for the first half of the season when the team went 6-2. After their bye week, the wheels fell off as they lost seven of their final nine games. Injuries were an issue all year, but they still needed to be better than what they showed. PRO BOWL PLAYER REQUESTS TRADE FROM TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS ON EVE OF TRAINING CAMP AMID CONTRACT DISPUTE The biggest issue in my opinion with this offseason is that Mayfield has kind of expressed frustration, or disappointment, with the franchise. They were apparently far apart on a contract, and that could make Mayfield a little less motivated for the team. They also lost one of the best players in franchise history in Mike Evans as he went to San Francisco. They have plenty of receivers, but Evans was still dominant and had a good connection with Mayfield. They also lost a cornerback who was a solid contributor to the defense, Jamel Dean. They did some solid additions to the defense with Alex Anzalone and A’Shawn Robinson. Cade Otton, their tight end, is back, so Mayfield will have another weapon. There is a solid reason for optimism when looking at Tampa Bay’s roster makeup. The offense operates smoothly with Mayfield, supported by a proven receiving corps capable of winning at all three levels of the field. The run game has shown steady improvement, providing much-needed balance to keep defenses from dropping seven into coverage on every third down. On defense, Todd Bowles’ unit remains aggressive and physical up front, anchored by strong interior line play that shuts down opposing ground games. However, depth in the secondary and consistency against high-octane passing attacks remain areas that could be tested if injuries accumulate during the autumn stretch. Adding Zac Robinson as the new offensive coordinator should also prove a good addition. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! BETTING PREVIEW FOR PATRIOTS AFTER FALLING SHORT IN THE SUPER BOWL AND CONTROVERSIAL OFFSEASON In case you forgot, last year the Buccaneers were luckier than good. I saw Mayfield make some spectacular plays and save the day for them in the majority of their wins. Looking at their schedule for this year, they have a tough time. Their win total is at 8.5, and I just don’t see them getting over the total. I think the Falcons will likely be better, and the Panthers have a bit of momentum. I’m not taking anything on them, but I would lean to the under 8.5 if I had to play anything. I think my favorite bet for them is that they will be 1-4 after five games. That pays out at +500. For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024 Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89e1502c5335ae1049ce0f Buffalo Bills lineman Ed Oliver suffers devastating drowning death of 2-year-old son and team is in mourning te 2026-08-22T17:50:08.344Z Buffalo Bills lineman Ed Oliver suffers devastating drowning death of 2-year-old son and team is in mourning Buffalo Bills defensive lineman Ed Oliver has been carrying a heavy burden over the past two months as it became public on Saturday that he has been mourning the loss of his 2-year-old son, who died in a drowning accident in June. And now all of Western New York, which has adopted the Bills as family, is mourning. JOSH ALLEN RECALLS HIS ROLE IN BILLS' COACHING SEARCH, DETAILS JOE BRADY’S APPROACH TO NEW ROLE The Bills on Saturday released a statement when Oliver's tragic situation became public through social media speculation. "On behalf of the entire Buffalo Bills organization, we want to publicly express our condolences to Ed Oliver and his family on the devastating loss of his son," a statement from Bill general manager Brandon Beane reads. "It's an unthinkable tragedy for any parent. We will continue to support Ed and his family as we all grieve this tragic loss." CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM Oliver's son died at the family ranch near Houston. No other details are known at this time. Oliver did not make the trip with the team to Cleveland for Saturday's preseason game against the Browns. He has, per the team, also been dealing with an unspecified injury that has caused him to miss practice the past few days but that has not prevented him from being around the team. Oliver has been with the Bills since 2019, when he was drafted in the first round to upgrade the interior of the team's defensive line. He has become a staple of the unit with is run defense and has even contributed 30 sacks. That seems less important now. Oliver and his family are asking for privacy and prayers during this difficult time, a source said. FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89e14f2c5335ae1049ce06 Trump trade chief warns Canada walked away from 'the best deal' to trigger 50% U.S. tariffs te 2026-08-22T17:50:07.696Z Trump trade chief warns Canada walked away from 'the best deal' to trigger 50% U.S. tariffs U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Canada walked away from "the best deal" to preserve its trade barriers against American goods after negotiations collapsed. Speaking on "Fox & Friends Weekend," Greer said no further trade talks are scheduled as new 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian imports have taken effect. "Our interest is in protecting American workers and protecting American supply chains. We've been offering to bring the Canadians along on that path, really to cut the tariffs on them on steel, on autos, even lumber, things that are sensitive for them," Greer said Saturday. CANADA REPORTEDLY SCRAPS JOINT BRIDGE CELEBRATION WITH US AFTER TRUMP RENEWS TARIFF THREAT "And they've always had the best deal, and they still would have an even better deal, but they didn't want that," he added. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended trade negotiations with the United States late Friday, saying Washington made "unfair" last-minute changes to its proposed terms. He then announced Canada would impose retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. YOUR FAVORITE COCKTAIL COULD BE AN UNEXPECTED CASUALTY OF TRUMP'S LOOMING TRADE FIGHT In a statement released Friday, Carney said Canada will match U.S. tariffs "dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses." "We have recognised from the beginning that America has changed, and that we will not return to our old relationship," Carney said. "Our government understood, before many, that America is altering all its trade relationships. Putting tariffs on its closest allies and charging for access to its vast market." TRUMP MUST CLOSE THE BACK DOOR CHINA USES TO EXPLOIT NORTH AMERICAN TRADE "Canada has what the world wants. And we will not allow any nation to determine our future. We will set our own course to keep building Canada strong for all," he added. Greer said it's "hard to say" whether trade talks will resume in the near future. TRUMP ALLIES PUSH TO ARM PRESIDENT WITH NEW TARIFF WEAPON TO PUNISH COUNTRIES 'RIPPING OFF' AMERICA "We don't have new talks planned with the Canadians. We're moving forward with measures that respond to Canadian retaliation," Greer said. "Remember, as President Trump has introduced a trade policy to reshore American production and protect American jobs, two countries have retaliated against the United States, the People's Republic of China and Canada," he added. Fox News’ Michael Sinkewicz contributed to this report. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89def62c5335ae1049cdba Why the Rays' Shane McClanahan vs. Orioles pitching matchup looks like a betting gift te 2026-08-22T17:40:06.630Z Why the Rays' Shane McClanahan vs. Orioles pitching matchup looks like a betting gift I've talked about this before, but there are some games where the line just stands out to you. Normally, it is because you feel like the book is really off about something. In my experience, I've either been a huge winner because of this, or I temper my expectations because I feel like there is something I have to be missing that the books know. That's how I feel about today's game between the Rays and Orioles. The line is off, but maybe I'm missing something. The only way to find out is to throw some cash on it. The Tampa Bay Rays are among the best teams in baseball, and they were a team that was predicted to be essentially a .500 team. As of right now, they own the American League East and the best record in the American League. They only need to hold up for another few weeks in order to get to the finish line. The Yankees are still chasing them, despite all the injuries, and the Red Sox are within a reasonable striking distance. They aren't playing great baseball at the moment, having lost three of the last five, but they are still in a good spot. What is surprising to me about today's game is that Shane McClanahan is on the bump for the Rays, and they are only moderate favorites to beat the Orioles. For the season, McClanahan is 9-6 with a 3.25 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP. Perhaps the reason is that he hasn't been great on the road this season, throwing to a 4.31 ERA in away games. It really isn't the result of home runs or hits. It seems that his control just isn't quite as good. He has 21 walks in 48 innings on the road, compared to 14 in 54 innings at home. The other reason is that he has allowed seven earned runs in 13.2 innings over three starts against the Orioles. However, his best start against them came on the road, when he allowed just three hits in 5.1 scoreless innings. The Baltimore Orioles are a team we've spoken about frequently in these articles. They didn't get the season they were hoping for, but there is some reason for positivity. Their signing of Pete Alonso was great. Gunnar Henderson has shown good pop, even if he has struck out far too much. But I suppose the best thing to keep in mind is they got some decent returns for the players they traded away midseason. It isn't going to help them this year, but when you're already looking forward to next season, some positivity helps. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! Another bright spot in the dark year has been today's hurler, Brandon Young. For the season, Young is 9-3 with a 3.52 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP. He has been solid at home this year with a 3.39 ERA. Young is a guy the Orioles probably will lean on next season as well. With his numbers, he can reasonably fit into the middle of their rotation and not have any real issues. He has faced Tampa once this season, it was his most recent start, and he allowed four earned runs (three homers) over four innings of work. When I looked at the pitching matchup I just kind of scratched my head on why this wasn't a -165 or higher game. McClanahan doesn't go overly deep, but the Rays have one of the better bullpens in baseball. Sure, Young should make some adjustments and improve on his performance. However, McClanahan should as well. I just don't see why the Orioles are getting love. I'll temper my expectations a bit in case I'm missing something, but I'm taking the Rays because I think this line is a gift from the books. For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024 Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89da4b2c5335ae1049cd28 Healthy athlete had no symptoms before mandatory heart screening revealed hidden defect te 2026-08-22T17:20:11.689Z Healthy athlete had no symptoms before mandatory heart screening revealed hidden defect A high-school student-athlete with a potentially life-threatening heart defect had no symptoms and only learned of his condition through a screening required by Florida law. The state’s Second Chance Act went into effect July 1 ahead of the 2026-2027 school year and requires students in grades 9 through 12 to undergo at least one electrocardiogram (ECG) screening the first time they participate in or try out for interscholastic athletics, with certain exceptions, affiliate FOX 13 Tampa Bay reported. An ECG, also called an EKG, is a simple, noninvasive test that measures the heart’s electrical signals and can help identify irregular rhythms or other signs of heart trouble. DIABETES DRUG COULD SLASH RISK OF FATAL HEART CONDITION IN ONE GROUP, SCIENTISTS REVEAL For Cameron Crider, a sophomore football and basketball player at Calvary Christian High School in Clearwater — which requires ECGs for all student athletes, the screening led doctors to discover an atrial septal defect (ASD), a congenital heart defect involving an opening in the wall between the heart’s two upper chambers. If a significant ASD is left untreated, the extra blood flow can strain the heart and lungs over time and may lead to complications such as pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure), heart failure, and, in some cases, stroke. "I’ve been playing [sports] my whole life and didn’t notice anything, so I was surprised because I haven’t felt anything," Cameron told FOX 13. "[Cam was] going to a three-hour football practice and then a two-hour basketball practice back-to-back, and never having fatigue or shortness of breath, or, you know, anything that you would think would be a warning sign," his mother, Laura Crider, told the station. "So, we were completely shocked." CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER Crider is scheduled for surgery to fix the ASD in October and is expected to be able to play sports again next season. The mandatory ECG is "a gift from God that has been given to us, truly," Laura Crider said. "We were able to find this out in a doctor’s office with an explanation and a clear plan that says we can help you, and so many of these other parents who are advocating for these screenings, they had to find out through a tragedy," she continued. Up to 80% of young athletes who suffer sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) — the leading cause of death during exercise — don’t have any warning symptoms prior to their arrest, Dr. Jonathan Drezner, MD, director of the University of Washington Medicine Center for Sports Cardiology, told Fox News Digital. Because intense physical activity places additional stress on the heart, undetected heart conditions can become dangerous during sports, the American Heart Association (AHA) told Fox News Digital. "Sudden cardiac arrest is not the only concern," the AHA said. "These conditions can also lead to other serious heart-related complications and may require monitoring, treatment, or restrictions on athletic participation to keep students safe." The AHA does not currently recommend mandatory EKG screenings for every student athlete. "A heart assessment that includes a review of a student's personal and family history along with a physical examination is the best way to identify serious heart conditions that can lead to cardiac events in student athletes," the AHA said. "If the comprehensive heart assessment raises concerns, health care professionals can order appropriate follow-up testing, such as an ECG, echocardiogram, heart monitor or other advanced imaging based on the suspected diagnosis." The AHA and American College of Cardiology support what they say is an "evidence-based, layered approach to identify heart issues so they can be diagnosed, monitored and treated as early as possible." According to Drezner, an ECG screening, when interpreted properly, is one of the best screening tools in medicine. CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS "An ECG greatly increases our ability to detect conditions associated with SCA in the young," he said. "A standard sports physical by history and physical alone will miss 80-90% of kids with at-risk heart conditions. An ECG can suggest or detect about 80 percent of the conditions that put young persons at risk. It is not perfect, but it is far better than the standard sports physical." Though healthy athletes and young people can have a potentially lethal heart condition and not know it, Drezner said chest pain, passing out and a racing heart are symptoms that should not be ignored. TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ "Make sure your child feels well when they exercise," he advised. "If you have a family history of genetic heart conditions or SCA, you should bring this up with your child’s doctor. And get your child a proper heart screen with an ECG." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89da4b2c5335ae1049cd1f Diamondbacks star spotted at casino during team's game after no-showing to stadium earlier in the week te 2026-08-22T17:20:11.006Z Diamondbacks star spotted at casino during team's game after no-showing to stadium earlier in the week Arizona Diamondbacks star Ketel Marte’s strange week took another turn on Friday. Marte began his week by failing to show up to Fenway Park for the team’s game against the Boston Red Sox on Monday and was scratched from the lineup minutes before first pitch. He was then placed on the restricted list and seemingly had no contact with the team until Thursday. On Thursday, Marte and team officials reportedly had a lengthy meeting, after which the Diamondbacks placed the 32-year-old on the injured list with left knee inflammation. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM On Friday, while the Diamondbacks were playing the Cincinnati Reds at Chase Field, Marte was spotted by fans gambling at Talking Stick Resort, a casino. In one video, Marte is shown at the tables while the Reds-Diamondbacks game was on a TV nearby. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo was asked about Marte’s casino run after the team’s 9-0 win. "He’s free to do whatever he wants," Lovullo told reporters postgame. "That’s how I look at it. As long as he wakes up tomorrow morning and posts, and gets his work done at Salt River, which I am certain he will, that’s all that matters to me right now." ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! The reason for Marte’s absence is not yet known publicly. The Diamondbacks are one game back of the San Diego Padres for the final Wild Card spot in the National League and will be forced to battle without Marte for the foreseeable future. Diamondbacks reliever Kevin Ginkel said there is no explanation for what is going on with Marte. "For us to go where we want to go, we’ve got to have him here," Ginkel said before the game, according to The Athletic. "It’s disappointing how the things that happened happened. There’s really no explanation for it." Marte, who has spent the last 10 seasons with the Diamondbacks and is one of the best players in franchise history, is a key cog in the team’s lineup. In 118 games this year, he has a .249 batting average with 21 home runs and 67 RBIs. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! The Diamondbacks (68-61) will look to continue their postseason push when they play the Reds (61-68) in the second game of their three-game series on Saturday at 8:10 p.m. ET. Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89da472c5335ae1049ccfa E-bike battery sparks garage fire in Lake Havasu City te 2026-08-22T17:20:07.251Z E-bike battery sparks garage fire in Lake Havasu City A residential sprinkler system extinguished a garage fire early Friday after an e-bike battery ignited at a Lake Havasu City home. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89da462c5335ae1049ccf1 Bratley to resign from Mohave College Governing Board te 2026-08-22T17:20:06.012Z Bratley to resign from Mohave College Governing Board MOHAVE COUNTY — Mohave College Governing Board member Nicole Bratley will resign before completing her four-year term, creating a vacancy that will be filled by appointment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89d7ef2c5335ae1049ccba Detroit schools offer students up to $1,000 for perfect attendance as program expands te 2026-08-22T17:10:07.901Z Detroit schools offer students up to $1,000 for perfect attendance as program expands Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) paid students up to $1,000 for perfect attendance and is expanding the incentive program to middle schoolers after district officials say it successfully reduced chronic absenteeism. Now in its second year, the "Perfect Attendance Pays" initiative targets the winter months—running from Jan. 5 to March 20 —when attendance historically dips across the district. "DPSCD is continuing the Perfect Attendance Pays initiative for the 2026–27 school year for high school students and expanding it to include middle school students. At the middle school level, parents of eligible students with perfect attendance during each five-day cycle will receive a $50 gift card," a district spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday. NUMBER OF K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS HAS DECLINED IN MORE THAN HALF OF STATES, REPORT INDICATES District officials clarified that the financial incentives are not funded by taxpayers or standard state educational aid. "The incentive is funded through interest generated through District funds awaiting to be used for facility projects. Federal and state revenue is not used to fund the incentive, nor is the incentive offered on fall or spring count days," the spokesperson added. TEXAS’ LARGEST SCHOOL DISTRICT SEES TEST SCORES SOAR AFTER STATE TAKEOVER DESPITE RACISM CLAIMS Detroit Public Schools has been hit hard by a national chronic absenteeism epidemic, recording a 60.9% chronic absentee rate for the 2024–25 school year. According to Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, director of the Detroit Partnership for Education Equity and Research at Wayne State University, more than half of Detroit students regularly miss class. Lenhoff defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% or more of the school year—equivalent to 18 or more days in a standard 180-day calendar. District officials told Fox News Digital that attendance metrics in high schools have improved since launching the incentive program.  GUARANTEED INCOME PROGRAM TARGETS LOW-INCOME HOMES LED BY BLACK MOMS AS CASH HANDOUTS SURGE NATIONWIDE "This initiative has already been proven with our students and families to reduce chronic absenteeism," the district spokesperson said.  "Specifically, high school chronic absenteeism declined by 7 percentage points two years ago when the incentive was first offered and another 2 percentage points last year. We also believe that the incentive has contributed to the District being named as being in the 90th percentile with reducing chronic absenteeism since the pandemic as compared to districts nationally, based on the Education Recovery Scorecard recently released by Harvard/Stanford." District promotional materials and social media flyers detail how payouts work, noting that eligibility is calculated weekly across five-day cycles, with eligible high schoolers earning up to $100 per week in gift cards or cash equivalents toward the $1,000 season cap. "Strong attendance matters: Students are three to five times more likely to be at and above grade level if they miss 18 or fewer days of school per year. Families, your support is essential. Help your student take advantage of District resources and remove barriers to consistent attendance," the district posted on Facebook. School districts nationwide continue to grapple with severe post-pandemic attendance drops, prompting several urban systems to experiment with direct financial incentives, rideshare vouchers, and community outreach to bring students back to the classroom. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89d0e52c5335ae1049cbc7 City of Flagstaff opens applications for sustainability grants te 2026-08-22T16:40:05.505Z City of Flagstaff opens applications for sustainability grants The annual funding opportunity began accepting applications on Aug. 15 and will do so through Sept. 30. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89d0e22c5335ae1049cbad OpenAI says California should strengthen its AI safety bill te 2026-08-22T16:40:02.567Z OpenAI says California should strengthen its AI safety bill OpenAI is calling for California to strengthen SB 53, an AI safety bill that the company previously opposed. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89cc372c5335ae1049cb48 Crystal Hefner felt 'absolutely brainwashed' during Hugh Hefner marriage, reveals strict Playboy mansion rules te 2026-08-22T16:20:07.811Z Crystal Hefner felt 'absolutely brainwashed' during Hugh Hefner marriage, reveals strict Playboy mansion rules Crystal Hefner is reflecting on her complicated relationship with the late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. The former Playboy Playmate, who was married to Hefner at the time of his death, shared details about her life behind the gates of the Playboy Mansion during an appearance on the "No One Asked Her" podcast with Billy Ray Cyrus' ex-wife, Firerose. "I think I was absolutely brainwashed, but there was nothing out there that validated me," Crystal said. PLAYBOY'S CELEBRITY-DRIVEN RELAUNCH FACES CREDIBILITY TEST IN ONLYFANS ERA, EXPERT SAYS "So I just thought I was the crazy one because all of the media put Hef on such a pedestal that I'm like, 'OK, if they all see him as this larger-than-life amazing human, there must be something wrong with me." "I would watch interviews of his from the past and there was this one where he was arguing with feminists and a woman said, 'Uh, let's see you parade out here with a bunny tail on and stuff.' And then she said, 'Calling women animals,' ... and he said, 'Women are animals; what else would they be?'" HOLLY MADISON SAYS PLAYBOY MANSION FELT LIKE A 'SAFE HARBOR' AFTER SHE ENCOUNTERED HOLLYWOOD'S DARK SIDE She noted, "At that time, I was like siding with him and ... like, I'm going against myself while he keeps me in this dilapidated, gross home and I can't see my family." Crystal, 40, recalled being under the watch of 70 employees during her time at the Playboy Mansion. WATCH: HOLLY MADISON RECALLS PLAYBOY FOUNDER HUGH HEFNER'S ‘JEALOUS STREAK’ "I remember when I left, I mean, it took him dying for me to leave, but when I finally left, I didn't even know how to turn the headlights on in my car because I was always home before dark." She added, "Movie night was at six, and that's an early time and I had to be there ... so it was kind of disguised — the coercive control, like, 'Oh, that's the time for movie night.' OK, that's the time for my curfew and my control." Crystal began dating Hefner when she was 21 years old. The couple got engaged in 2010 when she was 24 and the Playboy founder was 84. They called off their wedding just days before the ceremony in 2011 but later reconciled. Crystal and Hefner married in 2012 and remained together until his death in 2017. He was 91. GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE She told Firerose that she struggled to leave the house after he died. "I was so confused," she said. "In the media, he was old for so long, so you just, you see him as kind of immortal." Crystal added, "I couldn't stay in the bedroom we stayed in, but I stayed in one bedroom of the house for like six weeks. I didn't leave." Shortly after Hefner's death, Crystal told Fox News Digital she was thankful for her marriage to the late business mogul.  LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS "He taught me love. He taught me kindness. He gave me life. He really did," she explained. "He opened my mind, my world, to all of these opportunities and experiences I would have never in my lifetime been able to have." In her 2024 memoir, "Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself," Crystal detailed more about her life post Playboy. Playboy didn’t respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about Crystal's book at the time. "I think after leaving the [Playboy] mansion and being away for five years, I was in a lot of therapy," Crystal told Fox News Digital. "I realized that the mansion affected me more than I thought. I just wanted to tell the truth about my time there and hopefully help others." She claimed their nearly five-year union was "emotionally abusive," and wrote that Hefner "could be charming" but also "cruel." "Over a little bit of time, I gained a bit of weight, and he told me that I needed to tone up," Crystal said. "Then he started telling me what color nails I could have and couldn’t have. [I had to] wear more colorful shirts, wear ‘the flag,’ which means the Playboy logo on my body, somewhere on my shirt. I had to dye my roots, bleach my roots. If that was growing out, he would tap it and tell me to go fix it." Looking back at their marriage, she said that her late husband, a leader in America’s sexual revolution, was a complicated figure. PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE "When I was told what to wear, what to do and to lose weight, I thought, ‘I’m going to be better. I can do better,’" she said. "I don’t know why my mind went there at that time instead of ‘How dare you treat me this way?’ But I’m not sure what compelled me to protect him. "Maybe, in a way, I felt sorry for him. Maybe, in a way, it was Stockholm syndrome, which I truly believe happened there because it was such a bubble. But I did feel compelled to protect him for some reason." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89c9e02c5335ae1049cae1 River Valley volleyball takes part in scrimmages at Lake Havasu High School te 2026-08-22T16:10:08.756Z River Valley volleyball takes part in scrimmages at Lake Havasu High School The River Valley volleyball team traveled to Lake Havasu City on Thursday to participate in preseason scrimmages. The Dust Devils were joined by the host Knights, Kingman, Kingman Academy, Lee Williams and Parker. Each team played five 20 minute matches… Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89c9d92c5335ae1049caba Frontier AI labs still won’t say how they’d contain a rogue model te 2026-08-22T16:10:01.920Z Frontier AI labs still won’t say how they’d contain a rogue model A new study finds leading AI labs have few publicly documented plans for containing rogue models, raising questions about preparedness as AI systems increasingly demonstrate unexpected and potentially dangerous behavior. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89c7892c5335ae1049ca44 There's a difference between coaches who 'can't' win a national championship and coaches who 'haven't' te 2026-08-22T16:00:10.009Z There's a difference between coaches who 'can't' win a national championship and coaches who 'haven't' Ladies and gentlemen, college football is nearly upon us. In just seven days' time, week zero will be gracing our television with all sorts of pigskin perfection, and one of the byproducts of having college football back in our lives is the myriad "offseason arguments" that plague our timelines on a near daily basis will be a thing of the past. Unfortunately, one argument that is borderline evergreen and exists as both an offseason and in-season debate is whether certain coaches will ever win a national championship, and it has reared its ugly head on social media once again. COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS FINALLY BACK AFTER MONTHS OF NCAA LAWSUITS, NIL DRAMA AND CONGRESSIONAL FIGHTS I've seen fans from across the country making their claims that coaches like Dan Lanning and Steve Sarkisian "will never" or "can't" win a national title, and, as usual, a topic that requires a ton of nuance and context has been boiled down to a singular phrase. "This coach will never win a natty because he hasn't won one yet." It's insane, especially when you consider just the pure math that goes into this argument. There were 138 FBS teams in 2025, and there was only one national champion. ONE OF THESE EIGHT COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAMS WILL BE HOISTING THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY IN 2026 Now take into account that there are only four active coaches in FBS that have won a national title (Dabo Swinney, Kirby Smart, Ryan Day, and Curt Cignetti), and you realize how hard it is to actually win one. I don't think it's fair to say guys like Sark and Lanning can't win a title, especially considering how young they are, relatively speaking. PAUL FINEBAUM’S PROCLAMATION ABOUT ALABAMA COACH KALEN DEBOER REIGNITES COLLEGE FOOTBALL ‘CULTURE FIT’ DEBATE They "can" win one, they just haven't done it yet. As long as they keep going to the College Football Playoff and taking swings (and given the talent they have on their respective teams), they are bound to win one eventually. There is a good chance they don't, that's just the nature of college football, but they are more than capable of doing so. I mentioned Georgia's Kirby Smart as one of the few active national champions, but that obviously wasn't always the case. Kirby was one of the former "can't win the big one" coaches, and for a while, plenty of rivals, and even Bulldog fans, thought that would end up being the case. "He can't get over the hump." "He chokes in big games." "Nick Saban is his daddy." And then he won it all. Twice. Then all the fans and pundits who crowned Kirby as the coach who couldn't get it done moved onto the next target: Ohio State's Ryan Day. The same arguments they made about Kirby they just shifted to Day, until he won it all two seasons ago. The detractors didn't apologize, they just moved their sights to a different victim. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! Those victims are now Lanning and Sark, and they'll continue to be until either of them win the big one. That's how this thing goes. So enjoy college football season, and remember the difference between a coach who "can't" win a national championship and one who "hasn't" yet. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89c5322c5335ae1049c9f0 Seattle Seahawks lose wide receiver Jake Bobo to 'serious' knee injury during joint practice te 2026-08-22T15:50:10.041Z Seattle Seahawks lose wide receiver Jake Bobo to 'serious' knee injury during joint practice The reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks were dealt a big blow on Friday. Wide receiver Jake Bobo was carted off the field during the team’s joint practice with the Tennessee Titans, and head coach Mike Macdonald called it a "serious" injury. "Our heart goes out to Jake Bobo," Macdonald told reporters. "It seems like it's going to be a serious knee (injury). We're going to get it imaged, but early returns are (that) it looks like it's a long-term injury. That's unfortunate." The 28-year-old wide receiver got hurt along the sideline and needed help to get onto the cart. Players from both teams took a knee, while Macdonald said the team prayed for Bobo. His right leg was outstretched on the cart. "It hurts, man," Sam Darnold said of Bobo’s injury. "He's one of those guys that he works, he talks a lot of stuff and he's kind of like (Devon Witherspoon) in a way, offensively. He brings the juice every single day, and he just does his job. So it sucks to lose Bobo but I know he's going to attack it and be better whenever he comes back." ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! Bobo was entering his fourth season with the team after making the roster in 2023 as an undrafted rookie. In 45 career games, Bobo has 34 catches for 323 yards and three touchdowns. While also serving as a solid depth receiving option, Bobo is an integral part of the Seahawks’ special teams. The Jacksonville Jaguars tried to pry Bobo away with a two-year, $5.5 million deal, but Bobo was a restricted free agent and the Seahawks matched the offer, keeping him in Seattle. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! "He's a beast, man," Macdonald said. "Just a great football player, a great Seahawk. Hopefully we reflected that in our investment in him. But we love him, we'll be there beside him as he recovers and we pray it's a speedy recovery. But we love him." Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89c2d92c5335ae1049c99e Test your pop culture: From Hollywood to the Heartland te 2026-08-22T15:40:09.785Z Test your pop culture: From Hollywood to the Heartland The Pop Culture Quiz is your weekly test of what’s making headlines and breaking the Internet, from the Heartland to Hollywood. This week's quiz spotlights Hollywood getaways and surprising new beginnings. Can you get all 5 questions right? For more Entertainment articles, visit www.foxnews.com/entertainment To try your hand at more quizzes from Fox News Digital, click here. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89c2d92c5335ae1049c995 Paramount accuses Mark Ruffalo of invoking 'antisemitic tropes' in Warner Bros. Discovery merger dispute te 2026-08-22T15:40:09.154Z Paramount accuses Mark Ruffalo of invoking 'antisemitic tropes' in Warner Bros. Discovery merger dispute Paramount pushed back Saturday after actor Mark Ruffalo invoked the Israel-Gaza conflict while attacking the Ellison family’s proposed Warner Bros. Discovery merger, accusing the Marvel star of injecting "antisemitic tropes" into what it described as a corporate dispute. "[The company is] troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute," a spokesperson for the company said, according to Variety. "Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong — they’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe." CALIFORNIA AG ROB BONTA FACES ‘POLITICAL FAVOR’ CLAIMS OVER NETFLIX-LINKED $1M TRAIL IN PARAMOUNT SUIT The spokesperson added that the company does not "tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone." Curtis Houck, managing editor at the Media Research Center's NewsBusters, told Fox News Digital: "Paramount Skydance was absolutely right to respond to this actual, serious anti-Semitic smear," Houck said. "The left lazily cries anti-Semitism when the right criticizes George Soros, but here it's absolutely warranted in the level of detail about Oracle seeming having mythical powers to team up with the world's only Jewish state to supposedly commit genocide. Because Paramount Skydance is the currently one of the bad guys in the eyes of the left, there's little chance Ruffalo will face sustained pushback from the liberal elitist press." Paramount's comments came after Ruffalo took to Instagram to sound off on the potential merger that has caused a stir in some circles, including among several state attorneys general. Ruffalo wrote of Oracle, "This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David's Warner Bros acquisition." Referencing reposted video remarks of Paramount board member Safra Catz appearing to tout the "really profoundly scary technologies" Oracle used to assist the Israeli military following the Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, Ruffalo continued: HASAN PIKER STANDS BY 'INTENTIONALLY PROVOCATIVE' CLAIMS THAT HAMAS IS 'A THOUSAND TIMES BETTER' THAN ISRAEL "These 'really profoundly scary technologies' will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you. Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle," he added. Ruffalo's post continued, accusing Larry Ellison of wielding outsized power through the proposed deal, branding the Oracle founder a "classic Oligarch" and alleging the merger would further consolidate wealth and influence among a small group of elites. He also said the transaction would harm workers and the film industry, pointing to an ongoing lawsuit brought by 12 state attorneys general seeking to block it. Ruffalo alleged the merger could eliminate 4,500 filmmaking jobs and another 10,000 related positions, arguing such consolidations are typically bad for workers, consumers and the industries they come to dominate. "Really profoundly Scary people," he said in closing. NEWSOM SAYS FILM TAX INCENTIVES ARE BRINGING HOLLYWOOD HOME BUT INDUSTRY EXPERTS WARN IT MAY BE 'TOO LATE' Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Ruffalo regarding Paramount's response, but did not immediately receive a reply. Fox News Digital also reached out to Paramount for additional comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89c2d82c5335ae1049c98c MLW star Austin Aries offers blunt take on winning ahead of massive title defense: 'I'll do whatever it takes' te 2026-08-22T15:40:08.468Z MLW star Austin Aries offers blunt take on winning ahead of massive title defense: 'I'll do whatever it takes' Austin Aries returned gold around his waist when he dethroned Blue Panther to capture the Major League Wrestling Openweight Championship at the company’s Lucha Apocalypto event, which was co-hosted by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) earlier this year. Aries told OutKick in a recent interview that he believes he’s still performing at a high level and the title reign has helped him come to a realization that, yes, taking a shortcut can lead to success. COMPLETE PRO WRESTLING COVERAGE ON OUTKICK "Even at this stage in my career, I still think that I'm performing at a level that very few men can reach," Aries said. "But I think the one thing that works in my advantage is I've proven over my career I'll do whatever it takes to win. And if that means taking a little shortcut or a little misdirection or a thumb in the eye, so be it, because that's what I've realized. "One of the biggest lies that was sold to me as a kid is that is that bad guys never win. Cheaters never win. What a load of crap that was. If you look around the world, most of the people in positions of wealth and power got there by cheating. Got there by taking advantage of somebody. Got there by being dishonest, right? And so, we tell kids like, ‘Oh, honesty is the best policy and cheaters never win.’ And then you grow up and you realize, ‘Wait a minute, that's a lie. It's actually the opposite.’ Right? If you look around the real world, everyone who's winning is doing it by taking a shortcut." With the Openweight Championship, Aries wants to set the bar high. ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! He’s done that already with a successful defense against Diego Hill. He’s also continued to showcase his talents in CMLL multiple times. Saturday night, Aries walks into MLW "Fusion" with another goal – dispatching Místico and Averno in a three-way match with his title on the line. Místico called his shot last week and made a one-on-one match between Aries and Averno into the multi-man extravaganza. Aries and Místico have some history as does the Lucha grappler with Averno. "It's interesting. When you get three men in the mix, right, one-on-one, usually the strategy is pretty straightforward," he told OutKick. "You can't have a straightforward strategy when you're in a three-way. And so, the one thing I do know is that Místico and Averno, there's no love lost between those two. They've got some history with each other. "So maybe I can leverage that and I can maybe get Averno to work with me a little bit as opposed to against me. But again, I've been saying Místico has been ducking me. He wanted to put the challenge out there and, put himself in this match. Let's do it." MLW fans will get to see whether Aries retains his title on "Fusion," which can be seen on YouTube, beIN Sports and Veeps. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89c0842c5335ae1049c93d Cars hit the Freedom 250 Grand Prix circuit for the first time in a damp practice session te 2026-08-22T15:30:12.454Z Cars hit the Freedom 250 Grand Prix circuit for the first time in a damp practice session After months of anticipation, we finally got to see IndyCars turning laps around the streets of Washington, DC, ahead of the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, and while it was a sight to behold, it may not have been ideal for teams to get a firm grasp on this brand-new circuit. A rainy, misty morning meant that the entire circuit was wet at the start of the session, and that meant that the cars had to start off on wet tires. However, after a brief delay to do some work on an issue with the marshals' communication system, the sun came out, and parts of the track started to dry. Then it was time for cars to hit the track. START YOUR ENGINES: HERE IS YOUR CRASH COURSE ON THE INDYCAR FREEDOM 250 GRAND PRIX WEEKEND Those conditions meant that the opening laps were at a snail's pace compared to what could be done on dry tires with a dry track. Of course, given the new track and the tricky conditions, several drivers had to use the various run-off areas after overshooting corners. The closest call of the early part of practice came for Arrow McLaren's Christian Lundgaard as he spun and clipped part of the outside wall. With the track drying out, the fastest time of the first "all-skate" session belonged to Alexander Rossi, who put in a 59.606. Interestingly, he stayed in the pits longer than any other driver. RACER STING RAY ROBB GEARS UP FOR FREEDOM 250 GRAND PRIX: 'THIS IS MORE THAN JUST AN INDYCAR EVENT' With the field split into two groups for the next part of practice, several drivers opted for the red-walled alternate Firestone tires. It's faster than the primary black tires, but not as robust. Drivers have to use both during the race, so getting a feel for both is huge. One of these drivers was Will Power, and he had a big moment exiting Turn 5 and found the wall with both of his right-side tires. Kyle Kirkwood led the first group with a 57.374 on the alternate tire. Several drivers had some issues, including Christian Rasmussen, who needed to take to the run-off and then just a couple of laps later clipped a tire barrier. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! INDYCAR DRIVER GRAHAM RAHAL REFLECTS ON OPPORTUNITY TO COMPETE AT FREEDOM 250 GRAND PRIX: 'ICONIC MOMENT' Championship leader Alex Palou led the second group with a 57.612 on the primary tire. The next session is slated to start at 1 p.m. ET, and you can catch it on FS2. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89c0832c5335ae1049c934 Rogan says Dems 'full of sh--' if they won't specify which 'Woke 1.0' stances went too far, strategists agree te 2026-08-22T15:30:11.762Z Rogan says Dems 'full of sh--' if they won't specify which 'Woke 1.0' stances went too far, strategists agree Podcaster Joe Rogan warned Democrats that the only way to escape their "woke" reputation is to give specifics on where their policies went wrong and why they were wrong to support them. "If you really thought ‘Defund the Police’ and then you just ascribed it to ‘Woke One was crazy,’ well, how did it get you? Because it didn't get me. How did it get you? How did ‘Defund the Police’ get you?" Rogan said, rhetorically asking liberals how far they actually thought about the consequences of defunding police. "There's a way out of it for them, but they have to be honest," he continued. "If you want us to take you seriously, you have to say how you f---ed up," Rogan said as he spoke about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Woke 1.0 comments. "You have to say how you f---ed up, and you have to say what you really think about how you f---ed up. You have to be honest, and you have to be authentic. We have to know that you are embarrassed by your choices and that you kind of went with the hive." SLOTKIN SAYS DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEEDS 'NEW LEADERSHIP': 'OLD MODELS ARE NO LONGER WORKING' He continued, "If you don’t say that, then you’re full of s---. And if you’re full of s---, you’re going to get more and more full of s--- over time. And that’s how politicians get soured."   Later in the same podcast, Rogan's guest, YouTuber Chris Williamson, voiced skepticism that Democrats would have ever distanced themselves from Woke 1.0 in the first place if former Vice President Kamala Harris had won the election. "Think about what would have happened if Kamala had won," he said. "Would AOC have been talking about Woke 1.0 was crazy or would that have been a continuation of, ‘Well, look, we put the policies out, people like the policies.’ How much of this is a reversal of the position because it wasn't effective?" Fox News Digital reached out to Ocasio-Cortez's office for comment.  Commentators across the political spectrum voiced doubts about whether the modern Democratic Party actually plans to pivot away from far-left cultural issues. "I don't believe the Democrats want to be seen backing away from wokeness, especially now that they're sharing a ‘big tent’ from people who want to empty the prisons," Media Research Center's NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News Digital. "They're just less confident than they were in 2020 when they could proclaim that race riots are ‘rebellions’ and violence was an acceptable method to create the social change they wanted. It was like political Drano." AOC TRIES TO LAUGH OFF 'CRAZY' WOKE ERA AS THING OF THE PAST, BUT CONSERVATIVES AREN'T AMUSED Democratic consultant and former House Judiciary Committee minority chief counsel Julian Epstein offered a stern warning to his party. "There is not much difference between Woke 1 and Woke 2, they both involve the commodification of grievance and rage, and then the packaging of lunatic ideas that do little to help voters and seek to make them permanent wards of the state," he said. "This is completely different from Democrats of the 90s who would proclaim the US as the best opportunity-machine ever invented and then try to give people agency." Mary Marslender, a Republican consultant and the President and Founder of Leverage PR, suggested that talk of ditching "Woke 1.0" in vague terms is a cynical strategy. "The vague talk of ditching 'Woke 1.0' is a temporary political strategy; it’s not genuine course correction," she said. "Democrats refuse to specifically call out the craziness; they have yet to stand up for women by preventing biological males in women’s sports, stop the DEI agenda in our schools and institutions, or advocate for safe communities by stopping their support of soft-on-crime progressive prosecutors. Additionally, their lack of concrete policy reversals is revealing." "Democrats wanting to distance themselves from Woke 1 have claimed they want to 'fix our broken immigration system,' but such rhetoric rings hollow when they oppose interior enforcement, call to abolish ICE, defend violent illegals who have crossed our borders, and unequivocally support sanctuary cities," Marslender continued.  "Had Harris prevailed, the same coalition that championed the 1619 Project, policing reforms adjacent to defunding, and gender ideology in schools would have viewed any moderation as betrayal," she added. "It’s power, not principle, that drives the Democrat Party. Until Democrats can explicitly admit fault and demonstrate a serious reversal of Woke 1, American voters are right to treat the so-called 'post-woke' shift as a temporary political strategy rather than a genuine course correction." CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE Former Republican National Committee spokesperson Elizabeth Pipko said that recent events indicate Democrats are simply responding to which way the wind blows. "Democrats of today tend to turn with the wind," she said. "Depending on what is most popular with their base, that’s what you’ll hear from candidates during the primaries. And then, during the presidential election, you’ll notice the Democrat nominee pretending they never supported abolishing police, men in women’s sports, or abolishing [ICE]."  "Watching Democrats in 2026 pretending they never called for defunding the police has been incredibly entertaining considering almost all of them still have old posts up clearly advocating for that very policy," Pipko continued. "Considering how much damage some of these views have caused, it is extremely pompous to simply dismiss this time in our politics as 'Woke 1.' This shows how little democrats actually believe in the what they say or do." Former White House deputy assistant for domestic policy under Trump and former Assistant Attorney General Theo Wold suggested that even Rogan was not showing enough skepticism toward the Democrats. "AOC’s sarcastic dismissal of Woke 1.0 isn’t a sign that Democrats are abandoning a leftist agenda — it’s a sign that they’re moving on to phase 2 of their project," he said.  "She now casually laughs at the radical ideas she actively promoted just a few years ago. And Joe Rogan, unfortunately, is too gullible to see the truth: this is who Democrats are," Wold added. "They won’t abandon these ideas or apologize for them because they believe them, and when in power, they will ruthlessly advance them." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89c07b2c5335ae1049c906 US battery startups have found a lifeline in defense te 2026-08-22T15:30:03.358Z US battery startups have found a lifeline in defense U.S. battery startups pulled in $500 million in grants from the Department of Energy, throwing a lifeline to an industry that was on the ropes after EV incentives were slashed. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89bbd02c5335ae1049c88e Anna Faris admits drinking fueled depression and 'self-sabotage' before she decided to quit te 2026-08-22T15:10:08.039Z Anna Faris admits drinking fueled depression and 'self-sabotage' before she decided to quit Anna Faris is now sober after personally discovering a correlation between "drinking and depression." During an appearance on the "Dear Chelsea" podcast, Faris told host Chelsea Handler that in the past year, she began to feel "ungracious" about her comedy career and movie roles. "I really started to notice and appreciate if and when people recognize me, they would usually smile … thinking about something f---ing stupid I did onscreen," Faris said, which prompted Handler to bring up her sobriety. 'EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND' STAR PATRICIA HEATON REVEALS THE MORTIFYING MOMENT THAT MADE HER QUIT DRINKING "Do you think that has to do with not drinking? Because I know you stopped drinking. Maybe that lit that a little bit," Handler said. Faris confirmed that she "stopped drinking" and said "one of the many gifts" she's gained since becoming sober is shifting her perspective. "Turns out there’s a correlation between drinking and depression for me for sure. I had to take a step back to not self-sabotage," Faris said. GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE Along with quitting alcohol, Faris said hormone patches were a game changer for her mental health. She did not share additional details on her sobriety journey. Elsewhere on the podcast, Faris shared that her 14-year-old son Jack asked her to "accept Jesus Christ" as her savior. PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE "He is religious. I didn’t grow up with religion. He’s asked me to accept Jesus Christ [as my savior]. And I told him I would do anything for him, including this, but it’s going to take a whole lot of long conversations," Faris said. LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Faris shares Jack with her ex-husband, Chris Pratt. The former couple welcomed Jack in August 2012, and he was born nine weeks premature. The "Scary Movie" actress explained that her son is strong, which allows them to have deeper conversations. "He’s impressive, actually. Because I try to challenge him. I’m like, ‘Do you think it’s a luxury that you get to be pro-life? Do you think that’s kind of a luxury?’ And he’s like, ‘Maybe.’ Or I’ll say, ‘What do you think of this megapastor that’s kind of a grifter?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, megapastors are the worst.’ So it’s like, ‘OK, he’s getting there,'" Faris said. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89bbcf2c5335ae1049c885 The Will of 100: Trump’s SAVE America Act sidelined after Senate unanimously agreed to August exit te 2026-08-22T15:10:07.407Z The Will of 100: Trump’s SAVE America Act sidelined after Senate unanimously agreed to August exit The Senate has been out of session for about two weeks. It’s convened in brief "pro forma" sessions for just a couple of moments on four occasions since senators called it quits for more than a month at 4:57 a.m. ET on Saturday, Aug. 8. Pro forma sessions are where the Senate huddles for just a few seconds, gaveling in and gaveling out with a skeleton crew. It’s rare that more than one senator is even in the chamber. The Senate truly isn’t back for debate and votes until the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 15. REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: INSIDE THE SENATE SHOWDOWN OVER TRUMP'S PUSH TO SCRAP AUGUST RECESS But what about all of that sturm and drang about "cancelling the August recess?" Remember that President Donald Trump and conservatives – ranging from Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to Rick Scott, R-Fla. – wanted the Senate to remain in session for the month to debate the SAVE America Act. That’s the chief legislative demand of Trump. It requires voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., was on the floor when the Senate cut town a little more than two weeks ago. Did Thune hornswoggle his fellow Republicans into recessing the Senate for five weeks in the dead of night? Hardly. In fact even those Republicans who would have liked senators to remain in Washington to debate the SAVE America Act were in on Thune’s plan, allowing the Senate to abandon town for most of August and nearly half of September. Huh? Believe it or not, Thune and all other 99 senators agreed to leave Washington. In fact, that’s the only way it could have happened. The Senate was meeting at 2:07 a.m. that Saturday, on the verge of commencing a vote series to confirm Attorney General Todd Blanche and approve the Russia sanctions bill. That’s when Thune asked the following on the Senate floor: "When the Senate completes its business on Aug. 8, to meet for pro forma sessions only at 10 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. 8 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026," requested Thune. The majority leader then continued, rattling off a host of dates on Mondays and Thursdays for the Senate to convene in those pro forma sessions. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, was presiding over the Senate at the time. "Without objection?" asked Moreno of the body when Thune concluded. There was none. INSIDE THE SENATE'S CHAOTIC ALL-NIGHTER THAT LEFT TRUMP'S SAVE AMERICA ACT ON THE SHELF In other words, the Senate would soon depart Washington. There would be no August debate about the SAVE America Act. The Senate would simply meet for abbreviated sessions over the next few weeks. And shortly before 5 a.m., Thune requested the following from the floor: "Madam President, I ask unanimous consent when the Senate adjourns on Thursday, Sept. 10, it stand adjourned until 3 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 14. And following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved and the Morning Hour be deemed expired," asked Thune. The South Dakota Republican then threw in some more boilerplate, parliamentary language, to tee up a test vote on an unresolved cryptocurrency regulation bill for the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 15. "Without objection," said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wy., who was presiding over the Senate at that ungodly hour. Thune paused briefly. But no one said boo from the floor. That’s because the chamber was bereft of senators — except for Thune and Lummis. Everyone bailed and was heading for the airport. "Madam President, if there’s no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order," Thune asked. "The Senate stands adjourned until 10 a.m. ET on Monday," declared Lummis, rapping the Senate’s unique hourglass shaped gavel on the dais. No objection. No roll call vote. The Senate was done. So let me filet this for you. The Senate conducts much of its business via "unanimous consent." The Senate is a body of equals. All 100 senators wield nearly the same power. The Senate relies on "unanimous consent," the blessing of all 100 members, to conduct quotidian tasks, like going in and out of session or what time to meet. The Senate occasionally approves bills — sometimes even big ones — by unanimous consent if all senators agree. But unanimous consent is just that. All 100 members must be on the same page. And if you have 99 senators in agreement and one holdout, well, that’s not unanimous consent. All it takes is the objection of a solitary member to sidetrack a "unanimous consent" request on the floor. And note that despite the advocacy by some Republican senators for the body to remain in session during August, no one lodged an objection. That’s because Thune pre-baked a series of unanimous consent requests offstage before he came to the floor. Late in the evening of Friday, Aug. 7, Thune ran what’s called a "hotline" in the Senate. He proposed a series of votes to confirm Blanche, OK Russia sanctions and consider a few other items. If any senator had a problem with Thune’s hotline, they should let leadership know before 11:30 p.m. that night. Otherwise, Thune would go to the floor and "propound" the unanimous consent request for the upcoming vote sequence. Thune would also propound a unanimous consent request for what the Senate would address when members returned in September, This package included a plan for those aforementioned pro forma sessions. And, for the Senate to hold off on any votes until Monday, night, Sept. 14. Thune also locked in the procedural vote on the cryptocurrency measure for Sept. 15. Anyone could have objected offstage. They didn’t. That would have scuttled the entire enterprise. Anyone could have objected on the Senate floor when Thune made the unanimous consent requests in real time. That didn’t happen either. That’s why both Moreno and Lummis asked the body if there was "an objection." Or, they declared "without objection, so ordered." However, those pushing for the Senate to remain in session to debate the SAVE America Act did manage a minor victory. Part of Thune’s unanimous consent request at 2:07 a.m. that Saturday included a test vote on a voter ID bill pushed by Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio. This package addressed some of the provisions desired by Trump. It was also helpful to Husted, who faces a tough election this fall against former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. And, the test vote would get senators on the record voting for or against voter ID. All Republican senators voted yes. All Democratic senators voted no. Republicans will likely deploy this roll call vote against their Democratic colleagues this fall. The vote secured more than a simple majority in the Senate. But here’s the catch: part of Thune’s unanimous consent request — pre-agreed to by all 100 senators — dictated that the test vote on the Husted measure was subject to a 60 vote threshold. Republicans only command 53 votes in the Senate. So without Democratic assistance, the Husted plan was doomed from the start. So the Senate is long gone. And will continue to be gone for a few weeks. This wasn’t because of some backroom plan cooked up by Thune. This wasn’t just Thune going against the wishes of conservative senators who suggested the Senate remain in session. This wasn’t just Thune working against the president. Those unanimous consent requests reflected the will of all 100 senators. Anyone on either side could have blocked the proposals. But they didn’t. And when someone asks why the Senate didn’t remain in session this month to address the SAVE America Act, you can tell them that all 100 senators agreed to call it quits and go home at 4:57 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89b97c2c5335ae1049c83b Little League team gets absolutely screwed on final pitch of no-hitter, fans stunned by call te 2026-08-22T15:00:12.296Z Little League team gets absolutely screwed on final pitch of no-hitter, fans stunned by call Last year I said that Little League umpires should be held more accountable, and I've never felt more vindicated in my life. For those who haven't followed every pitch of the ongoing Little League World Series (all of you), a California team was absolutely robbed this week on the final pitch of what turned out to be a no-hitter. Iowa won the game, 1-0, despite the boys from out west loading the bases with two outs in the sixth inning. Iowa starter Cooper Thissen struck out 15 and didn't allow a hit in 5 ⅓ innings, but had to be lifted due to his pitch count. BARRED LITTLE LEAGUE TEAM FROM TULSA GETS REINSTATED FOR CHANCE TO PLAY IN WORLD SERIES That's when California worked a couple walks and loaded the bases, only to have a 3-2 pitch with two outs be called strike three in one of the most ridiculous fashions I've ever seen. Take a look: Lordy. I know Little League umps ain't exactly Doug Harvey behind the plate (gold star if you get that reference), but come on. What are we doing here? That's clearly — very clearly — a ball. Should've been ball four, and the game should've, at the very least, gone to extras. It's a mile outside. It doesn't even sniff the plate. There's having a "wide zone," and then there's calling a pitch a strike that's six inches off the plate. Maybe more. Actually, definitely more. "Pretty bad, even for a little league strike zone," one fan commented. "That batter should’ve been tapping his helmet," another said. Added a third: "Got him on the corner? Corner of what? The other batter’s box?" Yeah, hard to argue with that. The ball literally is in the other box! STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! I know Little League strike zones are different, I get it, but come on. This is Williamsport. The Little League World Series! This ain't a 10 a.m. Saturday game in April where we're all just trying to get home. Let's have a little pride. A little self-respect. God forbid we have a semblance of a standard. Be better. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89b97b2c5335ae1049c832 California sociology professor cited 'irony' in removing ACT/SAT not fixing racial disparities as intended te 2026-08-22T15:00:11.505Z California sociology professor cited 'irony' in removing ACT/SAT not fixing racial disparities as intended A University of California, Los Angeles, professor told Fox News Digital on Thursday that the university system’s "test-blind" admissions policy failed to eliminate racial disparities in standardized testing as intended. "That was obviously the motive. The UC Regents were very clear," said Gabriel Rossman, a sociology professor at UCLA. "They did get rid of the SAT because they thought it had a disparate impact by race." More than 3,000 faculty members across the University of California system have backed open letters urging the system to reinstate the SAT and ACT in undergraduate admissions. Former UC President Janet Napolitano led the effort in 2020 to phase out the standardized tests, citing equity concerns. CAMPUS ANTISEMITISM EXTENDS BEYOND STUDENT PROTESTS AND INTO CLASSROOMS, ADL WARNS In response to growing faculty feedback, the University of California’s Academic Council directed the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) on July 22 to oversee a faculty-led, evidence-based review of standardized testing in undergraduate admissions. Rossman’s comments came after he co-authored an open letter with non-STEM colleagues, following a similar effort led by math and science faculty demanding that state officials restore the exams. "We are University of California faculty from the social sciences, humanities, arts, business, law, education, and other non-STEM fields," the non-STEM letter reads. "We are writing to endorse our STEM colleagues’ earlier open letter regarding the math component of SAT/ACT and argue for also using the verbal reasoning component of SAT/ACT in undergraduate admissions." The non-STEM faculty noted that while they supported the STEM letter's conclusions, they did not initially sign it because it was specifically framed around math preparation. EX-CAMBRIDGE PROFESSOR FOUND DEAD AFTER PLAGIARISM SCANDAL LED TO ABRUPT RESIGNATION Rossman told Fox News Digital that the test-blind policy has proven counterproductive to its original mission. "One of the ironies of this is they got rid of the SAT in order to promote equity in enrollment," Rossman said. "The UC freshman class had been diversifying for the previous 20 years, and then it leveled off in 2020. In particular, the big change was the ratio of Latino students versus Anglo students. The numbers of Black and Asian students didn't change by nearly as much." An analysis by The Oakland Report, a regional media outlet covering Bay Area policy, similarly noted that eliminating test scores stripped admissions officers of a key metric for identifying high-achieving applicants from under-resourced schools. "Removing test scores from the admissions process weakened UC’s ability to evaluate academic readiness while ignoring the real causes of racial disparity," the analysis argued. The push from non-STEM faculty follows a recent op-ed in The San Francisco Standard by UC Berkeley mathematics professor Zvezdelina Stankova, who warned of a sharp decline in incoming student preparation under test-blind policies. Neetu Arnold, a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute, told Fox News Digital she is concerned about losing an objective metric and the "misallocation of talent." "I actually think standardized tests are a lot more accessible for working-class students," she said. "It's much easier to go to the library to pick up some prep books and to really put in the work than investing in really expensive extracurricular activities." Stankova cited university diagnostic data showing a significant drop in foundational math readiness after UC stopped considering standardized tests. From 2018 to 2020, 71% of roughly 2,200 tested Calculus I students were deemed ready or nearly ready, while just 0.14% placed below basic algebra. By contrast, among roughly 2,800 students tested from 2021 to 2023 under a revised diagnostic, only 51% were deemed ready or nearly ready. That figure dropped to 44% in 2023, with 17% failing to answer a single question correctly across eight basic topics. CONSERVATIVES SHRED AOC AS SHE ATTEMPTS TO BRUSH OFF RADICAL 'WOKE 1' WAVE AMID 2028 SPECULATION In a statement to Fox News Digital, Stankova praised her colleagues across the UC system for raising awareness about academic preparation. "On behalf of the authors of the open letters, I would like to thank the thousands of UC faculty and people from around the world who have written to us in support of this initiative," Stankova said, emphasizing that student preparation in math and English is critical to the future of the university. "We urge all UC faculty across the 10 campuses to work with their own campus admissions committees and Senate bodies this year to help pass the incoming recommendation from BOARS, which we hope will be to reinstate the SAT/ACT, and to further work toward faculty oversight of admissions procedures," Stankova added. "Without that, any admissions criteria can be ignored or even counted against the applicant. Let us all make sure that UC admissions works to select based on a holistic approach that incorporates academic merit as a significant part of that process." The Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89b7202c5335ae1049c7b4 AOC's 'Woke 1' comment conceals a dangerous pivot to socialist class war, media chief warns te 2026-08-22T14:50:08.479Z AOC's 'Woke 1' comment conceals a dangerous pivot to socialist class war, media chief warns When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., recently dismissed past left-wing platforms by noting that "Woke 1 was crazy," some media reports framed the comments as a shift toward the political center. But Pirate Wires Editor-in-Chief Mike Solana argues her comment points to a more aggressive direction for the party. As Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidates win races across the country, centrist Democrats are confronting the group’s growing influence as DSA-backed candidates support policies like abolishing the Senate and expanding public ownership of major companies. Speaking with Fox News Digital, Solana criticized Ocasio-Cortez’s response to her party’s progressive past after the congresswoman appeared on ABC’s "This Week." When host Jonathan Karl pressed her on Wisconsin state Rep. Francesca Hong’s past calls to defund police and abolish prisons, Ocasio-Cortez dismissed concerns about Hong’s previous positions. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ SHRUGS OFF PAST 'DEFUND THE POLICE' COMMENTS, JOKING 'WOKE 1 WAS CRAZY' "I have a local city councilman that has this saying, 'Woke 1 was crazy,'" Ocasio-Cortez said. "And I think that what’s important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now." Hong failed to capture the Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial nomination, losing on Aug 11.  Solana argued the congresswoman’s comment allowed her to avoid accountability for past positions. "She said something more interesting, which she had from another Democrat, a phrase, ‘Woke one was crazy,’" he said. "Now, it was an incredible obfuscation, you know, there's no real admission of guilt there, but there is an admission that there was an era of crazy left-wing views that was not really palatable or correct." Solana said Ocasio-Cortez has not renounced several of her previous "woke" positions. He pointed to her past support for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defunding the police and granting mass amnesty to illegal immigrants. "I mean, it's crazy, right? It's like, 'Sure, we lorded over a loosely decentralized global censorship apparatus in service of burning the world down in the era of BLM, but that was like so long ago. Oops, my bad, girls will be girls,'" Solana said sarcastically. While Solana acknowledged that politicians can change their views over time, he argued voters deserve clear answers on which positions progressives are actually abandoning. AOC'S ATTEMPT TO DISMISS 'WOKE 1' AS 'CRAZY' DRAWS CRITICISM FROM LEFT-LEANING OUTLETS "There are all of these things in the era of woke that she's been a part of that she hasn't actually said she no longer believes. We kind of wrap it all in a neat little bow which is ‘woke one was crazy,’ and we move on and maybe she's not going to talk about those things anymore," Solana said. "Maybe there are some things there that she no longer believes. It's possible that people, politicians, can evolve on some other topic. In fact, it's great. But we need to know exactly what position she's evolved on and why," he added. According to Solana, the shift from "Woke 1" to "Woke 2" is less about identity politics and more about class conflict. "Things are a little bit less racist and a lot more classist. We're doing a class war now; the race war is kind of over. There's room for everyone of every color to eat the rich," Solana said. Solana's comments echoed statements he made in a recent column, where he suggested that Democrats are now less focused on "destroying White people" and instead have shifted their platform to center around destroying the wealthy.  The DSA is the largest socialist political organization in the United States, with more than 100,000 members. The group has gained more attention as DSA-backed candidates have defeated more moderate Democrats in states including New York and Colorado. Prominent democratic socialists holding public office include Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. SHOCKING PERCENTAGE OF DEMOCRATS IDENTIFY AS 'DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS' ACCORDING TO NEW POLL: 'TOXIC POLICIES' According to the DSA website, the group opposes capitalism, which it calls a "system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit." Its platform also calls for abolishing the Senate, expanding the House and establishing public ownership of the largest private companies. Solana said moderate Democrats are allowing far-left members to remain influential in the party rather than pushing back against them. "They've won everywhere from obviously New York and [Los Angeles] to Louisville, Kentucky. They're winning everywhere. Everywhere there is a city, the DSA is ascendant," Solana said. JAMES CARVILLE PREDICTS 2028 DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY WILL TEST TRUE STRENGTH OF PARTY'S SOCIALIST WING "As the DSA becomes more ascendant, the centrist Democrats have a choice. It's like, ‘Do we cut them out of our party completely, or do we ourselves moderate, not in the context of America, but in the context of the New Democratic Party?" Solana said. Fox News Digital reached out to the DSA and representatives for Rep. Ocasio-Cortez but did not immediately receive a response. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89b4c32c5335ae1049c738 Plaintiffs push back against former North Country CEO’s denials te 2026-08-22T14:40:03.680Z Plaintiffs push back against former North Country CEO’s denials Attorney Aaron Martin, representing the ex-employees, filed a response to to ex-CEO Anne Newland's motion for dismissal arguing that Newland had never previously objected to being named as a fiduciary of the plan, including in a prior motion to dismiss… Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89b2712c5335ae1049c71c Recorder finds 30 registered voters were not US citizens te 2026-08-22T14:30:09.521Z Recorder finds 30 registered voters were not US citizens Burchill audited county’s 193,506 registrations to confirm status Yavapai County Recorder Michelle Burchill [R] submitted the county’s active and inactive registrations with and last four digits of their Social Security numbers to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verificat Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89adc22c5335ae1049c231 USPS publishes rule to block mail-in ballots from states that don't provide voter lists te 2026-08-22T14:10:10.196Z USPS publishes rule to block mail-in ballots from states that don't provide voter lists The United States Postal Service (USPS) published a rule Friday that would require states to provide lists of voters who received mail-in ballots to the agency. The USPS rule, first proposed on June 2, moves to align the agency with President Donald Trump's March 31 executive order, which, among other things, ordered the agency to mandate that all states that plan to use USPS to send mail-in ballots notify the agency at least 90 days before an election and to send USPS a list of eligible voters the state plans on providing a mail-in ballot to at least 60 days before the election. "Any state that intends to receive mail-in or absentee ballots from individual voters through the Postal Service must ensure that such individuals have been enrolled with the Postal Service for inclusion on the state's Mail-In and Absentee Participation List," the new rule reads. In order for an individual to be included on the list, their state must submit to the USPS the individual's name and address and include a "uniquely serialized Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb)" on both the outbound federal ballot and the return ballot sent to the individual. DHS PLANS COSTLY CRACKDOWN ON STATES THAT DON’T COOPERATE ON ELECTION SECURITY The finalized rule, however, cannot go into effect under an outstanding federal injunction against Trump's March executive order. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, issued an initial preliminary injunction against the executive order in June, ruling that two sections – including the section pertaining to USPS and mail-in ballots – were unconstitutional. In July, siding with the plaintiffs in League of Women Voters of Massachusetts v. Trump, Talwani renewed the injunction, barring the USPS from enacting the rule. DHS APPROVES PLAN TO VERIFY VOTER CITIZENSHIP, MONITOR MAIL BALLOTS AS TRUMP PUSH INTENSIFIES The rule, which USPS will officially publish on Aug. 26, would only take effect for the upcoming midterm elections if a federal court lifted its injunction on Trump's executive order. In a filed opposition to the renewal of the injunction, the Trump administration argued that the judicial review was premature under the ripeness doctrine, claiming that the plaintiffs cannot demonstrate any harm from the proposed law until it takes effect. "Plaintiffs cannot demonstrate they suffer any particularized injury from ongoing policymaking deliberations within the Executive Branch. Instead, their concern is with possible 'action that the [government] might take in the future,' the objection, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Civil Rights Division, read. USPS Postmaster General ​David Steiner defended the ⁠rule when it was first proposed in June, arguing that the USPS is making sure "we match the ballots that a state believes they're sending out to what actually ​gets sent out." USPS WOULDN'T DELIVER BALLOTS IN STATES THAT REFUSE TO FORK OVER MAIL-IN VOTER INFO UNDER PROPOSED RULE After the most recent injunction was issued, White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said, "The entire Trump Administration will continue lawfully enacting the agenda President Trump was elected to enact – which includes the safety and security of American elections." Fox News Digital contacted the White House, the DOJ, USPS and the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts for further comment. Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89adc12c5335ae1049c228 Skillet’s John Cooper says Christians who call rock music ‘demonic’ are ‘getting the gospel wrong’ te 2026-08-22T14:10:09.566Z Skillet’s John Cooper says Christians who call rock music ‘demonic’ are ‘getting the gospel wrong’ Christian rock artist John Cooper believes that people who think hard rock is inherently "demonic" are "getting the gospel wrong." "I would say, I just think that you're misunderstanding something very basic, which is that music does not belong to the devil. Music belongs to God and it's the intentionality," he told Fox News Digital. "It's the lyrics. It's what you do with it. It's not in a sound. It's in a heart posture. And I would just say to those Christians, you're not just getting the issue of music wrong, I would say you're getting the gospel wrong." He added that he doesn’t believe any style of music "in itself carries some inherent evil." "I just don't think that that's right," he admitted. "And I think that God gave us creative expression." GRAMMY WINNER LAUREN DAIGLE SAYS A LABEL EXEC ASKED WHY SHE HAD 'TO BE CHRISTIAN' DESPITE 'SUPERSTAR' STATUS Skillet, the group he co-founded in the ‘90s, recently saw its 2009 hit "Monster" become the first song by a Christian rock band to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify, which Cooper said "shocked" everyone. GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE The band has sold more than 23 million albums, and they average 12 million monthly Spotify listeners, which includes "Monster," which has surpassed 4 billion global streams. Cooper noted that Christians believe God "created us in his image, and that part of what that means is that God gave all of us humans, every single one of us, the ability to do something kind of like what he does, which is to create something beautiful." WATCH: JOHN COOPER SAYS EVERYONE WAS SHOCKED WHEN SKILLET BECAME FIRST CHRISTIAN BAND TO REACH 1 B SPOTIFY STREAMS The ability to write a song, he said, is an "amazing gift of freedom God has given all of humanity." LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS "Talk about a God that says, I'm going to give you a very powerful gift and it's up to you how you choose to use it," he said. "Man, that is powerful." GRANGER SMITH SAYS FAME BECAME 'POISON' AFTER LEAVING COUNTRY MUSIC FOR MINISTRY He said he doesn’t like the idea that "Because [rock music] sounds a certain way, it is pagan or something like that. I just can't be down with that." "So, I would just say to critics, I would say, ‘Hey, You can have something that sounds incredibly beautiful that is actually offending God in its intentionality, in its lyrics." PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT NEWS TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE If Cooper were "the devil, I probably would want to fool somebody and make it sound really, really nice and pretty, and then insert something subversive underneath that begins to poison the well just a little bit like a siren song. You know? You think you're hearing something beautiful, but it's drawing you to your death. That's probably how I would do it." Cooper admitted that he grew up in a household where his parents believed rock music was demonic. WATCH: JOHN COOPER SAYS EVERYONE WAS ‘SHOCKED’ WHEN SKILLET BECAME FIRST CHRISTIAN BAND TO REACH 1 B SPOTIFY STREAMS  "My mom very much, very much believed that like the loud guitars, anything with a drum beat really was Satanic, was from hell," he explained. "She believed that Christian rock music was the devil's tool." He called his mom, who died when he was 15, "wonderful," adding, "I never speak ill of my mom ever. That's just what she believed. And so I grew up with that mentality. It was always a wrestle, and it's the reason I think I talk so freely and so, I hope, graciously towards people that believe that. I don't hate them. I'm not mad at them, but I definitely grew up in a household like that. So I'm very familiar with it." When demonstrators show up outside of his concerts to protest the band as "servants of the devil," he said he doesn’t speak to them because he knows there isn’t anything he could say to them to make them believe differently. "And I also know that they believe that they are loving me, and they believe they're loving people to warn them of Satan's tools, and I just got to go, ‘I don't know, there's something about that I strangely appreciate, and I know I can't change their minds and so I don't try," he added. Regarding the success of "Monster," Cooper said he can’t pinpoint exactly if it’s the lyrics or the music that people like, but "I always meet kids that love the song," he said. "I think that they like the idea of feeling like a monster. I think it kind of gets their attention and then I think that probably most teenage — especially teenage males, who are getting all that testosterone dump, you know, at 14, 15 are probably finding themselves angry and don't know why, and then you have kids and you don't sleep and you really feel like a monster." The song is something people "can relate to and it rocks. It's a very, it's a simple song. There's not much reason not to like it." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89adc02c5335ae1049c21f Travelers rage as budget airline plans overhead bag fee: 'Highway robbery' te 2026-08-22T14:10:08.972Z Travelers rage as budget airline plans overhead bag fee: 'Highway robbery' Jetstar is facing some pushback after announcing its passengers will soon have to pay extra to put their carry-on bags in the overhead bin.  The Australian budget airline, owned by Qantas, will require passengers to pay fees from $25 AUD (about $18) per overhead bag per flight starting in Feb. 2027. The "priority carry-on" purchase will include priority boarding. Passengers will not be charged for a smaller bag, such as a backpack, handbag or laptop bag, that can fit under the seat in front of them. UNRULY PASSENGERS COULD BE BANNED FOR LIFE FROM MULTIPLE AIRLINES UNDER NEW PROPOSAL The updated policy replaces Jetstar’s previous carry-on rules, which allowed passengers to bring carry-on luggage up to a total of 7kg (about 15.4 pounds) aboard. Fox News Digital reached out to Jetstar for comment. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Steven Arroyo, an aviation expert based in Florida and a retired captain for United Airlines, said the new policy can "certainly expedite the boarding process." He also said other airlines may follow suit. "Oil prices have doubled. It's a third of an airline's expense," he said. MAJOR AIRLINE ROASTS PASSENGERS WHO JUMP UP RIGHT AFTER LANDING, IGNITING FIERCE BACKLASH Arroyo said the cost will have an impact on larger families. "If you're traveling with a big family, it's going to [have] impact," he said. "That's going to be the main focus. Will the consumer accept these new fees that airlines are proposing?" Some travelers have not reacted well to the news. MYSTERY WI-FI NETWORK ABOARD FLIGHT RAISES 'UNUSUAL' ALARM ABOUT TRAVELERS' INFORMATION A number of Instagram users responded with pleas to boycott.  "Highway robbery, Jetstar! You think it will be less frustrating being charged for locker space than getting your stuff weighed?" commented an Instagram follower. A second person quipped, "Soon they will also charge to use [the] toilet." The company sees it differently. Stephanie Tully, CEO of Jetstar, positioned the fees as a way to "streamline boarding and help more flights depart on time" while allowing customers to "only pay for what you need," according to a company press release. Some travelers agreed with the new policy. "Fair enough because it’s annoying when you have a small carry-on, and it has to be put several seats away from you because someone has a larger case," an Instagram user said. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER "Maybe if people stopped taking multiple bags or oversized cases to save a few bucks, this wouldn't be needed?" replied another. On Reddit, a user said the new policy was better "than people trying to sneak in multiple 10kg bags."  CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE STORIES "If we are really lucky, the current carry-on addicts will reconsider," another Reddit user said. Airline insiders said they aren’t surprised by the new charges.  "Jetstar is catching up to a market that got there years ago," Koen Karsbergen, an aviation strategy consultant and educator, told Fox News Digital. Karsbergen said Frontier and Allegiant haven't included overhead bin space in their ticket prices for several years. TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ Still, Karsbergen isn’t surprised by the backlash.  "Nobody likes to pay for something we have had before for free," he said. Arroyo pointed to the now-defunct airline PEOPLExpress.  When PEOPLExpress began selling tickets in the 1980s, the carrier adopted an à la carte pricing model, charging separately for carry-on bags in overhead bins, coffee, tea and bottled water. "It has happened in the past in the United States, and it could happen again," he said. Kelly McGreal of Fox News Digital contributed reporting. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89adb92c5335ae1049c1ef Pixel 11 Pro XL review: Snappier cameras can’t hide an iterative upgrade te 2026-08-22T14:10:02.001Z Pixel 11 Pro XL review: Snappier cameras can’t hide an iterative upgrade Google’s Pixel 11 Pro XL brings snappier cameras and genuinely useful AI features like Rambler, but its iterative upgrades may not be enough to tempt recent Pixel owners. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89ab6c2c5335ae1049c1cb Golfer Paige Spiranac leaves playing partner speechless with awkward question, LLWS mud & WNBA wiki pages te 2026-08-22T14:00:12.587Z Golfer Paige Spiranac leaves playing partner speechless with awkward question, LLWS mud & WNBA wiki pages I've officially made it to the end of 13 editions of Screencaps in 13 days. SeanJo is back tomorrow and I can actually sleep in without an alarm clock, which means I'll probably wake up at 5 a.m., but at least I won't hear that damn alarm clock. I digress. Let's get this Saturday morning cranked up with Paige Spiranac on the links with lesbian LPGA veteran Mel Reid. Relax, the lesbian thing was part of Paige's content play here. Mel's not all up tight. She's fun. She's a golfer you want in your foursome to crank up the innuendo. PAIGE SPIRANAC HAS HER GOLF CONTENT DIALED IN AHEAD OF THE FOURTH OF JULY, MEGAN MORONEY'S AT THE BEACH & MEAT But...she was left speechless when Paige took things to the next level with an "F, Marry, Kill" game with three legendary options for Mel to choose from: PAIGE SPIRANAC'S SWING IS SO HOT IT GETS FLAGGED AS SHE HITS THE COURSE IN COUNTRY CLUB APPROVED ATTIRE • Juli Inkster • Karrie Webb • Laura Davies STAR GOLFER CHARLEY HULL HAS BLUNT MESSAGE FOR CRITICS WHO ARE UPSET WITH HER SAVAGE PRANK ON CADDIE "Oh my god," Reid says with her hand in her face, trying not to bust out laughing. "That is awful." After all these years, I think Paige has finally found a content series that works for her. She's been trying to find a lane where she doesn't have to be posting Instagram photos and doing instructional videos on YouTube. It's nice to see women being just as big of degenerates as men on the course. SMOKIN' CHARLEY HULL REFUSES TO APOLOGIZE FOR PULLING PRANK ON HER CADDIE, SKENES HITS A WALL & GOLDEN GIRLS That's the key here. We all know women can be degenerates in their own way, but they have better ways of concealing it. Now we just need to see these women doing Fireball shots after birdies, pranking each other with rubber snakes and hitting on cart girls. 📩 Email: joe.kinsey@outkick.com Send photos, stories, tips, rants—whatever you've got. 📰 Screencaps Page: 👉 Read the latest Screencaps ▶️ YouTube: Screencaps with Joe Kinsey Subscribe for videos, rants, and behind-the-scenes. 🐦 Twitter/X: @JoeKinseyexp Tag me or drop a DM. 📸 Instagram: @OutKickScreencaps You guys need to start tagging me on content you're seeing. 📘 Facebook Page: Screencaps on Facebook 👥 Facebook Group: Join the Screencaps Community 📬 Mail (Thursday Night Mowing League): 27072 Carronade Dr, Unit A 155 Perrysburg, OH 43551 🗞️ Newsletter: 👉 Subscribe here Do we have any bar owners who are reading? I want to know just how much it would cost you to show the NFL Ticket this fall. In late July, the NFL announced that DirecTV will carry games that bar owners can show over streaming or satellite. I'm just wondering what all of this costs. Let's do a cost analysis on how much it would cost to break even on the Ticket. https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/sunday-ticket-will-be-available-in-commercial-establishments-via-directv-after-all Ben is 54. – Dawgs fan Sam L. asks: Are the international teams using their version of travel ball players? Kinsey: That's a great question, Sam. Does travel ball even exist in the Dominican? Do you think there are mama bears in the D.R. packing up the Suburban with Ryobi fans and tents for six games in three days eight hours across the island? STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! – Matt in Florida emails: I am not sure if it is you or another screen caps writer whom I have seen ask Wendy’s to bring back the all you can eat salad bar and the atrium like rooms they used to have. Here in Jupiter, Florida….while we have no food/salad bar, we still have that old school atrium look….and with carpeting no less. 1 out of 2 ain’t bad. I am off to spend time with my family and do something other than look at a computer. As always, thank you for making this column a dream job. I'm beyond fortunate to do this for a living and you'll never catch me taking that for granted. Have a great weekend. Take it away, ladies. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89a6b42c5335ae1049c113 These 5 People Spent Decades Behind Bars. Here Are Their Stories. te 2026-08-22T13:40:04.586Z These 5 People Spent Decades Behind Bars. Here Are Their Stories. Francis Clifford Smith, who died at 101, was among the longest-incarcerated people in the U.S. Here are some others who lived much of their lives in prison. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89a2092c5335ae1049c041 Identity restoration: What to do after identity theft te 2026-08-22T13:20:09.755Z Identity restoration: What to do after identity theft You get an alert saying your Social Security number, email address or other personal information showed up in a breach. Your first thought may be, What did someone do with it? I get why that can be unnerving. An alert can sound serious without telling you whether a criminal actually opened an account, took over something you already use or did nothing at all. The first thing I want you to know is that exposure and identity theft are not the same thing. Exposure gives you a reason to pay attention. Identity theft means someone has actually misused your information. And if that happens, getting your identity back in order can turn into a lot of work. Here's how identity restoration actually works and what I recommend doing if you suspect someone has misused your information. New! Free live CyberGuy class: Protect Your Money From Today’s Biggest Threats Join us on Saturday, Aug. 29, at 10 a.m. ET for a free CyberGuy LIVE class covering five simple steps to help defend yourself against AI scams, fraud, identity theft and financial hacks. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson will explain how to set up bank alerts, strengthen your account logins, protect your phone number, freeze your credit and help secure your retirement savings against unauthorized transfers. No technical experience is needed. You’ll also receive our financial protection checklist, and every registrant will get a link to the class recording afterward. Reserve your free spot today at CyberGuyLive.com. IS YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER ON THE DARK WEB? Identity monitoring is the early-warning side of identity protection. Depending on the service, monitoring may watch for suspicious activity involving your credit files, financial accounts and places online where personal information could surface. The FTC explains that credit monitoring typically watches your credit report for changes such as new accounts or inquiries. Identity monitoring may look beyond your credit report for other signs that someone is using your information. An alert could point you toward a new credit inquiry, an unfamiliar account or personal information found in a breach. However, an alert cannot tell the whole story. You still need to determine whether the activity is legitimate and decide what action to take. I would not panic over every notification. Read the alert carefully. Look at exactly what information was involved and save the notice in case you need it later. Restoration is the hands-on work of recovering after identity theft. That may mean contacting a bank or credit bureau, disputing fraudulent activity, replacing compromised documents or securing an account. Identity theft can also reach beyond your credit report. Someone could use stolen information to open a new account or take over one you already have. A thief may even use your identity for tax or government benefit fraud. The recovery process depends on what the criminal actually did. Documentation helps too. Save breach notices, account alerts and correspondence. Keep case numbers and notes from conversations together so you are not hunting for them later. IDENTITY THEFT RARELY ANNOUNCES ITSELF: 6 SIGNS YOU MISSED If something looks suspicious, focus first on what you can verify. Review your credit reports for accounts or activity you do not recognize. USA.gov says the three nationwide credit reporting agencies are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. AnnualCreditReport.com is the federally authorized site for requesting your free credit reports. Also review your bank and credit card accounts. Check payment apps and any other financial services you regularly use. Pay attention to government notices as well. A tax filing or benefit notice that does not match your activity could signal a problem. A sudden wave of convincing scam messages may raise concern. However, scam messages alone do not prove someone has stolen your identity. A credit freeze restricts access to your credit file. Because lenders generally need to review that file before approving new credit, a freeze can make it harder for an identity thief to open a new account in your name. You need to place the freeze separately with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. It is free, and you can lift it when you legitimately need someone to access your credit. A fraud alert works differently. It tells businesses to take additional steps to verify your identity before extending new credit. For an initial fraud alert, you only need to contact one of the three bureaus. That bureau must notify the other two. An initial fraud alert is free and lasts one year. I would start with your primary email account. If someone controls your email, they may be able to use password-reset links to get into other services. Use a strong, unique password for every important account. A password manager can create and store those passwords for you. Turn on multifactor authentication wherever you can. It gives a criminal another barrier to get past even if your password has already been compromised. Also check the recovery phone numbers and email addresses attached to important accounts. Remove anything you do not recognize. If you find suspicious activity, contact the bank, card issuer or company directly. Use the phone number from the company's official website, your statement or the back of your card. Do not use a number supplied in a suspicious text or email. Ask what you need to do to secure the account and dispute unauthorized activity. Keep the case number or confirmation information you receive. You may need it later. If someone actually used your identity, report it through IdentityTheft.gov. The FTC says IdentityTheft.gov can create a recovery plan based on what happened and help identity-theft victims work through the next steps. Do not feel like you have to understand every part of the fraud before protecting yourself. You can start securing your accounts while you continue figuring out what happened. This is where professional restoration help can become useful. A restoration specialist can help you understand what needs attention and guide you through the recovery process. Depending on the service and incident, that could include helping organize paperwork or explaining how to handle disputes. Some services may also assist with communications involving affected institutions. Still, a specialist cannot necessarily handle everything for you. You may need to verify your identity or provide documents. Your bank or a government agency may require you to communicate with them directly. The amount of help you receive depends on the service and what happened. I look at restoration assistance as having someone help you navigate a complicated process. It isn’t a promise that identity theft disappears overnight. Older identity-protection products were often centered mainly on credit monitoring. Today, many services are expanding to cover more of the ways personal information can be exposed or misused. Depending on the service, that may include monitoring for suspicious financial activity, checking and savings accounts, investment accounts, phone takeovers, home title changes, dark-web exposure, data breaches and social media risks. Some services are also adding tools designed to help you act when something goes wrong. These can include alerts for suspicious charges, data-broker removal, scam support and access to specialists who can help guide you through identity restoration. Certain plans may also include reimbursement for eligible losses tied to identity theft or scams. Coverage limits, eligibility requirements and exclusions can vary widely, so it is important to read the terms before signing up. 6 IN 10 IDENTITY CRIMES NOW BEGIN WITH A NEW ACCOUNT For me, the bigger change is that identity protection is becoming more focused on both detection and recovery. The question is whether the monitoring, support and coverage offered by a service match the risks you are most concerned about and are worth the cost to you. See my tips and best picks on Best Identity Theft Protection at Cyberguy.com If you are considering a paid identity-protection service, here are the questions I would ask before signing up. Look at what the service actually monitors. Does it cover one credit bureau or multiple bureaus? Does it monitor financial accounts or other places where your identity could be misused? Compare those features with the risks you are most concerned about. An alert only helps if you know what to do with it. Find out what information the service gives you when suspicious activity appears and whether it helps you determine what happened. Some alerts may simply tell you to investigate. Others may connect you with additional support. This is one of the areas I would pay close attention to. Find out whether you get access to a restoration specialist and what that person can actually do. Will the specialist guide you through the process? Can they help with paperwork or communications? What steps will still fall on you? Those answers can tell you much more than a feature list. Do not stop at the biggest dollar figure on the page. Look at the individual coverage limits, what types of losses qualify and what expenses may be excluded. Some identity-protection plans offer different reimbursement amounts depending on the level of coverage, so read the terms carefully before signing up. You can take many important identity-protection steps yourself for free. Credit freezes are free. You can review your credit reports and report identity theft without paying for an identity-protection subscription. A paid service may still make sense if you value ongoing monitoring or want someone to help you navigate recovery. For me, that is the more useful way to judge these services. Look at what you get and decide whether that support is worth the price for you. The biggest thing to understand is what happens after you get an identity alert. Seeing your Social Security number or other personal information in a breach can immediately make you wonder what a criminal has already done. But an exposure notice alone does not answer that question. So I would start there. Find out whether anyone has actually used your information. Check your accounts and credit reports. If something looks wrong, protect the affected accounts and document what you find. A credit freeze can also help shut down one of the easiest paths criminals use to open new credit in your name. If you discover real identity theft, you have another decision to make. You can work through the recovery process yourself or use a restoration service to help guide you. I can see real value in having someone help when you are dealing with fraudulent accounts, paperwork and calls you never asked to make. Just know what you are paying for and understand where the service's job ends, and yours begins. No identity-protection service can guarantee that a criminal will never get your information. What you can control is how quickly you recognize trouble and how prepared you are to respond. If your identity were stolen tomorrow, would you feel confident handling the recovery yourself or would you want an expert helping you through it? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy Report Copyright 2026 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89a2092c5335ae1049c038 Tupac Shakur murder trial's first week sees heated testimony from reluctant witnesses with old gangland ties te 2026-08-22T13:20:09.154Z Tupac Shakur murder trial's first week sees heated testimony from reluctant witnesses with old gangland ties The first week of Tupac Shakur’s long-awaited murder trial exposed the challenge prosecutors face nearly 30 years after his death — most of the key players are dead, others refuse to cooperate and their case rests heavily on the defendant's own words. Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, is accused of providing the murder weapon used in a 1996 Las Vegas drive-by shooting that killed Shakur and wounded Death Row Records founder Marion "Suge" Knight. He is not accused of pulling the trigger. The trial began Monday and is expected to run four to five weeks. Three other men believed to have been in the suspect vehicle with Davis are all dead, including Davis' nephew, Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, who was jumped earlier that night by Knight's entourage, according to prosecutors. TUPAC MURDER TRIAL FACES 'SNITCHES GET STITCHES' PROBLEM BUT DEFENDANT'S GHOSTWRITER COULD BE KEY The defense denies he was involved, and his attorney, Michael Sanft, has suggested that he fabricated the version of events now being used by the prosecution. Former FBI Special Agent Wade Lee testified that Davis sat down with investigators in 1998 after a drug-trafficking bust and began cooperating with authorities. MEXICAN MAFIA TURNED AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOODS INTO ‘GANGSTA’S PARADISE’ WITH MURDERS, KIDNAPPINGS, DRUGS: FEDS Davis sat down for multiple interviews with investigators, then spoke out on a BET documentary and detailed the night of the slaying in his memoir, prosecutors said. Davis is a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, which was a rival of the Mob Piru Bloods, a gang affiliated with Knight, who is serving a 28-year prison sentence for another Compton dispute that turned deadly. DIDDY SENT TO SOLITARY CONFINEMENT AFTER PRISON FIGHT WITH ANOTHER INMATE: MULTIPLE REPORTS The two groups had a bloody rivalry, highlighted by a brawl in the summer of 1996 that preceded Anderson's beating at the MGM Grand casino on Sept. 7, 1996, shortly before Shakur was gunned down in what prosecutors allege was retaliation. Knight, who is on the witness list, has said in prior interviews he does not intend to cooperate with prosecutors. James "Mob James" McDonald, a former Mob Piru associate, told the court to "treat me as a hostile witness" when he took the stand and later told Davis directly, "I don't want to send you to prison." "At the time, again, the gang culture, they had that same culture as the La Cosa Nostra, which was, you know, ‘we don’t talk to the cops,’" said Chris Swecker, a former assistant director of the FBI. He also has a background in gang investigations and helped implement the National Gang Intelligence Center. "You would think a victim would say, ‘Hey, that’s who shot me.’ Not the case in that culture," Swecker added. "And so that’s partly why … nobody was charged originally with the crime." Davis' own words are now central to the state's case against him. "The need to brag and the need to get street cred sort of overrode caution," Swecker said. "And now he sits in that defendant’s chair." Prosecutors opened Monday by describing Shakur's killing as revenge for the beating of Anderson, Davis' nephew, inside the MGM Grand after a Mike Tyson fight on Sept. 7, 1996. They argue Davis obtained a gun, helped hunt down Shakur and handed the weapon into the back seat before someone opened fire. TUPAC SHAKUR MURDER TRIAL KICKS OFF AS DUANE 'KEFFE D' DAVIS FACES JURY NEARLY THREE DECADES AFTER SHOOTING "Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself," Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors. Defense attorney Michael Sanft countered that Davis exaggerated and made up stories for attention and book sales. FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X "What they are telling you, they're representing it to be a fact when it really is fiction," he told jurors in his own opening statement. "And it's up to you to determine what the facts are in this case." He also said that police never tried corroborating Davis' claims when other suspected parties were still alive and attacked the investigation as incomplete. Former LAPD Detective Daryn Dupree testified Wednesday that Davis once denied involvement in the murder of Christopher Wallace, better known as the rapper Notorious B.I.G., by saying, "we did the other one," which Dupree testified he understood as a reference to Shakur. SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST TRUE CRIME NEWS Dupree also described Davis' claim that Sean "Diddy" Combs was supposed to provide money for Shakur's murder. LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE Combs is currently in prison after being convicted of federal prostitution charges. He has not been charged in the deaths of Shakur or Wallace. He was a close associate of Wallace, who was killed in Los Angeles six months after Shakur, and whose Bad Boy Records was a rival of Knight's Death Row Records. SEND US A TIP Then on Thursday, prosecutors played hours of Davis' 2008 police interview. On the recording, Davis said he was inside the Cadillac, initially had the gun and passed it toward the back seat. He identified Anderson as the man who ultimately opened fire on Shakur and Knight. LISTEN TO THE NEW 'CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO' PODCAST On Monday, jurors were shown surveillance video from MGM showing the initial fistfight involving Knight's entourage and Davis' nephew, Anderson. Thomas Kern, a former Las Vegas crime scene analyst who now works for Customs and Border Protection, testified Tuesday that he was present at Shakur's autopsy. The forensic pathologist determined his death to be a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and abodmen. By Friday more than a dozen witnesses had testified, including photographer Leonard Jefferson, who took one of the last known photographs of Shakur alive. Also on the witness list is Yusef Jah, a ghostwriter who worked with Davis on his book, "Compton Street Legend: Notorious Keffe D's Street-Level Accounts of Tupac and Biggie Murders, Death Row Origins, Suge Knight, Puffy Combs, and Crooked Cops." Fox News' Melissa Chrise contributed to this report. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89a2082c5335ae1049c02f Teacher who battled union fears she’s being targeted after shirt complaint: 'I'm afraid' te 2026-08-22T13:20:08.526Z Teacher who battled union fears she’s being targeted after shirt complaint: 'I'm afraid' Stacey Adair, an award-winning teacher from Colorado, is facing scrutiny after a complaint that accused her of spreading anti-transgender messaging by wearing an "XX ≠ XY" chromosome t-shirt to a professional development training event earlier this month. "They get an anonymous complaint — nobody said anything that day," Adair, who was named teacher of the year at the 2025 Teacher Freedom Summit, said. "I would say people don't even know what it means, honestly." "I told one of my friends that yesterday about getting in trouble and she goes, ‘that's math.’ I said, ‘well, no, it’s actually genetics.’" A week after the meeting, Adair was called in, given a questionnaire about why she had worn the shirt and was instructed not to wear clothing with controversial messaging going forward. The reprimand has made Adair fearful for her job and worried that she might receive heightened scrutiny down the road. But beyond her individual case, onlookers like Ryan Walters, the CEO of the Teachers Freedom Alliance (TFA), an organization advocating for alternatives to teacher unions, believe her situation is emblematic of larger power struggles in schools over ideology. EXCLUSIVE: INDIANA SCHOOL COUNSELOR FIRED FOR SPEAKING OUT ON GENDER IDENTITY POLICY SETTLES LAWSUIT FOR $200K "It’s not an isolated incident," Walters said. "These are the types of teachers that when you talk to parents around the country, they go, ‘I want my kids in a teacher's class like that.’ And yet you see the way that they're treated by the districts." Adair’s case began when she selected one of her many "word" shirts to the professional development event — a routine training for teachers during the back-to-school season. She noted that her shirts aren’t out of the ordinary for her. In fact, she threw on a "Math facts" t-shirt to meet a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet — Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. She noted that the school district has a policy against apparel that is political or "disruptive to the educational environment." But Adair said she didn’t see her shirt as overtly political or disruptive — especially as there were no students present at the training event. "I mean I just grab a shirt I feel like wearing that day," Adair said. "I just wear these shirts because they’re facts. I just feel like someone has to be stating the truth," she added. Asked why she thinks she might face future repercussions for the XX ≠ XY shirt, Adair said she’s been expecting this for some time. Long before the write-up, she helped strip the teacher union’s grip on her district. JONATHAN TURLEY: ARKANSAS SCHOOLS TEACHERS UNIONS AND PROVES EDUCATION CAN BE IMPROVED In 2021, she helped topple two members of her school board who were backed by the union. Without them, the board allowed the district’s contract with the teachers union to lapse by not voting to renew it. "It basically dictated how the administration could run the school district," Adair said of the contract. "So, if the superintendent wanted to pay teachers extra money for having better scores or outcomes, he had to ask the union first. The union basically controlled the school district rather than the elected board." Since helping flip the seats and speaking out against the union’s influence, Adair said she has felt like there was a target on her back — sometimes literally. "One time a local plumber wrote me a veiled, threatening email to my district email right after I went against the union during a school speech on a Wednesday night," Adair said. "And I got to school, and district security had to have me file a police report." "You don’t mess around with the union. So, am I surprised? No. Yes, I'm afraid. I know this is the beginning of them coming after me," she added. Adair noted that she doesn’t have evidence that the teachers unions are behind the anonymous tip that sparked the review. NEWLY ELECTED SEATTLE TEACHERS UNION PRESIDENT UNDER INVESTIGATION OVER ALLEGED ABUSE OF AUTISTIC CHILD Even so, Walters, the CEO of the Teachers Freedom Alliance, said it is emblematic of some of the pressure he’s seen firsthand in other cases across the country applied to teachers who question their authority. He believes cases like Adair’s are a key reason he says schools have become proxies for political control. "It’s like, well, you tally up these types of incidents across the country over two decades and guess what you’ve got? You’ve got a lack of other viewpoints in the staff and the employees," Walters said. "And so that’s where we’ve seen this ideology being pushed in schools, even in red states where people go, ‘how did this happen?’ Well, take this incident, multiply it by a thousand and apply it on a daily basis." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89a2072c5335ae1049c026 Navy veterans reunite after 30 years for 'grueling' cross-country bike challenge honoring 9/11 te 2026-08-22T13:20:07.920Z Navy veterans reunite after 30 years for 'grueling' cross-country bike challenge honoring 9/11 Two Navy veterans recently reunited to complete a great expedition across America. Jim Serger, 55, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Cory Hardy, 51, of Ennis, Montana, hadn’t seen each other in 30 years since serving together overseas. On July 14, the two friends embarked on a bike ride across the country – from California to New York City – in honor of the upcoming 25th anniversary of Sept. 11. NEW JERSEY MAN WALKS ACROSS US TO RAISE NEARLY $100K FOR HOMELESS VETERANS: 'RESPECT AND REVERENCE' After writing three books for the nonprofit Tunnel to Towers, Serger said he felt he needed to challenge himself "with something bigger." "And why not wrangle in my old Navy buddy, who I hadn’t seen for 30 years, that I knew was a tremendous bicyclist," he told Fox News Digital. "Back in January, I said, ‘Would you like to go on this trip?’ And he said, ‘Absolutely, Jimmy, count me in.’" Hardy said he’s always viewed himself as "incredibly patriotic," as he’s been granted "so many opportunities" through the military to see the world and get an education. "When Jim approached me about the idea of doing this, I was like, ‘Wow, this is awesome. This is something that I can do,’" he shared. "It's the 250th anniversary of our country and the 25th anniversary of 9/11, and I don't want to forget, and I want people to keep it at the forefront of their minds." TUNNEL TO TOWERS 5K DRAWS 40,000 PEOPLE TO HONOR 9/11 FIRST RESPONDERS IN NYC Serger trained for 10 months, logging 5,000 miles on an indoor trainer. When spring came, he hit the trails around Cincinnati. A few months later, the duo began their journey in San Diego and headed east. They were met with 20 road closures, a fire and flooding in Colorado, two flat tires, three bike shop visits and lots of backroad maneuvering. Serger and Hardy focused on staying hydrated, especially in the California and Arizona heat, with a collective three gallons of water each day, sometimes including electrolytes. They snacked on energy waffles, protein bars and "salt gummy bears," and ate lots of carbs at meals. Hardy said he took 10-minute ice baths "every single day." Serger reported losing six pounds by the end of the mission, which he gained back by eating "good food" in New York. AMERICA'S FIREFIGHTER SHORTAGE HITS CRISIS LEVEL AS EMERGENCY CALLS TRIPLE, PUTTING LIVES AT RISK While Hardy was already accustomed to the elevation after living in mountainous Montana, Serger said the altitude posed a physical challenge. "It was grueling ... so hard," he told Fox News Digital. "Cory had to take the mountains in Colorado, I stayed on flat ground — that was our game plan." Serger and Hardy were met by some of their old Navy buddies along the way. One fellow veteran, an Arizona state trooper, drove from Phoenix to Flagstaff to meet them on the route. Others opened their homes for the pair to stay the night. The friends stopped at about 25 firehouses to hand out Tunnel to Towers books and to introduce themselves. "Sometimes we were there for an hour, sometimes we were there for four hours," Serger said. "Talking about Tunnel to Towers, where they were on 9/11 … how much they train … it was just very heartwarming." CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER Serger said he and Hardy both foster the "patriotic mentality" of "what we can do for others," as Hardy serves on the city council and Serger's wife cooks for the fire department every month. These types of efforts were reciprocated on their journey. "Every fire station, EMS, police station, they're all involved in the communities. We got patches, we got hats, we got pins, we got T-shirts," Serger said. Hardy added that at every firehouse, everybody was there to help, "regardless of their state’s political affiliation." "They're just another American out there willing to put their life on the line to save people," he said. "I thought it was super awesome to get to meet firefighters from East Coast to West Coast." "The closer we got to Shanksville and the Pentagon and New York, it became very emotional, because then people said, ‘My mom was there’ or ‘My aunt was there' ... and then a firefighter said, ‘Three of our brothers went up there.’" "The closer we got, we knew we had hit the epicenter of how people responded to those terrorist attacks – and it really hit home." At the Pentagon, Serger and Hardy got a police escort from the Pentagon Police and Pentagon Fire Department before receiving a five-hour tour, including the 9/11 memorial. Clocking about 170 miles a day, the pair made it to Lower Manhattan in 20 days. They were welcomed by the FDNY, Port Authority and NYPD Honor Guard at FDNY Ten House, across from Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ "I started crying," Serger said. "My wife was there. She flew in. We had Sal Cassano, the [former] FDNY Fire Commissioner, there. Fire Station 10 had firemen, civilians were there. It was very, very moving." Serger and Hardy’s cause has so far raised more than $17,000 for Tunnel to Towers. In addition to raising funds for the organization, Serger said the expedition aims to generate continued awareness for those who sacrificed and risked their lives on 9/11 as the 25th anniversary approaches. "We never forget 9/11," Serger said. "We never forget the sacrifice of our heroes, of our military, our first responders and gold star families," he said. "We never want 9/11 to fade away." CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES Serger described the bike ride as a "surreal" and emotional experience. "It started off with, we're going to raise money for Tunnel to Towers, and I think our final [takeaway] was there's a lot of love and pride and patriotism in this country, from far west all the way to the east," he shared. "Everybody welcomed us with open arms. That's all we talked about." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a899fb12c5335ae1049bfbf WNBA player goes on profanity-laced rant about 'gay' men throwing sex toys on the court te 2026-08-22T13:10:09.992Z WNBA player goes on profanity-laced rant about 'gay' men throwing sex toys on the court As we theorized yesterday, the WNBA's sex toy problem has officially come back with a vengeance. Three more sex toys were launched onto the court Friday during the third quarter of the Chicago Sky-Golden State Valkyrie game. Three! It's a pandemic. It's official, folks. Mask up! Stop the spread! This comes on the heels of the famous neon green toy making a stunning appearance during Thursday's Dream-Sparks game in Los Angeles. For those who missed that one, Angel Reese saw the perp right away and viciously pointed him out in the crowd. He was later seen fleeing the scene. What a league. Anyway, back to Golden State ... Three sex toys interrupted play in the third quarter, and Sky guard Natasha Cloud was asked about it after the game. What followed was one of the wildest two-minute rants I've heard come from a professional athlete. Enjoy: "Y’all lame as f–k," Cloud started before diving into a world of name-calling, slurs, and sex toy talk. "And I just, man, and like, in most of these occasions, it’s men. And I want you to know that is the gayest thing that you can do is to go to a store, a sex shop, buy a dildo, come to a women’s game to throw the dildo on the court. That is the gayest s–t that I’ve ever heard." Here's where things really go off the rails: WNBA SUDDENLY WANTS TO STICK TO BASKETBALL AFTER YEARS OF MAKING POLITICS PART OF THE PRODUCT "So I’m a firm believer in anyone that has so much problem with a certain marginalized group, just come out and say that you’re a part of our marginalized group because that hate is unwarranted. It’s not factual," she continued. "And it says more about the internal struggles of that individual than it ever will say about the collective group. The men that are throwing it, shows that you are weak. Like, extremely weak. And it says a lot about how you feel about women. Y’all lame to us. Y’all gay to us. "We see it. Keep throwing them if you want to keep telling us you’re gay. You can come out. You’ll be happier. You’ll be nicer to people. You’ll be happier in your everyday life. You don’t need to go to therapy or none of that s–t. Just be yourself. Y’all weird. Like it says dildo on their credit card. Like they have to go through their financial advisor and be like, ‘What’s this green dildo? You good, Chad? You good, Richard? Are you good, Paul?’ Because it also is a certain demographic." Goodness gracious. Like I said, it's an all-timer. It's a rollercoaster. Natasha hit all the notes here. She used the word gay 400 times, and also used it as an insult, which I'm not sure the WNBA will love. She also attacks guys, which is fair, and makes sure to throw in some racial undertones at the end. Again, I'd say that's fair, but also, one of the guys arrested for doing this last year had the name "Lopez," so I'm not 100% sure that math checks out. BROADCAST BIAS: SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM TAKES A HIT, BUT ABC, NBC DODGE WNBA’S TRANSGENDER SPORTS FIGHT Anyway, I don't care about any of it. I think Cloud is right in saying that going to a sex store and buying a toy, just to pay for a ticket to a WNBA game, just so you can then throw said toy onto the court and stop a game, is silly. That seems like a ton of work for very little payoff. Also seems like a waste of money. I could never afford that lifestyle. What a luxury. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! That being said, I'm not sure lashing out like this is going to help. If anything, it's probably going to make this sex toy pandemic worse. If I know anything about how the human male brain operates, name-calling usually doesn't solve problems. Just a hunch. Stay tuned! Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a899d5b2c5335ae1049bf4e Nick Chubb retires after NFL career that began on a Hall of Fame trajectory but was derailed by injuries te 2026-08-22T13:00:11.326Z Nick Chubb retires after NFL career that began on a Hall of Fame trajectory but was derailed by injuries A stellar career seemingly ended for Nick Chubb after that catastrophic injury in 2023, but one of the NFL's most dominant running backs refused to go out like that at age 28. He is instead going out healthy and on his own terms at age 30. Chubb on Friday night announced what he himself knew was inevitable years ago: He is done. He is now retired from the NFL. "Today's the day I've been avoiding for a while," Chubb wrote in a farewell missive on Instagram. "Twelve-year-old me could never imagine this day, and 30-year-old me is wondering where all the time has gone. "I've known for some time now, but I'm finally ready to share that I'm done playing football. I wanted to end my career on a healthy note, along with a winning season, and I was able to do that." RUSSELL WILSON ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT FROM NFL AFTER 14 SEASONS This is a true story: In the spring of 2018, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick went to the University of Georgia campus and watched both Chubb and Sony Michel work out for scouts. He selected Michel with the 31st pick of the first round to be his running back. Chubb was selected four slots later by the Cleveland Browns and over the next five seasons made Belichick's choice look like a mistake. Chubb rushed for 996 yards as a rookie in '18 despite starting only nine games. Then, starting in 2019, Chubb established himself as one of the NFL's premier running backs, producing four consecutive 1,000-yard-plus seasons, averaging over 5 yards per carry in each of those seasons, and being selected to four consecutive Pro Bowls. Chubb never won a rushing title, but came closest in 2019, finishing second to Derrick Henry, who won the crown on the last day of the season by gaining 211 yards. Through his first five seasons, Chubb gained 6,341 rushing yards, scored 48 rushing touchdowns and boasted a remarkable 5.2 yards per carry. The guy was on a Hall of Fame career trajectory. HOUSTON TEXANS STAR PRACTICES IN PADS FOR FIRST TIME IN NEARLY TWO YEARS AFTER 2024 CAREER-THREATENING INJURY But that changed dramatically in September of 2023 when he suffered a devastating injury to his left knee against the Steelers that required two surgeries and cost him the remainder of that season and part of the next. Chubb had previously torn multiple ligaments while at Georgia so he knew what a comeback entailed. But when he returned in 2024, he wasn't the same. And even that diminished player had another injury when he broke his foot, prematurely ending his season once again. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM "The only thing I could control after hurting my knee twice was getting back up, getting back to work, and getting back on the field," Chubb wrote in his farewell post. "And I was able to do that both times." The Nick Chubb story includes physical and emotional pain in large swaths. It seems like he had a career filled with setbacks. That's not how he sees it. "I say this to all my brothers still on the field, still in the heat of it," Chubb wrote. "There's a life waiting for you after football, too. And health is the real wealth. "I end my career in a great place. Even though there are some things I wish had happened differently, I can say that I have no regrets." FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8998a92c5335ae1049be81 Jets say Geno Smith delivers 'exactly what we were looking for' in 2026 debut, so here comes the overreaction te 2026-08-22T12:40:09.155Z Jets say Geno Smith delivers 'exactly what we were looking for' in 2026 debut, so here comes the overreaction Geno Smith played well in his New York Jets debut on Friday night and in any other town, that's going to be notable but somewhat mundane news because the starting quarterback performing at a high level in the preseason is not a promise of championships. But because we're talking about New York, and the starving-for-glad-tidings Jets, this space warns you to prepare for what's next. Because Smith's one drive against the Pittsburgh Steelers might lead to some massive overreaction. And a lot of excitement. And high expectations. JETS FANS BREATHE SIGH OF RELIEF AFTER PRACTICE SCARE FOR $43M STAR RUNNING BACK So, the Geno 2.0 public relations uproar is on. That's how it is in the Big Apple's thrill ride through the NFL season for quarterbacks who struggle in preseason practices, as Smith has done at times this summer, and then deliver a near-perfect performance in their first preseason action. "Very, very efficient," Jets coach Aaron Glenn described it to reporters afterward. "I mean, I think he had two third-down completions within that, threw to five different receivers within that drive. He looked very comfortable. "It was exactly what we were looking for ..." Smith is thus going to get a good dose of New York pundit love for the next few days because he had that drive in which he completed all seven of his pass attempts, including one that was tipped and caught by one of his offensive linemen. He's going to get applauded for converting a couple of third-down situations. And, of course, the 13-yard touchdown pass to Jelani Woods will be replayed as if on a loop on channels 2, 4, 5, 7 and WPIX. It's the New York way. So, how ya feelin' Geno? "It felt good to be out there with the guys," Smith told reporters gathered at his locker stall. "You know, obviously we got one drive in, but we scored a touchdown. You always want to start fast. so that was a good thing. "But definitely a lot of room for improvement. So just looking forward to getting back to practice, getting to work." This is a perfect reaction from Smith. He shows modesty while giving his performance proper context. But the fans? The media? They're going to go as close to wild as is allowed by NFL preseason bylaws. And it won't be just the fans and media getting all pumped. Some Jets teammates will, too. IT'S WISE NOT TO TRUST THE NFL PRESEASON BUT, HOLY MOLY, RAMS QB TY SIMPSON LOOKS LIKE A STUD "We were all fired up for him," backup quarterback Cade Klubnik said. "He's going to have a heck of a year and that's just a glimpse of it." There it is, a prediction for the entire regular season based on one preseason drive. And, again, it was a good drive. But that Steelers defense that retreated did not include T.J. Watt, or Jalen Ramsey, or Joey Porter, or Cam Heyward. Just sayin'. Look, the Smith we saw on Friday was more comfortable, more proficient, and just better than the one who left this same franchise a decade ago as a draft bust. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM You'll recall Smith's first stint with the Jets, from 2013 to 2016, was a mess. It ended, for all intents and purposes, when teammate IK Enemkpali sucker punched Smith and broke his jaw in 2015. That, unfortunately, turned Smith's stint with the team into something of a punchline — literally. So, this return has a wonderful opportunity to be something else. Something better. But Friday's lone drive should be understood to be one humble hint of that possibility rather than a bold vision of the next few months. Smith, thankfully, gets that. "I just feel like," he said, "we can be a lot better." FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8991a32c5335ae1049bd44 Here are five tunes to blast this weekend in honor of late ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard te 2026-08-22T12:10:11.914Z Here are five tunes to blast this weekend in honor of late ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard Like a great many rock and blues fans around the globe, I was really sorry to hear the news that Frank Beard, the ironically beardless drummer of the legendarily bearded ZZ Top, had died at the age of 77. The band is in the midst of a tour, plans to continue, but will do so with only one original member, vocalist and axeman Billy Gibbons, following the 2021 death of bassist Dusty Hill. I was admittedly late to the ZZ Top part in my music listening journey, but over the last few years they’ve become one of my go-to bands. Just good old-fashioned blues-rock tunes about cheap sunglasses, women with legs who know how to use them, and men who are sharply dressed. So, let’s pay homage to Mr. Beard and run through a few songs we should all be blasting this weekend in his honor. It’s kind of wild that a song about waiting for a bus has one of the most infectious grooves in the band’s body of work, but it does. "Waitin’ for the Bus" kicks off ZZ Top’s 1973 album "Tres Hombres," and it lets you know that you’re in for some serious, down-and-dirty blues rock. The main riff is one of my favorites and is just one of those that makes you involuntarily nod your head with a "stinkface." You know the look. Beard’s playing is stellar, especially during the harmonica and guitar solos, and then they segue seamlessly into a straight-ahead blues tune in "Jesus Just Left Chicago." Now that’s how you start a record. FOUR CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED GUITARISTS FROM THE 1980S THAT ARE GUARANTEED TO MELT YOUR FACE OFF One of the last things you’d think you’d ever hear out of a blues band from Texas is them throwing some synthesizers into the mix, but ZZ Top did it, and it’s brilliant. "Eliminator" is an all-time album from top to bottom, and is really the sound I think of when I think of ZZ Top. "Gimme All Your Lovin’" is a classic in its own right, and I love the opening drum part from Beard that gets the song going. CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK CULTURE COVERAGE In fact, I think almost everyone can tell what song is about to start with those first two snare hits. That’s practically the definition of an iconic song in my book. And the chorus? Good luck not singing along to it. This list may make it obvious, but I’d say my two favorite ZZ Top albums are "Tres Hombres" and "Eliminator." Kind of strange because the first is a classic, down-and-dirty blues-rock record, while the other has deliciously ‘80s synthesizers thrown into the mix on top of it. That doesn’t seem like it should work, but it obviously does. I love that they didn’t go overboard with synths and drum machines; they used them to accent what they were already doing. "TV Dinners" is a prime example of it. The rhythmic synth part just adds to what Beard is playing and completes a song with an undeniable groove to it. There aren't many records that have tried to mesh a traditional style of music like blues with what was cutting-edge technology at the time. Believe me, I've looked for them, and I think the closest modern album to those ZZ Top gems from the 1980s is Sturgill Simpson's 2019 album "Sound & Fury." I had never heard of this gem off of "Deguelo" until I was watching the documentary "ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas," and it blew my mind. It has this big, ugly riff — a description I offer in the most complimentary way imaginable — that makes little to no musical sense, and I'm pretty sure that's because it’s supposed to sound like an engine. You’d think it would be almost impossible to come up with a drum part to go with that bizarre riff, but Frank Beard pulled it off. He somehow managed to play a part that adds to the machine-like sound of the riff, but is still musical with a cool backbeat to it. It’s so, so good, and while that opening riff is the one that stands out because it is so unusual, the one that comes later in the song (it kind of reminds me of the closing riff from the Black Sabbath song "War Pigs") is a winner as well. I was introduced to this tune after hearing one of my favorite bands, Clutch, do a cover of it. So, I went back to "Tres Hombres" and checked it out. It’s another song that starts with a cool little fill from Frank and another that has a bit of an off-kilter feel to it. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! As we touched on with "Manic Mechanic," Beard’s playing feels so thoughtful and serves the song so well. The best part, in my opinion, is when they veer away from the money riff and into a quick, flowing, almost epic-sounding bridge section where the drums really shine. What a tune. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8991a32c5335ae1049bd3b Dem Senate hopeful racked up hundreds of missed votes during stops at multiple taxpayer serving jobs te 2026-08-22T12:10:11.353Z Dem Senate hopeful racked up hundreds of missed votes during stops at multiple taxpayer serving jobs FIRST ON FOX: Democratic Senate nominee and former Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, missed nearly one in five votes in the Alaska House of Representatives and more than a third of Bethel City Council meetings during her time in office, records show. Peltola missed 794 of 4,265 state House votes, or 18.6%, during her five terms from 1999 to 2009, according to legislative records, and 22 of 60 city council meetings, or 36.67% from 2011 to 2013, according to city records. Her attendance record is now raising questions about her commitment to public service as she advances to Alaska’s four-candidate general election, a closely watched race that could affect control of the U.S. Senate. "Alaskans deserve an all-the-time workhorse like Dan Sullivan, not someone like Peltola who knifes Alaskans in the back when she even bothers to show up," Republican National Committee spokesperson Nick Poche said in a statement sent to Fox News Digital. MORNING GLORY: ALASKA’S 'REAL' SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN STOOD UP OVER CHALLENGER Records show Peltola’s highest number of absences came during the 23rd Legislature from 2003 to 2004, when she missed 334 of 1,019 Alaska House votes. She also missed nine of 22 council meetings in 2013 and 11 of 32 council meetings in 2012, according to city records. Peltola has also faced criticism from conservatives for missing votes while serving in the United States Congress from 2022-2024 where she missed 235 of 1,370 roll-call votes, or 17.2%, according to GovTrack data. In addition to missed votes, Peltola's critics have also pointed to her time in Congress not resulting in any bills or resolutions for which she was the primary sponsor becoming law, compared to Sullivan who has had several bills signed into law. "She couldn't even get a single bill signed into law," the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) posted on X in January. "Now, she wants a promotion." In a statement to Fox News Digital, a Peltola campaign spokesperson defended the absences, saying Peltola, a mother of seven, took maternity leave after giving birth to three of her children while serving in the state House. The spokesperson added that, excluding excused absences, Peltola missed only about 6% of votes and continued to advance bipartisan measures throughout her tenure. "Three of Mary’s children were born during her time in the state legislature and she took maternity leave. That didn’t stop her from working hard for Alaskans, from passing bills to improve public safety in rural Alaska to increasing Alaska energy production," the Peltola campaign said. The campaign also said Peltola spent summers at fish camp and that some city council absences occurred during fishing months or because of other council priorities. GOP SENATOR, EX-HOUSE DEM EMERGE FROM ALASKA’S ‘JUNGLE PRIMARY’ DESPITE FAR-LEFT MEDDLING Turning to Sullivan’s attendance record, the spokesperson said he has missed a significant number of votes and committee hearings, calling his absences "an insult to Alaskans" and saying that Sullivan has been "slacking off" missing fisheries subcommittee hearings. Peltola announced her Senate bid in January to represent Alaska and unseat two-term Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who is backed by President Donald Trump and also advanced to the general election in November. She finished ahead of Sullivan in Tuesday’s primary. FOUR MONTHS TO MIDTERMS: 12 RACES THAT WILL DETERMINE THE SENATE MAJORITY Peltola announced her Senate bid in January to represent Alaska and unseat two-term Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who is backed by President Donald Trump and also advanced to the general election in November. She finished ahead of Sullivan in Tuesday’s primary. Alaska’s unique election system uses a nonpartisan top-four primary, in which candidates from all parties appear on the same ballot, followed by ranked-choice voting in the general election. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8991a22c5335ae1049bd32 ‘Reagan’ film set to release director’s cut amid alleged online censorship te 2026-08-22T12:10:10.762Z ‘Reagan’ film set to release director’s cut amid alleged online censorship As the team behind the 2024 biopic "Reagan" promotes and prepares for the film’s re-release next month, it once again finds itself battling what its producer calls digital gatekeeping. This time, producer Mark Joseph is taking issue with Google’s YouTube after ads promoting interviews with stars and others associated with the film were flagged under the platform's advertising policies. The interviews are part of Joseph's podcast special series, "Making REAGAN." Since the film — which starred Dennis Quaid as the 40th president — was first released in theaters in August 2024, its creators have faced numerous obstacles, including restrictions imposed by Facebook early on related to efforts to boost posts and advertisements for the film. Production on "Reagan" began in 2020. NEW FOX NATION DOCUMENTARY CHRONICLES 20-YEAR JOURNEY BEHIND ‘REAGAN’ FILM In what Joseph describes as the latest censorship activity by YouTube, an ad promoting the first episode of the series, featuring rock legend Gene Simmons discussing family, his producing endeavors and his appreciation for America, was flagged by the platform for "advertisement for elections" and "shocking content," despite the noticeably tame conversation. Simmons’ cover of "Stormy Weather" was his contribution to the "Reagan" movie. "For 30 years, Simmons has been branded for outrageous content, and now he’s been deemed outrageous for talking?" Joseph told Fox News Digital. Simmons, the co-founder, co-lead singer and bassist of the legendary rock band KISS, has long been famous for his black-and-white face paint, inordinately long tongue, fire-breathing and blood-spitting stunts and overall stage persona. "The notion that a simple conversation with a rock legend like Gene Simmons is labeled ‘shocking content’ and ‘election advertising’ is ridiculous, as anyone who watches the episode can attest," Joseph added. "These are normal conversations." Other episodes whose promotions were flagged for "election advertising" feature Kathie Lee Gifford, who co-wrote the tribute song "I Knew It Would Be You" for the film; actresses Amanda Righetti and Lesley-Anne Down; actors Dan Lauria, Elya Baskin and Trevor Donovan; author Arthur Laffer; singer Tanya Tucker; and screenwriter and filmmaker Howard Klausner. REAGAN SHOOTER CALLS LINK TO WASHINGTON HOTEL ‘SPOOKY’ AFTER ALLEGED TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AT SAME SITE An Aug. 12 episode in which Joseph sits down with John Hinckley Jr. for an exclusive interview and extensive discussion about his 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan also had its promotion blocked for "election advertising." "The idea that an information and news-oriented interview with the man who shot Ronald Reagan, John Hinckley, is labeled ‘election advertising’ and blocked from being boosted is equally crazy," Joseph said. According to Joseph’s team, when this happens, YouTube does not provide an option to appeal the ruling, but only allows them to boost a different episode. RONALD REAGAN TOOK AWAY HIS OWN SON'S FOOTBALL SCHOLARSHIP, 'REAGAN' PRODUCER REVEALS Joseph has called on the video-streaming platform to reverse its decision and stop blocking the team's attempts to promote the episodes, as well as the release of the "Reagan" director’s cut in theaters Sept. 25. The extended version includes 10 additional minutes of footage and returns to roughly 600 theaters on Sept. 25, after limited Independence Day screenings tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary. YouTube responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment with a statement citing that "ads related to the podcast were removed for including profanity," referring specifically to the episode featuring Simmons. A YouTube representative did note, however, that after review, the ad does not violate their U.S. Election Ads policy, but since it still contains profanity, it can’t be approved to run as an advertisement. Beyond that, it was noted that the creator’s videos are compliant with YouTube’s community guidelines, which apply to organic content. It also said that the platform had reached out to the creator to "help them understand our policies moving forward, and they are welcome to adjust the content in order to promote the video in the future." NEW ‘REAGAN’ MOVIE MUSEUM PLANNED FOR PRESIDENT’S HOMETOWN Yet numerous other episodes were flagged for "election advertising." YouTube noted its U.S. Election Ads policy, which requires advertisers to have an elections certification to run ads that feature a reference to a current candidate or officeholder for an elected office. Joseph reiterated that many of the episodes weren’t geared towards politics and were just discussions with those who contributed to the "Reagan" film. YouTube then responded, "Following a careful review, we determined that a few of these advertised episodes were out of scope of the Election Ads policy, but others are in scope." Directed by Sean McNamara and produced by Rawhide Pictures, "Reagan" follows his childhood in Illinois, Hollywood acting career, California governorship and rise to the presidency. Besides the overall challenge the filmmakers say they faced while telling the story of a conservative icon in left-leaning Hollywood, the film’s production encountered many stops and starts. While filming in Guthrie, Okla., the production had to shut down for a month due to COVID. Then, while promoting the film and ahead of its release, Facebook restricted efforts to boost posts and advertisements for the movie. Material featuring Quaid and a Reagan quotation about America’s best days still lying ahead was affected. The film’s official Facebook page also faced temporary suspensions. For its part, Facebook cited automated systems and policies governing content involving politicians before a presidential election as the problem. Although Trump was the Republican on the ballot, not Reagan, Facebook later said that automated systems had mistakenly flagged content about "Reagan" as requiring special authorization under its social-issues and elections rules. "The similarities to Facebook are that both use a nebulous reasoning that the content somehow constitutes electioneering, but with the ‘Making Reagan’ series on YouTube, these are just ordinary conversations with people who were involved with the film or the topic of the film and have nothing to do with advocating for an election," Joseph said. Other obstacles related to the movie involved the Guinness World Records declining to certify a milestone asserted by the filmmakers: that the movie achieved the widest gap between audience and critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes for any American-made movie. In terms of the YouTube kerfuffle, producer, director and CEO of boutique marketing agency Ribbow Media Group CEO Ash Greyson said he, too, has had ongoing issues when using YouTube’s platform to promote conservative films. But it’s the faith-based films he’s marketed that have faced the greatest hurdles. Greyson helped market and promote the 2023 Christian drama "Jesus Revolution," among other Christian-based films, including "God’s Not Dead" and "I Still Believe." "It’s been a frustrating and ongoing issue for years, particularly on YouTube, where they will flag anything ‘faith,’" Greyson said, noting that he’s had very few issues regarding films outside those genres. "And it seems to be worse on the Christian stuff." For Joseph, it’s simply about getting these important stories seen after all the sweat equity involved in making them. "It’s unfortunate because it severely limits the reach," he said regarding what he sees as obstacles needlessly put up by YouTube. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8991a22c5335ae1049bd29 Charles Manson's granddaughter reveals moment she discovered dark family secret: 'It was devastating' te 2026-08-22T12:10:10.138Z Charles Manson's granddaughter reveals moment she discovered dark family secret: 'It was devastating' In 2022, Sophia Maddox received a phone call that upended everything she thought she knew about her family — and sent her searching for answers about one of America's most notorious criminals. At the time, the 22-year-old aspiring filmmaker and actress was living in Los Angeles, juggling odd jobs to make rent, while her father, Daniel Arguelles, was searching for answers about his own past. Raised by his mother and stepfather, Arguelles had been trying to identify his biological father when he called Maddox with a startling discovery. "He told me he thinks he found out who his father is, and if it's true, it's really dark," Maddox told Fox News Digital. "He wasn't sure if I was ready to know. And my dad is not a dark person. He never taught me any dark things. So if he says it's dark, my first thought is it must be famously dark. So I asked him to just get it out of the way." WOMAN BRANDED ‘FEMALE CHARLES MANSON’ ESCAPED PRISON; PROSECUTOR NOW DOUBTS HER CONVICTION "'Is it Ted Bundy?'" she recalled. "He said, 'Bigger. Think of the biggest movie you know and the biggest director you know.' And I thought of the movie 'Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.' I was trying to remember the name mentioned in the film. And then I realized who it was: Charles Manson." Maddox immediately Googled Manson's name. The resemblance, she said, was uncanny. "I thought to myself, 'That's my dad,'" Maddox said. "It was a really devastating day." Maddox's journey after learning that Manson was her grandfather is chronicled in the Hulu documentary "My Grandfather Charles Manson." In it, she meets people who had direct connections to Manson, including some of his former followers, to better understand her family history. "It was cathartic," Maddox said. "I'm a filmmaker before I found out who my grandfather is. And my life got uprooted from this. I had something to say at that moment, and I couldn't bottle it up." Arguelles submitted his DNA to Ancestry in 2015, hoping to identify his father and finally answer a question that had followed him for decades. He had long suspected the man who raised him was not his biological father and confronted his mother about his paternity when he was 21. FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X Years passed, and Arguelles had nearly given up when he matched with Michael Brunner. DNA testing confirmed they were half-brothers. Brunner is Manson's son with Mary Brunner, one of Manson's earliest followers, People magazine reported. Maddox described herself and her father as "normal, working-class citizens." "We have no prior records or anything criminal," Maddox said. "We grew up as artists. My dad showed me the movies he made and his modeling photos of him photographed by Richard Avedon. So of course, when you learn that someone like Manson is your grandfather, it's normal to wonder, 'Am I that too?' People have asked me, 'Were you afraid that you inherited evil, that you were evil?' But my dad and I are very normal, hardworking people." Manson, who was convicted of orchestrating the 1969 murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles, died in 2017. He was 83 and serving a life sentence. A petty criminal who had been in and out of jail since childhood, the charismatic, guru-like Manson surrounded himself in the 1960s with runaways and other lost souls, The Associated Press reported. According to the outlet, he then sent his disciples to butcher some of the rich and famous in what prosecutors said was a bid to trigger a race war — an idea he got from a twisted reading of the Beatles song "Helter Skelter." Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, Manson maintained that he was innocent and that society itself was guilty. SIGN UP TO GET THE TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER A horrified Arguelles resisted learning more about his biological father. Maddox wanted to dig deeper into her grandfather's past. She said she was less interested in the mythology surrounding Manson and more interested in how he became the man America came to fear. Manson was born in 1934 to teenage Kathleen Maddox. His biological father was absent, and his mother married William Manson, whose surname Charles took. After that marriage ended, his mother was sent to prison for her role in a robbery, and Manson went to live with relatives. By his teens, he was stealing, running away and bouncing through juvenile institutions. He eventually was sent to the Indiana Boys School. Manson later said he was beaten and sexually assaulted while locked up as a juvenile. His troubles continued into adulthood, with repeated prison sentences for crimes including theft and forgery. By the time Manson was released from federal prison in 1967 at age 32, he had spent roughly half his life behind bars or in juvenile institutions. In the film, Maddox examined previously unreleased records that shed light on Manson's troubled childhood. "I heard about my dad's abuse as a child from a reform school and from his own parents," she explained. "My dad's was really bad, but that was the '70s. Imagine what it was like back in the '40s or '50s. It was shocking how bad they treated boys in these reform schools. the juvenile justice expert we spoke to said that Manson's experience at Indiana was not singular. Manson's story was not exceptional. That's how they learned their lessons in survival." GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB "I think the biggest shock for me was how Manson's decision-making as an adult in his 30s can really stem from the survival mechanisms he learned from his childhood in these prisons," she added. Maddox said she was disturbed to learn that Manson, who had been institutionalized for offenses including running away and theft, was housed alongside older juveniles with violent records. "I was shocked to read that he was imprisoned with kids who had murdered people," Maddox said. "And he was there for running away from home, stealing a bike or stealing a car. But so many boys, older kids with violent records, were placed there. And what does a kid have to do to survive a place like that? It breaks my heart." Arguelles, born in 1959, learned that he was the result of a brief relationship between his mother, Darlene Arguelles, and Manson, who was using the alias "Charlie Dear" at the time, People magazine reported. But as Maddox dug deeper into the family's past, the search that initially brought father and daughter together began pulling them apart. Maddox said she and her father had a falling out one week before production on the documentary began. Arguelles had previously sat for an interview and encouraged his daughter to make the film, but she said confronting his biological father's past ultimately became too painful. SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST TRUE CRIME NEWS "I have a little more distance from Manson because I am the grandchild, but that's his father," Maddox said. "And he's shared similar experiences in childhood as him. And my dad is a very sensitive person. [But] he was curious. He wanted answers. He wanted me to make this film. But then at the same time, it was all too much." "I don't know if he's seen the film," Maddox said. "He hasn't reached out. So I'm just sitting back and respecting his wishes until he reaches back out." "I still support Sophia and I'm very proud of her," Arguelles told Fox News Digital. "I believe the falling out between us came from a difference of opinion on the overall narrative. That's really all I can say at this point." The Manson Family slaughtered five of its victims on Aug. 9, 1969, at Tate’s home: the actress, who was 8½ months pregnant, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring, Polish screenwriter Wojciech (Voityck) Frykowski and Steven Parent, a friend of the estate’s caretaker. Tate’s husband, "Rosemary’s Baby" director Roman Polanski, was out of the country at the time. The next night, a wealthy grocer and his wife, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, were stabbed to death in their home across town. After a trial that lasted nearly a year, Manson and three followers — Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten — were convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Another defendant, Charles "Tex" Watson, was convicted and sentenced to death later. Their sentences were commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court struck down the state’s death penalty in 1972. Atkins died of cancer in prison in 2009 at age 61. Van Houten was released on parole in 2023. Krenwinkel and Watson are still behind bars. LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE Maddox said she reached out to the victims' loved ones during filming. "I'm in talks with two relatives at the moment," Maddox said. "And I'll just say every experience I've had with them has been very lovely. They were very kind to me. They understood why I am telling this story. ... I'm not the only person looking for answers." Maddox said examining the forces that shaped Manson was never about absolving him of his crimes. "My intention is never to apologize or justify for anybody's actions," she said. "I know what my grandfather did." Maddox said understanding Manson's past wasn't about excusing his crimes but about understanding what shaped him — and potentially preventing future violence. In the film, Maddox also explained her decision to change her surname. SEND US A TIP "My dad and I were always trying to find a last name that resonated with us," she said. "I spent a year or two investigating my family and re-looked the name 'Maddox.' And when I Googled it, it meant 'goodness.' My blood name means goodness. I'm going to own it. That's mine. I'm giving it new life." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8991a12c5335ae1049bd20 WATCH: Father of three outraged over advice his family received amid trans teacher fight te 2026-08-22T12:10:09.470Z WATCH: Father of three outraged over advice his family received amid trans teacher fight Parents at a North Carolina elementary school are fighting for the ability to keep their children in public school while opting them out of a music class taught by a transgender teacher, as one father says critics have responded by telling families to homeschool instead. The dispute at Middle Creek Elementary School in Wake County has centered on parents who say they were not given advance notice about the teacher and want an alternative for children whose families object on religious or personal grounds. Parents speaking before the school board this week said children have come home "upset, confused and uncomfortable," while others said requests for alternatives have been ignored or dismissed and called on the district to provide an opt-out. The controversy spilled into a heated Wake County Board of Education meeting Tuesday, where speakers were sharply divided over whether accommodating those families amounts to protecting parental rights or discriminating against a teacher because of gender identity. One speaker argued that religious and conscientious exemptions effectively amount to parents demanding that their children not encounter people they dislike, while others said families should not have to leave the public-school system to avoid a class they object to. PORTLAND PARENT BANNED FROM SCHOOL EVENTS AFTER OPPOSING GENDER IDENTITY ASSIGNMENT FILES LAWSUIT Aaron Driver, a father of three children at Middle Creek Elementary and member of Middle Creek Parental Rights, told the board that parents "shouldn’t have to pass an ideological test to participate in public education." "Here’s what our detractors are telling us," Driver said. "You don’t support school hiring a trans teacher. Maybe public school isn’t for you or your family. Maybe homeschool. Maybe private school." BRAZIL PARENTS FACE PRISON SENTENCE FOR HOMESCHOOLING AFTER COURT ACCUSES THEM OF 'INTELLECTUAL NEGLECT' "That's right," he continued. "Maybe pay taxes into the school system and then pay again to escape from it." Later in the meeting, another public commenter, Katrina Day, offered a striking response from the other side of the fight, proposing a free homeschooling curriculum because it would "keep the bigots away from my grandchildren." She also suggested the district "relocate the children of bigots if needed" or "expel the children of bigots if needed." The fight at Middle Creek has been building prior to Tuesday's contentious board meeting. State Rep. Erin Paré, R-Wake, publicly raised concerns in late July after hearing from parents about the possibility of a transgender teacher at their southern Wake County elementary school, floating the possibility of a state law requiring sex-based professional attire for public-school employees, according to WRAL. Parents opposed to the arrangement have framed their objections as a request for advance notice and alternatives rather than a personal attack on the teacher. During Tuesday’s meeting, one speaker said parents should receive "advanced notice and the option to opt out" when a teacher’s presentation conflicts with their religious or personal beliefs, while another said families had requested alternatives and called on the board to "provide reasonable alternatives to families who object." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8991a02c5335ae1049bd17 Trump’s welfare reforms are a major victory. Bureaucrats could still wreck them te 2026-08-22T12:10:08.845Z Trump’s welfare reforms are a major victory. Bureaucrats could still wreck them Is America doomed to repeat its welfare mistakes? That’s the question on the 30th anniversary of the 1996 welfare reforms, which President Clinton signed on August 22. The law empowered millions of families to move from welfare to work, but it has since been replaced by an even more costly and harmful welfare state. Over $18 trillion in welfare spending later, President Trump championed an even bigger reform in the law he signed last summer. It represents historic progress, yet its success depends on tireless enforcement against states and bureaucrats that want to undermine it. The next welfare reform is already needed — sooner rather than later. Even now, the 1996 welfare reform stands out as one of the most transformative policies in recent history. The law famously targeted the country’s main cash welfare program, which had trapped families in poverty and dependency for decades. It created a new program — Temporary Assistance for Needy Families — that connected mostly single mothers to work. By 2005, TANF caseloads had dropped by nearly 60%, saving taxpayers billions of dollars while improving millions of lives. DR. OZ UNVEILS MEDICAID OVERHAUL, CLAMPS DOWN ON $2B FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND MANDATES WORK FOR ABLE-BODIED Yet the progress with cash welfare was overshadowed by a backward slide in food stamps. While the 1996 law created much-needed work requirements for able-bodied adults, it had Swiss cheese levels of loopholes. State officials and federal bureaucrats conspired to the point that, in 2023, about 95% of able-bodied adults on food stamps were not covered by work requirements. Meanwhile, other welfare programs not touched in 1996 have exploded. ObamaCare and pandemic-era policies expanded Medicaid to previously inconceivable levels of more than 100 million recipients, a huge percentage of them able-bodied men with no disabilities. The painful result: As of last year, federal welfare spending was 2.7 times higher than it was in 1996, even adjusting for inflation. Welfare is more expensive, expansive, and extreme than ever. TRUMP TRIES TO CUT BLUE-STATE MEDICAID FRAUD AND SAVE MORE GREEN Enter President Trump. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted unprecedented reforms to both food stamps and Medicaid. The loopholes that states use to avoid food-stamp work requirements have almost all been closed, and Medicaid now has its first-ever work requirements. Most importantly, states are now on the hook for high misspending in both programs. If they tolerate waste, fraud, and abuse, they have to pay a portion of the programs’ costs — a powerful incentive to apply work requirements and shrink welfare rolls. My organization estimates that at least 10 million people could move from welfare to work under the law, far more than under the 1996 reform. Separately, President Trump is allowing local authorities to enact a work requirement in public housing — a major and much-needed move. Yet just like after 1996, states are looking to avoid responsibility and worsen the welfare crisis. The worst loopholes are in Medicaid, where states can let recipients self-attest to their medically frail status. If recipients don’t provide documentation within six months, they’re supposed to be removed from the program. At least 30 states have admitted they plan to use self-attestation, and, based on a court filing, at least 25 states and D.C. have acknowledged they could simply remove these people at the six-month mark, then let them re-enroll for another six months. This never-ending cycle is a recipe for more, not less, abuse of programs meant for truly needy Americans. COALITION OF 25 STATES SUES TRUMP ADMIN OVER MEDICAID WORK RULE DESIGNED TO PREVENT FRAUD There’s also a food-stamp carve-out that lets states delay financial penalties if their misspending is high enough. The measure was supposed to give the worst offenders more time to design solutions, but bad actors are misspending more so they can delay penalties. Four states and D.C. have cleared that threshold. Several others, like New York, appear set to follow suit. Illinois and Delaware saw massive increases in waste, fraud, and abuse over the last year, and New Mexico openly admitted it’s using this strategy. Ultimately, states want to kill the reform or at least delay penalties, which the current Senate Farm Bill draft unfortunately does. Accountability should be tightened, not loosened, delayed, or eliminated. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION The Trump administration has just over two years to crack down on gimmicks. It must also police the overwhelmingly liberal federal bureaucracy so the law isn’t gutted from within. Other loopholes and tortured legal interpretations may take years to manifest. Democratic administrations have a history of taking a mile when statutory text only gives them an inch. While the new welfare reforms will help millions of people achieve financial independence and save huge sums of taxpayer money, constant vigilance is required to prevent President Trump’s achievements from being undermined or ignored long-term. Most of all, Congress should already be thinking about the next welfare reform, and it can’t take another 30 years. The welfare state is still growing larger by the year, sapping the American spirit of hard work and personal agency. The next stage is to shrink programs more dramatically, eliminate unnecessary and harmful handouts altogether, and eliminate all loopholes and waivers, period. The 1996 reform was good. President Trump’s reforms are great. The next welfare reform must be exceptional — and imminent. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8991a02c5335ae1049bd0e From fondue to casseroles: Classic 1960s foods that defined a generation te 2026-08-22T12:10:08.168Z From fondue to casseroles: Classic 1960s foods that defined a generation The 1960s marked a shift in American cuisine as international dishes gained popularity while the processed and convenience foods of the 1950s remained staples on dinner tables. C. A. Swanson & Sons introduced the frozen TV dinner in 1954, "marketing it as an easy-to-prepare, fun-to-eat meal, with a disposable tray that reduced cleanup time," the Smithsonian National Museum of American History reported. "The portable TV dinner tapped into middle-class Americans' excitement over television, allowing families to eat in front of their new sets." VINTAGE PHOTOS REVEAL WHAT GROCERY SHOPPING LOOKED LIKE IN THE 1960s Julia Child's first television cooking show, "The French Chef," debuted in 1963, and with it came a new approach to preparing foreign fare for middle-class home cooks. Do you remember eating the following classic dishes during the midcentury? The Swiss tradition of fondue took America by storm in the 1960s and ‘70s, thanks in part to the Swiss Pavilion serving Swiss cheese fondue at the 1964 New York World's Fair. Fondue is derived from the French word fondre, which means "to melt."  The dish involves melting cheese, wine and seasonings together in a pot and eating it communally with bread, meat and other items. CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS Fondue sets became a fashionable centerpiece of entertaining during the '60s and '70s. As convenience cooking grew in popularity during the mid-century, casseroles incorporating canned and processed products fit the bill. The green bean casserole was created by Campbell's test kitchen employee Dorcas Reilly in 1955 and was originally called "Green Bean Bake," according to the company's website. "To this day, the recipe calls for only six ingredients: canned or fresh green beans, Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, soy sauce, black pepper, milk and French-fried onions," the website says. A recipe for tuna, noodle and mushroom soup casserole was included in the 1951 version of "The Joy of Cooking." CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER Chicken divan, a casserole combining chicken and broccoli in a creamy sauce and often topped with cheese and breadcrumbs, was another popular dish of the era. The exact origins of Chicken Kiev are disputed, but it has connections to French culinary techniques and Eastern European cuisine, reported Tasting Table.  It is made by stuffing a chicken breast with cold, garlic-and-herb butter, breading the chicken and frying it. Frozen versions of this item are available in grocery stores today. Lipton's introduced its dehydrated onion soup in the early 1950s.  By the middle of the decade, home cooks were combining it with sour cream to make what became known as California dip, later called French onion dip, a go-to snack item and party food, according to the website Quaint Cooking. TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ The dip has evolved from the original, two-ingredient recipe.  Modern iterations of it involve using Greek yogurt, whipped cottage cheese or cream cheese. Other retro food favorites that baby boomers may remember fondly include Swedish meatballs, Chicken à la king and grasshopper pie. Swedish meatballs are typically made with a meat mixture, breadcrumbs and egg and topped with gravy. Chicken à la king uses chicken, vegetables and a cream sauce and is typically served over toast, rice or noodles. Grasshopper pie is a no-bake dessert that incorporates crème de menthe and crème de cacao in a cookie crust. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a898f452c5335ae1049baa7 Flagstaff Event Almanac for August 22 te 2026-08-22T12:00:05.930Z Flagstaff Event Almanac for August 22 Aug 22 Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a898cf02c5335ae1049ba51 Start your engines: Here is your crash course on the IndyCar Freedom 250 Grand Prix weekend te 2026-08-22T11:50:08.471Z Start your engines: Here is your crash course on the IndyCar Freedom 250 Grand Prix weekend The NTT IndyCar Series is about to hold one of its biggest, most ambitious spectacles ever with the Freedom 250 Grand Prix. If you're an IndyCar fan, then you know how we got to the point where Pennsylvania Avenue has a pit lane and start-finish straight with a picturesque view of the U.S. Capitol. But if you're not, here's a quick rundown. TRUMP TOUTS INDYCAR DRIVERS' 'SPECIAL' ABILITY AT FREEDOM 250 GRAND PRIX SHOWCASE, SEEMINGLY ENDING HOT DEBATE Back in January, President Trump signed an executive order that directed multiple federal agencies to work with the Washington, D.C., mayor's office to put together a circuit for an IndyCar race. This idea was to make it part of the America 250 celebrations, although oddly enough, the 250-mile race distance wasn't part of the event until just a few weeks before. Also, when the executive order was signed and the event announcement was made, the IndyCar schedule had been out for quite some time and was only about a month from starting. Of course, for a once-in-a-lifetime event like this, you make it work. INDYCAR STAR ALEX PALOU REFLECTS ON WHITE HOUSE, OVAL OFFICE VISIT WITH TRUMP: 'INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE' The circuit for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix uses streets around the National Mall and in front of the Capitol building, as well as a section of Pennsylvania Avenue. That portion of Pennsylvania Avenue is also where the pit lane is located. The layout is fairly simple with just seven corners, but don't equate "simple" with easy. It's mostly 90-degree or almost-90-degree corners, but take a look at Turn 6. It doesn't really come through on that map, but it's a chicane and a pretty narrow one at that. Take a look at an onboard from a Corvette hot lap. The track also has what looks to be a tricky pit lane entrance that sneaks up on drivers immediately after Turn 1. One of the things about an IndyCar race, or really any motorsport event, is that you need a lot of space for teams to park their haulers and prepare their cars. So... where do you do that in the middle of Washington, DC? The answer is pretty simple: teams are stationed along Constitution Ave. NW and 7th Street. That means they can give their cars a quick tow and be on pit lane for all on-track sessions. While IndyCar's direct feeder series, Indy NXT, did not make the trip to the Nation's Capital, we will get two International Race of Champions, or IROC, races on Saturday. The series ran from 1973 to 2006, and is now being revived for select events. It pits drivers from different disciplines, all competing in the same machinery, which, in this case, are Pontiac Firebirds used in the original series from 1996 to 2006. The field will include NASCAR greats Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliott, Bobby Labonte, Rusty Wallace and Kurt Busch, as well as IndyCar legends Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti. While some premium tickets (and I mean premium) are still available, general tickets were free and were gone in minutes. Race organizers are anticipating as many as 140,000 people on each day of the two-day event. Saturday's IndyCar practice and qualifying sessions will be on FS1 and FS2, as will Sunday morning's warm-up session. Pre-race coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. ET on FOX, with the race slated to begin at 1 p.m. ET. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8988412c5335ae1049b944 Woman claims NY Liberty tried to change her 'XX-XY' paid scoreboard message for halftime of Fever game te 2026-08-22T11:30:09.327Z Woman claims NY Liberty tried to change her 'XX-XY' paid scoreboard message for halftime of Fever game EXCLUSIVE: The New York Liberty refunded a lesbian hip-hop artist after the team attempted to change her paid scoreboard message thanking Jennifer Sey and XX-XY Athletics. Julie Potter claims she purchased 25 tickets for a group attending the Liberty vs Fever game at Barclays Center to support Sophie Cunningham, saying the tickets cost more than $2,000. Potter also paid $100 to display a message on the arena scoreboard during halftime. A receipt shows the payment was processed Aug. 17 for the Liberty’s Aug. 22 game against Indiana. Potter says she submitted the message: "Thank you Jennifer Sey! XX-XY Athletics will Save the Day!!" Potter added that the Liberty initially approved the message and accepted her payment. But the team’s sales department contacted her Friday, one day before the game, and said it had changed the wording. WNBA ADMITS SECURITY IN ATLANTA WAS WRONG TO MAKE FANS COVER SHIRTS AT DREAM-FEVER GAME "Your scoreboard message for 8/[22] has been modified to: ‘Thank you Jennifer Sey, thank you for all you do for XX-XY Athletics,’" an email to Potter from the Liberty's sales team said. "This will run during halftime." Potter’s receipt identifies the game of her purchased "scoreboard message" as "August 22 vs. Indiana." The receipt shows the Liberty charged Potter $100 on Aug. 17 and refunded the payment on Aug. 21. But the Liberty email to Potter referred to Aug. 29. The Liberty have not responded to a request for clarification on the date of Potter's scoreboard message, but Potter said she believes it was a typo by the Liberty employee. Potter also explained why she objected to the changing of her message and asked the Liberty either to display her original message or return her money, in email exchanges reviewed by Fox News Digital. The team refunded her, and then gave a brief explanation for the attempted change of her message. "Our scoreboard messages are limited to positive, celebratory content, and submissions that may intentionally or unintentionally violate that spirit are not eligible for display," the Liberty sales team wrote in one email. Potter accused the team of "censorship." "Unfortunately, this is censorship. My message was approved and payment was accepted. You then changed it without giving me any opportunity to revise or respond, and you did so inside your own 48-hour window," Potter wrote. "Why would I pay to let you speak for me?" The Liberty’s publicly available scoreboard-message form says requests must be submitted at least 48 hours before tipoff. It also says proceeds support the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty Foundation. The form does not publicly list additional content restrictions. Potter acknowledged that her original wording carried a broader message about protecting female sports. She said she intentionally avoided explicitly referencing Cunningham or the "Save Women’s Sports" movement. "I wanna say I purposely didn't put Sophie's name in it, 'cause I thought that would trigger, trigger them," Potter told Fox News Digital. XX-XY Athletics is an apparel company founded by Sey, a former national champion gymnast and former Levi Strauss & Co. brand president. The company advocates for keeping transgender athletes out of female sports categories. WNBA WON'T NAME PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR SECURITY INCIDENT OVER FANS' SHIRTS, AS DREAM BLAME LEAGUE Potter said the Liberty never identified which words in her message violated the team’s standards. "I don't know what that means. What did I do wrong? I want a code. I want a violation. I read everything. I read their website. I made sure to follow the rules," Potter said. "I said nothing derogatory. I didn't even say, ‘Save women's sports.’ I just said, ‘Shout out to the CEO of a dope company who's changing the world from my perspective.’ That's obviously not their perspective, but is this America? Can we have different perspectives?" Potter and her guests plan to attend a rally supporting Cunningham before Saturday’s game. Similar rallies have followed the Fever during recent road games after Cunningham publicly opposed transgender athletes competing in women’s sports. The controversy has also produced counterprotests and confrontations involving fans wearing XX-XY Athletics clothing. The WNBA recently acknowledged that security personnel should not have asked a mother and daughter to cover their XX-XY shirts during a Fever game in Atlanta. Potter said she still planned to attend Saturday’s game but would no longer purchase tickets from the Liberty. She said she would instead consider attending future Fever games. The Liberty have not provided a response to Potter's statements. Potter’s connection to the WNBA dates back to its beginning. She said she attended the first two league games played in Los Angeles as an 18-year-old California native. The first was the inaugural WNBA game on June 21, 1997. The New York Liberty defeated the Los Angeles Sparks 67-57 before 14,284 fans at the Great Western Forum. Penny Toler scored the first basket in league history, while Lisa Leslie recorded 16 points and 14 rebounds for the Sparks. Four days later, Potter watched the Sparks earn the first victory in franchise history. Los Angeles defeated the Charlotte Sting 74-54 at the Forum. Leslie led the Sparks with 19 points. "I saw Lisa Leslie. I am a Californian, and I grew up on the Sparks," Potter told Fox News Digital. Before the scoreboard controversy, she had considered purchasing more tickets if Indiana returned to New York for the playoffs. She said she no longer plans to buy Liberty tickets, but emphasized that she does not dislike the team or its players. "I love the Liberty, though. I got no hate. I think they're an incredible team. You know, shout out Stewie," Potter said. Potter also remains willing to spend money on the WNBA. However, she said she will direct that support toward the Fever and organizations that welcome her position on women’s sports. "I'd love to go to a Fever game. They gonna make the playoffs, you know? Yeah, I'm already planning on it. I know they've got some great games in September, so yeah, my money shall be directed to where it is welcomed. And if they have a scoreboard, and I can put it up, and Jen gets to roll, I will," Potter said. Potter said her support follows Cunningham rather than any particular franchise. She credited the Fever guard with giving women like her a reason to attend games and publicly support the league. "I'm a woman loyalist, okay? So I'm there for Sophie. Where Sophie's going, I'm going where the Fever's going," Potter said. Despite her frustration with the Liberty, Potter said the attention surrounding Cunningham and the accompanying rallies can benefit the WNBA by bringing new customers into arenas. "Of course it's good for the league. We're women supporting women playing a woman's sport. How is this not good? Every Fever game is selling out," Potter said. Potter said she would consider giving the Liberty another opportunity if the team respected her original message. For now, however, she plans to support Cunningham, the Fever and other women’s sports organizations that she believes share her principles. Potter’s experience adds to growing censorship concerns surrounding the WNBA and fans who support Cunningham’s position on women’s sports. Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter to WNBA leadership Friday addressing recent incidents involving Cunningham supporters in Seattle and Atlanta. "The WNBA claims to stand for female athletes, but we've seen recent current events undermine that claim. We have seen just in the past few weeks that there have been two separate incidents where fans have been silenced or berated when they tried to peacefully express their viewpoint," ADF legal counsel Suzanne Beecher told Fox News Digital. The letter cited the teenage girls who were confronted by Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton while holding signs supporting Cunningham, along with the mother and daughter who were instructed to cover their XX-XY Athletics shirts in Atlanta. The WNBA suspended Keaton from five Storm home games and later said the Atlanta incident "should not have happened." Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also recently told Fox News Digital that he admired Cunningham for speaking publicly despite the criticism she faced. Paxton said the WNBA should protect the ability of fans to peacefully express differing opinions. Paxton expressed a willingness to engage with the league and continue supporting its games. However, he said he would not retreat from his principles regarding women’s sports or the treatment of Cunningham’s supporters. Potter’s rejected scoreboard message now gives critics another incident to cite as they question whether the league treats opposing viewpoints equally. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8983912c5335ae1049b875 One year after Iryna Zarutska murder, violent crimes fuel North Carolina public safety debate te 2026-08-22T11:10:09.390Z One year after Iryna Zarutska murder, violent crimes fuel North Carolina public safety debate A year after Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was stabbed to death on a Charlotte light-rail train, a string of violent attacks involving people with extensive arrest records has kept North Carolina’s public-safety debate in the spotlight. The one year milestone falls as the North Carolina Fraternal Order of Police (NCFOP) endorsed Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley, citing concerns about repeat offenders, bail policies and support for law enforcement. Zarutska, 23, was sitting aboard Charlotte’s Lynx Blue Line on Aug. 22, 2025, when authorities said Decarlos Brown Jr. pulled a knife and stabbed her three times from behind before leaving the train. PROSECUTORS SAY CHARLOTTE TRAIN STABBING CASE WON'T BE DISMISSED REGARDLESS OF COMPETENCY RULING Brown, 34, has been found incompetent to stand trial in both his state and federal cases. Zarutska’s killing helped prompt North Carolina’s Iryna’s Law, which tightened bail rules and increased oversight of defendants considered a risk to public safety. NCFOP President Chet Effler told Fox News Digital the union’s roughly 6,000 members backed Whatley over concerns about repeat offenders, bail policies and support for law enforcement. "We have lost accountability in this country," Effler said. "There’s no reason to be soft on crime whenever you have victims who are going to be victims of those crimes for years to come." Effler also pointed to the arrest of Charlotte man Di-Quan Schafar Hunt as an example of what he described as a recurring failure to hold repeat offenders accountable. CHARLOTTE CAREER CRIMINAL RECORDS HIMSELF PUNCHING WOMAN IN UNPROVOKED ATTACK, POSTING TO SOCIAL MEDIA: POLICE Hunt, 32, had been arrested on charges at least nine times since 2023, records show. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said they arrested him after officers responding to an attempt-to-locate call were shown a social-media account containing videos detectives had already been investigating. Police said one video was tied to a July 30 assault in which Hunt allegedly punched a woman on a Charlotte sidewalk before fleeing. The woman suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said. Hunt’s record includes a December 2025 case involving charges of assault with a deadly weapon, communicating threats, second-degree trespass and two counts of carrying a concealed weapon. The booking record does not describe the underlying allegations or identify an alleged victim. Records also list a September 2025 simple assault charge and a March 2025 charge of assault on a female. In 2024, Hunt was arrested in cases involving alleged violations of a domestic-violence protective order, breaking or entering and injury to personal property. He is a felon with at least six additional misdemeanor convictions in Mecklenburg County. EXCLUSIVE: DHS BLASTS SANCTUARY LEADERS AFTER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ACCUSED OF BAT ATTACK FREED FROM JAIL "You can’t hug your way out of crime," Effler said. "You have to hold people accountable." Brown’s case and Hunt’s arrest are among several recent North Carolina crimes that have sharpened the debate over repeat offenders, bail and law enforcement resources. In Jacksonville, DoorDash driver and mother of three Christen Phillips suffered skull fractures, brain bleeds and a fractured cheekbone after authorities said a man followed her and attacked her with a bat during an Aug. 1 delivery. The Onslow County Sheriff’s Office said Phillips had honked at another driver while stopped at an intersection. Authorities said the driver, identified as 44-year-old Stanley Shockley, followed Phillips to a delivery stop and allegedly attacked her as she returned to her car. MOUNTAIN GETAWAY ROCKED BY ‘LATEST CHAPTER’ OF DEADLY VIOLENCE AS OFFICIALS AVOID GANG LABEL IN TOURIST TOWN Phillips was able to drive herself to a hospital after the attack. Shockley was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. The public-safety concerns have also reached western North Carolina, where Asheville officials have described a series of deadly incidents involving young people as retaliatory violence but have resisted calling the activity gang-related. Effler criticized that approach, arguing that officials must be candid about the nature of violent crime before they can address it. "A criminal gang is a gang, I don’t care how old they are," Effler said. "You have to address it." 2 KILLED IN NORTH CAROLINA WHEN 'PLANNED' FIGHT ESCALATES INTO SHOOTING NEAR MIDDLE SCHOOL In Charlotte, another repeat offender, 29-year-old David Simpson, was charged with killing a man hours after his release on bond, renewing scrutiny of pretrial-release decisions. Effler said people with repeated arrests for violent or assault-related offenses should not be allowed to cycle through the justice system without meaningful consequences. North Carolina has also faced deadly shootings recently, outside its larger cities. In Winston-Salem, two people were killed and several others were wounded after what police said was a planned fight between juveniles that escalated into a shooting near a middle school. CHARLOTTE TRAIN STABBING SUSPECT DODGES POTENTIAL DEATH PENALTY FOR NOW AFTER HE'S RULED INCOMPETENT Authorities said multiple people exchanged gunfire at Leinbach Park, near Jefferson Middle School. Some of those involved were juveniles, police said. The shooting was not at the school, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation said, but it underscored concerns over violent disputes that law-enforcement groups say have spread into communities across the state. FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X Effler said the cases involve different defendants and circumstances but reflect the same broader failure to hold dangerous offenders accountable before more people are harmed. Effler also accused former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, Whatley’s opponent in the U.S. Senate race, of supporting cashless bail as governor. NORTH CAROLINA TEACHER'S KILLING REIGNITES SCRUTINY OF ROY COOPER'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE RECORD IN SENATE RACE "Cashless bail puts people on the streets that will arbitrarily walk up, like this Charlotte case and women getting assaulted and getting a video done," Effler said. "You cannot allow a criminal to not be held accountable." SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST TRUE CRIME NEWS A Cooper campaign spokesperson disputed Effler’s claim, telling Fox News Digital the former governor "oppos[ed] cashless bail while signing stricter bail laws and putting rapists and violent criminals behind bars." LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE The campaign cited Cooper’s signing of the Pretrial Integrity Act, which tightened bail requirements for certain violent offenses and repeat defendants. It also said it returned the NCFOP’s endorsement questionnaire on Aug. 10, disputing Effler’s statement that the union had not received a response. SEND US A TIP In a news release announcing the endorsement, Whatley said he was "honored" to receive the NCFOP’s backing and pledged to support law enforcement if elected. Fox News Digital has reached out to Whatley’s campaign for additional comment. LISTEN TO THE NEW 'CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO' PODCAST GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAIL Effler said Whatley has committed to back the Protect and Serve Act, the HALO Act and other measures the union believes would provide officers with greater protection and resources. "Michael Whatley has committed to the things that we believe in," Effler said. "He’ll support actions that doesn’t defund law enforcement from doing the professional job that we need to do." Fox News Digital’s Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Kelsie Cairns contributed to this report. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8983902c5335ae1049b86c Democrats face ‘do-or-die’ split with key voting bloc in razor-close Senate race te 2026-08-22T11:10:08.789Z Democrats face ‘do-or-die’ split with key voting bloc in razor-close Senate race DETROIT — After falling just 20,000 votes shy of winning the U.S. Senate election in battleground Michigan two years ago, Republican Mike Rogers is urging Democrats, including Jewish voters, to cross party lines and vote for him as he makes a second straight Senate bid. After a combustible and divisive Democratic Senate primary in which Abdul El-Sayed narrowly edged more moderate Rep. Haley Stevens for the nomination, Rogers is heavily courting Democrats disaffected with their left-wing nominee as he works to flip a must-hold seat for the Democrats in the midterm elections. A key part of Rogers' pitch is directed toward Jewish Democrats, who are uneasy with El–Sayed's vocal criticism of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza and who are outraged by El-Sayed's association with controversial online streamer Hasan Piker, who has repeatedly railed against Israel to his massive online audience. "I usually vote Democrat, but I'm going to be voting for Mike Rogers," Rabbi Asher Lopatin said as he stood next to Rogers this week as the former congressman and former FBI agent unveiled his Democrats for Mike coalition at a campaign event on Detroit's west side. DEMOCRATS 'WHO NEVER VOTED REPUBLICAN' BACKING THIS GOP SENATE NOMINEE A former Wayne County Health Department director, El-Sayed, if elected in November, would make history as the nation's first Muslim senator. The epidemiologist who unsuccessfully ran for governor as an insurgent candidate in 2018 has made support for Medicare-for-all a major component of his campaign and has also called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But it's El-Sayed's stance and comments on Israel that have offended some Jewish people in Michigan, a state that also has a large Arab and Muslim population. El-Sayed used the word "bloodthirsty" to characterize Israel's military moves in Gaza in an MS NOW interview this month and accused Israeli leadership of genocide against Palestinians. He has argued against unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel, as have other progressive politicians. And El-Sayed has repeatedly declined to directly answer whether Israel has the right to exist. But El-Sayed has also stated that he stands "in solidarity with my Jewish sisters and brothers" to "condemn antisemitism." Lopatin, a rabbi in suburban Detroit who has made trips to the Middle East in search of peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors, argued that El-Sayed "has shown contempt for the Jewish community and, frankly, for American values by making Hasan Piker, a vicious antisemite and racist, his campaign surrogate and somebody he buddies up with." Piker, who endorsed El-Sayed in the nomination battle, appeared at some of the candidate's campaign events, including the primary night party in Detroit. Piker, who has repeatedly stood by his comments critical of Israel, was also with El-Sayed at a party in Detroit on the eve of the primary. DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB "I do have a lot of issues with a lot of policies of the Trump administration," Lopatin told Fox News Digital. "But it's more important to make a statement that we cannot let someone like Abdul El-Sayed get into the Senate." Lopatin said Jewish voters who "normally vote Democrat are going to vote for Mike Rogers, and I'm hearing that. And there's a growing movement like that. And I think the more they meet him ... the more they're going to feel comfortable voting for a Republican, sometimes for the first time in their lives." Stacy, a Jewish voter from suburban Detroit who asked that only her first name be used, told Fox News Digital she's also going to vote for Rogers. "The Democratic Party is going way too far to the left for us moderates," Stacy, who backed Stevens in the Senate primary, emphasized. Asked specifically about her party's nominee, Stacy said, "Abdul El-Sayed has been campaigning by putting a target on all Jews' backs." CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLL IN MICHIGAN'S BLOCKBUSTER SENATE RACE Some Jewish leaders in Michigan are circulating an open letter urging Jewish Democrats and independents in the Great Lakes battleground state to sign their names in support of Rogers. The news was first reported this week by the Jewish Insider and confirmed by Fox News Digital. "This is sort of a do-or-die moment," a person involved with the letter who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News Digital. "There are many lifelong Democrats who are feeling homeless. ... It’s not just a leftward drift but has turned into an anti-Jewish drift as well." But Joan Lowenstein, endorsement chair of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, doesn't condone the letter and told Fox News Digital her group is keeping its distance. "We are a part of the Michigan Democratic Party, and are not going to advocate that anyone vote for a Republican," she said. But Lowenstein, who also sits on the Michigan Democratic Party Central Committee, said those behind the letter "are passionate about this and feel it’s an existential issue, and I think that represents a lot of people. And, so, they have to do what they have to do. "It’s sort of 50/50. Half the people I talk to say, ‘I could never vote for Abdul El-Sayed because of things he’s said about Israel and, consequentially, the Jewish community. And the other 50% say ‘it is so important for Jews as Americans to have an Democratic Senate that I could never vote for Mike Rogers.'" Rogers and El-Sayed are running to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. The race is among a dozen that will determine if the Democrats win back the Senate majority from the GOP. Rogers, in an interview with Fox News Digital, reiterated that he's not asking Democratic voters to become Republicans. And he highlighted concerns he's heard from Democratic Jewish voters in Michigan. WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE MIDTERM RACES SHOW "I've talked to two young women who were at University of Michigan who were afraid to walk to class. They couldn't display their Star of David. To say that they're afraid is probably an understatement," he said. Rogers said "the violent rhetoric ... is going to make a difference" in the general election. Republicans see an opportunity. "There are a significant number of Jewish voters who are staunch Democrats that cannot support El Sayed and who may cross over and vote for Rogers. There are about 70,000 Jewish voters. If a majority flip to Rogers, that has the potential to cause a roughly 100,000 vote swing. Rogers lost to Slotkin by under 20,000 votes," Michael Schostak, the Bloomfield Township treasurer who is running for University of Michigan Regent, told Fox News Digital. Schostak, a longtime Republican and donor, said "the pitch to these voters is not to abandon their Democrat leanings, but that, in this race at this time, voting for Rogers is a vote for self-preservation. Allowing El-Sayed to have a voice on the national level would only give more volume to the voices of antisemitism and the far-left progressives." SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER El-Sayed, after winning the Senate nomination, emphasized, "I stand in solidarity with my Jewish sisters and brothers, and we can condemn antisemitism. And, at the same time, we can be talking about how we bring people together, and we can be talking about everybody's pain. "My commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own kids. We have a responsibility to take on antisemitism in all of its forms, wherever we see it." El-Sayed Communications Director Roxie Richner told Fox News Digital, "Abdul has always stressed the importance of differentiating between criticizing the state of Israel and antisemitism." She said El-Sayed "remains in regular dialogue with Jewish leaders across the state while building the broadest possible coalition to defeat Rogers, restore Democratic control of the U.S. Senate and throw sand in the gears of Trump’s agenda." Roslyn Schindler, an 80-year-old retired college professor who has called the Detroit area home for more than five decades, said she is a strong supporter of El-Sayed and pushed back on the sentiment that his rhetoric and beliefs hold antisemitic undertones. "I've talked to him at length, you know. I've met him personally. He attended — he attend — he has attended a service at my synagogue. He attended the Seder on April 2 as well. And there is no doubt in my mind that he is not antisemitic," Schindler, whose parents were both Holocaust survivors, told Fox News Digital. Schindler noted "that many people in the community, in the Jewish community, think he is." "I don't believe that's true," she reiterated. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8983902c5335ae1049b863 BROADCAST BIAS: Sophie Cunningham takes a hit, but ABC, NBC dodge WNBA’s transgender sports fight te 2026-08-22T11:10:08.135Z BROADCAST BIAS: Sophie Cunningham takes a hit, but ABC, NBC dodge WNBA’s transgender sports fight On the morning of Aug. 8, ABC’s "Good Morning America" was celebrating the Women’s National Basketball Association. ABC is one of several networks that air WNBA games nationwide. ABC’s Rachel Scott asked: "What's the biggest WNBA story right now that fans should be paying attention to?" ESPN’s Holly Rowe replied, "It’s going to be really hard to make the playoffs." Within hours, a bigger story erupted: Indiana Fever basketball player Sophie Cunningham was brutally whacked in the face going up for a layup after the press decided she was controversial for wanting to keep women's basketball limited to women. Chicago Sky player DiJonai Carrington was ejected from the game. She then rushed into the locker room and blamed "White privilege" for the ejection. The broadcast networks didn’t want to cover this development, either as a sportsmanship or culture-war issue. There was one network willing to report a few times on the WNBA facing the issue of men in women’s sports: CBS, which might explain why liberals cast aspersions on its editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss. WNBA MEDIA PREDICTABLY EMBARRASSES ITSELF AGAIN BY IGNORING SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM STORY OVER ALL-STAR WEEKEND On July 29, "CBS Evening News" fill-in anchor Matt Gutman reported on how the WNBA suspended Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton for yelling at two girls supporting Cunningham’s position when the Fever came to town. The girls said Keaton called them "f---ing insane." Reporter Jan Crawford explained: "Cunningham, known for fearlessly defending teammate Caitlin Clark on the court, is the first active professional female athlete to speak out against transgender females in women's sports. In an ESPN profile earlier this month, Cunningham says girls in sports shouldn't have to go against biological men." SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM ADDRESSES THE FALLOUT OVER HER STANCE ON TRANS ATHLETES NOT BELONGING IN WOMEN'S SPORTS Then came a sound-bite of Cunningham: "I said what I said. I think it's kind of common sense. And I think I'll always believe in that." Crawford added that when Cunningham was asked if her words could sound "anti-transgender," she replied, "I have never once said I hated the trans community. Like I said, I think there's space for everyone." Men always have the space of men’s sports. The "CBS Evening News" and Crawford returned to the story on Aug. 10, two days after Cunningham was whacked on the court. Crawford relayed: "Fans on both sides of that debate have been vocal. And trying to prove a point, two former NBA players said they would identify as women and declare for the WNBA draft." After a soundbite of Enes Kanter Freedom saying he declared for the WNBA draft, Crawford added: "The firestorm has put a harsh spotlight on the WNBA with critics saying the league wasn’t ready for its explosion of popularity." FORMER NBA FIRST ROUND PICK ENES KANTER FREEDOM DECLARES FOR 2027 WNBA DRAFT NPR sounded annoyed when they raised the issue briefly in a sports roundup on their morning news program "Weekend Edition Saturday" on Aug. 15. Co-host Eyder Peralta noted the Cunningham controversy and that WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced that a task force of team executives would meet to discuss "transgender participation" (men) in women’s sports. But he made it sound unnecessary: "Now, we should point out that the WNBA has never had any known transgender athletes. Michele, the WNBA has seen explosive growth in recent years, but it seems like the league is also struggling to keep the spotlight on the court, doesn't it?" CLUELESS WNBA ATTACKS 'BAD-FAITH' FANS WHO DON'T WANT BIOLOGICAL MEN RUINING WOMEN'S SPORTS Ex-ESPN reporter Michele Steele replied: "Yeah. The league's on-the-court story is genuinely great, but the off-the-court noise keeps competing for that headline." Disagreeing with leftist orthodoxy is "noise." Steele continued: "And you said it yourself, the WNBA has never had a known transgender player. Now, the task force just cannot unilaterally announce they're going to change eligibility because this is collectively bargained with the players' union, so they can study the question on transgender players, but they can't hand down a new rule. Their statement was very pointed this week, denouncing bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean and marginalize others. They're very clearly frustrated, Eyder, at being pulled into this." CATHY ENGELBERT SURE SEEMED TO KNOW WHAT A WOMAN WAS AT HER FIRST WNBA PRESS CONFERENCE WNBA games are now becoming a forum for people supporting Cunningham’s position to advocate against the woke position, and league officials can only call it a "bad-faith" effort to "marginalize" biological men claiming to be women. It’s somehow not in "bad faith" to pretend to be a woman when you’re not. Kanter is engaged in a "stunt," but men who sincerely "identify" as women are not. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION The WNBA met to discuss "transgender participation," but somehow couldn’t agree on a policy. On Aug. 20, AP reported Engelbert complained, "We're being the center of political football for people who have never watched the WNBA, never have written about the WNBA or reported on the WNBA. … There's always going to be haters out there, and we denounce it." So, the league has a position on what a "hater" is, but not on what a woman is. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM TIM GRAHAM Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89813a2c5335ae1049b7d7 25 Years Later, The Conspiracy Podcast Asks What the 9/11 Commission Got Wrong te 2026-08-22T11:00:10.996Z 25 Years Later, The Conspiracy Podcast Asks What the 9/11 Commission Got Wrong Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8981392c5335ae1049b7ce Gripping New Novel “Memory’s Compass” by Sharyn Talbert Explores Family Secrets and Redemption te 2026-08-22T11:00:09.969Z Gripping New Novel “Memory’s Compass” by Sharyn Talbert Explores Family Secrets and Redemption Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a897edc2c5335ae1049b73d As Colorado River reservoirs shrink, Arizona warns of a legal fight te 2026-08-22T10:50:04.979Z As Colorado River reservoirs shrink, Arizona warns of a legal fight A legal fight could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court and further complicate efforts by seven Western states to agree on how to share water from the shrinking river and its reservoirs, which have fallen to record low levels. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8975822c5335ae1049b5a2 Woman’s alleged ISIS radicalization unfolded online before Capitol bomb plot: court docs te 2026-08-22T10:10:10.139Z Woman’s alleged ISIS radicalization unfolded online before Capitol bomb plot: court docs Jessica Bowie, a 35-year-old woman from upstate New York, is now facing terrorism charges after authorities allege she converted to Islam, swore allegiance to the Islamic State group and plotted to bomb the State Capitol building — just weeks before the U.S. will mark 25 years since the Sept. 11 terror attacks. According to the FBI, she became a Muslim five years ago and took on a new name, Aisha Saif. The FBI arrested Bowie after she allegedly enlisted a group of confidential informants in her plot, thinking they were ISIS handlers, under the impression she was arranging for them to turn bomb-making materials she'd purchased into an explosive device and to provide her a handgun. FBI ARRESTS WOMAN WHO ALLEGEDLY PLOTTED ISIS-LINKED ATTACK ON NEW YORK STATE CAPITOL BUILDING Bowie allegedly praised the terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks that killed 2,977 people on Sept. 11, 2001, according to court documents. The federal criminal complaint has few details about her alleged embrace of terrorism from before May 2026, but authorities say she was radicalized at some point online. MISSOURI MAN’S EXPLOSIVES TUTORIAL HELPED NEW ORLEANS TERRORIST PLAN NYE ATTACK, FEDS SAY She had also allegedly lost multiple social media accounts for violating their terms of service with her posts, according to the criminal complaint — in separate posts in May, she allegedly wrote about poisoning "infidels" and "praise be to Allah for September 11th." By the end of the month, she'd allegedly sworn allegiance to ISIS. "The key with these sorts of cases is the initial lead," said Paul Mauro, a retired NYPD inspector and Fox News contributor with experience working counter-terrorism cases. "This can come in a number of ways. We criticize social media plenty, but the fact that she was repeatedly banned on these platforms could have been a crucial pointer." By July, according to the complaint, she was allegedly using encrypted apps to post support for radical Islamic terror and anti-American rhetoric. TRUMP ADMIN INVOKES 30-YEAR DORMANT TERROR COURT AS IT SEEKS TO DEPORT AFGHAN WOMAN TIED TO ELECTION DAY PLOT On July 16, she allegedly told an FBI informant that she had begun thinking about "Jehad" more seriously over the past several months. She was also allegedly posting online about how she was sharing ISIS propaganda and attempting to recruit. In July and August, Bowie allegedly made five visits to scout the State Capitol. 8 INDICTED IN PLANNED SNIPER ATTACK AT WHITE HOUSE UFC 250 EVENT, DOJ SAYS On Aug. 5, photos released by the Justice Department allegedly show her buying bomb-making materials at a Rensselaer Home Depot store, including a large bucket of nails that was allegedly meant for shrapnel. "We definitely want to make sure the senators get killed for sure," she allegedly told an informant. On Aug. 13, she allegedly asked an FBI informant whom she thought was an ISIS operative for help obtaining a handgun, according to the complaint. On Aug. 19, the FBI arrested her after she allegedly gave $350 to a pair of FBI informants and got out of their vehicle carrying an inert handgun and dummy explosive that they'd given her, according to the complaint. "There's no helping me," she allegedly told the FBI after being read her Miranda rights. "You guys know enough...I'm going to prison for the rest of my life." She added that she'd already looked up potential sentences online. "Material support is up to 20 years in prison," she said, according to the complaint. "I already googled it before. I know I'm going to jail." SEND US A TIP Earlier that day, she allegedly told an FBI informant that she had grown from "a little girl waving an American flag after 9/11 to now having stickers of the falling towers." She was 10 years old on Sept. 11, 2001. Bowie, who also has addresses listed in Schenectady, allegedly planned to hide a bomb in a DoorDash delivery bag at the New York State Capitol, according to the complaint. I LOST MY WIFE ON 9/11. PLEASE LET THIS 25TH ANNIVERSARY BELONG TO THE FAMILIES LISTEN TO THE NEW 'CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO' PODCAST "I want to destroy as much of the building as possible and kill the senators while they are meeting," she allegedly told an informant. "I want them to lose a lot of important documents as well" Then she allegedly wanted to escape to Syria before returning to the U.S. in the future for more attacks. A woman who picked up a call to the number listed for Bowie's mother hung up when contacted by Fox News Digital Friday. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8975812c5335ae1049b599 King Charles' deadly avalanche escape heightened his awareness of life's 'fragility': expert te 2026-08-22T10:10:09.567Z King Charles' deadly avalanche escape heightened his awareness of life's 'fragility': expert King Charles narrowly escaped death — and Britain's royal future almost changed forever. The monarch recently opened up about escaping a 1988 avalanche that killed his close friend, Major Hugh Lindsay, an equerry to Queen Elizabeth II, and seriously injured Patti Palmer-Tomkinson. The 77-year-old held a special event at the Castle of Mey for members of the Assynt Mountain Rescue Team to mark the group's 50th anniversary, The Times of London reported. KING CHARLES CONSIDERED QUEEN CAMILLA 'NON-NEGOTIABLE' AFTER PRINCESS DIANA, AUTHOR CLAIMS "Those close to the king have always shared that the event increased his sense of mortality and awareness, overall, of the fragility of life," British royals expert Hilary Fordwich told Fox News Digital. "... The avalanche and its outcomes were confirmations that even with his position in the royal family, he was not immune from tragedy." "[The king] spoke of the near miss he had in that avalanche in the context of the dangers mountains contain," team leader Ben Dyson told The Times. "He said 'it was a close thing.' Obviously, after all these years, it is still much in his memory, but it had given him an insight into the valuable work we do and the dangers we face." Dyson noted that Charles was "very appreciative" of the work that mountain rescue teams carry out. WATCH: WHY KING CHARLES ALWAYS CAME BACK TO QUEEN CAMILLA: AUTHOR "Charles has lived his entire life knowing that one day he would become king," Kinsey Schofield, host of YouTube’s "Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered" told Fox News Digital. "The avalanche presented him with the opposite possibility, that he might never become king at all. He survived by seconds. ... I think an experience like that inevitably changes your understanding of how fragile even the most carefully predetermined life can be. ... There is something very poignant about hearing a 77-year-old king reflect on a moment at 39 when he very nearly lost his life." The BBC reported that the incident occurred on March 10, 1988, while Charles and his companions were skiing off-piste above his favorite Swiss resort of Klosters. Lindsay was sent 1,312 feet down the mountainside when the avalanche hit the royal party. Palmer-Tomkinson suffered serious leg injuries. The then-prince and several other members of the group, including their guide, were able to ski to safety. Once the avalanche passed, Charles and the others rushed to help. Charles later recalled that their guide, Bruno Sprecher, located Palmer-Tomkinson, revived her with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and then handed Charles a shovel to help dig her out; Charles also used his hands. Sprecher then went to find Lindsay, who had been killed. At the time, Marie Griffiths told the BBC she saw Charles being airlifted off the mountain. "As far as I know, he hadn't been injured," she said. "He looked very distressed; somebody said he was crying, but he did walk to the helicopter, so he looked uninjured." GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE Christopher Andersen, author of "Kate!," told Fox News Digital that Charles later reflected, "I've never forgotten the sound of it. The whole mountain exploding outwards — vast clouds of snow. A whirling maelstrom. I thought to myself, 'My God, the horror.'" "Charles and his friends ignored the danger and went off to tackle an infamous slope that was off the beaten path," Andersen explained. "... The resulting avalanche slammed into Patti Palmer-Tomkinson and Hugh Lindsay. Lindsay was killed instantly, but the king helped dig Palmer-Tomkinson out of the snow and kept her conscious by telling her that a rescue helicopter was on its way. ... People forget King Charles had a career in the Navy, was a military pilot, and was extremely athletic his entire life. Obviously, his reflexes kicked in." Swiss officials had warned of avalanche danger that day. A later Swiss investigation found that the group was skiing outside the marked area but concluded that the skiers were not culpable for Lindsay's death. Charles said in an account released after the accident that he and several others managed to ski out of the avalanche's path, while Lindsay and Palmer-Tomkinson were swept away. He said Lindsay had been "killed outright during the fall." Charles also described helping dig Palmer-Tomkinson from the snow and staying with her during the rescue effort. "The constitutional what-if is staggering," said Schofield. "Had Charles died in that avalanche, five-year-old Prince William would immediately have become heir to the throne. Princess Diana would have been a 26-year-old widow raising the future king, and Queen Elizabeth would have spent the remainder of her reign preparing her grandson rather than her son to succeed her." "That is what makes Charles saying, 'It was a close thing' so chilling in retrospect," Schofield said. "It was a close thing personally, but constitutionally it was enormous. The U.K. and Commonwealth came frighteningly close to having a five-year-old second in line suddenly become heir apparent and the entire trajectory of the modern monarchy being rewritten." LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Lindsay's wife, Sarah, who worked in the Buckingham Palace press office, was six months pregnant when she learned of her husband's death. "Within hours, Charles called Sarah and described what had happened," said Andersen. "Diana later said her 'blood ran cold' at Charles' lack of emotion.  "After Lindsay's daughter Alice was born, Charles became her godfather and kept his promise to pay for her education. ... But it was Diana who came to Sarah Lindsay's emotional rescue, calling her every Sunday to cheer her up." Charles later returned to ski at Klosters, including with his sons. Contemporary reports said he returned to the avalanche site at least twice to reflect alone. PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE "Charles may have been shaken up by the catastrophe that took his close friend's life, but in true British stiff upper lip tradition he didn't really show it at the time," Andersen said. "Charles has always been, to some extent, emotionally strangled. I think it has taken years for him to come to terms with his friend's death and his own narrow escape." Diana and Sarah Ferguson, then the Duchess of York, were at their chalet when the avalanche hit. While Diana later questioned Charles' response to the tragedy, Schofield said Charles privately grappled with remorse. "I suspect there was an element of survivor's guilt that was difficult for Charles to process," she said. "He escaped, his friend died, and another friend was seriously injured. He reportedly felt a sense of responsibility afterward. Those are enormously complicated emotions for anyone, regardless of whether you happen to be the future king." "We often see the king through the formality of monarchy, but there was nothing formal about what happened on that mountain. Charles narrowly escaped being swept away himself and then participated in the desperate effort to rescue the people who hadn't." In February 2025, the king, who continues to receive treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer, said his skiing days were behind him during a visit to Teesside. "I think my skiing days are behind me," he told a Swiss engineer he met, according to Hello! magazine. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8975802c5335ae1049b590 AMB GORDON SONDLAND: Our allies enjoyed a free ride trading with Iran. Trump is shutting that down te 2026-08-22T10:10:08.966Z AMB GORDON SONDLAND: Our allies enjoyed a free ride trading with Iran. Trump is shutting that down President Donald Trump is finally proposing the Iran policy that our allies have spent decades avoiding: If you want the benefits of doing business with the United States, you cannot also help finance the regime in Tehran. It really is that simple. Trump’s "Economic D-Day" is not merely another sanctions package filled with the names of Iranian officials who do not have American bank accounts and never planned to visit Disneyland. The important idea is to punish the foreign countries, banks, refiners, shipping companies and middlemen that keep Iran in business. TRUMP THREATENS 'UNPRECEDENTED' ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES FOR ANY NATION AIDING IRAN They must choose between Iran and America. They should no longer be allowed to choose both. When I served as U.S. ambassador to the European Union, I watched European governments twist themselves into diplomatic, legal and moral contortions to avoid seriously sanctioning Iran. There was always a deal that took precedence over principle. AMB. GORDON SONDLAND: EUROPE CAN’T CONDEMN IRAN, THEN COMPLAIN WHEN TRUMP FINALLY ACTS TO STOP IT One country had an energy contract to protect. Another had companies pursuing Iranian business. Someone else wanted to preserve a diplomatic channel. Brussels was perpetually waiting for another negotiation that would supposedly moderate the regime if only we remained patient, constructive and commercially engaged. Europe claimed that commerce created leverage. Iran got the commerce and Europe rarely exercised the leverage. IRAN IS NOT A NORMAL NATION YOU CAN MAKE DEALS WITH; IT’S A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT Tehran took the money, funded its proxies, expanded its missile program, brutalized its own population and continued advancing its nuclear capabilities. Then, whenever Iran created another crisis, the Europeans looked to Washington to solve it. That has been the international bargain for far too long: Our allies make money, Iran makes trouble and America gets its hands dirty. IRAN LOSES KEY ECONOMIC LIFELINE IN MIDDLE EAST THAT TRUMP'S SANCTIONS COULDN'T REACH AS DEADLOCK PERSISTS Trump is turning that arrangement on its head. The United Arab Emirates’ decision to suspend trade and financial transactions with Iran is a major development. Dubai has been much more than another Iranian trading partner. It has served as a gateway to the world — providing access to re-exports, currency conversion, trade finance, shell companies and goods that sanctions were supposed to keep beyond Tehran’s reach. IRAN’S $800M OIL SMUGGLING SCHEME USES TANKERS POSING AS IRAQI SHIPS TO DODGE BLOCKADE Closing that door will hurt. But the UAE cannot be a heroic exception. It must become the model. Trump should look every allied leader in the eye and ask: Are you prepared to close your country’s Iranian commercial and financial channels, or do you intend to continue financing the threat you expect America to contain? TRUMP ‘RIGHT TO BE OUTRAGED’ BY EUROPE’S BETRAYAL ON IRAN, SAYS FORMER THATCHER ADVISOR This time, we are not asking our allies to fight a kinetic war. We are not asking them to send troops, drop bombs or put their citizens in harm’s way. We are asking them to help choke off the economic lifelines of the axis of evil. That is not too much to ask. It is the minimum. Countries enjoying American security guarantees, favorable trade arrangements and access to the world’s most valuable economy have obligations. Access to America is not a birthright. It is a privilege, and privileges come with conditions. Those refusing to cooperate should face inferior trade terms, tighter visa rights and greater scrutiny of their financial institutions. Companies knowingly facilitating Iranian trade should lose access to American government contracts, capital markets and banking relationships. Trump’s message should be unmistakable: If you help keep Iran open for business, America will become less open for business to you. This effort also needs sunlight. Congress should create a bipartisan "Naughty and Nice List" identifying the countries, banks, refiners, shippers, insurers and intermediaries either helping isolate Iran or helping it evade pressure. The "nice" list should recognize those that shut down Iranian accounts, stop buying its oil, expose front companies and enforce sanctions honestly. The "naughty" list should name those moving Iranian money, disguising cargo, processing oil sales or supplying dual-use technology. Update it every month. Read the names publicly. Make the executives, ministers and heads of government explain their conduct. That may sound theatrical. Good. Theater gets attention — and attention creates accountability. Governments and companies depend upon complexity, deniability and public boredom to maintain relationships they would rather not defend. Drag those relationships into the daylight. There must be a reputational cost in addition to an economic one. Leaders continuing to trade with Iran should have to explain why their commercial interests take precedence over stopping nuclear proliferation, terrorism and attacks on international shipping. Europe, in particular, needs to stop pretending that continued engagement with Tehran is a neutral act. Money is fungible. Every commercial relationship that provides Iran with hard currency strengthens the regime’s ability to finance the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, missiles and proxy warfare. The same applies to Asian energy buyers, flag registries, ports, insurers and banks. If they facilitate Iranian trade, they are part of Iran’s economic infrastructure and should be treated accordingly. China is the ultimate test. Beijing cannot receive the full benefits of access to American consumers and capital while providing the economic oxygen that keeps Tehran alive. Chinese refineries, banks, trading houses and shipping companies handling Iranian commerce should face direct restrictions in the United States. If Trump backs away when the first major Chinese institution is implicated, this becomes another slogan. If he follows through, the effect will be immediate and global. Critics will call this escalation. They call almost any exercise of American leverage escalation. In fact, this is the opposite of what a warmonger would do. A warmonger would send hundreds of thousands of American troops into Iran, occupy the country and spend another generation trying to rebuild it. Trump is instead using America’s economic power to avoid the continuation of a major American war. Israel should not be prevented from taking covert gloves off. Israel has the intelligence, operational capability and motivation to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program, missile systems, procurement networks and proxy infrastructure. The United States should provide intelligence, logistics, missile defense and strategic support while allowing Israel to do much of the difficult covert and kinetic work. If Tehran continues its aggression, further highly selective action against the commanders, nuclear architects and operational leaders responsible must remain available. This is not a call for indiscriminate warfare or American occupation. It is a strategy of making the people directing Iran’s aggression personally accountable while steadily dismantling their capabilities. In blunt terms, let Israel handle much of the wet work. America should set the strategy, organize the allies, enforce the economic quarantine and prevent China, Russia or anyone else from rescuing Tehran. This is burden-sharing with teeth. The endgame must also be clear. Iran must abandon any path to a nuclear weapon, dismantle its dangerous enrichment capabilities, stop attacking international shipping and end its financing of proxy warfare. Any relief must be conditional, reversible and tied to verified conduct — not Iranian promises or another vague agreement Tehran can manipulate. For years, the foreign-policy establishment has told us that the Iran problem is terribly complicated. Some parts are. The central choice is not. Why should America protect countries that help finance the threat? Why should access to our market be treated as an entitlement? Why should the United States bear the military risk while others preserve their profitable relationships with the adversary? Trump is asking the right questions. If he constructs a genuine economic quarantine, forces our allies to choose, empowers Israel to eliminate the most dangerous threats and keeps American military involvement selective and decisive, this could become his finest hour. It would also expose the hypocrisy of those who routinely call Trump a warmonger. He is not leading with an invasion. He is leading with American economic power and demanding that our allies finally participate. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION The world has spent long enough hedging — trading with Iran during the good times and calling Washington when Tehran becomes belligerent. The talking is over. Now comes the choosing. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM GORDON SONDLAND Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8975802c5335ae1049b587 Klobuchar's fraud fight claim takes hit after GOP opponent combs through receipts: 'Where were you?' te 2026-08-22T10:10:08.317Z Klobuchar's fraud fight claim takes hit after GOP opponent combs through receipts: 'Where were you?' Minnesota Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Klobuchar is facing heat from her Republican opponent and critics on social media for campaigning on addressing the massive fraud scandal in her state despite not mentioning it a single time in any press release since the crisis emerged. A Fox News Digital review found that Klobuchar's Senate office repeatedly issued press releases addressing other forms of fraud between 2022 and 2025, but a review of 1,000 of her official press-release archive found no release directly addressing or offering solutions to fix Minnesota's sprawling social-services fraud scandal or Feeding Our Future. The $250 million Feeding Our Future scandal, that has ballooned into an overall social services scandal that prosecutors say could total over $9 billion, broke in late January of 2022. In more than 1,000 press releases from Klobuchar’s office from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2025, the Feeding our Future scandal was not mentioned in Klobuchar’s releases, nor were the terms "Minnesota fraud," "social services fraud," "Medicaid fraud," "autism fraud," "Housing Stabilization Services," "child nutrition fraud," "DHS fraud," or "nonprofit fraud." "As Feeding Our Future was breaking and all of the fraud that was being talked about, the absent voice that I was noticing was Senator Klobuchar," Minnesota Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth told Fox News Digital in an interview on Friday. FINAL WALZ FRAUD REPORT RIPS ‘CULTURE OF TOLERANCE’ AS MINNESOTA TAXPAYERS FACE BILLIONS IN ALLEGED LOSSES "She with her extended time, twenty years as a senator, could have held hearings but not only did she not hold hearings, the hearing that took place a few months ago about fraud here in the state of Minnesota she didn't even attend and so i think that speaks very loudly to the people of Minnesota that we have a twenty-year senator, the most explosive fraud that has taken place a theft of our tax dollars here and yet, there was no mention." Demuth drew attention to the Klobuchar press releases not mentioning the scandal earlier this week during a speech where she released her plan to fight fraud and criticized Klobuchar for not doing enough. "Billions of our tax dollars stolen," Demuth posted on X. "It’s time for change." Since announcing her run for governor, Klobuchar has focused on fraud, including in a campaign ad released earlier this month promising a state audit on her first day in office that will "root out waste fraud and abuse." "It’s time for results, not excuses," Klobuchar posted on X. MINNESOTA AG ELLISON LASHES OUT WHEN GRILLED ON FRAUD SCANDAL: 'I’M DONE TALKING TO YOU' Klobuchar breezed through the primary election and heads to November as the favorite to replace Gov. Tim Walz, who dropped his re-election bid amid the fraud scandal, but Demuth says that voters will have a hard time ignoring Klobuchar's record on combatting fraud as well as her ties to Walz. "My question is, where were you for the last 10 years, but absolutely the last eight years?" Demuth said. "She could have done press conferences, she could have partnered with Governor Walz. She has called Governor Walz an exceptional governor, 'he's a great governor.' Back when he was running for vice president, she was giving all of his accolades. Where was she to help him where our state was falling apart? I think it's a little bit too late for her to say that this was really a priority." Republican candidates in Minnesota have been making the case that voters of all political parties are motivated and upset by the fraud scandal, including Senate hopeful Michele Tafoya who told Fox News Digital earlier this month that voters are "ready for a change." Demuth touted her fraud efforts in the legislature and said that as soon as she became Minnesota House Speaker in 2025 she immediately took steps to make sure cracking down on fraud was front and center, including setting up the Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee. "Who are Minnesotans gonna trust for their next governor?" Demuth said. "Somebody that has just decided to talk about fraud now that they're running for office or someone that has been fighting fraud this entire time? And I think I am the most trustworthy when it comes to ending fraud and respecting taxpayer dollars as your next governor." Fox News Digital reached out to Klobuchar's campaign for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8967762c5335ae1049b2e9 Sammy Gravano reveals the moment he decided to cooperate with the government against John Gotti te 2026-08-22T09:10:14.564Z Sammy Gravano reveals the moment he decided to cooperate with the government against John Gotti Sammy "The Bull" Gravano lived by the Mafia's code of loyalty for years, but secretly recorded footage of John Gotti — and what Gravano says came next ultimately convinced him the oath was dead and it was time to switch sides. "I said, 'Okay.' And I walked away," Gravano recalled on the "Hang Out With Sean Hannity" podcast. "Well, as I walked away, I said, 'F--- the Mafia, f--- the oath and f--- John Gotti — I'm switching sides. He wants to play chess with me. Let's play chess.'" JOHN GOTTI PAL: I STASHED $10M IN MY KID'S TOYCHEST At the center of that decision were secretly recorded conversations in which Gotti discussed the Castellano hit and other mob activity, recordings Gravano said initially left him frustrated with the boss. Gravano said Gotti's loose talk initially angered him, but the final straw came later. "At first, I was annoyed in a way, like, man, you don't know when to shut your f---ing mouth," he said. "But it went beyond that." Gravano said the situation escalated after their arrests, when Gotti sought to control the lawyers and Gravano learned how the defense planned to address the tapes before a jury. EX-MOB CAPO ALLEGES FURIOUS RFK WEAPONIZED THE FBI AGAINST HIS FATHER OVER MARILYN MONROE "They're going to turn around, including your lawyer, and say to the jurors, 'You heard the tapes. Sammy's a monster. Killed all these people, took over the businesses and everything. Poor John Gotti. You hear him complaining on the tape. It's not him. It's him,'" Gravano recalled. The strategy, as Gravano described it, reflected a deeply ingrained Mafia mentality: "The boss must go free" — even if that meant casting him as the fall guy. After that exchange, Gravano said, he walked away and resolved to cooperate with the government. He would later learn that Gotti's intentions toward him were much more sinister. "I find this out way later, so it's not the reason I cooperated – but I find out later he's going to take me out," Gravano recalled. DEA AGENTS WHO HUNTED PABLO ESCOBAR REVEAL CHILLING CALL WHERE HE ORDERED TORTURE WHILE ON PHONE WITH WIFE "But he wants Frankie [LoCascio] to go around to the captains and explain Sammy has lost his mind. He's really killing all kinds of f---ing people. It's crazy," Gravano added. In his wide-ranging interview with Sean Hannity, Gravano also pulled back the curtain on a life spent inside one of America's most notorious crime families — from taking the Mafia's blood oath and participating in 19 murders to helping orchestrate the infamous hit on Gambino boss Paul Castellano. Watch the full "Hang Out With Sean Hannity" interview with Sammy "The Bull" Gravano on iHeartRadio, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8967752c5335ae1049b2e0 EXCLUSIVE: 5-time illegal entrant admits ‘mistake’ that finally got him busted by ICE te 2026-08-22T09:10:13.953Z EXCLUSIVE: 5-time illegal entrant admits ‘mistake’ that finally got him busted by ICE EXCLUSIVE: An illegal immigrant who re-entered the U.S. five times said his drinking is the "mistake" that finally led to his arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement early Thursday morning. Ernesto Alejandro Perez-Garcia, a Mexican national, was arrested by ICE in Redondo Beach, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. Perez-Garcia has a history of arrests dating to 2003 for alcohol-, controlled substance- and driving-related offenses, as well as making terroristic threats and illegally re-entering the U.S. ICE said he illegally entered the country five times and made four additional attempts to enter. Fox News Digital witnessed ICE arrest Perez-Garcia on Thursday. When agents first encountered him on the Redondo Beach esplanade, he denied his identity. However, when confronted with a previous mugshot, Perez-Garcia acknowledged that he was the man they were seeking. After ICE booked and processed him, Perez-Garcia told Fox News Digital that he lied to agents "to see if I could get away with it." He said that after he was confronted with his mugshot, he realized, "I’m busted, you know, in other words, I’m f---ed." ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT RELEASED UNDER BIDEN ACCUSED OF STABBING VIRGINIA MOTHER, DOUSING HER IN GASOLINE Perez-Garcia said that despite national headlines about ICE operations, he did not expect to be arrested Thursday morning. He said he was on his usual morning walk when agents encountered him. "Once I saw the officer … with the picture of me, there was no way I was going to run," he said. "At the end of the day," he continued, "it’s the alcohol that got me back in this mess." While he said a friend’s recent death "got me caught up [in alcoholism]," he said, "It shouldn’t have, so it’s my mistake, and I’ve got to be responsible for that." Perez-Garcia first entered the U.S. at an unknown date and location. The Torrance Police Department in California initially arrested him on April 3, 2003, for driving without a license. He was convicted and sentenced to 30 days. Over the next few years, he was also convicted of driving with a suspended license and possessing controlled substance paraphernalia. According to ICE, the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, convicted Perez-Garcia on April 10, 2006, of threatening crime with intent to terrorize. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail and three years of probation. ICE removed him to Mexico for the first time the next month. FATHER OF SLAIN MARINE SPEAKS OUT AFTER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WHO KILLED SON FACES THIRD DEPORTATION However, he re-entered the U.S. at an unknown date and location. On June 27, 2006, he was arrested again for threatening crime with intent to terrorize. Over the next two decades, Perez-Garcia was arrested for various offenses, including repeated attempts to cross the southern border in Tecate, California. Since 2020, Perez-Garcia has been arrested five times for disorderly conduct, including four arrests by the Redondo Beach Police Department. He was arrested twice this year for disorderly conduct, on April 17 and May 8. ICE said the department declined to honor its detainer requests twice, in 2020 and again in 2026. Perez-Garcia claimed that the Redondo Beach Police Department "let me know a couple years ago" that ICE was looking for him. "Redondo PD had told me about it, you know, Redondo PD was cool with it. They let me go with it, you know what I mean, but they also told me I had a warrant for my arrest," he said. Fox News Digital reached out to the Redondo Beach Police Department for comment on Perez-Garcia’s assertion. NEWSOM-APPOINTED JUDGE WHO FREED MIGRANT BEFORE FATAL STABBING SAID JUSTICE 'SOMETIMES MEANS A DISMISSAL' Los Angeles Field Office Director Tom Giles spoke with Fox News Digital shortly before ICE arrested Perez-Garcia. Giles emphasized that "when these detainers aren't honored, what it does for us is it sends our officers out into the community, putting our officers at risk and other community members at risk to go out and try to apprehend this individual." "So, for sanctuary policies, what we ask these jurisdictions is to cooperate with us," he said, adding, "It will make our communities safer." Perez-Garcia said he believes his arrest by ICE is "fair." SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER "I was trying to lie about it because I actually don’t got nothing there in Mexico right now, you know what I mean? I grew up right here, and this is what I know," he said. Perez-Garcia also said his children live in the U.S. and that he has heard stories about how "so hard" it is to return to the U.S. "I don’t know what’s going to happen, to tell you the truth," he said. "I already knew it was going to catch up to me; I just didn’t know when." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8967752c5335ae1049b2d7 Senator launches assault on illegal immigration gaps as GOP races midterm clock to lock in key wins te 2026-08-22T09:10:13.397Z Senator launches assault on illegal immigration gaps as GOP races midterm clock to lock in key wins EXCLUSIVE: Republicans risk seeing some of President Donald Trump’s signature immigration priorities erased by a future Democratic administration unless Congress acts now to lock them into law, Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital as he presses the Senate to take up a package of seven immigration bills. Banks said his immigration package is needed as Republicans approach the midterms with control of Congress at stake and a shrinking window to deliver legislative wins to voters. The bills target birthright citizenship, visas, commercial driver’s licenses and other immigration policies Banks wants Congress to codify. "I don't just fear a Democrat majority. I fear a Democrat-Socialist majority because the [DSA] who control today's Democrat Party support wide open borders, they support eliminating ICE, they are anti law enforcement, they want to defund the police," Banks said. While current Senate Democratic leaders are not aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, Banks argued a future Democratic-led Senate would be "owned by the socialist wing of their party." TRUMP ADMIN INVESTIGATING 75 TRUCK DRIVER SCHOOLS FOR FRAUD, HELPING NON-CITIZENS GET LICENSES "I cannot believe that the Democrats are so radical and extreme today that they're OK with what's happened to our country [with] illegals taking jobs for Americans or allowing illegals to be behind the wheel of semi-trucks," Banks said, pointing to his "Dalilah Law." The bill honors Dalilah Coleman, a first-grader who was critically injured when an illegal immigrant driving a big rig caused a multi-car pileup on an Indiana highway. Partap Singh, an Indian national licensed in California, was driving the truck. Coleman suffered catastrophic injuries, spent months in the hospital and had a craniectomy. The Dalilah Law, described by supporters as the CDL equivalent of the Laken Riley Act, would require states to stop providing commercial driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and certain foreign nationals. It would also require states to revoke certain existing licenses and administer commercial driving tests only in English. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKERS ACCUSED OF MOWING DOWN AMERICANS IGNITE FURY OVER LOOPHOLES UNLEASHING DEADLY ROADS Banks compared the CDL measure to Congress’ Reagan-era push to raise the drinking age by threatening federal transportation funds. He argued that several Hoosiers have been injured or killed in crashes involving foreign drivers licensed by "states that hand CDLs out like candy," including California, Pennsylvania and New York. He also wants Congress to take greater control over Temporary Protected Status authority, which he said previous Democratic administrations abused. "If we legislate it and give Congress power to determine when TPS is appropriate when it's not, then we'll be able to address these issues long after President Trump leaves the White House," Banks said. ILLEGAL TRUCKER CASES FUEL GOP PUSH TO CRACK DOWN ON CDL MILLS AS DEMS LARGELY SILENT The American Tech Workforce Act would raise the minimum salary threshold for many H-1B visa positions from $60,000 to $150,000. Experts have said the change would significantly alter incentives for companies seeking to hire young foreign workers. Immigration attorneys argued Banks’ bill would make the U.S. "far less attractive as a study destination" and encourage foreign talent to look to Canada instead. "Many employers would be unable or unwilling to meet this threshold, effectively limiting H-1B hiring to top tech companies or highly specialized roles," Texas firm Reddy Neumann & Brown said on its website. AMERICA’S BROKEN LEGAL IMMIGRATION SYSTEM IS REPLACING US WORKERS BY DESIGN Proponents have argued such changes would give American graduates a better chance of entering the job market after college. Other bills in the package would provide additional border security funding to the War Department, restrict chain migration and target grants to colleges employing illegal immigrants. "These seven bills are common sense, everything from stopping illegals from driving semi-trucks to banning birthright citizenship, to stopping chain migration, to cracking down on those who misuse the H-1B visas for cheap labor," Banks said. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER Fox News Digital reached out to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., for comment on the package and to ask whether any of the bills will be expedited ahead of the midterms. Fox News Digital's Hannah Brennan contributed to this report. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8967702c5335ae1049b2a0 Why the Lindsay Clancy Case Is Dividing Americans te 2026-08-22T09:10:08.005Z Why the Lindsay Clancy Case Is Dividing Americans She is being tried on murder charges for killing her three young children. The tragedy has resurrected debates over whether such women are criminals or victims. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89676f2c5335ae1049b297 How the Billionaire Joe Lonsdale Shaped Trump’s Homelessness Policy te 2026-08-22T09:10:07.467Z How the Billionaire Joe Lonsdale Shaped Trump’s Homelessness Policy As Republicans have embraced tough measures to clear the streets, no group has led the way more than the Cicero Institute, founded by the venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89676e2c5335ae1049b28e Why Polling Chaos Could Create Big Problems for American Politics te 2026-08-22T09:10:06.827Z Why Polling Chaos Could Create Big Problems for American Politics Bad polls. Misleading betting odds. Surveys meant to shape narratives. Ahead of the midterms and 2028, there is suddenly serious confusion about candidate strength and voter sentiment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89676e2c5335ae1049b285 In Ohio, Haitians Feel Shaken by Ankle Monitors and Increased ICE Presence te 2026-08-22T09:10:06.128Z In Ohio, Haitians Feel Shaken by Ankle Monitors and Increased ICE Presence The devices, which will make it easier for authorities to locate immigrants in Springfield if large-scale deportations begin, have intensified a sense of dread. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89676d2c5335ae1049b27c Harry and Meghan See Their California Dreams — and Riches — Fade Away te 2026-08-22T09:10:05.346Z Harry and Meghan See Their California Dreams — and Riches — Fade Away Like so many others before them, Prince Harry and Meghan arrived in Hollywood with big plans. They are leaving with their star power fading. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89676c2c5335ae1049b273 How a Progressive Democrat in Florida Gave Her Party New Hope — and New Fears te 2026-08-22T09:10:04.487Z How a Progressive Democrat in Florida Gave Her Party New Hope — and New Fears Angie Nixon, a state lawmaker from Jacksonville, shocked Democrats in red Florida by soundly defeating her centrist primary opponent. Now comes the hard part. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89676b2c5335ae1049b26a Police Chief in Mississippi Regularly Used Racist Slurs, Private Text Messages Reveal te 2026-08-22T09:10:03.547Z Police Chief in Mississippi Regularly Used Racist Slurs, Private Text Messages Reveal Text exchanges obtained by reporters show troubling messages sent by the chief of a Mississippi police department facing an uproar over the fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy in June. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89676a2c5335ae1049b261 For Some in a Disrupted D.C., Grand Prix Is More Irritation Than Celebration te 2026-08-22T09:10:02.747Z For Some in a Disrupted D.C., Grand Prix Is More Irritation Than Celebration Race preparations have snarled traffic, rerouted flights and forced the National Gallery of Art to conduct vibration tests. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8954b62c5335ae1049af60 Amish Shah’s Veganism Draws Criticism After Remarks Linking Meat To Cancer te 2026-08-22T07:50:14.139Z Amish Shah’s Veganism Draws Criticism After Remarks Linking Meat To Cancer By Matthew Holloway | The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) criticized Democratic congressional nominee Amish Shah over his veganism and decade-old remarks linking meat consumption to cancer. The NRCC questioned whether Shah’s support for universal health care extends to government restrictions on meat. The committee issued its challenge after Politico reported on Republican efforts to make veganism a campaign issue in several battleground races. The report identified Shah among the Democratic candidates whose dietary views and animal-welfare advocacy have drawn Republican scrutiny. Politico reported that Shah identifies as vegan and founded the Arizona Vegetarian Food Festival. His official biography with the Arizona Legislature described the festival as a philanthropic effort intended to promote healthy eating and eliminate preventable disease. The NRCC published a video that it identified as footage from a 2015 speech by Shah at the festival. The committee said the recording showed Shah linking meat consumption with “DNA damage” and cancer. Shah later discussed meat and cheese while referring to coronary bypass surgery. POLITICO reports that Arizona Democrat Amish Shah, a Vegan Socialist, argued in 2015: 🥩Eating meat causes "DNA damage" & cancer Shah on doctors doing surgery:🧀 "They’re not pulling broccoli out of there, okay? Yeah, they’re pulling cheese and they’re pulling meat out of that"… pic.twitter.com/JgtnIeZxGX — Ben Petersen (@bennpetersen) August 14, 2026 “When they do bypass surgeries, they’re not pulling broccoli out of there, okay?” Shah said. “Yeah, they’re pulling cheese, and they’re pulling meat out of that.” The committee subsequently asked whether Shah believes a government-run health system “should monitor, ban, tax or limit meat consumption.” “The more Arizonans learn about socialist Amish Shah, the more clear it gets how out of touch he is with their priorities,” NRCC spokesman Ben Petersen said. “Socialist Shah’s wacky liberal agenda pushing Vegan policies, the Green New Scam, and a socialist government takeover of health care place him squarely out of the mainstream.” Shah’s current campaign platform calls him a “proven champion for Universal healthcare” and says he would expand coverage, protect Medicare, and lower prescription-drug prices. The published platform also calls for honoring state and local authority to combat factory farming and for ending horse slaughter for human consumption. As of Friday, the campaign’s published issues page contained no proposal to tax, ban, monitor, or limit individual meat consumption. Shah is running against Republican nominee Thomas “Jay” Feely for the open First Congressional District seat. Shah won the Democratic nomination in July after defeating the candidate backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Feely won the Republican nomination after receiving President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Arizona cattle and calves generated approximately $727.2 million in sales during 2022, accounting for 14 percent of the state’s $5.2 billion in agricultural-product sales, according to the USDA Census of Agriculture. Cattle ranked as Arizona’s third-largest agricultural sales category behind vegetables, melons, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, at 27.5 percent, and milk from cows, at 22.4 percent. The USDA counted 997,842 cattle and calves across 5,864 Arizona farms and ranches. Within the First Congressional District, cattle and calf sales totaled approximately $3.8 million and represented about 2 percent of the district’s $189 million in agricultural sales. The district contained 2,407 cattle and calves at the end of 2022. Republican Rep. David Schweikert defeated Shah with 51.9% of the vote in 2024. Schweikert subsequently declined to seek reelection and ran unsuccessfully for governor, leaving the congressional seat open. Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com. The post Amish Shah’s Veganism Draws Criticism After Remarks Linking Meat To Cancer first appeared on AZ FREE NEWS. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8954b42c5335ae1049af57 Andy Biggs Joins Bipartisan Push For Investigation Into Federal Surveillance Of Americans’ Bank Accounts te 2026-08-22T07:50:12.526Z Andy Biggs Joins Bipartisan Push For Investigation Into Federal Surveillance Of Americans’ Bank Accounts By Matthew Holloway | Arizona Republican Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) has joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers seeking a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into federal law enforcement surveillance of Americans’ bank accounts and financial records. Biggs’ office announced Tuesday that he joined U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Reps. Warren Davidson (R-OH) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) in asking the congressional watchdog to examine several methods used by federal agencies to obtain or monitor financial information. The lawmakers sent their five-page request to Acting Comptroller General Orice W. Brown on Aug. 10. The letter calls for a comprehensive review of surveillance practices involving the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). “Americans’ financial records can reveal deeply sensitive information including their religion; the political causes and non-profit organizations they support, including through membership; the doctors’ offices and clinics where they are treated; where they travel and with whom; and countless other private personal details,” the lawmakers wrote. They added that existing authorities allowing government access to financial records have, in some instances, been “abused or stretched beyond their intended purpose.” The lawmakers asked the GAO to examine four areas, beginning with federal compliance with notification requirements under the Right to Financial Privacy Act. The letter states that federal law enforcement agencies can obtain existing records from specific bank accounts through subpoenas, including subpoenas that do not require prior judicial approval. Under the Right to Financial Privacy Act, customers generally must receive notice when the federal government obtains their financial records, subject to statutory exceptions and delayed-notice procedures. The lawmakers cited an October 2024 Justice Department response included with their letter. The DOJ said its Justice Manual directs prosecutors to follow Right to Financial Privacy Act procedures when seeking customer financial records without alerting an investigative target and said notice requirements are addressed through department training. The department also acknowledged that it does not compile statistics on notices provided under the Right to Financial Privacy Act and Wiretap Act, leaving it unable to tell lawmakers how many individuals had received such notices during the preceding three years. Biggs and the other lawmakers asked the GAO to determine how consistently federal agencies comply with the notice requirements and how many Americans may remain unaware that their records were obtained. The second area involves the FBI’s use of National Security Letters (NSLs), to obtain historical financial information without prior judicial review. The FBI has long had authority under the Right to Financial Privacy Act to issue National Security Letters for certain financial records. The lawmakers asked the GAO to determine whether the bureau is following procedures governing nondisclosure orders attached to those requests. Under FBI procedures adopted following the USA Freedom Act, a nondisclosure requirement must be supported by an individualized written determination rather than automatically accompanying every National Security Letter. The FBI also established procedures for reviewing and terminating those restrictions when circumstances no longer justify them. The lawmakers asked the GAO to calculate the percentage of financial-record NSLs issued with nondisclosure requirements, determine how many remain secret after a three-year review point, and examine whether financial institutions receive required notices when those restrictions end. Their third concern involves real-time monitoring orders known as financial “hotwatches.” According to the congressional letter, federal agencies have used the All Writs Act to obtain court orders requiring financial institutions to notify the government when new transactions occur in targeted accounts. The lawmakers wrote that Congress has not enacted a statute explicitly authorizing real-time financial surveillance and asked the GAO to determine how frequently the Justice Department seeks the orders, what legal justifications it uses, and what types of financial institutions have been required to comply. The group also asked the GAO to investigate how the FBI and FinCEN use the Bank Secrecy Act and Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) to conduct searches of financial-institution records. Banks and other covered financial institutions use SARs to report transactions suspected of being connected to criminal or otherwise suspicious activity. FinCEN describes the SAR system as a mechanism for providing financial intelligence to law enforcement, regulators, and other authorized government agencies. Federal rules also make SARs confidential. FinCEN guidance states that a financial institution generally may not tell a person involved in a reported transaction that a SAR was filed. The lawmakers said those authorities serve legitimate law enforcement purposes when banks independently identify suspicious transactions, including potential money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion, and human trafficking. They asked the GAO to examine allegations that the FBI and FinCEN have also directed financial institutions to conduct broader searches across customer databases using criteria supplied by the government. They specifically asked investigators to determine whether informal search directives have circumvented the particularized identifier requirements contained in Section 314(a) of the USA Patriot Act and to quantify how many otherwise-unsuspected customers may have had their records included in such searches. “Given the potential for systemic overreach and the erosion of Americans’ privacy, it is critical that Congress and the public obtain a transparent accounting of these programs,” the four lawmakers wrote. They requested that the GAO issue a formal report examining the practices and recommend potential legislative or executive changes involving judicial oversight, financial privacy, and notice requirements. The request continues Biggs’ broader push to limit federal surveillance authorities. In March, the Arizona congressman introduced the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act of 2026, legislation aimed separately at reforming surveillance conducted under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com. The post Andy Biggs Joins Bipartisan Push For Investigation Into Federal Surveillance Of Americans’ Bank Accounts first appeared on AZ FREE NEWS. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8954b22c5335ae1049af4e Arizona AG Kris Mayes Declines To Prosecute Gov. Hobbs In Sunshine Pay-To-Play Investigation te 2026-08-22T07:50:10.790Z Arizona AG Kris Mayes Declines To Prosecute Gov. Hobbs In Sunshine Pay-To-Play Investigation By Matthew Holloway | Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes declined to prosecute Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday over allegations of a pay-to-play arrangement involving Sunshine Residential Homes. The decision prompted Senate President Warren Petersen (R-LD14), Mayes’ Republican opponent in the November election, to accuse the attorney general of protecting a political ally. Mayes announced that her office found no evidence establishing that political contributions from Sunshine were exchanged for rate increases granted by the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS). “The investigation has not uncovered any evidence of the necessary quid pro quo to support a bribery charge,” Mayes said. The decision followed a two-year criminal investigation that included 12 interviews and reviews of campaign-finance records, procurement records, bank documents, and state communications comprising more than one terabyte of data and more than 100,000 documents. The investigation began in June 2024 after Republican Sen. T.J. Shope (R-LD16) requested reviews by both Mayes’ office and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office following reporting about Sunshine’s political contributions and subsequent rate increases. Sunshine gave $200,000 to the Arizona Democratic Party before Hobbs’ 2022 election, $100,000 to her inaugural fund, and another $100,000 to the party in August 2023. Sunshine founder Simon Kottoor and his wife, Elizabeth, also contributed to Hobbs’ gubernatorial campaigns. Arizona campaign-finance records showed Hobbs was the only Arizona candidate to receive contributions from either Kottoor during the 2022 and 2024 election cycles. Sunshine received a mid-contract increase in May 2023 that raised its rate to $195 per bed, followed by an increase to $234 per bed during its April 2024 contract renewal. The Attorney General’s memorandum said the company’s rate increased 56% from 2019 to 2024, although two other providers received larger percentage increases over that period while maintaining lower daily rates. Investigators found that DCS officials were aware of Sunshine’s political contributions while considering its request. According to the memorandum, then-DCS official Robert Navarro told agency officials during a February 2023 meeting that Sunshine was likely to request an increase and added that the company was a donor to the governor. Internal teams messages also included discussions of Sunshine’s contributions. Navarro told investigators that the donations created perceived pressure, but the Attorney General’s Office concluded that the pressure resulted from his knowledge of the contributions and found no evidence that Hobbs or her office directed DCS to raise Sunshine’s rate. The investigation instead concluded that Sunshine’s rate increases “appear as the result of its outsized leverage” over the state’s congregate-care system. The company has been one of Arizona’s largest group-home providers and accounted for approximately 20% to 25% of the state’s non-Division of Developmental Disabilities congregate-care beds, according to the AG memorandum. DCS officials told investigators that Sunshine had indicated it could shift beds to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, which was paying substantially higher rates to house unaccompanied migrant children. Officials expressed concern that losing Sunshine’s capacity would make it more difficult to keep siblings in foster care together. Two other providers had already left state contracts in favor of federal work. Mayes would not say whether Hobbs would ultimately sit for questioning, while saying the investigation was nearing completion. The memorandum released Friday says Hobbs declined to sit for an in-person interview with investigators but submitted two written statements through her attorneys on Aug. 17, one in her capacity as governor and another as a candidate. Hobbs wrote that she “has never discussed DCS contract rates, Sunshine’s rates, or any DCS procurement decision” with Kottoor or anyone affiliated with Sunshine. She also denied directing anyone else to have such discussions and said neither Sunshine’s contributions nor other financial support influenced state decisions concerning the company. Petersen criticized Mayes’ decision in a statement released through Arizona Senate Republicans Friday. Press release on Mayes refusal to prosecute Hobbs over pay-to-play. pic.twitter.com/Z6eW2DuxjL — Warren Petersen (@votewarren) August 21, 2026 “Mayes’ decision was predictable in an election season,” Petersen said. He accused Mayes of having “shamefully shifted accountability and protected her political ally, turning a blind eye to Hobbs’ misconduct” and said she had placed politics ahead of law enforcement. Petersen’s office said Sunshine made three $100,000 contributions to the Arizona Democratic Party during Mayes’ investigation. However, AZ Free News previously reported that Sunshine gave the party $200,000 in September and October 2022 and another $100,000 in August 2023, before Mayes opened her investigation in June 2024. The Attorney General’s findings released Friday do not identify any additional Sunshine contributions made during the investigation. Petersen won the Republican nomination for attorney general in July and will face Mayes in the general election. Mayes called for new state contracting transparency laws while announcing the decision, saying the absence of evidence sufficient for prosecution did not eliminate concerns about disclosure requirements surrounding state contractors and political donations. The Legislature has previously sent Hobbs two bills sponsored by Shope addressing those issues. SB 1612 in 2025 would have required companies responding to state requests for proposals or seeking grants to disclose items of value provided during the previous five years to the governor, gubernatorial political committees, inaugural funds, and related entities. It also included procurement-record retention requirements and removed an Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) exemption from state procurement laws. Hobbs vetoed the measure. Shope returned this year with SB 1186, which retained the political-contribution disclosures and record-retention provisions without the AHCCCS provision. Hobbs vetoed the bill in June after lawmakers sent it to her amid the continuing Sunshine investigation. Hobbs separately proposed her own procurement and campaign-finance changes earlier this year, including limits on political giving while companies were bidding for state contracts and a searchable database of state contractors. The competing proposals did not produce legislation acceptable to both the governor and Legislature before lawmakers adjourned. Mayes’ criminal division recommended closing its investigation into the alleged pay-to-play arrangement involving Hobbs and Sunshine. The memorandum said the office would keep its investigation open for the limited purpose of assisting the Arizona Auditor General if requested. A separate investigation involving Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell and the Arizona Auditor General also remains ongoing. Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com. The post Arizona AG Kris Mayes Declines To Prosecute Gov. Hobbs In Sunshine Pay-To-Play Investigation first appeared on AZ FREE NEWS. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a894b4d2c5335ae1049a812 Interior Department sets deep Arizona water cuts under new Colorado River plan te 2026-08-22T07:10:05.768Z Interior Department sets deep Arizona water cuts under new Colorado River plan Interior Department sets deep Arizona water cuts as Colorado River dispute persists Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89363a2c5335ae1049a459 Pennington sees plenty of reasons to stay at NAU ahead of final year te 2026-08-22T05:40:10.754Z Pennington sees plenty of reasons to stay at NAU ahead of final year NAU quarterback Ty Pennington could have very easily left NAU after an impressive 2025. He saw more reasons to stay for one last ride with his longtime college head coach. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8936392c5335ae1049a450 Ty Pennington spring practice te 2026-08-22T05:40:09.954Z Ty Pennington spring practice Northern Arizona quarterback Ty Pennington (6) throws the ball during a spring football practice in the Walkup Skydome on April 4. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8936392c5335ae1049a447 Ty Pennington spring practice te 2026-08-22T05:40:09.282Z Ty Pennington spring practice Northern Arizona quarterback Ty Pennington (6) runs onto Findlay Toyota Field with his teammates before a spring football scrimmage inside the Walkup Skydome on April 11. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8936382c5335ae1049a43e Ty Pennington spring practice te 2026-08-22T05:40:08.318Z Ty Pennington spring practice Northern Arizona quarterback Ty Pennington (6) hands the ball off during a spring football practice outside the Student-Athlete High Performance Center on April 9. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8921212c5335ae1049a0ea Missing New York grandmother found dead near Las Vegas airport after mysterious Bitcoin texts te 2026-08-22T04:10:09.735Z Missing New York grandmother found dead near Las Vegas airport after mysterious Bitcoin texts A New York grandmother who vanished without a trace while visiting Las Vegas earlier this month has been found dead, her family announced Friday. Alisa Goods, a 63-year-old grandmother of five, was reported missing Aug. 10, two days after she was last seen leaving a friend's apartment near Maryland Parkway and Tropicana Avenue, according to her family and a missing person report obtained by KLAS-TV. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police responded early Thursday after a caller reported a "deceased woman in a drainage ditch area near Wayne Newton Boulevard and the Terminal 1 parking garage at Harry Reid International Airport," according to KTNV. NEW YORK GRANDMOTHER VANISHES IN LAS VEGAS AS FAMILY GETS MYSTERIOUS TEXTS FROM HER PHONE ASKING FOR BITCOIN Officers located a woman who was later identified as Goods and pronounced dead, the outlet reported. "Our hearts are broken. We were notified that my aunt was found—unfortunately, not the way we wanted her to be," Goods' niece, Alana Calloway, said in a statement provided to the station. FAMILY CHECKS LAS VEGAS MORGUES IN DESPERATE SEARCH FOR MISSING NEW YORK GRANDMOTHER "This is an unimaginable time," the statement continued. "Words cannot describe the pain our family is experiencing right now. We just want to thank the public for the outpouring of love, support, and prayers. We also want to thank the media for helping bring attention to this situation. This hurts so deeply. We are still trying to learn the details surrounding her death. We ask for continued prayers and privacy as we grieve." Police reviewed surveillance footage that appeared to show Goods "falling down an embankment, getting back up and then collapsing" on Aug. 8, the day she disappeared, with "no further movement observed after that," according to KTNV. SEARCH UNDERWAY FOR AUSTRALIAN WOMAN WHO VANISHED AFTER SENDING MESSAGE ABOUT GOING FOR A HIKE NEAR LAS VEGAS Additional surveillance video from that day showed a woman believed to be Goods near the airport that afternoon, the station reported. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for additional information. Goods had been staying with her longtime friend Roger John, who told KLAS-TV that she left his apartment around 12:45 p.m. Aug. 8 to take a bus to a nearby CVS to buy iron pills but never returned. "Last I saw her, she was going down the stairs. And I said, 'OK, see you later,' And that's the last time I saw her," John told the station. John said he was not immediately alarmed because Goods sometimes spent hours shopping. When she failed to return, however, he began calling and texting her before contacting her family. "This is not like her to just go missing," Calloway previously told the outlet. "She has a family that loves her, cares about her. We want her home and want her home safe and alive." SCAMMERS EXPLOIT NANCY GUTHRIE CASE WITH QR CODE MONEY REQUESTS, PIMA COUNTY SHERIFF WARNS The mystery surrounding Goods' disappearance deepened when her family said they began receiving unusual text messages from her phone on Aug. 12, four days after she was last seen. The sender allegedly asked for gas money and Bitcoin , requests that raised suspicions because Goods did not drive and did not have a car in Las Vegas, according to her family. "I said, 'What do you need gas for? The car?' My aunt does not drive. There is no car," Calloway told CBS News. The family previously said the messages raised concerns that Goods may have been kidnapped. It was not immediately clear Friday who sent the messages. Fox News Digital's Stephen Sorace contributed to this report. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8910bc2c5335ae10499e1f Surprise traveler trapped beneath car for hundreds of miles gets new chance at life te 2026-08-22T03:00:12.561Z Surprise traveler trapped beneath car for hundreds of miles gets new chance at life An animal discovered wedged beneath a car after the vehicle traveled hundreds of miles from New Jersey to Georgia is recovering after an unusual rescue on a college campus. The roughly 10-week-old kitten, now named Jersey, was discovered Aug. 10 after University of Georgia student Jadyn Sawyer arrived on campus from New Jersey and spotted one of the cat's legs dangling from beneath her vehicle, Kelly Bettinger of Cat Zip Alliance - Campus Cats told Fox News Digital. Bettinger, founder of the nonprofit, said Sawyer called UGA Police, who then contacted the organization for help. TRAVELERS CLASH OVER WHETHER CRUISE LINES SHOULD ALLOW DOGS AND CATS ON BOARD OR NOT Bettinger and fellow volunteer Lisa Donovan arrived to find Jersey wedged into a small space beneath the car. "I'll admit my heart dropped at first as I thought the kitten wasn't alive, but thankfully he cried and moved when I touched his leg," Bettinger said. After officers were unable to reach him, the car was taken to a nearby Tires Plus, where mechanics placed it on a lift and removed the front driver's side tire before Jersey could finally be pulled free. The young cat was hot and panting but quickly settled down in air conditioning and showed no visible injuries, according to Bettinger. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER A veterinary exam the following day found him healthy aside from a minor upper respiratory infection and coccidia, an intestinal parasite commonly found in kittens that are born outdoors. The small animal initially appeared frightened of people but quickly began warming up to his rescuers, Bettinger said. "He's now talkative, playful, likes to be held and really sweet," she said. Rita Reimers, a North Carolina-based certified cat behaviorist, told Fox News Digital that kittens can crawl into vehicles while looking for shelter or protection. CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE STORIES "Cats can hide in the smallest little places," Reimers said. "If their head fits, their body will fit." Drivers should be particularly cautious in areas where outdoor cats are common, said Reimers. "I always tell people, especially in the winter, but all year long, if you park your car outside before you start it, bang on the hood," she said. Jersey is now staying in a foster home and is expected to be neutered, microchipped and vaccinated against rabies on Sept. 1. Sawyer's sister and her fiancé in New Jersey plan to adopt Jersey, Bettinger said — so the kitten will eventually make its way back to the state where his unexpected journey apparently began. TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ "Now we have to figure out the logistics to get him back to New Jersey the first week of September, in a much safer and more comfortable way than as a stowaway." Bettinger said. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8910b42c5335ae10499df2 With Midterms Approaching, Trump Implores Republicans: Pretend I’m on the Ballot! te 2026-08-22T03:00:04.568Z With Midterms Approaching, Trump Implores Republicans: Pretend I’m on the Ballot! President Trump was in South Carolina to stump for Darline Graham, sister of Lindsey. But his own political future was on his mind, too. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a890c022c5335ae10499d20 Postal Service Publishes Finalized Plan to Restrict Mail Ballots te 2026-08-22T02:40:02.934Z Postal Service Publishes Finalized Plan to Restrict Mail Ballots The plan complies with President Trump’s executive order to restrict mail voting, which was blocked by federal courts and is under review at the Supreme Court. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a89075b2c5335ae10499c8f Trump to honor Artemis II astronauts who traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history te 2026-08-22T02:20:11.560Z Trump to honor Artemis II astronauts who traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history President Donald Trump is set to honor four astronauts who traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history during a record-breaking journey around the moon earlier this year. Trump will award the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen during an Aug. 28 ceremony at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the agency announced. The four made history in April aboard Artemis II, the first crewed flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft and the first mission to take astronauts around the moon in more than half a century. PETER NAVARRO: TRUMP'S ARTEMIS VISION IS NOW FLYING — AND CHINA IS PAYING ATTENTION At their farthest point, the crew traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the human spaceflight distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970, according to NASA. The astronauts covered 695,081 miles during their nearly 10-day mission. Their voyage began April 1, when NASA's Space Launch System rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with 8.8 million pounds of thrust. After testing Orion's systems in space, the crew headed toward the moon and passed within 4,067 miles of the lunar surface during an April 6 flyby, NASA said. NEW ARTEMIS II VIDEO SHOWS MOMENT NAVY MEDICAL TEAM OPENED HATCH, WELCOMED ASTRONAUTS The astronauts captured more than 7,000 images along the way, including views of earthrise and earthset, lunar craters, ancient lava flows and a solar eclipse seen from Orion. NASA said the crew also reported meteoroid impact flashes on the moon's night side. Orion returned to Earth on April 10, entering the atmosphere at roughly 25,000 mph before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off California. NASA CHIEF DECLARES AMERICA 'ABSOLUTELY BACK' IN SPACE RACE, SAYS US WILL BEAT CHINA TO THE MOON NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said after the crew's return that the astronauts had accepted "significant risk" while testing the spacecraft and systems intended to carry future crews deeper into space. The medal they will receive has roots in the Apollo era. Congress authorized the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1969, declaring that America's space program relied on the "intelligence, the dedication, the bravery, and the self-sacrifice" of astronauts who flew missions into the "hostile environment of space." Under the law, the president may award the medal in the name of Congress to astronauts who distinguish themselves through exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the nation and mankind. NASA says the medal has been awarded to only a "very select group" of astronauts. Its official list includes 30 recipients, among them Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Alan Shepard and Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell. Armstrong was among six astronauts who received the medal from President Jimmy Carter on Oct. 1, 1978, according to NASA. TRUMP SWINGS FOR MOON WITH NUCLEAR REACTOR PLANS AS CHINA, RUSSIA TEAM UP IN SPACE RACE The four Artemis II astronauts would bring the number of recipients to 34. Artemis II also served as a stepping stone toward returning astronauts to the lunar surface. NASA said the crew tested Orion's life-support systems, manually piloted the spacecraft and gathered data intended to prepare for future missions. NASA plans to test commercial lunar lander operations during Artemis III in low Earth orbit in 2027 and is targeting Artemis IV for the program's first lunar landing in 2028. The agency says Artemis ultimately aims to establish an enduring human presence on the moon and lay the groundwork for sending astronauts to Mars. "The NASA leadership team was in Mission Control, alongside the flight control team, watching as the Artemis II crew crossed that historic threshold and became the explorers that ventured farthest from Earth," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said to Fox News Digital in a statement. "Certainly, the astronauts were aware and monitoring their spacecraft systems. Under President Trump’s leadership, Artemis II captivated the world, inspired a generation, and gave us the confidence to press on as America returns to the Moon to build a base and to stay. Artemis III is the next mission up in that campaign, but it will be in 2028 during Artemis IV, when NASA astronauts will once again walk on the Moon." The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8907542c5335ae10499c5b Alfalfa Sprouts Linked to Illnesses in 15 States, F.D.A. Says te 2026-08-22T02:20:04.848Z Alfalfa Sprouts Linked to Illnesses in 15 States, F.D.A. Says Officials are investigating after multiple strains of E. coli and a type of salmonella sickened dozens of people across the United States. Two people were infected with both salmonella and E. coli. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8907532c5335ae10499c52 Judge Strikes Down Trump’s 75-Country Visa Ban te 2026-08-22T02:20:03.667Z Judge Strikes Down Trump’s 75-Country Visa Ban The ruling from the Southern District of New York found that the policy went beyond Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s legal authority. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88fdfa2c5335ae1049992a Florida Democrat Senate nominee Angie Nixon insists ‘I’m not a socialist’ after joining DSA te 2026-08-22T01:40:10.850Z Florida Democrat Senate nominee Angie Nixon insists ‘I’m not a socialist’ after joining DSA Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon distanced herself from several major planks in the Democratic Socialists of America's (DSA) national program Thursday on "Meet the Press NOW," after host Kristen Welker pressed her to explain why she joined an organization that called for abolishing the office she is seeking. Nixon said she joined the DSA because it supported public housing, healthcare, helping homeless veterans and removing big money from politics, but rejected incumbent Republican Sen. Ashley Moody's characterization of her political identity. "Ashley Moody knows that I’m not a socialist," Nixon said. "I joined the DSA because I believe in them in regards to fighting for adequate public housing, as well as fighting for quality healthcare, as well as making sure that we are getting our veterans off the street, taking big money out of politics, right?" FLORIDA SOCIALIST ANGIE NIXON SAYS SHE DOESN’T ‘REALLY KNOW’ HASAN PIKER The DSA's program called for a new Constitution, abolishing the Senate, defunding the Department of War, ending sanctions on countries including Iran and establishing public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries. Nixon explicitly rejected abolishing the Senate and drafting a new constitution. She also said she did not support defunding the military, although she called for greater scrutiny of defense spending. Nixon did not directly answer Welker’s question about lifting sanctions on Iran. "I don’t believe in defunding anything. I think we need to make sure that we are scrutinizing them, and we need to make sure we’re spending money the right way," Nixon said. The Republican National Committee sought to use Nixon’s defense of her DSA membership against Democrats nationally, accusing the Senate nominee of embracing far-left positions on crime, immigration and taxes. "Socialist lunatic Angie Nixon wants to empty our prisons, open our borders, and raise your taxes to bankroll their far-left agenda," RNC spokeswoman Emma Hall said in a statement to Fox News Digital Friday. "Every word out of Nixon’s mouth is an in-kind contribution to Republicans in Florida and across the country." HAKEEM JEFFRIES REJECTS MEDICARE FOR ALL, DSA AGENDA AS RO KHANNA CALLS HEALTH PLAN 'MOST IMPORTANT PRIORITY' Welker asked Nixon whether she considered herself a capitalist after Florida Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Jolly described himself that way. "I live in a capitalistic society. I’m a small business owner. I like to make money. I don’t see what the problem is," she said. "I’m a capitalist who believes that we need some strong regulation." Nixon campaigned on Medicare for All, free child care, a national rent freeze, an eviction moratorium, a universal jobs program and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  She dismissed scrutiny of her DSA membership as a distraction from the issues facing Florida voters. Welker played video of Moody describing the general election as a fight against Nixon and her fellow socialists. Moody also discussed the race Wednesday during an appearance on Fox News’ "Hannity." "Angie Nixon, who will be my opponent in November, and her comrades want to destroy this country and everything that it is built on," Moody said. RUBIO’S GOP SUCCESSOR CLEARS KEY HURDLE TO FINISH HIS SIX-YEAR SENATE TERM Nixon advanced to face Moody after defeating former National Security Council official Alexander Vindman by nearly 12 percentage points despite being outspent roughly 16-to-1. Moody was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Marco Rubio after he became Secretary of State. The winner in November will serve the final two years of Rubio’s term. Fox News Digital reached out to Nixon, Moody and the DSA for comment, but did not immediately receive a response. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88fdfa2c5335ae10499921 Trump fires back after protester interrupts Myrtle Beach rally for Graham: 'Mom is voting for us' te 2026-08-22T01:40:10.208Z Trump fires back after protester interrupts Myrtle Beach rally for Graham: 'Mom is voting for us' President Donald Trump had a striking message for a protester who interrupted his South Carolina rally Friday night: Mom isn't going to be happy. A protester stood up and interrupted Trump at approximately 7:28 p.m., before being escorted from the Myrtle Beach Convention Center by police and convention center staff, according to the White House pool report. As the protester was still being escorted out, Trump briefly stopped his remarks and turned to the commotion. RUSSELL FRY ENDORSES EX-RIVAL DARLINE GRAHAM AFTER FAILING TO ADVANCE TO SPECIAL GOP US SENATE PRIMARY RUNOFF "That's all right. That person's going home to mom. Gonna get scolded because mom is voting for us. You know, mom is voting for us," Trump said before quickly continuing his speech. Trump was in Myrtle Beach to campaign for Darline Graham ahead of Tuesday's South Carolina Senate runoff, urging his supporters to turn out even though his own name won't be on the ballot. "If Trump isn't actually on the ballot," Trump said while discussing Republican turnout, before asking supporters to "pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot." "Just come and vote. It's so important," Trump said. "So just say that I'm on the ballot one more time. You got to say it, and you got to come out and vote." TRUMP NOTCHES ANOTHER ENDORSEMENT WIN AS BARRY MOORE CAPTURES ALABAMA GOP SENATE NOMINATION IN RUNOFF Trump said he personally encouraged Graham to run and laid out the case for sending her to Washington. "With your support, Darline will defend common sense in our nation's capital," Trump said. "She'll fight for lower taxes, bigger paychecks, no amnesty for illegal aliens. And she'll always protect your Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms." TRUMP PUSHES LINDSEY GRAHAM'S SISTER TO RUN FOR US SENATE AFTER SHE GETS APPOINTMENT TO FINISH OUT TERM Trump also said Graham would be a strong advocate for the armed forces. "But as much as anybody in this Senate and maybe more, Darline will support our military," Trump said. Graham later joined Trump onstage, thanking him for his endorsement and his friendship with her late senator brother, Lindsey. "Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for your endorsement. It has meant the world to me," Graham said. "Thank you for your support. Thank you for coming to South Carolina. This is MAGA country, right?" The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88fdf22c5335ae104998e2 Michael Polansky is training an AI model on skin that’s still alive te 2026-08-22T01:40:02.685Z Michael Polansky is training an AI model on skin that’s still alive Michael Polansky — better known publicly as Lady Gaga's partner and a former top deputy to Sean Parker — has quietly spent years building an AI-driven startup that keeps living human skin tissue alive for weeks outside the body to discover new skincare compounds, and is only now going public about i Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88f94b2c5335ae10499388 'Mutiny' Review: Jason Statham takes no prisoners in mindless but amusing brawler flick on the high seas te 2026-08-22T01:20:11.574Z 'Mutiny' Review: Jason Statham takes no prisoners in mindless but amusing brawler flick on the high seas When you see one Jason Statham movie, you've seen them all.  That's the case with "Mutiny," his latest shoot-em-up flick where he, once again, stars as a one-man army. Swap his job, swap the backstory, swap the location, swap the villain and keep everything else. It's a winning formula for him and for anyone who appreciates mindless entertainment.  Here, Statham is Cole Reed, a former British police officer who now serves as the head of security for Tibu Campallo (Ramon Tikaram), the owner of a large cargo shipping company in Bangkok and a surrogate father figure to Cole. On the cusp of selling his company, Tibu is assassinated, and Cole is framed for the murder.   ‘THE END OF OAK STREET’ REVIEW: ANNE HATHAWAY, EWAN MCGREGOR FIGHT DINOSAURS IN SURPRISINGLY FUN MOVIE Cole's search to find who's responsible leads him aboard one of those cargo ships, where he uncovers a human smuggling operation that's embarking on the high seas to do a tradeoff led by the villainous captain Markos Madsen (Danish actor Roland Møller). Seek vengeance. Save lives. Kick butt. Sounds like a plan.  'TONY' REVIEW: ANTHONY BOURDAIN'S COMING-OF-AGE STORY UNFOLDS IN CHARMING DRAMEDY Statham, 59, seems ageless because he appears to do most of his own stunts. And just like every Statham movie, there are well-choreographed fight scenes and brutal deaths of his various foes that often result in chuckles from viewers.  On a ship with a menacing European captain and his 20-plus henchmen, the only help on Cole's side is Angie Ellis (Annabelle Wallis), the third mate who was just as shocked as him to be on the same boat as a bunch of helpless migrants.  ‘ONE NIGHT ONLY’ REVIEW: MONICA BARBARO AND CALLUM TURNER CHARM IN HIGH-CONCEPT ROM-COM To that end, Statham succeeds. But at this point, he can do these kinds of movies in his sleep. He's only challenged as an actor when he's forced to step out of his own element, like in the 2015 underrated Melissa McCarthy comedy "Spy," where Statham essentially plays a hilarious version of one of his characters. "Mutiny" was directed by French filmmaker Jean-François Richet, who previously directed the 2023 Gerard Butler action flick "Plane," which, if you haven't seen, also falls in the same category of absurd but amusing.  ‘SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY’ REVIEW: TOM HOLLAND, ZENDAYA RETURN FOR ACTION-PACKED, EMOTIONAL SEQUEL CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE At the end of the day, "Mutiny" doesn't pretend to be anything than it actually is: a mindless, entertaining Jason Statham action movie. If you're bored and looking to kill time, this flick at least doesn't wear out its welcome. Nothing worth jumping for joy nor jumping overboard with this one. "Mutiny" is rated R for strong/bloody violence and language. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes. In theaters now. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88f94a2c5335ae10499376 Mavericks buy out Klay Thompson’s contract, NBA champion set to join Giannis Antetokounmpo in Miami: report te 2026-08-22T01:20:10.694Z Mavericks buy out Klay Thompson’s contract, NBA champion set to join Giannis Antetokounmpo in Miami: report The next chapter of likely future Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Klay Thompson’s career appears set to unfold in Miami, where he is expected to suit up for the Heat during the 2026-27 NBA season. The five-time NBA All-Star will reportedly sign with the Heat after clearing waivers following a contract buyout with the Dallas Mavericks, according to ESPN. Thompson, a four-time NBA champion, could ink a two-year contract worth nearly $13 million, sources told ESPN on Friday. The 36-year-old was scheduled to make $17.5 million in the final season of his contract with Dallas before the two sides agreed to part ways. The Mavs confirmed the roster move Friday. ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! After a 13-season run with the Golden State Warriors, Thompson joined the Mavericks following the 2023-24 season via a sign-and-trade deal. He spent the next two seasons in Dallas, averaging 12.9 points across 141 regular-season appearances. Thompson has long been regarded as one of the NBA’s premier 3-point shooters. DUSTY MAY SHARES HIS EXCITEMENT FOR MAVERICKS JOB AFTER JUMPING FROM COLLEGE TO PROS His expected arrival in South Florida would give Miami another proven perimeter threat as the Heat continue building around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo. Antetokounmpo, the 2019 and 2020 NBA MVP, was sent to the Heat as part of a blockbuster trade in June. Mavericks president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri praised Thompson’s impact during his time with the Mavericks. "Klay is one of the great players and competitors of his generation, and we are grateful for everything he brought to the Mavericks organization," Ujiri said in a statement. "We have tremendous respect for Klay and all that he has accomplished throughout his career, and we wish him nothing but the best moving forward," Ujiri added. Thompson was sidelined for back-to-back seasons earlier in his career while recovering from an Achilles injury. The Mavs struggled to a 26-56 record in 2025-26. Jason Kidd exited after five seasons, with the franchise describing the move as a mutual decision. The Mavericks hired Dusty May in June after he guided Michigan to the NCAA Division I men’s national championship in April. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88f6ea2c5335ae10498aa9 Japanese space tech startup Letara expands beyond satellite thrusters with $16M te 2026-08-22T01:10:02.252Z Japanese space tech startup Letara expands beyond satellite thrusters with $16M Japanese space startup Letara is betting its hybrid rocket technology can move beyond small satellite thrusters into a broader market for space, defense and security, after raising ¥2.6 billion ($16 million). Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88efe82c5335ae10498984 Log Cabin Republicans removes 'T' from LGBT advocacy, says 'radical' trans activists are eroding gay support te 2026-08-22T00:40:08.985Z Log Cabin Republicans removes 'T' from LGBT advocacy, says 'radical' trans activists are eroding gay support The country's most prominent gay conservative advocacy group is distancing itself from what it calls the "radical" transgender movement that has been at the center of a cultural firestorm in recent years. Ross Hemminger, the president of the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), announced in an op-ed published Thursday by Townhall.com that his organization is renewing its focus on prioritizing the representation of gay, lesbian and bisexual GOP voters. "Fifty years ago next year, Log Cabin Republicans was founded on a simple conviction: that gay Americans who believe in limited government, individual liberty, and equality deserve equal protection under the law and a voice inside the Republican Party," Hemminger began the op-ed.  "From the start, Log Cabin Republicans grounded its advocacy in constitutional principles — equal protection, limited government, and individual freedom." POWERFUL LGBTQ+ GROUP'S ENDORSEMENTS COULD TANK VULNERABLE DEMS OVER RADICAL YOUTH TRANS AGENDA Hemminger noted that in 2015, the group's board of directors voted to "add the 'T' under the umbrella of our mission," which is now being reversed. "At the time, we did not believe that we would find ourselves where we are today," Hemminger wrote. "The transgender movement has ceased focusing on adults at all — nearly all of their efforts and those of their aligned special interest groups focus on minors." "They push schools to teach radical gender ideology; they want biological men in women’s sports regardless of the consequences; perhaps most offensively, they support gender reassignment treatments for minors, often without the knowledge or consent of the parents, knowing full well these treatments are mostly irreversible," the op-ed added.  GAY TRUMP VOTERS SHATTER DEM 'LIE' LGBT AMERICANS VOTE BLUE, SAYS LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS CHIEF The LCR chief lamented that "gay men and women are losing public support across the country, and support for gay marriage and other once-widely accepted rights is eroding," alluding to polls showing such declines.  He suspected the root cause is that voters "weren't alive or cognizant" to the decades-long fight for gay marriage and in the court of public opinion and that "their view of the gay community is based on today’s radical transgender activists." "That is why, after significant discussion with our membership, our Board of Directors voted to refine Log Cabin Republicans’ national advocacy focus to concentrate specifically on issues of sexual orientation and conservative values — in other words, we are an LGB advocacy organization, as our founders envisioned and as our moral center calls us to be," Hemminger said. GALLUP POLL FINDS AMERICANS' SUPPORT FOR LGBTQ+ ISSUES SLIDING BACKWARD AMID CULTURAL SHIFT Hemminger stressed that membership of Log Cabin Republicans remains "open to all conservatives" and it welcomes all allies aligned with its mission. "Issues of sexual orientation — marriage, adoption, military service, nondiscrimination rooted in equal treatment, and religious liberty protections applied fairly — are grounded in constitutional clarity," Hemminger wrote. "They align directly with the Republican commitment to limited government and equal protection under the law." "When we remain focused on those principles, we win," he added. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88eb392c5335ae104988d3 Ravens' Rashod Bateman faces domestic charges for alleged attack on car carrying ex-girlfriend and their baby te 2026-08-22T00:20:09.106Z Ravens' Rashod Bateman faces domestic charges for alleged attack on car carrying ex-girlfriend and their baby Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Rashod Bateman turned himself in to police and faces three domestic violence charges in connection to a June incident in which he allegedly attacked his ex-girlfriend's car while she had their newborn on board. The details of the incident, first reported by TMZ, remain sketchy, but documents say the player entering his sixth NFL season allegedly smashed the glass of his girlfriend's car while their three-month-old child was inside. The victim, whose name was not immediately available, told police that Bateman used a blunt object to break the windshield and driver's side windows of her 2021 Mercedes-Benz. NFL PUTS 'INSPIRE CHANGE' AND 'CHOOSE LOVE' ON FIELDS BUT NOT SO AGGRESSIVE ABOUT ITS DOMESTIC ABUSE ISSUES When the glass shattered, it allegedly caused multiple small lacerations and contusions to the alleged victim’s face. The couple’s child was sitting in a baby seat in the back row. Bateman, 26, was charged with battery-family violence, reckless conduct and first-degree criminal damage to property. He turned himself in to police immediately following the incident. The incident was not public until TMZ's report on Friday. The Ravens then released a statement about their starting wide receiver. "We are aware of the situation involving Rashod and have been in direct communication with him," the statement reads. "We notified the league office and have been cooperating throughout the process. "As this is a pending legal matter, we will not have further comment." It is unclear at what point the Ravens became aware of this incident. It happened on June 3. The Ravens opened their 2026 training camp the last week of July, with the first day of practice coming on July 29. Bateman was present and has remained so since then. BRONCOS STAR SPEAKS OUT FOLLOWING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ARREST, FIRES OFF AN APOLOGY Indeed, Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson told reporters he was happy to have one of the team's top receivers "back on the field." So the question is: Did Bateman keep the arrest secret as he was with the team at the opening of camp last month, or did the club know and simply let him practice as if no legal matter was pending? Bateman in June 2025 signed a three-year, $36.75 million with Baltimore that includes $20 million in guaranteed money. Bateman originally was told to have no contact with his baby's mother. But later he asked the court to remove the no-contact order when the mother agreed. The court signed off on the request, per TMZ, though Bateman was ordered to complete a training class aimed at preventing violent contact. The NFL, by the way, has had a considerable number of domestic violence incidents, arrests and court hearings during the 2026 offseason. Bateman's legal team released a statement that reads in part, "We will let the process play out and the fact will come out at that time." FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88e8da2c5335ae10498843 Trump Accounts Get an Unlikely Endorser: Gavin Newsom te 2026-08-22T00:10:02.776Z Trump Accounts Get an Unlikely Endorser: Gavin Newsom Mr. Newsom, the governor of California, normally has harsh words for President Trump. But he called the new children’s savings accounts “one of the best things” the president has done. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88e68e2c5335ae10498808 Fauci's lawyers launch legal defense fund as federal, state investigations mount against him te 2026-08-22T00:00:14.613Z Fauci's lawyers launch legal defense fund as federal, state investigations mount against him Lawyers representing Dr. Anthony Fauci have created a legal defense fund for the infectious disease expert as investigations against him continue to mount. Fauci, who helped lead the country through the pandemic, has been accused by Republicans of misleading the public about the origins of COVID-19 and faces multiple federal and state investigations. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has called on the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute Fauci after he invoked the Fifth Amendment numerous times during a high-profile July Congressional hearing. CAN FAUCI HIDE BEHIND THE FIFTH? GAME-CHANGING BIDEN PARDON MAY NOT PROVIDE COMPLETE COVER, EXPERTS SAY The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Paul, held him in contempt of Congress after the hearing. Fauci has denied all the accusations made against him. FAUCI IN THE CONGRESSIONAL WRINGER: A TEST FOR TRUMP'S NEWLY-MINTED ATTORNEY GENERAL "The Anthony S. Fauci M.D. Legal Defense Fund was established to help cover the legal representation and associated administrative costs for Dr. Fauci," the defense fund’s website says. "Your contributions directly support these defense efforts and ensure comprehensive legal support during ongoing inquiries and proceedings." Fauci retired in 2022 after leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for nearly 40 years. He also advised seven presidents, including President Donald Trump during his first term as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. During his time navigating the country through the pandemic, he was a proponent of wearing masks, social distancing, vaccines and lockdown measures. Former President Joe Biden issued Fauci a pre-emptive pardon before he left office. FAUCI REFUSES SENATE APPEARANCE AFTER INVOKING FIFTH AMENDMENT MORE THAN 100 TIMES IN COVID PROBE "Fauci is facing an unprecedented legal ​barrage for a retired civil servant, and he deserves a robust defense against these unfounded and frivolous actions," David Schertler, a lawyer for Fauci, told Reuters. "Dr. Fauci has not ​done anything wrong, and we are prepared to fight back against this shameful harassment of an honorable man who dedicated his career to saving lives." His lawyers added that any funds remaining after all of his investigations conclude will be donated to charity. Prior to his retirement, Fauci was the highest-paid federal employee, making nearly $500,000 each year, Fox News Digital previously reported. In retirement, OpenTheBooks CEO Adam Andrzejewski estimated Fauci collects a federal pension that rivals a presidential salary. Fauci and his wife reported a combined $12.6 million net worth in 2021. FAUCI'S HHS IPHONE TURNED OVER TO SENATE INVESTIGATORS AS CONTEMPT VOTE LOOMS Fox News Digital has reached out to the legal defense fund and Paul's office for comment. On Tuesday, David Morens, a former Fauci adviser, pleaded guilty to attempting to conceal pandemic-related documents by evading public records laws. FLORIDA AG THREATENS FAUCI INVESTIGATION AFTER SENATE HEARING Florida Attorney General James ⁠Uthmeier has said he will investigate whether Fauci "personally profited off the COVID 'guidance' he issued" during the pandemic and has issued a subpoena to the 85-year-old. Louisiana and West Virginia are backing up Florida’s effort. Fox News Digital's Joe Schoffstall and Reuters contributed to this report. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88e4322c5335ae10498792 Here are 5 drivers to keep an eye on as IndyCar hits the streets of Washington for Freedom 250 Grand Prix te 2026-08-21T23:50:10.624Z Here are 5 drivers to keep an eye on as IndyCar hits the streets of Washington for Freedom 250 Grand Prix The NTT IndyCar Series is set to hit the streets of Washington, D.C., for a once-in-a-lifetime racing spectacle to celebrate the United States' 250th anniversary. There will be a lot of eyes on this race, with more than a few of them tuning into IndyCar for the first time since the Indianapolis 500, or maybe even ever. No shame if that's you (although, seriously, you're missing out), but to get you up to speed, here are five drivers you might want to keep an eye on when the race gets underway at 1 p.m. ET this Sunday on FOX. RACER STING RAY ROBB GEARS UP FOR FREEDOM 250 GRAND PRIX: 'THIS IS MORE THAN JUST AN INDYCAR EVENT' The driver of the No. 10 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing is going to come into the weekend as the man to beat, which shouldn't be a surprise considering he almost always is. The four-time series champ and 2025 Indy 500 champ is currently leading the standings by 133 points. INDYCAR STAR ALEX PALOU REFLECTS ON WHITE HOUSE, OVAL OFFICE VISIT WITH TRUMP: 'INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE' In case you were wondering, the most you can score on a single race weekend (not including the upcoming double-header weekend in Milwaukee) is 54 points. Palou makes very few mistakes, if any, and the bad news for the field going into the Freedom 250 Grand Prix is that he made one of those mistakes last weekend in Markham, Ontario. A poor qualifying meant that he started the race in 11th. Of course, he still finished in fourth. As I said, always dangerous. The Jupiter, Florida, native, who drives the No. 27 Honda for Andretti Global, is currently sitting second in the championship standings behind Palou. However, he should be licking his chops going into the weekend because this kind of race is where Kyle Kirkwood excels. Five of his six IndyCar wins have come on street circuits, and he'll want to lean on the same skillset that has helped him take two wins at Long Beach, two in Detroit and another at Arlington earlier this season. It feels like it has been a feast-or-famine season for Andretti Global. They're coming off a win for Marcus Ericsson last time out in Markham, but it was a rough weekend for Kirkwood. He qualified a disappointing 22nd and crashed out of the race before seeing the checkered flag. While he is still hunting for that first IndyCar win, David Malukas has been stellar in his first season behind the wheel of the No. 12 Chevrolet for Team Penske. PRESIDENT TRUMP REPORTEDLY WILL GO ON A LAP OF HONOR AROUND THE FREEDOM 250 GRAND PRIX STREET CIRCUIT It has been a daunting task to fill Will Power's shoes, but the 24-year-old from Chicago hasn't seemed fazed by it at all. That's why he's third in the championship, but he needs that first win. It'll come eventually; there's no doubt about it. But what better way to get it than by winning in the nation's capital while driving for motorsports legend Roger Penske? Aside from maybe getting your first win in the Indy 500, there isn't a better way. Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward is a fan favorite and one of the series' most talented and well-rounded drivers. He always seems to be in the mix whether it's an oval, a road course, or a street circuit. He's been the centerpiece of the Arrow McLaren lineup for years and is the only driver from this year's lineup who will return in 2027 when Felix Rosenqvist and Scott Dixon join the team. However, O'Ward is trailing teammate Christian Lundgaard in the standings and in race wins by a margin of 2-1. Drivers are a competitive bunch, and that can't sit well with the 27-year-old from Monterrey, Mexico. The six-time champion is in a strange spot with just a few races left in the season and in his time with Chip Ganassi Racing. The legendary Kiwi is staring down what could be his first winless season since 2004. Dixon is leaving CGR after this season — his 25th with the team — to join Arrow McLaren in '27. A final win with the team in Washington seems like a perfect way to cap off an incredible run. And it's not outside the realm of possibility. There's a reason the Dixon-CGR combination has been so successful; they're almost always in contention. Pre-race coverage of the Freedom 250 Grand Prix begins at 11:30 a.m. ET, with the race slated to get underway at 1 p.m. ET on FOX. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88e4312c5335ae1049877d Mayes declines to prosecute Hobbs for Sunshine Residential bribery accusations te 2026-08-21T23:50:09.422Z Mayes declines to prosecute Hobbs for Sunshine Residential bribery accusations Attorney General Kris Mayes speaks to reporters on June 1, 2026. (Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy/Arizona Mirror) Attorney General Kris Mayes says there’s no evidence that Gov. Katie Hobbs broke the law when her administration awarded a pay increase to a foster care provider that donated more than $400,000 to her political campaign.  Two years ago, an Arizona Republic investigation found that Sunshine Residential Homes received a nearly 60% increase in the rate it charges to house foster children. The company made hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions to Hobbs’ 2022 gubernatorial run and its CEO, Simon Kottoor, was on the Democrat’s inaugural committee. The report prompted Republican lawmakers to petition Mayes to conduct an investigation for potential bribery and has been a political thorn for Hobbs since.  But on Friday, Mayes released a report absolving Hobbs of any blame. Mayes concluded that there isn’t enough evidence to link the donations to the hike in rate increases and said she would decline to prosecute Hobbs. Doing so, she said, would only open up the state to an anti-SLAPP case, because campaign contributions are protected by the First Amendment and Republicans have frequently used the allegations against Hobbs as a political talking point. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE “After two years of investigation, consisting of multiple interviews, reviews of campaign-finance records, procurement records, bank documents, and State emails and chats, totaling over one terabyte of data, including more than 100,000 documents, the investigation has not uncovered any evidence of the necessary quid pro quo to support a bribery charge,” Mayes said, in a written statement.  Instead, Mayes called on the Arizona Legislature to pass laws to make political donations from state contractors more transparent. Mayes’ investigation also revealed another $150,000 that Sunshine Residential donated to a legal defense fund set up by Hobbs to pay for election challenges from her Republican opponent Kari Lake.   In a statement posted to the social media site X, Christian Slater, a spokesman for Hobbs, said the report confirms that Hobbs has always had the state’s best interests in mind.  “The report released today clearly states that there was no wrongdoing by the Governor or her office,” Slater wrote. “As has been publicly reported multiple times and the Attorney General’s report now confirms: Governor Hobbs was not involved in, did not direct, and did not instruct any member of her administration regarding the rate increases the Department of Child Services approved. Governor Hobbs always puts Arizona first and that’s why she’s focused on lowering costs, securing the border, and delivering results for Arizona’s families.”  Republicans, meanwhile, accused Mayes of protecting her political ally. State Sen. Warren Petersen, a Republican who is hoping to unseat Mayes in November, said her failure to charge Hobbs is proof that voters should award him the attorney general’s seat.  “After dragging her feet on the pay-to-play allegations against her Democratic pal, Kris Mayes announced her refusal to hold Governor Katie Hobbs accountable for her actions,” Petersen said, in a written statement. “Once again, Mayes has proven herself unfit to lead the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, putting politics ahead of enforcing the law.”  Republican congressman Andy Biggs, who is challenging Hobbs for the chance to lead the state for the next four years, lambasted the report as a coverup. Biggs highlighted Hobbs’ refusal to sit down with investigators as proof that she is guilty and called on voters to respond by ousting her and Mayes in the fall. “With today’s report whitewashing obvious corruption, Arizonans can see why Democrat Katie Hobbs thinks she’s above the law,” he wrote. “The best way for Arizonans to now push back against this embarrassment is clear: voting Katie Hobbs and Kris Mayes out of office in November.” The report emphasized that while Sunshine Residential held the most lucrative state contract among over a hundred providers during Hobbs’ tenure, the rate at which its contract increased was outpaced by two other providers. The Arizona Department of Child Safety pays providers rates based on the number of beds available for children on a daily basis. Sunshine Residential, which is the largest provider DCS works with, has consistently commanded high pay rates, even before Hobbs took office. In 2019, the group home provider’s pay rate was exceeded by only two other providers. By 2024, a little over a year into Hobbs’ tenure, Sunshine Residential’s pay rate jumped by 56% to the highest pay rate in Arizona at $234 per bed. Two other providers saw greater pay increases of up to 85%, but still had lower per-bed pay rates.  The bribery allegations stem from two pay rate increases made under Hobbs, one of which was awarded mid-contract and another that occurred during a contract renewal. During interviews with David Lujan, who was then the head of DCS, the mid-contract increase was justified as necessary to keep Sunshine Residential as a provider amid threats that it would instead turn to a better paying federal offer. Lujan told investigators that two providers had already shifted to federal contracts and that Sunshine Residential was particularly valuable because it was one of the few providers willing to take on siblings. Lujan said he never once received an indication from the governor’s office that he should increase the group home’s pay rates, and added that he only notified Hobbs’ office of the increase after it was approved.  But at least one DCS employee felt pressured by the donations to Hobbs’ gubernatorial campaign. Then assistant director Robert Navarro, one of two employees who advised Lujan to approve the mid-contract pay increase, told investigators that the campaign contributions “put pressure on, I think, everybody.” Navarro mentioned the donations during a meeting with Lujan before a new contract with Sunshine Residential was completed and also spoke about them in an employee chat with another employee, who characterized those discussions as nothing more than banter between friends. Ultimately, investigators concluded that the pressure Navarro talked about was self-imposed.   Lujan and employees denied ever receiving directions from Hobbs’ office to increase the pay rates for Sunshine Residential. And Hobbs herself, who declined to be interviewed, said through attorneys that she never discussed pay rates with Kottoor and was unaware of the pay increase while it was happening. Investigators posited that the pay rate hike had more to do with Sunshine Residential’s outsized leverage as the largest provider for DCS than any pay-to-play scheme.  In the end, Mayes wrote, there simply isn’t any evidence to suggest that Hobbs agreed to a bribe in exchange for a more lucrative contract.  “Certainly, the timing of Sunshine’s large political contributions, followed by Sunshine’s rate increases, including receiving the highest per-day rate, raised serious questions that  prompted this investigation,” Mayes wrote. “But in the absence of any evidence to suggest a quid pro quo, it is insufficient to establish a crime occurred.” Mayes noted that charging Hobbs with bribery would only lead to the case being thrown out of court. That’s because Arizona’s bribery laws require clear evidence that a payment was made in exchange for an explicit promise and the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have ruled that it isn’t enough to theorize that there’s a link between a donation and an action later taken by a state official.   Mayes added that prosecuting the case would likely prove difficult because there’s plenty of evidence for Hobbs and Sunshine Residential to counter with an anti-SLAPP defense. Arizona law empowers people to defend themselves against lawsuits intended to “deter, retaliate against or prevent” a person from exercising their constitutional rights, including the right to make political donations as a form of free speech. Mayes pointed out that Republican lawmakers, along with petitioning her office to open an investigation, also prompted investigations at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and with a St. Louis-based law firm with ties to President Donald Trump. On top of that, Republican critics of Hobbs have repeatedly referred to the bribery investigation in political ads in an effort to turn voters against her.  This isn’t the first time the state attorney general has been asked to look into allegations of political bribery and declined to pursue a lawsuit, Mayes pointed out. In 2020, another Arizona Republic report exposed a trend from then Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, whose administration awarded public contracts to companies friendly with Ducey and later donated to his political campaign. The attorney general’s office, at the time under Republican Mark Brnovich’s leadership,  ultimately concluded that the contracts were perfectly legal and there was no wrongdoing at play. In her report on Hobbs’ alleged bribery, Mayes said that it would be difficult to explain to a court how the case against Sunshine Residential was different from the ones that were never pursued against Ducey.  YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE. SUPPORT Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88e42b2c5335ae10498762 Drawing on His Rust Belt Roots, Vance Campaigns for Republicans te 2026-08-21T23:50:03.836Z Drawing on His Rust Belt Roots, Vance Campaigns for Republicans Vice President JD Vance traveled to his hometown, Middletown, Ohio, and spoke at a steel factory where his grandfather once worked. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88e1d92c5335ae10498722 Far-left Florida Democrat Angie Nixon claims GOP is ‘literally trying to kill’ Black Americans te 2026-08-21T23:40:09.139Z Far-left Florida Democrat Angie Nixon claims GOP is ‘literally trying to kill’ Black Americans The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday rejected Florida Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Angie Nixon's accusation that Republicans were "literally trying to kill us" and her characterization of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a "weaponized paramilitary force" designed to terrorize people. Nixon's comments came during an interview on the "QNA: Questions Need Answers" podcast earlier this month, days before she won Florida’s Democratic Senate primary. While explaining why she believed voters should send fighters to Washington, Nixon dismissed the prospect of bipartisan cooperation. "Folks often say like, ‘Oh, are you going to be able to work across the aisle with the Republicans?’ They’re not trying to work across the aisle. They’re literally trying to kill us. And they are doing it on camera," Nixon said. FLORIDA SOCIALIST ANGIE NIXON SAYS SHE DOESN’T ‘REALLY KNOW’ HASAN PIKER Nixon described what she viewed as state-sanctioned violence in Black communities before turning to immigration enforcement. "Like actually state-sanctioned violence. They’ve been doing it in the Black community. And they’re doing it even more so now with ICE," she said. "ICE is now a weaponized paramilitary force that is designed to terrorize us." Nixon used a September 2025 operation at an apartment building in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood as an example, alleging that agents zip-tied men, women and children. The operation resulted in about two dozen detentions and targeted suspected Tren de Aragua members.  DHS later rejected a viral allegation involving a toddler, saying the image came from a parody video. "Allegations that DHS law enforcement engages in ‘racial profiling’ are disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE," a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday. DEMOCRAT COMPARES ICE TO 'DOMESTIC TERRORISTS' AS 111 HOUSE DEMS DEMAND TEXAS DETENTION CENTER CLOSE DHS said immigration status, not race or ethnicity, determined who was targeted for enforcement. The department cited ICE's authority under § U.S.C. 1357 and pointed to its use-of-force policy, which included minimum-force and de-escalation standards.  The department also referred to a 2025 Supreme Court order. The decision temporarily allowed immigration operations in Southern California to resume while litigation over whether officers conducted stops without reasonable suspicion continued. DHS said Nixon’s rhetoric came as ICE personnel faced escalating attacks and threats. A spokesperson repeated figures the department had cited last month. "We have seen a highly coordinated campaign of violence against our law enforcement. Our brave law enforcement is facing a 1,300% increase in assaults, 3,300% increase in vehicular attacks, and an 8,000% increase in death threats against them. This violence must end," the spokesperson said. 5 TAKEAWAYS FROM FLORIDA SENATE PRIMARY: GOP SEN ASHLEY MOODY WILL FACE DSA'S NIXON Republican National Committee spokeswoman Emma Hall told Fox News Digital on Friday that Nixon's comments would benefit Republican candidates nationwide. "Socialist lunatic Angie Nixon wants to empty our prisons, open our borders, and raise your taxes to bankroll their far-left agenda," she said. "Every word out of Nixon’s mouth is an in-kind contribution to Republicans in Florida and across the country," Hall said. Nixon defeated former National Security Council official Alexander Vindman, a whistleblower who became a key witness in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment inquiry, by nearly 12 points despite his $16.27 million campaign war chest, compared with approximately $1 million raised by Nixon. She will face Republican Sen. Ashley Moody in November for the remainder of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s former Senate term. Fox News Digital reached out to Nixon and Moody for comment but did not immediately receive a response. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88dad12c5335ae10498618 New Jersey mother allegedly drunk when boat hit channel marker on Memorial Day, killing her son te 2026-08-21T23:10:09.756Z New Jersey mother allegedly drunk when boat hit channel marker on Memorial Day, killing her son A 59-year-old New Jersey mother was allegedly drunk at the helm when her boat slammed into a channel marker on Memorial Day, killing her 28-year-old son. Jennifer L. Pearson, 59, was charged with death by vessel, a second-degree offense; operating a vessel under the influence; reckless operation of a vessel; operating a vessel without a boating safety certificate; and failure to have a proper lookout, according to a New Jersey State Police news release. On Memorial Day at around 5:45 p.m., Pearson was boating in Barnegat Bay near the Brant Beach Yacht Club in Long Beach when she allegedly smashed her 23-foot center console into the marker, sending her son, Gunnar Pearson, 28, and his girlfriend flying into the water, according to charging documents obtained by NJ 101.5. COLLEGE STUDENT'S FATAL CANOE TRIP TAKES TURN AFTER LONE SURVIVOR IS ARRESTED MONTHS LATER Gunnar Pearson was rushed to a hospital and later died. Four others were hospitalized with minor injuries. Pearson voluntarily surrendered at the New Jersey State Police Troop C Tuckerton Station Wednesday, Aug. 19, state police said. FOLLOW US ON X According to court documents cited by NJ 101.5, Pearson's blood alcohol level registered between .09 and .12, just above the legal limit of .08. Investigators detected the smell of alcohol when she arrived to speak with them, and she told them she had consumed two alcoholic drinks earlier that afternoon. CLICK HERE FOR MORE U.S. NEWS Pearson is being held at the Ocean County Jail. GET BREAKING NEWS ALERTS According to an online obituary, Gunnar, who was described as "kind, funny, and deeply caring," had recently completed renovations on his first home in Forked River. SEND US A TIP He was also described as an avid outdoorsman who loved skiing, fishing, boating, running and hunting. GOT A TIP? "He found his greatest joy in spending time with those he loved — whether at home, on the beaches of Long Beach Island, on the ski slopes of Stratton, Vermont, or during family vacations in Maine. These moments together meant everything to him and will remain treasured by those who were fortunate enough to share them," the obituary said. UNLICENSED NYC BOAT OPERATOR ALLEGEDLY IGNORED SAFETY WARNINGS BEFORE MOTHER, BABY DIED IN CAPSIZING: FEDS Police said the fatal crash remains under investigation. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88dad12c5335ae1049860f Late-night bull run ends with a little cowboy know-how on busy California highway te 2026-08-21T23:10:09.143Z Late-night bull run ends with a little cowboy know-how on busy California highway Some calls for service require a little extra horsepower or, in this case, bull power. On Tuesday evening, San Mateo County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to assist the California Highway Patrol (CHP) after a large bull was found running loose along Highway 35. Photos released by the department captured officers attempting to corral the animal, as well as the moment a good Samaritan arrived and helped bring the wandering bull under control. According to the sheriff’s department, after hours of unsuccessfully attempts to corral the animal, deputies decided to call in someone with the right expertise. That’s where Half Moon Bay community member Samuel Ramos Palomino came in to save the day and assist authorities in moving the unyielding animal back to it’s home. GOOD SAMARITAN IN SPIDER-MAN COSTUME HELPS MAN IN WHEELCHAIR CROSS BUSY INTERSECTION IN VIRAL MOMENT Palomino, a foreman at Sea Horse Ranch with 35 years of experience working with large animals, was asleep when deputies reached out shortly after midnight. Despite having to be at work at 4 a.m., he immediately got up, prepared his truck and livestock trailer and came to help. What followed was no easy task, authorities said. ESCAPED WOLF NEUKGU RETURNED TO SOUTH KOREAN ZOO AFTER NINE-DAY SEARCH INVOLVING THERMAL IMAGING DRONES Palomino worked alongside Sheriff’s Office deputies and CHP officers as they followed the bull for several miles, making repeated attempts to lasso it. FOLLOW US ON X Eventually, the team was able to take the bull literally by the horns. MAINE MAN USES TRUCK TO RESCUE MOOSE CALF FROM CHARGING BEAR: 'I KNEW WHAT I HAD TO DO' Once the animal was secured, Samuel used his expertise to safely load it into his trailer. He then went one step further, providing a secure location for the bull until it could be returned home at daybreak. CLICK HERE FOR MORE U.S. NEWS By the time the job was done, it was about 2:30 a.m. or just 90 minutes before Palomino had to get up for work, the sheriff’s department said. GET BREAKING NEWS ALERTS The department lauded the foreman’s hands-on assistance, saying that he likely prevented a serious collision or injury on the busy highway. SEND US A TIP GOT A TIP? Coastside Patrol Bureau Capt. Allen and Half Moon Bay City Manager Chidester later met with Samuel in person to thank him for answering the call. "Samuel, thank you for answering ours," the department said. "Your skill, courage, and willingness to help made the Coastside a safer place that night." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88daca2c5335ae104985c9 Anthropic’s Opus 4.6 is a smut-machine te 2026-08-21T23:10:02.555Z Anthropic’s Opus 4.6 is a smut-machine Anthropic forbids its Claude models from generating sexually explicit content. But a series of tests conducted by TechCrunch found that it didn't take much to get past the restriction. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88d87e2c5335ae104985a5 Texas Gov Abbott asks the Justice Department to investigate 'discriminatory' Islamic washing stations te 2026-08-21T23:00:14.497Z Texas Gov Abbott asks the Justice Department to investigate 'discriminatory' Islamic washing stations Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday that he had referred "discriminatory" religious facilities at two of the state's major airports to the Justice Department over the installation of Islamic foot wash stations in its bathrooms. Last week, Abbott directed the state to conduct a review of grants to entities operating Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, for possible revocation and denial of future funding over plans to install Islamic wudu washing facilities. He previously referred both airports to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for investigation, and threatened state funding. DFW AIRPORT SCRAPS CONTROVERSIAL ISLAMIC FOOT-WASHING STATION PLAN AS TEXAS GOV ABBOTT TAKES AIM "These ablution stations single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion," Abbott said in a statement. "They are not interfaith chapels open to all. They exist to benefit the Muslim population alone. Government-owned airports cannot favor one religion over all others." Abbott called on the Justice Department to review policies at both airports, noting both facilities are subject to numerous conditions because they receive federal funding, including the requirement to comply with all laws prohibiting discrimination and protecting the rights of all Americans. ‘MUSLIM ONLY’ EVENT AT TEXAS WATER PARK CANCELED AFTER ABBOTT THREATENS TO PULL $530K IN STATE GRANTS Fox News Digital has reached out to both airports. In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Abbott said the washing facilities in IAH are furnished with "copies of the Quran, prayer rugs, prayer beads and a turbah." He noted that both airports are owned by the government. "Yet, these stations are designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion," he wrote. "It is clear that these government-owned airports have used—and continue to use—funds charged to the public to finance, maintain, advertise, and operate Muslim-only spaces on property that should be open and accessible to all citizens," Abbott added.  "Airports can no more offer Muslim-only bathroom spaces than they can maintain white-only bathrooms. Your office has the authority to investigate and put a stop to these discriminatory practices." CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS' PUSH TO MAKE MUSLIM HOLY DAYS STATE HOLIDAYS SPARKS DEBATE OVER SCHOOL NEUTRALITY The matter drew increased public attention as DFW was evaluating a proposal to add ablution washing stations in Terminal D, its international terminal. Airport officials eventually decided not to move forward with the plan. A projected filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation said the plan would have been privately funded with an estimated cost of $300,000, but an airport spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital that the figure was closer to $120,000. WATCH: HOUSTON FACES $110M HIT AS TEXAS GOV LAYS DOWN LAW ON 'SANCTUARY' POLICIES Despite DFW abandoning plans for a washing station, "it has since been discovered that two such stations are already in operation at the airport," Abbott said. At IAH, the washing station was in response to requests from passengers, Houston Mayor John Whitmire said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. He noted that the Mickey Leland International Terminal serves around 365,000 passengers annually from Emirates Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways. "The ablution room allows Muslim travelers, as well as other travelers whose religion requires ritual washing prior to prayer, to do so in this facility," Whitmire said. "The ablution room leads into a prayer room. "Prior to the development of the dedicated washing station, travelers often used restroom sinks and other public water facilities for personal washing needs, highlighting the need for a more appropriate and designated space." Whitmire said the ablution room also has interfaith chapels, like many airports, and is open to travelers of all faiths and beliefs. "Therefore, their operations do not entail any discriminatory actions," he said. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88d87d2c5335ae1049859c ADF sends letter to WNBA after controversies over treatment of Sophie Cunningham supporters te 2026-08-21T23:00:13.808Z ADF sends letter to WNBA after controversies over treatment of Sophie Cunningham supporters Alliance Defending Freedom, the law firm that recently led two successful Supreme Court challenges to uphold state laws that protect women's sports, has sent a cautionary notice to the WNBA. ADF sent a letter to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert Friday after separate incidents involving Sophie Cunningham supporters at games in Seattle and Atlanta. Suzanne Beecher, legal counsel for ADF, told Fox News Digital that free-speech protections at the federal, state and local levels may apply. Citing the possible use of public funds at WNBA facilities, Beecher said "there could even be First Amendment arguments." TEXAS AG KEN PAXTON SENDS MESSAGE TO WNBA AMID 'CONCERNS' OVER TREATMENT OF SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM SUPPORTERS "So there could be cases here," Beecher said. When asked if she believes civil liberties were infringed upon during the incidents in Atlanta and Seattle, Beecher said, "Absolutely. The fans should be able to go and be respected in voicing their viewpoints." No lawsuit has been filed. However, the organization is calling on the WNBA to establish clearer policies and train league employees and security personnel to enforce them equally. "The WNBA claims to stand for female athletes, but we’ve seen recent current events undermine that claim," Beecher said. "We have seen just in the past few weeks that there have been two separate incidents where fans have been silenced or berated when they tried to peacefully express their viewpoint." The first incident occurred during the Indiana Fever’s July 28 game against the Seattle Storm at Climate Pledge Arena. Two teenage girls sat courtside wearing XX-XY Athletics shirts and holding signs supporting Cunningham, who had recently spoken out against transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports. One sign read, "Thank you Sophie for speaking up for girls!" Seattle Storm minority owner Celeste Keaton allegedly approached the girls and used profanity while criticizing them. One of the girls was left in tears, according to her family. SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM SUPPORTERS OPEN UP ON ENCOUNTER WITH SECURITY, PRO-TRANS FANS IN LATEST WNBA CULTURE CLASH The WNBA later fined Keaton and barred her from attending the Storm’s next five home games. The Storm also apologized and said everyone who attends its games deserves to feel welcome. A similar dispute unfolded Aug. 16 during the Fever’s game against the Atlanta Dream. Kasey Thomason and her teenage daughter, Annie, wore XX-XY Athletics shirts to the game. During overtime, WNBA security personnel told them to cover the shirts or leave the arena, the family said. A third fan wearing a shirt supporting transgender rights was also told to cover it. The WNBA subsequently acknowledged that security personnel had improperly restricted the fans’ clothing. "The WNBA is aware of interactions at Sunday night’s game in Atlanta in which fans were asked by league security to cover their shirts," the league said. "This should not have happened." The Atlanta Dream said its employees were not involved. "The Atlanta Dream believes in creating a safe and inclusive environment for everyone. Unfortunately, at last night’s game, WNBA security took actions that fell short of that standard," the team said. "At no point was Dream personnel involved in the decisions made by WNBA security." The league reportedly informed the security workers that their actions were improper. Beecher called the statements an important first response but said the Atlanta incident demonstrated that the WNBA had not done enough after the confrontation in Seattle. "I think it’s absolutely a first step for the WNBA to say at least that they don’t stand behind what happened in those incidents, but the fact that after the first time they, you know, they said that they didn’t stand behind the co-owner’s berating of the teenage girls, but then again a few weeks later a similar incident occurred shows that more needs to be done," Beecher said. "The WNBA needs to clarify their policy, educate their staff and partners that they need to respect the viewpoints of people regardless of what those beliefs are that they’re, that the fans are expressing." Beecher acknowledged that the league may impose reasonable limits on how fans express themselves. She argued, however, that those restrictions must be enforced without favoring one position in the transgender-athlete debate. "You can, you can have reasonable restrictions on the manner in which things are expressed, but it needs to be equal across the viewpoints being expressed," Beecher said. "It can’t be that one, one side of the argument is silenced while the other side is amplified." The dispute comes as the WNBA considers whether to clarify its player-eligibility rules. The league’s collective bargaining agreement states that "only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA," but it does not define the term based on biological sex or gender identity. Engelbert recently told team officials that a task force of presidents and general managers would continue discussing transgender participation. She said the league’s eligibility rules are collectively bargained. Beecher said ADF also wants the league to resolve that question. "So I think another step is providing clarity to their players and their future players on who’s eligible to compete in the WNBA," Beecher said. "Is it limited to females?" Engelbert said Thursday that people were attempting to use the league to "sow divisiveness" and turn it into a "political football." She also denounced what she called "haters" targeting the league amid the debate. Her remarks came before the Fever played the Dallas Wings. Beecher said ADF would prefer to work with the WNBA to prevent future conflicts instead of immediately pursuing litigation. "The preferred path would be to have this be a stepping off stone for the WNBA to make sure that going forward they’re really respecting the rights of all fans," she said. OutKick reached out to the WNBA for a response to the letter and Beecher’s claims. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88d8762c5335ae10498575 Defense Rests Case in Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial te 2026-08-21T23:00:06.523Z Defense Rests Case in Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial The two sides focused Friday on whether Ms. Clancy was experiencing psychosis when she strangled her three young children in 2023. Closing arguments could begin on Monday. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88d8752c5335ae1049856c Pentagon Fires Editor and Publisher of Independent Military Publication te 2026-08-21T23:00:05.178Z Pentagon Fires Editor and Publisher of Independent Military Publication The firings at Stars and Stripes also claimed a Middle East correspondent. They are the latest effort by the Pentagon to diminish the news outlet’s editorial independence. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88d8722c5335ae10498562 Tucson Spotlight launches first of 5 resource hubs te 2026-08-21T23:00:02.331Z Tucson Spotlight launches first of 5 resource hubs Tucson Spotlight is rolling out our basic needs hub, the first of five resource hubs on our website, connecting Tucsonans to trusted local organizations working on housing, food access, health care, and employment support. The hub grew directly out of Tucson Spotlight's Information Ecosystem Assessment, a months-long listening effort that surveyed residents across Pima County about what information and resources they struggle to find. Basic needs — food, shelter, health care — came up again and again, especially among South Tucson and Spanish-speaking residents. Rather than just publish findings, Tucson Spotlight is building something residents can actually use: a living, bilingual directory pointing people toward organizations already doing the work, from food pantries and free clinics to shelters and job-training programs. Our Basic Needs hub is the first of five planned hubs. Immigration, Civic Participation, Infrastructure, and Education will follow, each tied to the issue areas residents flagged most often in the IEA. The complete hub will officially launch alongside a bilingual community resource and volunteer fair, where residents can meet the organizations featured in the hub, learn about volunteer opportunities, and hear directly from Tucson Spotlight about what the IEA uncovered. It's designed as a two-way exchange: the newsroom shares what it learned from the community, and the community leaves with resources and connections it can use immediately and keep using long after the event ends. You can read more about our IEA findings here and stay tuned for details about our resource fair, planned for this fall. Tucson Spotlight is a community-based newsroom that provides paid opportunities for students and rising journalists in Southern Arizona. Please consider supporting our work with a tax-deductible donation. Donate to Tucson Spotlight Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88d6212c5335ae1049850a Scene pkg Aug 21 te 2026-08-21T22:50:09.989Z Scene pkg Aug 21 Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88d3c12c5335ae1049848f Nvidia partners with data center developer Cloverleaf te 2026-08-21T22:40:01.791Z Nvidia partners with data center developer Cloverleaf Nvidia continues to pour money into data center development — just as AI data centers bring lots of money into Nvidia. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88d1722c5335ae1049845c Pentagon fires longtime publisher, editor, reporter from military newspaper Stars and Stripes te 2026-08-21T22:30:10.864Z Pentagon fires longtime publisher, editor, reporter from military newspaper Stars and Stripes The Pentagon issued the firings of top brass at the military newspaper Stars and Stripes as well as one of its reporters Friday over alleged insubordination. Stars and Stripes' longtime publisher Max Lederer, its editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and Middle East reporter Lara Korte were given their dismissal notices, Fox News Digital confirmed. The firings, first reported by CBS News, stem from Slavin and Korte's unauthorized participation in a "CBS Sunday Morning" segment that aired last month about the Pentagon's efforts to overhaul the paper, and Lederer's refusal to fire them at the direction of Pentagon leadership, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital. "According to the notice, I am being fired for stating in a CBS interview that censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line. The Pentagon's public affairs office has charged me with insubordination," Slavin said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "I stand by the principle that Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent, as required by law and by the department's own policies." PENTAGON OFFICIALS MULLING THE FIRING OF MILITARY NEWSPAPER STARS AND STRIPES PUBLISHER Slavin was appointed editor-in-chief of Stars in Stripes in September 2025. He joined the paper in 2005 as a reporter in Japan and later an embed reporter with U.S. Forces in Iraq, his work eventually taking him across the globe, according to the paper's report about the firings. Korte, who joined the paper in 2024, took to social media, posting on X, "Today, I was informed that the Department of Defense is firing me for insubordination after I told a CBS reporter that I work for Stars and Stripes – not the Pentagon, not any administration, and not any policy maker." PENTAGON VOWS TO REFORM MILITARY NEWSPAPER STARS AND STRIPES, REMOVE 'WOKE DISTRACTIONS' "I consider it a great privilege to live alongside members of the military and share their stories. It’s a shame for the institution and service members, who swore to defend the Constitution and deserve the right to a free and independent press," Korte wrote. "I’m proud of the work my colleagues and I do at Stars and Stripes, especially the last six months covering the protracted conflict in Iran. Military families and service members have trusted us to share their experience with the world and I don’t take that lightly." Lederer, an Army veteran who joined Stars and Stripes in 1992 and has served as its publisher for 19 years, previously announced to staff his intention was to retire at the end of September due to "fundamental" differences he had with Pentagon leadership on the direction of the paper. "I have thought a great deal about the right time to step aside, and I have concluded that this is it," Lederer wrote, according to a Stars and Stripes report on his retirement. "I leave with real pride in what we have accomplished together and with complete confidence in what you will accomplish next." The fired staffers were granted five days to appeal their dismissals, Fox News Digital has learned. WASHINGTON POST OPINION EDITOR TO EXIT PAPER AFTER JUST ONE YEAR, STAFF COMPLETELY 'BLINDSIDED' When asked for comment, a Pentagon spokesman cited an open letter to stakeholders penned by Military Deputy to the Publisher Captain William Urban, a portion of which was shared on X by Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. "We may never be able to have the same impact for our service members digitally that our paper had during World War II in a vastly different media environment, but I also believe that we can do better—that we must do better for our most important constituency, the men and women who make up the U.S. Armed Forces," Urban wrote. "My vision for the future of Stars and Stripes is simple: More eyeballs on our content and more impact on our service members while maintaining the highest standard of professional journalism with the credibility that comes with editorial independence." A spokesperson for Stars and Stripes cited its own report on the firings and declined to comment further. Neither Lederer nor Korte responded to Fox News Digital's requests for comment. The Pentagon kicked off 2026 by announcing its overhaul of the long-running newspaper. "The Department of War is returning Stars & Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters," Parnell posted on X in January. "We are bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century. We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members." Parnell continued, "Stars & Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters. It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints. Stars & Stripes has a proud legacy of reporting news that’s important to our service members. The Department of War is committed to ensuring the outlet continues to reflect that proud legacy." The Pentagon previously fired the Stars and Stripes ombudsman in April after being an outspoken critic of the Trump administration's oversight of the paper. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88cf1b2c5335ae104983f5 ‘All hands on deck’ for immigration gutted fentanyl investigations, report says te 2026-08-21T22:20:11.840Z ‘All hands on deck’ for immigration gutted fentanyl investigations, report says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Washington, D.C., pictured in Feb. 3, 2026. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — Fentanyl seizures decreased by 39% during the first year of the second Trump administration after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shifted the Department of Homeland Security’s criminal investigations arm to conducting immigration enforcement, according to a report government investigators published Friday.  Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a subagency of DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reported an “all hands-on deck” environment toward immigration enforcement began in January 2025, according to the DHS Office of Inspector General report. “With ICE dedicating more staff hours to immigration investigations, staffing hours for fentanyl investigations declined,” the report said. The report found that the hours dedicated to fentanyl investigations for fiscal 2025 declined by more than 250,000 hours, or 31%, compared to fiscal 2024. “At the same time, immigration enforcement saw the largest increase across all investigative categories, rising more than 1.7 million hours (over 800 percent),” according to the report. Inspectors interviewed more than 100 agents from 11 HSI field offices for the report. At one HSI office, approximately 99% of work was dedicated to immigration, leaving almost no capacity for fentanyl investigations, the watchdog found. A drug investigation team of seven agents was reduced to about three and the rest of the personnel was reassigned to work on immigration cases, according to the report.   Fentanyl is a highly addictive synthetic opioid that is the main driver of overdose deaths in the United States. HSI plays a key role in countering fentanyl smuggling in the U.S. by targeting routes, laboratories and collaborating with law enforcement to investigate smuggling operations.     ICE agrees The inspector general recommended that HSI review staffing levels “to ensure an appropriate level of coverage commensurate with the relative priority of fentanyl investigations.” Inspector general reports are presented to the affected agency for comment ahead of publication. ICE agreed with the recommendations in the DHS OIG report. “Homeland Security Investigations will review staffing levels, and determine and implement next steps, as needed, to ensure an appropriate level of coverage commensurate with the relative priority of fentanyl investigations,” ICE’s comments in the report read. ICE estimated that recommendation would be completed by June 2027. The report also found that the technology HSI agents and analysts used had limitations during fentanyl investigations and their missions were “hindered by delays in agents obtaining funds to purchase information and evidence (i.e., drugs) during an investigation; a lack of independent authority to investigate fentanyl-related offenses; and low, inconsistent referral of fentanyl cases from U.S. Customs and Border Protection to HSI.” Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88cf112c5335ae104983c8 How AI accounting startup Rillet raised $100M and became a unicorn in 48-hours te 2026-08-21T22:20:01.934Z How AI accounting startup Rillet raised $100M and became a unicorn in 48-hours Rillet CEO Nicholas Koop shared growth numbers at a board meeting and set off a fundraising frenzy from Iconiq, Sequoia and others. Without even trying. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88ccc22c5335ae1049839a Iryna Zarutska's family files wrongful death lawsuit alleging no security guard was on train te 2026-08-21T22:10:10.760Z Iryna Zarutska's family files wrongful death lawsuit alleging no security guard was on train The family of Iryna Zarutska is suing the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, and its private transit security contractor one year after her murder shocked the nation. The suit alleges "systemic failures" left the city's light-rail system dangerously vulnerable. "This case arises from the preventable death of Iryna Zarutska," states the wrongful-death complaint filed against the City of Charlotte and Professional Police Services Inc., doing business as Professional Security Services, or PSS. The allegations have not been adjudicated. "What it shows is the systemic failures that have been within the CATS system for years that the city has been aware of," Lauren Newton, an attorney representing Zarutska's family and estate, previously told WBTV. CHARLOTTE TRAIN STABBING SUSPECT DODGES POTENTIAL DEATH PENALTY FOR NOW AFTER HE'S RULED INCOMPETENT The lawsuit alleges no security guard was aboard the Lynx Blue Line train, when Zarutska was fatally stabbed on Aug. 22, 2025, and accuses PSS of failing to adequately staff and deploy armed and unarmed personnel. Charlotte's amended contract with PSS provided funding for 219 security personnel for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, according to the complaint, which alleges PSS had hired 183 at the time of Zarutska's killing. The lawsuit further alleges PSS had only 11 armed guards despite the contract providing for up to 39 armed personnel. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LAUNCHES FEDERAL INVESTIGATION INTO ATLANTA'S MARTA SYSTEM AFTER FATAL TRAIN STABBING "They weren’t fully staffed," Newton told WBTV. "If there had been a security guard on that train, Iryna Zarutska would be here." Her assertion that a guard would have prevented Zarutska's death has not been established in court. The complaint also takes aim at fare enforcement, alleging Zarutska's accused killer, Decarlos Brown Jr., rode CATS transportation without paying before the attack. It alleges there were no physical barriers preventing non-ticketed riders from accessing the light rail. "There’s been literally no fare enforcement and those things, at a basic level, are what’s necessary for safety. And there’s been none of that," Newton told WBTV. MAN FACING FEDERAL CHARGES AFTER ATLANTA TRAIN PASSENGER STABBED ABOUT 20 TIMES, FBI INVESTIGATING The lawsuit alleges Charlotte and PSS knew or should have known about the Blue Line and its stops had repeatedly been the site of criminal activity before Zarutska's death. "Violent crime was absolutely foreseeable," Newton told WBTV. The estate brings claims including wrongful death based on allegedly negligent and inadequate security and gross negligence. It seeks damages exceeding $25,000 and punitive damages against PSS, but not against Charlotte. WBTV previously reported that Charlotte said it does not comment on active litigation and that PSS had not responded to its request for comment. "The family doesn’t want this to happen to anyone else’s loved one," Newton previously told WBTV. Fox News Digital separately reached out to Charlotte, PSS and Newton for comment but did not receive immediate responses. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88ccbd2c5335ae10498377 Court Slashes Award Alex Jones Was Ordered to Pay Sandy Hook Parents te 2026-08-21T22:10:05.188Z Court Slashes Award Alex Jones Was Ordered to Pay Sandy Hook Parents An appeals court reduced the award to the parents of one victim to $6 million from $49 million, citing a Texas damages cap. The conspiracy theorist owes over $1 billion in other cases. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88ca6d2c5335ae1049833e ESPN confirms LSU-Ole Miss as College Gameday's week three destination amid speculation te 2026-08-21T22:00:13.186Z ESPN confirms LSU-Ole Miss as College Gameday's week three destination amid speculation In just a little over a week, college football will return to campuses and TV screens across the country. In a sport littered with traditions, perhaps one of the most beloved is the ESPN original program College Gameday, which will return for its 40th season this fall. While many fans have been speculating where the first few weeks of the season will take the Gameday crew, the network just confirmed the program will make its way to Oxford for what is sure to be the most anticipated matchup of the season. WHAT DOES A REALISTICALLY SUCCESSFUL FIRST YEAR LOOK LIKE FOR HEAD COACH LANE KIFFIN AT LSU? For the uninitiated, Ole Miss and LSU have a longstanding rivalry that dates back to 1894, and the annual meeting even has its own name, "The Magnolia Bowl." However, this year's version of the Magnolia Bowl has a little added spice to it, as former Rebels coach Lane Kiffin makes his return to Vaught Hemingway Stadium for the first time since spurning Ole Miss for neighboring LSU. Anyone who followed the Kiffin Saga last fall knows how messy that divorce got towards the end, and Kiffin even did his part in stoking the flames well after changing addresses in late November of last year. OLE MISS QB TRINIDAD CHAMBLISS PUBLICLY DISAGREES WITH LANE KIFFIN'S CLAIMS ABOUT RACISM IN OXFORD From the awkward Oxford Airport incidents to his Vanity Fair comments, Kiffin has become public enemy number one in Mississippi, and his week three showdown against the team he helped build into a College Football Playoff contender will be must-see television. For those who are opting to go to the game, the tickets will cost you a pretty penny, as available seats on the low end are starting in the $600 range on most national ticket sale sites. With all the pomp and circumstance attached to this already bitter rivalry, it's no shock College GameDay decided to be on hand for the matchup, so its confirming it was little more than a formality. Current Ole Miss coach Pete Golding has assured everyone throughout the offseason that there is no bad blood between he and his former boss, but his words will absolutely fall on deaf ears to any Rebels supporter leading up to the Sept. 19 showdown. LSU sits at 11th in the preseason AP Poll while Ole Miss is ranked ninth, meaning this game has more than just regional bragging rights on the line. Despite the reported $40 million roster for LSU, the hometown Rebels are currently 2.5-point favorites as it stands. Regardless, this one should be an absolute treat for any college football fan, and the eyes of an entire country will surely be fixed on Oxford, Mississippi, just four weeks from tomorrow. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c8142c5335ae10497ed6 Vance unloads on El-Sayed over Sharia remarks: ‘That’s not my grandpa’s Democratic Party’ te 2026-08-21T21:50:12.087Z Vance unloads on El-Sayed over Sharia remarks: ‘That’s not my grandpa’s Democratic Party’ Vice President JD Vance put Abdul El-Sayed at the center of his attack on the modern Democratic Party, pointing to the Michigan Senate nominee’s past remarks linking criticism of Sharia law to White supremacy as evidence that the party has abandoned its working-class roots. Vance delivered the remarks Friday at the Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works steel plant in his Ohio hometown as neighboring Michigan gears up for one of the midterms’ most competitive Senate races. El-Sayed is facing Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in a contest that could help determine control of the Senate. Vance spoke about his late grandfather, who worked as a welder for 40 years and voted Democrat because he believed it was "the party of union men." But Vance argued the Democratic Party has strayed from its working-class identity. "This is the party, the Democrat party of graduate students, rather than the union and nonunion workers who make this facility run," Vance said. "It's sometimes actually hard to understand what are these modern Democrats actually stand for? But look what they say. Pay close attention, and they'll leave these little hints of what they actually care about." DEMOCRATS' CIVIL WAR HEADS TO MICHIGAN WHERE PROGRESSIVES FACE BIGGEST TEST YET IN HIGH-STAKES SENATE SHOWDOWN Vance then turned his attention toward El-Sayed, the son of Muslim Egyptian immigrants. "He once argued, not too long ago, that criticisms of Sharia law were rooted in white supremacy," Vance said. "I'd love to go back in time and tell my papa that there is a man who claims to stand for working people who says not only should we have Sharia law but if you criticize it you're a white supremacist. That's not my grandpa's Democratic party my friend." Vance was referring to a speech El-Sayed gave at the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) 2022 annual banquet in Oklahoma, where he was the keynote speaker. El-Sayed criticized a 2010 ballot measure known as State Question 755, which sought to amend the state constitution to ban courts from considering Sharia law in their decisions. The measure was approved by 70% of voters but was ultimately blocked by federal courts. "The same exact forces that drove Native peoples from their land two centuries ago, destroyed Black Wall Street a century ago, bombed a building decades ago, and tried to ban Sharia law not a decade ago, those forces are alive and well today," El-Sayed said. EL-SAYED'S AGENDA PUTS ‘PERMANENTLY’ CHANGED AMERICA ON THE LINE IN MICHIGAN SENATE RACE, GOP FIREBRAND WARNS "The reason I wanted to go all the way back to the 1830s is because you can’t understand a Shariah ban without understanding the Trail of Tears," El-Sayed continued. "You can’t understand the efforts to uproot Muslim Americans without understanding the Tulsa massacre. You cannot understand the challenges we face today without understanding white supremacy." El-Sayed’s remarks at the CAIR banquet are among several statements that have drawn criticism from conservatives and Republicans, who accuse the Senate candidate of viewing politics through the lens of race and religion. Other remarks generating criticism include El-Sayed accusing Israel of committing "genocide" and describing the Jewish state as an "apartheid, while prompting concerns from members of the Jewish community. MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE CONFRONTED REPEATEDLY OVER ISRAEL’S RIGHT TO EXIST, DEFUNDING THE POLICE SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER However, following his primary victory, El-Sayed shared, "my commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own kids. We have a responsibility to take on antisemitism in all of its forms, wherever we see it." Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c8132c5335ae10497ec8 New exhibit explores life of culinary pioneer te 2026-08-21T21:50:11.097Z New exhibit explores life of culinary pioneer A new exhibit at the Arizona Science Center, open through Sept. 20, explores the life and legacy of cultural icon and culinary pioneer Julia Child (submitted photo). The traveling exhibition “Julia Child: A Recipe for Life,” created and toured by Flying Fish, will remain at the Arizona Science Center through Sept. 20. The exhibition explores the key ingredients of Julia Child’s personal journey that became part of America’s culinary revolution through a series of immersive experiences. Child’s insatiable curiosity and tenacious spirit drove her to endlessly try, test and teach how to make delicious food. Learning to cook empowered Child, who in turn empowered others, profoundly transforming American cuisine and food culture in the process. “Julia Child approached cooking much like a scientist approaches research, relying on scientific precision to make recipes reliable for a broad audience,” said Tammy Stewart, Hazel A. Hare president and CEO of the Arizona Science Center. “Her passion and curiosity defined an era of cooking, and we’re proud to tell her story while highlighting her scientific contributions.” Pivotal, inspiring moments in the icon’s life are highlighted alongside the supportive network of family and friends who contributed to her career, offering a comprehensive view beyond her renowned status as a television personality and author. Guests will experience interactive spaces such as The French Chef television studio, where they can operate a vintage video camera, mix “ingredients,” and feel like part of the show. Photographs by Child’s husband, Paul, are also included, along with her personal correspondence and favorite kitchen tools. “Julia Child: A Recipe for Life” is included with admission to Arizona Science Center, located at 600 E. Washington St. Children under age 3 always receive free entry. For more information and to purchase tickets, call 602-716-2000 or visit www.azscience.org. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c8122c5335ae10497ebf Weekend Freeway Travel Advisory – Aug. 21-24 te 2026-08-21T21:50:10.437Z Weekend Freeway Travel Advisory – Aug. 21-24 The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) announced that closures or lane restrictions are scheduled along several Phoenix-area freeways this weekend, Aug. 21-24. Drivers should allow extra travel time and use detour routes as needed for these improvement project restrictions: Eastbound Loop 101 (Agua Fria Freeway) closed between 51st Avenue and Interstate 17 in the Northwest Valley from 10 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday (Aug. 24) for widening project. Eastbound Loop 101 on-ramps at 75th, 67th and 59th avenues closed. The eastbound Loop 101 “Texas U-Turn” on-ramp near Union Hills Drive also closed. Detours: Consider exiting ahead of the closure and using eastbound Bell Road or Union Hills Drive to travel beyond the closure. Southbound State Route 51 narrowed to two lanes between Bethany Home and Indian School roads from 9 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday (Aug. 24) for pavement improvement project. Southbound SR 51 on-ramp at Highland Avenue and off-ramp at Indian School Road closed. Allow extra travel time. Detours: Consider using southbound Interstate 17 as an alternate freeway route to downtown Phoenix. Reminder: Northbound SR 51 is currently narrowed to two left lanes around-the-clock near Camelback Road for pavement replacement work. Consider using northbound I-17. Northbound Loop 101 (Price Freeway) ramp to westbound Loop 202 (Red Mountain Freeway) in the Tempe/Mesa area closed from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday (Aug. 24) for pavement improvement project. Detours: Consider exiting ahead of the ramp closure and using alternate routes, including westbound McKellips Road to southbound McClintock Drive, to connect with westbound Loop 202. Click on the Weekend Travel Advisory map graphic or visit the ADOT website for a complete listing of restrictions for this weekend. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c8112c5335ae10497eb3 Arizona to bear the brunt of Colorado River cuts for two years as long-term talks continue te 2026-08-21T21:50:09.442Z Arizona to bear the brunt of Colorado River cuts for two years as long-term talks continue The Central Arizona Project canal runs past homes in Peoria on June 8, 2023. The project carries diverted Colorado River water through a 336-mile long system to help serve 80 percent of the population of Arizona. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) Arizona and the other Lower Basin states will bear the brunt of cuts to Colorado River water over the next two years, while they continue to negotiate a longer-term agreement with the Upper Basin, the federal government announced Friday morning. But for now, Arizona will avoid the massive cuts to the Central Arizona Project, a series of canals that supplies Colorado River water to the metropolitan Phoenix and Tucson areas, that the federal government proposed earlier this year.  GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE The Lower Basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada — will collectively reduce their usage by 1.25 million acre-feet in both 2027 and 2028, more than twice the largest reductions required under the current guidelines that expire at the end of the year.  The Lower Basin states have also committed to conserving an additional 700,000 acre-feet of water through 2028.  An acre-foot of water is enough to cover an acre of land to a depth of one foot, or about 325,851 gallons. That’s enough to provide three homes in Arizona a year of water, on average.  The Lower Basin states praised the federal government for releasing a two-year plan that would give those that rely on the river more stability and for allowing them to implement their own plan for dealing with the cuts. That plan would still put the biggest burden on Arizona to cut 760,000 acre-feet per year, with annual reductions of 440,000 and 50,000 acre-feet to California and Nevada, respectively.  But the Lower Basin states also insisted that, over the coming decade, the Upper Basin states —  Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — would have to offer up some mandatory cuts of their own.  “California, Arizona, and Nevada have shown that states can compromise, make difficult decisions, and reduce water use when the river demands it,” JB Hamby, California’s Colorado River Commissioner, said in a statement. “But three states cannot carry the responsibility of all seven. California is prepared to discuss greater flexibility for the Upper Basin than the Colorado River Compact otherwise affords. That flexibility must be matched by robust action from Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico to bring demand in line with what the river can supply and maintain sustainable deliveries to the Lower Basin and Mexico.” The Colorado River is a vital source of drinking water for 40 million people in the seven states, Mexico and for 30 Native American tribes, and it provides water for agriculture and hydroelectricity. Amid a 25-year megadrought, the river’s flows have decreased by more than 20% since 2000.  The cuts and conservation efforts in the Lower Basin are aimed at stabilizing water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the system’s two key reservoirs, whose water levels fell last month to their lowest point since 1957.  In an Aug. 19 PBS special on the Colorado River, Brad Udall, a water and climate scientist at Colorado State University, described both reservoirs as being just above deadpool, the point at which water drops too low to flow past a dam by gravity.  Reaching deadpool would turn those reservoirs into nothing more than concrete basins where water evaporates, he said.  The seven basin states have been attempting to negotiate an updated water agreement for about three years, but blew past several deadlines as the Upper Basin states have refused to agree to mandatory cuts to their water usage during dry years, which the Lower Basin states have been subject to for years.  Becky Mitchell, Colorado’s water commissioner, has been firm that her state already deals with mandatory cuts, they’re just from Mother Nature, not the U.S. government. The Colorado River is fed by melting snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, which is at a record low this year.  The Lower Basin states have been equally as insistent, after decades of decreasing their water use, that the Upper Basin states must agree to government-mandated cuts of at least a small portion of its water in dry years.  “The actions in the Lower Basin in recent decades to protect the system have demonstrated how much we can accomplish when we all join together as part of the solution,” Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said in a statement.  Buschatzke and Hamby both promised to continue to push for the Upper Basin states to do more.  With the plan for 2027-2028 in place alongside a flexible framework from the federal government to facilitate further negotiations among the states beyond that “we can focus on a longer-term, equitable, basin-wide outcome that includes shared sacrifices along with our Upper Basin partners in an effort to avoid protracted litigation,” Buschatzke said.  Any litigation surrounding the river would likely take years and ultimately end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.  In March, Arizona retained the high-powered law firm Sullivan & Cromwell to represent the state in possible litigation among the Colorado River Basin states and the federal government.  “These decisions provide a water management strategy for Basin stakeholders to respond to the prolonged drought by incorporating flexible tools and voluntary actions while leaving room for consensus agreements,” Andrea Travnik, assistant secretary for water and science at the U.S. Department of Interior, said in a statement. “The Department and Reclamation will continue to work with all Basin stakeholders to identify areas to maximize efforts throughout the Basin to modernize infrastructure, develop conservation programs, and identify innovative approaches to deliver water under changing conditions”. YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE. SUPPORT Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c5b82c5335ae10497e62 Meghan Markle’s acting return could spark fresh problems with Prince William, Kate Middleton: expert te 2026-08-21T21:40:08.505Z Meghan Markle’s acting return could spark fresh problems with Prince William, Kate Middleton: expert Meghan Markle is eyeing a return to acting. Royal correspondent Bronte Coy told BBC Radio Four’s "Today" Friday that the acting opportunity was "significant" and that Markle was "very excited about it." Markle is in talks to join Guy Ritchie's "The Gentlemen," according to The Hollywood Reporter. The part would be for the yet-to-be-announced third season of the British action-comedy series. Fox News Digital reached out to Archewell for comment. MEGHAN MARKLE'S FAILED MARTHA STEWART DREAMS MOCKED BY COMEDIAN: 'SHE WAS SLINGING JAM' After years spent building a new identity outside the royal family, experts argued a return to acting could give the Duchess of Sussex something her post-royal ventures have struggled to deliver: a chance to redefine herself. "[Markle] needs to find an extraordinary script the way Demi Moore did with ‘Substance’ and do something that shocks people and gets away from the princess arc," Dan Wakeford, founder of Celebrity Intelligence, previously told Fox News Digital. "She needs to go back to what she loves and what made her famous in the first place." The potential return to acting follows a string of post-royal ventures for Markle, but not all have delivered the momentum she may have hoped to build. After stepping back from royal duties in 2020, the duchess pursued a range of projects spanning streaming, podcasting, lifestyle ventures and philanthropy. "‘With Love, Meghan’ became a punchline when it really needed to be a launch pad," Wakeford noted. "And when the show was mocked, it poisoned As Ever because the credibility was gone." GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE "The problem is that Meghan and Harry believed the big Netflix deal and Spotify check meant they had leverage when, in actuality, the deal and the check were the leverage." A return to acting could mark a back-to-basics approach for Meghan after years of experimenting with different ventures in and outside Hollywood. "Acting is her thing, what she knows best and enjoys," Helena Chard, British broadcaster and photographer, told Fox News Digital. "Let’s hope it is a good production." LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS "Meghan, ever resourceful, has found a way back both to acting, which she loves, and a lifestyle which complements Harry and the children," royal broadcaster Ian Pelham Turner told Fox News Digital. "I personally feel they will create a new life for themselves and try to heal the wounds over the next two to three years and become an asset rather than a drama for the royal family." However, the career move that could help Markle move beyond the royal narrative might simultaneously create another one. Turner warned that renewed attention around Meghan’s acting career and the couple’s charitable efforts could "put William and Kate into a media shade which will not go down well with them and, in reality, increase the difficulties with the warring brothers."  Royal experts have told Fox News Digital that William and Harry have remained estranged since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back as senior working royals in 2020 and relocated to California. Harry and Meghan have maintained that relentless tabloid scrutiny and what they describe as a lack of support from the palace drove their decision to leave royal life. Since stepping away from royal life, Harry and Meghan have publicly aired their grievances in high-profile interviews and documentaries. Harry's 2023 memoir, "Spare," further deepened the fallout within the royal family. PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE Chard told Fox News Digital, "It has been toe-curling watching Meghan put herself on a pedestal on occasion when she lacks the skills or merit. It’s time for Meghan, along with Harry, to put a line in the sand. Keep busy, work hard, earn money and stop undermining the monarchy." The acting opportunity comes as the Sussexes prepare for a major shift in their family life. Prince Harry and Markle are preparing to move back to the U.K., with their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, expected to start school in Britain in September. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c5b72c5335ae10497e59 Former acting US Attorney Andrew Haden found dead in San Diego federal building: police te 2026-08-21T21:40:07.792Z Former acting US Attorney Andrew Haden found dead in San Diego federal building: police A former twice-acting U.S. attorney was found dead this week in a downtown San Diego federal building. Andrew Haden, 48, a California native who headed the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California, was found deceased Wednesday in the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building, which houses the prosecutor's office. Police officers responded to the scene and found Haden. He was reported missing before he was found. "Out of an abundance of caution, SDPD investigators responded to the scene, and no foul play is suspected," the San Diego Police Department told Fox News Digital. TRUMP 'DRUG CZAR' WARNS OF DEADLY 'RHINO TRANQUILIZER' KILLING AMERICANS AS CARTEL CRACKDOWN ESCALATES "This is one of the darkest days in our office’s history, but there was nothing dark about Andrew Haden’s life," Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Adam Gordon said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "He was a beacon of light—full of laughter, friendship, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to serving our community. We will honor his life and legacy by carrying his light forward, today and always," he added. APPEALS COURT RULES TRUMP ADMIN UNLAWFULLY APPOINTED NEVADA'S TOP FEDERAL PROSECUTOR Haden first joined the U.S. attorney's office in 2010 and worked at the San Diego office for 16 years. He served as acting U.S. attorney for the office after being selected to fill vacancies in 2023 and 2025. He ran the office after he was selected by President Donald Trump following the firing of U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath, a Biden appointee. Scott C. Carr, executive director of the San Diego County Bar Association, said he was "devastated" to learn of Haden's death. He recalled talking to Haden during the most recently government shutdown and the impact it was having on employees in his office and "how we was working to support his team any way that he could." "Andrew was always friendly with a kind word to say, which makes news of his passing all the more difficult," Carr wrote. "My thoughts are with his family and his colleagues at the Southern District of California. Our legal community lost a good one." Haden, a Navy veteran with two overseas deployments, received his law degree from the University of San Diego. Defense attorney Jeremy Warren, who locked horns with Haden in previous courtroom battles, called Haden's death "a huge blow to the entire federal community in San Diego." Warren noted that the face that "we remained friends throughout is a testament to the type of guy he was." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c3662c5335ae10497dfb Ms Rachel speaks out on Black hanging cases as Raleigh death is declared suicide te 2026-08-21T21:30:14.780Z Ms Rachel speaks out on Black hanging cases as Raleigh death is declared suicide Children's YouTuber Ms. Rachel said Tuesday Black people "don't hang themselves from trees" days after Raleigh police concluded that a 32-year-old Black man found hanging from a tree in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, died by suicide. She posted a short video on social media telling her followers, "Please listen to the Black community. Black people don’t hang themselves from trees. There’s been at least seven Black people found hanging from trees." Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Accurso, has increasingly used her children's entertainment platform to advocate for progressive causes.  YOUTUBE STAR MS RACHEL DECLARES 'I AM POLITICAL' IN NEW MISSION TO SHUT DOWN ICE FACILITY Accurso didn’t mention a specific incident, but the video was posted on the heels of the tragedy in downtown Raleigh.  Raleigh Police Chief Rico Boyce explained during a press conference on Monday that a young man with a history of mental health issues was captured on video walking toward the tree carrying an electrical cord, and that nobody else was in the area.  "Based upon the evidence collected and reviewed to date, investigators have found no evidence indicating that another person caused or contributed to the young man’s death, and no evidence of a criminal act has been identified. Our investigation confirms that this is a suicide," Boyce said. Boyce also said the young man’s mother said he "struggled with mental health issues in his past" and many social media posts about the incident are inaccurate.  If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. Ms. Rachel did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. ANTI-ISRAEL CELEBRITIES RACHEL ZEGLER AND MS RACHEL NAMED AMONG GLAMOUR'S 'WOMEN OF THE YEAR' While the United States has a dark history of lynching Black people in the 19th and 20th centuries, there is no evidence that foul play is suspected in the Raleigh case. Several similar incidents have been ruled suicide in 2026, although questions often linger. The Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet ruled on the recent death of 29-year-old Tasia Fortune.  Ms. Rachel captioned her video by writing, "Just in 2026. Also, what the press did to Dr. Jason Arday. My heart is with the Black community. Please be an ally. You don’t have to be perfect. But you need to listen, uplift, speak out and show up."  Jason Arday, who was found dead last week, is the ex-Cambridge professor who sparked an international controversy over plagiarism allegations. His sudden death came as he faced significant backlash amid an investigation into his academic qualifications and honorary appointments over plagiarism accusations.  The London Metropolitan Police have said that Arday’s death is not believed to be suspicious.  EX-CAMBRIDGE PROFESSOR FOUND DEAD AFTER PLAGIARISM SCANDAL LED TO ABRUPT RESIGNATION Accurso is no stranger to polarizing posts on social media. Last month, she endorsed a dozen Democratic candidates, including former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., and Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, ahead of major primary elections.  Days before that, the children’s entertainer suggested that race was a factor in the investigation into Mississippi teenager Nolan Wells’ mysterious death. Accurso has also come under scrutiny over the last few years for her outspoken criticism of Israel and support for Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war. In January, she faced backlash after appearing to like an antisemitic comment under one of her Instagram posts that read, "Free America from the Jews." She later posted a tearful apology video, insisting that it was an accident. Fox News Digital’s Lindsay Kornick and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c3662c5335ae10497df2 Top-ranked Jannik Sinner withdraws from US Open with right knee injury: 'Sad and disappointed' te 2026-08-21T21:30:14.078Z Top-ranked Jannik Sinner withdraws from US Open with right knee injury: 'Sad and disappointed' Tennis will be without one of its biggest stars at the U.S. Open. World No. 1 Jannik Sinner announced on Friday that he is withdrawing from tennis’ final Grand Slam of the year with a right knee injury. "Even though I have been working hard with my team and my medical staff, we have now had to make the difficult decision that I will not be able to compete at the US Open this year," Sinner wrote in a post on X. ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! "We have been back on court in Monte Carlo over the last couple of days and have realized that I still need more time to recover from my right knee issue. I’m obviously very sad and disappointed, as New York has a special place in my heart. I was very much looking forward to coming back and playing in the electric atmosphere in front of the great fans there." Sinner defeated Alexander Zverev to win Wimbledon last month, but has not played since. He pulled out of tournaments in Montreal and Cincinnati, both hard-court tournaments that serve as warm-ups to the U.S. Open. SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST SPORTS NEWS The 25-year-old Italian won the U.S. Open in 2024 and reached the final last year before losing to Carlos Alcaraz. Sinner is in the midst of a dominant year, as he is 44-3 with six titles in 2026. He had a stunning collapse at the French Open, blowing a two-set lead while struggling in the heat in his second-round match against Juan Manuel Cerundolo. He then sat out until Wimbledon, where his victory gave him five Grand Slam titles. It will be the first time Sinner has missed a Grand Slam tournament since making his major debut at the U.S. Open in 2019. While Sinner is out, U.S. Open fans will still be treated to the return of Carlos Alcaraz, who has been out since April with a right wrist injury. Alcaraz announced his return on social media Thursday. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c3652c5335ae10497de9 Hayden Panettiere’s boyfriend’s brother reveals what happened inside Airbnb before actress's death te 2026-08-21T21:30:13.372Z Hayden Panettiere’s boyfriend’s brother reveals what happened inside Airbnb before actress's death Hayden Panettiere’s sudden death sparked accusations and painful questions about what happened in her final hours. Now, her boyfriend’s brother has revealed his account of what unfolded inside the Airbnb where the actress was found unresponsive on Aug. 16. In a lengthy statement to TMZ, Zach Hickerson pushed back against speculation surrounding Panettiere’s death, saying the truth would emerge as authorities completed their investigation. He said he wanted to clarify his involvement while allowing her loved ones to grieve without misinformation and added scrutiny. HAYDEN PANETTIERE DEAD AT 36 "On Sunday morning, I woke up at my Airbnb, got dressed and went to Church. I exchanged messages that morning with Brian on my way," he told the outlet. "We planned on us all getting lunch and playing indoor golf after the service." "When I left church, I called and texted both of them," Zach said. "When I didn’t reach Brian or Hayden, I just assumed maybe they fell back asleep, so I drove over and went to the Airbnb. When I got there, I knew the code to the building but not the door code to the AirBnb." "I knocked loudly, which apparently woke Brian up from a nap they were both taking on the pullout couch bed in the living room," he said. "When we went in and tried to wake Hayden up for lunch, we realized she was unconscious." "I immediately called 911 and Brian gave her Narcan," Zach said. "We then jointly performed CPR while 911 was on speaker until Fire and EMS arrived. At that point, we watched as they tried every measure possible to save her life. I am beyond heartbroken and devastated by this tragic and traumatic loss. Hayden was one of my dearest and closest friends that I loved and cared about for the last 8 years." WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO MOURNS FORMER FIANCÉE HAYDEN PANETTIERE, VOWS TO KEEP HER MEMORY ALIVE FOR DAUGHTER KAYA "Out of respect for her loved ones, the speculation and sensationalism of her death needs to end until the facts can be released from the investigation." Brian Hickerson offered fewer details in his own statement, given to Fox News Digital through his lawyer, instead pointing to the ongoing investigation into Panettiere’s death. "Hayden’s death remains under investigation, and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed. As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play," the statement said. "Out of respect for Hayden’s loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time." Both statements came after Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, publicly raised questions about Brian’s role in her daughter’s life and death. "Although my daughter and I were estranged, it was not for lack of care or love," she said in a statement to Entertainment Tonight. "It was due to the involvement of a toxic individual who I believe led to her death."⁠ GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE "Hayden was a beautiful and talented young woman who unfortunately became involved with the wrong person, and although her family tried to extricate him from her life, we were unable to be successful."⁠ Fox News has learned the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been contacted and is assisting with the investigation. "It leads me to believe there are still questions surrounding what happened," Vogel told ET about the DEA's involvement in the investigation. "And I think we are all looking for answers."⁠ Panettiere's mom publicly blamed Brian in the days following her daughter's death. LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS "This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death and that was Brian Hickerson," Vogel told NBC News. Brian was among those at the residence where Panettiere was found unresponsive, according to the police report obtained by Fox News Digital. The couple's relationship had previously led to domestic violence charges against Brian and his eventual conviction. The police report said Zach appeared "very emotional" while paramedics worked to revive Panettiere. Meanwhile, Brian did not become emotional until the "Ice Princess" star was declared deceased. PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE Panettiere would have turned 37 today — just five days after the "Heroes" and "Nashville" star died. Her former fiancé and the father of her daughter, Wladimir Klitschko, shared a tribute on Instagram. "I want to thank all of Hayden’s fans, friends, and everyone who has reached out for the incredible outpouring of love and support," he wrote. "At a time filled with so much sadness, your kindness has reminded me that there is still so much good in humanity. If you’re reading this, I ask just one thing: even if only for a moment, think about LOVE. Reach out to a friend. Forgive someone. Be kind." "Love is a superpower. Use it." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c35f2c5335ae10497dc9 America Ends a Summer of Lightning-Fast Primaries and Political Speed Dating te 2026-08-21T21:30:07.947Z America Ends a Summer of Lightning-Fast Primaries and Political Speed Dating Plot twists in several states have led to rapid-fire races that have felt more reminiscent of European-style snap campaigns than traditional American marathons. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c35e2c5335ae10497dc0 Northern Arizona Youth Lacrosse sees growing interest with clinics, upcoming inaugural season te 2026-08-21T21:30:06.780Z Northern Arizona Youth Lacrosse sees growing interest with clinics, upcoming inaugural season Northern Arizona Youth Lacrosse’s free clinic in Flagstaff last weekend shows that the sport is growing ahead of the organization's inaugural season this fall. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c35c2c5335ae10497db7 NAU ROUNDUP: Mains, Johnson return to men's basketball on coaching staff te 2026-08-21T21:30:04.960Z NAU ROUNDUP: Mains, Johnson return to men's basketball on coaching staff Former Lumberjack Nik Mains is returning to NAU as an assistant coach on Shane Burcar's staff. He is joined by associate head coach Ben Johnson, who also makes his return to the sideline. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c1092c5335ae10497d62 Trump can keep building White House ballroom, for now, Supreme Court rules te 2026-08-21T21:20:09.393Z Trump can keep building White House ballroom, for now, Supreme Court rules Demolition work continued where the East Wing once stood at the White House on Dec. 8, 2025. President Donald Trump ordered the 123-year-old East Wing and Jacqueline Kennedy Garden leveled to make way for a new 90,000-square-foot ballroom. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump can continue building a White House ballroom for now, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday, reversing a federal judge’s order that barred above-ground construction on the grounds of the former East Wing. The one-page order from Chief Justice John Roberts allows the justices more time to consider the legal arguments as to whether the president can continue with construction.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, a nonprofit Congress created to protect public buildings, sued to block construction late last year. The group charged that Trump violated the U.S. Constitution and federal law when he demolished part of the White House last July without approval from Congress.  The trust wrote in its brief to the high court that the trial court’s pause should remain in place because any progress on the project could not easily be undone. “We are grateful for the Decision of the United States Supreme Court,” Trump wrote on social media after the order. “The Military/Ballroom Complex being built on the hallowed grounds of the White House, which is so vital for National Security, will be THE GREATEST OF ITS KIND! Construction is under budget and ahead of schedule.” Trump has argued the 90,000-square-foot ballroom — which the administration said this month will cost $400 million, double the initial estimate — is needed to reinforce security features and provide a larger space to host foreign dignitaries. Trump has said the project is being funded with private donations. The East Wing of the White House was built in 1942. Workers last October demolished it, even after Trump said the ballroom construction would not impact the building.  A federal appeals court this month upheld the lower court order that barred further construction of the ballroom above ground, but allowed for below-ground construction. The appeals court stayed its decision for 14 days to give the administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88c1042c5335ae10497d4c Massachusetts’ Top Court Bars Statues of Catholic Saints at City Building te 2026-08-21T21:20:04.259Z Massachusetts’ Top Court Bars Statues of Catholic Saints at City Building The ruling quashes a plan by the mayor of Quincy that had drawn opposition from many religious figures, as well as from residents of the racially diverse city. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88bc552c5335ae10497ca8 U.S. Agreed to Pay Liberia $5 Million in Connection with Deportees, Documents Say te 2026-08-21T21:00:05.477Z U.S. Agreed to Pay Liberia $5 Million in Connection with Deportees, Documents Say The Trump administration approved the payment after Liberia said it would consider taking migrants from other countries. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88bc532c5335ae10497c8b Apple is reportedly cutting hundreds of jobs from Siri, Vision Pro teams te 2026-08-21T21:00:03.086Z Apple is reportedly cutting hundreds of jobs from Siri, Vision Pro teams Apple has admitted that some roles are being impacted as it shifts its focus away from certain initiatives. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88ba012c5335ae10497c32 DAVID MARCUS: Transportation Secretary Duffy is right, Harvard just ain’t what it used to be te 2026-08-21T20:50:09.247Z DAVID MARCUS: Transportation Secretary Duffy is right, Harvard just ain’t what it used to be It was Woody Allen, in his 1977 gem of a movie ‘Annie Hall,’ who quipped that "Everything our parents said was good is bad, sunlight, red meat … college," and in the case of the once world-class Harvard University, truer words have rarely been uttered. The transformation, in our lifetimes, of Harvard from a tower of intellectual excellence to a barnyard of progressive slop is why Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is right to urge his daughter away from this bastion of absurd wokeness. Let’s face it, 30 years ago, when you heard the term "Harvard degree," you thought, "Oh, this must be a very smart person who has done all the reading." Today, sadly, when we hear Harvard degree, most of us think, "Oh, this is likely a wealthy, snot-nosed Marxist who can’t even be bothered to read Marx." SEAN DUFFY FACES FAMILY DILEMMA OVER EMBATTLED IVY LEAGUE SCHOOL AND CHRISTIAN VALUES And it isn’t just Harvard, the entire Ivy League has become synonymous with liberal lunacy. For example, is Columbia a university or a staging ground for jihadi sympathizers, or have the lackluster leaders there decided those are the same thing? Meanwhile, back at Harvard, which settled an antisemitism lawsuit last year, The New York Times reported on students not doing work but graduating anyway due to grade inflation. HARVARD STUDENTS REVOLT OVER NEW GRADING POLICY THEY CALL ‘RACIST’ From the article: "... Once they get in, many of its students skip class and fail to do the reading … When they do show up for class, they are focused on their devices, and are reluctant to speak out. Sometimes it is because they are afraid of sharing ideas that others will disagree with. But often, they have not read enough of the homework to make a meaningful contribution." Reading the classics? Not so much. But, Jew-hating? Absolutely! HARVARD PRESIDENT CALLS STUDENTS ‘IGNORANT’ ON ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT This is supposed to be the learning ground of presidents and statesmen and now the students are refusing to read? They should change the motto from "Veritas" to "No Regrats." Much of this crisis in our top schools has been caused by diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), as rich kids of color are snuck in through the side door in order to maintain the appearance of a Benetton ad. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ZEROES IN ON UCLA FOR ALLEGED ILLEGAL DEI ADMISSIONS AS ELITE SCHOOL CRACKDOWN EXPANDS Everyone’s new favorite pencil-mustached communist, Gustavo Gordillo, is a great example of this. Prior to his parents buying him a $1.5 million home in Brooklyn, Gustavo got a sculpture degree from Yale, but after that, somehow he couldn’t even make his way through a union electrician apprenticeship. Mind you, this hasn’t stopped him from calling himself a union electrician. Maybe I’ll just tell people I play second base for the Phillies. SOCIALISM’S CAMPUS APPEAL MEETS GEN Z RESISTANCE AS STUDENTS KEEP SCORE ON COMMUNISM Is it any wonder that Duffy and his wife don’t want to send their daughter to this commie summer camp we call Harvard, where she can hang out with gaggles of America-hating Gustavos? The Ivies just don’t carry the weight they once did because they threw it away in the name of progressivism. Today, in the real world, nobody actually expects that a Harvard grad is smarter or more able than an alum of West Virginia University or Penn State, and they are probably much more annoying. CONFIDENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION SLIPS AFTER BRIEF RECOVERY, GALLUP POLL FINDS It really is a problem for our society that our top institutions of higher education have all but turned their backs on educating, preferring to pump out activists instead of scholars. Conservative complaints over the Ivy League are nothing new, after all. It was his book, "God and Man at Yale," that made William F. Buckley Jr. a founding father of the conservative movement, but as much as he disagreed with his liberal professors and fellow students, he didn’t doubt their ability or willingness to read books. LIBERAL FACULTY STILL HUGELY OUTNUMBER CONSERVATIVES IN HIGHER EDUCATION: REPORT It seems unlikely that the Ivies will stage a comeback. Already schools like Hillsdale College are running circles around them, and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ programs to overhaul the Florida state college system are yielding solid results. The people we should feel bad for here are the honest, hard-working students who still fought hard to get into Harvard only to find that their skin color or religion is more important than their intellectual abilities. ELITE COLLEGES ARE LOSING AMERICA’S TRUST. COMMUNITY COLLEGES CAN WIN IT BACK Ultimately, this is why so many parents, even those of us who are not in the Cabinet, would make the same decision as Duffy. We want to send our kids to colleges that will educate, not indoctrinate them. This may all be for the best. We really don’t need a handful of elite colleges to produce all of our leaders. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has degrees from the University of Florida and the University of Miami, but nobody thinks this makes him an intellectual lightweight, because it doesn’t. Wherever Secretary Duffy’s daughter goes, I hope it is somewhere that will make her read and think, that will not teach her to hate Jews, and maybe — not to get too crazy — will instill a bit of patriotism. That is not too much to ask for Ms. Duffy or for any of our kids. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88ba002c5335ae10497c29 Two US Army Corps of Engineers employees among 8 killed in Alaska charter plane crash te 2026-08-21T20:50:08.608Z Two US Army Corps of Engineers employees among 8 killed in Alaska charter plane crash Two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees were among the eight who were killed this week when a charter plane crashed in southwestern Alaska, the military confirmed Friday. The twin-engine Cessna 441 got caught in fog on Thursday as it flew from Anchorage bound for the Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site. The identities of the passengers have yet to be released. FATAL AIR AMBULANCE CRASH EXPOSES GROWING GPS DANGER FACING US FLIGHTS "This is a devastating loss for our military family and the communities we serve," U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Davis, commander of Alaskan Command, the Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region and Eleventh Air Force, said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. He continued, "These individuals were dedicated professionals carrying out a vital mission in a demanding environment. Our absolute priority right now is providing unwavering support to their families, friends, and teammates during this devastating time. We are profoundly grateful for the swift and tireless response of our search and recovery professionals." DEADLY MILITARY HELICOPTER CRASH IN TEXAS KILLS 2, SPARKS WILDFIRE AND FORCES EVACUATIONS: OFFICIALS Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site is one of several remote radar sites that track aircraft operating around Alaska. The military said the families of the employees have been notified and their identities would be released 24 hours after the families found out. ARMY IDENTIFIES 2 PILOTS KILLED IN APACHE HELICOPTER CRASH NEAR FORT HOOD DURING TRAINING EXERCISE "I join Alaskans in condolences as we learn of the plane crash in Cape Newenham today," Republican Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski wrote in a statement. "I've traveled extensively with Security Aviation throughout Alaska, and have met many of their experienced pilots." "I appreciate the U.S. Coast Guard, NTSB, Alaska State Troopers, and the Rescue Coordination Center for responding to the site," she continued. "Alaska is praying for those on board, their loved ones, and the team at Security Aviation." REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT MAKES DRASTIC CHANGE FOLLOWING DEADLY 2025 MIDAIR COLLISION Last year, a Bering Air flight bound for Nome crashed off Alaska into sea ice, killing all 10 aboard. The plane was later found to be more than 1,000 lbs "over the maximum takeoff gross weight for flight into known or forecast icing conditions," according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b7ab2c5335ae10497bd0 Fox News Campus Radicals Newsletter: DOJ opens probe into prestigious college over alleged discrimination favo te 2026-08-21T20:40:11.919Z Fox News Campus Radicals Newsletter: DOJ opens probe into prestigious college over alleged discrimination favo TRUE COLORS: DOJ opens probe into prestigious college over alleged discrimination favoring minority students NUMBERS GAME: Berkeley math professor sounds alarm on liberal 'test-blind' policies, warns many students badly behind SIGN UP TO GET THE CAMPUS RADICALS NEWSLETTER SCHOOL OF HARD LEFT: Bernie-backed California House candidate called DEI a ‘social justice-driven duty,’ embraced activist role FOLLOW THE MONEY: Harvard, NYU among 30 universities hit with Pentagon foreign-tie audit deadline Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b7ab2c5335ae10497bc7 Heidi Klum leaves little to the imagination in latest Instagram photo te 2026-08-21T20:40:11.065Z Heidi Klum leaves little to the imagination in latest Instagram photo Heidi Klum left little to the imagination with her recent social media post. The 53-year-old German supermodel took to Instagram on Thursday to wish her followers a good morning with a risqué photo she captioned, "M☀️RNING 🥰🌴🐠❤️." In the photo, Klum stands outside with her hand covering one of her eyes with the sun shining behind her, posing in semi-sheer white underwear and a multicolored shawl with nothing on underneath. The shawl left much of Klum's torso exposed, showing off her toned abs and slim figure. HEIDI KLUM DITCHES BIKINI TOP, COVERS UP WITH POTATO CHIP BAG ON BEACH VACATION "Spectacular morning to you ❤️ 🌹🌹🌹🌹" one fan wrote in the comments section, while another added, "For 53 she is Rocking 👏 !! 50 is the new 20 !!" "When you get that old an look that good expressing your body more power to her❤️🙌," a third fan wrote. Never one to shy away from showing off her body, Klum recently shared a photo of herself lying topless on the beach while napping on a Gucci towel next to her husband, Tom Kaulitz, with only a hat and a black thong bikini bottom to cover herself. "No caption needed," she captioned the post, which featured many other snaps of her with her husband as they vacationed in St. Barts to celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary. GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Klum and Kaulitz got married in a lavish yacht ceremony Aug. 3, 2019, in Capri, Italy, after secretly marrying in February of that year. "For the first time, I have a partner who I can discuss everything with," Klum, who turned 53 in June, told People in 2020. "Someone who shares duties that we all have in our life. I used to be on my own with everything. For the first time, I get to experience what it is actually like to have a partner." The "Germany's Next Top Model" host was previously married to Australian hairstylist, Ric Pipino, and later singer Seal. She and Seal share three children together; sons Henry and Johan and daughter Lou. Seal also adopted Klum's daughter, Leni, from her previous relationship with Flavio Briatore. PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE She and Kaulitz first met in February 2018, and made their red carpet debut in May 2018 when they attended the amfAR Gala during the Cannes Film Festival together. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b7aa2c5335ae10497bbe 'Halo' composer, GOP candidate says venue canceled his event for political reasons, he will host it elsewhere te 2026-08-21T20:40:10.377Z 'Halo' composer, GOP candidate says venue canceled his event for political reasons, he will host it elsewhere Republican congressional candidate and composer for the "Halo" video game series, Marty O’Donnell, said his video game event was canceled by a venue in Las Vegas for vague political reasons, but he's resolved to host it somewhere else instead. O'Donnnell is running for Congress as a Republican in Nevada's 3rd Congressional District. The longtime video game composer entered politics after a decades-long career that also included writing music for television commercials and jingles. O’Donnell spoke to Fox News Digital about how he planned to host a gaming event, specifically a "Halo" tournament where players gather to compete head-to-head in the same room rather than from their own homes. This event would have been used to celebrate nostalgia for the iconic alien-fighting series and to boost civic engagement among young people as both a part of his campaign and a celebration of the franchise’s 25th anniversary. "We were planning a Halo LAN (Local Area Network) party and tournament here in Las Vegas at HyperX Arena," he said. "We spoke to them for over a month and all of a sudden, out of the blue, they came back to us, and they said, because of your political affiliations, we're going to have to cancel, which of course meant now it's up to us to figure out a way to still do what we want to do, but we just can't depend on HyperX Arena." GAMING-WORLD VETERAN WHO RIPPED ‘WOKE’ CULTURE SCORES TRUMP-BACKED BATTLEGROUND PRIMARY WIN The HyperX Arena is a business on the grounds of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. O’Donnell’s campaign provided Fox News Digital an email from HyperX Arena’s representatives denying that O’Donnell’s event there was canceled due to him being a Republican, but rather due to "the political affiliations and election-related nature of the proposed program." The Luxor Hotel itself, from which the HyperX Arena rents its venue space as a vendor, has hosted numerous political events over the years, including a Bernie Sanders press event, a Democratic Party caucus, and a California College Republican event as recently as 2024. Fox News Digital contacted the HyperX Arena’s representatives and received no immediate reply. O’Donnell said he was uninvited from the Halo 25th anniversary reunion at the SacAnime pop culture convention in California after he said his comments about the alliance of the far-left and Islamism were taken out of context. Fox News Digital also reached out to the SacAnime team and received no reply. While O’Donnell lamented that "it seems like I'm being canceled because I'm a Republican running for Congress," he declared he is resolute about hosting the "Halo" tournament. "Once we were rejected a couple of times now, we decided to take matters into our own hands," he said, revealing he is searching for another event venue. "I want all the fans out there to know that we are going ahead with this plan anyway. We are going to do this, it's going to be a lot of fun."  O'Donnell said there would be a link on his congressional website to sign up, and it would happen around Oct. 9 or 10. This, he said, would be a nostalgic event for gamers, likely with some Doritos and Mountain Dew, and that he would play a few games himself. DAN GAINOR: WE GOT TWITTER/X AS A PLATFORM 20 YEARS AGO AND GLOBAL CENSORS STILL HATE AND FEAR IT O’Donnell had a clear message for his fellow Republicans that they should not underestimate gamers as a political force. He traced their growing political engagement back to GamerGate in 2014, when previously apolitical gamers revolted online against what they saw as left-wing politics seeping into video games and gaming journalism. This movement roared back to life in 2024 amid controversies about consultancy firms pushing DEI into video games. "There's a very interesting phenomenon going on, and I saw it starting back a little over ten years ago with GamerGate," he said. "That is that gamers are tired of being taken advantage of by these corporations, and especially once what I would call the woke mind virus got into the corporations, and they started changing the games from being based on having fun with your friends, having heroes to play as your characters, and suddenly... All the things you loved are being changed, and you're being preached at, and there's an agenda to video games, there's an agenda to TV shows, there is a woke agenda to the movies that are out." Christina Hoff Sommers, senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute, described the Gamergate movement as having been sparked in the early 2010s when "the gamer journalists, many of the leading websites for gamers were imposing this social justice agenda on their games and telling them they were 'sexist' and 'racist' and 'homophobic,' and it was so unfair. Games are so diverse, and the gamers, they know their world, and they knew this was a caricature. So they fought back. I was very impressed because I have never seen anyone sort of successfully push back." O'Donnell went on to suggest that since Gamergate, many disaffected but social media-savvy gamers ranging from ages 25–45 have gone on to become influential streamers and cultural commentators online today, having changed how online political debates are waged. This group, he suggested, is willing to vote for Republicans who can actually push back against the tide of far-left politics, "because they are tired of being taken advantage of and preached at by the lefties and the woke people out there." CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE One key development in this demographic, he said, is that they are politically aware and tapped into culture and politics in an entirely new way, to the point they, like him, have chosen to get involved. "The interesting thing that I've seen now talking to a lot of these folks, either on their podcasts or their streaming sites, is that they are now politically aware. They realize, as my friend Dean Cain likes to say, ‘You might not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you,’" he said. "These guys are starting to realize that if they want to make the changes, if they don't like the changes that have been forced down their throats, they're going to have to start to get involved." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b7a92c5335ae10497bb5 DAVID MARCUS: Transportation Secretary Duffy is right, Harvard just ain’t what it used to be te 2026-08-21T20:40:09.656Z DAVID MARCUS: Transportation Secretary Duffy is right, Harvard just ain’t what it used to be It was Woody Allen, in his 1977 gem of a movie ‘Annie Hall,’ who quipped that "Everything our parents said was good is bad, sunlight, red meat … college," and in the case of the once world-class Harvard University, truer words have rarely been uttered. The transformation, in our lifetimes, of Harvard from a tower of intellectual excellence to a barnyard of progressive slop is why Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is right to urge his daughter away from this bastion of absurd wokeness. Let’s face it, 30 years ago when you heard the term "Harvard degree," you thought, "Oh, this must be a very smart person who has done all the reading." Today, sadly, when we hear Harvard degree, most of us think, "Oh, this is likely a wealthy, snot-nosed Marxist who can’t even be bothered to read Marx." SEAN DUFFY FACES FAMILY DILEMMA OVER EMBATTLED IVY LEAGUE SCHOOL AND CHRISTIAN VALUES And it isn’t just Harvard, the entire Ivy League has become synonymous with liberal lunacy. For example, is Columbia a university or a staging ground for jihadi sympathizers, or have the lackluster leaders there decided those are the same thing? Meanwhile, back at Harvard, which settled an antisemitism lawsuit last year, The New York Times reported on students not doing work but graduating anyway due to grade inflation. HARVARD STUDENTS REVOLT OVER NEW GRADING POLICY THEY CALL ‘RACIST’ From the article: " ... Once they get in, many of its students skip class and fail to do the reading… When they do show up for class, they are focused on their devices, and are reluctant to speak out. Sometimes it is because they are afraid of sharing ideas that others will disagree with. But often, they have not read enough of the homework to make a meaningful contribution." Reading the classics? Not so much. But, Jew-hating? Absolutely! HARVARD PRESIDENT CALLS STUDENTS ‘IGNORANT’ ON ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT This is supposed to be the learning ground of presidents and statesmen and now the students are refusing to read? They should change the motto from "Veritas" to "No Regrats." Much of this crisis in our top schools has been caused by diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), as rich kids of color are snuck in through the side door in order to maintain the appearance of a Benetton ad. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ZEROES IN ON UCLA FOR ALLEGED ILLEGAL DEI ADMISSIONS AS ELITE SCHOOL CRACKDOWN EXPANDS Everyone’s new favorite pencil-mustached communist, Gustavo Gordillo is a great example of this. Prior to his parents buying him a $1.5 million home in Brooklyn, Gustavo got a sculpture degree from Yale, but after that, somehow he couldn’t even make his way through a union electrician apprenticeship. Mind you, this hasn’t stopped him from calling himself a union electrician. Maybe I’ll just tell people I play second base for the Phillies. SOCIALISM’S CAMPUS APPEAL MEETS GEN Z RESISTANCE AS STUDENTS KEEP SCORE ON COMMUNISM Is it any wonder that Duffy and his wife don’t want to send their daughter to this commie summer camp we call Harvard where she can hang out with gaggles of America-hating Gustavos? The Ivies just don’t carry the weight they once did because they threw it away in the name of progressivism. Today, in the real world, nobody actually expects that a Harvard grad is smarter or more able than an alum of West Virginia University or Penn State, and they are probably much more annoying. CONFIDENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION SLIPS AFTER BRIEF RECOVERY, GALLUP POLL FINDS It really is a problem for our society that our top institutions of higher education have all but turned their backs on educating, preferring to pump out activists instead of scholars. Conservative complaints over the Ivy League are nothing new, after all. It was his book, "God and Man at Yale," that made William F. Buckley Jr. a founding father of the conservative movement, but as much as he disagreed with his liberal professors and fellow students, he didn’t doubt their ability or willingness to read books. LIBERAL FACULTY STILL HUGELY OUTNUMBER CONSERVATIVES IN HIGHER EDUCATION: REPORT It seems unlikely that the Ivies will stage a comeback. Already schools like Hillsdale College are running circles around them, and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ programs to overhaul the Florida state college system are yielding solid results. The people we should feel bad for here are the honest, hard-working students who still fought hard to get into Harvard only to find that their skin color or religion is more important than their intellectual abilities. ELITE COLLEGES ARE LOSING AMERICA’S TRUST. COMMUNITY COLLEGES CAN WIN IT BACK Ultimately, this is why so many parents, even those of us who are not in the Cabinet, would make the same decision as Duffy. We want to send our kids to colleges that will educate, not indoctrinate them. This may all be for the best, we really don’t need a handful of elite colleges to produce all of our leaders. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has degrees from the University of Florida and the University of Miami, but nobody thinks this makes him an intellectual lightweight, because it doesn’t. Wherever Secretary Duffy’s daughter goes, I hope it is somewhere that will make her read and think, that will not teach her to hate Jews, and maybe — not to get too crazy — will instill a bit of patriotism. That is not too much to ask for Ms. Duffy or for any of our kids. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b7a52c5335ae10497b9f Mayes won’t charge Hobbs over pay-to-play allegations, but urges reforms te 2026-08-21T20:40:05.450Z Mayes won’t charge Hobbs over pay-to-play allegations, but urges reforms PHOENIX — Attorney General Kris Mayes will not bring criminal charges against Gov. Katie Hobbs in connection with an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving a state contractor. In a report released Friday, Mayes acknowledged that the state awarded two substantial increases in payments to Sunshine Residential, a company that provides beds for children in foster care. The investigation also found that Sunshine had contributed significant sums to Hobbs’ inaugural fund and the Arizona Democratic Party, and that Hobbs had a personal friendship with company owner Simon Kottoor. But Mayes, a Democrat like Hobbs, said her investigation found no evidence of a bribe or that the Department of Child Safety increased Sunshine’s payments because of the company’s political connections to the governor. “After two years of investigation, consisting of multiple interviews, reviews of campaign-finance records, procurement records, bank documents, and state emails and chats, totaling over one terabyte of data, including more than 100,000 documents, the investigation has not uncovered any evidence of the necessary quid pro quo to support a bribery charge,” Mayes said. The findings are supported by a report by Nick Klingerman, chief of the attorney general’s criminal division. “Sunshine’s political contributions and Kottoor’s close relationship with Gov. Hobbs, as discussed in various news articles, is insufficient to support charging an offense without a quid pro quo,” Klingerman wrote. So why did Sunshine receive such favorable treatment? Klingerman said the company’s rate increases appear to have resulted not from a bribe, but from its “outsized leverage” over DCS’ congregate care program. Sunshine provided services the state needed, including finding additional space when DCS was short on beds and housing siblings together, he said. The company also told DCS that, without a significant increase in the rates it was paid, it would reduce the number of beds available to the agency and instead contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which was willing to pay more. Mayes said the episode exposes problems with the state’s contracting system. “Declining prosecution is a conclusion about the legal standard for charging a case, but this case shows there is a need for legislative reform,” she said. “The Legislature and the governor have the power to ensure greater transparency with regard to political donations made by state contractors,” Mayes said. “I am urging them to work together and try again to pass legislation that does so.” Mayes did not mention that Hobbs twice vetoed legislation that would have required anyone bidding on a state contract to disclose all the donations made in the prior five years to the governor, anyone running for office, and all of their political committees. Hobbs said the measure crafted by Sen. T.J. Shope, a Coolidge Republican, fell short because it did not include other reforms she sought, such as new restrictions on state legislators. Shope, however, said that was just an excuse, particularly since the governor’s office –- and agencies under her control –- decide whether to award contracts. The investigation took longer to complete, in part, because Hobbs would not submit to an interview about her role in the matter. Instead, the governor agreed only to provide two written statements, denying any involvement in the decision to give Sunshine more money. Friday’s findings do not end the investigation. The state Auditor General’s Office has its own probe, assisted by Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, who is a Republican. There is no word on when that will be completed. The post Mayes won’t charge Hobbs over pay-to-play allegations, but urges reforms first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b5542c5335ae10497b60 Philadelphia Chucky-style mask suspect has ties to Los Angeles area, could be in area, police warn te 2026-08-21T20:30:12.442Z Philadelphia Chucky-style mask suspect has ties to Los Angeles area, could be in area, police warn The man accused of terrorizing and threatening people in downtown Philadelphia last week while wearing a creepy Chucky-style mask could be in the Los Angeles area, law enforcement officials said. Zymire Hughes, 22, has deep work and personal ties to LA and may already be present in the local area, FOX Los Angeles reported. Surveillance video captured Hughes packing his bags and exiting his apartment complex this week, the news outlet reported. Authorities said he frequently travels back and forth to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, leading investigators to believe he could be in the region. POLICE IDENTIFY SUSPECT ACCUSED OF TERRORIZING PHILADELPHIA WOMEN WHILE WEARING CREEPY CHUCKY-STYLE MASK However, investigators have not determined his whereabouts. He is being sought by the Philadelphia Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Service. Law enforcement agencies in Southern California and Nevada were monitoring transportation facilities and following up on any reported sightings of Hughes. Hughes was identified Thursday as the masked suspect who allegedly approached, chased, and threatened several people in the early morning hours of Aug. 12 in Philadelphia, while filming the strange encounters on a cell phone. He was on probation and now faces felony and misdemeanor assault charges from last week's incident. ALLEGED 'MIME' STALKER STRIPPED TO UNDERWEAR, COVERED HIMSELF IN COOKING OIL: OFFICIALS In one incident, Hughes allegedly asked a 40-year-old female jogger: "Are you ready to die?" while holding his hand behind his back, causing her to flee. She sustained a leg injury that will require extensive treatment, police said. "Zymire Hughes was trying to scare people, make them run. Who's scared now? Who's running now?" Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said during a news conference Thursday. "He’s a punk. I mean, that’s the bottom line. He’s a punk who scared a lot of people for no good reason, and we’re not going to tolerate it." TIMELINE REVEALS HOW MAN IN 'CHUCKY' MASK TERRORIZED PHILADELPHIA STREETS, EVADED POLICE Investigators said they believe Hughes may have been trying to create social media content in an effort to monetize it. "There wasn't an attempt by himself to lay hands on anyone," Philadelphia Police Capt. Jason Smith said Thursday. "He didn't brandish any weapon, although in the case of the jogger, he did have his right arm behind his back, implying that he had a weapon, but at no point in time did he furnish a weapon." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b5532c5335ae10497b57 WATCH: Deputies hunt wanted man through cornfield after high-speed chase caught on camera te 2026-08-21T20:30:11.742Z WATCH: Deputies hunt wanted man through cornfield after high-speed chase caught on camera A wanted Wisconsin man led deputies on a 12-mile high-speed chase before bailing from a moving car and vanishing into a cornfield, sparking a five-hour manhunt that ended with a K9 and drone-assisted takedown. According to the Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Office in Wisconsin, the high-speed case began at 2:26 p.m. on Aug. 17 when authorities were told that the 40-year-old suspect had fled from the City of Fond du Lac Police Department. A deputy spotted the vehicle traveling south on Highway 175 near Highway 151 and attempted to stop it using lights and sirens, the sheriff’s office said. The driver refused to stop and accelerated at a high rate of speed. SEE IT: DASHCAM SHOWS FLORIDA TROOPER CHASING ALLEGED STREET TAKEOVER SUSPECT AT 140 MPH Dash camera video captured the high-speed pursuit which continued along several county roads before another deputy deployed a tire-deflation device successfully striking the suspect vehicle’s tires, authorities said. CLICK HERE FOR MORE U.S. NEWS In the released dash camera video, the suspect is seen jumping out of the vehicle and making a beeline toward a subdivision. A Fond du Lac police officer is seen pursuing him on foot before the suspect was seen entering a nearby cornfield. Authorities said that the suspect entered a cornfield, where officers quickly lost sight of him due to the dense vegetation, authorities said. Officers ended the foot pursuit because of safety concerns and established a perimeter around County Highway V, Reinhardt Road, County Highway K and Valley Creek Road. CALIFORNIA DEPUTIES USE MAGNET-EQUIPPED DRONE TO DISARM KNIFE-WIELDING SEX OFFENDER HIDDEN IN GARAGE SEND US A TIP Drones operated by the Fond du Lac Police Department and Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office were deployed but initially could not locate the man because of the thick foliage. Multiple K-9 teams also searched the area. At about 6:30 p.m., sheriff’s office personnel spotted the man attempting to leave the cornfield near Reinhardt Road, authorities said. He ran back into the field when officers approached. Authorities made multiple announcements over a loudspeaker but received no response, according to the sheriff’s office. FOLLOW US ON X A K-9 was then deployed near the man’s last known location, while a drone operator located him from above and directed an arrest team toward him. CAUGHT ON VIDEO: BLOODHOUND TRACKS ARMED SPECIAL FORCES FUGITIVE INTO WOODS AFTER ALLEGEDLY SHOOTING WIFE The man continued running from officers and the K-9, authorities said. After an approximately 300-yard track through the cornfield, he was driven out of the field toward officers waiting near Paradise Lane. He was taken into custody without incident at about 7:45 p.m. and turned over to Fond du Lac police. The vehicle pursuit covered about 12.6 miles, and the entire incident lasted more than five hours. GET BREAKING NEWS ALERTS The 40-year-old Fond du Lac man was taken to a local hospital for medical clearance before being booked into the Fond du Lac County Jail on multiple counts of fleeing and eluding, second-degree recklessly endangering safety and felony bail jumping, according to the sheriff’s office. Authorities said the man was on probation for cocaine possession and possession of a firearm by a felon and had an active Wisconsin Department of Corrections warrant for an alleged probation violation. GOT A TIP? He also has two pending felony cases in Fond du Lac County, according to the sheriff’s office. One includes charges of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm by a felon, maintaining a drug trafficking place, carrying a concealed weapon and possession of drug paraphernalia. The second includes charges of felony bail jumping and possession of drug paraphernalia. Two Fond du Lac County patrol vehicles were damaged during the pursuit. A sheriff’s deputy and a Fond du Lac police officer suffered minor injuries. Authorities said no private property was damaged. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Office for additional details. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b54e2c5335ae10497b42 Arizona avoids ‘draconian’ Colorado River cuts — for now te 2026-08-21T20:30:06.919Z Arizona avoids ‘draconian’ Colorado River cuts — for now Key Points: The federal government adopted Arizona’s preferred operating guidelines The state’s Colorado River allocation will be reduced by 31% over two years Deeper cuts are still on the table without a negotiated seven-state agreement The federal government will adopt Arizona’s preferred plan for Colorado River reductions over the next two years, but more drastic cuts could still be on the horizon.  The Bureau of Reclamation released its 2027-2028 Operating Guidelines and Record of Decision for post-2026 operations Friday, incorporating voluntary water usage reductions proposed by the Lower Basin States.  Under the plan, Arizona will reduce its water usage by 760,000 acre-feet over the next two years. That amounts to a 31% reduction in Arizona’s Colorado River allocation, which water stakeholders note is much more palatable than the federal government’s proposed 77% cut. “With this plan, we saved Arizona from forced federal cuts that would have crippled our economy and America’s national security,” Gov. Katie Hobbs said in a statement. “The 77% cut to [the Central Arizona Project’s] water supply that the federal government considered in January would have been an unacceptable disaster.” But Arizona isn’t out of the woods just yet. The Bureau of Reclamation’s final environmental impact statement on Colorado River operations suggests reevaluating guidelines every two years. That leaves a 77% cut on the table after 2028.  “The federal decision also protects Upper Basin reservoirs at the expense of Lake Mead and falls short of providing the water that the Lower Basin is entitled to, all while the threat of unilateral federal cutbacks in future years remains,” Hobbs continued.  Tom Buschatzke, the director of Arizona’s Department of Water Resources and the state’s chief Colorado River negotiator, echoed Hobbs’ sentiments in his own statement Friday. “While the framework for years 3-10 continues to be of concern, we applaud the Department of the Interior for clarifying the decision-making process for operations beyond 2028,” Buschatzke said. “That outcome allows for continued negotiations for years 3-10 while preserving our ability to protect Arizona’s legal rights to Colorado River water.” Arizona would avoid deeper cuts only if it and the six other Colorado River states could reach a negotiated agreement to divide the river’s flows. The Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada have long accused the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico of being unwilling to make meaningful cuts to their own water supplies.  Negotiations have been deadlocked for three years, so it’s unclear whether additional time for discussions will yield better results. For now, though, it does appear that Arizona will avoid going to court over the Colorado River. Lawmakers set aside millions of dollars for potential litigation, while Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office retained a high-powered law firm to represent the state’s interests. “I felt like litigation was more likely until this Lower Basin states agreement got proposed, and I feel like it’s cooled the temperature quite a bit on the litigation front,” said Riley Snow, the head of Rose Law Group’s water law department. Hobbs hinted to reporters on Aug. 4 that she may need to call a special session of the Legislature so Arizona can ratify the Record of Decision, but her office did not immediately respond to requests for clarification on that point Friday. The post Arizona avoids ‘draconian’ Colorado River cuts — for now first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b54a2c5335ae10497b1f TikTok reaches $400M settlement over children’s privacy lawsuit te 2026-08-21T20:30:02.610Z TikTok reaches $400M settlement over children’s privacy lawsuit Two years after the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that TikTok violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, it has reached a $400 million settlement. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b2f82c5335ae10497af5 Brittany Mahomes hits the gym and stuns fans, more WNBA drama & 16-year-old girl pummels middle school player te 2026-08-21T20:20:08.909Z Brittany Mahomes hits the gym and stuns fans, more WNBA drama & 16-year-old girl pummels middle school player 'Nightcaps' is a daily column that catches you up on the biggest sports, news and culture stories you may have missed while pretending to do work at your desk. It runs Monday–Friday on OutKick.com. What's that? Today is our first Football Friday of 2026? Buddy, say no more! Who has it better than us? Nobody. Imagine not living in America today. It must be just miserable. Sure, it's only high school football, but I don't care. Give me the bands and the pageantry. The cheers. The obnoxious horn that goes off in the middle of a play because some sophomore is working the scoreboard and doesn't know what he's doing. I want it all. I've missed it. We've got high school football tonight. We've got college football next weekend. Then it's Labor Day weekend — otherwise known as the most underrated holiday weekend on the calendar. I can feel it in my bones. We're about to kick it up a notch, boys and girls. Let's lock it in and then have ourselves a big weekend. Welcome to a Friday Nightcaps — the one where Brittany Mahomes works in a lift during a dominant day at the gym before the second week of the NFL preseason. What else? I've got an absolute specimen toting the rock for Peyton Manning's kid, another WNBA sex toy scandal, and let's check in on the middle school football scene in Tennessee. Wait till you see this hit. Better yet, wait till you see who delivered it! OK, I've got a big two-year-old birthday party on deck tomorrow that I have to get this house ready for, so let's get this class going. I've got a big day ahead. Grab you whatever you need to get you though the final few hours of the week, and settle in for a Friday 'Cap! We're hosting about 30 people tomorrow for my kid's birthday party, which seems just absurd but that's not an argument I will ever win. It's happening, and my yard is in shambles. It's rained here all week. I've had no window to mow it. We've got 30 folks coming over in the morning and it looks like we live in the Everglades right now. FRIDAY NIGHT PROBLEMS: ALABAMA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL COACH BANNED FOR SEASON AFTER RECRUITING VIOLATION So, it's gonna be a quick class. No hemming and hawing. Let's get to it. First up? As I said, football is BACK across this great country. We had high school football last night (which we'll get to in a minute). We have more tonight. So, let's spin the football wheel and head out to Tennessee, where one middle school player got absolutely demolished earlier this week ... ... by a 16-year-old girl ... ... who wasn't even a player! Goodness gracious! What a hit. The kid obviously didn't see it coming. Nobody did, except 16-year-old Addison Hunnicutt, who told News Channel 5 in Nashville that she is the sister of a player who she claimed was being bullied all night long on the field. "That's when I started to be like, no, I'm done watching this," Addison said. "I wasn't going after this kid just to go after him. That wasn't my intention at all." What a twist. Addison, by the way, has since been charged with assault and disorderly conduct, according to the Sheriff's Office. She's also been permanently barred from ever setting foot on any Franklin County School System properties again. Seems a bit harsh to me, given the context. Perhaps some community service will do the trick? Don't know that we need to ruin a kid's life over this. Where were the parents? Maybe start there. Regardless, I'm thinking some crosstown high school football team with a hole at linebacker may be making a call today. Just a hunch. Next? You know who that team ain't gonna be? Baylor School in Chattanooga. They don't need any extra help. Don't believe me? They have a Manning under center, and, apparently, the next Derrick Henry behind him to carry the rock. And I mean CARRYING THE ROCK: Lordy. They didn't make 'em like that when I played high school football. What a specimen! I hadn't heard of five-star Tennessee commit David Gabriel Georges until last night, but this kid is very much on my radar now. He just won't go down. I remember watching old Derrick Henry highlights from his time at Yulee, and this reminded me of him. I don't say that lightly, by the way. Incredible. I could watch old Henry-Yulee highlights all day long. They are mesmerizing. PS: Did anyone catch who caught Marshall Manning's first pass? A young lad who goes by Cornbread Adams. God, I love this country. We are the best. OK, let's rapid-fire this Friday class into a big weekend. First up? Football is back, Part III: Brittany Mahomes has officially clocked in for the NFL season. She's back. One final tuneup in the gym, and then it's off to the races. I think we're all sleeping on the Chiefs this season, by the way. As hard as that is to believe. I hear all this talk about the Patriots, Broncos and Chargers in the AFC. Everyone is obsessed with the Texans defense. The Bengals are a sexy pick right now. The Bills have a new stadium and the same stud QB. And we just seem to have forgotten that the Chiefs exists. Yes, Patrick Mahomes is coming off the ACL. Travis Kelce is old. Rashee Rice is a ticking time bomb. I don't care. I think they're about to remind everyone who runs the AFC. And believe me, I'm no Chiefs fan. Next? Before we head off into the weekend sunset, let's all check in on the big Dream-Sparks game from last night: YES! For those who thought the WNBA's serial sex toy thrower was dead and gone, think again! He's back, in some form. Remember that month last summer when fans were just launching these things on the court during games? It got so bad, sports books started posting odds of what the next color would be. Two people were ultimately arrested! It was anarchy. ANGEL REESE STUNNED BY SEX TOY THROWN ONTO COURT And now, on a random Thursday night in late August, it rears it's ugly head again. Right on cue. What a league. OK, that's it for today — and this week. Good work, everyone. Happy first Football Friday of the season. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! Many more to come. See you Monday. How was the girl's tackle? Email me at Zach.Dean@OutKick.com. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b0a42c5335ae104979d6 Black voters rip Dems over taking them for granted in El-Sayed's backyard: ‘Hush us up’ te 2026-08-21T20:10:12.689Z Black voters rip Dems over taking them for granted in El-Sayed's backyard: ‘Hush us up’ Black voters could play a decisive role in Michigan’s closely watched Senate race this November, raising the stakes for Democrats as signs of softer support among the historically reliable voting bloc threaten to complicate the party’s path to victory. National surveys suggest that the proportion of Black Americans who believe Democrats represent their interests is slipping. Additionally, the percentage of Black voters who identify with the Democratic Party fell by 10 percentage points between 2020 and 2025, according to the Pew Research Center. Fox News Digital spoke with roughly a dozen Black voters on the ground in Detroit, most of whom said they believe the Democratic Party has either failed to prioritize their concerns or has taken their support for granted. FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS: AS DEMOCRATS TURN LEFT, BLACK VOTERS TAP THE BRAKES "I feel like some of the stuff that they do is just to hush us up and like … there you go," Dalia, an African-American from Detroit, told Fox News Digital. "It's just the way that they don't address our issues, issues that concern actually Black people, especially working-class Black people," Vincent, a Black voter from the Detroit area, said to Fox News Digital. "It's always a ploy to get the Black vote, make all these promises, but once that vote is in and stuff like that, then it's operation as normal," another Black voter said. Another snag for Democrats is their Senate nominee’s lack of support among African Americans in his primary election. DSA BRAND ON TRIAL AS EL-SAYED STRUGGLES WHERE DEMS CAN LEAST AFFORD IT Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s razor-thin win over Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., earlier this month was closer than expected, and Black voters appeared to have a lot to do with it. In jurisdictions with the highest percentage of Black voters, El-Sayed consistently struggled against Stevens. A collective analysis by The Hill found that in counties where Black residents account for 15% or more of the population, Stevens outpaced El-Sayed by an average of eight points. Fox News's Power Rankings currently have the Michigan Senate race rated as a toss-up while also showing a steady decline in Black support for the Democratic Party. El-Sayed, however, performed strongly in the Arab-American enclaves of Dearborn and Hamtramck. "I guess the Arabs resonate with who's running for Senate. So he don't really have to prioritize us because he has enough people on his side already," Parisia, another Black Detroit resident, told Fox News Digital. DEMOCRATS ARE IN BIG TROUBLE BECAUSE BLACK AND BROWN VOTERS DON’T WANT SOCIALISM "It’s a fool’s errand to assume terrorist-sympathizing and socialist-aligned candidates like Abdul El-Sayed and William Lawrence can unite Democrats in a general election when they’ve spent their careers disparaging Black Americans," RNC spokesman Hunter Lovell told Fox News Digital. Even some of the Black voters who told Fox News Digital that they were skeptical of the Democratic Party reported favorable feelings toward El-Sayed, however. Those views came despite criticism of El-Sayed’s relationship with socialist streamer Hasan Piker, whose comments about Black voters in a 2024 livestream have been cited by El-Sayed’s critics. During a 2024 livestream about Democratic border policy, Piker reacted to the claim that "Black people care about the border" by saying, "I don’t give a f--- what Black people care about or what you think Black people care about," before accusing Democrats of using Black voters as a "shield" to defend a rightward shift on immigration. "Like, shut the f--- up," Piker said. HALEY STEVENS URGES EL-SAYED TO DITCH HASAN PIKER AFFILIATION AFTER MICHIGAN PRIMARY One Black Detroit area resident told Fox News Digital that she was "appalled" by the fact El-Sayed was campaigning with Piker. "I guess clearly you don't care about Black voters then because you would never bring ... somebody to run with you who is against or not even against but who don't care about Black voters," she said. Lawrence, whom Lovell referenced, is another DSA-aligned candidate running in the Great Lakes State. Facing off with Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., Lawrence previously said Black Democratic leaders wrongly "defang the White left" because they support the establishment. "The extent to which the older generation of Black political leadership are such a pillar, frankly, for establishment, capitalist, imperialist American power through their role as this kind of traditionalist, establishmentist (sic) pillar of the Democratic Party, it’s a big problem," Lawrence said in 2024 on his Hegemonicon Podcast as reported by the Huffington Post at the time. "It really defangs the white left and puts us in impossible positions, really." Those comments led the Congressional Black Caucus PAC to release a statement saying that people supporting Lawrence should "denounce his hateful remarks and withdraw their support." Fox News Digital reached out to Lawrence for comment. JASMINE CROCKETT WARNS DEMOCRATS ARE TOO FOCUSED ON WHITE VOTERS, IGNORING BLACK VOTERS An African American pastor serving in the Detroit area told Fox News Digital that, while he strongly supports El-Sayed, whom he knows personally, Democrats can’t necessarily count on the Black vote as a given. "He does understand us," Keith said of El-Sayed, later noting that Democrats have "discovered that if you're not courted and not talked to or whatever, we don't necessarily turn out for you." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b0a42c5335ae104979cd WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert blames the wrong people for ‘sowing divisiveness’ in transgender debate te 2026-08-21T20:10:12.036Z WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert blames the wrong people for ‘sowing divisiveness’ in transgender debate WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert denounced those she claims are using the league to "sow divisiveness" over the topic of transgender athletes. Engelbert commented on the matter in Dallas on Thursday, a week after the league issued a statement criticizing concerns about transgender participation in the WNBA. "People are trying to use the league to sow divisiveness," Engelbert said Thursday while standing next to Wings CEO and managing partner Greg Bibb. CLUELESS WNBA ATTACKS 'BAD-FAITH' FANS WHO DON'T WANT BIOLOGICAL MEN RUINING WOMEN'S SPORTS "We're being the center of political football for people who have never watched the WNBA, never have written about the WNBA or reported on the WNBA," Engelbert added. For background, various WNBA players and media members condemned Fever star Sophie Cunningham for stating in an ESPN profile last month that efforts should be made to protect little girls from competing against biological males. The backlash within the WNBA to Cunningham's remarks prompted former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White to ask how women in the league would feel about having to compete against men. To find out, Freedom and White declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft, saying they identify as women. The league's collective bargaining agreement states that "only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA." The agreement does not include any more specific language about men who identify as women. Clearly, Engelbert and co. see Freedom, White, and XX-XY Athletics as the ones "sowing divisiveness." We disagree. The people who have turned the WNBA into a site of divisiveness are the players and media members openly hostile toward Caitlin Clark as a straight White woman and Cunningham as a proponent of keeping female athletes safe. BILL MAHER CALLS OUT THE LUNACY OVER SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM'S TRANS COMMENTS BEING TWISTED Let us not forget Cunningham's actual comments. In February, in an interview that was not published until July, she told ESPN: "I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I'm like, 'I never once said that.' I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men." That's it. She said she wanted to extend love while also protecting young girls from having to change next to and compete against biological males. According to polling data, around 78% of adults agree with her that males should not be allowed to compete against females in the name of transgenderism. And yet, those benign, commonsense remarks stirred league-wide backlash, protests, hostility from players, coaches, and talk show hosts, plus the usual blue-haired weirdos outside Fever games. Likewise, outsiders defend Clark because the mistreatment she receives from the league, players, officials, marketing campaigns, and media is too blatant to ignore. But because so few in the WNBA or sports media would dare stand up for a straight White woman experiencing racism from Black and queer players, it forced those who traditionally do not cover sports or the WNBA to weigh in. To understand how WNBA insiders cover the league, consider that Cindy Brunson argued DiJonai Carrington should not have been ejected for clotheslining Cunningham. Instead, Brunson said Cunningham should have been ejected for confronting Carrington after Carrington left her bloodied in the mouth. Defenders of Cunningham and Clark are not the villains in this story. The problem for Engelbert is that the true bad-faith actors in this saga are of a skin color and political bent that the WNBA is not comfortable identifying as villains. Or, as Engelbert would say, "sowing divisiveness" for personal gain. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b09e2c5335ae104979b8 Prior criminal history sends Lake Havasu man to prison te 2026-08-21T20:10:06.838Z Prior criminal history sends Lake Havasu man to prison His previous criminal history is a significant factor in the decision to send a Lake Havasu City man to the Arizona Department of Corrections rather than place him on probation, as requested. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88b09d2c5335ae104979af Mayes finds no evidence of bribery in Hobbs-Sunshine investigation te 2026-08-21T20:10:05.776Z Mayes finds no evidence of bribery in Hobbs-Sunshine investigation PHOENIX -- Attorney General Kris Mayes will not be bringing any charges against Gov. Katie Hobbs in connection an alleged pay-to-play scheme. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88ae432c5335ae10497948 The $225 Pebble Time 2 is a refreshingly fun smartwatch te 2026-08-21T20:00:03.965Z The $225 Pebble Time 2 is a refreshingly fun smartwatch The $225 Pebble Time 2 pairs quirky watch faces and apps with physical buttons, an e-paper display, weeks of battery life, and a playful hacker spirit. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88abea2c5335ae104978e5 Nvidia just showed that the harness, not the AI model, is now the real hero te 2026-08-21T19:50:02.815Z Nvidia just showed that the harness, not the AI model, is now the real hero Nvidia research shows that AI agents can perform well, and not go off the deep end, through fine-tuning, even if the AI model isn't that great at the task. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88a9932c5335ae104978a9 Desperation Mounts in Indiana After 10 Days Without Power te 2026-08-21T19:40:03.009Z Desperation Mounts in Indiana After 10 Days Without Power Floods from powerful thunderstorms devastated Gary, a city where a third of residents live below the poverty line. Full power restoration isn’t expected until next week. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88a7422c5335ae10497826 Trump-appointed judge blocks blue state's crackdown on ICE detention center te 2026-08-21T19:30:10.447Z Trump-appointed judge blocks blue state's crackdown on ICE detention center A Trump-appointed federal judge dealt a blow to Colorado’s effort to ramp up oversight of an ICE detention center by temporarily blocking key provisions in a state law after finding the state likely overstepped its authority. Chief U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico issued the preliminary injunction Thursday, ruling that Colorado likely crossed a constitutional line in a state law by imposing new requirements specifically targeting the GEO Group’s Aurora ICE Processing Center, which operates under a federal contract and is the state's lone ICE detention center. "Here, GEO has shown that it is singled out for a special bill that applies to no other facility," Domenico wrote. "That other facilities might have some similar regulatory burdens does not change the fact that none of them are required to comply with HB 1276. As GEO notes, the extent of the additional burden is irrelevant for purposes of this test." BLUE STATE’S ANTI-ICE PLEDGE COLLAPSES AS GOP WARNS OF NEW SANCTUARY ‘CONFEDERACY’ Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 26-1276 into law on June 4, expanding state and local oversight of immigration detention facilities. In his order, Domenico noted that GEO’s Aurora detention center was the only facility in Colorado subject to the law’s additional regulations as of May. "And though Colorado argues that the law only brings GEO into compliance with existing state regulations applied to other detention facilities, that law singles out this one category of facility for a separately defined set of restrictions and rulemaking," Domenico wrote. "And that is sufficient to establish that HB 1276 discriminates against GEO based on its status as a federal contractor." FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS NEW YORK LAW BANNING ICE AGENTS FROM WEARING MASKS The blocked provisions required unannounced inspections of the facility at least once every three months, with GEO required to pay for the inspections. The law also authorized civil penalties of up to $50,000 for each refusal to permit an inspection. "At least some of the burdens of this bill are unique," Domenico wrote. "The requirement of a certain number of unannounced visits, for example, does not appear elsewhere. And the state acknowledges that the penalty scheme is not imposed on other facilities." Colorado argued that the law simply put GEO on the same footing as other private detention facilities. But Domenico said that if the state had required immigration facilities to follow the same regulations governing facilities carrying out state policies, that argument "might be persuasive." CITIZENS BANK CUTS TIES WITH ICE PRISON CONTRACTORS AFTER MONTHS OF ACTIVIST PRESSURE The ruling relied heavily on the Constitution's Supremacy Clause. Domenico cited Supreme Court precedent stating that federal government activities generally must remain free from state regulation and that protections can extend to private contractors carrying out federal operations. Colorado's new law also sought to give the state authority to impose additional reporting and staffing requirements. Those provisions include potential annual reports concerning people with chronic health conditions and disabilities, dietary restrictions, access to attorneys and access to spaces for worship. The law also addresses the housing of minors and requires onsite medical and mental health professionals. Domenico did not block those provisions because Colorado told the court they were not currently being enforced and would require a future rulemaking process, which the state said it had no immediate plans to begin. The preliminary injunction will end on Oct. 15, when GEO's existing federal contract to operate the Aurora facility expires. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES COLORADO OVER IN-STATE TUITION AND FINANCIAL AID FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS Democratic Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said the ruling was only a minor victory for GEO. "Today’s ruling granted the GEO Group a narrow, temporary injunction against one provision of a new 2026 law—not the broad relief it sought—and leaves Colorado’s existing public health and safety authority intact," Weiser said in a statement Thursday. "Separately, our lawsuit filed yesterday seeks to enforce that existing authority and require GEO to cooperate with the state’s investigation into tuberculosis at the Aurora facility, and we will continue using every available tool to protect the health and safety of Coloradans." Colorado sued GEO on Wednesday, seeking to force the company to comply with a public health order stemming from a tuberculosis investigation at the Aurora facility. Health officials confirmed an active TB case there on June 22, but the state alleges GEO has failed to provide the records and cooperation needed to determine the extent of potential exposure. The state argues its authority to investigate communicable diseases predates HB 26-1276 and remains intact, despite Domenico’s decision temporarily blocking the law’s new inspection requirements. Fox News Digital reached out to GEO and Polis' office for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88a4eb2c5335ae104977d3 Supreme Court allows Trump’s White House ballroom construction to continue for now te 2026-08-21T19:20:11.015Z Supreme Court allows Trump’s White House ballroom construction to continue for now U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily allowed above-ground construction of President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom to continue Friday, staying a lower court injunction that would block the work. Roberts issued an administrative stay of the preliminary injunction entered April 16, by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, putting the injunction on hold "pending further order" from Roberts or the Supreme Court. The move puts the case in a temporary holding pattern while the Supreme Court considers whether construction can continue as the underlying legal battle plays out. Above-ground construction can continue for now. JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP TO HALT WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM CONSTRUCTION, ESCALATING LEGAL FEUD A federal appeals court mandate blocking construction had been scheduled to take effect Friday. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court last week to intervene in the months-long legal battle, arguing that halting construction would threaten national security and the safety of the president and other senior officials. TRUMP SAYS WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM RULING JEOPARDIZES LIVES OF FUTURE PRESIDENTS, VOWS SUPREME COURT APPEAL In its emergency application, the administration described the project as an "integrated military complex" that includes a secure ballroom space and argued that the project is critical to protecting the president, his family, White House staff and visiting foreign leaders. The administration also pointed to assassination attempts against Trump in arguing for additional security measures associated with the new complex. TRUMP PULLS BACK CURTAIN ON WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM’S FORTRESS-LIKE DEFENSES ABOVE AND DEEP BELOW The emergency application went to Roberts, who handles emergency matters arising from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is suing to block the project, opposed the administration's request and argued that Congress has authority over federal property and had not authorized the ballroom project. REPUBLICANS RUSH TO GREEN LIGHT WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM FOLLOWING THIRD TRUMP ASSASSINATION SCARE The preservation group also accused the administration of attempting to outrun judicial review by accelerating construction while the litigation proceeded. In its filing, the group said a 250-person crew had been working "20 hours a day, 7 days a week." The Trump administration has taken an aggressive position in the dispute, arguing that construction has advanced to the point that judicial intervention would come too late. APPEALS COURT LETS TRUMP RESUME WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM CONSTRUCTION, SEEKS LOWER COURT CLARITY The legal fight reached the Supreme Court after a divided federal appeals court ruled that Congress had not authorized the ballroom. The ruling would have blocked above-ground construction while allowing underground work associated with new security features to continue. Roberts' Friday order keeps the lower court injunction on hold for now but does not resolve the underlying dispute over the project. MORNING GLORY: SCOTUS SHOULD URGENTLY ALLOW CONSTRUCTION AT THE WHITE HOUSE TO PROCEED The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88a4ea2c5335ae104977ca Jim Harbaugh is unhappy with his punter's embarrassingly weak tackle attempt on a touchdown return te 2026-08-21T19:20:10.256Z Jim Harbaugh is unhappy with his punter's embarrassingly weak tackle attempt on a touchdown return There are good plays and bad plays during an NFL season, and coaches accept that fact, but when a player doesn't try or simply quits on a play, that's a problem. And that's why Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh now has a problem with his punter JK Scott. Harbaugh was not necessarily in a good mood following his team's blowout loss (we'd tell you the score but preseason scores don't matter) to the San Francisco 49ers late Thursday night. And then the subject of Jacob Cowing's 83-yard punt return against the Chargers came up, and that made Harbaugh seriously displeased. JIM HARBAUGH, CONFIRMED LOVER OF LOVE, WAS HAPPY JUSTIN HERBERT TOOK TIME OFF IN EUROPE WITH MADISON BEER Why? Because Scott had an opportunity to tackle Cowing and decided not to. It's not that Scott attempted to make the play and failed. Scott simply didn't try. He gave up. Made a business decision. It was so egregious that Harbaugh was asked after the game if the team has told Scott, the only punter on the roster, not to make the attempt so as to not injure himself. "No, he’s got to plan, when he’s in that position, to make a tackle," Harbaugh said tight-lipped. "So, we need to work on it, coach it up." The Chargers apparently do not condone simply allowing the opposing team's ballcarrier to breeze past without at least trying. It gets worse. SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST SPORTS NEWS Scott, who finished 10th in the NFL last season with a 47.8 punt average, apparently outkicked his coverage with a 52-yard boot. But Harbaugh was so peeved by the play, his take was that Scott kicked the ball short. "The punt was short and in the middle and we got outflanked," Harbaugh said. Scott apparently was not approached by reporters and did not speak to any after the game. He should probably get used to that happening in the coming days because everyone wants to know what the heck he was thinking in the moment. And what he thinks of his inclusion in tackle drills at practice. FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88a4e22c5335ae1049779c Last chance: Save up to $300 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 ticket today  te 2026-08-21T19:20:02.093Z Last chance: Save up to $300 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 ticket today  If you’ve been circling around Disrupt, then now’s the best time to lock in your pass and start getting ready to join the rest of the startup community gathering in San Francisco from October 13-15 at Moscone West! Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88a2932c5335ae10497778 Cambridge professor's death after resignation sparking dangerous calls for media censorship, scholar warns te 2026-08-21T19:10:11.526Z Cambridge professor's death after resignation sparking dangerous calls for media censorship, scholar warns A civil liberties group that advocates for free speech is cautioning against letting concerns over former Cambridge professor Jason Arday's death turn into media censorship. In an interview with Fox News Digital on Thursday, Senior Scholar for Global Expression at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) Sarah McLaughlin detailed how there has been a major push for censorship in the United Kingdom in the wake of Arday's death.  "And there's a few different avenues this is coming from," she said. "There are some activist groups and nonprofits who are pushing for a government inquiry into the press and into what kind of process media outlets engaged in that led them to producing all this coverage about him and about the allegations, about plagiarism and other things about his life. But it's also been picked up by a number of politicians who have signed on to petitions about media inquiries." Last week, the former university professor was found dead at a south London address. Though his death was treated as "unexpected," Metropolitan Police informed BBC News that it was "not believed to be suspicious," leading some to suspect Arday died by his own hand. UK POLICE APOLOGIZE TO 'FATHER TED' CREATOR GRAHAM LINEHAN FOR ARREST OVER TRANS SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS This came just days after Arday announced that he would be resigning from the University of Cambridge after the school announced an investigation into his academic qualifications and honorary appointments amid plagiarism accusations. In a statement, he suggested "public scrutiny" of him was a factor in his resignation. "Sadly, the years since my appointment have also been marked by an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack. While criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement. The relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love," Arday wrote. After his reported death, some have suggested that the press was partially to blame for Arday's death, and members of the UK's Green Party have pushed for measures to reform "media power" in response. Arday's resignation was covered extensively in the media, in the UK, the U.S. and other countries. There were also open questions about his biography, which included claims that critics and media reports alleged ranged from exaggerated to fabricated. Now, more than 133,000 people as of Friday afternoon have signed a petition from the UK nonprofit the Good Law Project, which demands a public inquiry to "ensure a responsible press" in the wake of Arday's death. It cited the coverage that it felt happened after his resignation "when the reasonable public interest in the story had diminished or evaporated." "His tragic death did not result from the allegations of plagiarism but from the press coverage," the petition reads. "There cannot be any doubt that racism lay at the heart of this story." PASTOR CONVICTED FOR PREACHING JOHN 3:16 NEAR HOSPITAL FILES APPEAL, WARNS OF FREE SPEECH PRECEDENT McLaughlin, who covered the topic in an essay for FIRE on Thursday, emphasized that while it was "reasonable" to criticize and push back on media for inaccurate reporting, censorship was not the solution. "The UK already does censor quite a lot of speech. So, you know, there's a certain point where people might say, ‘OK, well, we already censor this. What more could we be censoring to stop this from happening again?’ And I think that's really the wrong lesson to learn from this," McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. She added, "I don't see how that would work at all, if I'm being honest. But also imagine what kind of tool that could be for bad actors who want to silence their critics, who want to silence people talking about bad conduct or even crimes. And so I think people just need to remember that there are ways that we can approach this. There are ways we can challenge coverage that we think is wrong, but giving the government power to censor speech, to censure the press. It won't fix this, but it will just create more problems." TUNING OUT: WHY MANY AMERICANS ARE SICK OF THE NEWS – ESPECIALLY TRUMP NEWS Media critics after Arday's death included controversial author and anti-racism activist Ibram X. Kendi, who wrote in an essay for The Emancipator last week that the "White-owned, mainstream media" had "lynched" Arday. "To be a prominent antiracist Black scholar is to know you are a target, almost totally surrounded by resentments. You know that at any point, the attacks can come like a lynch mob. And if you die from all the attacks, the media still calls the attacks on you ‘accusations’ to wash their hands of the blood. Your lynchers announce your death as if they had no role in your lynching," Kendi wrote. McLaughlin said that people are still free to criticize and challenge media with their own freedom of speech. "The press has rights, and so do their critics. And so people who don't like what these outlets have been writing, they can unsubscribe," she said. "They can challenge them. If they don't like what media commentators have been saying or writing about Arday, I think they can point it out and say, 'You're wrong, you're being cruel.' That's their right. But I do not think people have thought through what it would look [like] to get the kind of censorship they're asking for." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88a2922c5335ae1049776f Americans warned of kidnapping, extortion as violent crime grips parts of tourist spot te 2026-08-21T19:10:10.702Z Americans warned of kidnapping, extortion as violent crime grips parts of tourist spot The State Department is warning Americans to steer clear of parts of a South American country as violent crime, terrorism and kidnapping raise safety concerns among tourists. The State Department this week issued a Level 2 "Exercise Increased Caution" advisory for the nation of Ecuador. In the advisory, officials warned of widespread crime across Ecuador, including murders, assaults, kidnappings and armed robberies linked to drug trafficking. ROBBERIES, ASSAULTS AND RAPES SPUR NEW US TRAVEL WARNING FOR POPULAR CARIBBEAN GETAWAY "Areas with transnational criminal organizations have much higher rates of violent crime," officials said. "U.S. citizens and U.S. lawful permanent residents have been victims of kidnapping and extortion." The country sits between Colombia to the north and Peru to the south, along South America's Pacific coast. Ecuador is sought by many tourists for its dramatic Andean landscapes and historic cities, as well as the Galápagos Islands. Americans make up Ecuador's largest group of foreign visitors — accounting for roughly a third of international arrivals in 2025, according to Ecuador's National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC). AMERICANS WARNED POPULAR TRAVEL ROUTES THIS SUMMER COULD CARRY CRIME AND KIDNAPPING RISKS The heightened warnings cover several areas frequented by travelers, including parts of Guayaquil and the coastal provinces of Manabí and Santa Elena. Popular destinations such as Quito, Cuenca and the Galápagos Islands are not among the areas designated "Do Not Travel" or "Reconsider Travel." The advisory also referenced terrorist violence and civil unrest and reported that demonstrations can block roads and disrupt transportation and essential services. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER "Most of Ecuador's land is empty and remote, especially outside big towns and cities," the advisory added. "Help from local authorities [and] the U.S. government may be very limited in remote areas, causing delays." Fox News Digital reached out to the U.S. State Department for additional comment. CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS The advisory follows a series of recent travel warnings issued by U.S. officials. TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ Earlier this summer, the U.S. renewed a Level 2 "Exercise Increased Caution" advisory for the Bahamas. That advisory cited violent crime, burglaries, sexual assaults and armed robberies. Officials also updated the Level 2 "Exercise Increased Caution" advisory for Turks and Caicos in July due to assaults, petty crime and scams targeting tourists, particularly in popular tourist areas. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88a28c2c5335ae10497756 Small Plane Crashes in Western Alaska, Killing Eight te 2026-08-21T19:10:04.337Z Small Plane Crashes in Western Alaska, Killing Eight The Cessna aircraft was flying to Cape Newenham from Anchorage when it crashed near a U.S. military site, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88a0322c5335ae1049770c Prison Firm Donated to Trump’s PAC After ICE Gave It $165 Million a Year in Contracts te 2026-08-21T19:00:02.687Z Prison Firm Donated to Trump’s PAC After ICE Gave It $165 Million a Year in Contracts The GEO Group has profited from the administration’s mass deportation campaign. A subsidiary donated more than $1.4 million to the president’s super PAC last month. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a889de12c5335ae104976d3 Southern California hits ICE with 'dumbfounding' roadblock as top lawmaker rips 'reckless' hypocrisy te 2026-08-21T18:50:09.368Z Southern California hits ICE with 'dumbfounding' roadblock as top lawmaker rips 'reckless' hypocrisy California’s second-largest county has barred federal immigration agents from using county shooting ranges and firearms training facilities, drawing accusations of hypocrisy from the top Republican in the state Legislature, who represents part of the county. The move comes as Democrats criticize ICE over the training its agents receive, while dozens of members of Congress have questioned training standards following deadly agent-involved shootings. California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-Poway, told Fox News Digital exclusively that the decision clashes with Democrats’ own demands for better-trained ICE agents. "Leftist Democrats cannot continue to advocate for federal agents to ‘get more training’ while at the same time purposefully removing opportunities like this to get that very training," Jones told Fox News Digital. "The hypocrisy is dumbfounding." FEDERAL COURT BLOCKS NEWSOM’S BID TO SHACKLE ICE IN TRUMP IMMIGRATION WIN The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 at its August meeting to end licensing agreements with DHS that allow agents to use the Miramar and San Diego Regional firearms training centers. Jones said the move has consequences beyond preventing federal agents from using the facilities, arguing that their presence also provides an economic benefit. "Not only do they speak from both sides of the mouth with actions like this, but this continues the board’s trend of making reckless fiscal decisions that harm San Diegans, seemingly by the day," Jones said. "How much will this breach-of-contract and loss of business cost our community and its taxpayers?" DEMOCRAT COMPARES ICE TO 'DOMESTIC TERRORISTS' AS 111 HOUSE DEMS DEMAND TEXAS DETENTION CENTER CLOSE Supervisor Paloma Aguirre, D-San Ysidro, pushed back on critics during the meeting. She said they will never feel the fear some San Diegans experience when they hear knocks on their doors from the "people who are supposed to protect you." "I see what that fear does every day in the South Bay," she said, adding that, as the supervisor representing the Mexican ports of entry in San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, she understands the importance of the border and the people who cross it daily. "When fear forces a community into silence, the people they elected have a duty to speak and that's what this item is about," she said. The board’s two Republicans, Jim Desmond and Joel Anderson, voted against the measure. Desmond is running this fall to succeed retiring Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. FLEEING SUSPECT IN NEW JERSEY STRIKES ICE AGENT, WHO OPENS FIRE The San Diego vote comes as nearly three dozen House Democrats demand answers from DHS about the training and preparedness of immigration agents following the agent-involved shooting death of a Minnesota woman. Authorities said the woman tried to run over an agent with her car. "Although Acting Director Lyons has said that he has not lowered the training threshold for ICE agents, there is substantial evidence that contradicts this claim. Specifically, it has been reported that the training for ICE agents was significantly reduced…" a letter to DHS, CBP and ICE from 28 lawmakers led by Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Ore., read. FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS NEW YORK LAW BANNING ICE AGENTS FROM WEARING MASKS Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., also questioned whether federal immigration agents receive sufficient training during a February hearing. "What are they going to do with all of these [DHS agents] as they are learning on-the-job with weapons in their hands, wearing masks so they can’t be identified? …Visualize the America they’re designing for us in the future with those parameters," Durbin said to Cato Institute scholar David Bier. ICE EYES $20M PURCHASE OF ELECTRIC SHOCK GLOVES AS HOCHUL WARNS OF LEGAL CONSEQUENCES Calls for additional training have also come from inside the Trump administration. "There's always room for improvement. Things change all the time," Border Czar Tom Homan told reporters in July. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER "You can never be overtrained. I wish there was more training." Fox News Digital reached out to Salinas and Durbin for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a889de02c5335ae104976ca Top 5 most heated moments as progressives spar over who is farther to the left in final Dem Senate debate te 2026-08-21T18:50:08.612Z Top 5 most heated moments as progressives spar over who is farther to the left in final Dem Senate debate The two Democratic candidates for United States Senate in Massachusetts took to the debate stage on Thursday night, with both making the case to voters in the deep blue commonwealth that their campaigns are most likely to deliver on far-left agenda items. Incumbent Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., faced pressing questions over hot-button issues, including transgender athletes participating in women's sports, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, term limits in Congress and socialism’s growing influence within the Democratic Party during their final debate. Markey and Moulton both agreed that biological males should be able to participate in female sports, with Markey saying, "Yes, I do," when asked if that should be allowed. "That is the law in Massachusetts, and I think it's the correct law," he said. SUPREME COURT MAKES RULING ON TRANS ATHLETES IN WOMEN'S SPORTS The question of transgender athletes in sports did get contentious when Markey called out Moulton over a comment two years ago in which Moulton said he did not want his young daughters "getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete." Markey accused Moulton of using transgender athletes as "political fodder" and throwing them under "the political bus." In response, Moulton apologized for his past remarks, saying he did not intend to hurt anyone and that Republicans were the real enemy as Markey laughed and shook his head throughout the answer. "My intention is to say, if we as Democrats don't start making these decisions, don't foster this debate ourselves, then we're just ceding the field to Republicans who will continue to put forward this hateful legislation," he said. The exchange sparked criticism from conservatives online after it was highlighted by the Republican National Committee (RNC) X account. "Another Democrat senator says 'it is absolutely essential' that males should be able to play in female sports. Should women boxers, runners, and shot put throwers have to compete against me?" Crime Prevention Research Center President John Lott posted on X. "Why do Democrats keep fighting on this hill?" Turning to immigration enforcement, Moulton and Markey both called for abolishing ICE and holding the Trump administration accountable for its actions. Moulton called ICE "completely corrupt" and "staffed by thugs," while calling for their prosecutions. "I think a mistake that we made after the first Trump administration is not doing enough to hold them accountable," he said. Markey said he opposed ICE’s creation from the beginning over "seeds of authoritarianism." Both Democrats took aim at President Donald Trump, with Markey calling for his impeachment and accusing him of using the SAVE America Act to "steal" the election. WATCH: HAWLEY FUMES AFTER 4 GOP SENATORS HELP SINK TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID LAW "That's what the SAVE America Act is all about," he said. "It's all about stealing the election this fall." The GOP-backed voter integrity bill championed by Trump would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to cast a ballot in federal elections and has faced intense Democratic opposition as well as a difficult path in the Senate. Moulton blamed the Democratic Party and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for failing to push back on MAGA Republicans. "The Democratic establishment, especially under Chuck Schumer, has not been effective at holding Trump accountable, has not been effective in winning majorities across the country, has not been effective at fundamentally defeating Trump and the MAGA Republicans," he said. As socialist candidates continue to gain power in the Democratic Party and win elections across the country, both candidates urged the party to embrace the shift and move even further to the left. Markey said his party should continue to be "more progressive" and focus on the priorities of young voters when both candidates were asked what the Democratic Party needs to change as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) continues to gain traction. DEM REP SETH MOULTON SAYS PARTY HAS NO IMMIGRATION PLAN, IS ONLY ‘OPPOSITION TO TRUMP’ "They support Medicare for all," he said. "They know the healthcare system in our country is a sick care system. They want it fixed. They want a Green New Deal." Moulton said Democrats need to break from the party establishment and instead focus on affordability, pointing to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as an example. "I mean, we saw this from Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City now," he said. Socialists have also gained momentum within the party after scoring several primary victories ahead of the midterms. When asked about term limits, Markey, who was first elected to the House in 1976, defended his ability to serve another term, insisting he can "do the job." "Well, I think everyone watching this debate can see that I'm more energized than I've ever been before and in my life," the 80-year-old senator said, adding that "Congressman Moulton has a hard time keeping up with me." Moulton said on the stage that he supports term limits in Congress. "I served with some of the most amazing leaders in my life in the Marines, but at 23 years old, they don't get to run for Congress," Moulton said. "I think we should have upper age limits as well." The winner of the Sept. 1 Democratic primary will advance to the November general election to face Republican attorney and Marine veteran John Deaton in the high-profile race. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a889b852c5335ae1049765a Chief Justice Allows Trump to Continue White House Ballroom Construction, for Now te 2026-08-21T18:40:05.125Z Chief Justice Allows Trump to Continue White House Ballroom Construction, for Now The 90,000-square-foot ballroom project has grown in size and scope, with the president’s lawyers saying it is intertwined with the renovation of an underground military bunker. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8899362c5335ae10497615 Portugal enacts 'burqa law' largely prohibiting face coverings in public te 2026-08-21T18:30:14.734Z Portugal enacts 'burqa law' largely prohibiting face coverings in public Portuguese President António José Seguro has enacted a measure that largely prohibits individuals from covering up their face while out in public, a restriction broadly viewed as being aimed at Muslim women, according to AFP. But the report noted various carve outs to the prohibition, including for health, professional, artistic, or weather-linked issues, and for when people are at locations of worship, diplomatic missions, or aboard planes. Those who fail to comply face being slapped with fines of 150 euros to 3,000 euros, according to the outlet — those figures convert to around $175 and $3,500 respectively. MS RACHEL POSTS SUPPORT FOR HIJAB-WEARING KINDERGARTNERS AFTER TRUMP POST The final edition of the measure, which has been characterized by local media as the "burqa law" in reference to the body and face covering that some Muslim women wear, was adopted by the Portuguese parliament last month, according to AFP. The law bans sporting coverings meant to hide a person's face or block identification in public areas, and bans requiring someone to cloak their face due to gender, religion, age, or origin, the report states. EL-SAYED BOOKED FOR MAJOR ISLAMIC CONVENTION ALONGSIDE CLERICS WITH RADICAL PASTS "For the President of the Republic, the uncovered face constitutes a structuring dimension of social trust, a characteristic of Portuguese society," according to an English translation of a Portuguese-language press release. "Social integration, non-discrimination based on gender, and the security resulting from similar decisions by the European Court of Human Rights underpin this decision. The President of the Republic shares this Court's conviction that the face is central to human identity and communication, serving as a minimum element for mutual recognition among fellow citizens," the release notes. PASTOR UNLEASHES ON DEARBORN AS RELIGIOUS TENSIONS ERUPT AT CITY COUNCIL MEETING: 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH' "And to admit that women, and only women, must hide their entire faces implies an asymmetry incompatible with the values ​​of parity and equal dignity between men and women, values ​​that shape European democracies," the release states. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8899352c5335ae1049760c Sec. Sean Duffy: My job is to get my daughter into heaven, not Harvard te 2026-08-21T18:30:13.989Z Sec. Sean Duffy: My job is to get my daughter into heaven, not Harvard My wife and I have a saying we’ve repeated often over the years to our 9 children, "My job is to get you into heaven, not Harvard." This week, I learned that principle is pretty controversial. On Wednesday, I officially launched "The Great America Road Trip" series on YouTube. The show, which follows my family as we discover America, promotes road trips at a time when so many Americans feel disconnected from their country and even from their own families. On one of our stops, my family did what many families do; we visited prospective colleges. We drove to Boston to tour Boston College and Harvard University, the latter being our daughter Paloma’s first-choice school. Before we arrived, I sat down with her and spoke frankly. I told her that Harvard, like so many of America’s elite universities, has become a factory for anti-American and anti-Christian ideas. I had no interest in writing a check so that an institution could undo the 18 years Rachel and I spent instilling our child with our Catholic morals and values. SEAN DUFFY FACES FAMILY DILEMMA OVER EMBATTLED IVY LEAGUE SCHOOL AND CHRISTIAN VALUES No surprise — leftists on social media are losing their minds. How dare a father express concern for his daughter’s soul in the college decision-making process? They can’t imagine anyone would forego the bragging rights of an elite Ivy League. In fact, Democrats and their media allies seem utterly unaware that millions of ordinary parents are having precisely the same kitchen-table conversations. As I told Paloma, these institutions have "professionalized figuring out how they can take good young girls and corrupt their minds." Back in 2020, our oldest daughter Evita was canceled and even received a death threat at the University of Chicago for holding conservative opinions. After this dramatic experience, Rachel and I resolved that we would only pay for colleges we approved. Our list, partially formed by a conversation we had with Victor Davis Hanson, did not include Harvard for its hostility to free speech, lack of ideological diversity among its faculty, and crazy woke antics. HARVARD REPORTEDLY INVESTIGATING REPUBLICAN CLUB OVER SOCIAL MEDIA POST ABOUT MUSLIM GROUP'S CAMPUS EVENT Despite all my reservations about Harvard and institutions like it, Paloma applied during her senior year, and I decided we should take a family road trip to see it for ourselves. The experience, documented on the road trip, proved eye-opening. At Harvard, we met with Father Nathaniel Sanders, the undergraduate Catholic chaplain. I was struck by the strength of the student Catholic community at Harvard. Not only does the Catholic center retain incoming Catholic students; it also has a remarkably large rate of conversions among non-Catholic students — nearly 80 last year alone. NEW STUDY REVEALS THE SINGLE MOST CRITICAL FACTOR IN WHETHER CHILDREN KEEP THEIR FAITH INTO ADULTHOOD During our meeting, Father Sanders said something that shifted my perspective: "If someone has a sense of themselves and a sense of God before coming, I think that will only flower." The truth is, some young Christians can handle a place like Harvard — provided they have a strong religious community in which to take refuge. Others will fall prey to woke indoctrination. It is up to me as a parent to discern which of my children will thrive in this adversarial environment and which would do best with the support of an authentically Christ-centered university. I believe conservatives should not cede our nation’s elite institutions to the left. We must populate them with conservative students and professors, cut federal funding to universities that house critical-theory curricula, demand ideological diversity in hiring, and strip woke schools of the tax-exempt status that shields their multibillion-dollar endowments. The Trump administration has already begun applying that pressure to Harvard and its peers. Paloma is a remarkably intelligent young woman with strong character and values. As the episode unfolds, her mom and I decide to bend our rules and let her attend if she is accepted. You will have to watch the series to see where she is accepted and decides to go. What I will never do is apologize for wanting to protect her soul. That is a father’s sacred duty, whether the left likes it or not. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION In a sane society, this would be the most ordinary of statements. Yet modern culture has spent decades denigrating the very role of the father. Sitcoms made the bumbling, clueless dad a staple, while academic and media narratives frame traditional paternal authority as "toxic masculinity" or a relic of patriarchy. Ultimately, if you want to arm your kids against the modern world, a family road trip is a powerful place to begin. Our broken institutions work overtime to disconnect families from one another and from the country itself. By loading up the car and facing the open road together, parents do the slow, essential work of transmitting faith, values, and identity that no radical classroom can easily erase. Freed from the constant distractions of screens and extracurriculars, a road trip gives you the time and space to talk to your kids, teach them to love their country by actually seeing it, and prepare them for the day they eventually hit the road without you. You can watch "The Great American Road Trip" for free on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s YouTube channel. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8899342c5335ae10497603 10 comfortable walking shoes on sale at DSW, starting at $55 te 2026-08-21T18:30:12.998Z 10 comfortable walking shoes on sale at DSW, starting at $55 Whether you’re on your feet all day or trying to get more steps in, a comfortable pair of walking shoes is essential. Right now, you can save on styles from Skechers, Brooks, New Balance and more at DSW, with our favorite picks starting at $55. Original price: $77.99 Our favorite sneaker for a reason, the Skechers Summits High Range Slip-On gets it right. It’s affordable, extremely comfortable and has a slip-on design that's convenient for daily wear. Take $10 off with code BACKPACK. Original price: $70 With New Balance’s proprietary foam midsoles, the Fresh Foam 520 V9 delivers ample cushioning for running or long walks. The mesh upper adds breathability and keeps the overall weight of the shoe down for comfort. Shop women's sizes here. READ MORE: 14 slip-on shoes that make getting out the door easier, from sneakers to clogs Original price: $100 The Brooks Revel 8 is a sporty running sneaker with thick DNA LOFT v2 midsoles that provide excellent energy absorption and cushioning. The knit upper and lacing system provide breathable comfort and stability. Women’s sizes are also available. Original price: $79.97 The Skechers Slip-Ins Arch Fit Drex sneakers are minimal and airy, making them ideal for staying cool on long walks. Memory foam insoles and slip-in technology add to the comfort and convenience that Skechers is known for. The sneakers are on clearance but you can get an additional $10 off with code BACKPACK. READ MORE: Podiatrists say these Brooks sneakers can help with plantar fasciitis — now $100 on Amazon Original price: $170 With a rounded toe box, high-stack DNA LOFT v3 midsole and wide outsole for added stability, the Brooks Ghost Max L is made specifically for walking. It has a leather upper, as opposed to knit or mesh, to provide durability and protection in most walking conditions. Original price: $80 Built for runners, the Skechers Max Cushioning Endeavor is lightweight, responsive and secure. Even if you’re not an avid runner, the cushioned construction makes it a comfortable option for everyday wear. Take an additional $10 off the clearance price with code BACKPACK. Original price: $160 Whether you’re walking, jogging or running, the Ghost Max 3 provides stability with its broad base midsoles, while the mesh upper helps with breathability. They’re also available in women’s sizes. READ MORE: Expert-recommended shoes to help with plantar fasciitis, starting at $75 Original price: $75 Asics is known for supportive walking and running shoes, and the Gel-Contend 9 combines everyday comfort with an approachable price. OrthoLite footbeds add cushioning underfoot, while AMPLIFOAM+ midsoles help absorb impact with each step. Original price: $104.99 The New Balance 370 pays homage to retro running sneakers with a combination of mesh, suede and branding on the upper. Foam insoles and thick EVA midsoles add cushioning underfoot. Use code BACKPACK for 25% off. Women’s sizes are also available. For more deals, visit www.foxnews.com/deals Original price: $129 Unlike most slip-on sneakers with elastic laces, the Kizik Athens features a traditional lacing system. The traditional laces give it the look of a standard sneaker, while the brand’s Hands-Free Labs Cage technology lets you step in without using your hands. Women's sizes are also available. Looking for another comfortable pair? Check out this Amazon deal on a pair of Brooks sneakers that a podiatrist recommends for cushioning and stability. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8899342c5335ae104975fa Hasan Piker calls Hamas 'far more moderate,' dismisses terror group’s brutal rule in Gaza te 2026-08-21T18:30:12.255Z Hasan Piker calls Hamas 'far more moderate,' dismisses terror group’s brutal rule in Gaza Far-left Twitch streamer Hasan Piker called Hamas "far more moderate" than at its inception during a Wednesday Channel 4 News UK "TrumpWorld" interview as the co-host Matt Frei confronted him over his past praise of the terrorist group. Piker's comment drew condemnation Friday from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) over his growing influence among progressive Democrats. "I think Hamas’s current position, as far as I understand it, is far more moderate than its position was at its inception," Piker said. "They've recognized that it's virtually impossible to advance this vengeance quest against Israel." An ADL spokesperson rejected Piker’s characterization in a statement to Fox News Digital Friday, pointing to Hamas' October 7 attack and its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza. "Hasan Piker's claim that Hamas has grown ‘more moderate’ is outrageous. Hamas remains a U.S.-designated terrorist organization committed to Israel's destruction, responsible for the October 7 massacre and continued abuse of the very Palestinians it claims to represent," the spokesperson said. WHO IS HASAN PIKER? MEET THE FAR-LEFT STREAMER WHO IS STIRRING UP CONTROVERSY AND DIVIDING DEMOCRATS "Any candidate or platform that hosts him or associates with him without challenge lends legitimacy to that rhetoric," the statement added. Republican Jewish Coalition National Political Director Sam Markstein also rejected Piker’s characterization. "There is nothing ‘moderate’ about Hamas, and there is nothing defensible about Hasan Piker," Markstein said, in a statement Friday to Fox News Digital. Markstein pointed to Piker's previous statements that he would vote for Hamas over Israel and that the terrorist group was "a thousand times better than" the Jewish state. He also pointed to Piker's appearances with Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed. "Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and a growing list of progressive Democrats are proud to campaign at his side. Every Democrat who has embraced Piker owes us a straight answer: 'Do you stand with his apologetics for a brutal terrorist organization, yes or no?'" he said. "His rising influence inside the Democratic Party is a flashing red warning to Jewish voters about exactly where that party is headed, and it isn't with us," Markstein continued. EL-SAYED PALS AROUND WITH FAR-LEFT STREAMER HASAN PIKER THE DAY BEFORE CRUCIAL MICHIGAN SENATE ELECTION Channel 4 host Matt Frei told Piker that the network's Palestinian journalists had described Hamas as unpopular in Gaza and said the group had violently repressed dissent. Frei asked why Piker framed Palestinian resistance through Hamas despite its treatment of Gazans and the October 7 terrorist attack. "They exist under a colonial occupation. Gaza is a hermetically sealed open-air prison before October 7 as well," Piker said. "So I think a lot of the violence or the brutality in terms of governance stems from that. I don’t think it’s, like, an ideological disagreement." "I don't care about Hamas's domestic functions," he added. "I just want the apartheid and the occupation to end." HASAN PIKER'S DEFENSE OF HAMAS HAVING 'RIGHT TO RESIST MILITARILY' DRAWS CONDEMNATION FROM HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS Piker also said he did not support Hamas governing Gaza and acknowledged that war crimes occurred on October 7, while insisting that Palestinians retained a right to "resist militarily." Piker pointed to Hamas' 2017 political document as evidence that the group had evolved since its original 1988 charter. The document described a Palestinian state along the lines that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War as a consensus position, but it also explicitly refused to recognize Israel, rejected conceding any of the territory it defined as Palestine and identified armed resistance as a strategic choice. CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE The State Department has designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization since 1997. The Justice Department said Hamas terrorists killed nearly 1,200 people, including more than 40 Americans, and kidnapped hundreds during the October 7 attack. El-Sayed appeared repeatedly with Piker during the Michigan primary campaign, including at a Detroit pool party the night before Election Day. When asked later whether he would welcome Piker back to the campaign trail, El-Sayed did not directly answer but rejected Piker’s past remark that America deserved 9/11. "Of course it was a dumb statement and, of course, I think Hasan himself would say that was a dumb statement," El-Sayed said. "He disavowed it. So yes, America didn’t deserve 9/11." Fox News Digital reached out to Piker for additional comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88992d2c5335ae104975df Guide Company That Ran Fatal Ski Trip Faces Safety Fine in California te 2026-08-21T18:30:05.526Z Guide Company That Ran Fatal Ski Trip Faces Safety Fine in California The state levied a $151,300 fine on Blackbird Mountain Guides, which took backcountry skiers into the Sierra Nevada in threatening conditions. Nine died in an avalanche. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8896d92c5335ae104975a3 Mugshot of accused NY Capitol ISIS plotter revealed as feds detail plans for more attacks te 2026-08-21T18:20:09.690Z Mugshot of accused NY Capitol ISIS plotter revealed as feds detail plans for more attacks A newly released booking photo shows the face of the Albany woman accused of pledging allegiance to ISIS and plotting to bomb the New York State Capitol in an attack she allegedly hoped would kill scores of people, including state senators. Jessica Bowie, 35, appears in the three-view booking image from the Schenectady County Correctional Facility, a stark contrast to surveillance images released by federal authorities that showed her dressed in a burka during the investigation. The new image comes as an FBI affidavit paints a fuller picture of Bowie’s alleged transformation from a social media user into an ISIS supporter, who authorities say spent weeks scouting the Capitol and taking steps toward an attack. FBI ARRESTS WOMAN WHO ALLEGEDLY PLOTTED ISIS-LINKED ATTACK ON NEW YORK STATE CAPITOL BUILDING AMERICAN YOUTH RADICALIZED ONLINE, BUSTED IN SUSPECTED TERROR PLOTS AFTER HATING COUNTRY ON SOCIAL MEDIA Bowie converted to Islam about five years ago and adopted the name "Aisha Saif," according to the affidavit. During her exchange with undercover agents, Bowie discussed her conversion to Islam, sharing that she had gone from "a little girl waving an American flag after 9/11" to having stickers depicting the falling towers, according to investigators. Investigators said she maintained more than a dozen social media profiles, many of which were repeatedly suspended for violating platform rules. By May, accounts linked to Bowie were sending messages that the FBI characterized as "support for terrorism." NAVY VETERAN AMONG TRIO WHO ALLEGEDLY WANTED TO BEHEAD SOLDIER AND FUND ISIS DRONE ATTACKS ON AMERICANS "Praise be to Allah for September 11th," Bowie allegedly wrote to another user in Arabic on May 28. In another message that month, she allegedly wrote: "When I can migrate, I will poison these infidels." The FBI says Bowie also repeatedly pledged "bayah," or allegiance, to ISIS and sent audio recordings of herself making the pledge to people she communicated with online. ALLEGED ISIS-INSPIRED TERROR SUSPECTS LEFT FEDS ‘VOLUMINOUS’ DIGITAL TRAIL, FAMILY BREAKS DOWN IN TEARS By July, according to investigators, her rhetoric had turned into a plot to attack the New York State Capitol building in Albany. An FBI confidential source posing as an ISIS facilitator began communicating with Bowie through an encrypted messaging app on July 16. Bowie allegedly told the source she wanted help making explosives and identified the New York State Capitol as her target. "I would like to target [the] state capitol," she allegedly wrote. Bowie told the source she wanted to benefit ISIS and "harm the enemies of god," the affidavit says. TRUMP ADMIN INVOKES 30-YEAR DORMANT TERROR COURT AS IT SEEKS TO DEPORT AFGHAN WOMAN TIED TO ELECTION DAY PLOT WATCH: NORTH CAROLINA WOMAN CHARGED IN ALLEGED HOUSTON SYNAGOGUE ATTACK PLOT AS INVESTIGATORS SEARCH FOR 2 OTHERS Investigators said Bowie soon began repeatedly scouting the Capitol. Between about July 21 and Aug. 9, she walked around the building on roughly five separate occasions, taking photographs of the Capitol and surrounding area while studying its security, according to the FBI. On one visit, she allegedly sent dozens of images to the confidential source and said she planned to have picnics nearby and drink coffee in the observation hall so she could learn more about the building. SUSPECT PLEADS GUILTY TO PLOTTING TAYLOR SWIFT VIENNA CONCERT ATTACK By July 29, Bowie allegedly told the undercover source what she wanted the attack to accomplish. "I want to destroy as much of the building as possible and kill the senators while they are meeting," she told the source, according to the affidavit. "I want it to have a [sic] affect on the American system." That same day, investigators say Bowie discussed concealing the explosive in a bag that would make her appear to be a food-delivery worker. "Blowing kafirs brains out is beautiful," she allegedly told the source while discussing her desire to escape to Syria after the bombing. READ THE AFFIDAVIT: The alleged plot grew more detailed during an Aug. 5 meeting with two additional FBI confidential sources whom Bowie believed were connected to ISIS. Bowie said she ideally wanted to strike when the greatest number of senators were inside and use an explosive powerful enough to kill them and destroy as much of the Capitol as possible, according to the affidavit. When one of the sources discussed the size of the device that would be required, Bowie allegedly made clear that a small death toll would not satisfy her. "I want something that’s gonna do the job," she said, according to the affidavit. "I don’t want to take this kind of risk and then have it kill what, two or three people what good is that?" Killing the senators, she allegedly said, was "the most important part." WATCH: Bowie also spoke about potential future targets. "Ideally, it would be the White House with the President," she allegedly said, before calling it a more difficult target and describing the Capitol as the biggest political building she could readily reach. She separately discussed returning to the United States after fleeing and carrying out additional violence, including around New Year’s Eve in Times Square, according to the affidavit. On Aug. 5, Bowie allegedly used $200, supplied by one of the FBI sources, to purchase materials at a Home Depot in Rensselaer, New York, that she believed would be used to construct the explosive device. The FBI says she spent about 28 minutes inside the store and emerged with materials that included a large container of nails. "I hope the nails are big enough ... because the nails work as shrapnel, right?" she allegedly asked after returning to the vehicle. A photo released by the Department of Justice allegedly captured the suspect checking out at the Home Depot store. Bowie also told investigators she had a DoorDash bag that could conceal the finished device and delivered the bags to confidential sources the following day, according to the complaint. She later referred to the planned attack as an "operation give taghut the boot," according to the affidavit. FOLLOW US ON X By Aug. 13, Bowie was allegedly seeking a handgun she could conceal beneath her clothing and use to shoot at police if officers approached her during the attack. Six days later, she met again with the confidential sources and paid $150 for what she believed was a handgun, magazine and ammunition. The gun was inert. She was also shown an inert explosive device that she was told had been assembled using the materials she bought at Home Depot. CLICK HERE FOR MORE U.S. NEWS During that final meeting, Bowie allegedly said she had learned the Capitol could contain as many as 200 people and hoped to kill at least half of them. She also said that if her roommate discovered the device, she would have to kill the roommate quietly by cutting her, according to the FBI. GET BREAKING NEWS ALERTS WATCH: SEND US A TIP The FBI arrested Bowie after she left the Aug. 19 meeting carrying the inert firearm and purported explosive device. Agents said they found knives and a handwritten pledge of allegiance to ISIS on her. New York State Police told Fox News Digital that it could not locate any state police reports involving Bowie, while referring questions about the current investigation and the Aug. 19 operation to the FBI. GOT A TIP? Bowie is charged with attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Fox News Digital has reached out to the FBI Albany Field Office, and Bowie's public defender for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8894832c5335ae10497532 Schumer ducks question on campaigning with socialist candidate who refuses to back him as leader te 2026-08-21T18:10:11.257Z Schumer ducks question on campaigning with socialist candidate who refuses to back him as leader The Senate’s top Democrat hasn’t said whether he’ll stump on the campaign trail for Abdul El-Sayed, but argues that he brings fresh juice to the Democratic Party in its quest to flip the Senate. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is confident that Democrats can retake the Senate from Republican control, but the path to do so runs right through the Wolverine State, where El-Sayed bluntly said he wouldn’t back the top Democrat to lead the caucus if he’s elected. But whether Schumer makes an appearance in Michigan between now and November remains up in the air. When asked whether he would campaign with El-Sayed during a press conference highlighting the recent race rating shifts in Texas and Iowa, the top Senate Democrat bulldozed over the question. SENATE MAP TIGHTENS AS TOP FORECASTER MOVES 3 RACES TOWARD DEMOCRATS "I have one mission: Win the Senate. We are on the path to doing it. Look, the bottom line is that we will win Michigan," Schumer said. "El-Sayed has brought in new energy and new talent into the Democratic Party. But also in Michigan itself." When asked about progressive upstarts gaining footing and winning in primaries across the country, like in Florida, Wisconsin and Michigan, Schumer countered that the Democratic Party is a "big tent party." "Not everyone has the same exact view on every single issue," Schumer said. "But if you look at the overall issues, the costs that people pay, the chaos in the Trump administration, you see it daily. And the corruption." BOMB-THROWER DEM MAKES SHOCKING PROMISE TO KICK SCHUMER TO CURB DURING SENATE DEBATE Still, El-Sayed isn’t on board the Schumer train. He’s said that he would support Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., to be Democratic leader, and has bucked the Democratic establishment throughout his campaign. The pair have talked since El-Sayed's victory earlier this month about shifting the focus to going after President Donald Trump, The New York Times reported. When asked one word to describe Schumer, El-Sayed said, "Pragmatic." CANADA REPORTEDLY SCRAPS JOINT BRIDGE CELEBRATION WITH US AFTER TRUMP RENEWS TARIFF THREAT Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are confident that after the bloody primary fight among El-Sayed, Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., and Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, they can flip the seat and grow their thin majority in the upper chamber. Former Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee who narrowly lost to Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., in 2024, despite Trump winning the state over former Vice President Kamala Harris, has been busy painting El-Sayed as a far-left radical on the campaign trail. Schumer argued that Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Canada spurned the state and gave Democrats an advantage over Rogers, given that Michigan shares a border with the Canadian province of Ontario, where billions in trade have crossed boundaries for years. "Anyone who is halfway decent as president knows that the Michigan economy and the Canadian economy are totally intertwined," Schumer said. "He's blowing it. We will win Michigan." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8894822c5335ae10497529 EXCLUSIVE: Angel dad finds ‘new purpose’ with ICE after daughter’s killing turned his world upside down te 2026-08-21T18:10:10.574Z EXCLUSIVE: Angel dad finds ‘new purpose’ with ICE after daughter’s killing turned his world upside down EXCLUSIVE: A grieving angel dad whose daughter was killed by an illegal alien told Fox News Digital how the tragedy reshaped his life — and what he hopes to accomplish leading ICE’s office for victims of illegal alien crime. "I was living a comfortable, simple life, looking forward to, like, retiring and just watching my kids, and my whole world is upside down," Joe Abraham said on Friday, his first day leading ICE's Victims of Immigrant Crime Engagement (VOICE) office. "My life as I know it is not there anymore." In January 2025, Abraham's daughter, Katie, was killed by an illegal alien who was drunk driving in their home state of Illinois. The perpetrator, Guatemalan national Julio Cucul-Bol, who was using an assumed Mexican identity and who did not speak English, was captured in Texas days after the crash as he tried to flee to Mexico. ANGEL DAD TAKES MAJOR NEW ROLE AFTER DAUGHTER’S KILLING SPARKS SWEEPING ILLEGAL ALIEN CRACKDOWN He was charged with multiple offenses and later pleaded guilty to charges that included aggravated driving under the influence resulting in death and leaving the scene of a fatal crash. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. "So, I am in a wilderness and I'm wandering. I'm trying to find my new purpose without Katie," said Abraham. "I wasn't supposed to. I need Katie. I still need Katie, but I'm trying to find a way through this life without her now. I want her to be proud. I want her name to mean something." HUNDREDS OF JAILED ILLEGAL ALIENS RELEASED BACK ONTO BLUE-STATE STREETS DESPITE ICE DETAINERS, RECORDS SHOW Katie Abraham's story inspired ICE's Operation Midway Blitz, a sweeping federal immigration enforcement action that netted the arrests of more than 4,000 illegal aliens in the Chicago area late last year. Abraham said it wasn't easy to walk away from the life he's known, which he described as "cushy." He's a lifelong Illinoisan who was forced to confront an unimaginable reality, and found it impossible to get support from state officials. DHS SCORCHES PRITZKER'S 'SANCTUARY' STATE AFTER CHILD RAPIST ON ICE DETAINER RELEASED "Give me Katie and you'll never hear from me again," he said. "But that is not reality — and I think it is part of the mission — part of the mission is to help other people. "I know what they're going through and they need help. I want be one of the guys that helps them." Abraham was invited to a congressional oversight hearing in June 2025 on illegal immigration, where Katie's story was highlighted. Pritzker, along with other Democratic governors, were at the hearing, which focused on sanctuary state policies where officials refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, even in cases of the most heinous violent crimes. Abraham said Pritzker and congressional Democrats refused to acknowledge him. ANGEL DADS FACE ANOTHER FATHER'S DAY WITHOUT CHILDREN KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: 'SHE SHOULD BE GRADUATING' But he found support from President Donald Trump, who invited him and other angel families to the White House. He described Trump as "genuine" and "empathetic," unlike, says Abraham, the way the 47th president is portrayed in the media. That meeting launched a cascading series of events that eventually landed him the job he started today. He partnered with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) doing communications work, telling his story across multiple platforms. ANGEL FAMILIES PLEAD WITH LEADERS TO 'CHOOSE' AMERICAN CHILDREN OVER PROTECTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS He plans to continue that work at VOICE. "I think what we'd like to see the voice, number one is awareness," Abraham said. "We want people to know that we're out here and some of the services that we can offer. I want this to be someplace where victims feel heard, feel cared for, feel dignity. I mean, they deserve nothing less than that." ANGEL MOM WARNS DEMOCRATS 'WE'RE NOT GOING TO STOP' AFTER EMOTIONAL HOUSE HEARING ON SANCTUARY POLICIES The VOICE office was reestablished by the Trump administration in April 2025, after President Donald Trump directed DHS to revive the Biden-era shuttered office upon taking office for his second term in January. Since then, it has had a major impact helping families of illegal alien crime victims. DEMOCRAT SCRAMBLES TO MEET ANGEL MOM AFTER SHE BLASTS LAWMAKERS TO THEIR FACES FOR IGNORING FAMILIES’ PLEAS The office helps victims navigate the complex world of immigration law, and often provides them information about their loved ones' cases. It also directs families to social service like grief therapy that can assist them in the wake of the death of a loved one. Americans can also report illegal alien crimes through the office. VOICE has received 897 total calls from victims, family members and advocates and has helped 588 victims seeking assistance and information, according to a report published in June. Further, it has assisted 185 victim family members seeking services and information. The most frequently reported crimes are assault, at 35%, rape and sexual assault, at 17%, and homicide and manslaughter, at 10%. "When these tragedies happen, and I can use myself as an example, you're still in a fog, right? You're sometimes not thinking straight. You're not getting everything. Like everything isn't sort of absorbing," he said. "You know, you're so focused on the grief and the tragedy and the loss that it would have really been helpful instead of me trying to have like six different places to go, then I can just go to one place and they will help me." Pritzker's office did not immediately return a request for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88947c2c5335ae104974fa Tesla’s solar roof is dead. Here’s what went wrong te 2026-08-21T18:10:04.710Z Tesla’s solar roof is dead. Here’s what went wrong Tesla's solar roof was an experiment that never really caught on for the company. But does that mean the concept of roof-integrated solar is dead? Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88922e2c5335ae104974d5 Luke Bryan tries his hand at White House press secretary with Jason Aldean by his side te 2026-08-21T18:00:14.325Z Luke Bryan tries his hand at White House press secretary with Jason Aldean by his side Country stars Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean traded the stage for the White House briefing room Thursday, taking turns behind the podium ahead of their Washington, D.C., tour stop. The visit quickly turned into a mock press briefing, with Bryan pretending to field questions as Aldean, his wife Brittany and others looked on. A video shared by the Trump team on Instagram poked fun at Bryan's turn behind the microphone ahead of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt's upcoming departure. "@lukebryan heard that there is an opening for Press Secretary 🤣 @karolineleavitt," the account captioned the video. JASON ALDEAN SAYS HE AND WIFE BRITTANY ‘AGREE TO DISAGREE’ AFTER 11 YEARS OF MARRIAGE AS THEY TEAM UP FOR DUET The clip begins with Aldean stepping away from the podium and switching places with Bryan, who walks up to the microphone as Brittany Aldean and others in the room look on, smiling. Bryan then appeared to settle into the role, jokingly answering a question about a Texas agricultural issue. "I think the screwworms are screwed," Bryan said. "We've immobilized sterile male flies," he continued before enthusiastically pointing toward a woman in the room who applauded his answer. "See! I've been listening to our conversations!" New World screwworms are a parasitic livestock threat, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has used sterile flies as part of efforts to combat their spread. Bryan reportedly met with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins during his visit to Washington, D.C. PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE The country stars were in the nation's capital for their co-headlining "Double Down Tour" show at Nationals Park. Bryan also reportedly spent time with Vice President JD Vance before he and Aldean stopped by the briefing room. The Trump team's press secretary joke comes after President Donald Trump announced earlier this month that Leavitt will leave her White House role at the end of August to spend more time with her family. TRUMP SAYS KAROLINE LEAVITT WILL LEAVE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY ROLE, BECOME OUTSIDE ADVISOR "Our wonderful White House Press Secretary, and one of my most trusted aides, Karoline Leavitt, will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Trump said Leavitt, who recently returned after giving birth to her second child, will remain one of his top outside advisers. She became the youngest person to serve as White House press secretary when she took the role at 27. While Aldean has been outspoken about his support for Trump, Bryan has generally kept his political views out of the spotlight. In 2022, the "American Idol" judge faced backlash after bringing then-Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis onstage during a Jacksonville concert following Hurricane Ian. LUKE BRYAN CREDITS RELIGIOUS ROOTS AND SMALL-TOWN VALUES FOR HELPING HIM NAVIGATE A ‘CHALLENGING LIFE’ Bryan responded at the time by emphasizing that the appearance was about helping hurricane victims rather than politics. "I've generally stayed out of politics throughout my career," Bryan shared to X, explaining that when a governor asks for help raising awareness for victims of a natural disaster, "you help." GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE Bryan has also spoken about his reluctance to wade into controversial topics because of how quickly comments can take on a life of their own online. During an October 2024 appearance on "The Joe Rogan Experience," Bryan recalled an early-career interview that he believed was taken out of context and discussed his wariness of modern media coverage. "They'll take your five minutes right out of context," Bryan said during the podcast. The three-hour episode aired Oct. 23, 2024. Aldean, meanwhile, has made no secret of his relationship with Trump. The country singer has publicly called Trump a friend and, following the July 2024 assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, dedicated "Try That In A Small Town" to him during a concert. Aldean and Brittany also attended the 2024 Republican National Convention, where they were seated near Trump. Thursday's White House stop appeared considerably lighter, with the longtime friends using one of Washington's most recognizable podiums for a little pre-show entertainment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8892242c5335ae104974a6 Waymo hands over documents in NHTSA’s child collision probe te 2026-08-21T18:00:04.314Z Waymo hands over documents in NHTSA’s child collision probe The responses to NHTSA's questions so far are redacted entirely, citing "confidential business information." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a888fd02c5335ae1049746f AEW's Adam Copeland getting a chance to appear at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto means more beyond wrestling te 2026-08-21T17:50:08.557Z AEW's Adam Copeland getting a chance to appear at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto means more beyond wrestling Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling (MLP) will hold Northern Rising on Oct. 3 at the venue historically known as Maple Leaf Gardens, now known as the Mattamy Athletic Centre at the Gardens. There is high anticipation for the event. Not only is a Canadian professional wrestling company returning to a place where the National Wrestling Alliance held major matches in the past, but All Elite Wrestling (AEW) star Adam Copeland will finally receive his own full-circle moment. COMPLETE PRO WRESTLING COVERAGE ON OUTKICK For Copeland, Toronto is home. Going to Maple Leaf Gardens to watch pro wrestling as a kid was a seminal moment for a young Copeland. It allowed him to dream about getting into the squared circle himself. "Maple Leaf Gardens was the very first time I saw wrestling live, and to see it live and for it to be this tangible thing and wait, these guys and women, they’re real," he told OutKick in a recent interview. "I can go see them and actually smack hands with them and that kind of thing? But just the feeling that it gave me as a release and as a place where I didn't have to worry about things as a kid and I didn't have to think about, you know, the stuff that goes on in life. We lost my uncle when I was very young and I was very close to him and I feel like that was a big hole that wrestling helped try and fill, it doesn't fill it, but you know what I mean. "Man, the first time I saw it, I just went, I got to do this. But I'm 9, 10 saying that, right? But it was Maple Leaf Gardens and the fact that it was in that venue added more importance to it for me because all I ever did was watch stuff from Maple Leaf Gardens whether it was Maple Leaf wrestling or the Toronto Maple Leafs. My world kind of revolved around that arena and I never got down for a Leafs game, but we could afford wrestling tickets and so to get down there, experience so many shows over there over the years and just experience what it felt like because, I've said before, I feel at a certain point, if the arena’s been around long enough and had enough shows and experiences there, they almost start to soak in some of those experiences and some of that energy and some of those emotions so that when you walk in them, you feel like, oh, stuff has happened here." Copeland said being able to actually compete at Maple Leaf Gardens had eluded him. ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! By the time he was fully performing in the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE), the company was doing shows in the SkyDome (now Rogers Center) and the Air Canada Centre (now Scotiabank Arena). "But I just missed it and I just missed a lot of them. I just missed Boston Garden. I just missed the Spectrum. I just missed these ones," he said. "So, the fact that I can go back and have an opportunity and also do my first, ‘indie show’ in I don't even know how long and to do it in Canada, to do it in that arena, to do it with (MLP owner) Scott D’Amore, who, you know, we started in the industry at the same time and rode so many roads together and lived together and experienced so much together and remained in contact all these years and he had seen an interview I did where I said I think I might have to run a show at Maple Leaf Gardens in order to check that one off my list and here we are, four years later, maybe five, and get a chance to do it, I mean I was going to make sure it happened I just thought it might be on my own trying to figure it all out once I retire, but then when I retire, I just want to retire." Copeland said he was thankful D’Amore was able to help put together Copeland’s appearance and was excited for the opportunity. "And man, I just can't wait. I can't wait to feel it to just to experience that and have my own working experience there," he told OutKick. "I have my own personal experiences there that I know and I've kept and I always will keep close to heart. But to be able to create one of my own, that’s very special. And to do it off the back of Arena México, Wembley coming up, Maple Leaf Gardens, it's like, man, I'm checking them. I'm getting them. I'm getting them done. And it's fun at this stage of my career, this deep in to still have those things to chase. I think that's what's kept me kind of like, right, OK, and then the danger is there's always that thing to chase but I've come to terms with that." Northern Rising is already sold out as MLP moves closer to the major event. MLP hosts "Mayhem" weekly, which can be seen on TSN. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a888d7d2c5335ae1049741f Trump to transform spaceflight from spectacle to status quo targeting 3 launches per day te 2026-08-21T17:40:13.868Z Trump to transform spaceflight from spectacle to status quo targeting 3 launches per day The Trump administration’s new space policy aims to ramp up U.S. space traffic to nearly three launches or reentries a day by 2030. The effort would put the U.S. on a much faster pace for deploying satellites that support GPS, weather forecasts, internet access and military communications as Washington races to stay ahead of China in space. A White House policy released Thursday directs federal agencies to expand U.S. launch and reentry infrastructure to support more than 1,000 rocket launches and spacecraft returns each year by 2030. The plan would expand launchpads, military ranges, airspace corridors and regulatory systems, with the government explicitly leaning on commercial companies to help carry the load. RUNWAY-TO-SPACE CHALLENGE BRINGS SPACEFLIGHT CLOSER In fiscal year 2024, the FAA licensed 148 commercial launches and reentries, a record at the time. The push reflects how space has become part of the country’s everyday economic infrastructure. As more businesses, households and government agencies rely on satellite internet, navigation and real-time data, the ability to quickly launch and replace satellites will increasingly affect the reliability of those services. The policy comes as China undertakes its own rapid space buildup, expanding launch sites and building large satellite constellations for internet, communications and surveillance. The Pentagon also warns that China is developing missiles, jammers and other tools to disrupt U.S. satellites in a conflict. China launched 67 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance-capable satellites in 2024 alone, bringing its total to more than 500, according to a Pentagon report. TRUMP SWINGS FOR MOON WITH NUCLEAR REACTOR PLANS AS CHINA, RUSSIA TEAM UP IN SPACE RACE In a conflict with China, analysts warn that some of the first attacks could target satellites hundreds of miles above Earth. Chinese missiles could target satellites in low-Earth orbit, while jammers, lasers and cyberattacks could disrupt the GPS signals, imagery and secure communications that U.S. forces rely on to find targets and coordinate operations across the Pacific. The Pentagon has warned that Beijing is developing those capabilities to restrict U.S. access to space in a conflict. The ability to quickly launch replacement satellites could help the United States restore those networks if a space attack disrupts operations on the ground, at sea or in the air. US GENERAL WARNS RUSSIA MAY BE DEVELOPING NUCLEAR ANTI-SATELLITE WEAPON IN ORBIT The order also calls on the department, NASA and the Transportation Department to identify barriers to launching high-priority civilian or national-security payloads within 48 hours of need. In a conflict, that could mean rapidly replacing a disabled communications, navigation or surveillance satellite rather than waiting months for a launch slot. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER The plan also acknowledges that a launch boom could create disruptions much closer to home. As rockets take off and spacecraft return at a far faster pace, the government will have to coordinate those operations with commercial and private aviation. Trump directed the Transportation Department to develop a plan within 180 days to integrate launch and reentry management into air-traffic-control modernization and designate priority airspace corridors for critical launches. The policy does not appropriate money or guarantee the country will reach the 2030 target. Instead, it creates a government-wide blueprint to address bottlenecks such as limited launch ranges, crowded airspace, permitting delays, spectrum access and a shortage of reentry infrastructure that could prevent the U.S. from getting needed satellites into orbit. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a888d7d2c5335ae10497416 'Yellowstone' creator Taylor Sheridan was 'homeless twice' before building TV empire te 2026-08-21T17:40:13.177Z 'Yellowstone' creator Taylor Sheridan was 'homeless twice' before building TV empire Taylor Sheridan now owns sprawling Texas ranches, commands some of Hollywood’s biggest television franchises and has become one of the entertainment industry's most powerful creators. But before the horses, cattle and Hollywood heavyweights came calling, Sheridan said he was sleeping in his car. "I was homeless twice," Sheridan told Town & Country. The "Yellowstone" creator recalled driving away from Los Angeles during those desperate stretches. TAYLOR SHERIDAN TAKES SWIPE AT LOS ANGELES AFTER BUILDING TV EMPIRE FROM TEXAS "I lived in my car. Sometimes I’d go to Ojai, just somewhere where I could safely sleep. I did that for six months," he said. Sheridan is now the creative force behind "Yellowstone," "Landman," "The Madison" and several other series. But the road there was brutally uncertain, and Sheridan said he could have walked away. "I could have decided at any point, ‘I’m going to go get a full-time job, and I’m going to give up this dream,’" he said. "And I chose to sleep in my car over that." GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE Sheridan spent years trying to make it as an actor, taking whatever television work he could find. His acting breakthrough came in 2008, when he joined FX's "Sons of Anarchy" as Deputy Chief David Hale. Sheridan tried to negotiate a raise but decided to leave the show after the two sides failed to reach a deal. His character was then killed off. His run ended in 2010 — the same year Sheridan and his then-partner, actress and model Nicole Muirbrook, welcomed their son, Gus. Sheridan and Muirbrook tied the knot in 2013. LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Sheridan decided to change the rules for himself in Hollywood and started writing. "Sicario," which Sheridan wrote and Denis Villeneuve directed, became Sheridan's first produced screenplay in 2015. "Hell or High Water" followed a year later and earned Sheridan an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay. Sheridan's success also allowed him to build the life that had always been pulling him away from Los Angeles. "When I sold that first screenplay, I bought a little house on an acre on a river in Wyoming," he told Town & Country. PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE He paid for it outright. Then came more land, more horses and, eventually, much bigger properties. Today, Sheridan is a major Texas landowner whose holdings include Bosque Ranch and the historic 6666, or Four Sixes, Ranch. His ranches have also served as filming locations for his productions, helping Sheridan bring the working Western world depicted in his shows to the screen. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a888d7b2c5335ae104973fd Mohave girls golf starts season on Wednesday, boys faced MALC on Tuesday te 2026-08-21T17:40:11.577Z Mohave girls golf starts season on Wednesday, boys faced MALC on Tuesday The Mohave High School girls golf team started its season Wednesday afternoon against Kingman and Lee Williams at Cerbat Cliffs Golf Course. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a888d7a2c5335ae104973f4 Girls Golf-Jennessy Canales-Million Mohave.jpg te 2026-08-21T17:40:10.589Z Girls Golf-Jennessy Canales-Million Mohave.jpg Jennessy Canales-Million hits the ball toward the hole at Cerbat Cliffs Golf Course. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a888d792c5335ae104973eb Girls Golf-Aryana Burch2 Mohave.jpg te 2026-08-21T17:40:09.600Z Girls Golf-Aryana Burch2 Mohave.jpg Aryana Burch looks to the flag as she prepares her shot on Wednesday. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a888b222c5335ae104973a6 Laken Snelling, ex-University of Kentucky student, pleads guilty to death of baby found dead in closet te 2026-08-21T17:30:10.561Z Laken Snelling, ex-University of Kentucky student, pleads guilty to death of baby found dead in closet A former University of Kentucky student-athlete has pleaded guilty to charges related to the death of her infant son, who was found inside a trash bag in a closet. Laken Snelling, 22, a member of the university's STUNT team, initially pleaded not guilty before changing her plea on Friday in connection with her newborn's death, FOX 56 reported. She was indicted by a Fayette County grand jury and faced a slew of charges, including abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant. "I was under a lot of emotional stress and my baby came unexpectedly," Snelling said while crying in court. "And instead of helping him, I ended his life and afterward I cleaned up and didn’t tell anyone." AUTOPSY RESULTS DEEPEN MYSTERY OF INFANT ALLEGEDLY FOUND DEAD IN UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY ATHLETE'S CLOSET When asked by Judge Diane Minnifield how she ended the baby's life, Snelling said: "I deprived him of oxygen." Commonwealth's attorney Kimberly Baird said that Snelling’s attorney approached prosecutors as plans changed. ATTORNEY WHO DEFENDED DC SNIPER SAYS KOHBERGER FACES 'MONUMENTAL UPHILL BATTLE' UNDOING GUILTY PLEA "This was a case that needed to go straight to the grand jury anyway, as opposed to just entering a plea," Baird said, according to the news outlet. "The grand jury returned the indictment for first-degree manslaughter, and then they returned and suggested that offer. We accepted." Officers in Lexington responded to reports of an unresponsive infant on Aug. 27, 2024, and found the child's remains inside a black trash bag, according to a news release from the city of Lexington. The baby's body was cold. KENTUCKY COLLEGE ATHLETE ACCUSED OF HIDING DEAD BABY IN CLOSET WAS ‘SERIAL BULLY,’ FORMER CLASSMATE SAYS Snelling was arrested days later. She told staff at the University of Kentucky hospital that she heard the newborn "whimper" at birth and "guessed" he was alive, according to an affidavit previously cited by FOX 56. The baby also showed "a little fetal movement," the court document stated. Snelling told investigators that she was awake for 30 minutes after giving birth before passing out on top of the baby. When she woke up, she saw the newborn "turning blue and purple," court documents state. She believed the baby was dead, so she "wrapped him like a burrito" and laid next to him, saying it "gave her comfort," officials said. At some point, she told her roommates that she was going to see a doctor because she had fainted from not eating. Afterward, she picked up McDonald’s and went to the student health clinic but "did not go inside," the affidavit stated. A subsequent search of Snelling’s phone revealed she had deleted labor photos and evidence of the pregnancy, police said. Snelling faces up to 10 years in prison. Fox News Digital has reached out to Snelling's attorney and the Fayette Commonwealth's Attorney's Office for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a888b212c5335ae10497399 Arrested for sitting on a curb: Phoenix Community Court offers restorative justice te 2026-08-21T17:30:09.570Z Arrested for sitting on a curb: Phoenix Community Court offers restorative justice The post Arrested for sitting on a curb: Phoenix Community Court offers restorative justice appeared first on Cronkite News. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8888c92c5335ae10497347 12-year-old North Carolina girl escapes alleged kidnapper after being forced into truck te 2026-08-21T17:20:09.218Z 12-year-old North Carolina girl escapes alleged kidnapper after being forced into truck Police say a North Carolina girl, 12, was kidnapped by a 38-year-old man, who allegedly forced her into his truck before she was miraculously able to escape while he was parked at a DMV office. Daniel Gear allegedly abducted the girl, who has not been identified by authorities, while she was hanging out with his niece at his home on Aug. 16, WNCN reported. According to an arrest warrant, Gear abducted the girl without the consent of her parents or guardians with the intent of "terrorizing" her. Gear also pushed the girl to the ground and unlawfully restrained her, per court records. The Harnett County Sheriff's Office told WNCN that at around 1 p.m., investigators discovered that Gear and his pickup truck had vanished from his home in Lillington, a small town roughly 30 miles south of Raleigh. TWO MISSING CHILDREN RESCUED FROM TRAILER AS POLICE ARREST BABYSITTER ON KIDNAPPING CHARGES Harnett County Sheriff's deputies, along with Erwin police, launched a manhunt for Gear using drones and K-9 units, WNCN reported. Investigators said the girl managed to get away from Gear when he parked his pickup truck at a DMW office in Erwin, a town 11 miles southeast of Lillington. The child flagged down a driver, Jennifer Maxwell, who sat down with WRAL for an interview. "I was almost at the DMV right there at the wooded area beside the lawyer's office, and all of a sudden, this little girl came running out of the woods and down the embankment," Maxwell said. "And she kind of just dropped in a ditch and was just crying hysterically." FLORIDA MAN ALLEGEDLY KIDNAPPED TEEN GIRL AND HID HER INSIDE A CLOTHES DRYER BEFORE SHE CALLED 911 Maxwell continued: "I pulled over to her and I rolled down my window, and I was like, 'Baby, are you okay?' And she was like, 'No, I've been kidnapped.'" Maxwell described the girl, who was wearing no shoes, as "all scratched up." She said she called 911 immediately. The girl told Maxwell that the man who kidnapped her woke her up in the middle of the night and told her to get in his car, according to the WRAL interview. After that, the girl said he pulled off into a wooded area and made her walk for "a couple of hours" while he repeatedly pushed her and grabbed her shoulder, Maxwell said. Roughly seven hours after the girl escaped, deputies found Gear in a wooded area along U.S. Highway 421 and placed him under arrest, WNCN reported. Gear was charged with first-degree kidnapping and assault on a female. He is being held in jail on a $2.5 million secured bond. He is scheduled to appear in court for a probable cause hearing on Sept. 1. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88841d2c5335ae10496ce0 Raiders' Fernando Mendoza once again goes viral during an interview for hilarious Joe Buck greeting te 2026-08-21T17:00:13.959Z Raiders' Fernando Mendoza once again goes viral during an interview for hilarious Joe Buck greeting Fernando Mendoza continued to make his case for becoming the NFL’s most interesting interview on Thursday night. During the fourth quarter of the Raiders’ 22-20 win over the Houston Texans in the team’s second preseason game, Mendoza joined ESPN’s Laura Rutledge for an interview. Play-by-play announcer Joe Buck segued to the interview by saying, "Hi, Laura! Hi, Fernando!" The rookie quarterback made sure to greet Buck in return while being incredibly formal in doing so. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM "Please tell Mr. Buck I say, ‘Hello.'" Mendoza said as the interview was concluding with a salute to the camera. The former Indiana star’s response drew a laugh from Rutledge, Buck and analyst Troy Aikman. Rutledge asked Mendoza why he didn’t greet Aikman the same way. "Oh, of course," Mendoza said. "I mean, he’s a legend. I think Mr. Buck needs some love, because Mr. Aikman is already, you know." The crew laughed through Mendoza’s response and then showered praise upon the No. 1 overall pick following another memorable interview. ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! "You see, there it is. Back to Mr. Buck," Buck said. "That’s the stuff. He is unique. And yeah, I’ll take that. We’ll take the love from Fernando Mendoza. And he says all the right things." "What a refreshing personality he is," Aikman said. The former Dallas Cowboys star called Mendoza easy to root for. Unfortunately for Mendoza, his second preseason start didn’t go as swimmingly as his first. On his second pass of the game, he threw an 80-yard pick-six to Texans fourth-round rookie linebacker Wade Woodaz. Mendoza, who played the first half, completed eight of his 15 passes for 86 yards and the aforementioned interception. Thursday was the first time Mendoza seemed to endure some growing pains. Against the Arizona Cardinals last week in his first preseason game, he completed 10 of 16. Despite Mendoza’s struggles on Thursday, Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak surprisingly declined to name Kirk Cousins the Week 1 starting quarterback. The Raiders' preseason finale is against the San Francisco 49ers next Thursday. Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88841c2c5335ae10496cd7 French transgender phenom Julie Tetart looks absolutely unstoppable in latest videos, but WNBA still silent te 2026-08-21T17:00:12.782Z French transgender phenom Julie Tetart looks absolutely unstoppable in latest videos, but WNBA still silent For a league that's built on being pro-trans in sports, it remains a mystery as to why a WNBA team hasn't kicked the tires on French basketball phenom Julie Tetart, especially a team that might have to face Angel Reese in the playoffs. As Reese dominates in the paint and collects 'mebounds' at a record pace to the point where even woke ESPN is mentioning the rebound phenomenon, Tetart has been preparing for the 2026-27 French LF2 season with the Monaco Basket Association team. In video released this week by Monaco, Tetart appeared chiseled beyond anything you'd see out of the WNBA and ready to dominate a league that already proved it couldn't handle the transgender scoring and rebounding machine. "If they contact me, I won't say no," the 34-year-old biological male told OutKick earlier this month. FRENCH TRANS PHENOM JULIE TÉTART LOOKS WNBA-READY — SO WHY HASN’T THE ‘INCLUSIVE’ LEAGUE CALLED? Apparently, the WNBA still hasn't called, but why? Teams are getting absolutely destroyed by Reese on the glass. "Fact: Reese leads the league in total second-chance points this season with 148, which is 30% of her total 499 points. According to Elias, second-chance points account for 26.7% of her career total, the highest percentage of any active player and ninth all time," ESPN continued. If only there was a rebounder in the world who could go toe-to-toe with Reese. Go watch that video above again. What do you notice? It's simple: muscle, core, leg strength. Tetart spent all summer in the gym and it shows. ESPN TURNS ANGEL REESE’S 49 ‘MEBOUNDS’ INTO PROOF THAT SHE’S A LEGENDARY WNBA REBOUNDER This is the exact athlete that Reese doesn't face on a nightly basis. Now I want you to watch the athletes Reese is rebounding against. Watch this whole video. Now I want you to watch the intensity, power, grit and determination that Tetart brings to the court. Reese has never faced an athlete like Tetart. What is the WNBA afraid of? Don't you want to stop Reese? STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! There's an easy solution: Tetart. Now it's just going to take a GM to show he/she wants to win. Go get a Reese stopper. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8884122c5335ae10496ca7 Why is the DOJ investigating Andreessen Horowitz’s board seats? te 2026-08-21T17:00:02.414Z Why is the DOJ investigating Andreessen Horowitz’s board seats? Andreessen Horowitz has two partners sitting on the boards of companies that now compete with each other: Ben Horowitz at Databricks and Martin Casado at Fivetran. Nothing too scandalous on the surface, except the Department of Justice has reportedly been investigating the arrangement for almost a y Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8881c12c5335ae10496c81 Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonor 2026 preview, match card, predictions and more te 2026-08-21T16:50:09.534Z Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonor 2026 preview, match card, predictions and more One of the biggest nights in pro wrestling will take place on Friday in Philadelphia. Ring of Honor (ROH) will hold Death Before Dishonor at the 2300 Arena – the home of the influential promotion known as Extreme Championship Wrestling. Death Before Dishonor is known as one of the premier events on the Ring of Honor schedule and the match card that is set for the event underscores that notion. There are several matches set to take place with a championship on the line. And because All Elite Wrestling (AEW) CEO Tony Khan owns Ring of Honor, a few wrestlers who have routinely appeared on AEW programming will also be featured on the card. COMPLETE PRO WRESTLING COVERAGE ON OUTKICK Pro wrestling fans can watch the main Death Before Dishonor card on ROH TV beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Read below for the list of matches and predictions. == It’s a Zero Hour pre-show match to start Death Before Dishonor. Mina Shirakawa and Queen Aminata will take on Vita Van and Vertvixen. Shirakawa and Aminata have been on a roll as a tag team, winning five matches together going back to Supercard of Honor earlier this year. But the new pairing of Vita Van and VertVixen will try to stop that streak dead in its tracks. Prediction: It’s Shirakawa and Aminata for the win. == A night before ROH’s Death Before Dishonor, this fatal four-way match was added to the card. Red Velvet will defend the ROH Women’s Television Championship against three of her toughest opponents yet – Skye Blue, Marina Shafir and Zayda Steel. Velvet does not have to get pinned to lose her title, which she’s held for about 259 days in her second reign. She’s the only ROH wrestler who has held this title twice, but every challenger in this match is eyeing gold. Prediction: It is Zayda Steel’s time. Steel wins this one. == How about some high-flying men’s tag team action? Místico and Máscara Dorada (El Sky Team) put the ROH Tag Team Championship on the line against three teams – The Kingdom (Taven and Bennett), La Facción Ingobernable (Guevara and Mortos) and Top Flight (Martins). Any time any of these guys are in a match, it will be must-see. This is not going to be any different on Friday night. Prediction: El Sky Team retains. == Turbo Floyd, Truth Magnum (The Outrunners) and Dalton Castle may have been an unusual trio but their success has been undeniable. The group won the Six-Man Tag Team Championship over Shane Taylor Promotions at Supercard of Honor in May, answering the group’s call, and haven’t looked back. Since Christian and Johnson asked Lethal to be a part of the group, Lethal Twist has been on a tear. They have a real shot at dethroning the champs on Friday. Prediction: The Outrunners and Castle retain the six-man titles. == It’s fine! Lio Rush’s character change has been one of the more fascinating developments across pro wrestling over the last few months. It has led him to a reign as the ROH television champion. But a former friend, Action Andretti, is looking to take the belt from Rush’s cold hands. Rush may appear to be out of his mind, but he’s been rolling. Andretti knows Rush better than anyone but it doesn’t necessarily mean he has the advantage going into this match. Prediction: Lio Rush retains the ROH Television Championship. == Deonna Purrazzo has been out of action for some time, but by no means has she had any plans of dropping the Pure Women’s Championship. Purrazzo has been the first and only ROH pure women’s champion since the championship was created in 2025. Purrazzo got injured in an ROH TV taping against Steph De Lander in June. Now, it all comes full circle with De Lander looking to take the belt off Purrazzo. The match will be contested under Pure Rules. Each wrestler will have three rope breaks, no closed-fist punches as a warning is issued on the first one and the second is a DQ, the title can change hands via count out or DQ, outside interference will lead to a firing and if the match reaches a time limit, a panel of three judges will decide the winner. Prediction: Deonna Purrazzo retains the Pure Women’s Championship. == Lee Moriarty was set to take on Nigel McGuinness for the ROH Pure Championship under Pure Rules. But McGuinness dropped out due to an injury. McGuinness' stipulation was that, if he lost, he woul no longer be able to wrestle in Ring of Honor. But that's not the case anymore as Katsuyori Shibata defeated Wheeler Yuta earned a shot at Moriarty's title on Thursday night.Moriarty has been on a hot streak defending the Pure Championship. He’s held the belt for over 755 days and has elevated his standing on the roster as one of the best in the game. But a great like Shibata might give him hell in the ring. Prediction: Lee Moriarty retains the ROH Pure Championship == The "Forever Champ" is a nickname Athena has taken to heart. Every challenger who has stepped up to her for the ROH Women’s World Championship has been knocked down and it hasn’t mattered what kind of match she’s in or if she’s defending the belt on ROH TV or AEW. Athena’s reign has been dominant but Hazuki isn’t a wrestler to overlook. Hazuki is the Spark Joshi world champion at Stardom and has been in the ring with some of the best AEW has to offer. She gets a shot at bringing the belt back to Japan if she can take out Athena. Prediction: Athena’s reign continues as she beats Hazuki. == ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! Bandido has done a tremendous job at elevating the prestige of the ROH World Championship, defending the belt at several promotions and putting himself through grueling matches to get the job done. But he hasn’t faced anyone like Nick Wayne before. Wayne has said Ring of Honor "needs the prodigy." He may not have "honor" but Wayne has the talent and the skills to pull off the win in Philadelphia. It might be a major night for Wayne and his family. Prediction: Nick Wayne wins the ROH World Championship in an upset. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8881c02c5335ae10496c71 At the border, a race that runs against the wall’s message of division te 2026-08-21T16:50:08.208Z At the border, a race that runs against the wall’s message of division Two runners approach the finish line on Calle Internacional in Agua Prieta, Sonora, as part of the Friends Across Borders 5K run on Aug. 15, 2026. (Photo courtesy Genesis Lara) As the sun rose Saturday morning, dozens of runners gathered in Douglas, Arizona and Agua Prieta, Sonora to race along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border. Although separated by the border barrier, gaps between the bollards allowed glimpses of runners picking up speed alongside each other– challenging the division that the towering structure was designed to impose. The 5K race, which ultimately gathered all runners at the finish line in Agua Prieta, kicked off Friends Across Borders, a binational event meant to celebrate the close relationship between  the two communities. “The purpose of Friends Across Borders is to send a message so loud that everybody hears what is really happening in this border. And that is that we are friends, we are united, and we love to be together,” said Alex Boneo, co-founder of the Arizona Border Alliance, one of the event organizers. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE The event included physical activities, faith-based and socioeconomic discussion on immigration, and a celebration of the people and cultures that integrate along the border. In Arizona, Friends Across Borders is held exclusively in Douglas. But its message reverberates across the entire U.S.-Mexico border: While many portray it as a warzone in need of militarization, border residents know it as home – a place where friends and families work, live and come together across an international boundary. “I think it’s important for people outside of the border region to realize the vitality of our community here – how we enjoy living on the border, that we’re not afraid, that it’s a place of encounter,” said Mark Adams, the U.S. coordinator for Frontera de Cristo, which helped organize the event. Much of daily life in border communities defies the division imposed by U.S. policies. I’ve seen that reality firsthand through both my upbringing in Nogales and my work with the ACLU of Arizona, where we are engaging with communities living across the region to amplify the voices of the people who experience the border everyday. In Naco, for example, several children regularly walk to Sonora after school to spend time with their grandparents while their parents are at work. After being deported to Nogales, Sonora, many people have decided to rebuild their lives there so they can remain close to family in the United States. In San Luis and Yuma, hundreds of people travel to Mexico regularly for medical and dental care that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford. Border residents know that the border wall is often more of a political symbol, than an actual division. People on either side of the border continue to move across the international boundary to visit family and friends, shop, pursue educational opportunities, open businesses, and come together to address shared problems.  But policymakers continue to misunderstand the region. Political discourse too often centers on border militarization and rigid immigration policies, disregarding the lived experiences of border residents and the deep interconnectedness between the two countries. Decades of militarization have not stopped migration; instead, they have pushed people toward more dangerous and inhumane routes in search of better lives. Even the few politicians who take the time to visit border communities often spend only a few hours there, engaging primarily with federal agencies that offer a narrow view of a complex and multifaceted region. Events like Friends Across Borders offer people from outside the border region an opportunity to experience that reality for themselves – an invitation that Boneo and Adams happily extend to both the public and policymakers. Visit the border, engage with the locals who call it home, and see the region beyond the fear-driven narrative that too often dominates political discourse. “We really want to call the attention of those that have never been on the border, that make the rules for the border, and that just have no idea [how it works],” Boneo said. “[Friends Across Borders] is a big, loud scream saying, ‘Take a look at who we are and what we have and what we’re capable [of] because we are capable of coming together.” YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE. SUPPORT Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a887f6c2c5335ae10496c3f Adam Sheafe gets life sentence for murder  te 2026-08-21T16:40:12.260Z Adam Sheafe gets life sentence for murder  Arrested in a Sedona manhunt after killing a pastor in New River in 2025  Adam Christopher Sheafe, 50, was sentenced in Maricopa County Superior Court to live out the remainder of his life with an additional 102 years in prison for the April 2025 murder of Pastor Bill Schonemann, 76, of New River, o Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a887f6a2c5335ae10496c21 College soccer player allegedly killed by boyfriend who blamed 'demon;' his mom accused of cover-up te 2026-08-21T16:40:10.852Z College soccer player allegedly killed by boyfriend who blamed 'demon;' his mom accused of cover-up Karoline Heintz, an 18-year-old incoming freshman on the Pennsylvania Western University soccer team, was allegedly stabbed to death by her boyfriend Royce Moser, whose mother then allegedly helped her son after the attack. Moser, 18, allegedly said during an interview with investigators that a "demon" took over and instructed him to stab his girlfriend, according to court documents. Pennsylvania State Police said Heintz met with her boyfriend outside his father's residence in North Strabane to talk. "She spoke with him while sitting in her vehicle in his driveway. During the conversation he got angry by something she said to him, but he could not remember what. He then had a 'demon take over' him and tell him to stab Karoline," the suspect allegedly conveyed during an interview with investigators, according to court documents. VIRGINIA POLICE SEEK OTHERS WHO FIRED SHOTS IN VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY SHOOTING THAT WOUNDED 5 "He told her 'wait I have something for you' and went inside of the residence to get a knife. He then came back outside and stabbed her in the chest. She fell out of the vehicle and he attempted to drag her to the back of her car. He put her in the back hatch of the vehicle and then got in the driver seat," the criminal complaints say. Authorities say the 18-year-old Moser then called his mother, Rachel, who allegedly proceeded to assist him after the stabbing. Rachel Moser allegedly told him to come to her house. When he arrived, she allegedly told her son to pull the car into the garage and that she would help him clear the vehicle with disinfectant spray, according to court documents. "She then gave him latex gloves and told him to follow her vehicle toward the university. They left the victim's vehicle in the parking lot and he got in her car to leave," the criminal complaints state. "She took the knife that was used to stab the victim and put it in a garbage bag to be put in the trash outside of her residence. She put his clothes into the washing machine." DRIVER ACCUSED OF KILLING 2 COLLEGE CYCLISTS IN TENNESSEE CRASH ALLEGEDLY FAILED TO BRAKE: COURT DOCS The California Police Department was notified just after midnight Thursday to check the area near the California Library after Heintz failed to return to campus. Officers found her body in the rear hatch of a Jeep Cherokee near the library, and authorities said noticeable blood spatter was visible inside and outside the vehicle. PENN STATE FRAT COKE RING'S ALLEGED RINGLEADER DENIED BAIL AFTER MISSING ARRAIGNMENT, TURNING HIMSELF IN Royce Moser is charged with homicide, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence, conspiracy to commit abuse of a corpse and obstruction of justice, Pennsylvania State Police said Thursday. His mother faces charges of hindering apprehension of a fugitive, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence, conspiracy to commit abuse of a corpse and obstruction of justice, state police said. The school provided Fox News Digital with the following statement on Friday: "PennWest University is heartbroken by the tragic death of Karoline Heintz, a first-year student-athlete at the California campus. Our deepest condolences are with Karoline’s family, friends, teammates, and all those whose lives she touched. We are focused on supporting members of our university community as they grieve this devastating loss." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a887f6a2c5335ae10496c18 Giants vs. Red Sox betting preview: Logan Webb and Sonny Gray both locked in for under play te 2026-08-21T16:40:10.186Z Giants vs. Red Sox betting preview: Logan Webb and Sonny Gray both locked in for under play It was not an overly impressive preseason betting day from me, but it was still profitable. I took the 1st quarter to be tied in the Chargers and 49ers game. I wasn't watching as it happened, and I checked the score in the second quarter, seeing it was 17-3. I figured my bet was toast, but it was 0-0 after the first quarter, giving us a +285 winner. Unfortunately, the Raiders had a really rough start, so I lost that bet. We are going to head back to the diamond for today's betting options. The San Francisco Giants have had a season to forget. It isn't just one stretch of bad games that has caused them to struggle this season; it has been a full year of bad baseball. Why is a team with strong talent and some good names on the roster so bad? They are near the bottom of the league in walks, home runs, runs in general, and they have a rough bullpen. Some of these issues, individually, could be overcome, but with everything combined, the team has struggled. They are 23 games under .500, and if it weren't for the Rockies, they almost certainly would be last in the division. One bright spot for the club, almost as always, is today's starter, Logan Webb. For the season, he is 8-7 with a 3.50 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP. He is once again racking up innings for the Giants with 139 this season. In order to throw a ton of innings, not only do you have to be healthy, but you have to be consistent. Webb really doesn't have any drastic splits aside from his night starts vs. day, as he has a 4.56 ERA at night compared to 2.25 during the day. He also has alternated good months with bad ones. In March, he had a 7.36 ERA, then in April it dropped to 3.27. In May, it was 7.56, before he had a 0.71 ERA in June. Finally, in July, he had a 6.59 ERA, and it is just 0.90 in August. Red Sox hitters are batting .324 in 34 at-bats against him. The Boston Red Sox were a disaster like the Giants and then had a complete turnaround, becoming one of the hottest and best teams in baseball. They are in one of their colder stretches at the moment, having lost eight of their past 12 games. It may come as a bit of a surprise, but the team is also still under .500 at home this season. They are among the best teams in baseball with a .250 batting average, and their pitching has been surprisingly strong with a 3.52 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. The 2026 Boston Red Sox are red-hot and have proven all the haters wrong, including this idiot One of their best pitchers is Sonny Gray, the hurler who takes the ball tonight. Overall, Gray is 15-3 with a 2.65 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP. His ERA is the ninth-best in baseball. Gray has been outstanding at home this season with a 2.45 ERA in Boston. He has allowed three or fewer earned runs in 20 of his 23 starts. This month has probably been the best of the season, with him throwing three quality starts and allowing just two earned runs. Giants hitters haven't done well against Gray, with a .227 average over 66 at-bats. I didn't even mention that this is the return of Rafael Devers to Boston. It should be interesting to see how the Boston faithful treat him. He did a lot of good, but also was not really a team player at the end of his run there. They've also had success since they dealt him, so they should be happy. He has done well against Gray, so it is possible he does some damage. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM The line is moving in favor if the Giants, but I'm not quite sure I understand why. Although the quantity of at-bats isn't very high, Boston hitters have done well against Webb. The thing is, both of these starters are locked in right now. Webb has been great in August, and Gray might even be better. The total is at 8 right now, and I think that's too high. Give me the under. For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024 Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a887f692c5335ae10496c0f Writer joining Lioness writers' room signals Taylor Sheridan's CIA series could have more coming te 2026-08-21T16:40:09.432Z Writer joining Lioness writers' room signals Taylor Sheridan's CIA series could have more coming Is "Lioness" season four already a go? The third season of Taylor Sheridan's hit CIA/military series is currently airing on Paramount+, and the fourth episode of the series hits the streaming giant this Sunday. The first three episodes of season three have been nothing short of excellent, and I can say with supreme confidence it will only get crazier from here. TAYLOR SHERIDAN'S 'LIONESS' KEEPS FANS HOOKED AS LATEST EPISODE RAISES THE STAKES IN A BIG WAY A lingering question among fans is whether season three will serve as the conclusion of the saga or if there's more "Lioness" coming. The reality is that Paramount+ hasn't released any official information, but it looks like fans MIGHT have an answer. Writer Michael Idov posted on Instagram on Thursday that he was joining the writers' room for the popular series. "Lily and I have joined LIONESS, Taylor Sheridan’s global smash hit, as writers and supervising producers. An honor, chance, and challenge of a lifetime to write for the likes of Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, and Morgan Freeman. See you in the trenches," Idov wrote on Instagram while sharing multiple photos. CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK CULTURE COVERAGE You can check out his post below, and let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com. While this isn't official confirmation of another season of "Lioness," it's another data point to consider. Season three is only eight episodes, and it's extremely unlikely rewrites and reshoots are being done with the halfway point airing this Sunday. Any future writing is almost certainly for a new season. Combine this announcement with the fact it's been revealed by the cast that season three will end on a cliffhanger, and I think it's safe to say there's likely more about Joe and her team still to be done. Of course, nothing is official until it's official in Hollywood. What are your thoughts on "Lioness" season three so far? Let me know your theories at David.Hookstead@outkick.com. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a887f682c5335ae10496c06 AEW and Ring of Honor star Lee Moriarty welcomes Katsuyori Shibata's challenge for Pure Championship te 2026-08-21T16:40:08.697Z AEW and Ring of Honor star Lee Moriarty welcomes Katsuyori Shibata's challenge for Pure Championship Lee Moriarty has already made a dent in the Ring of Honor (ROH) history books, and at Death Before Dishonor on Friday, he’s looking for more. The Ring of Honor and All Elite Wrestling (AEW) star will defend the Ring of Honor Pure Championship against Katsuyori Shibata at the legendary 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. Shibata won a No. 1 contender match on Thursday over Wheeler Yuta to earn the spot in the match after Nigel McGuinness was forced to pull out due to an injury. COMPLETE PRO WRESTLING COVERAGE ON OUTKICK Moriarty’s reign, at 755-plus days, is the longest in history. He beat Yuta for the title in July 2024 at Death Before Dishonor. He told OutKick in a recent interview that his lengthy reign as the pure champion has proven that he can out wrestle anyone he’s up against. "Me having this championship for over two years is a very big deal because I'm now the longest reigning Ring of Honor men's pure champion of all time," he said. "And I think what it says about me is the fact that my style is so versatile that I can out wrestle any form of competitor. I've out wrestled Blue Panther. I've out wrestled Nigel McGuinness. I've out wrestled guys like AR Fox, who's a former Ring of Honor television champion. So, any style you put me in the ring against, I can figure out the puzzle to overcome them and defend this championship." Shibata comes into the match with a slight advantage. ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! He defeated Moriarty in a singles match on AEW "Collision" back in April 2024 and ended Moriarty’s first reign as pure champion in May 2023 on AEW "Rampage." Moriarty is well aware of the history between them. "Yeah, going from Nigel McGuinness, who's someone I looked up to coming in wrestling, to another guy I looked up to in Katsuyori Shibata, but there's still very different challenges," he said. "It's going to be an interesting adaption for me, especially because I didn't know I was fighting Shibata until last night when we found out Nigel wasn't medically clear and Shibata won the No. 1 contender match. "But I've never beaten Katsuyori Shibata in a singles match. We've had two. And I haven't figured it out, but now the stakes are higher than they ever been. And like I said before, when this title's on the line, I can out wrestle anybody and that includes the wrestler in Katsuyori Shibata." Moriarty was in high spirits when he spoke to OutKick hours before Death Before Dishonor’s first bell rang. It might have been because he was feeling a bit at home. Though Moriarty is from Pittsburgh, he has no ill will toward the city of Philadelphia. In fact, the opposite. It’s all love thanks to just being back in Pennsylvania. "I mean, for me, I know there's a rivalry between Pittsburgh and Philly, but it's all Pennsylvania, so it's home to me and it's a distant home, but it's a home," he said. "So, and Philly has always been good to me. Like I was here last year to defend this title against Xelhua and the fans just gave me that energy that I was talking about earlier to help me pull through and get the victory and tonight I'm hoping for the same thing and it's going to be really sweet." It’s the second straight year Death Before Dishonor will take place at the 2300 Arena. Fans who cannot make the trip can tune into ROH TV. But for those who are making the drive to the City of Brotherly Love and might be watching Ring of Honor for the first time, Moriarty suggested they were in for a treat. "I think you can expect a lot of high energy and passion from the people there in Ring of Honor," he said. "Obviously, the 2300 Arena is famous. Ring of Honor is famous in this area, in the Northeast. And then this generation of Ring of Honor is a lot of the young talent mixed with the veteran talent, experienced names like my opponent tonight and Katsuyori Shibata. "So, it's going to be a very cool experience, especially for people who are there for the first time. It's a more intimate setting than you may be used to for larger promotions. And you're going to feel the rumblings under your feet from the cheering. You might catch a wrestler in your lap on a dive. I don't know. Just be prepared and have fun." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a887d162c5335ae10496ba8 Waffle House tests unexpected new menu items as customers deliver mixed verdict te 2026-08-21T16:30:14.316Z Waffle House tests unexpected new menu items as customers deliver mixed verdict Waffle House is stepping outside its traditional breakfast offerings and testing seven taco varieties — but they're only available at select locations, for now. "We are always looking to test new menu items, and tacos are delicious," a Waffle House spokesperson told Fox News Digital. The restaurant chain is testing the tacos for a limited time, while supplies last, at about 45 locations in the Atlanta metropolitan area, close to the Waffle House corporate offices. DISCONTINUED CRACKER BARREL FOODS THAT FANS ARE BEGGING TO GET BACK The breakfast taco comes with egg and cheese and a choice of bacon, sausage, chicken sausage or ham. The lunch and dinner tacos include a cheesesteak melt, chicken melt or patty melt. All taco options are available at any time of day. "It has only been a week, but the early feedback has been positive," Waffle House's spokesperson said. Social media reaction is mixed. "I bet they're fire too," an Instagram user commented on a post announcing the tacos' debut. "We're about to witness the downfall of Waffle House with this foolishness," someone else wrote. "Tacos are good any day," another user commented. "That's an absolute no," posted another Instagram user. "Looks like they got the message that different times call for different measures and adapt to changes! SURVIVAL," a supporter wrote. TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ "I've worked in kitchens for 20 years, and honestly, I don't like when successful restaurants start adding unnecessary items," someone wrote in a Reddit forum discussing the new tacos. "Waffle House is the one chain restaurant I ever go to and I've never been disappointed," the Redditor continued. "If I want tacos, I'll go to a Mexican restaurant. The tacos are kind of silly, and those cooks shouldn't need to have even more dishes to learn." Another person commented that the tacos are "unnecessary," while another Reddit user remarked that with the addition of tortillas, Waffle House would already have the other ingredients on hand to make the tacos. "I'm all for it as long as it's tacos containing current Waffle House foods," wrote another person. "Basic breakfast tacos would be incredible. But if I'm wanting real tacos, it's not gonna be WH." CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS Best known for its waffles, breakfast plates and signature hash browns — which can be ordered "scattered," "smothered," "covered" and more depending on preparation and toppings — Waffle House has tested several new products in recent years. Earlier this year, the diner rolled out the Fiesta Chicken Protein Bowl, promoting the dish's 52 grams of protein. The item contains three scrambled eggs, two slices of cheese and one grilled chicken breast. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER In 2025, nine Atlanta-area restaurants tested canned Classic Blend Cold Brew coffee. In late 2023, chicken sausage began appearing on Waffle House menus. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88785a2c5335ae10496ad9 US government lab is probing Chinese lidar for security vulnerabilities te 2026-08-21T16:10:02.635Z US government lab is probing Chinese lidar for security vulnerabilities The security review is being performed by the Idaho National Laboratory, and the research is being funded by a company -- or a group of companies -- in the electric and autonomous vehicle industries. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88760d2c5335ae10496aa2 NCAA wins Tenth Circuit 'stay', but faces more eligibility lawsuits from 2022 class athletes in chaotic time te 2026-08-21T16:00:13.777Z NCAA wins Tenth Circuit 'stay', but faces more eligibility lawsuits from 2022 class athletes in chaotic time The chaotic off-season in college football has continued to play out in court rooms across the country, as athletes are suing the NCAA on a daily basis pertaining to their eligibility as part of the 2022 class. When the NCAA released a statement last week harping on its decision to not grant a blanket-waiver to members of the 2022 class that were left out of conversation regarding the new 'five-for-five' eligibility guidelines, the floodgates were opened for athletes who felt as though they were being kicked to the curb. NFL To NCAA? Courtroom Chaos Is Giving Pro Athletes A Bizarre Path Back To College, And It's Only Just Begun On Friday morning, the Tenth Circuit court granted the NCAA its motion for a 'stay', which puts a pause on athletes using the blanket waiver granted by Judge Sweeney to athletes from the 2022 class that had a year of eligibility left. Although this puts a little bit of the chaos on hold, there will now be a further influx of lawsuits filed in state court, who have been presenting different arguments in their filings. NCAA IGNORED THE WARNINGS. NOW IT'S FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL IN COURTROOMS ACROSS AMERICA OVER ELIGIBILITY While the NCAA should see this as a win, the cases against them will only increase from here, now that we have witnessed plaintiffs winning more often at the lower levels. Those same athletes who were being denied an extra season of competition, based on the NCAA's decision to exclude them, began filing lawsuits in courtrooms from California to South Carolina, arguing they should receive the same benefits as those covered under the new eligibility structure. NCAA ROCKED BY COLORADO JUDGE'S 2022 CLASS ELIGIBILITY RULING THAT COULD RESHAPE COLLEGE SPORTS THIS YEAR And from what we've seen from injunctions and temporary restraining orders being granted on what has felt like a daily basis, a very large number of judges are in agreement with the athletes who have decided to fight the NCAA in a court of law. One of the latest wrinkles came on Wednesday, when the 19th District Court of Louisiana granted a TRO to a plethora of athletes who filed the same lawsuit that judges in other states have been ruling on over the past two months. In the ruling, it allows for plaintiffs to return to college from the NFL, if they do so before a Sept. 1 deadline. But, in this case, only the athletes who were part of the lawsuit can take advantage of a seven-day transfer portal window ordered by the court. Yes, there are players who are currently in NFL camps that were part of this lawsuit, and technically have the court’s blessing to return for another season of college football. No, you aren’t going crazy, this is actually taking place. COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS FINALLY BACK AFTER MONTHS OF NCAA LAWSUITS, NIL DRAMA AND CONGRESSIONAL FIGHTS In response to the latest ruling, NCAA Vice President Tim Buckley released the following statement, taking aim at the courts granting these orders, along with the lawyers filing them. "Courts across the country granting relief to ineligible athletes who already had every opportunity to compete in college — sometimes without even having a hearing — are failing to appreciate the destabilizing effect their rulings are having on college sports," Buckley said. "The lawyers bringing these cases seemingly won't be satisfied until every professional athlete can treat college sports as a fallback option, regardless of the opportunities it strips from those who will never have a chance to begin their collegiate sports experience." While there are plenty of people who agree with the NCAA's stance regarding athletes trying to get out of an NFL contract to return for one more season of college ball, this still falls on the organization who decided to exclude the 2022 class from their new guidelines. For that, even though this has turned into something out of a John Grisham novel, it's hard for the NCAA to garner empathy. When U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney of Colorado granted a class-wide blanket waiver for athletes in the 2022 class, by way of an injunction, the entire college athletics world started scrambling for answers. Would a school decide it was in their best interest to bring an athlete back, just days before the college football season is set to begin? TENNESSEE COACH UNLOADS ON NCAA'S 'BULLS–T', AFTER STAR LINEBACKER SUSPENDED FOR OUTDATED RULE Well, that hasn’t been a problem for some schools, like Indiana. If there is a spot available, programs are going to use it. They all knew that the entire ordeal could come to an end if the NCAA won their motion for a 'stay' while the Tenth Circuit court dealt with the appeal filed by the organization. Now, with the Tenth Circuit agreeing to administer a 'stay', this will only lead to lawyers filing additional cases in state court. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8876062c5335ae10496a85 Gazebos From Uzbekistan: The Latest Foreign Gifts in Trump’s Washington te 2026-08-21T16:00:06.329Z Gazebos From Uzbekistan: The Latest Foreign Gifts in Trump’s Washington The structures will go up in West Potomac Park, the site of President Trump’s planned National Garden of American Heroes. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8873b12c5335ae10496a30 Surprise election upset shows hating Trump is no longer enough as Democratic voters turn to new playbook te 2026-08-21T15:50:09.057Z Surprise election upset shows hating Trump is no longer enough as Democratic voters turn to new playbook A growing number of Democrats who grabbed national attention as they led the resistance to President Donald Trump during his first term in the White House are the latest casualties in this year's primary battle between the party's left-wing and the establishment. The latest victim: Alexander Vindman, who gained national prominence nearly a decade ago as the then-Army lieutenant colonel and National Security Council official served as a key witness against Trump during the president's first impeachment trial. Vindman, who made resisting Trump a key part of his Senate bid, was upset Tuesday in Florida's Democratic Senate primary by state Rep. Angie Nixon. A Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member, Nixon landed a double-digit victory over Vindman despite being outspent by a roughly 10-to-1 margin. DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB His defeat, as well as losses to challengers from the far-left by other one-time resistance stars such as Reps. Diana DeGette of Colorado and Dan Goldman of New York, appear to point to shifting priorities for a Democratic base moving left, starving for change, and eager to use midterm election victories to escape the political wilderness. Also falling short so far this primary season are Reps. Shri Thanedar of Michigan and Al Green of Texas, who led Trump impeachment pushes. They both went down to younger challengers. Meanwhile, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, who was a member of key committees handling Trump's second impeachment in 2021, fell short as he bid for the Senate. A congressional run by longtime Trump critic George Conway, a co-founder of the anti-Trump Republican group the Lincoln Project, failed to ignite. And former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who was honored for his efforts during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, lost for a second straight cycle as he campaigned for a congressional seat in Maryland. WHO'S UP AND DOWN IN THE LATEST FOX NEWS MIDTERM ELECTION POWER RANKINGS Billionaire Tom Steyer, an environmental and political activist and former Democratic presidential candidate who helped bankroll the resistance during Trump's first term, unsuccessfully ran for California governor this year. And Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, who along with DeGette was a manager of the 2021 Trump impeachment, dropped his gubernatorial bid and quit Congress amid mounting sexual assault and harassment allegations, which he denied. Veteran Democratic political commentator Ben Rhodes, who served as a leading official in former President Barack Obama's administration, has repeatedly argued that opposition to Trump is insufficient to build a lasting political movement. He has emphasized that to win at the ballot box, Democrats must articulate how they'll help address voters' economic concerns and day-to-day frustrations. Shannon Jackson, a longtime progressive political strategist and grassroots organizer best known for his leadership roles in Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, told Fox News Digital that "it’s not enough anymore just to oppose Trump." Referring to the onetime resistance leaders who lost their primaries this year, Jackson said, "They’ve stood up to Trump, but the fact is it’s not enough anymore. We need to recognize why Trump won, we need to recognize the failings of the Democratic Party and the Democratic leaders who have gotten us to this point, and we need to improve upon it." SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER Jackson, a top consultant for progressive leader Rep. Ro Khanna of California, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, said "what really happened is that we’ve seen the progressive movement succeed… it’s an entire wave that’s coming across the country." While progressives and socialist-aligned candidates have bested establishment-backed contenders in a slew of nomination showdowns this spring and summer, including high-profile Senate primaries this month in Michigan, Minnesota, and Florida, moderates are also scoring victories. The center's latest wins came in Florida, where Rep. Jared Moskowitz crushed a DSA-backed challenger on Tuesday. The same day longtime Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, a former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair, won renomination in a dramatically altered district against four candidates, including a socialist. MEET THE FAR-LEFT INSURGENTS WAGING WAR ON THE DEMOCRATIC ESTABLISHMENT Longtime strategist and political commentator Maria Cardona, a DNC committee member, told Fox News Digital she doesn't buy the narrative that "huge heroes of Trump resistance one are just not cutting it anymore." "Voters want someone who is going to fight for them. Whether or not you call yourself establishment, a moderate, a progressive, or DSA, voters don’t care. Voters want to see you fighting for them," Cardona emphasized. Cardona said "whether you are a Abdul El-Sayed, who is new on the scene, or a Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who has been there for decades but who has delivered for her community and is still seen as a fighter, you’re going to win. You have to deliver. That’s the secret." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8873b02c5335ae10496a27 I served as Trump’s NSA. SCOTUS need to stop courts putting the president's security at risk te 2026-08-21T15:50:08.360Z I served as Trump’s NSA. SCOTUS need to stop courts putting the president's security at risk "Where is the president? He’s got to move." Those are words a National Security Advisor (NSA) never wants to hear. Unfortunately, I heard them more than once during my term as NSA. In those instances, we are quickly hustled out of the Oval Office to a rendezvous with the First Family and top presidential aides and taken somewhere safe. It all occurred in a matter of minutes. TRUMP HAS BECOME AMERICA'S MOST TARGETED LEADER, FACING THREATS EVERY FEW MONTHS I served as President Trump’s last National Security Advisor in his first term and was honored to have done that and been his Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs for two years before my two years in the corner office of the West Wing. Being with President Trump in the Situation Room for the mission to kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi or the first meeting of the Covid task force after the outbreak from China are memorable, history-making moments. TRUMP PULLS BACK CURTAIN ON WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM’S FORTRESS-LIKE DEFENSES ABOVE AND DEEP BELOW If I had ever had to advise him from the bunker in the East Wing, I wouldn’t be able to write about that still. For many reasons the travels of presidents between secure, undisclosed locations is classified. In fact, the worst part of the East Wing case is its public airing. Until the unfortunate decision of U.S. Senior District Court Judge Dick Leon to order construction halted, most of the public and world thought the project was about a long-needed ballroom. Now, because of litigation which ought never to have passed the "standing" requirement for reasons Judge Neomi Rao laid out in her dissent from the 2-1 decision of a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold Leon’s partial injunction against construction. I cannot read District Judge Leon’s mind, but the filings from the Department of Justice ought to have persuaded him and the Appeals Court that this is an urgent matter of national security. What will be below the ballroom is best left undisclosed. The Pentagon and the Secret Service will go to great lengths to shield from satellites and conventional spyware that will be on the roof of the ballroom. But it should go without saying that the White House is much more than the Executive Mansion. It is the Commander-in-Chief’s principal command center as well as his home. It is also a target for every terrorist and lunatic in the world and the state sponsors of such would-be assassins. The Constitution's grant to the President of the power of Commander-in-Chief implies many other powers, but basic among them is the headquarters from which to operate and the security arrangements to protect it. In this era of extremely advanced surveillance equipment, the entire White House complex has to be hardened against prying eyes. It must be made defensible against all manner of attacks. And should the worst-case scenario develop, it must have rooms from which continuity of government will be assured. We are in the age of hypersonic missiles. Did any level of review by the court pause to consider the threat matrix at the center of which the Oval Office must be found? Was expert testimony collected on how long it would take to get the president and Vice President to the famed "secure undisclosed location?" As we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the justices of the Supreme Court should be taking judicial notice of the world as it is. 25 years ago, then Vice President Cheney was rushed from his West Wing office to where, exactly? The White House Mess? The Red Room? The Vice President was taken to an undisclosed location in the compound that I’m still not at liberty to discuss. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION The Supreme Court has many excellent reasons to deny the plaintiff standing. The Department of Justice has laid them out. But the beating heart of this case is the beating heart of this president and all future presidents. There won’t be time some day to chopper away on Marine One. The President down the road is going to have to shelter in place. What a tragedy for this country if efforts to secure our most sensitive building are hampered by architectural enthusiasts and judges with expansive views and long experience on the judicial doctrine of "standing" and de minimis views and experience on often the need to instantly move the president, vice president, families and closest aides to secure locations. The injunction should be stayed indefinitely. And soon. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8871592c5335ae104968cd Pentagon officials mulling the firing of military newspaper Stars and Stripes publisher te 2026-08-21T15:40:09.366Z Pentagon officials mulling the firing of military newspaper Stars and Stripes publisher The Pentagon is considering the removal of the publisher who oversees the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, Fox News Digital has confirmed. Max Lederer, who has led the paper for 19 years, announced his retirement to staff on Tuesday, saying he intends to step down at the end of September. However, Pentagon leadership may terminate him beforehand. One U.S. official familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital his "poor job performance" as publisher is the main factor but that "insubordination pushed it over the edge." CBS News first reported on the potential ouster. "Max has wasted two decades as publisher while the Stars and Stripes languished under his lethargic, lazy leadership," one Pentagon employee who works closely with Lederer told Fox News Digital. "He’s a typical slob of a bureaucrat who wastes taxpayer money, never gets held accountable for doing a bad job, and cannot even handle basic tasks like attending meetings or responding to emails. He should’ve been removed years ago, but that’s government in a nutshell." PENTAGON VOWS TO REFORM MILITARY NEWSPAPER STARS AND STRIPES, REMOVE 'WOKE DISTRACTIONS' Lederer, an Army veteran who joined Stars and Stripes in 1992, told staff he was choosing to retire due to "fundamental" differences he had with Pentagon leadership on the direction of the paper. "I have thought a great deal about the right time to step aside, and I have concluded that this is it," Lederer wrote, according to a Stars and Stripes report on his retirement. "I leave with real pride in what we have accomplished together and with complete confidence in what you will accomplish next." "For decades, Max Lederer championed the interests of service members and their families by supporting their access to credible reporting, independent of the military chain of command," Stars and Stripes editor-in-chief Erik Slavin said in a statement. WASHINGTON POST OPINION EDITOR TO EXIT PAPER AFTER JUST ONE YEAR, STAFF COMPLETELY 'BLINDSIDED' There are competing narratives about whether Stars and Stripes is struggling. Pentagon sources allege a decline both digitally and in print — claiming from 2019 to 2024, unique visitors to its website fell 30% from 20 million per year to 14 million. They also say print deliveries also declined in that same period from seven million annually to 6.2 million. The 2019 stats stem from a 2021 congressional letter sent by Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., and then-Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Az., and were juxtaposed with the 2024 stats listed on Stars and Stripes' website. However, a source familiar with Stars and Stripes operations disputed the paper's digital struggles, citing 42 million page views from August 2025 to July 2026 as well as "strong growth in video and social engagement." The source also cited 23 million unique visitors during that same period, according to its Google Analytics, and noted that the 6.2 million printed copies only account for the U.S. weekly edition of the paper, which does not include the copies distributed to service members abroad.   The source claimed that 2024 was specifically an "unusual year" due to systemic outages and tech issues that plagued the outlet.  There was also a discrepancy regarding how much of its budget comes from federal funds, as a Pentagon source claims up to 65% comes from taxpayer dollars, while the source familiar with the paper's operations insists it's just roughly half. The annual budget is between $27-$29 million. Sources tell Fox News Digital that Lederer faces criticism for failing to modernize the paper and the outlet's overreliance on newswire services instead of original reporting, allotting $411,000 of its budget toward them in 2026. However, the paper has since cut back on wire service spending, Fox News Digital has learned. "Max Lederer has served his country for 40 years as a former Army officer and Stars and Stripes employee. The characterization being circulated about him does not reflect the leadership he has provided in running a global, 24/7 news operation across multiple continents," a source close to Stars and Stripes told Fox News Digital. Neither Lederer nor Stars and Stripes responded to Fox News Digital's requests for comment. NEW YORK TIMES LOSES DEFAMATION LAWSUIT, ORDERED TO PAY $9.25M TO FORMER ALABAMA BASKETBALL PLAYER The Pentagon kicked off 2026 by announcing its overhaul of the long-running newspaper. "The Department of War is returning Stars & Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters," chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted on X in January. "We are bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century. We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members." Parnell continued, "Stars & Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters. It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints. Stars & Stripes has a proud legacy of reporting news that’s important to our service members. The Department of War is committed to ensuring the outlet continues to reflect that proud legacy." The Pentagon previously fired the Stars and Stripes ombudsman in April after being an outspoken critic of the Trump administration's oversight of the paper. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8871582c5335ae104968c4 Jacob Misiorowski's MLB-leading ERA and WHIP make Milwaukee Brewers the pick against Atlanta Braves te 2026-08-21T15:40:08.518Z Jacob Misiorowski's MLB-leading ERA and WHIP make Milwaukee Brewers the pick against Atlanta Braves As we get closer and closer to the baseball postseason, we will see some alterations in rotations. Teams will know who is important to start in which games, and teams will also adjust to get their rotation set up for the postseason. Today has some great pitching matchups on the slate, but none is better than the one we get as the Braves take on the Brewers. The Atlanta Braves have been one of the best teams in baseball this season. Last year was a bit of a disaster when the Braves finished in the bottom portion of their division. This was mostly due to injury, and this year has seen a lot more health from the club. It also helps that their hitters are having strong seasons once again. Matt Olson has 36 homers, but only 77 RBIs, so it probably would help for them to get on in front of him a bit more. If there is one area the team has struggled, it is probably on the road. They are still over .500 with a 33-30 record for the year, but compared to their home performance, this is a bit underwhelming. The team gets their ace throwing today as Chris Sale takes the hill. Sale is 12-8 for the season with a 2.16 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP. He also has 160 strikeouts for the year. If you're looking to see how well he is doing compared to the rest of the league, he is ninth in wins, second in ERA, 11th in strikeouts, and seventh in WHIP. So, he's basically pitching at a Cy Young level. He has been better at home than on the road, though, so maybe there is an opportunity to get to Sale. However, to be clear, he has allowed 19 earned runs all year on the road, and six of them came in one game against the Angels. He faced the Brewers earlier this season and allowed five hits and two unearned runs in 5.2 innings of work. The Milwaukee Brewers are the best team in baseball - at least in terms of record. Believe it or not, they also own the best run differential in baseball. If you can, without looking, name the players leading the team in hits, homers, RBIs, and even batting average, I'd be shocked. This isn't a team that gets a ton of attention, but they just keep winning games, year after year. The small market doesn't seem to bother them (take note, other GMs). They are also 20 games over .500 at home this season. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! One of the reasons for their success is certainly their pitching staff, led by the eventual Cy Young winner, Jacob Misiorowski. As of right now, Misiorowski is leading the league in ERA, strikeouts, and WHIP. He has a 1.75 ERA, a 0.75 WHIP, and 210 strikeouts. His record is 12-5, and if he can get a few more wins, he might have a chance to lead the league in every major pitching category, finishing a season for the ages. How good has he been? In his almost 140 innings and 23 starts, he hasn't allowed more than three earned runs in any outing. In fact, for a month, the most runs allowed were 11. He threw six innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits in a 3-2 loss. This is one of those games where it doesn't matter what the total is; you will be sweating out an over. It is entirely possible that both teams go six or seven innings with somewhere between zero and five baserunners. I'm not advocating that you take the over 6 runs, but I really don't know how you comfortably play the under, either. The Brewers are actually playing better baseball right now, and I think it is worth it to take a shot on them winning this one at -135. You won't get a ton of chances to pay that low of a price with Misiorowski so I'll take a shot here. For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024 Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8871572c5335ae104968b8 CLIFF MALONEY: Democrats Want ID For Hot Pockets But Not For Voting? te 2026-08-21T15:40:07.664Z CLIFF MALONEY: Democrats Want ID For Hot Pockets But Not For Voting? By Cliff Maloney | While the left has been lecturing us for decades that requiring ID to vote is somehow an overt example of systemic racism, they’re now planning to require ID for the privilege of shopping in government run grocery stores.  Democratic New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced in a recent press conference that he intends to spend over $70 million in taxpayer dollars to launch five government run grocery stores across New York, promising a 30% discount on all groceries.  And when questioned on how he intends to ensure people won’t just travel to New York and buy up the inventory for resale elsewhere in a predictable arbitrage play, his answer was both astounding and hypocritical. This is par for the course with his failed promises. He said that they would implement a “library-esque” ID card that only New York citizens could obtain. Yep, you heard that right — according to Democrats, it’s racist to ensure that only United States citizens are voting in our elections, but it’s totally fine to require ID to buy a box of Hot Pockets.  Someone else will have to make it make sense, because I sure as hell can’t.  For now, let’s set aside the absurdity of government run grocery stores. Let’s also set aside the fact that Democrats are claiming they have the magical ability to provide a 30% discount in an industry that operates on a 1-3% profit margin. And last but not least, let’s set aside the fact that every single industry the government gets involved in instantly experiences massive cost increases that destroy the budgets of hard working Americans.  Instead, let’s unpack their initial claim that requiring ID to vote is somehow racist.  What explanation have they used to justify that claim?  Across the board, nearly every Democrat politician, lobbyist, activist, and political pundit has consistently stated that black Americans either don’t know how or can’t afford to get a government issued ID. Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has consistently been one of the most vocal critics of voter ID, and recently made the ridiculous statement that, “We are not going to turn our elections over to Donald Trump.” Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed a law to completely ban local voter ID requirements. And Matt Dietrich, spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said that Illinois does not require voters to show any type of photo ID at the polls, and went on to say voters only need to sign a sworn statement on their voter registration application that they are a U.S. citizen. These are just a handful out of hundreds of examples. Personally, I think the claim that black Americans either don’t know how or can’t afford to get a government issued ID, in and of itself, is pretty racist.  Virtually every single human of every race in America knows that getting an ID is a simple matter of going to your local Department of Motor Vehicles. And even if someone doesn’t know where one is, it’s hours of operation, or even what documents they’ll need, finding those answers is as simple as a quick Google search. (Although Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul did claim in May 2024 that black children don’t know what computers are, so I can see why Democrats might be confused here.)  So the claim that voters of any race don’t know how to get an ID is absurd. The claim that black Americans can’t afford a government ID is equally absurd because the cost of a driver’s license ranges from $10 to $90, depending on your state. But beyond that, an ID is already required for typical life in America anyway.  You need to show ID to drive a vehicle, visit a doctor, pick up prescriptions, travel on an airplane, buy a firearm, get a job, open a bank account, join the military, rent an apartment, enter a casino, purchase alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and some video games, register for government benefits, get married, get divorced, cash a check, rent a car or hotel room, register for health insurance, get a piercing or tattoo, donate blood, go hunting or fishing, sign any legal document, and countless other activities that most Americans do every single day. And now, apparently, we can add shopping at Democrat run grocery stores.  According to Democrats, requiring an ID for all of these activities is perfectly fine, but when it comes to voting in our elections, it’s somehow an egregious burden that disenfranchises black voters. What’s clear to me is that Democrats don’t want secure elections because they know they can’t win without cheating the system.  We’ve seen case after case of voter fraud. Recent examples include illegal aliens who were registered to vote, dead citizens still on the voter rolls, and harvesting ballots from the homeless population.  And in nearly every single case, this fraudulent voting favors Democrat candidates.  You don’t have to be a statistician to realize that it’s mathematically impossible for that to just be a coincidental fluke. It’s a clear case of systemic voting fraud perpetuated by the Democratic political machine. The bottom line is that if Democrats think ID should be required to buy groceries, then the least we can do is require the same for our elections.  If it’s good enough for Hot Pockets, it’s good enough for the voting booth. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Cliff Maloney is a contributor to the Daily Caller News Foundation, the CEO of Citizens Alliance, and the author of Run Right: A Complete Election Playbook to Win. You can follow him @maloney on X. The post CLIFF MALONEY: Democrats Want ID For Hot Pockets But Not For Voting? first appeared on AZ FREE NEWS. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a886f012c5335ae10496864 Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos share blunt advice for couples planning a big wedding te 2026-08-21T15:30:09.169Z Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos share blunt advice for couples planning a big wedding Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, who have been married for 30 years, are urging people to avoid having a big wedding. "Weddings are having a micro trend in 2026," Ripa said in a prerecorded segment that aired Thursday, according to People magazine. "Live with Kelly and Mark" is currently on summer break, with live episodes returning after Labor Day. "Tiny. A quirky cake. No big ceremony. Candles over flowers. Cost-effectiveness. This is the year of the cost-effective wedding. Ceremonies are out, parties are in," Ripa said. KELLY RIPA SAYS SHE HAS A SECRET SIGNAL THAT TELLS MARK CONSUELOS SHE'S NOT IN THE MOOD "So they’ll do a small ceremony and then a big party. Buffets are back on the menu, for cost-effective reasoning. They’re cheap, they’re cheerful, and they’re returning to wedding venues. Brides are opting on buying secondhand wedding dresses. Because let’s face it: nothing’s been worn less than a wedding dress. Unless it’s my wedding dress, which now doubles as a beach cover-up. And they’re saying they’re getting rid of the wedding ring slash engagement ring. You know how a man would propose? Now just one ring, one nice ceremony ring." The couple’s May 1996 Las Vegas elopement cost under $200. "I loved our wedding," Ripa told Consuelos, who agreed. "Our wedding was great. $179, including airfare, thank you!" PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE Ripa then joked that they should start a "wedding service." "Oh, I like that," Consuelos said. "They want a big wedding, and they come to us for counseling. We’re like, ‘Don’t do it.’" GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE Ripa added, "You could buy a house, you could have equity in your future!" After Ripa joked that Consuelos’ "second wedding" would be a micro affair, Consuelos added, "The money spent on these parties and flowers and rings and dresses, it just doesn’t make sense to me. It never made sense to me, which is why we eloped. At the time, it didn’t make sense to either one of us. We’re like, ‘That’s ridiculous.’" In June, Ripa revealed her only regret from their inexpensive wedding. LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS "I'm still sorry that we didn't spring for flowers because I always think my hands look awkward," the 55-year-old said on the June 12 episode, according to E! News. "Flowers are extra. And somebody didn't want to spring for flowers." KELLY RIPA'S PAINFUL SURGERY LEAVES HER UNABLE TO SPEAK Ripa continued, "The one photo that I never show is the photo where I'm awkwardly posing with my hands because I don't have flowers. It's a very awkward photo." Ripa and Consuelos frequently joke about their marriage on the show, with Consuelos quipping earlier this month that he would rather stay in a "loveless marriage" to his former "All My Children" co-star than risk losing their dog, Lena, in a divorce. Consuelos said he would "stay up all night wondering what she was doing." "Wondering if there was some other man petting her," Ripa joked. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a886f002c5335ae1049685b Sneaky raccoon seen helping itself to ballpark fare at Citi Field as bewildered Mets fans look on te 2026-08-21T15:30:08.177Z Sneaky raccoon seen helping itself to ballpark fare at Citi Field as bewildered Mets fans look on It's been pretty rough sledding for the New York Mets and their fans for most of this season. While their team has the highest total payroll in MLB this year, the Mets have subjected their loyal supporters to last-place baseball and a losing record on their home field. While the play on the diamond has been particularly tough to watch, the lone constant that everyone can rely on is the ballpark food, which one furry fan found to be the case when the Mets took on the San Diego Padres on Wednesday. A SQUIRREL INVADES MLB GAME, JUMPS INTO OUTFIELDERS GLOVE AND CAUSES CHAOS IN HILARIOUS SCENE A video captured by fan Scott Reynolds shows a stealthy raccoon grabbing leftover concession stand food from a hole in the bleachers at Citi Field. It starts with broken peanut shells discarded by fans until a group notices the distinct paw reaching up through the opening. YANKEES FANS SWARM VIRAL 'FRIED CHICKEN' ICE CREAM AS $10.99 DESSERT VANISHES IN ONE INNING Then the raccoon gets the gift of a lifetime when another fan hands him a full hot dog. Reynolds said that he and his family were eating peanuts and dropping the shells in the stands when they noticed a paw appearing from a small hole in the concrete. "We soon realized that it was a raccoon," Reynolds said. "We laughed and enjoyed the extra show." "Extra show" might be underselling it a little bit, as most Mets fans would argue the 30-second clip of the ballpark scavenger is probably more entertaining than anything the team has put on the field so far this season. METS REPORTER DISSECTS TEAM'S MISERABLE SEASON WHILE PRIDE NIGHT MR. MET DANCES BEHIND HIM Last year, I wrote about how scientists discovered that raccoons are becoming increasingly more domesticated, so it won't be long before our furry Mets fan can emerge from the shadowy underground and come to the ballpark legally. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! We already have "Bark at the Park" nights all over Major League Baseball, what's the harm in adding a few raccoons to the mix? The Mets would end up winning the game against the Padres 4-2, so perhaps sacrificing a few glizzies to the rally raccoon will catch on. I can't think of anything more apropos for the city of New York than that. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a886a522c5335ae104967c2 Karmelo Anthony fights for new trial as lawyers clash over unwritten deal that shaped case te 2026-08-21T15:10:10.670Z Karmelo Anthony fights for new trial as lawyers clash over unwritten deal that shaped case Karmelo Anthony’s bid to overturn his murder conviction returns to court in McKinney, Texas, Friday after his former lawyer testified that a dispute over an unwritten agreement helped keep Anthony from taking the stand. Retired District Judge Michael Chitty is hearing Anthony’s request for a new trial. Judge Sid Harle removed Judge John Roach, who presided over Anthony’s murder trial, from the remaining trial-court proceedings earlier this week. Harle found that a reasonable outside observer could question whether Roach appeared impartial after the judge publicly said the jury "got it right" and defended several of his trial decisions. TEXAS JUDGE WHO PRESIDED OVER KARMELO ANTHONY MURDER TRIAL REMOVED FROM CASE OVER 'GOT IT RIGHT' COMMENT Anthony, 19, was convicted in June of murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, whom prosecutors said Anthony fatally stabbed during an altercation at a Frisco track meet. A Collin County jury sentenced Anthony to 35 years in prison. At the center of the new-trial hearing is an oral agreement between Anthony’s original defense team and prosecutors to keep potentially damaging character evidence about both sides from the jury. UNTAPPED KARMELO ANTHONY EVIDENCE CACHE SHOWED HE STALKED EX-GIRLFRIEND, HAD 'KNIVES' OBSESSION: PROSECUTORS Former lead defense attorney Mike Howard testified Thursday that he understood the agreement to allow Anthony to testify if his testimony remained focused on the confrontation under the tent at the track meet. Howard said that changed on the final day of trial, when prosecutors told the defense the agreement would not apply if Anthony took the stand and that the defense had already opened the door to character evidence. KARMELO ANTHONY STAYS SILENT AS ANALYSTS WARN DEFENSE FACES UPHILL BATTLE IN TRACK MEET STABBING TRIAL He said the dispute led to a heated break in the proceedings and made Anthony unwilling to take the stand. Under cross-examination, Howard acknowledged the lawyers never expressly agreed on whether a testifying defendant was covered by the arrangement. He said he could not say whether prosecutors acted in bad faith. KARMELO ANTHONY DEFENSE RESTS, ATTORNEYS PREP FOR CLOSING ARGUMENTS BEFORE JURY DELIBERATES IN MURDER TRIAL Lead prosecutor Bill Wirske said the agreement was mutual and that the parties were aligned on the need to keep character evidence out of the trial. Wirske said the state did not believe the agreement applied to Anthony’s testimony. FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X Wirske said the agreement kept jurors from hearing allegations involving Anthony’s history with knives and violence. Anthony’s new legal team has argued it also excluded school records, social-media posts and videos that they say could have supported his self-defense claim by showing prior aggressive behavior by Metcalf and his twin brother, Hunter Metcalf. SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST TRUE CRIME NEWS The court has not made findings on those allegations. LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE Anthony’s motion also argues that courtroom-access restrictions violated his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial and that jury instructions limited jurors’ ability to consider his self-defense claim. KARMELO ANTHONY FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER IN TEXAS TRACK MEET STABBING Howard testified that the lawyers and Roach held more than a dozen off-the-record meetings before trial. He said no pretrial motions were formally filed because the parties used what he described as an "old-school" system of filing materials directly with Roach. GOT A TIP? Howard also said the defense discussed waiving some public-trial access because of security concerns, but that no Sixth Amendment waiver was made on the record. He testified that the decision not to use an overflow room was tied to technology concerns, not a specific security threat. LISTEN TO THE NEW 'CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO' PODCAST Former defense attorney Toby Shook is expected to testify Friday. It was not immediately clear how many additional witnesses Anthony’s lawyers planned to call. GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAIL Chitty must rule on the motion by Monday under Texas rules. If he does not grant it by then, the motion will be denied by operation of law and Anthony’s direct appeal will continue. Fox News Digital has reached out to Anthony’s defense team for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a886a512c5335ae104967b9 Rosie O'Donnell hammers Trump repeatedly in Kimmel guest-host gig as White House fires back te 2026-08-21T15:10:09.815Z Rosie O'Donnell hammers Trump repeatedly in Kimmel guest-host gig as White House fires back Rosie O'Donnell wrapped up her week on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' with more digs at President Donald Trump Thursday night, ending her brief guest-hosting stint. "I’ve really enjoyed my time here thanks to everyone who’s been watching this week, especially the hungry, hungry hypocrite in the White House," O'Donnell said during her monologue Thursday. "Most of all, I'd like to thank Jimmy Kimmel for inviting me to do this and for reminding everyone that we have the right to free speech in this country, whether orange Voldemort likes it or not." O'Donnell guest-hosted Kimmel's show while the late-night host is on summer break. ROSIE O'DONNELL’S RETURN TO LATE NIGHT REIGNITES DECADES-OLD FEUD WITH DONALD TRUMP White House spokesperson Davis Ingle fired back, telling Fox News Digital, "Rosie O’Donnell is a nasty woman and a total slob whose brain has been completely destroyed by Trump Derangement Syndrome." The comedian name-dropped Natalie Harp during her monologue Wednesday, referring to remarks Democratic Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff made at a Georgia rally Sunday. "A special hello to those of you watching from home — and from the White House," she said. "But I do have some bad news for President Petty Roosevelt. That’s all I’m going to say about you tonight, sweetheart. Time to go nighty night." "You got to realize it’s time to hang up your wig and let Natalie tuck you in," O’Donnell continued, drawing gasps and applause from the Kimmel audience. The White House and Republicans criticized Ossoff's remarks earlier this week. During Tuesday's monologue, O'Donnell thanked the president for her reignited fame. O'Donnell left the country after Trump won the 2024 election and moved to Ireland. In a 2025 TikTok video, O'Donnell said she would think about returning to America "when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there." O'Donnell has since returned to the U.S. to guest-host "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and appear on several podcasts. ROSIE O'DONNELL PUSHES CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT TRUMP DIDN'T REALLY WIN 2024 ELECTION, SAYS ‘I THINK KAMALA WON’ "I’m back in the spotlight all thanks to President Oompa J. Loompa, who is watching us this evening from inside a catering cart," O’Donnell said. "You know, I couldn’t have done it without you, sweetie. You brought me back just like you did with fascism and the measles." O'Donnell explained her move to Ireland during her first episode as a guest host Monday. JIMMY KIMMEL REVEALS HE ASKED MAJOR TRUMP CRITIC TO GUEST HOST WHILE HE'S ON VACATION AS A 'SPECIAL TREAT' She began her monologue by poking fun at Trump’s longtime distaste for the show, telling the audience, "The president hated ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ when it was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. Buckle up, people." "I read that Project 2025 and said, ‘Got to get myself out of here, you know,’ and I decided to go to Ireland, a place where people are driven to drink regardless of who's running their country," O’Donnell said. ROSIE O'DONNELL WON'T WORRY ABOUT FCC, BRENDAN CARR AHEAD OF KIMMEL HOSTING, DOESN'T 'PAY ANY HEED TO THEM' O’Donnell then recalled how her teenager delivered the news that they would be moving abroad to their classmates, telling the audience her child said, "‘I’m very sorry. I won’t be able to graduate sixth grade with you. I’m being forced to move to another country because the president of the United States hates my mother. But in all fairness, I believe my mother hates him more.’" Without mentioning Trump by name, O’Donnell then smiled directly into the camera and addressed the president, telling him, "Hi, I know you’re watching." O'Donnell and the president have traded barbs for years, and Trump threatened to revoke the comedian's citizenship after she fled to Ireland in 2025. During an appearance on the Irish radio show, "Sunday with Miriam," in 2025, O'Donnell opened up about the contentious back and forth with the president of the United States and explained why she's "very proud" to stand up against him after all these years. "He still uses me as a punching bag and a way to sort of rile his base," O'Donnell, 64, said. "And I'm very proud to be opposed to every single thing he says and does and represents. I think he's a racist, and he's misogynistic, and he's sexist, and he is a danger to women and children all over the world." The decades-long feud stems back to 2006 after O'Donnell criticized him when she was a host on "The View" about his decision to be lenient toward a Miss USA winner who had been accused of drug use and other bad behavior. O'Donnell — who was a co-host on "The View" at the time — said Trump was "not a self-made man" but a "snake-oil salesman on ‘Little House On The Prairie.’" Trump responded to the criticism by calling O'Donnell a "real loser" and "a woman out of control." O'Donnell told People in 2014 that the criticism she received from Trump was the worst bullying she had experienced. "Probably the Trump stuff was the most bullying I ever experienced in my life, including as a child," O’Donnell said. "It was national, and it was sanctioned societally. Whether I deserved it is up to your own interpretation." CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE Trump responded to her comments by tweeting, "Rosie—No offense, and good luck on the new show, but remember, you started it!" Fox News' Julia Bonavita, CJ Womack and Christina Dugan Ramirez contributed to this report. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8865a02c5335ae104966fd Texas AG Ken Paxton sends message to WNBA amid 'concerns' over treatment of Sophie Cunningham supporters te 2026-08-21T14:50:08.052Z Texas AG Ken Paxton sends message to WNBA amid 'concerns' over treatment of Sophie Cunningham supporters EXCLUSIVE: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton expressed cautious optimism about the WNBA’s treatment of Sophie Cunningham’s supporters Thursday while reaffirming his commitment to keeping biological males out of women’s sports. Paxton attended the Indiana Fever’s game against the Dallas Wings at American Airlines Center with his daughter Mattie. The two wore matching XX-XY shirts as women’s sports advocates rallied outside the arena before the game. When asked whether Cunningham’s supporters had received fair treatment from the WNBA, Paxton stopped short of condemning the league. "Look, I think they’re working on it," Paxton told Fox News Digital. "I have concerns ... but I’m hopeful that things are getting better in that regard." Paxton answered a question on whether he would become involved if supporters face unfair treatment, saying he was "looking" into the issue. He did not indicate any plans for any formal action. "Look, we’re looking at it," Paxton said. "We wanna make sure that they are treated fairly" Paxton’s measured response came after Cunningham supporters raised concerns about their treatment at WNBA games in multiple cities. The league recently acknowledged that security personnel should not have instructed a mother and daughter to cover their XX-XY shirts at an Atlanta Dream game. WNBA ADMITS SECURITY IN ATLANTA WAS WRONG TO MAKE FANS COVER SHIRTS AT DREAM-FEVER GAME "This should not have happened," the WNBA said in response to that incident. Paxton showed little willingness to compromise on the underlying issue. SUPREME COURT MAKES RULING ON TRANS ATHLETES IN WOMEN'S SPORTS "In Texas, we know what we’ve passed," he said. "We have laws here that protect against men in women’s sports and boys in girls’ sports, and it’s pretty important to, I think, the people of Texas." Texas law requires athletes at public schools and public colleges to compete based on biological sex. The state’s laws do not directly control WNBA eligibility. Paxton has still used his office to pursue the issue, including a lawsuit against the NCAA over its previous transgender athlete policy. Paxton praised Cunningham for publicly opposing the inclusion of biological males in women’s sports. Her comments inspired supporters to hold rallies outside WNBA arenas and attend games wearing shirts promoting sex-based competition. "Look, I admire her," Paxton said. "She’s got tremendous courage. It’s what we need in our country, more courage, standing up for what is right, and actually standing up for young women that want the opportunity to compete in sports." "Obviously, we have these policies where men compete against women, which makes it very difficult for these women to compete in sports." Paxton encouraged Texans to support Cunningham instead of attacking her for expressing her position. "Instead of criticizing her, how about we admire something of great courage, which is what she has accomplished as a young woman," he said. "Standing up is very difficult. Very few people are willing to do it, and I have a lot of admiration. I hope a lot of Texans have a lot of admiration for what she has accomplished at such a young age." Paxton also addressed former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White announcing plans to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft. Both men have described their announcements as attempts to challenge the league to clarify its transgender eligibility policy. THE WNBA HAS LIMITED OPTIONS AFTER TWO MEN DECLARED FOR THE DRAFT, AND THOSE OPTIONS AREN'T GREAT "Look, it highlights the crazy insanity of this whole transgender movement," Paxton said. "When these guys can declare, and it’s under the rules, they’re perfectly within their rights to do it. So I think they’re just highlighting the ludicrousness of what the WNBA is promoting here." When asked what Texas might do if either former NBA player reached a WNBA roster and played in Dallas, Paxton declined to address the hypothetical. "We’ll just have to see," he said. "We don’t know how the WNBA is gonna handle this. But we certainly, we in Texas, we are promoting no boys in girls’ sports because it’s completely unfair." Brooke Slusser’s mother, Kim, also attended the game. Slusser, a former San Jose State volleyball player, became a national advocate for women’s sports after saying she was required to share living and sleeping spaces with a transgender teammate without initially knowing the player’s sex. "I think that they are the epitome of what real Texans are about," Paxton said of the Slusser family. "Fighting against, you know, a young woman that’s supposedly have to live with a man, and it’s ridiculous and ludicrous. And the fact that she had to go through that is awful and appalling." "But look, I admire her for her stand, that they’re standing up and fighting back." Paxton also made clear that the night was about more than politics. He said he looked forward to spending time with his daughter and watching the game, which Dallas won 91-85. Paxton’s appearance came as he campaigns for a promotion from the Texas attorney general’s office to the U.S. Senate. Paxton defeated four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the May Republican runoff, winning about 64% of the vote after receiving President Donald Trump’s endorsement. He will face Democrat state Rep. James Talarico in November after choosing not to seek another term as attorney general. The debate over women’s sports has become a prominent part of Paxton’s record as attorney general. Texas adopted laws requiring athletes in public K-12 schools and public colleges to compete based on their biological sex. Paxton has used his office to defend and enforce those laws while targeting athletic organizations with policies that he believes undermine sex-based competition. Paxton sued the NCAA in December 2024, accusing the organization of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by marketing events as women’s competitions while allowing biological males to participate. After the NCAA changed its policy in February 2025 to restrict women’s competition to athletes assigned female at birth, Paxton argued the organization still needed a system for verifying athletes’ sex. A state judge later denied his request for a temporary injunction requiring sex screening, but the ruling did not resolve the underlying lawsuit. Paxton’s office also secured an agreement with the Dallas Independent School District requiring compliance with the state’s girls’ sports law. He later pursued investigations involving U.S. Masters Swimming and the Texas branch of the United States Tennis Association. Those actions have helped Paxton present himself nationally as one of the Republican Party’s most aggressive legal advocates for sex-based athletic categories as he seeks a seat in Washington. That record has placed Paxton alongside the growing network of athletes, parents and advocacy groups that have rallied around Cunningham. Some of those supporters have reported hostile treatment after bringing their message inside WNBA arenas, prompting the league to discipline one team executive and acknowledge that its own security personnel acted improperly in another incident. The first major confrontation occurred during the Fever’s July 28 game in Seattle. Two teenage girls sitting courtside held signs thanking Cunningham for "speaking up for girls." Seattle Storm minority co-owner Celeste Keaton allegedly approached them, used profanity and called them "f—ing insane." The Storm apologized, and the WNBA later suspended Keaton from five home games and issued an undisclosed fine. Another controversy followed during the Fever’s Aug. 16 game against the Atlanta Dream. WNBA security personnel told at least three fans to cover shirts containing messages about transgender participation in women’s sports. Two wore XX-XY shirts supporting sex-based athletic categories, while another wore a shirt supporting transgender participation. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! A mother and her 17-year-old daughter said security brought them Dream shirts and instructed them to cover their XX-XY clothing or leave the arena. The WNBA subsequently admitted that security personnel were wrong. "This should not have happened," the league said, adding that the fans should have been free to wear the shirts. The Dream said its employees had no involvement in the decision and that the actions by league security "fell short" of the team’s standards. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88659e2c5335ae104966ee How Trump works around his Supreme Court losses te 2026-08-21T14:50:06.773Z How Trump works around his Supreme Court losses President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office on August 6, 2026. Trump signed an executive order during the event denying birthright citizenship to children of foreign diplomats after a loss at the U.S. Supreme Court limited an earlier order. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has not slowed his pursuit of central policy goals and personal pursuits, even after major setbacks at the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts. The high court in its 2026 term delivered blows to Trump’s core campaign promises to upend a constitutional provision governing who becomes a U.S. citizen at birth and to swiftly address the growing national debt with “trillions of dollars” raised by taxing imports.  The justices also ruled the president cannot fire, without cause, Fed Board Gov. Lisa Cook and deny her a chance to plead her case. And a lower court blocked Trump from installing his name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. But even after the Supreme Court ruled against him, Trump is forging ahead and using what some legal observers describe as “creative lawyering” to find alternative routes to push his agenda, even as public support fades. He ordered new blanket tariffs in late July on at least 60 trading partners. He signed a new round of birthright citizenship orders Aug. 6. Reports also revealed that Cook received a letter Aug. 5 from administration officials that Trump is again “considering” firing her. The moves test the power dynamic between the executive and judicial branches, but are not illegal or even unconventional in modern times, experts said. “They look at it and they say, ‘We want to advance a particular policy agenda. Here’s the whole array of legal arguments that we might be able to use that give us authority,’’’ said Scott Anderson, senior fellow at the centrist Brookings Institution and senior counsel and editor of the publication Lawfare. Trump is not alone in this pursuit. After all, President Joe Biden found another route to student loan debt relief after a loss at the Supreme Court. A federal appeals court effectively axed the Biden-era relief program in March. “It does happen, and (administrations) will sometimes run the risk of legal reversal, but it’s a rarer move,” Anderson said. “For this administration, it’s become the standard move.” ‘Spirit of the law’ While Anderson said Trump’s responses to the rulings are “not surprising” given the legal strategy of his second term, one could argue the “legal brinksmanship … often clearly runs contrary to some of the spirit of the law, and it capitalizes on a lot of institutional inefficiencies.”  Thomas Berry, a legal scholar with the libertarian Cato Institute, said while Trump has often used rhetoric to “delegitimize the court,” his recent actions are not out of legal bounds. “What he’s doing is distinct from outright disobedience or ignoring a Supreme Court’s decision, and it’s important to stress that that line has not been crossed,” said Berry, who directs the institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies. A White House spokesperson said the administration has “always followed court orders.” “The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Cook case required notice and an opportunity for a hearing in considering whether the President should take certain adverse employment actions. The President’s notice sent to Fed. Governor Cook offers exactly that within the precise structure enunciated by the Court,” said Lauren Bis in a brief written response from the White House. A Department of Justice spokesperson, who did not provide a name, wrote in a statement, “Investigative and prosecutorial decisions are made based on the law and the facts. To date, DOJ has prevailed in 24 emergency applications before the Supreme Court, winning over 80 percent, an unprecedented win rate that speaks for itself, and has also won dozens of merits cases at the Court.” The spokesperson highlighted the department’s Supreme Court win in June that allows the administration to follow through with plans to deport between about 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians who were living in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status. Members of the media set up outside the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of Trump’s arrival on April 1, 2026. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara to determine if Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship is constitutional. According to historians and the Court, it was the first time a sitting president has attended oral arguments at the nation’s highest court. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images) Birthright citizenship On the final day of its 2026 term, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s sweeping attempt to deny citizenship to children born to parents who either do not have legal status or hold temporary legal visas.  Chief Justice John Roberts led the 6-3 opinion on June 30, writing that children born in the U.S. to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present “are ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.” Today’s exceptions for those who are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction include foreign diplomats and their families, members of invading armies and in most cases foreign public ships passing in nearby waters. On Aug. 6, Trump signed two executive orders again aimed at curtailing birthright citizenship. The first targets children born to the staff working for foreign diplomats; to children born in American Samoa, where Congress has yet to pass a citizenship law; and to the children born to parents who belong to what the U.S. defines as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization.”   “So what Trump is trying to do with these executive orders is he’s trying to say, ‘OK fine, those are the categories you’ve given us. We’re going to try to push those to the maximal extent possible,’” Berry said. “And he interprets them broadly,” Berry continued. “Do people have diplomatic immunity or not? That’s kind of a factual question. Literally the ambassador and the ambassador’s spouse, they get diplomatic immunity. But does everyone from the foreign country working in the embassy similarly get immunity from U.S. law? That wasn’t my impression.” Trump is also seeking to limit birthright citizenship by taking what Berry described as a “maximalist view” of what an invading army is. “It’s not obvious that that analogy extends to people who are part of designated terrorist groups because they’re not literally rampaging and pillaging,” he said. “This is more people who are living here but have been, you know, labeled as part of a group that’s at odds with the United States.”   Anderson said the administration “clearly is intending to just take advantage of every hint and every limitation the Supreme Court decision left open.” The American Civil Liberties Union on Aug. 12 began the process of asking the federal judiciary to reaffirm the Supreme Court ruling.  Tariffs Trump’s trade policy provides another example of the administration finding a new legal reasoning after the Supreme Court struck down the initial basis for a major administration goal. In the midst of refunding roughly $166 billion to businesses that paid taxes on imports under Trump’s emergency tariffs, the president has hopscotched across multiple trade statutes to continually impose at least 10% duties on most global goods since his Supreme Court loss in February. In a 6-3 opinion, the high court struck down Trump’s unprecedented claim of tariff authority under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Congress retained tariff authority in most circumstances, Roberts wrote for the majority, and Trump could not use the statute to impose duties after declaring emergencies on trade imbalances and illegal drug smuggling. Trump lost the case to a handful of small business owners and Democratic state officials. Tariffs are taxes paid by the importers, meaning American businesses were shouldering the additional costs. Trump immediately turned to another statute, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes the president to unilaterally set up to 10% in tariffs for 150 days.  The order set off another round of legal challenges, including from Democratic-led states, in the U.S. Court of International Trade. Less than a month after the Supreme Court loss, the U.S. Office of the Trade Representative also opened broad trade investigations under Section 301 of the 1974 law into the practices of nearly all U.S. trading partners. As the clock ran out on Trump’s 10% blanket tariff under Section 122 on July 24, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced his office had found forced labor practices by roughly 60 of America’s trading partners, including Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan and the United Kingdom, among dozens more. The findings triggered a 10% to 12.5% duty on most goods from those countries. Days earlier, Trump announced he would use a Depression-era provision that had never been enforced — Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 — to slap a 50% duty on most Canadian imports. The U.S., for now, has delayed the start of the high tariffs as talks with Canada continue, according to reports. Trump’s strategy on pushing tariffs is “not really surprising at all,” Anderson said, adding “it’s not even inappropriate.” “The Supreme Court never said, ‘You can’t do tariffs.’ In fact, it said basically you can. It just said ‘You can’t do it this way.’ And that automatically points to these other ways, which everyone said is probably a more sound way to do this if the president really wants to do this,” Anderson said. “It doesn’t mean it’s good policy,” he added. “It doesn’t mean it’s a good idea, but there’s at least a very colorable case the president can do this all legally. ” Trump holds a chart while speaking during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, 2025. Touting the event as “Liberation Day,” Trump announced sweeping tariffs on imported goods. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) 2025 deportation flights Trump’s “aggressive” legal strategy has set him apart from other presidents, and, despite specific recent examples that haven’t crossed a legal line, the administration likely violated court orders in relation to immigration, according to observers. “I think there are some cases that push the envelope, might be unlawful, particularly around, like, some of those early deportations,” Anderson said. “But the majority of the time, the executive branch has been responding and complying with court orders. It’s capitalizing on the fact that those orders are often very narrow.” Berry also highlighted the March 2025 deportation flights that took off with hundreds of immigrants on board despite a court order as a potential example of cases “where these agencies have outright violated court orders.” Overall, the courts have been a check on the administration’s view of expansive power, both experts said. “It is worth taking a moment to realize, like, just how vastly smaller the scope of this (most recent) birthright executive order is after the Supreme Court,” Berry said. “The decision did cut off the vast majority of options the administration has. I mean, you think about the scope of millions of people that the original order would have affected, and compare that to this. It’s just night and day.” Electorate another check Voters are also a check on power, observers say. With crucial midterm elections approaching, Trump’s net approval rating is -26, meaning the percentage of voters who approve of him is 26 points below those who disapprove, according to The Economist/YouGov poll figures published Aug. 18. A Reuters/Ipsos found Trump’s approval rating at a record low of 33%, according to data published Aug. 17. A recent Fox New poll last month showed most voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of the economy. And 55% told Reuters/Ipsos just days before the Supreme Court ruling that they disapproved of Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship. Trump surrounded himself in his second term with people who “openly denigrated” a lot of norms of the executive office and are “acting accordingly” to what they saw their voter base wanted, Anderson said. “I think they probably overreacted to this idea that simply by winning the last election, that voters have a high tolerance for this,” Anderson said. “And Republicans in Congress and potentially in 2028 are going to pay a price for that.” Anderson added if voters and lawmakers don’t like the loopholes Trump’s legal strategy is employing, then maybe it’s time for Congress to close them. “If we don’t think our laws align with what we think is right ethically and good policy, then maybe they do need to be adjusted,” he said.  “Maybe if we want a robust separation of powers, we need to take actions that will empower the courts and Congress to push back on executive aggrandizement more effectively, as opposed to the trajectory over the most of the 20th century, which was implicitly, sometimes expressly, more or less empowering the executive branch on the assumption that the executive branch was going to self-constrain itself.”  A  tarp covers the facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on June 15, 2026, after a federal judge ruled Trump’s name must be removed from the center. (Photo by Sam Gauntt/States Newsroom) ‘Everything people don’t like’ As for the Kennedy Center: Despite a judge’s order that led to the yanking of Trump’s name from the facade of the revered performing arts venue in mid-June, Trump’s hand-picked board voted Aug. 13 to again affix his name to the building.  This time, instead of above John F. Kennedy’s name, the board voted to add an inscription underneath to read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump,” according to court records. A federal judge had found that Trump’s name, which had already been added, could not officially remain there without authorization from Congress. “It’s sort of everything people don’t like about lawyers at its extreme. … This is kind of again looking for a loophole —  they’re going to argue ‘We are not naming the center. We are adding this appendage,’” Berry said.  “So long as it’s just like naming the renovation, you know, kind of like a sponsorship deal at the end of the name of a stadium or something like that, that’s acceptable because it’s not renaming the center,” he continued. “So we’re likely to have litigation about that too, and it’s going to be a pretty lawyerly and probably annoying debate.” Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88634c2c5335ae104966ac City launches K-5 programs te 2026-08-21T14:40:12.542Z City launches K-5 programs The city of Sedona’s new afterschool program runs Monday through Thursday through the end of September. Josh Frewin, Sedona’s Parks & Recreation director, said the cost of most of the programs, which are aimed at kids kindergarten through fifth grade, is no more than $15 a day per program. Registrat Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88634b2c5335ae1049668b Top JPMorganChase exec warns regulatory proposal could squeeze credit for millions of small businesses te 2026-08-21T14:40:11.427Z Top JPMorganChase exec warns regulatory proposal could squeeze credit for millions of small businesses FIRST ON FOX: A top executive at JPMorganChase warned that proposed federal bank capital rules could damage small businesses across the country, airing caution that Main Street may have less access to credit from banks. As regulators move to finalize Basel III Endgame, one of the most important global financial regulatory standards to date, Chase Business Bank CEO Stevie Baron said in a memo obtained by Fox News Digital that the current framework could potentially have unintended consequences for small businesses as capital requirements could prevent lending. "The latest revisions to the 2023 proposal are a step in the right direction, but as we reiterated to regulators, more work is needed to ensure the final rules do not increase the cost of lending or reduce access to credit for small businesses," Baron explained. Baron specifically noted proposed changes to the Global Systemically Important Bank (GSIB) surcharge, saying that formula could encourage trading over lending, raising borrowing costs for millions of small business owners. JAMIE DIMON SAYS HE WOULDN’T BUY STOCKS OR TREASURYS AT CURRENT PRICES JPMorganChase is considered a GSIB, and is required to adhere to higher loss-absorbing equity and capital requirements than other smaller banks. "The Fed should reconsider the proposed changes to the GSIB surcharge calculation, and, in particular, retain the current approach to the short-term wholesale funding factor that accounts for the size and funding diversification benefits of universal banks," Baron added. "Regulators should ensure the surcharge framework does not penalize the everyday lending and banking services relied on by small businesses." He also argued that "capital requirements should not increase just because the economy is growing, or routine activity is expanding," and that "policymakers should ensure the capital framework operates as a coherent whole, rather than layering multiple requirements on top of the same risks." Baron oversees more than 7 million small and medium-size businesses and over $19 billion in business banking average loans in FY2025. The American Dream Initiative, which was announced by JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon on Fox News’ "Fox and Friends" in March, seeks to expand the total number of small and medium-sized businesses to 10 million in additional to a number of changes at the bank to promote growth in the U.S. economy. A senior JPMorganChase executive told Fox News Digital that acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling visited JPMC headquarters last week to discuss the initiative and steps the bank is taking to implement changes under the Trump administration. After the 2008 financial crisis, global regulators developed the Basel III regulatory package to ensure banks have enough capital and financial cushion to weather economic volatility to protect taxpayers. U.S. regulatory agencies, including the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller, initially proposed the framework, dubbed Basel III Endgame in 2023 but withdrew the draft for revision after pushback. SURVIVING SINCE LINCOLN: HOW SIX GENERATIONS BEAT THE SMALL BUSINESS CURSE In March, Trump administration regulators proposed the latest draft of Basel III Endgame, with a comment deadline of July, though banks are still lobbying for changes as regulators move to enact permanent policy. Top lawmakers, like Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, have also warned about potential lending shortfalls if the framework is enacted. "I have long said that overly complicated capital rules can slow economic growth without making our financial system safer," Scott said in a March statement. "The Biden administration’s plan would have made it harder to get a mortgage, harder to start a business, and more expensive to make ends meet. That is the wrong direction when families are already feeling squeezed. There is still more work to do. We need rules that keep our financial system strong while making sure banks can lend, and our economy can grow." Baron aligned with Scott’s view that there needs to be assurance that banks will be able to lend freely, stating in his memo that small businesses could be restricted from expansion and investing in growth should there be limited access to capital. His memo is part of a new JPMorganChase series titled "from the desk of," where top executives, including Dimon, have shared their takes on various economic and political policies and how they affect America’s largest bank. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8863462c5335ae10496671 Trump Threatens Suit Against Think Tank Over Report He Doesn’t Like te 2026-08-21T14:40:06.277Z Trump Threatens Suit Against Think Tank Over Report He Doesn’t Like It was the latest example of President Trump’s bid to use the legal system to intimidate his critics for voicing unflattering facts and opinions generally protected by the First Amendment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8863442c5335ae10496653 Walmart to finally start accepting Apple Pay and Google Pay te 2026-08-21T14:40:04.743Z Walmart to finally start accepting Apple Pay and Google Pay Are pigs flying? Walmart has finally caved on its refusal to support Apple Pay and Google Pay. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8863432c5335ae1049664a Oura faces lawsuit accusing it of misleading consumers about sleep-tracking accuracy te 2026-08-21T14:40:03.159Z Oura faces lawsuit accusing it of misleading consumers about sleep-tracking accuracy The lawsuit alleges that Oura rings are unable to measure any of the physiological signals needed to assess sleep quality or determine sleep stages. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a885e9a2c5335ae104965b9 AOC blasted as too moderate by Maoist DSA faction as 2028 buzz grows te 2026-08-21T14:20:10.099Z AOC blasted as too moderate by Maoist DSA faction as 2028 buzz grows The Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) Liberation Caucus is rejecting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as a potential candidate for Democrats in the 2028 presidential election, arguing she is too far removed from the socialist agenda. "Liberation condemns Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's continued retreat from socialist politics and rejects any effort to present her as the future presidential standard-bearer for DSA, or for the broader socialist movement," the DSA Liberation Caucus wrote in the statement. DSA slammed Ocasio-Cortez as an "opportunist" and condemned her vote to defend Israel’s right to exist and for not holding firm as an anti-Zionist. "In short, it was determined that she had failed to meet conditions concerning Palestine solidarity," the statement said. DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS ERUPT OVER 2028 ENDORSEMENT AS AOC SPECULATION GROWS: 'DANGEROUS PATH' After withdrawing a conditional endorsement of the "Squad" Democrat in 2024, DSA’s National Political Committee "determined" that Ocasio-Cortez hosted a public panel with an alleged Zionist organization — the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. She was also trashed for joining a group of House Democrats to co-sign a statement — after voting against providing Israel with supplemental weapon funding — that voiced support for Israel’s right to have defensive systems. The statement continued to attack her, pivoting to her recent remarks in an interview with ABC, where Ocasio-Cortez walked back on her support for the movement to defund the police and the language used around policing in 2020, calling the 2020 "Woke 1" era for progressives "crazyyyyy." "She has dismissed the mass radicalization around policing and abolition as part of the supposed excesses of 'Woke 1', seeking to reduce the historic Black-led uprising of 2020 to an embarrassing political phase," the statement reads. It continues, "Ironically, her first electoral victory came in the heat of 'Woke 1', where she trafficked in the language of abolition. Now that she feels that she no longer needs it, she condemns it. This is the action of an opportunist dilettante, devoid of any principles whatsoever, not a socialist." ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ SHRUGS OFF PAST 'DEFUND THE POLICE' COMMENTS, JOKING 'WOKE 1 WAS CRAZY' The DSA’s rejection of Ocasio-Cortez comes shortly after the organization recently announced its new program that calls for the complete elimination of the Senate, president and Supreme Court. The DSA said this program, "Workers Deserve More," must be accepted and promoted by all candidates in order to receive a formal DSA endorsement. "This is why the current rumblings for and prospects of an AOC presidential campaign should be met with a clear answer from the socialist left: No," the group said in the statement. "We will not endorse or give succor to a campaign to put a social democrat at the head of an empire, where she will make even more capitulations to the imperialists, and drag our organization into antagonistic contradiction after antagonistic contradiction." While the national DSA does not endorse Ocasio-Cortez, and vehemently opposes her presidential bid, the New York City DSA chapter has routinely endorsed Ocasio-Cortez throughout her races. The statement claims that the NYC DSA chapter has hinted at "splitting away" from the DSA over disagreements similar to endorsing Ocasio-Cortez. HASAN PIKER VOWS NEVER TO CRITICIZE MAO ZEDONG IN RESURFACED VIDEO, HAILS HIM AS ‘GREAT LEADER’ "This is not the behavior of socialist cadres," the Liberation Caucus said in the statement. There has been widespread speculation that Ocasio-Cortez will run for president or Senate in 2028, and is polling as the leading choice among Democrats. But she has not yet formally announced if she will run. Formed in 2025, the DSA Liberation Caucus openly describes itself as a "Marxist-Leninist-Maoist caucus in Democratic Socialists of America." The group's website has a page dedicated to a list defending Maoism that includes labeling the period of mass starvation and disaster as "misconception 4" on the list. Both the DSA Liberation Caucus and Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a885e992c5335ae104965b0 Tourists get dangerously close to massive bison in stunning nature video posted online te 2026-08-21T14:20:09.245Z Tourists get dangerously close to massive bison in stunning nature video posted online Ladies and gentlemen, we have another truly stunning nature video. As we've talked about too many times to count, absurd nature videos are among the best things on the internet. It's honestly nothing short of incredible how dumb people are when it comes to wild animals. They watch a Disney movie and think every wild animal is a house pet. WOMAN TESTS FATE BY GETTING TOO CLOSE TO A MASSIVE BISON, FACEPLANTS WHILE RUNNING AWAY That's not reality at all, and the evidence is overwhelming. The YouTube page T. Lyn Neufeld Photography posted a video this week of a group of tourists doing the one thing you never should with a bison: BULL BISON SENDS YELLOWSTONE VISITOR FLIPPING THROUGH THE AIR IN CAMPGROUND ATTACK CAUGHT ON VIDEO Get extremely close. Bison can be aggressive animals when they feel threatened, and unlike a little puppy, a bison has the size and power to ruin your day. BISON VICTIM SPEAKS OUT AFTER WILD ATTACK: ‘THEY MOVE FASTER THAN YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE’ Yet, people keep doing it! Watch the stunning footage below, and let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com. As you'd expect, the comments section on YouTube was absolutely incredible. One person wrote, "Can't fix stupid." Fact check: 100% true. Another added, "People being STUPID!!" A third wrote, "Amazing. I don't know how some people find their way out of bed in the morning." Stay away from wild animals, folks. It's not hard to understand, but apparently is incredibly difficult for some people to actually execute. Let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a885e932c5335ae10496596 Push for Online Gun Sales Meets a Surprising Opponent: Small Gun Dealers te 2026-08-21T14:20:03.686Z Push for Online Gun Sales Meets a Surprising Opponent: Small Gun Dealers The Trump administration wants average Americans to be able to buy guns online and have them shipped to their doors. Small gun stores warn it could upend the industry and risk public safety. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a885c3b2c5335ae10496533 Starcloud raises $250 million for orbital data centers as launch options dry up te 2026-08-21T14:10:03.421Z Starcloud raises $250 million for orbital data centers as launch options dry up There's about to be a big fight to secure access to space. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8859ec2c5335ae10496510 Videos show three suspects in shooting death of Tucson police recruit Carlos Ramirez te 2026-08-21T14:00:12.053Z Videos show three suspects in shooting death of Tucson police recruit Carlos Ramirez The Pima County Sheriff's Department is now on the hunt for three men in connection with a Tuesday morning shooting that left a Tucson police recruit dead and his corrections officer fiancee hospitalized with a gunshot wound. Authorities say they've obtained an arrest warrant for Alex James Barnett, 33, one of the three suspects. The other two men have not yet been publicly identified as of Friday morning. Surveillance video released Thursday night shows at least two other men wearing black in separate clips — one at a gas station at 5405 West Valencia Road around 5:20 a.m. on Wednesday and later in a parking lot near South Palo Verda Road and East 33rd Street at around 10:50 a.m. SUSPECTS AT LARGE AFTER TUCSON POLICE RECRUIT KILLED, PIMA COUNTY CORRECTIONS OFFICER WOUNDED IN SHOOTING The suspect vehicle, a gray Acura MDX SUV, was abandoned there and recovered by police Thursday, authorities said. One of the unidentified men appears to have tattoos on his arms and legs. He had short, dark hair and a short beard. The person seen dropping off the Acura was pictured only in grainy video and appeared to be wearing a shirt without sleeves. The murder victim has been identified as 23-year-old Carlos Ramirez, who was due to graduate from the police academy on Aug. 27 and previously worked as a corrections officer for the sheriff's department. SEND US A TIP His fiancee, also 23, was taken to a hospital in stable condition. Authorities did not immediately release her name. MASS SHOOTING ROCKS CROWDED DOWNTOWN TUCSON DISTRICT, LEAVING 10 WOUNDED "The Tucson Police Department is deeply saddened by the passing of Carlos Ramirez, a member of Basic Recruit Class 26-1," a spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "Carlos was fatally shot early this morning. His fiancée was also injured and is currently receiving medical care. Our thoughts are with Carlos's family and loved ones, his fiancée, and his classmates, instructors, and academy staff during this difficult time." LISTEN TO THE NEW 'CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO' PODCAST Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos previously said the suspects were wearing all black clothing and ski masks at the time of the shooting — which happened around 6 a.m. Wednesday. It happened at Ramirez's home in the 7700 block of South Enchanted Spring Drive, about 17 miles southwest of Tucson. Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or 520-88-CRIME. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8859eb2c5335ae10496507 AOC endorses Sen Ed Markey as incumbent faces Dem US Senate primary challenge from Rep Seth Moulton te 2026-08-21T14:00:11.117Z AOC endorses Sen Ed Markey as incumbent faces Dem US Senate primary challenge from Rep Seth Moulton Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., endorsed Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., as the incumbent senator faces off against Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., in the Massachusetts Democratic U.S. Senate primary. "At a time when powerful special interests are making life harder for everyday Americans, Massachusetts working families need a champion in the U.S. Senate to stand up for them and fight corporate greed," Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement released by Markey's campaign. "Ed Markey has spent his career doing exactly that, from our partnership on the Green New Deal to running his campaign without accepting a dime of corporate PAC money.  His work is an inspiration to many of us who are committed to building a better future for all, and that’s why I’m proud to endorse him," the congresswoman added. AOC DOCUMENTS EGG-FREEZING JOURNEY, TAKES AIM AT TRUMP ADMIN OVER WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE CHOICES The House lawmaker previously backed Markey during his last election cycle. "The toughest fights need the most inspiring leaders, and that’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She’s got vision, she knows what’s at stake, and she never backs down," Markey said in a statement. "We introduced the Green New Deal to tackle the climate crisis, lower costs, and build an economy that works for working people, not corporations and billionaires. I am incredibly proud to have her endorsement and look forward to continuing to fight alongside her for the livable future we deserve." BOMB-THROWER DEM MAKES SHOCKING PROMISE TO KICK SCHUMER TO CURB DURING SENATE DEBATE Markey, who turned 80 this year, has served in the Senate since mid-July 2013, but he had previously served in the House for more than 36 years. Moulton, who is 47, and will turn 48 in October, has served in the House since 2015. DEMOCRATIC SENATOR CLAIMS GOP 'STOLE' TWO SCOTUS SEATS IN 2016, 2020, CALLS FOR EXPANSION The Massachusetts Democratic U.S. Senate primary is on Sept. 1, and early voting is Aug. 22-28. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8859e42c5335ae104964ed Arizona’s teacher turnover costs taxpayers $150 million a year te 2026-08-21T14:00:04.063Z Arizona’s teacher turnover costs taxpayers $150 million a year Arizona’s teacher retention crisis affects classrooms and students but it also costs taxpayers money. A tool from the Learning Policy Institute puts the annual cost of replacing departing teachers in Arizona at more than $150 million.  In Arizona, 14% teachers leave their jobs — double the national average rate of 7%, according to the Center for the Future of Arizona. The numbers also show a gap tied to training, about 12% of fully certified teachers leave Arizona classrooms each year, compared to about 21% of teachers without full certification. This series has explored teacher retention solutions over the last two weeks, from residency programs to teachers picking up second and third jobs to stay in the classroom. Watch the video below for more and find the full series here. Isabela Lisco is a Report for America corpsmember covering education solutions for 13 News. Her position is made possible through funding from Report for America and the Arizona Local News Foundation’s Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.  Shannon Conner is the education solutions reporter for Arizona Luminaria supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation.  The post Arizona’s teacher turnover costs taxpayers $150 million a year appeared first on AZ Luminaria. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8857902c5335ae104964b2 NFL to NCAA? Courtroom chaos Is giving pro athletes a bizarre path back to college, and it's only just begun te 2026-08-21T13:50:08.965Z NFL to NCAA? Courtroom chaos Is giving pro athletes a bizarre path back to college, and it's only just begun Just as the college football season is set to begin next weekend, there has been an influx of NFL players being given the chance to enter the transfer portal in hopes of joining a college roster over the next few weeks. Are you confused or baffled any of that? Trust me, you aren’t alone. But thanks to one particular ruling in Louisiana this week, players who have at least signed some type of contract with an NFL team now have the opportunity to return for an additional season at the collegiate level. NCAA IGNORED THE WARNINGS. NOW IT'S FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL IN COURTROOMS ACROSS AMERICA OVER ELIGIBILITY While most, if not all, of this sounds absurd right now, it can be traced back to the NCAA establishing new eligibility guidelines that afford athletes five years to play five seasons of college sports. What we're seeing play out in courtrooms across the country centers on the NCAA's decision not to include the 2022 class under its new rules. That left players declaring for professional drafts under the impression that they had exhausted their collegiate eligibility, which they technically had under the old rules. On Thursday, former Ole Miss tight end Dae'Quan Wright reportedly created a first, of many to come, in college football: He entered the NCAA transfer portal while under contract with an NFL team. Wright is currently participating in training camp with the Cleveland Browns after initially signing a free-agent contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. But, one of the bigger questions is who is actually pulling the strings for him to enter the transfer portal, without actually being enrolled at a school? Yes, these questions are being answered on the fly, which seems par for the course during this madness. Technically, the court order from the Louisiana judge noted that a 'member institution' would have to enter his name into the database. Does that mean Ole Miss would accommodate Dae'Quan Wright, knowing he's not enrolled in school? Also, don’t forget, the SEC has a rule in-place that does not allow athletes to transfer within the conference outside of the portal period. So, is Wright actually in the portal or is he planning to enter? INDIANA TAKES FULL ADVANTAGE OF NCAA COURTROOM CHAOS WITH STUNNING ROSTER MOVE AMID ELIGIBILITY FIGHT Dae'Quan is one of a number of players who are either participating in NFL preseason camps or went through the draft process before being invited to camps across the league. In this particular case, one of many currently unfolding across the country, 19th Judicial District Court Judge Will Jorden in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, granted the plaintiffs a temporary restraining order in their lawsuit against the NCAA. The order also allows them to use a makeshift transfer portal that will remain open for seven days. There have been other cases as well, from California to South Carolina, with most of them going in the favor of athletes suing the NCAA over the eligibility guidelines enacted in June. "The evidence in the record demonstrates that the NCAA has applied its rules inconsistently and arbitrarily, applying certain eligibility rules to certain athletes but not to others," Chancellor I'Ashea Myles wrote in her recent ruling that denied an NCAA appeal in a Tennessee court. Those types of statements from judges across the country have become increasingly common, leading to more lawsuits being filed against the NCAA by athletes hoping to receive similar relief while their underlying cases play out. NCAA Has No Plans To Surrender, As Eligibility Lawsuits For 2022 Class Turn Into An All-Out Legal War You can also add former LSU starting defensive lineman Jack Pyburn to that list. He is currently battling for a spot on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 53-man roster. And no, it probably shouldn’t shock you that the latest victory for plaintiffs suing the NCAA came in the same city LSU calls home. Meanwhile, colleges are toeing the line between abiding by rules they voted to enact and trying to navigate a legal system that could allow them to add a few weapons to their rosters. No, schools aren't allowed to file these lawsuits on behalf of athletes. But the way things are going, the day might not be far off when a school sues its own conference over enforcement of rules pertaining to intra-conference transfers. These athletes are not eligible under current NCAA rules. But judges granting them the opportunity to return to college athletics are also shielding schools that add them to their rosters from punishment by the organization. Essentially, if a school adds one of these players under the protection of a court order, it is not at risk of NCAA punishment for doing so. But here's where things get even more awkward: For an athlete who has received money during the NFL process to take the field again in college, that money may have to be repaid. Remember Tennessee linebacker Arion Carter? The Vols starter declared for the NFL Draft but withdrew his name from consideration after discovering a few weeks into the process that a foot injury would prevent him from participating in pre-draft workouts. Tennessee Coach Unloads On NCAA's 'Bulls–t', After Star Linebacker Suspended For Outdated Rule So, he returned to Tennessee. But to regain his eligibility, Carter had to repay $427 that was provided for a plane ticket. Seems pretty small compared to what we're seeing right now, huh? Carter was also suspended for the first two games of the 2026 season because he initiated the NFL process. For now, Arion has not filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in hopes of having that suspension overturned. NCAA Suspends Tennessee Linebacker For $427 Plane Ticket, as College Sports Hands Out Millions In NIL Going forward, expect more lawsuits from athletes looking for an additional year of college eligibility. "This is just the second quarter, and we're all having to make decisions on how to deal with this," one Big Ten personnel staffer told OutKick. "If the NCAA wins their appeal in Colorado, then it will just lead to more lawsuits filed at the state level. If they (NCAA) lose, then you could see teams adding players to their rosters as late as October. "Have a spot open up because of injury or you move the chess-pieces around with roster limits, there are players you could potentially add from an NFL practice squad. I wish I was kidding." If you haven’t figured it out yet, the college athletics world has been turned upside down over the past few months. Will the NCAA finally tap out and grant a blanket waiver to everyone in the 2022 class who technically has another year of eligibility under the new guidelines but was excluded from the recent rule change? The pressure is clearly mounting as the NCAA continues fighting these cases across the country, while more players with NFL "experience" contemplate filing lawsuits of their own for the chance to return to college. At this point, the idea of going from an NFL practice squad back to a college football roster doesn't sound nearly as crazy as it would've just a few months ago. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8857892c5335ae1049647f Tesla recalls 3 million cars as part of China-wide push to stop hidden door handles te 2026-08-21T13:50:01.666Z Tesla recalls 3 million cars as part of China-wide push to stop hidden door handles Tesla and eight other automakers will install warning labels that help occupants identify the often hard-to-find manual door releases. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8855332c5335ae10496423 Private equity firm Apollo confirms data breach amid hacking wave targeting financial giants te 2026-08-21T13:40:03.232Z Private equity firm Apollo confirms data breach amid hacking wave targeting financial giants The private equity giant confirms a breach, weeks after Google researchers said hackers were targeting financial companies. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8852e12c5335ae104963ff Socialism surges among Democrats as party leaders reject DSA agenda: ‘Pack of fools’ te 2026-08-21T13:30:09.056Z Socialism surges among Democrats as party leaders reject DSA agenda: ‘Pack of fools’ The top Democrat in the House is making it clear that he doesn't support the Democratic Socialists of America's (DSA) agenda. But even though House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York doesn't back the DSA's far-left policy proposals, a majority of Democrats hold favorable views of socialism, according to two national polls released in recent weeks. That's not the case for most Americans, and especially Republicans, who hold negative views of socialism, according to the surveys. "I don’t support the DSA agenda, as has been articulated by the DSA itself," Jeffries said during an interview this past weekend on NBC News' "Meet the Press." CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE MIDTERM RACES Jeffries wasn't the only major Democrat taking aim at the socialist agenda on the Sunday talk shows. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, called socialism a "failed experiment" during an appearance on CBS News' "Face the Nation." Longtime Democratic strategist and pundit James Carville was less diplomatic. "They're a bunch of silly people... a pack of fools," Carville said as he referred to DSA members, during a Monday appearance on Fox News' "Jesse Watters Primetime." DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB The DSA's agenda includes defunding and abolishing police and prison systems, ending Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations and detentions, abolishing borders, granting voting rights to noncitizens and implementing a single-payer "Medicare for All" health system. The DSA's new platform also calls for abolishing the Senate, and replacing the presidency and Supreme Court with leadership chosen by and subordinate to Congress. Candidates backed by or aligned with the DSA, as well as other left-wing progressives, have won a series of victories over more moderate incumbents and candidates supported by the party establishment in primary showdowns this spring and summer, including high-profile wins this month in crucial Democratic Senate primaries in Michigan, Minnesota and Florida. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER Ahead of those victories, a Fox News national poll conducted last month indicated 52% of Democrats but just 11% of Republicans held positive views of socialism. According to the poll, Democrats had more favorable opinions of socialism that capitalism. A CBS News survey in the field earlier this month had similar findings. The poll results come in the wake of years of pessimistic views of the nation's economy, as Americans have struggled with persistent inflation for most of this decade. "Health insurers have acted irresponsibly making access to affordable and quality care beyond challenging for Americans, wages aren’t keeping up with soaring inflation and there is no plan to reconcile any of these issues. Voters are looking for a solution to the affordability crisis," longtime Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo told Fox News Digital. Caiazzo, a veteran of progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, emphasized that "progressives are winning primaries around the country because the electorate is desperate for leaders that will address the affordability crisis that has swept the country." Sanders' marathon battle with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination has had a lasting impact on the party. "Since 2016 and the Bernie Sanders campaign, there are lots of Democrats, particularly younger ones, who don't think socialism is scary and wouldn't mind seeing more of it in U.S. policy-making," political scientist Chris Galdieri told Fox News Digital. SOCIALISTS ACCUSED OF 'MOTOR MOUTH' RHETORIC AS LONGTIME DEM STRATEGIST UNLOADS ON FAR-LEFT CANDIDATE It's a different story for Republicans. "For Republicans, 'socialism' has been a boogeyman for almost a hundred years, and it was used as a criticism of everything from the New Deal to Obamacare," Galdieri, a politics professor at Saint Anselm College, said. "Republicans take it as a matter of fact that socialism is a bad thing and polls reflect that." Polling from Gallup conducted late last year also highlighted that "socialism starts from a much less favorable position in Americans' minds" compared to capitalism or free enterprise. "Republicans are far more likely than Democrats or independents to say there is nothing good about socialism," a release from Gallup noted. It also pointed out that a majority of Democrats "praise socialism either for providing access to basic services and strengthening the social safety net or for promoting greater economic equality." New England College President Wayne Lesperance, a veteran political scientist, points to a different reason for the ongoing socialist surge. "Most Americans do not know what socialism means in theory or in practice," Lesperance argued. "I'd wager that the votes for democratic candidates identifying as socialists has much more to do with being young and new, and not the same as establishment candidates that have dominated elections for years." "That is the bigger story here — voters participating in democratic primaries want new options, and they will even vote for self-described socialists to force the change they want to see," Lesperance told Fox News Digital. Regardless of the contributing factors, Republicans see the leftward lurch in the Democratic primaries as ammunition they can use to try and save their congressional majorities in the upcoming midterm elections as they face a rough political climate. "I'm absolutely convinced we're going to defy the historic trend and keep and grow the House majority for Republicans," House Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday in an exclusive campaign trail interview with Fox News Digital. Referring to Republicans, Johnson said, "I'm so grateful we have common sense on the ballot. This really is a contrast election between commonsense candidates... and crazy, and that's what the other side represents." President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to Democrats as "communists." And this week, referring to socialist politicians, the president charged, "They're driving out the middle class. You're not going to have anybody left to pay any taxes. And if you don't pay taxes, you know what happens. Squalor, squalor, filth." But Democrats discount the GOP attacks. "It’s an attempt by Republicans to try to frame the debate around labels rather than the failed policies of Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans," Caiazzo argued. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8852e02c5335ae104963f6 AT&T star Milana Vayntrub shows off her arm during first pitch at Mets game, WNBA flying object & LLWS grass te 2026-08-21T13:30:08.255Z AT&T star Milana Vayntrub shows off her arm during first pitch at Mets game, WNBA flying object & LLWS grass It's Friday, we've all made it to the end of another week of life and I've made it to my 12th consecutive day of pumping out a fresh edition of Screencaps. The normal Substack guys will write like twice a week and act like they're overworked. Meanwhile, this column just keeps humming along day after day. For those of you who are new here, I want you to give Screencaps a chance for at least an entire week. After a week, if you hate it, then by all means, move along. I'm betting after seven straight days, you'll find a new home. Let's get into it. RAIDERS' FERNANDO MENDOZA FACES CRITICISM FROM COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACH OVER NFL READINESS • How long can Fernando Mendoza go with the Leave It To Beaver persona before it wears out its welcome? This season is a hall pass. He just won a national title and is still relatively unknown to NFL fans. I predict by November 2027, Mendoza will either show he's ready to be a star or he'll be headed to the scrap heap like so many other No. 1 picks. That said, if Mendoza wins, you are looking at an advertising & media machine. He's going to make billions if he can put together 10-11 win seasons. And if he ends up in some sort of wholesome, Tebow-like marriage, while putting together an AFC title game run, watch out. • What a night it was in the WNBA. Watch how Angel Reese reacts to the sex toy thrown on the court in Los Angeles. I can't read lips. You guys tell me what she said. Was this the guy who threw the green sex toy? I have no idea. All I can go off of is what the woke WNBA reporters who can actually get a press pass are reporting. AMERICANS CLASH OVER TRANSGENDER ATHLETES AS DEBATE HEATS UP: ‘JUST GETTING OUTRAGEOUS' • Eric P. in the PnW wants to know if I'm aware of the guy who quit his Seattle Times job over the woke newsroom (allegedly) refusing to run his work on trans in sports: I read this guys column every day. He’s fair and enjoys going against the grain. Even when I disagree with him, I can see his points , which makes a good writer.   He would fit at OK in my opinion. Matt Calkins claims the Seattle Times refused to publish his column on two student-athletes who oppose transgender athletes in women's sports. Kinsey: I have some good news, Eric. We let Calkins have his say on the matter. I don't know if there's a conversation on working more closely with Calkins, but I can say that you're not going to find a site more dedicated to this topic of keeping biological males out of female sports. INSIDE THE SUPREME COURT BATTLE TO 'SAVE WOMEN'S SPORTS' Search Fox News for the OutKick Sports story on why the Seattle Times sports columnist resigned after 11 years: Seattle Times columnist resigns after paper allegedly refused to run 'Save Women's Sports' column Our track record speaks for itself. In December, it will be five years since I became the first writer to talk to a Lia Thomas teammate, who turned out to be Paula Scanlan. For at least 2-3 years, before she revealed herself, the only people who knew the source to my story was my wife and Clay Travis. SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM SPEAKS OUT ON PROTECTING GIRLS FROM COMPETING AGAINST 'BIOLOGICAL MEN' OutKick has been on the right side of history on this topic since day one. I can tell you that Fox News Digital is incredibly committed to this subject. Just take a look at where our reporters have been around the country. Dan Zaksheske and Jackson Thompson have literally criss-crossed the U.S. covering this topic. We'll see if Calkins fits into the coverage. I was at a junior high open house last night. I'm not sure where we stand as of this morning. 📩 Email: joe.kinsey@outkick.com . Send photos, stories, tips, rants—whatever you've got. 📰 Screencaps Page: 👉 Read the latest Screencaps ▶️ YouTube: Screencaps with Joe Kinsey Subscribe for videos, rants, and behind-the-scenes. 🐦 Twitter/X: @JoeKinseyexp Tag me or drop a DM. PIZZA HUT BRINGS BACK VINTAGE VIBES AS FRANCHISEES EMBRACE NOSTALGIC MAKEOVERS 📸 Instagram: @OutKickScreencaps You guys need to start tagging me on content you're seeing. 📘 Facebook Page: Screencaps on Facebook 👥 Facebook Group: Join the Screencaps Community 📬 Mail (Thursday Night Mowing League): 27072 Carronade Dr, Unit A 155 Perrysburg, OH 43551 🗞️ Newsletter: 👉 Subscribe here Talk about a Screencaps and Nightcaps legend. Between Paige Spiranac, Mikayla Demaiter and Milana Vayntrub, you have three Mount Rushmores of this website. Do you know how many millions of people have clicked on headlines associated with these three? We have scientific data from AI researchers that tell us these three are the most-clicked on personalities in OutKick history. Milana, 39, surfaced this week –– she rarely posts on Instagram these days –– at a Mets game where she threw out the first pitch. It was news to me that she even cared about sports. And I love it every single time. Every email. Every tweet where you praise me for being early on Pizza Hut Classics. – Bill C. emails: I bet this wasn’t on your bingo card today. https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/retro-pizza-hut-draws-customers-from-hours-away-1980s-nostalgia-sends-sales-soaring Kinsey: Bill, it never shocks me when I see Hut Classic headlines. These posts do millions of pageviews. The nostalgia associated with Pizza Hut as we all remember is one of the strongest nostalgia plays on the Internet right now. Go on TikTok or Instagram. Hut content is undefeated. It's like Screencaps posting AT&T Lily or Pageviews Spiranac. Part of this job is to just play the classics. – Drew in Katy, TX emails: In a prior email to you on August 12th I had stated. "If they will put dine-in restaurants with all of the Pizza Hut nostalgia in towns where boomers live, they will thrive again."   Well, the nostalgia is not just attracting the boomers according to the article which states, "Sparks said he encountered skepticism early on from those who believed the concept would primarily cater to Baby Boomers."  "That's where they were dramatically wrong," he said. "When we started to get a lot of traction with social media, these weren't 50- and 60-year-olds coming in and doing TikToks, right? These were [people in their] teens and 20s coming in and doing them."  Interestingly, Pizza Hut started this process back in 2017, but apparently never got fully behind it.  Yum Brands sold off Pizza Hut recently.  If the new owners of Pizza Hut will invest in this business model, I predict success.  Kinsey: Pizza Hut is No. 2 behind Domino's as America's top pizza chain in terms of sales. One thing to keep an eye on is this "Total Change in Units from 2024" stat. Pizza Hut has had to clear out stores. Can Pizza Hut get Americans to sit inside and eat a pizza again? I have my doubts, but if there's a Classic nearby, you need to give it a shot. Trust me. You'll feel like you were transported back to simpler times. The grandson is tough, but fair. ################# That's it this morning. You're not going to get many more summer weekends. Get out there and go nuts this weekend. I'll see some of you tonight at the National Tractor Pull Championships in Bowling Green, OH for some FULLLLLLLL PULLLLLLLL action. Let's go get after it. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8850882c5335ae104963a0 Another sex toy was thrown during a WNBA game, and Dream's Angel Reese absolutely lost it te 2026-08-21T13:20:08.822Z Another sex toy was thrown during a WNBA game, and Dream's Angel Reese absolutely lost it I've got good news and bad news for the WNBA ... The good news? The trans drama has subsided, at least for now. All has been quiet on that front for a few days. A nice little summer break, I guess. The bad news? The sex toy drama has returned. That's right. Remember the drama from last summer, when there was a serial sex toy thrower on the loose? Man, those were the days. Simpler days. Simpler times. Everything is so serious now. We've spent all summer fighting about very serious issues (despite the left swearing it's not), and, while important, it's also been exhausting. Sometimes, you just need a break from the real stuff, and you need to get back to basics. And that's what happened last night in Los Angeles (shocker), where a sex toy appeared to make its way to the court in the third quarter of the Dream-Sparks game. Guess who was QUICK to point out the perpetrator, too? Angel Reese! What a night: My goodness. Sometimes, you think the perfect video(s) doesn't exist, and then the content Gods throw you a softball right down the middle of the plate. Amazing sequence here. The green sex toy that we all grew very familiar with last summer returning to the court. Angel Reese's reaction. The video of the alleged man fleeing the scene. It was all perfect. It certainly brought me back to last summer. For those who forget — or blocked it from their minds — the WNBA had a serious sex toy problem for about three weeks last year. Purple and green ... sex toys ... were being tossed onto the court at various WNBA games on random nights, and it was all anyone could talk about. We were all on high alert. All on edge. At one point, betting markets were allowing you to wager on the next color sex toy to hit the floor. It was the Wild Wild West. There were two (!!!) arrests eventually made by August, and Sophie Cunningham was even hit by one back before she became a household name. SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM TAKES VICIOUS ELBOW TO FACE, AND FANS FUME AT WHAT REFS DID NEXT Take a look: "Stop throwing dildos on the court… you’re going to hurt one of us," Cunningham jokingly posted just days before getting hit by the projectile. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! "This did NOT age well," she added in the aftermath. See? She was even likable last summer when nobody really knew who she was! Doesn't seem like Angel Reese had the same sense of humor last night. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a884e342c5335ae10496351 Hayden Panettiere's final PETA campaign captured weeks before her death marked lifetime of advocacy work te 2026-08-21T13:10:12.178Z Hayden Panettiere's final PETA campaign captured weeks before her death marked lifetime of advocacy work Hayden Panettiere was remembered as more than just an actress in her final campaign with PETA, a project that was captured in Los Angeles weeks before her sudden death at 36. In an image shared earlier this week, Panettiere posed from a bathtub to protest marine parks like SeaWorld, "who sentence dolphins to a lifetime of suffering and loneliness in captivity," the organization said. Panettiere's quest for marine life conservation was a life-long pursuit, beginning when she was just a teenager advocating for animals with the Whaleman Foundation. HAYDEN PANETTIERE'S MOTHER POINTS FINGER AT BRIAN HICKERSON AFTER 'NASHVILLE' STAR'S DEATH AT 36 Her advocacy work involved protesting, lobbying and fundraising for animal welfare efforts. Most recently, the "Heroes" actress begged for an end to marine life captivity. "Can you imagine their frustration, their trauma, their depression? All that is important and crucial for their well-being is ripped away. … We can end this. You and me," Panettiere pleaded in her last PETA campaign. "In their ocean homes they can be with their families, dive deep to escape the hot sun and enjoy the rain on their backs… all of that is taken from them when they are confined to small tanks." The "Remember the Titans" star became a prominent spokesperson at a young age for the Whaleman Foundation and the Save the Whales Again! campaign. HAYDEN PANETTIERE DEAD AT 36 In 2007, Panettiere, along with actress Isabel Lucas and a number of activists, traveled to Taiji, Japan, to protest the slaughter of dolphins by Japanese fishermen. Panettiere donned a wetsuit and entered the water on a surfboard to help form a memorial circle for dolphins that had already been killed that morning. The peaceful demonstration turned violent when the fishermen attacked the floating protesters with poles and spinning propellers, the foundation reported. Footage from the protest appeared in "The Cove," a documentary about the Taiji dolphin hunts, which later won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. She later returned to Japan with Whaleman Foundation founder Jeff Pantukhoff and attempted to meet with local leaders to discuss alternatives to dolphin hunting, but was prevented from entering town hall. HAYDEN PANETTIERE AND THE CHILD STARS WHOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEIR MOMAGERS TURNED COMPLICATED "I wasn’t sure what to expect on my trip back to Japan," Panettiere said after returning. "I think a lot of people assume that I hate Japan, or would want to boycott Japanese products because of my issues with their dolphin hunting policies. But really, nothing could be further from the truth. "It’s a beautiful place — the people there have such an intense appreciation for nature. I absolutely love it. I think the media likes to paint a picture of West vs. East — Us vs. Them. But I think we all have more in common than that." She added, "I wanted to take this trip to reach out to people in Japan that feel the same way. You see, the majority of people living there don’t know about the dolphin hunts, and would never condone them if they did. And for the few who do eat dolphin meat, there is a serious human health concern. Dolphin meat is highly toxic and isn’t safe for people to eat." Panettiere was able to meet with officials and political leaders in the area, and despite tense times, she had "never been more hopeful" for the future. "The word is getting out in Japan, and I have faith that the people there will ultimately be the ones to shut down the cove for good," Panettiere said at the time. HAYDEN PANETTIERE: A LIFE IN PICTURES Her advocacy work helped land her a spot on the TIME's celebrity "do-gooders" list, and in 2008, Panettiere earned The Humane Society's Wyler Award for her efforts against the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. Past recipients of the award include Paul McCartney, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, Ian Somerhalder and Kesha. That same year, Panettiere stood alongside Senator John Kerry for a joint press conference on Capitol Hill to urge the government for strong leadership in opposing commercial whaling and protecting marine life. GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE "Dolphins and whales are some of the most contaminated animals on the planet and like canaries in a coal mine they are telling us that something is seriously wrong with our oceans," Panettiere said. "We are poisoning the oceans' food chain and ultimately poisoning ourselves and I think that is it vitally important to get this truth out to the younger generations who, after all, will be the ones to face up to the problems that are occurring today." LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS The "Nashville" actress died Sunday in Greenville, South Carolina. Brian Hickerson and his brother, Zach Hickerson, were with Panettiere at the time of her death, according to a police report. Hickerson was among those at the Greenville apartment when Panettiere was found, and authorities executed a search warrant at the residence, according to the report. Police also conducted a welfare check Wednesday at a South Carolina home linked to the Hickerson brothers, but no one answered the door. Preliminary autopsy results found no signs of trauma that contributed to her death, Fox News Digital confirmed. "First responders and Emergency Medical Services arrived on scene and located a female in cardiac arrest," the Greenville County Coroner’s Office said in a statement. "EMS personnel initiated advanced cardiac life support measures; however, resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful, and the individual was pronounced deceased at 2:32 PM." PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE The Greenville County Coroner’s Office and Greenville City Police Department launched parallel investigations into her death. "At autopsy no signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to the death," the coroner's statement continued. "The cause and manner of death remain pending further investigation and the completion of additional studies. "This investigation remains active and ongoing. No further details are available for release at this time." On Wednesday, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was contacted and is assisting in the investigation. Panettiere is survived by her daughter Kaya, who was born in 2014, with her ex-fiancé, Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a884e332c5335ae10496348 American tourist stranded after volcano eruption sparks mass flight cancellations te 2026-08-21T13:10:11.471Z American tourist stranded after volcano eruption sparks mass flight cancellations FIRST ON FOX: An American traveler's vacation in Sicily turned into a travel nightmare after volcanic activity from Mount Etna disrupted flights and left her scrambling to find another route back to New York. Julie Sagoskin, editor-in-chief of Park Magazine in New York City, told Fox News Digital that she arrived in Sicily through Catania International Airport on Aug. 1 and spent more than a week traveling around the Italian island. The trouble began when it was time to return home Aug. 10. Sagoskin said her flight from Catania was canceled amid ongoing volcanic activity. CARIBBEAN HOT SPOT GRIPPED BY WATER CRISIS, AND TOURISTS SCRAMBLE TO RESCHEDULE PLANS "Right when we arrived at the airport, we did get a notice that our flight was canceled," Sagoskin said. She said another traveler in her group who had reached the airport earlier described the scene as "total chaos." Sagoskin's group knew volcanic activity was affecting travel. Friends who had planned to fly out two days earlier had their flight canceled and returned to stay with the group, she said. Sagoskin hoped conditions would improve by her scheduled departure. VACATION NIGHTMARE UNFOLDS AS FERRY PASSENGERS BATTLE SEASICKNESS AT ISLAND HOT SPOT Instead, she found herself weighing whether to wait for flights to resume or find another way off the island. "You're in a foreign country, first of all," Sagoskin said. "It's obviously a big ... natural disaster. So there's nothing anybody can do about this." The cancellation came amid widespread disruption at Catania's airport. Between Aug. 6 and Aug. 12, more than a third of the 1,974 scheduled flights were canceled, Reuters reported. The disruption affected thousands of travelers during the busy summer season, with some passengers spending days waiting for a way out, according to Reuters. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER Sagoskin and others gathered at a hotel near the airport. Some discussed waiting another couple of days, while others began looking for flights from different cities. Sagoskin decided to head to Rome hoping there would be more flights there. She quickly booked a ticket for an approximately 11-hour overnight train ride from Catania to Rome as seats began filling up. The journey brought another unexpected twist when the train was transported across the water by ferry. "The trip really turned into a trip upon a trip," Sagoskin said. The journey was made more challenging by stretches without air conditioning, she said. CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE STORIES After days of uncertainty, Sagoskin said seeing that her flight from Rome wasn't delayed brought a sense of relief. She finally flew home from Rome on Aug. 11, one day after her original return date. Other members of her group took different approaches. Some traveled through Palermo, while others dealt with additional flight cancellations, overnight stays and lost luggage, Sagoskin said. "I think you have to come up with one plan and stick to it," Sagoskin said, noting that it would be easy to second-guess her decisions afterward. TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ Mount Etna's activity was visible during the ordeal, Sagoskin said. She recalled seeing the volcano while traveling toward the airport. She saw ash around the hotel near the airport, including near the pool area, where guests were temporarily told to leave. Despite the difficult journey, Sagoskin said the ordeal did not overshadow her positive experience in Sicily. "It was memorable," she said. "We will remember this for a lifetime." She said the experience reinforced the importance of staying flexible. "We got out safely," Sagoskin said.  "Things can happen in life at any time. You just have to ... make decisions, be prepared and move on." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a884e322c5335ae1049633f As a US attorney, I see fentanyl's horrifying toll up close. Congress must act now te 2026-08-21T13:10:10.719Z As a US attorney, I see fentanyl's horrifying toll up close. Congress must act now As U.S. Attorney, I have a lot of heavy days. There is no joy in sending people to prison, no matter how much they deserve it. But the greatest weight comes from meeting families who have lost someone they love. More often than not, the killer is not a person. It’s fentanyl. Fentanyl is a ruthless killer, targeting the very young. It is now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. Think about that: if you have reached age 18, but are not yet 45, you are more likely to die of fentanyl than anything else. Every day, fentanyl claims the lives of more than 100 Americans with only a tiny amount — a lethal dose fits on the tip of a sharpened pencil. In my office, fentanyl has become a daily reality in all types of cases. Other drugs are laced with fentanyl — making it more potent and addictive, driving more business to drug dealers — and counterfeit pills marketed as prescriptions for sleep or focus are nothing more than fentanyl in disguise. Fentanyl has been found in fake candy and baby bottles. I even met a mother who lost her daughter after taking a sip from a water bottle that had been contaminated with fentanyl. It is an epidemic. TRUMP 'DRUG CZAR' WARNS OF DEADLY 'RHINO TRANQUILIZER' KILLING AMERICANS AS CARTEL CRACKDOWN ESCALATES President Trump has recognized the problem and taken extensive executive action — five executive orders in addition to other proclamations and determinations. Those efforts, along with stronger border security, have produced measurable results. Less fentanyl is making it to the streets and drug dealers are using less of it in their products, resulting in lives saved. The number of fentanyl pills containing a lethal dose has dropped dramatically, from 76% in 2023 to just 29% now. The same is true in powder form, where purity dropped from 19.5% to 10.3%. But to truly dismantle drug trafficking organizations, prosecutors must have the tools to remove the most dangerous dealers from the streets and deter others from entering the trade. The best way to do that is lengthier mandatory minimum sentences. Currently, there is no federal mandatory minimum sentence for trafficking up to 40 grams of fentanyl — enough to kill 20,000 people. After that, the minimums are low — just 5 years. The minimum only rises to 10 years for 400 grams, which could kill 200,000 people. Despite the death rate associated with fentanyl, those minimum sentences pale in comparison to other drugs. Federal prosecutors often prioritize methamphetamine charges because the mandatory minimum for selling just 50 grams is 10 years. It would take 8 times as much fentanyl to trigger the same mandatory sentence, but fentanyl kills twice as many people. We know that higher mandatory minimums produce results because states have already conducted the experiment. In my state of North Carolina, mandatory minimums begin at just 4 grams. Traffic 28 grams of fentanyl, and you face a mandatory 19 years in prison. Alabama has gone even further: trafficking just 4 grams there carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years, while anything over 8 grams requires life imprisonment. In other words, what requires a life sentence in Alabama carries no minimum in the federal system; five times that would require just a 10-year federal sentence. States with strict minimum sentences have shown results. In both Alabama and North Carolina, drug overdose deaths are down 25% over the last year. FEDS SEIZE MOUNTAIN OF FENTANYL FROM 'OPEN-AIR DRUG MARKET' IN MASSIVE CRACKDOWN TARGETING GANG CREWS West Virginia has taken a different approach. Although its mandatory minimum sentences are less severe than those in North Carolina or Alabama, they apply at even smaller quantities — less than one gram, the lowest threshold in the nation. There, fentanyl deaths fell by nearly 20% in a year. In early 2025, Senator Kennedy and five colleagues introduced a bill to lower the fentanyl thresholds for federal mandatory minimums, but the bill has not gained meaningful traction. Meanwhile, more than 38,000 Americans died from fentanyl in 2025. Their graves would stretch across nearly 30 football fields. Imagine standing at one goal line and looking across row after row of headstones until they disappeared into the distance. It is difficult to comprehend how anyone can look at that devastation and conclude there are more pressing priorities. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a884e2c2c5335ae1049630f Senator asks US government watchdog to review how feds use hacking tools te 2026-08-21T13:10:04.046Z Senator asks US government watchdog to review how feds use hacking tools Senator Ron Wyden sent a letter to the U.S. federal watchdog requesting a comprehensive review of how the FBI, DEA, ICE's HSI, and the Secret Service use hacking tools and spyware against Americans. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a884bdb2c5335ae104962ea AEW star Willow Nightingale shares how she's able to keep her joyful personality going te 2026-08-21T13:00:11.669Z AEW star Willow Nightingale shares how she's able to keep her joyful personality going When Willow Nightingale is coming out to the ring, you know it. The fun music hits, the fans in the crowd go crazy and Nightingale comes down the aisle with complete joy and a big smile. And there’s plenty for her to be happy about right now. Nightingale defeated Thekla at Redemption to become the All Elite Wrestling (AEW) women’s world champion and she’s set to be in one of the marquee matches at the company’s biggest show of the year, All In, when she squares off against Mercedes Moné in a title defense (as long as she doesn’t lose to Maya World on "Collision" this Saturday). COMPLETE PRO WRESTLING COVERAGE ON OUTKICK But how does Nightingale keep that joy when it feels like the world is falling apart? She explained to OutKick in a recent interview that it’s not always easy to keep smiling but her upbringing and knowing what her mother went through helps her stay resilient. "I mean the truth is — it's not always like that. I am a person," Nightingale said. "Human beings experience human emotion and I'm no exception. I think the difference is I was really fortunate in growing up in a household that had a lot of love and support. I saw my parents struggle with a lot. My mom moved to this country when she was 24 years old with no other family. She had two kids already. She was pretty alone when she came here, but she did it for better opportunity. "And even when I saw my parents struggle financially or through whatever, my mom was like, ‘We always have each other. No matter what happens in this world, you guys are going to be there for each other. There's always something to look forward to. There's always something ahead, even if things are tough right now.’ And so, for me, that is how I always think about it." ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! Sometimes, it’s the little things that help Nightingale remind herself that nothing is too big to overcome. She recalled a moment on a roller coaster at Disney World where the universe seemed to be telling her all is well. "It's like when I'm in a really, really good moment — this is going to sound funny or maybe not as heavy as everything else I'm saying — but I was just on the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ ride at Disney this past weekend and I got ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World,’ and it was my second time getting that song like I got a few years ago," she said. "But that experience is something that moves me and makes me feel just like I'm left in awe. So being on that ride for those few moments, I remember thinking to myself, ‘Hold on to this feeling because in a week's time, you're probably going to be kicking your own butt and you're going to be feeling terrible. But you have to remember that there's little moments like this. "Something as silly as being on a roller coaster to one of your favorite songs. It's going to be so beautiful and you will experience something like this again. Hold on to this. Enjoy it now.’ And I try to do that when I wrestle because this is what I love. This is what I've dedicated my adult life to. And I get to see how I impact people and other people impact me. And that is the thing that brings the smile of ‘nothing matters, smile anyway’ smile of Willow Nightingale." As of now, Nightingale will defend the AEW Women’s World Championship against Moné on Aug. 30 at All In. The show is set to take place at Wembley Stadium in London. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8844d12c5335ae104961e2 Kirk Cousins or Fernando Mendoza? Las Vegas Raiders surprisingly decline to name regular-season starting QB te 2026-08-21T12:30:09.414Z Kirk Cousins or Fernando Mendoza? Las Vegas Raiders surprisingly decline to name regular-season starting QB Las Vegas Raiders coach Klint Kubiak is either playing some sort of mind game or he sincerely is torn about naming a starting quarterback to open the regular season. That's the only way to view this after the coach on Thursday night (actually Friday morning) declined to say what everyone assumes — that Kirk Cousins is the Las Vegas starter to open the season against the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 13. "You know, we got another week playing," Kubiak told reporters after his team's preseason game against the Houston Texans. "I don't want anyone to be comfortable in their job. "It should always be that way from all positions. So, you know, we'll just keep going forward." FERNANDO MENDOZA THROWS PICK SIX IN SECOND NFL GAME The Raiders are heading toward their preseason finale next Thursday without naming a starting quarterback for the regular season. Kubiak apparently wants to keep Cousins and rookie Fernando Mendoza guessing about their status on the depth chart. HOW KIRK COUSINS AND FERNANDO MENDOZA ARE BUILDING 'GREAT' RELATIONSHIP THROUGH RAIDERS WORK, FAITH AND MORE And the entire rest of the Earth is thinking, "Really, coach?" Just last week, Kubiak made it seem like Cousins was the leader in the proverbial clubhouse for the starting job. "I think he's had a solid training camp and it's his job to lose," Kubiak said of Cousins. RAIDERS ROOKIE FERNANDO MENDOZA THANKS GOD FOR AN NFL DEBUT THAT COMPARES FAVORABLY TO 'MR BRADY' And one week later, when all Cousins did was watch from the sideline while Mendoza started and then gave way to third-stringer Aidan O'Connell in the second half, Kubiak's changing course? What exactly did Cousins do to lose the job while not playing? Did he eat too much in the pregame meal? Kubiak himself said Cousins "did some good things" against the Texans in their joint practice on Tuesday. And, admittedly, Cousins did have a cringe moment when he threw a pick six in that practice. RAIDERS FRANCHISE THAT ONCE EMBRACED AN OUTLAW IMAGE NOW HAS 'NO TURDS,' COACH KLINT KUBIAK SAYS But guess what? Mendoza threw a pick six in Thursday's game against the same team's backup players. "It was not a good throw," Mendoza said of the pass that probably should have gone to the open receiver in the flat instead. Mendoza is undoubtedly going to be the Raiders starter at some point. He might even be the guy later this season. He was, after all, the team's No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 draft. But team minority owner Tom Brady has talked about the benefits of sitting as a rookie and learning behind an experienced veteran, which kind of worked for him. The Raiders signed Cousins to serve as the bridge starting quarterback while Mendoza grows and learns. And one valuable lesson apparently came against the Texans. "I came away with that there's a lot of more learning to do," Mendoza said. "And that, although I maybe had a lot of success at another level, that this level's a whole step further, and that the margins are so small and that, you know, one tight mistake can lead to catastrophe." Here's a catastrophe in the making: A rookie NFL head coach could be playing mind games with players to keep them uncomfortable. That maybe used to work for Vince Lombardi and Don Shula. But when the obvious answer is to start Cousins and let Mendoza grow for a bit at the beginning of the regular season, this tactic by Kubiak seems phony. FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8842792c5335ae10496191 Gabby Forza joins TNA Wrestling and wants to take on the men te 2026-08-21T12:20:09.070Z Gabby Forza joins TNA Wrestling and wants to take on the men Gabby Forza officially signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) last week, becoming the latest woman to join the company’s Knockouts Division. Forza said in an interview with OutKick she wanted to sign with TNA because it’s one of the few major promotions that allow intergender wrestling (woman vs. man). She said being able to go up against men is one of the things she prides her pro wrestling abilities on. COMPLETE PRO WRESTLING COVERAGE ON OUTKICK "For me, I wanted to join TNA really badly because I just felt like I could see myself there in general, but I was so excited to join TNA because there are so many women there that I want to work with so badly and I love that they do have intergender wrestling there as an option because from the moment I joined wrestling, I always wanted to wrestle men," she said. "That is kind of what I've made my schtick based off of, where I'm fighting men a lot on the independent wrestling scene. It's like I would say like one of my greatest strengths. "So, if I ever get to do that at TNA, it would be like a dream for me. But mostly joining the women's division and becoming a TNA knockout was like my dream. So, I'm super excited." When OutKick asked the first man she wanted to square off with, Forza named Ricky Sosa. Those who haven’t seen Forza perform on the independent scene are in for a treat. She is a former women’s tackle football player and was a powerlifter for a period of time. Though Forza is a kind person outside the ring, she’s trained her hardest to put down anyone who steps to her. "Well, my wrestling persona is very much who I am," she said. "So, just a very bubbly person, very positive. But I also can fight pretty much anyone of any size. I have a very big strength background in powerlifting, and I played tackle football for most of my life as a linebacker. So being a woman that is built like a linebacker is, I think, for most of our lifetime has been an insult to women. TNA STAR ELAYNA BLACK SHARES WHY SHE JOINED COMPANY, HOW SHE WANTED TO BE IN THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE "But for me, it's like the biggest compliment because that was my goal — to train to be one of the best linebackers in the world. And the fact I get to bring that into wrestling means I hit people really, really hard and it's very fun to do that and get to continue being an absolute menace in professional wrestling. But in the best way possible like I have an absolute blast doing it and I try to use my power for good, not evil, you know." How does one even go from football to pro wrestling? It’s mostly seen on the men’s side. TNA stars like A.J Francis and Moose have done it successfully. Even WWE star Roman Reigns was playing college and pro football before he turned into the massive star he is today. Forza told OutKick she started cheerleading at a young age before convincing her mother to let her play tackle football. She said she played the sport for more than a dozen a years, getting herself comfortable being able to hit and take hits from the men. ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! "I'm very grateful to them because it shaped the rest of my life. I was always the smallest on my football team, but I played for 15 years — five of those years being on boys' teams being the only girl," she said. "But I was always used to going up against guys who were bigger than me but that made me a very strong person physically. My brother was always the biggest person on the football team and I was always the smallest. All the other guys growing up would take it easy on me because ‘that's a girl, don't hit the girl. My brother did not care. He was like, ‘Oh, I can hit my sister, let's go.’ So, I do credit my brother for making me very, very tough because he was literally the biggest and strongest, couldn't be taken down by anyone, but then there was me and I was like, ‘I’m getting him.’ Chasing my brother and literally beating each other up our entire childhood on various football teams made me not scared of anyone of any size and that I got the biggest fight in me. I’ve proven that all over the place. I took that into my women’s football career. "I was a women’s tackle football player from 18 years old until I joined wrestling a few years ago. I became a seven-time All-American linebacker. I traveled across the states, I traveled across the world, to play against the best. I tried out for Team USA twice, I made alternate roster one time. I really wanted to go into my wrestling career as an Olympic gold medalist in my sport because I thought it would be really cool but unfortunately I only made the alternate roster. But I was a two-time national champion linebacker for my football team and I had all the accolades I think I could have achieved in football – really hit the ceiling in what I could achieve and then I brought all of that into wrestling without taking any time off. I’m like the hottest I’ve ever been, the strongest I’ve ever been and I’m excited to show the world that." Forza hopes to be a source of inspiration for young women don’t necessarily fit the mold of what society says a woman should look like. "I definitely aspire to inspire other people, especially young women who don't fit the typical shape of a woman, you fit the mold that society has built for us," she said. "That has made me want to be a TNA Knockout really badly because I’ve watched TNA and I've seen the type of women who thrive in TNA and I’m like I can absolutely be, not a wrestler in TNA but I feel like I can be a star at TNA and that’s kind of what I’m hoping to achieve and I think wrestling has been very good to me in the sense that I've been able to reach all these young people and young girls who come up to me all the time and tell me that I inspire them to work out, to get stronger, and not focus on being what other people expect them to be." It’s unclear when Forza will make her debut. TNA holds "Impact" each Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. The company will run its Lockdown pay-per-view on Sunday where each match is held inside a steel cage. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8842782c5335ae10496188 Tea Party founder launches nationwide 'Data Center Revolt' against AI data center expansion te 2026-08-21T12:20:08.313Z Tea Party founder launches nationwide 'Data Center Revolt' against AI data center expansion A founder of the Tea Party movement is heading a new nationwide campaign against AI data center expansion, arguing that tech corporations are encroaching on local communities and forcing residents to pay for the infrastructure against their will. Amy Kremer, chairwoman of Humans First, said the nationwide bus tour, dubbed the "Data Center Revolt," will launch Sept. 12 in Austin, Texas, which she called the "battleground of the data center opposition movement." The tour will travel across the South and up the East Coast, stopping in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia before concluding in California's Silicon Valley. Kremer, a veteran conservative organizer and Georgia Republican Party leader, told Fox News Digital she sees parallels between the anti-data center push and the early days of the Tea Party movement. "The reason we're doing this tour is because we have seen over the past couple of years that Big Tech is trying to shove their technology, their AI technology, down our throats," Kremer told Fox News Digital. "The American people are very upset over the technology and the buildout. And so that's why we're doing this tour, to give people a voice, to stand with them and support them as they battle this in their local communities. And that's exactly what we did with the Tea Party movement." SILICON VALLEY IS LOSING THE DATA CENTER FIGHT, RISKING A REPEAT OF A CLASSIC FAILURE The organization says it represents a grassroots network of residents concerned about the rapid pace of AI infrastructure development. Kremer cited Festus, Missouri, where voters unseated four city council incumbents in April after officials voted to advance a proposed $6 billion data center project. "The people don't have a seat at the table, they don't have a voice in what is being built in their community," she added. Humans First is not seeking a federal moratorium and opposes blanket state or national bans on data centers, Kremer said. Instead, the group is advocating for local transparency and community representation. "Communities should have a voice in decisions that affect their electricity rates, water, land and quality of life. We should end secretive NDAs and corporate welfare and make sure ordinary Americans aren’t forced to subsidize some of the wealthiest corporations in the world," Kremer told Fox News Digital. "Limited government doesn’t mean unaccountable corporate power." Launched this year, Humans First has faced sustained scrutiny over its origins and funding, with critics questioning whether a hidden left-wing network is powering a conservative rebellion against a major policy priority. FROM NEW YORK TO TEXAS, STATES SHOULD RESPECT LOCAL CONTROL ON DATA CENTERS An investigative report published in March by The Dossier’s Jordan Schachtel cited California public records showing Humans First was incorporated by Oliver Zhang and Arunim Agarwal in January, while both were staff members at the Center for AI Safety (CAIS). CAIS is a San Francisco-based nonprofit that has received millions in funding from Open Philanthropy, an organization founded by Facebook co-founder and Democratic Party mega-donor Dustin Moskovitz.  The report alleged that Humans First presented itself as a grassroots bipartisan movement, but was actually "constructed by the Effective Altruist (EA) left and disguised as something liberty-loving Americans could believe in" to advance a progressive agenda. Additionally, a Fox News Digital investigation in July found that several of the local organizers behind a mass protest organized by Human First on July 18 had left-wing, Green Party or Democratic-aligned backgrounds, including a transgender Green Party House candidate, local progressive activists and a Democratic state legislative candidate. The Humans First website said that organizers promoting the event had not necessarily been vetted or endorsed by their group. Protest footage obtained by Fox News Digital at the Humans First event in Gilroy, California, had signs protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement — a common antagonist for those on the left. When Kremer assumed leadership in April, the organization announced it was shifting from a bipartisan organization toward conservative activism. Kremer acknowledged the group's beginnings but said it was independent of CAIS and defended its conservative credentials. FOX NEWS POLL: COOL YOUR SERVERS! VOTERS REJECT DATA CENTERS "Humans First today is an independent conservative organization with its own leadership, strategy and agenda," Kremer told Fox News Digital. "Our positions are determined by our team and our mission, not by CAIS or the individuals involved in the organization’s original formation." Regarding funding, Kremer said Humans First received an initial startup loan from CAIS that is being repaid. She added that the group does not disclose individual donors and does not receive money from Open Philanthropy. "We will not accept funding that compromises our independence, dictates our policy positions, advances a foreign influence operation, or conflicts with our America First mission," Kremer said. Kremer has noted that most of their staff members are longtime conservative activists, and she balked at those questioning the group's conservative credentials. "This line of attack is preposterous but not surprising," Kremer told Fox News Digital in July. "This is exactly the same line of attack we saw during the early days of the Tea Party. The establishment and their handmaidens in the media were willing to smear Tea Party activists as racists and bigots in their effort to defend the big interests of their corporate masters," Kremer continued.  "Instead of questioning our conservative credentials, how about asking how any so-called conservative can take money from the same big tech and big AI billionaires who have worked tirelessly to destroy the conservative movement over the last 10 years," she said. MARXIST ORGANIZER LEADS CAMPAIGN AGAINST VIRGINIA AI DATA CENTER AS FOREIGN INFLUENCE CONCERNS MOUNT The debate occurs alongside broader policy efforts surrounding AI development. Roughly one year ago, the White House released an AI action plan, outlining over 90 federal actions aimed at accelerating data center construction, streamlining permitting, and securing American technological leadership over foreign rivals like China. Kremer supports President Donald Trump's mission of ensuring American tech companies dominate over China, but she argued that U.S. data centers remain reliant on components like Chinese lithium batteries. She also cited a July report from The Financial Times detailing how OpenAI and Google supplied AI model access to Singapore subsidiaries of Chinese tech firms listed on the Pentagon's military blacklist. The sales are legal, according to the FT report, but the news has "reignited calls for tighter US regulation of AI models similar to its restrictions on exports of the chips used to train powerful models." "Pick a lane. You cannot be America first and China funded," Kremer said. "And that's what's going on here ... and it's all on the backs of the American people." Kremer also argued that county boards are giving tax breaks to wealthy tech corporations while residents are paying for the infrastructure and utility spikes. In March 2026, the White House addressed growing public concerns over infrastructure burdens by introducing a "Ratepayer Protection Pledge." The voluntary commitment asks AI companies, utilities and data-center developers, to shoulder the costs of electricity generation and infrastructure, so expenses are not passed on to local residents or businesses.  In July, the White House announced it had brought "more than 200 additional utilities, data center developers, cooperatives, and states into this growing national commitment." KEVIN O'LEARY WARNS CHINA IS WINNING THE AI RACE BECAUSE U.S. STATES ARE SLOWING DATA CENTER PRODUCTION A White House official told Fox News Digital, "President Trump is cementing American AI dominance over China while ensuring data centers pay for their own power, water, and other utilities. The President’s commonsense approach will beat China, harness this technological boom, and deliver lower costs and new opportunities for working families and small businesses." Kremer argued that technological advancements, national security and local community protections can co-exist. "America absolutely must lead China in AI and advanced technology," Kremer agreed. "But we reject the idea that beating China requires giving Big Tech a blank check or asking American communities to surrender their rights and resources. We can lead the world in AI while protecting American families, communities, taxpayers and national security. Those goals are not mutually exclusive." Ultimately, Kremer is calling on lawmakers to establish stricter guidelines on Big Tech to protect consumers. "People want Congress to act. They need to put safety mechanisms in place," she said. "The American people are demanding accountability and they're demanding answers." "I think they would be foolish to ignore this movement," she added. "And I think they need to get their heads out of the sand and start governing and do their job." Recent reports have also pointed to foreign influence involved in the anti-data center push. A May report by the Bitcoin Policy Institute alleged that nonprofits funded by pro-CCP tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham — including CodePink — have spent years fueling opposition to U.S. AI infrastructure and data center expansion in coordination with Chinese propaganda narratives and foreign-funded activist networks. CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE Sam Lyman, head of research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute and a former senior speechwriter for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, previously told Fox News Digital, "Ensuring that AI is safe and empowers American workers must be a top priority for US policymakers. But the discussion about AI safety should not be influenced by geopolitical rivals, especially China, whose leaders have publicly stated their intentions to accelerate AI development to ‘gain the initiative in global science and technology competition.’" The Center for AI Safety did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Fox News' Asra Q. Nomani and Robert Schmad contributed to this report. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8840202c5335ae1049611f Peyton Manning's freshman son makes his debut, but freak running back steals the show te 2026-08-21T12:10:08.617Z Peyton Manning's freshman son makes his debut, but freak running back steals the show You hear that? Listen closely. Did you hear it? The bands. The cheers. The pageantry. That's right. High school football has returned. It's back. We're back. We've made it to our first Football Friday of 2026, folks. High school football returned around the country last night, and really kicks off tonight. College football is next week. The NFL is two weeks after that. Thanks to the WNBA for holding it down this summer and giving us something to pass the time, but the king has returned. Your watch has ended. With high school football, of course, comes the names. Like Marshall Manning, the freshman QB son of someone named Peyton Manning. ARCH MANNING'S NFL STAR GRANDFATHER LAMENTS HYPE AROUND TEXAS QUARTERBACK Marshall made his debut Thursday night for Baylor School — a private, college prep school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The game was televised on ESPN2, and also featured arguably the best player in the country in running back David Gabriel Georges. And while Manning's debut went viral on social media because, well, he's a Manning, it was Gabriel Georges who absolutely stole the show. What a specimen: How great is high school football? So much to break down there. For starters ... how about Marshall Manning's first career completion going to a kid named Cornbread Adams? How lucky are we to live in this country? God, I love it. And yes, Manning is just a freshman and will play sparingly and was just in briefly last night to get his feet wet. I get it. But, it's Marshall Manning. This is the kid they've been hyping up for a few years now, in the same way they did Archie. I think the pressure on both is insane, by the way, but it comes with the last name. It's not the worst problem to have. Obviously, the star of the night was this David Gabriel Georges — a 5-star Tennessee commit who is apparently impossible to tackle. The kid never went down on first touch. He finished with three touchdowns and 250 total yards. He might be the next Derrick Henry. Who knows? I don't know who makes the rankings, but if he's not the consensus No. 1 running back in the country, the whole thing is a sham. I mean, look at this animal: Lordy. He had social media in awe all night. The 6-foot, 210-pound senior was all over my timeline, making insane play after insane play. STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! This one, in particular, might've taken the cake: Goodness gracious. They didn't make 'em like that when I played high school football. Thank God. Anyway, welcome back, King. It's good to have a Football Friday back. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88401d2c5335ae10496109 Arizona cities to push a short-term rental ballot referral next session te 2026-08-21T12:10:05.370Z Arizona cities to push a short-term rental ballot referral next session Key points:  Arizona municipal leaders have just concluded an annual conference discussing the development of legislative proposals Many of those proposals were related to short-term rentals, including support for a ballot referral that allows cities to take the issue to local voters The relationship between cities and lawmakers remains “adversarial,” according to the Senate’s majority leader Arizona municipalities will push regulations on short-term rentals during the next legislative session, including a ballot referral that would send the issue to local voters.  The League of Arizona Cities and Towns’ Resolutions Committee passed its municipal policy statement — a list of policy priorities that municipal leaders want the Legislature to approve —  this week during its annual conference at the Arizona Biltmore Resort in Phoenix.  Half of the league’s eight policy priorities are related to short-term rentals, including the ballot referral goal. Cities are also seeking a statutory increase to short-term rental license fees, updated definitions related to mobile home parks and multifamily complexes, and lien authority that cities can claim for unpaid penalties or fines after they’ve become delinquent.  The league’s conference this week brought nearly 2,000 local government leaders, state legislators, university officials, and policy experts together to discuss statewide issues and how cities can address the needs of their residents. “Local leaders stand on the front lines of our state’s biggest issues, and this conference provides critical knowledge and practical solutions,” said René Guillen, the League’s executive director. “Bringing people together with a wide range of expertise builds an important platform to help solve problems and leverage opportunities.” Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, discussed the Legislature’s role in municipal housing and zoning policy during a conference panel. He has opposed the expansion of short-term rentals and said he believes city zoning rights have been “trampled” by a coalition of Republicans and Democrats at the Legislature who believe affordable housing is a statewide concern.  “The reason why you’re being kind of screwed in this area is you have an unholy alliance of liberal Democrats, who worship the god of affordable housing, and libertarian-minded Republicans who think the government shouldn’t tell you what to do with your property, even if you want to turn your one-family home into a coke smelter,” Kavanagh said. Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh addresses attendees during the 2026 League of Arizona Cities and Towns Conference at the Arizona Biltmore (Jakob Thorington/ Arizona Capitol Times) It’s been a decade since Senate Bill 1350 prohibited cities from banning short-term rentals within their jurisdictions. Efforts to update or change the law since then have largely been unsuccessful.  The friction between the Legislature and cities on the issue reflects “adversarial” stances on zoning, Kavanagh said.  The cities also opposed House Bill 2721 from the 2024 legislative session. That measure requires cities of 75,000 people or more to allow the development of duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhomes within a mile of a city’s central business district.  Adam Baugh, a zoning and land use attorney who participated in the housing panel, advised city leaders to get ahead of housing issues before a statewide law forces them to act. He said the middle housing law was a problem because of a loose definition of a central business district. “If cities and towns were more proactive and creative, I think legislators probably would be less quick to propose things,” Baugh said.  Each of the League’s legislative policy proposals will need a legislative sponsor, and no bills will formally be introduced until after the November election. Sen. Analise Ortiz, D-Phoenix, and Kavanagh agreed that housing would be a top priority for Democrats.  “We care so deeply about this issue because of the single mom who called me from a park with her son because she had nowhere to stay and needed a hotel voucher,” Ortiz said, “or the veteran who called an affordable housing complex, specifically for veterans, and was told he had to wait two years on the waiting list.” The post Arizona cities to push a short-term rental ballot referral next session first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a883b712c5335ae10496059 How Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza are building 'great' relationship through Raiders work, faith and more te 2026-08-21T11:50:09.036Z How Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza are building 'great' relationship through Raiders work, faith and more Kirk Cousins is no stranger to new places and new faces in his NFL career. Cousins became part of his fourth franchise when he joined the Las Vegas Raiders this offseason ahead of his 15th year in the league. But the writing was also on the wall before he signed to reunite with Klint Kubiak and some other coaches he's worked with in the past. The Raiders had the No. 1 overall pick – they were going to be taking Fernando Mendoza. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM That came to fruition weeks after Cousins inked his new deal with the Raiders. And, while it may not be a similar situation, Cousins has previously dealt with having a first-round draft choice with him in the quarterback room. When Cousins signed with the Atlanta Falcons, it was a shock to the football world that they drafted Michael Penix Jr. out of Washington with the eighth overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft. This time around, not choosing Mendoza would've been the shock of the draft. The situation is similar for Cousins, though. He's not with the Raiders to simply help Mendoza along, but rather head coach Klint Kubiak has been very straightforward about Cousins being the team's starting quarterback to open training camp. And even though Kubiak hasn't officially named Cousins the starter heading into the regular season, the veteran has been taking most of the first-team reps at practices and was seen wearing a headset on the sideline in preseason game No. 2 against the Houston Texans like many sure-fire starters, while Mendoza got the reps on-field in the first half. Kubiak even said last week that Cousins has had a great camp thus far, and it's "his job to lose." FERNANDO MENDOZA, THE NO 1 PICK OF NFL DRAFT TO THE RAIDERS, TASKED WITH RETURNING A LEGACY FRANCHISE TO GLORY Fox News Digital caught up with Cousins before the game on Thursday night, in which he was asked about his relationship with Mendoza and how much he took from his time with Penix in Atlanta to this similar situation now. "It’s been a great working relationship," Cousins responded, while highlighting his partnership with AWOL Vision. "The quarterback room is at its best when everyone’s pulling together, helping one another, and we’re all working as a force together to help all of us get better at our craft. That’s what it was in Atlanta, that’s what it is and will be in Vegas. That’s what I most enjoy about coming to work every day, having a great quarterback room that we all are in together. It’s been that way. "Fernando’s a great worker and is quickly adapting and picking up to all that there is changing for him from college to the pros. I expect it to be a great year for both of us." Mendoza is the Raiders' future at the position, but Kubiak has explained his desire for the Indiana product to learn and grow with a veteran in front of him. Throwing rookies into the fire, even if the first overall pick is spent on them, isn't always the right move. At least, if it doesn't necessarily need to be. Both Cousins and Mendoza, as well as quarterback Aidan O'Connell, understand their competition with the new-look Raiders offense thus far at camp. Cousins said Mendoza has attacked every day without wondering if he's the starter or not, but rather as a sponge every rookie should be when entering the NFL. "He’s a good question asker, so he’s been really asking questions, going back to the spring and through camp now, whenever he feels there’s something he needs to understand better, I think he has a great sense for the position," Cousins said about his teammate. "I think he has a great sense of urgency, which I think is important at this position at this level when the margins for error are so small. So, I think his sense of urgency will really help him in the years to come." Cousins even noted learning from Mendoza, who he said has a knack for throwing back-shoulder passes. He and O'Connell have been asking what Mendoza sees in those situations that they could perhaps use in-game. And then there's life outside of football. Cousins is known for his strong Christian beliefs, turning to it especially in times of adversity throughout his long career. He said that he prayed on whether this move to Las Vegas was right after learning of the Raiders' interest in him. With Mendoza, another strong Christian believer, faith was one of the first conversations to come up when the rookie arrived out west. FAITH ON FULL DISPLAY DURING NFL DRAFT AS ATHLETES NOT AFRAID TO TALK ABOUT GOD "I think even one of the first conversations when he arrived, he was asking if I’ve found a church yet in Vegas," Cousins said. "Obviously, this game of football and the journey we’re on, it can test us. There’s things that happen outside of football that can weigh on us. Certainly, with what his mom has gone through with her health, it’s been documented. And there’s a lot of different factors that play into what may weigh us down when we come into work. "Being able to have an anchor that’s bigger than just our football success, it’s truly building your life on a sturdy foundation when you build it on your faith and not on the success of your football career, which is going to go up and down like a roller-coaster. It’s been good to have those conversations with him as well." Make no mistake: Cousins doesn't want to hand the keys to the Raiders' offense over to Mendoza anytime soon – if and when Kubiak names him the Week 1 starter. He's gotten past the point of proving people wrong about whether he still has it at 38 years old. Rather, he is focusing on those like Kubiak who believe in him to get the job done this season. Cousins is in Las Vegas to lead this team to wins. But he is also excited for what the future holds with Mendoza and building a bond with him throughout the 2026 season and beyond. "I think it’s important for me to prove people right in the sense of you think of the people who have believed in you. The people who have supported you, the people who have said, ‘We do think that Kirk has something left in the tank.’ I want to prove them right. That’s kind of the something to prove that I would lean towards," he said. When Cousins isn't at the Raiders facility with his teammates, he's very likely home with his wife, Julie, and sons, Cooper and Turner. Family time is important no matter what's happening at work for Cousins, and it has reached a whole other level thanks to his discovery of AWOL Vision, a leading brand in projectors and home cinema setups. Cousins said he always wanted an outdoor projector at home to watch movies, especially a family tradition of watching "The Sandlot" on July 4 each year as the sun sets. When he discovered AWOL Vision's Aetherion projector, which truly brings a stadium-sized viewing experience to your home, both indoors and outdoors, it was a no-brainer to make it a staple for his family gatherings. "I just didn’t realize how far the technology had advanced and how straight-forward it is. How simple it is," Cousins explained. "We enjoyed using it this summer as a family and World Cup and a lot of sporting events. We just love watching sports as a family, whether it’s movies or live TV. It just becomes a great thing for our family to gather around, and we invite family and friends. Set up the large screen and we can be versatile with it indoor or outdoor. It’s a lot of fun. It really does enhance the sports-viewing experience." STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! Cousins admitted his family may be spoiled now because of how great it is to enjoy their favorite movies and live sports games. But he also views this as something that goes well beyond his days as a quarterback. "It would be the world’s best film room when it comes to doing it at the house because of the size of the screen and the quality. It would feel like you were still at work," he said. "I think it would be great even when I’m done playing football to use it for film when I don’t have a Raiders practice facility to go to. If I’m doing broadcasting, or if I’m doing football analysis in the media, or I’m coaching football, coaching my boys, I’d be able to use this AWOL setup for watching tape then. It would be very helpful as well." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a883b702c5335ae10496050 Fentanyl deaths plummet as White House points to Trump's sweeping crackdown and more top headlines te 2026-08-21T11:50:08.357Z Fentanyl deaths plummet as White House points to Trump's sweeping crackdown and more top headlines 1. Fentanyl deaths plummet amid Trump's sweeping crackdown 2. Declassified FBI files reveal what agents knew about Eric Swalwell  3. Pastor claims city is no longer 'under American laws'   STARTING OVER — Lindsay Clancy's ex-husband has quietly remarried amid her murder trial. Continue reading … ATTACK THWARTED — DOJ releases images of woman accused of stocking up for New York State Capitol bomb plot. Continue reading … MYSTERY DEEPENS — Former first lady won't dismiss theory Joe Biden was drugged, says ‘who knows.' Continue reading … TAKING A STAND — Ex-Seattle Times columnist explains resigning on the spot over spiked column. Continue reading … FIRST WORDS — Hayden Panettiere's on-and-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson breaks his silence. Continue reading … -- ‘WASN’T A GOOD LOOK' — LA socialist's fumbled answer to Graham Platner question draws groans from Dem audience. Continue reading … HOMEFRONT ARMS — Ukraine’s ‘Equalizer’ bomb aims to blow up reliance on US, European weapons. Continue reading … CIVIL WAR WITHIN — Top Dem strategist warns two words in Ossoff's viral Trump takedown were a key mistake. Continue reading … NEW QUESTIONS — El-Sayed set to speak at major Muslim convention alongside controversial figures. Continue reading … Click here for more cartoons…   DOUBLE STANDARD — Atlanta Dem's Instagram account tells constituent to 'shut up' over transit concerns. Continue reading … UNBURNING BRIDGE — Trump reunites with longtime enemy in ‘extraordinary act of courage’. Continue reading … PARENTAL RIGHTS ROW — Florida Dem Senate nominee defends taking her kids to drag queen shows. Continue reading … GENERAL PIVOT — Florida Dem Senate nominee keeps Hasan Piker at arm's length after primary upset. Continue reading … LES RUBIN — Washington is driving America toward a debt crisis we can't ignore any longer. Continue reading …  DRAKEE & JAYME FRANKLIN — Conservatives can fight the rise of socialism by defending the American family. Continue reading … -- OPEN ALL HOURS — America's 24-hour diners are disappearing as late-night dining faces a major shift. Continue reading … DEEP DIVE — 118-year-old mystery cracked as divers discover lost warship beneath the waves. 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We'll see you in your inbox first thing Monday. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8834692c5335ae10495f0d UVA football player Solomon Beebe faces animal cruelty charges after witness alleges he punched dog: report te 2026-08-21T11:20:09.947Z UVA football player Solomon Beebe faces animal cruelty charges after witness alleges he punched dog: report Solomon Beebe, an incoming Virginia football transfer, is facing three misdemeanor animal cruelty charges stemming from alleged incidents earlier this month, according to online court records obtained by 247Sports. Beebe, a Montgomery, Alabama, native and former UAB running back, was arrested on charges filed Monday and appeared Thursday morning in Albemarle County District Court. Court records show the three Class 1 misdemeanor charges stem from one alleged incident on Aug. 10 and two others on Aug. 12. Records show Albemarle County animal control seized Beebe’s dog the following day and placed it in protective custody. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM "This canine was seized on Thursday, August 13 in (the) county of Albemarle by its animal control officers and is currently held in protective custody at the SPCA in Albemarle County," Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Pollock wrote in a petition seeking custody of the dog. According to The Daily Progress, a housekeeper at Beebe’s apartment complex reported seeing him punch his pit bull twice on Aug. 12. The animal protection unit also looked into earlier reported conduct involving the dog. GEORGIA DB JA'MARLEY RIDDLE ARRESTED ON SPEEDING, FELONY MARIJUANA POSSESSION CHARGES As part of the investigation, an animal protection official interviewed a housekeeper at the Maximilian at Stonefield, the apartment complex where Beebe lives north of Charlottesville. The housekeeper described two separate instances of alleged violence on Aug. 12. "She observed Mr. Beebe hold his dog against the wall and punch his dog with a closed fist multiple times," animal control officer Justin Gibson said, "and the dog was yelping in pain with each strike." Beebe was taken into custody Monday and released on unsecured bond. The University of Virginia provided the following statement to Fox News Digital: "The University does not comment on matters involving ongoing criminal proceedings or student records." After two seasons at UAB as a running back and return specialist, Beebe entered the transfer portal in December before ultimately committing to Virginia and arriving on campus in Charlottesville in January. Beebe finished the 2025 season at UAB with 338 rushing yards and six touchdowns, while adding 284 receiving yards. Beebe was seen practicing with the Cavaliers as recently as Monday morning. Virginia coach Tony Elliott later spoke about what Beebe has shown since joining the program. "He showed immediately that he can play running back and be a really good one," Elliott told reporters. "So he's in the rotation there, which requires a lot to play for us. And then in the return game, he's already shown what he can do there." STAY "FEARLESS" ON THE GO! TAKE TOMI LAHREN WITH YOU. DOWNLOAD THE TLIF PODCAST NOW! Elliott did not meet with reporters Thursday. Beebe’s attorney of record, Thomas Weidner, could not immediately be reached for comment. Virginia opens the season Aug. 29 against NC State. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8834692c5335ae10495f04 Roblox shares AI child-safety tools parents should know te 2026-08-21T11:20:09.317Z Roblox shares AI child-safety tools parents should know If your child plays Roblox, chances are plenty of their friends do too. Roblox reported an average of 123 million daily active users during the second quarter of 2026. Nearly three-quarters of its age-checked users are under 18. With that kind of reach, one of the biggest risks a child can face may begin with a conversation that seems completely harmless. Someone asks what games they like. Later, that person wants to know where else they chat. Eventually, they suggest moving the conversation to another app. That progression should sound familiar to parents who have followed online grooming cases. Earlier this year, we covered a disturbing Roblox child-safety case involving two girls, ages 12 and 14. Investigators said a Nebraska man initially contacted them through Roblox before conversations moved to Snapchat. Authorities described the case as online grooming. Now Roblox is opening up some of the artificial intelligence it uses to detect behavior that can lead to dangerous situations. TEACHER WHO SERVED AS GOP STATE LAWMAKER ALLEGEDLY USED ROBLOX TO LURE STUDENT INTO SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP On Aug. 19, Roblox announced that it is contributing updated versions of three safety models to the Robust Open Online Safety Tools, or ROOST, Model Community. The company is also releasing a new evaluation dataset so other platforms can test their own safety systems. For parents, the technical details matter less than what these tools are trying to catch. They focus on attempts to get personal information, signs of possible child endangerment and inappropriate behavior in voice chat. Here's how these new AI safety tools work, what they could mean for your child and what you can do right now to help keep your kids safer online. New! Free live CyberGuy class: Protect Your Money From Today’s Biggest Threats Join us Saturday, August 29, at 10 AM ET for a free CyberGuy LIVE class covering five simple steps to help defend yourself against AI scams, fraud, identity theft and financial hacks. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson will explain how to set up bank alerts, strengthen your account logins, protect your phone number, freeze your credit and help secure your retirement savings against unauthorized transfers. No technical experience is needed. You’ll also receive our financial protection checklist, and every registrant will get a link to the class recording afterward. Reserve your free spot today at CyberGuyLive.com. Roblox already uses versions of these AI systems on its own platform. Now, other companies can study them and potentially adapt them for their own services. Roblox joined ROOST as a founding member in 2025 alongside Google, OpenAI, Discord and others. ROOST focuses on making open-source online safety technology available to organizations that may lack the resources to build sophisticated systems themselves. Think about how many places children communicate online today. A conversation can begin inside a game. Then it may jump to a messaging app or another social platform with different protections. No single company controls that entire journey. Sharing safety technology could give more services access to tools designed around similar warning signs. However, another company still has to adopt the technology and adapt it to its platform. So I see this as an encouraging development, but parents should not view it as a reason to lower their guard. One of the most interesting updates for families involves Roblox's PII Classifier. PII stands for personally identifiable information. That can include a phone number, email address, social media username or other information that could help someone identify or contact a child. The classifier also looks for attempts to direct players to other platforms. That is important because someone with bad intentions may try to move a conversation away from the platform where it began. Older filters often searched for obvious words or patterns. Roblox's Version 2.0 looks at the surrounding conversation instead. For example, someone could intentionally misspell the name of another app. They might split contact information across several messages. Others may use coded language they hope a filter will miss. The updated AI evaluates those messages together. Roblox says Version 2.0 expanded language support from 17 to 189 languages. The company also reports that its F1 score, a common way to measure a classifier's accuracy, improved from 63.41 to 90.52. For a parent, the takeaway is much simpler. The system is trying to understand where a conversation is heading, rather than judging each message by itself. This is one part of the announcement that jumped out at me. Asking for another username or suggesting a move to a different app can sound innocent. Kids switch between platforms all the time. However, moving a conversation can also reduce the protections around it. That is what made the Nebraska case we previously covered so unsettling. Authorities said the initial connection happened on Roblox before the communication continued on Snapchat. Parents should make this a specific conversation at home. If someone your child only knows online starts asking for another username, phone number or private way to communicate, your child should know to tell you. Roblox Sentinel tackles an even harder problem. Potential grooming can develop gradually. Someone may build trust before the conversation becomes obviously inappropriate. That means early messages can look ordinary when viewed separately. Sentinel analyzes patterns across conversations. Roblox says the system looks for early signals of potential child endangerment so suspicious interactions can be reviewed before they escalate. Human reviewers can then prioritize conversations that may require action. Roblox says that during the 12 months ending Aug. 7, 2026, nearly 70% of the child-endangerment cases it detected came through Sentinel's early detection. PARENTS PUSH CONGRESS TO ACT ON KIDS' ONLINE SAFETY AFTER JURIES FIND META AND YOUTUBE LIABLE FOR HARM Roblox is also releasing Sentinel Version 2. The changes are mainly aimed at the developers and safety teams who would use the technology. The new version gives them more ways to score suspicious behavior and determine which setup works best for their platform. Roblox says Version 2 can also provide more information about why something received a particular score. That could help teams understand what the system is detecting instead of receiving only a warning with little context. The company says the upgrade also makes the system much faster to test and tune. For parents, though, the bigger point is that Roblox wants other platforms to take this technology and use it for their own safety systems. Text messages are only one part of the picture. Kids can also communicate through voice chat, which creates a different moderation challenge. Roblox's voice safety classifier analyzes speech for policy violations in real time. When the system detects a violation, Roblox can display a warning explaining which policy may have been broken. Repeated violations can lead to a temporary voice-chat suspension of up to five minutes. More serious violations can carry stronger consequences. Roblox says its voice safety classifier has been downloaded more than 72,000 times since the company first made it open source in 2024. Version 3 now covers 30 languages and eight violation categories. Roblox reports 61% recall across those languages when operating at a strict 1% false-positive rate. That number is also a reminder that AI moderation can miss things. Even a sophisticated safety model cannot catch every dangerous conversation. There is another side of this story worth knowing. Independent researchers recently examined Roblox chat moderation and found examples of unsafe messages that made it through the platform's existing safeguards. Their study analyzed more than 2 million chat messages and identified examples involving grooming, sexualization of minors, bullying, violence and sensitive information sharing that escaped moderation. That research shows why parents should be careful about assuming automated moderation provides a complete safety net. Bad actors learn how filters work. Then they change their language or behavior to try to get around them. That makes Roblox's latest move especially relevant, because the company is improving these safety models and sharing them with other platforms so the technology can keep adapting too. This may ultimately become the bigger story. Most parents will never download an AI classifier or visit a GitHub repository. Yet the technology being released today could eventually influence apps their children use. Smaller platforms may not have the engineering teams or money needed to build advanced child-safety systems from scratch. Open-source tools can give those companies a starting point. Researchers can also test the models and look for weaknesses. Developers can adapt them to different services. Meanwhile, feedback from other organizations could help improve the original tools. ROOST says its Model Community is designed to connect developers and safety practitioners around open safety AI models. That collaborative approach has a lot of potential. This isn’t Roblox's first major AI safety push. Earlier this year, CyberGuy reported on a Roblox system that analyzes combinations of text, avatars and 3D environments in real time. Roblox told us the technology was helping shut down about 5,000 violating game servers each day. The idea was to catch harmful combinations that older moderation systems could miss when they examined individual pieces separately. You can read our full report onhow Roblox is changing online safety with AI. Roblox has also been expanding age-based protections for younger users. Those controls place different limits on chat, games and other features depending on a user's age. All of these moves point toward the same goal: catching risk earlier and limiting who younger users can interact with. The challenge is making those systems work consistently at Roblox's enormous scale. CHRIS HANSEN URGES PARENTS TO TEACH CHILDREN ABOUT ONLINE PREDATORS BEFORE ALLOWING INTERNET ACCESS These AI tools work behind the scenes. Parents can add another layer of protection by setting some clear expectations at home. Tell your child to come to you when someone they only know online wants to continue chatting somewhere else. That could mean another gaming service, a social platform or a private messaging app. There may be an innocent explanation. Still, it is worth knowing when someone is trying to move the conversation. Children should be careful about sharing information that can identify or locate them. That includes their phone number, school name and home address. Social media usernames can also give strangers another way to contact them. Remind your child that a person they meet inside a game is still an online stranger until your family knows otherwise. Roblox has expanded its age-based account protections and parental controls. Roblox Kids accounts cover ages 5 through 8, while Roblox Select covers ages 9 through 15. Chat availability and parental controls vary by age group. We previously broke down Roblox's age-based accounts for kids and teens and what parents should know about those changes. Take a few minutes to review the settings with your child rather than assuming the defaults match what you want. Parents naturally focus on text because it leaves something visible to review. Voice conversations deserve attention too. Ask your child who they talk with while gaming. Make sure they understand that they can leave any conversation that feels uncomfortable. Roblox allows users to report people and inappropriate behavior from within an experience. Users can also block another account. Parents can access communication controls through linked parental settings. Show your child where those controls are before there is a problem. That way, they do not have to figure it out while they are upset or scared. Your reaction matters when your child tells you something went wrong online. Try to make the first conversation about what happened rather than immediately focusing on taking the game away. A child who thinks speaking up will automatically cost them their phone or Roblox access may be more reluctant to tell you about the next uncomfortable interaction. What catches my attention here is what these AI systems are actually being trained to recognize. They are looking for someone trying to get a child's personal information or shift a conversation somewhere else. Another system examines conversations for early signs of potential child endangerment. Voice moderation adds protection when kids are talking instead of typing. Those are situations parents need to understand. I also like the idea of companies sharing safety technology instead of making every platform build these tools from scratch. If technology developed on Roblox helps another gaming service or social platform detect dangerous behavior sooner, that is a positive step. Still, I would never tell a parent to assume AI has their child's back. Roblox itself acknowledges that no safety system is perfect, and independent researchers have found examples of harmful chat getting through moderation. So use the technology as another layer. Then keep talking with your kids about who they meet online and where those conversations are going. The most important warning may be something an algorithm never sees: your child telling you that somebody online is making them uncomfortable. If an AI system detected possible grooming in your child's online conversation, how quickly would you expect the platform to alert you, and how much should it tell you about what happened? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy Report Copyright 2026 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8832112c5335ae10495b7d EXCLUSIVE: Fentanyl deaths plunge 22% as Trump White House touts crackdown on deadly drug crisis te 2026-08-21T11:10:09.142Z EXCLUSIVE: Fentanyl deaths plunge 22% as Trump White House touts crackdown on deadly drug crisis EXCLUSIVE: Fentanyl-linked deaths plunged 22% in a single year as the Trump White House credits its border crackdown, campaign against drug cartels and arrests of convicted fentanyl traffickers for helping drive down the deadly toll. Synthetic opioid deaths, which include fentanyl, fell from 48,913 in 2024 to 38,084 in 2025, according to CDC figures cited by the White House — a decline of more than 10,000 deaths. Total drug overdose deaths fell 14% during the same period, from 81,313 to 69,973. The Trump administration provided the figures to Fox News Digital in honor of National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day on Friday, pointing to the decline as evidence its border and counter-narcotics policies are disrupting the flow of fentanyl into American communities. PRESIDENT TRUMP’S DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY SETS THE PATH TO END THE DRUG CRISIS FOR GOOD "President [Donald] Trump targeted cartels who were profiting off the death of Americans, secured our border to stop Fentanyl and other illicit drugs from flowing into our communities, and jumpstarted ICE to arrest illegal alien fentanyl traffickers," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. "These policies delivered a 22% decline in opioid deaths in a single year. Thanks to President Trump, America is finally winning the fight against fentanyl," she added. MASSIVE MEXICO-CALIFORNIA BORDER BUSTS UNCOVER EYE-POPPING AMOUNT OF DRUGS: 'REMAIN VIGILANT' The White House also pointed to a 45% decline in nationwide fentanyl seizures in fiscal year 2025 compared with the previous year. The administration characterized the drop as evidence that disruption farther up the supply chain is reducing the amount of the drug reaching the U.S. border. DEA testing cited by the administration also found 29% of seized fentanyl pills contained a potentially lethal dose, down from 76% two years earlier. The White House attributed the declining potency to pressure on trafficking networks. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SAYS FEDERAL AUTHORITIES HAVE ARRESTED MORE THAN 10,000 SUSPECTED GANG MEMBERS The administration also shared the cases of 11 foreign nationals arrested by ICE this year who the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says had previous fentanyl-related convictions. The administration highlighted the February ICE arrest of Julio Cesar Pimentel-German, a Dominican Republic national whom DHS says had previously been convicted in Massachusetts of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, trafficking fentanyl and a firearms offense. ICE also arrested Ader Aldair Ramirez-Quiroz, a Honduran national DHS says was convicted of importing fentanyl in San Diego, and Yancarlos Marte-Morel, a Dominican Republic national convicted in federal court in Massachusetts of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, according to DHS. The arrests are part of what the administration says is a broader effort to remove convicted fentanyl traffickers from American communities while federal agencies target the drug trade at multiple levels. 5 MEXICAN CARTEL BOSSES CHARGED IN WEAPONS, DRUG TRAFFICKING, TIMESHARE FRAUD SCHEMES, DOJ SAYS Trump has also pursued the cartels through terrorist designations, financial sanctions and other federal enforcement tools. The president signed the HALT Fentanyl Act into law in July 2025, permanently placing fentanyl-related substances under Schedule I and giving federal prosecutors a permanent framework for targeting fentanyl analogs. Trump later designated illicit fentanyl and key precursor chemicals as weapons of mass destruction. FEDS SEIZE MOUNTAIN OF FENTANYL FROM 'OPEN-AIR DRUG MARKET' IN MASSIVE CRACKDOWN TARGETING GANG CREWS The White House also pointed to Justice Department prosecutions involving nearly 8,000 defendants in fentanyl cases as evidence of the scope of the federal crackdown. The decline comes after fentanyl helped fuel an overdose epidemic that killed tens of thousands of Americans annually and devastated communities across the country. The administration says the latest figures show that trend moving sharply in the opposite direction. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8832102c5335ae10495b74 Conservatives can fight the rise of socialism by defending the American family te 2026-08-21T11:10:08.526Z Conservatives can fight the rise of socialism by defending the American family Young Americans are frustrated. They graduated into an economy battered by inflation. They watched home prices and mortgage rates climb beyond reach. Many have delayed marriage and children because they are worried they cannot afford the life their parents built. They increasingly wonder whether they will ever own a home, comfortably raise a family or achieve the American Dream. The political left recognizes this frustration. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other Democratic Socialists have attracted young supporters by promising sweeping government solutions: free child care, free transportation, government-run grocery stores, rent freezes and taxpayer-funded everything. These promises are fiscally unsustainable, but that is beside the point politically. Socialists are speaking directly to a generation that believes the system is no longer working for them, and they are offering an ambitious vision for changing it. JD VANCE WARNS REPUBLICANS NOT TO BLAME YOUNG AMERICANS FOR THE APPEAL OF SOCIALISM Conservatives cannot answer that vision by simply saying, "No." If we want to win the next generation, we must answer their central question: How will you help me build a family and a future? Our answer should not come through a larger welfare state, greater government control or a Marxist agenda that would ultimately leave Americans poorer and less free. It should come through greater freedom for families to build their own futures. That is why we are proposing the Young American Family Act. TRUMP BEAT BACK ANTI-FAMILY TAXES IN 2025. HERE’S WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN NEXT The idea is simple: Married couples under the age of 35 who have at least one child would pay no federal income tax. This would not be an inflationary stimulus check, a complicated new tax credit or another federal bureaucracy. Washington would not decide how families should spend the benefit. It would simply let families keep more of the money they worked to earn. The policy would provide its greatest benefit during the most financially demanding years of family life. Young couples could use that money to purchase their first home, pay for childcare, save for retirement, invest in their children’s education, or build the financial reserve that makes having another child possible. DEMOCRATS' SOCIALIST SURGE PROVES AMERICA'S 250-YEAR FIGHT FOR FREEDOM ISN'T OVER The Young American Family Act represents a fundamentally different vision from socialism. The left says government should tax your income, build a new program and determine which benefits you receive. Conservatives should say that families — not the federal government — know best how to build their future with their money. This debate could not arrive at a more urgent moment. AGE OF FIRST-TIME MOTHERS HITS RECORD HIGH IN BLUE STATES AS BIRTH RATES KEEP FALLING America is confronting fertility rates near historic lows, declining marriage and delayed homeownership. The provisional fertility rate fell again in 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These trends carry long-term consequences, including a declining workforce, slower economic growth and greater pressure on Social Security and Medicare. But this is about more than economics. Public policy should encourage the institutions that help Americans flourish, and the evidence consistently shows that marriage and family are among the most important. PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY WAS RIGHT: AMERICA MUST PUT BABIES AND MOTHERS FIRST In the 2022 General Social Survey, 37% of married parents between the ages of 18 and 55 described themselves as "very happy," compared with 27% of married adults without children. Among adults ages 18 to 34, 43% of married parents said they were very happy, compared with 30% of married adults without children. Unmarried adults reported substantially lower levels of happiness. A representative 2025 YouGov survey of 3,000 American women ages 25 to 55 similarly found that married mothers were nearly twice as likely as unmarried women without children to report being very happy. The differences remained even after researchers accounted for age, income and education. The economic differences are equally striking. Census Bureau data show that only 5% of married parents lived below the poverty line in 2022, compared with 34% of unmarried parents living together. Married-parent families were also much more likely to own their homes: 77%, compared with 44% of unmarried-parent couples and 40% of mother-only families. These figures do not mean marriage guarantees happiness or that every family fits the same mold. They demonstrate a strong and remarkably consistent association: Americans who are married and raising children are, on average, happier and more financially secure. Why, then, does our government so often make it more difficult to form and support a family? For decades, Washington has spent trillions of dollars attempting to manage the consequences of family breakdown while giving too little attention to strengthening the family itself. The tax code should not penalize marriage or make it harder for responsible young couples to raise children. It should reduce poverty and recognize that strong families create strong communities and form the foundation of a stable republic. The left has understood something conservatives too often overlook: When people lose hope in the future, they become receptive to radical ideas. History demonstrates this repeatedly. During periods of economic insecurity and declining opportunity, people become willing to embrace dramatic political change if they believe it promises a better life. The socialist left understands this dynamic exceptionally well. Its proposals do not even need to pass immediately to have an effect. By relentlessly advocating ideas once considered radical, the left moves the Overton Window and changes the boundaries of what Americans consider politically possible. Conservatives too often find ourselves responding to those shifts instead of setting the agenda ourselves. That must change. The conservative movement should offer the boldest vision for restoring the American Dream. Defending free markets and opposing destructive policies remain essential, but they are not enough. We must present an ambitious agenda that gives young Americans confidence that they can build wealth, buy a home, marry and raise children. The Young American Family Act would reward work, marriage, child-rearing and ownership — the foundations of a healthy country. It would strengthen families without creating a new government dependency. Most importantly, it would send a clear message: America should be the best place in the world to start a family. If Democratic Socialists can propose government control over housing, transportation, food and childcare, conservatives can be equally bold in returning power and money to American families. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION We do not need to abandon our principles to compete with the left’s ambition. We need to apply our principles with greater imagination. It is time for the right to stop merely defending yesterday’s policies and start advancing tomorrow’s American Dream for young Americans and their families. Jayme Franklin is the founder and CEO of The Conservateur, a leading media platform for conservative women focused on culture, faith, family, femininity and style. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, she began her career in politics working in the U.S. Senate, on President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, and in the White House. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Drake, and their daughter, Vivienne. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a88320f2c5335ae10495b6b Hilaria Baldwin shares 5 simple stretches to do at work to prevent pain and stiffness te 2026-08-21T11:10:07.888Z Hilaria Baldwin shares 5 simple stretches to do at work to prevent pain and stiffness Sitting all day at a desk is the norm for millions of American workers, but it can take a toll on the body. As long hours spent in the same position can contribute to poor posture, stiffness and other physical issues, experts say regular movement and stretching can help prevent joint pain and muscle weakness. "Many people sit every day for most of the day, and this can cause so many problems in the body," certified fitness and yoga instructor Hilaria Baldwin told Fox News Digital. "We've all heard of tech neck, carpal tunnel – most of that has to do with the alignment of our spine." 'OFFICE AIR' TREND HAS PEOPLE CONVINCED THE WORKPLACE IS AGING THEM: 'LESS FRESH' Baldwin shared the following simple stretches that can be done in a desk chair, while cautioning people to "be the judge of what’s appropriate" for their workspace before trying the techniques. Sitting in a desk chair, bring the arms up into a "goal post" position, with the elbows in alignment with the shoulders. Pull the core in, squeeze the shoulder blades together and pull the chin back. Imagine that the back of the head is pressing up against a wall. JUST 10 MINUTES OF DAILY FLOOR EXERCISES MAY IMPROVE BALANCE AND AGILITY, STUDY FINDS Keeping the arms in position, start bringing both elbows in front, touching them together. Open again and squeeze. Repeat this about 10 times. "This, for me, feels really good," Baldwin said. "Check in with your body during the day. I'm going to do maybe a few at 10 a.m. and then maybe again at 11:30. You can't do too many of these." "You also develop an incredible back if you want to wear those backless dresses, but it also makes you feel better," she added. From the previous position, take the arms down until the palms of the hands are facing the floor. Start to squeeze the shoulder and back muscles. Bring the arms forward to cross over each other and stop once the elbows are aligned. FITNESS INFLUENCER SAYS ONE SIMPLE HABIT CAN HELP ANYONE GET BACK IN SHAPE As the arms cross, round the head down, bringing the forehead toward the elbows. Open the arms up and repeat about 10 times, practicing the set consistently throughout the day. "As I'm rounding, I’m pulling the shoulder blades away from the spine as a bit of a hug, and then I open again and squeeze the shoulder blades together," Baldwin described. "It's going to help remind you that you need to be sitting up with your shoulders back, chin back," she added. Interlace the fingers behind the head and bring the elbows toward one another. Slowly drop the chin to the chest, lightly pulling down through the spine. In the opposite direction, open the elbows wide, arching the back and lifting the chin to the sky. "Focus on your breath here as well, especially if you have a stressful job," Baldwin said. "We stop breathing and that just puts tension in our body, so try to take deep breaths. Inhale, exhale." TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ "If you're about to write that email that maybe you shouldn't write, maybe just tap into your breath, do a few of these." Although subtle, Baldwin calls this exercise "extremely important," as it focuses on engaging the core while seated. Sit up straight and pull the belly button toward the spine, noticing if you can feel where the sit bones are pressing into the chair. CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES Rock back and forth, pulling in the belly button. Think about pulling in the "seatbelt muscle," in the lower gut area, maintaining proper posture. "This is actually a really good ab exercise," Baldwin noted. For those who are able to stand, Baldwin encourages employees to rise from their chair and "stretch a little bit," since sitting for long periods of time can "shorten the hip flexors." "Anything where you can stretch it out is going be really great for you," she said. "I like to mix it with a calf stretch as well." CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER Stand up and step one foot out in front of the other in a slight lunge, bending the front knee. Open through the back of the leg and press the heel down. Press forward and bring the hips to center, making sure to maintain the same posture practiced while sitting. Switch the legs and stretch on the other side. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a882d602c5335ae10495ac7 Singham-linked nonprofits fight House subpoenas, accuse lawmakers of McCarthy-era ‘witch hunt’ te 2026-08-21T10:50:08.683Z Singham-linked nonprofits fight House subpoenas, accuse lawmakers of McCarthy-era ‘witch hunt’ Two nonprofits subpoenaed in a House Ways and Means Committee investigation into communist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham's funding network have formally objected to the congressional subpoenas, accusing lawmakers of reviving "Red Scare" tactics to target them because of their political views. In letters from their attorneys to the committee, New York City-based BreakThrough News, a pro-China media outlet, and Peoples Forum Inc., a socialist activist group, argued the subpoenas violate the First Amendment. They claim lawmakers are targeting their free speech, journalism and political advocacy rather than conducting a legitimate tax-law investigation. In a statement to Fox News Digital, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., defended the investigation and criticized the organizations' refusal to comply with the July 21 subpoenas. "Make no mistake: Compliance with a congressional subpoena isn't optional, and the Committee will use all tools it has available to investigate whether foreign actors are exploiting our tax code to sow chaos and create division," Smith said. HOUSE PANEL SUBPOENAS 3 LEFT-WING GROUPS IN PROBE OF $39M TIED TO MARXIST TYCOON NEVILLE SINGHAM In letters, attorneys for both organizations wrote in identical language, "A witch-hunt is not a valid legislative purpose," arguing the committee's public statements reflect "the language of the Red Scare." Both organizations argue they are not required to comply with the subpoenas as presently framed, saying the committee's demands are too broad and seek information protected by the First Amendment. They leave open the possibility of responding if the committee narrows its demands. The two responses, dated Aug. 7 and shared on the organizations' social media accounts, closely mirror each other in tone and substance. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder and executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, a far-left nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., signed the letter from the People's Forum. She co-signed the letter from BreakThrough News with Andrew Herman, an attorney also based in Washington, D.C. Both attorneys have represented the nonprofit groups through earlier inquiries and compared the current congressional investigation to the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee, which investigated suspected communist influence and subversion in the United States in the late 1940s and 1950s. According to digital records, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund shares the same address at a Florida Avenue NW townhouse used by the ANSWER Coalition, a self-described communist group that also operates out of the People's Forum headquarters on W. 37th Street in Midtown Manhattan.  In both letters, the attorneys also argue the committee has strayed beyond its traditional role of overseeing tax law by venturing into foreign influence, national security and alleged propaganda issues. The committee, however, says in its July 21 subpoena cover letters that it's seeking information about the organizations' financing and structure to examine how Singham-linked money reached the tax-exempt groups and whether foreign influence was involved. The committee hasn't accused any of the subpoenaed organizations of criminal wrongdoing or other illegal conduct. The cover letters describe $40.3 million in funding that flowed from Singham's network to BreakThrough News, People's Forum and a third nonprofit, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, which describes its work as rooted in "national liberation Marxism." Tricontinental also submitted a response by the Aug. 7 deadline, according to a source familiar with the committee's investigation. Fox News Digital reached out to Tricontinental and its attorney for comment and a copy of the letter but didn't receive a response. JIM BANKS, GOP LAWMAKERS RALLY BEHIND DOJ PROBE INTO ALLEGED CCP-LINKED FUNDING NETWORK The committee alleges the Singham network routed money through shell companies and donor-advised funds in ways that obscured the original source of the contributions. It says the investigation is examining whether existing tax laws adequately account for those funding arrangements and whether legislative changes are needed to address potential gaps. Singham, a 72-year-old American who sold his software company, ThoughtWorks, for an estimated $785 million in 2017 and now lives in Shanghai, has directed at least $278 million into six core nonprofits that Fox News Digital previously reported promote socialist, communist and pro-China causes as part of a broader international network of media organizations, activist groups and think tanks. The committee said the organizations failed to produce requested documents, while the organizations argued they weren't legally required to comply with the requests as they were framed because they violated First Amendment protections. In a five-part investigation, Fox News Digital traced how the six nonprofits into which Singham poured $278 million serve as key funding hubs in a broader international network of nonprofits, activist groups and media organizations. Of that funding, the Fox News Digital investigation found Singham pumped $22.44 million to People's Forum, $16.76 million to Tricontinental and $1.098 million to BreakThrough BT Media Inc., the parent organization of BreakThrough News. The total amounted to $40.298 million. BreakThrough News and the People's Forum subpoena responses ‘MCCARTHY TRIALS’: HASAN PIKER, FAR-LEFT FIGURES ERUPT OVER SUBPOENAS IN $39M SINGHAM PROBE In arguing they can't be required to comply with the subpoenas as written, BreakThrough News and People's Forum say the committee is demanding far more information than it needs to investigate their finances, including records they say would expose their journalism, political activity, donors and associations. The organizations argue they "cannot be required to respond" to a process that "seeks to punish, silence, expose, and condemn protected expression." The committee disputes that argument, saying its investigation is examining whether existing tax laws governing tax-exempt organizations adequately account for foreign influence and whether Congress needs to strengthen those laws. Smith told Fox News Digital, "After months of delay, I am disappointed but not surprised to see yet another attempt by tax-exempt organizations connected to Shanghai Singham to evade scrutiny. Tax-exempt status is a privilege, not a right. When organizations that receive generous taxpayer-funded benefits refuse to comply with lawful congressional oversight about potential foreign influence, the American people have every right to know what they are hiding. And we will continue pushing until the truth is uncovered." The committee hasn't publicly said it has evidence the organizations are hiding information about foreign influence. SUBPOENAED PRO-CHINA OUTLET DEFENDS ITSELF ON DEMOCRACY NOW!, WHICH PAID SINGHAM-FOUNDED COMPANY MILLIONS The organizations also claimed lawmakers repeatedly changed the stated purpose of the investigation as the organizations pushed back against earlier requests for information. People's Forum points to an apparent copy-and-paste error in the subpoena it received, arguing one definition references BreakThrough News instead of the People's Forum. It argues the mistake bolsters its broader case that lawmakers failed to tailor their demands to the organization or show how all the records they seek are relevant to a legitimate legislative investigation. The attorneys further contend that "the purpose of the letters and the subpoena is not legislative but rather for public exposure, public smearing, and personal aggrandizement," accusing the committee of using the investigation to publicly discredit the organizations rather than pursue legitimate congressional oversight. In identical language in the two letters, the organizations also allege the committee "provided" correspondence from July 21 about the subpoenas to Fox News Digital before "transmission to the intended recepient," allegedly making the inquiries designed for "public exposure" rather than legitimate legislative oversight. Fox News Digital published its article about the committee's letters after they had been delivered. WATCH: Subpoenaed pro-China media outlet blasts House Singham probe on Democracy Now! The written objections echo a public messaging and fundraising campaign launched by the organizations and their allies after the subpoenas became public, when supporters similarly portrayed the investigation as a revival of McCarthyism and an attack on independent journalism. BreakThrough News host Rania Khalek recently took that argument to Democracy Now!, where she accused lawmakers of targeting the outlet because of its political views and journalism and encouraged viewers to financially support BreakThrough News as it fought the subpoenas. The organizations also launched fundraising and petition campaigns after the committee announced the subpoenas. People's Forum sought tax-deductible donations for legal expenses and organizing, while Khalek directed supporters to a GoFundMe and an Action Network petition opposing the congressional investigation. As Fox News Digital previously reported, Marxist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker called the subpoenas "the McCarthy trials" on X, warning, "They will come for you." Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink, a pro-China left-wing activist group that has received funding linked to Singham, called the subpoenas a "terrible attack on independent journalism," adding, "We stand with you!!!" July 21, 2026, House Ways and Means Committee subpoena cover letters . HASAN PIKER NAMES PRO-CCP TYCOON SINGHAM AS FINANCIER OF 'POLITICAL MOVEMENTS' DESPITE NONPROFIT VENEER Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a882b092c5335ae10495a6c TPUSA school clash spirals into threats and outrage as mother denies touching, screaming at Indiana teen te 2026-08-21T10:40:09.285Z TPUSA school clash spirals into threats and outrage as mother denies touching, screaming at Indiana teen WESTFIELD, Ind. — A 17-year-old TPUSA chapter president in Indiana says a mother screamed at student volunteers and knocked a bracelet from her hand during an annual back-to-school bash. Now, the mother in question is denying key elements of the story.  The Aug. 10 incident has grown into a bitter public clash involving a conservative student activist, a local mother, school officials, police reports, allegations of online harassment and support from some of the country’s most prominent conservative personalities. Sophia Hunt, president of Turning Point USA’s Club America chapter at Westfield High School, said the confrontation happened during Rock the Block, an event hosted by Westfield Washington Schools and the Westfield Education Foundation at the local middle school.  Hunt told Fox News Digital that she and other members of the student group were operating a booth at Rock the Block and were using the event to explain their organization’s work and its effort to bring what she described as "God, family and country" into schools. ERIKA KIRK URGES CONSERVATIVE STUDENTS NOT TO BACK DOWN IN FIRST SCHOOL YEAR SINCE CHARLIE'S ASSASSINATION "We got to tell them about what Turning Point is doing not only in our schools, but nationally as well, and the support that they bring us," Hunt said. "We want to help students have the opportunity to be able to openly speak about their beliefs." The students were also handing out red, white and blue bracelets. The design, which Hunt displayed during a Wednesday installment of "The Charlie Kirk Show," consists of a blue streak and white stars against a red backdrop. It does not contain a candidate’s name, campaign slogan or other explicit political message. "They were just ordered in bulk from Amazon. I had purchased them, and they were sponsored by my dad," she said.  According to Hunt, a boy who appeared to be about 7 or 8 years old approached the table and said he wanted one. "He tried to take one, and I saw a mother come over and drag him away," Hunt said. The mother has been identified as Kailly Stanich, whose version of the encounter differs significantly from Hunt’s. Hunt said she initially tried to defuse what she perceived as an unexpectedly tense situation. As Stanich began walking away with her son, Hunt said she calmly asked, "Hey, are you OK?" BUFFALO MUSIC VENUE BANS DJ AFTER 'WE ARE CHARLIE KIRK' SONG PLAYED IN JEST "She then goes, ‘Why the f--- are you asking me if I’m OK?’" Hunt alleged. Hunt said she attempted to hand Stanich one of the bracelets, but Stanich knocked it from her hand. "She then flicks it out of my hand," Hunt said. "It was soft. I’m not hurt by any means. Honestly, it’s the easiest thing to move past. It’s not a big deal." Hunt said she responded, "I hope you have a better day." That comment, according to both women, became another flashpoint. Hunt alleged that Stanich began cursing at the students and criticizing the people and political organization they supported. "She starts cursing us out, saying, ‘You guys are supporting a racist piece of s---,’" Hunt said. Hunt claimed Stanich called the students "vile, disgusting human beings" and said they supported other "vile and disgusting human beings" such as President Donald Trump and the late TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk. "She proceeded to yell at us, curse us out in front of minors, little children probably between the ages of 6 and 10," Hunt said. Hunt acknowledged that another student working at the booth also responded during the exchange. After Hunt told Stanich she was sorry that she felt that way, Hunt said the chapter’s secretary turned around and declared, "Actually, we’re not sorry at all." Hunt nevertheless maintained that the students largely refused to engage further. "We had not given her any other reaction after that," Hunt said. "We don’t want to give her the reaction that she was looking for. We just want to be kind, be nice, stay calm and let God do the rest." WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT REVIEWING INCIDENT OF EMPLOYEE MAKING CELEBRATORY REMARK ABOUT CHARLIE KIRK'S DEATH Stanich has denied many of Hunt’s central allegations, including that her son reached for a bracelet, that she screamed in Hunt’s face or that she slapped or otherwise struck the teenager’s hand. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Stanich said, "I did not and would never put my hands on a child. Nor would I scream in her face. I have filed a police report, and they are getting the footage from the school. Once I have that, I would be happy to speak with you and have the facts. I am extremely disturbed by her lies. I went private because I am getting death threats from Charlie Kirk supporters. This is exactly why his 'club' does not belong in our schools." In an Aug. 20 interview with Newsweek, Stanich said her son had been collecting candy and other giveaways from different booths when Hunt offered him a bracelet. "I just grabbed his hand and I said no, and I said no very firm," Stanich recalled. Stanich said Hunt then asked whether she was OK and told her to "have a better day." Stanich described Hunt’s delivery as "rude and bratty" and said other students working at the booth yelled at her as she walked away. Stanich admitted that she cursed during the encounter and acknowledged that her language was inappropriate. "I just was very upset that the booth was even there," she said. Stanich said her son was familiar with TPUSA and had already developed a negative opinion of the organization and Trump. "My son is very aware of the hatred and the things that Donald Trump has spewed, and he has been raised to believe that everyone should be accepted," Stanich told Newsweek. "He already said, ‘Mommy, I knew that they were not a good booth because of the pictures and stuff.’" UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY SCRAPS CONTROVERSIAL COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER WHO CRITICIZED CHARLIE KIRK AFTER HIS MURDER Stanich pointed to the presence of law enforcement, firefighters, parents and other organizations at the crowded event as evidence that Hunt’s version was implausible. "If I would have slapped a child’s hand or screamed in her face, there were police officer booths there, there was the fire department booth there, there were tons of parents and families and other booths right next to her," Stanich said. "If that would have happened, I would have been apprehended immediately." Hunt disputed Stanich’s description of where police officers and firefighters were located. "There were no police near us," Hunt said. "There were no firefighters near us either. Their booth, I believe, was on the complete opposite side of the gym or the school from where our booth was located." Hunt said two other students from her TPUSA chapter, the group’s faculty sponsor and parents standing nearby witnessed at least parts of the exchange. "We had parents coming up to us asking how they could donate to our chapter and what was wrong with her," Hunt said. Hunt also claimed Stanich later contradicted her denials in social media posts by acknowledging that she had "flipped the F out" and had been "seeing red." "She admitted to it on her own social media pages," Hunt said. "It’s very contradicting that she admitted to it and is now claiming that she did not do these things." Although Hunt has described the bracelet being knocked from her hand as unwanted physical contact, she emphasized during the interview that she was not injured and did not want to exaggerate what happened. "She didn’t necessarily assault me," Hunt said. "I’m not trying to take it into the context, ‘Oh, I’m hurt.’ No. But she flicked the bracelet out of my hand. She did touch me. She touched my fingertips." WISCONSIN TEACHER FIRED AFTER SOCIAL MEDIA POST ADVOCATING TO 'MAKE AMERICANS GREAT ASSASSINS AGAIN' In a statement to Fox News Digital, Westfield Washington Schools said it was "aware of concerns" related to the interaction and the "subsequent activity on social media." The district, however, said no "safety incident" was reported during Rock the Block by "anyone involved or bystanders." "WWS takes the safety and well-being of our students seriously," the school system said. "The district has reviewed the situation with appropriate school personnel and legal counsel, has communicated to the parties involved, and has taken appropriate steps within its authority." "While we cannot discuss specific actions involving individuals or security measures, we remain committed to providing safe environments where students can feel secure when participating in school activities and community events," the statement continued. Hunt said she called Westfield High School the day after the encounter and informed her principal and another administrator about the situation. She said officials listened to her account and expressed concern about maintaining student safety, but she did not know whether any specific action had been taken. Hunt also said some parents contacted the district asking officials to review or revoke Stanich’s access to future school events. Stanich, meanwhile, said she filed a police report after allegedly receiving death threats online. She told Newsweek that local police were attempting to obtain security footage of the altercation. Hunt said she also filed a police report the day after the event but was told that officers could not take action. The Westfield Police Department did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. TPUSA'S ANDREW KOLVET CALLS VIRAL 'LOOKSMAXXING' CRAZE A 'RED WARNING SIGN' FOR YOUNG MEN Videos describing Hunt’s account spread rapidly through conservative social media circles, transforming a brief local confrontation into a national political story. Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet came to the defense of Hunt, telling Fox News Digital, "Sophia is exactly the kind of student that makes us all so proud of the work we're doing at TPUSA, and I know Charlie would be proud of her too. She's kind and gracious, but she's also courageous. She's a happy warrior who refuses to back down, even when an adult woman, who should know better, engages in an online bullying and smear campaign to get attention on TikTok at her expense. Sophia is handling all of this exactly the right way, and she has a very bright future ahead of her." Erika Kirk, TPUSA’s CEO and board chair, also offered her support. "The spiritual battle rages on, but our students don’t back down," Kirk wrote on X. "We will not be derailed. They cannot stop what my husband built. We’ve got your back @Sophialilyhunt. Onward." Indiana Republican Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith told Hunt he was "proud" of her for "standing her ground with grace and truth after being attacked by a radicalized liberal at a recent school event." CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE The flood of attention brought Hunt a wave of public support, but Stanich said it also resulted in threats against her life. "You wanna harass and assault a teenager, but you think you can't be reached. You're wrong b----," one of the threats said. Another profanity-laced message threatened to turn Stanich's son into an "orphan." Hunt unequivocally condemned those threats. "No one deserves death threats," Hunt said. "No one deserves to have any sort of threat put on their life for any political reason or for any reason, by any means. That is wrong." Hunt said she would be disappointed with anyone using the confrontation to justify threats or harassment, regardless of that person’s political affiliation. "If the Republican Party is doing this, or if anyone from any party is doing this, I’m very disappointed," Hunt said. "I do not stand with the people who do that." "I want this lady to have peace," she continued. "I want her to be a happy human being, and I want her son to grow up in a great home." Asked whether the incident had made her reluctant to continue speaking publicly about her political and religious beliefs, Hunt acknowledged that she sometimes feels frightened. "I can be afraid at times," Hunt said. "I’m afraid to walk out of my house sometimes, but I know God is with me. I know God is by my side." She said the experience would not cause her to retreat from her work with TPUSA. "I will absolutely stand up for my conservative Christian values, as well as stand up for Turning Point USA, no matter the circumstances," Hunt said. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a882b082c5335ae10495a61 Democrat Rep. Stacey Travers Targets Clergy Reporting Exemption Following Supreme Court Ruling te 2026-08-21T10:40:08.629Z Democrat Rep. Stacey Travers Targets Clergy Reporting Exemption Following Supreme Court Ruling By Matthew Holloway | Arizona House Minority Whip Stacey Travers (D-LD12) is pledging to renew her effort to require clergy to report suspected ongoing or future child abuse disclosed through confidential religious communications. Her legislation failed to advance this year, while the Arizona Supreme Court recently issued a ruling defining the scope of the state’s clergy reporting exemption. Travers said she plans to pursue the issue again when lawmakers return to the Capitol in January. Her comments followed the recent Arizona Supreme Court ruling in Doe v. The Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which addressed when clergy may withhold reports of child abuse under state law. Travers introduced HB 2039 in December. The bill would have amended Arizona’s clergy reporting exemption to require members of the clergy, Christian Science practitioners, and priests to report when there is reasonable suspicion that abuse is ongoing, will continue, or may threaten other minors. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Quang Nguyen (R-LD1) has opposed Travers’ proposals and has said he will not give the measure a hearing while he remains chairman. Nguyen, who is Catholic, said that Travers would have to wait until 2029, when he is no longer a legislator, for the bill to receive a hearing. “I’m going to be very frank about this,” he said, “this bill has absolutely zero to do with reporting crimes because duty to report already exists in the state of Arizona, just not in the confessional booth,” Nguyen previously told LifeSiteNews. “That is all.… This is a way to go out and destroy our Church. Nothing more, nothing less.” Congressman and GOP gubernatorial nominee Andy Biggs described the bill at the time as “a terrible attack on Catholics in Arizona by, of course, a Democrat. This bill should never see the light of day.” A terrible attack on Catholics in Arizona by, of course, a Democrat. This bill should never see the light of day. cc: @HarmeetKDhillon https://t.co/oplCWT2n10 — Andy Biggs (@andybiggs4az) January 9, 2026 Current Arizona law requires specified mandatory reporters who reasonably believe a minor has been abused or neglected to report that information. Clergy may currently withhold a confession or confidential communication when they determine that maintaining confidentiality is “reasonable and necessary within the concepts of the religion.” The exemption applies to the confidential communication itself and does not cover a clergy member’s independent observations of a minor. HB 2039 would have narrowed that exemption. Under the proposed language, clergy could withhold information concerning abuse that had already occurred unless there was reasonable suspicion that the abuse remained ongoing, would continue, or could threaten other minors. It also would have amended Arizona’s civil clergy-penitent privilege to permit examination of a priest or clergyman concerning a confession when the clergy member determined it involved ongoing abuse. Under the state’s existing reporting statute, failure to make a required report is generally a class 1 misdemeanor. Failure to report a statutorily defined “reportable offense,” which includes several sexual offenses involving minors, is a class 6 felony. HB 2039 was assigned to the House Judiciary and Rules committees and received its second reading in January. It did not advance before the Legislature adjourned. Travers said that she distinguishes between protected religious confession and circumstances in which someone discloses continuing abuse. “There is a special case when you’re confessing to somebody in your religious organization,” Travers said, describing a confession involving a search for “absolution and contrition.” She described an admission of ongoing child abuse made with the expectation that clergy will not report it as a “conditional” confession and said she intends to continue pursuing legislation addressing those circumstances. Nguyen also blocked a similar proposal by Travers in 2023. At the time, Travers said the legislation grew out of the case involving Paul Adams, a Bisbee man, after he disclosed abuse to leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). That case eventually reached the Arizona Supreme Court. In its unanimous July 30 ruling in Doe v. The Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the court considered whether LDS bishops were required to report Adams’ disclosures under Arizona’s mandatory reporting statute. According to the court, Adams disclosed sexual abuse to Bishop John Herrod around 2011 and later repeated the disclosure during a meeting involving his wife. Herrod subsequently informed Bishop Robert Mauzy, who convened a church disciplinary council. Adams again disclosed the abuse during that proceeding and was excommunicated. The abuse came to the attention of federal authorities in 2017 after the Department of Homeland Security discovered a video online. Adams and his wife were subsequently indicted. Adams died by suicide in jail before trial, while his wife pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison, according to the Supreme Court’s opinion. Three of the children later sued the church and several church officials, alleging in part that they failed to comply with Arizona’s reporting law. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment generally prevents courts and juries from deciding whether clergy correctly applied religious doctrine when determining that withholding a report was reasonable and necessary under their religion, absent fraud or collusion for a secular purpose. The court also held that religious institutions are entitled to substantial deference in defining what constitutes a “confession,” a “confidential communication,” and who qualifies as clergy. The justices vacated a Court of Appeals decision and affirmed summary judgment for the church defendants. The court emphasized that its decision concerned interpretation of Arizona law and federal constitutional protections rather than the factual merits of the children’s abuse allegations. A separate unanimous Arizona Supreme Court ruling issued Aug. 12 further defined the limits of clergy privilege. In Rodriguez-Ramirez v. State of Arizona, the court held that a communication between a Phoenix pastor accused of sexually abusing his co-pastor’s teenage niece and the co-pastor did not qualify as a protected “confession” under Arizona’s criminal clergy-penitent privilege. The justices defined a confession as a confidential admission of a crime, sin, or fault to clergy for the purpose of seeking spiritual absolution, consolation, or guidance. Because the communication in that case did not meet the court’s standard, the justices affirmed the superior court’s decision allowing a secretly recorded conversation to be used in the criminal case. The dispute over Travers’ proposal has particular implications for Catholic priests because Catholic canon law declares the sacramental seal of confession inviolable and prohibits a confessor from disclosing what a penitent reveals during the sacrament. The Arizona Legislature is scheduled to begin its next regular session in January, when Travers said she intends to renew the proposal. Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com. The post Democrat Rep. Stacey Travers Targets Clergy Reporting Exemption Following Supreme Court Ruling first appeared on AZ FREE NEWS. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8828af2c5335ae1049594c IndyCar star Alex Palou reflects on White House, Oval Office visit with Trump: 'incredible experience' te 2026-08-21T10:30:07.541Z IndyCar star Alex Palou reflects on White House, Oval Office visit with Trump: 'incredible experience' Alex Palou may not be from the United States, but his trip to the White House and seeing the Oval Office is something he hopes to tell his grandchildren about some day. Palou and other NTT INDYCAR SERIES stars will make history this weekend in Washington, D.C., as the first-ever auto race around the National Mall will take place. A 1.7-mile circuit, which involves driving down Pennsylvania Avenue and seeing tons of national landmarks, will make up the Freedom 250 Grand Prix. Before the race takes place, Palou and other drivers including Pato O’Ward and Graham Rahal took time to answer questions on Thursday. Palou was among those who were able to visit President Donald Trump in the White House in July ahead of the Freedom 250 Grand Prix. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM Palou, who hails from Spain, was asked about his experience, and he knew the right word to describe it. "Incredible," he responded. "Honestly, that’s the only word that comes to mind. I remember the visit we did a month ago when I got invited to the White House. I was like, ‘Really? For real?’ I was going to be able to go inside and just see how the Oval Office is, and just knowing the history that it has. RACER STING RAY ROBB GEARS UP FOR FREEDOM 250 GRAND PRIX: 'THIS IS MORE THAN JUST AN INDYCAR EVENT' "I know I’m not from this country, but this country has given me so much. Just the opportunity to be here as an IndyCar driver, a winner, a champion, and to create a family and build a family here in the U.S. It’s been incredible." Palou even had a moment where he got sprayed with the president’s cologne. "Just being able to be with the President and his team, being at the Oval Office. We got sprayed with Presidential cologne, which was pretty funny," he said. "Just an incredible experience. An experience I’ll be able to tell not only my kids, but hopefully one day my grandkids and stuff." Palou said he grew up watching movies where he was fascinated by the Oval Office being on his screen. He also remembered seeing Capitol Hill while watching as well. The fact that he’s not only seen these places up close and personal, but he’s racing by the landmarks, is something he’s really looking forward to. "To know that we’re going to be racing around it — it’s going to be incredible," he added. Palou, 29, is the sport’s top driver, as he’s very likely to win his fifth season championship in a month, and fourth straight. In fact, he’s won at least one of every four IndyCar races over the past six seasons. Only Sebastien Bourdais was able to win four straight season championships from 2004-07. Palou’s 542 points has created a staggering gap between the closest driver, Kyle Kirkwood, who has 409 points. In his 14 starts this season, Palou has six wins, 11 top-five finishes and 12 top-10 finishes. But while everyone will be excited to watch him race around the National Mall this weekend, he’s excited for the rest of his peers to experience it together. "Super excited like everyone to go out on the track and see how it’s going to race. It looks really, really promising with so many laps we’re going to do. It’s going to be a super interesting race with lots of changes on strategies with leads and stuff. I can’t wait to go out," he said. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8824032c5335ae10494fdc Top Dems go silent after McCarthy vindicated for booting Swalwell off intel committee te 2026-08-21T10:10:11.332Z Top Dems go silent after McCarthy vindicated for booting Swalwell off intel committee "No concern." "Pernicious nonsense." "Spurious allegations." A "frivolous, political exercise." Those were among the defenses senior Democrats mounted on former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s behalf as former GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tried to force the California Democrat off the powerful House Intelligence Committee over his relationship with suspected Chinese intelligence operative Christine 'Fang Fang' Fang.  Now, newly declassified FBI records and a raid on his home are casting fresh light on Swalwell's relationship with Fang Fang that Democrats denied and previously argued did not justify McCarthy’s actions. The newly declassified records, released by the White House Government Transparency Task Force Monday, detail two FBI interviews with Swalwell, both conducted as part of a broader investigation examining Fang Fang’s involvement with illicit campaign contributions, funneling interns to Swalwell's office and other activity.  DECLASSIFIED FBI DOCS REVEAL SWALWELL HAD SEX WITH 'FANG FANG' MULTIPLE TIMES Meanwhile, FBI agents seized Swalwell's electronic devices at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday night, while his Washington, D.C. residence was subsequently searched the following day, as part of a probe into sexual misconduct. "I sat in on that briefing. And when Kevin McCarthy misrepresents it and does that disservice to the American people, it’s shameful," then-Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said in January 2023 as McCarthy blocked Swalwell from returning to the Intelligence Committee. Schiff, who had chaired the House Intelligence Committee, added that Swalwell had "served honorably" on the panel, had "never been accused of any kind of wrongdoing" and called McCarthy’s criticism a "patently unfair smear." "Mr. Speaker, I have rarely heard such pernicious nonsense as we heard from the minority leader a few minutes ago. He accused Mr. Swalwell of having a Chinese spy or Chinese agent in his campaign. I understand he has introduced a resolution to remove Mr. Swalwell from his committee for that purpose," Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said during remarks from the House floor. "That is absurd. And I think Mr. McCarthy ought to be ashamed because he is an experienced campaigner—he knows this—for raising these spurious allegations." SWALWELL RESIGNATION COLLIDES WITH CHINA-LINKED SCANDAL AS CRITICS DEMAND FILE RELEASE The newly declassified files show for the first time publicly that the FBI’s concerns about Swalwell went beyond just the fact he had a romantic relationship with Fang Fang, which Swalwell admitted to in the interviews uncovered in the file. The declassified documents also showed agents had launched a full investigation tied to Fang Fang examining possible bribery, foreign campaign contributions and efforts to trade access to Swalwell and congressional internships for political donations. The records also show how the FBI viewed Fang as a significant counterintelligence concern, suspecting ties to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) and at one point attempting to recruit her as an FBI confidential source. PELOSI, CALIFORNIA DEMS SLAM SWALWELL OVER BOMBSHELL SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS: 'INDEFENSIBLE' Investigators ultimately did not find evidence that Swalwell participated in a quid-pro-quo scheme or committed federal corruption violations, and he was removed as a subject of the investigation in 2017. Separately, the bipartisan House Ethics Committee closed its investigation into Swalwell’s interactions with Fang in May 2023 without taking further action against him. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also publicly defended Swalwell as the controversy first erupted in December 2020, saying, "I don’t have any concern about Mr. Swalwell" when asked about whether increased security should be tied to positions of influence in Congress. Her office separately said Pelosi had "full confidence in Congressman Swalwell’s service in the Congress and on the Intelligence Committee." PELOSI DISTANCES HERSELF FROM ALLY SWALWELL AMID SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS Pelosi and McCarthy later received a classified FBI briefing on the matter in December 2020. McCarthy emerged from the briefing saying Swalwell "should not be on Intel," while Pelosi continued to back the California Democrat, who was later reappointed to the Intelligence Committee in March 2021. "The knowledge that I have of what transpired and the actions that he has done and the behavior, especially when he's gone to other countries, I would be very leery of him in any position of that can have sensitive information," McCarthy previously told Fox News Digital earlier this year. "The recklessness in which he lived his life, the reports that have come back, I think it would be hard for him to ever even be considered as a governor candidate, period." Then-House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer likewise dismissed McCarthy’s effort to remove Swalwell as a "frivolous, political exercise" intended to "attack the reputation of an outstanding Member of Congress." Hoyer also described the Republican push as a "spurious attempt." SENATOR GALLEGO SAYS LONGTIME FRIENDSHIP WITH SWALWELL 'CLOUDED MY JUDGMENT' AS RUMORS SWIRLED IN DC And in January 2023, then-Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., went further in defending Swalwell, saying on CNN that "the FBI has clearly stated that Swalwell … has been cleared." Gallego said Swalwell and Schiff "have not done anything incorrectly" and rejected the suggestion that they posed a national-security threat. Fox News Digital reached out to the top Democrats mentioned in this article, but did not hear back in time for publication. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8824022c5335ae10494fd3 Prince Harry, Meghan Markle's UK return signals ‘spectacular defeat’ as royal experts warn of William showdown te 2026-08-21T10:10:10.677Z Prince Harry, Meghan Markle's UK return signals ‘spectacular defeat’ as royal experts warn of William showdown Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's reported return to Britain could mark the ultimate reversal of Megxit. Six years after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex walked away from royal life in pursuit of freedom, financial independence and a fresh start in America, royal experts told Fox News Digital their homecoming could expose the cracks in the life they set out to build. Back on royal turf, the Sussexes could also find themselves on a collision course with Prince William and Kate Middleton as old tensions threaten to resurface. "There is no way to spin a move back to Britain as anything other than a spectacular defeat for the entire premise of Megxit," Kinsey Schofield, host of YouTube’s "Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered," told Fox News Digital. The reported homecoming undercuts the very message Harry and Meghan sent when they walked away from royal life six years ago, according to the royal expert. PRINCE HARRY LONGS FOR HIS OLD ROYAL LIFE AS AMERICA ISN'T WHAT HE EXPECTED, EXPERTS SAY "Harry set out to demonstrate that the monarchy needed him far more than he needed the monarchy. His return delivers precisely the opposite conclusion," she said. "Remember what Megxit was supposed to represent. Freedom. Financial independence. Global influence. A dazzling new life without the constraints of the institution," Schofield reminded. "They weren’t forced into exile. They chose this." Schofield argued that after years of trying to build a life independent of the monarchy, returning to Britain only underscored how difficult it had been for the couple to escape its pull. "Perhaps the most humiliating part is that Harry and Meghan left Britain seemingly convinced the monarchy was an anchor around their ankles," she said. "Six years later, it increasingly appears that the monarchy was the life raft." KING CHARLES KEPT PRINCE WILLIAM, KATE MIDDLETON IN THE DARK ABOUT SECRET HARRY AND MEGHAN REUNION: REPORT Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are reportedly preparing to move back to the U.K., with their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, expected to start school in Britain in September. But the couple won't return to any semblance of the life they held before, according to one royal expert. "While Harry and Meghan are returning they are not regaining official royal roles," British royals expert Hilary Fordwich told Fox News Digital. "Nor was there any agreement to a 'half-in, half-out' construct. They have thwarted by trying to do what they agreed to with Queen Elizabeth II." PRINCE WILLIAM'S ABSENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES AS KING CHARLES REUNITES WITH PRINCE HARRY AND MEGHAN MARKLE: EXPERTS If a return to royal duties was off the table, Harry's motivation for coming home could be far more personal. One royal expert wondered if Harry's desire to spend more time with his father had shifted the prince's priorities after feeling homesick for some time. But a return to Britain would put Harry and Meghan firmly back under the royal microscope, he warned, with both the public and the palace watching their every move. "In many ways, it’s going to be a game of chess. What is Harry’s next move? What is William’s next move? What is the King’s next move?" Grant Harrold, former butler to King Charles III who is speaking on behalf of CanadaCasino, told Fox News Digital. "But you couldn’t write this. It’s almost like a political drama, and it’s incredibly interesting because this is something we haven’t really seen before." "If it goes wrong, it could be catastrophic for the Royal Family," he added. "But if it is handled correctly, perhaps this could be the beginning of something very different." KATE MIDDLETON REFUSES TO PULL PRINCE WILLIAM BACK INTO PRINCE HARRY'S 'CIRCUS': EXPERT But any hopes of a royal reset could hit a major roadblock with the Prince and Princess of Wales. "I don’t think William and Catherine will be pleased by the news and I don’t think this return signals a warming of relations between the brothers," Harrold mused. Harrold wasn't alone in pouring cold water on hopes of a family reconciliation. "Unfortunately, reconciliation doesn't seem to be on the cards," Helena Chard told Fox News Digital. "Is Harry and Meghan's next rebrand in the UK one final grenade too many for the Monarchy." GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE The British broadcaster and photographer added, "It is clear that Harry and Meghan's Freedom Flight and affairs in the US have not gone to plan, and it is viewed that they are returning to the UK with their tail between their legs. They need their Royal platform to give them credibility to sell their brand, so maybe it's not extraordinary that the prodigal son and daughter-in-law are relocating to the UK." Whatever the circumstances behind their return, another royal commentator warned the Sussexes could quickly reclaim the spotlight in Britain – potentially at William and Kate’s expense. "This is going to be a massive story in Britain and will overshadow William and Kate and their PR drive which will make William furious," royal broadcaster Ian Pelham Turner told Fox News Digital. LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Turner predicted Harry and Meghan’s return would unleash a media frenzy in Britain as the press scrambled to uncover where they planned to live, where their children would go to school and how the Sussexes would handle – and pay for – their security. He said the attention could also ignite a fresh battle for the spotlight between Harry and Meghan vs. William and Kate. "In my mind, it will be a head-on clash between the House of Wales and the House of Sussex on popularity stakes where King Charles and Camilla will stay well out of it, if they have any sense," the royal expert added. PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE Yet fighting for the spotlight could be the least of their problems, as questions swirled over how the Sussexes would actually pull off life in Britain. "Why would Harry not try and resume a royal role if he's going to all the trouble of relocating? Why does anyone think Meghan could adjust to the pressures of living in the UK when she couldn't before?" royal expert Christopher Andersen questioned. "Having her children hounded by Britain's tabloid press would only make things that much worse," the author of "Kate!" added. "Having the rest of the royal family looking over their shoulders would be a nightmare, especially for Meghan. Besides, Meghan is truly happy in Montecito. She's a California girl through and through." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8824022c5335ae10494fca LA socialist's fumbled answer to Graham Platner question draws groans from Dem audience te 2026-08-21T10:10:10.081Z LA socialist's fumbled answer to Graham Platner question draws groans from Dem audience Socialist Nithya Raman drew loud groans and hisses from a crowd of Democrats during the Los Angeles mayoral debate after she fumbled while explaining her decision to hire the political consulting firm behind disgraced former Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign. After winning the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Maine, Platner, also a socialist, dropped out of the race in July after several sexual misconduct allegations. Even before the allegations arose, Platner had stirred significant controversy over his history of inflammatory statements and a chest tattoo critics say resembles a well-known Nazi symbol. Though he continues to deny the sexual misconduct allegations and maintains his innocence, Platner remains an embarrassment for many Democrats after several prominent figures in the party endorsed and praised him. Suggested Revision: During the debate Wednesday night, Raman, a Los Angeles City Council member and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Los Angeles chapter, faced questions over her decision to hire the consulting firm Fight Agency. "[It was] reported that you've hired the same political consulting firm that managed Graham Platner’s campaign in Maine, who had to resign amidst sexual assault allegations. Is that true? And is that the best choice? And why did you make that decision?" the moderator asked. KAREN BASS RIPPED AFTER VIRAL VIDEO LAYS OUT TAXPAYER-FUNDED MATCH OF CAMPAIGN DONATIONS Raman responded by saying, "Well, I did hire an advertising agency to make my paid ads, who also worked with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s successful campaign." At this, the crowd of several hundred people broke into loud moans as some hissed. Mamdani is another socialist politician backed by the DSA who won his race for New York City mayor last year. Raman pushed on, saying that the firm also worked on "many, many other successful campaigns across the entire city." "Here’s what I do want to say, that I do want to win this race," she said, adding, "I’ve retained most of my good campaign staff … we’ve made sure to invest in our team, and I hope that we can win this seat, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to win." "Did you weigh the pros and cons of being associated with Graham Platner’s campaign?" the moderator pressed. "Absolutely. But we wanted to make sure that we were hiring good people to make our ads," Raman responded. LA MAYORAL RACE HEADS TO NOVEMBER RUNOFF AS KAREN BASS FACES MAMDANI-STYLE SOCIALIST "We have to get talent to be able to run our team," she said before briefly stumbling over her words and saying, "We we we we weighed the issues." After this, Raman criticized incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, also a Democrat. She pointed to a recent case in which an advisor to Bass simultaneously did crisis communications work for a company facing scrutiny over a major Los Angeles warehouse fire, raising concerns about a potential conflict of interest. "That, to me, is a real, real, real problem," Raman said. After this, the moderator turned to Bass and asked, "That wasn’t a good look, was it?" Bass responded, "Absolutely not," adding it "should not have happened." "However, I don't know what the heck that has to do with the question that you asked her," Bass told the moderator. "I guess it's a question of judgment," the moderator responded. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER "Well, if I had known that person was doing that, that person would not have been advising me. When I realized it found out about it, they stopped advising me," Bass said. Bass and Raman are running in a competitive race to be the next mayor of America's second-largest city. Raman secured a spot on the November ballot after narrowly edging out Republican candidate Spencer Pratt in a late election surge. Fox News Digital reached out to Raman and Bass for additional comment. Fox News Digital also reached out to Platner, the DSA and Mamdani’s office for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8824012c5335ae10494fc1 I was a sports columnist at the Seattle Times for 11 years. This is why I resigned te 2026-08-21T10:10:09.492Z I was a sports columnist at the Seattle Times for 11 years. This is why I resigned I really wanted the column to run. I didn’t think it would, but I felt obligated to try to get it in. Toward the end of last month, before the Seattle Storm hosted the Indiana Fever, I spoke to people attending a rally in support of Sophie Cunningham outside Climate Pledge Arena. The Fever guard had recently taken a stance against biological males competing in women’s/girls sports, and a few dozen folks showed up to express their gratitude for her position. ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! One of them was 16-year-old Ahnaleigh Wilson, who’d lost to a biological male in a track and field race in eighth grade and was holding a sign reading "Thank You Sophie for Speaking up for Girls!" I didn’t know if I was going to write something at that point, but after she allegedly got cussed out by a Storm co-owner during the game, I felt like I had to weigh in. One thing Wilson emphasized to me at the rally was that she wasn’t anti-trans. Another student-athlete named Frances Staudt — who said she’s endured daily verbal abuse after refusing to play against a biological boy in a basketball game — echoed Wilson’s sentiment. So that was the thesis of my column (which you can read here) — that supporting the separation of biological females and males doesn’t automatically make you transphobic, so let’s stop throwing those labels around. I sent a draft after talking to my editor the morning of Friday, July 31, telling him there was no rush to run it. He told me later that day that he and others were looking at it, but that it wouldn’t be ready for Sunday’s paper. Monday night, I got an email saying that his boss was hoping to talk to the top two newsroom editors about it on Wednesday. No feedback had been given to me. Thursday afternoon, my editor informed me that it wasn’t going to run because I didn’t tell him I was doing this in advance. I didn’t buy this reasoning. If that were the case, the piece would have been killed on the spot, not passed through the hands of multiple editors over several days. SEATTLE TIMES COLUMNIST RESIGNS AFTER PAPER ALLEGEDLY REFUSED TO RUN 'SAVE WOMEN'S SPORTS' COLUMN My response? To resign on the spot. That may come off as an emotional decision, but it was exactly what I was prepared to do. This, after all, was one of several columns of mine that had been spiked at the Seattle Times. One was a piece questioning whether players for the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team were really the victims of discrimination in their equal-pay lawsuit. Another was a more general column on cancel culture in sports. The last, written shortly after George Floyd’s death, implored people to listen to state-champion basketball coach Mike Bethea — a black man urging the public not to stereotype cops. The common theme? All of these challenged prevailing newsroom narratives and likely would have triggered the outrage mob. I’ve always thought that it was a columnist’s duty to generate discussion on the most hot-button issues. To avoid such topics was to leave the reader shortchanged. I guess in the end, I just didn’t feel like I could do my job properly anymore. Right now, I’m in the tenuous position of trying to defend my resignation without sounding like a malcontent. So let me say — I’m very grateful for the 11 years I had at the Seattle Times. The talent there is immense, and the editors let me have a lot of fun with other stories. I also realize where the brass is coming from. The mob is frightening and does not forget. Lots of seemingly brave souls have submitted once activists got their hooks in them. If I had more people depending on me, perhaps I’d act similarly. SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST SPORTS NEWS But in thinking about this decision, I kept going back to an Albus Dumbledore line: "We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy." To be honest, I’m scared shitless right now. I have no idea how the next few months or years are going to play out. But that fear beats the indignity of being muzzled. The plan for now is to keep writing in this space. Maybe that will spawn a new career, or maybe I’ll be a dental assistant in two years. I genuinely don’t know. All that’s certain is that I’m done holding back. The best things in life are free — speech being at the top of the list. This column was originally posted on Matt Calkins' Substack. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8824002c5335ae10494fb8 Fox News Digital Quiz: August 21, 2026 te 2026-08-21T10:10:08.863Z Fox News Digital Quiz: August 21, 2026 Test your news knowledge with this week's Fox News Digital News Quiz, featuring the bombshell investment totals from a New Jersey Democratic senate candidate, an NFL rookie's decision to leave to star in this film franchise and more. Looking for another challenge? The Wisconsin Democratic governor’s primary and President Donald Trump’s reported Turkey departure were featured in last week's News Quiz. Test your knowledge of summer splurges, basketball brilliance and more in this week's American Culture Quiz. If you're looking to play even more, you can find all of our quizzes by clicking here. Check back next week for the latest News Quiz from Fox News Digital. Thanks for playing! Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8824002c5335ae10494faf The 24-hour American diner is vanishing — here's what's driving the decline te 2026-08-21T10:10:08.156Z The 24-hour American diner is vanishing — here's what's driving the decline As more diners end 24-hour service, a handful have managed to keep the tradition alive, keeping their lights and griddles on around the clock. The original Red Arrow Diner opened its doors in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1922. Over the decades, the business expanded, changed ownership and moved locations. Currently, the historic diner is the flagship of four Red Arrow Diners in the state, co-owned by Amanda Wihby and George Lawrence. RETRO PIZZA HUT DRAWS CUSTOMERS FROM HOURS AWAY AS 1980S NOSTALGIA SENDS SALES SOARING All four restaurants are open 24/7. During the overnight hours, between midnight and 5 a.m., the diners attract a mixed crowd, Wihby said. "It could just be a regular who has nowhere else to go and wants to come in for a warm cup of coffee and a smile and maybe sit back and watch some of the entertainment that happens," she said. "You have your first responders and people coming off [the] third shift, travelers, and, of course, there are the people who are coming out of the bars. … It's important for us to be here for them. And now that it's becoming a rare thing to be [open] 24 hours for diners, I feel like it just makes the Red Arrow that [much more] special." Yelp data released in 2025 showed that 24/7 restaurants are experiencing upheaval nationwide. The number of restaurants offering 24-hour service in the U.S. fell 11% between January 2020 and January 2025. In Los Angeles, 29% of all-night restaurants closed, while Las Vegas saw 9% disappear, according to Yelp. DISCONTINUED CRACKER BARREL FOODS THAT FANS ARE BEGGING TO GET BACK "A handful of cities are defying this downward trend," Yelp reported, citing increases in places like Baltimore (14%), Salt Lake City, Utah (25%) and Key West, Florida (33%). Labor shortages and changing customer behavior – including younger Americans choosing to drink less – have put a damper on the demand for a late-night meal, Yelp reported. Cultural and economic challenges, including the pandemic's lasting effects on sit-down restaurants and the role of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs in people's eating habits, also play a part in the decline of 24/7 food service, Food & Wine reported. Surveys also show that affordability concerns are prompting Americans to cut back on restaurant spending. Restaurant labor costs are also "well above historical averages," 2026 data from the National Restaurant Association showed. Nevertheless, the diner has always been "the focal part of the community," Wihby said. During the pandemic, the owners had to close three of the four Red Arrow locations during the third shift. "When the governor closed us down, we didn't have keys," Wihby recalled. "We had never closed the restaurants, so we were struggling to find the keys to lock the door." TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ It took the owners a few years after the pandemic to get all four restaurants back to 24/7 service, but all locations are now open all day and night and are prospering, they said. Navigating the pressures of inflation and societal changes is what Wihby said she and Lawrence do daily. "We sit and find solutions and troubleshoot and find a way to squeeze out the bottom line wherever we can, but not by cutting our quality," Wihby said. Wihby credits Red Arrow's employees and the diners' "very loyal vendors" with helping them succeed. One of the general managers, for instance, started with the business washing dishes as a teenager, worked his way up to a cook "and now he's got a family with kids, and he's running our Londonderry location," Wihby said. Several other employees have also worked at the diners for more than 10 years. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER "We are blessed to have the best employees in the business," Wihby said.  "They know customers either by name or what they eat. Someone will walk in and they're like, 'Oh, there's a chicken-fried steak and sausage gravy,' instead of their name. They banter with the customers and create memories. And that's why people keep coming back." One famous regular was Hollywood star Adam Sandler's father, Stan, who ate at the diner every Sunday. His regular order – eggs and bacon, panfries and toast – is on the Red Arrow menu as "Stan the Man," named in his memory. "During election time, most presidents [have come] in," Lawrence said. "That was very exciting." The diner is a famous stop for presidential candidates. President Donald Trump visited the diner in 2023 after a campaign rally. CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS It has endured by serving consistently good food at reasonable prices and offering a welcoming environment, Wihby and Lawrence said. "I could be sitting here next to the governor on one side and maybe a nurse or someone in construction on the other side," Wihby said. "We cater to all walks of life. There is a seat for everybody at the counter. And what's more American than that? I think that tradition is important, and I think it'll stay alive." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8821aa2c5335ae10494f63 Apple spyware warning hits iPhones in 110 countries te 2026-08-21T10:00:10.108Z Apple spyware warning hits iPhones in 110 countries Apple is putting one of its most serious security warnings somewhere you are far less likely to miss it: right on your iPhone Lock Screen. Apple confirmed directly to CyberGuy that it sent a new wave of threat notifications last week, saying, "We can confirm threat notifications were sent on August 13 to targeted users in 110 countries, and to date we have notified users in over 150 countries in total." If one of these alerts suddenly appears on your iPhone, do not swipe it away and assume it is another routine security notice. Apple considers these high-confidence alerts that someone has specifically targeted you with unusually sophisticated spyware. Here's what the warning means, how to verify it's real and what to do next if Apple says you were targeted. APPLE PAY TEXT SCAM THREATENS $8,250 LOSS IN 35 MINUTES New! Free live CyberGuy class: Protect Your Money From Today’s Biggest Threats Join us Saturday, August 29, at 10 AM ET for a free CyberGuy LIVE class covering five simple steps to help defend yourself against AI scams, fraud, identity theft and financial hacks. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson will explain how to set up bank alerts, strengthen your account logins, protect your phone number, freeze your credit and help secure your retirement savings against unauthorized transfers. No technical experience is needed. You’ll also receive our financial protection checklist, and every registrant will get a link to the class recording afterward. Reserve your free spot today at CyberGuyLive.com. Apple says it updated its threat notifications with a new user experience designed to make important information and recommended security steps easier for recipients to access. A threat notification can now appear directly on the iPhone Lock Screen and in Settings. Apple also sends an email to addresses associated with your Apple Account. In addition, a warning appears after you sign in at Apple's account website. The Lock Screen message warns: "Apple detected a mercenary spyware attack targeted at your iPhone. There are actions you can take now to protect your data and device." That wording is alarming for a reason. Apple says mercenary spyware attacks are far more sophisticated than the malware and scams most of us encounter. Attackers can spend extraordinary amounts of money targeting a very small number of people. The good news is that receiving a warning does not automatically mean the spyware successfully broke into your device. It means Apple detected activity indicating that you were individually targeted. Still, this isn’t an alert I would ignore. Most iPhone owners will probably never encounter one of these warnings. Apple says these attacks have historically targeted people because of who they are or what they do. Past targets have included journalists, activists, politicians and diplomats. The attacks have also been linked through public research and reporting to state actors and private companies that develop surveillance tools on their behalf. Apple does not identify a specific attacker or country when it sends a notification. The company says revealing too much about how it detects these campaigns could help spyware operators change their methods. This part is especially important because you can bet scammers will try to copy these warnings. A fake alert could claim your iPhone was hacked and then send you to a phony Apple login page. The crook's real goal may be stealing your Apple Account credentials. Apple says its genuine threat notifications will never ask you to click a link, open a file, install an app or profile, or give someone your Apple Account password or verification code by email or phone. Rather than trusting an unexpected email, open your browser yourself and go directly to Apple's official account website. Sign in normally. If Apple really sent you a threat notification, the warning should appear at the top of your Apple Account page. If you receive a genuine warning, I would treat your phone as a potential security incident until you know more. Here are the steps I recommend. APPLE AI SECURITY UPDATE PROVES HACKERS MOVE FAST Go to Settings > General > Software Update and install the latest available version of iOS. Security updates frequently close vulnerabilities that sophisticated attackers may try to exploit. Apple reinforced that recommendation in its statement to CyberGuy, saying, "Turning on Lockdown Mode and keeping devices updated with the latest software are critical defenses for protecting against mercenary spyware attacks." Apple specifically recommends Lockdown Mode for people who receive a mercenary spyware warning. Apple says its updated notification experience is designed to make it easier for recipients to access recommended protective steps, including enabling Lockdown Mode. On an iPhone or iPad: Lockdown Mode deliberately restricts certain apps, websites and connections to reduce the number of ways highly sophisticated spyware can attack your device. An Apple spokesperson said in March 2026 that the company was not aware of any successful mercenary spyware attack against an Apple device while Lockdown Mode was enabled. That does not make any security feature unbeatable, but it is a remarkable record for a tool designed specifically for people facing this kind of threat. For a closer look, see our guide on how to protect your iPhone with Lockdown Mode. Make sure two-factor authentication (2FA) is enabled and review the devices connected to your Apple Account. Also use a strong password that you do not reuse anywhere else. A password manager can generate and store unique passwords so one stolen credential does not put several accounts at risk. Once a warning like this gets public attention, scammers can exploit the fear around it. Do not trust someone who suddenly calls claiming to be Apple Support. Avoid clicking links in unexpected texts or emails about spyware. Remember, Apple says its threat notifications will never ask for your password or verification code. Strange behavior alone does not prove spyware is installed. However, unexplained apps, settings you did not change or other unusual activity deserve attention. Here are more signs that may indicate your phone has been hacked and what you can do next. Probably not. Apple describes Lockdown Mode as an "extreme" protection intended for the relatively small number of people who face sophisticated targeted attacks. Some websites and Apple features work differently while it is enabled. For most people, keeping software current and protecting your Apple Account will provide a more practical everyday security foundation. However, the calculation changes if Apple sends you a mercenary spyware notification. Apple now specifically tells CyberGuy that turning on Lockdown Mode and keeping devices updated are "critical defenses" against mercenary spyware attacks. Even if you never see a spyware warning, there are several steps worth taking now. Security fixes can close vulnerabilities before attackers get another chance to exploit them. Apple recommends keeping your devices updated with the latest software. On an iPhone or iPad: You can also tap Automatic Updates from the Software Update screen to help keep future updates installed automatically. ARE APPLE DEVICES SPYING? WHAT YOUR IPHONE TRACKS On a Mac: Avoid an easy-to-guess four-digit code. These iPhone security settings can help protect your device. This adds another barrier if someone obtains your Apple Account password. Here's how two-factor authentication works and how to enable it. Apple recommends this as part of its broader security guidance. Here's how to turn on Stolen Device Protection on your iPhone. Be extremely cautious with profiles or software someone tells you to install. You can also check your iPhone for suspicious configuration profiles or device management settings. Unexpected security warnings can also be bait used in phishing attacks. Here's how to spot fake Apple alerts and phishing messages. Good security software can help protect you from malicious links, phishing attempts and other online threats that may try to steal your information. Get my picks for the best 2026 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices at Cyberguy.com Data brokers can collect and sell information such as your phone number, address and other personal details. A data removal service can help remove that information from people-search and broker sites. It will not stop mercenary spyware, but reducing how much personal information is publicly available can give bad actors less information to work with. Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com If someone gains access to sensitive personal or financial information, identity theft protection can help monitor for signs that your information is being misused and provide recovery assistance if fraud occurs. It will not prevent spyware from infecting an iPhone, but it adds another layer of protection around your identity. See my tips and best picks on Best Identity Theft Protection at Cyberguy.com Apple bringing these warnings directly to the iPhone Lock Screen is a smart move. A warning this serious should be difficult to miss or mistake for an ordinary email. Apple's response to CyberGuy also makes clear what it wants targeted users to do next: take the notification seriously, enable Lockdown Mode and get the latest software onto their devices. There is another takeaway here that affects far more people than those receiving these alerts. Sophisticated spyware was once something most of us associated with intelligence agencies and highly unusual cases. The commercial spyware industry has made these tools available to a wider range of operators and Apple says the attacks remain global. Most of us are unlikely to become targets of mercenary spyware. That should be reassuring. Still, Apple's warnings show just how aggressive targeted surveillance can become when someone has enough resources and determination. If Apple ever tells you that you have been targeted, believe the warning until qualified experts give you a reason not to. Do you think Apple is doing enough to protect people from sophisticated spyware, or should stronger protections be turned on by default? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy Report Copyright 2026 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a881cf72c5335ae10494ea2 Our View: The Grand Canyon doesn't need another traffic problem on its trails te 2026-08-21T09:40:07.133Z Our View: The Grand Canyon doesn't need another traffic problem on its trails The National Park Service has opened the door to electric scooters and other small powered devices in national parks. Grand Canyon National Park should be careful about letting them through. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8815f32c5335ae104949f0 Ukraine’s ‘Equalizer’ bomb aims to blow up reliance on US, European weapons te 2026-08-21T09:10:11.686Z Ukraine’s ‘Equalizer’ bomb aims to blow up reliance on US, European weapons Ukraine is buying a homegrown glide bomb that could help its pilots strike Russian forces from a safer distance while relying less on weapons supplied by the U.S. and Europe. The new weapon is called the Vyrivniuvach, or "Equalizer." It was developed by Ukrainian company DG Industry with support from Brave1, a government-backed defense technology group. A Ukrainian military official told Ukrinform that the bomb has finished testing and is now being bought for the armed forces. Fox News Digital has reached out to Ukraine's Ministry of Defense for more details. Until now, Ukraine’s warplanes have relied heavily on U.S.-supplied JDAM-ER bomb kits and Small Diameter Bombs, as well as French-made Hammer bombs, for precision strikes from safer distances. The Equalizer could give Kyiv more control over its own supply of guided bombs as foreign military aid remains uncertain. 'A NEW KIND OF WAR': INSIDE UKRAINE'S HIDDEN FACTORIES MASS-PRODUCING COMBAT DRONES The Equalizer turns a conventional bomb into a precision weapon by adding wings and guidance systems. It is designed to be dropped from Ukraine’s MiG-29, Su-24 and Su-27 warplanes, allowing pilots to attack targets farther behind Russian lines while staying farther away from Russian air defenses. Brave1 told The War Zone that the bomb could eventually be used by Ukraine’s donated F-16 and Mirage fighter jets, but it needs additional certification before that can happen. Russia’s use of glide bombs has become one of the most punishing parts of the war for Ukrainian troops and towns near the front. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Russian forces dropped more than 8,300 guided aerial bombs in July — the highest monthly total of the war and an average of more than 267 bombs a day. Russia’s wider air assault has also intensified in recent days. A Russian missile-and-drone barrage on Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight killed at least 16 people and wounded about 40, Ukrainian officials said Thursday. The attack damaged homes, a school and a children’s hospital. RUSSIA LAUNCHES BALLISTIC MISSILE ATTACK ON KYIV HOURS AFTER ZELENSKYY WARNS OF MAJOR STRIKE The Equalizer does not make Ukraine fully independent from foreign supply chains. Brave1 said the bomb’s wings and flight-control software were made in Ukraine, but its chips and microcircuits come from abroad. The group said about 90% of the weapon’s parts come from Ukraine, Europe and the U.S. The weapons have helped Russia pound Ukrainian defensive positions and communities near the fighting. Ukraine has continued to press the U.S. and European allies for more air-defense weapons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that the U.S. had agreed to send Patriot interceptor missiles each month, but he warned that the volumes were not enough to meet Ukraine’s needs. RUSSIA EXPOSES NATO WEAPONS GAP AS TOP COMMANDER WARNS ‘THE MATH IS NOT IN FAVOR OF THE WEST’ SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER It is not yet clear when the Equalizer will reach Ukrainian units in large numbers or whether it has been used in combat. Fox News Digital has reached out to DG Industry and Brave1 for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8815f22c5335ae104949de 3 big questions to ask Mom and Dad before you make a major financial commitment te 2026-08-21T09:10:10.773Z 3 big questions to ask Mom and Dad before you make a major financial commitment At 35 years old, you might have a mortgage, two kids, a six-figure salary and an MBA degree hanging on the wall. And you still might want to call your parents before making a major financial decision. That isn't a walk of shame. It might actually be financially savvy. Somewhere along the way, we decided that becoming an adult meant we were supposed to have all the answers about money. By 35, you're supposed to understand investing, mortgages, taxes, insurance, retirement, college savings and how much house you can afford. THE RICH HAVE ONE FINANCIAL HABIT MOST AMERICANS IGNORE AT THEIR PERIL Really? You can have an MBA and still make terrible money decisions. I see people do this every day. I've met incredibly successful executives who couldn't explain their 401(k). Entrepreneurs who built multimillion-dollar businesses but carried ridiculous credit card debt. Highly educated professionals who bought way too much house because the bank told them they could "afford" it. COLLEGE GRADS EXPECT TO EARN $80,000 A YEAR, BUT THE MATH ISN’T MATHING Education gives you knowledge. Experience gives you scar tissue. And your parents may have 30 or 40 years of financial scar tissue you haven't earned yet. They've lived through recessions. Stock market crashes. Housing booms and busts. Layoffs. Inflation. Raising kids. Unexpected medical bills. Bad investments. Good investments. Maybe even a financial decision or two they wish they could take back. THE GREAT WEALTH LIE: MILLENNIALS ARE RICHER THAN YOU OR THEY THINK You can't download that from ChatGPT or learn all of it in business school. So why wouldn't you ask? The mistake is confusing asking your parents for financial advice with asking your parents for financial support. Those are two completely different conversations. The Wall Street Journal has explored how the Bank of Mom and Dad increasingly stays open well into adulthood, with parents helping grown children with everything from housing to everyday expenses. That's where the line can get blurry. If you're 35 and asking Dad whether putting 20% down on a house makes sense, that's advice. If you're asking Dad to provide the 20% because you spent your down payment on a $90,000 Range Rover, that's a different problem. THE AMERICAN DREAM NOW COMES WITH A ZIP CODE: HERE'S WHERE STARTER HOMES ARE STILL WITHIN REACH Ask for wisdom before you ask for a wire transfer. There's another reason your parents may be worth calling. They probably know you better emotionally than your financial advisor does. Your father may know you tend to chase the next shiny investment. Your mother may remember that every time you've stretched your budget, you've regretted it. YOUR FAMILY COULD BE ONE PHONE CALL FROM A BANK SCAM Sometimes the best financial advice isn't, "Can I afford this?" It's your mother saying, "Ted (or she would probably say Theodore Michael), you know yourself. You're going to hate that payment six months from now." That's not financial planning. That's financial self-awareness. SKIP TWO YEARS OF COLLEGE DEBT AND GIVE YOUR FAMILY A LIFETIME OF WEALTH Of course, your parents shouldn't automatically get the final vote. The financial world has changed. Their 12% mortgage from 1985 existed alongside dramatically different home prices. Pensions have largely given way to 401(k)s. Today's tax rules, investment choices and retirement strategies are different. AMERICA’S RETIREMENT SYSTEM IS BROKEN. TRUMP MAY HAVE FOUND A BOLD FIX Your parents' experience is valuable. It isn't infallible. That's why, at 35, I would ask Mom and Dad three questions before making a major money decision: Then make your own decision. Because financial independence shouldn't mean pretending you know everything. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION Being 35 means you don't need your parents' permission anymore. But being smart enough to still ask for their wisdom? That's called growing up. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM TED JENKIN Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8815f22c5335ae104949d5 Democrats can take the lead on one of the nation’s top issues – data centers te 2026-08-21T09:10:10.176Z Democrats can take the lead on one of the nation’s top issues – data centers Elected officials see angry voters cram into local meeting rooms and line streets to oppose data centers and feel an irresistible urge to cater to the populist anger. The next thing they do is hit the pause button. However, leadership requires thinking through consequences. Moratoria on new data center construction will arrest innovation, cede the future of artificial intelligence to Beijing, and threaten our national security. Blanket opposition deprives hardworking Americans of hundreds of millions of dollars in future wages per year. It shackles the most vibrant sector in commercial construction and eliminates a tax revenue lifeline that is currently funding local police departments, roads, and teacher salaries in counties across the nation. If Democrats want to regain the trust of the American people, we must have a defined vision for the future that brings prosperity to all – not just the ultra-rich – and we have to be for something not just saying, "No." We need to offer a constructive solution that doesn't succumb to fearmongering, and prove that the party of the New Deal, the Great Society and the Apollo program is the party of solutions and sound policy, not demagoguery. FROM NEW YORK TO TEXAS, STATES SHOULD RESPECT LOCAL CONTROL ON DATA CENTERS Today, our party’s message is controlled by a vocal minority who don’t understand – or perhaps care – about the facts. In New York State in July, for instance, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul imposed a statewide moratorium on new data center construction. A growing number of local jurisdictions are taking similar action. In Congress, Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are proposing a national moratorium. Have they considered that without data centers, the internet, their path to fame and national stature, is essentially useless? The tech industry would collapse and the economy would enter a tailspin. In lieu of letting states lead the way with blunt-force moratoria, we should develop national- or state-level Centers of Excellence that would provide every county board and municipal zoning authority the knowledge to make informed, transparent decisions. Those local governing bodies should absolutely listen to their constituents, be mindful of their many concerns, but above all, they need to give as much weight to facts as to emotions. AI BOOM: DEMAND FOR DATA CENTERS DRIVES INNOVATION BY ENERGY, TECH INDUSTRIES TO PRODUCE NEW POWER SOURCES Consider the controversy over electricity prices. It isn’t data centers driving up residential rates but a combination of issues with our aging power grid, President Donald Trump’s pointless war in Iran, and the ongoing war in Ukraine. The data center industry has agreed to supply its own power or pay for grid upgrades. The White House’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge now has 200 signatories resolving to find policy solutions. If data center and technology companies want to pay for the grid upgrades, let them. Multiple studies show that under a well-designed rate policy, such as the new rate for Virginia’s Dominion Energy large-load customers, data centers pay as much or more in fees than the cost of the energy they consume, precluding the need for rate hikes while providing extra funds for grid upgrades and additional generation online, including nuclear and renewables. WILLIE NELSON URGES AMERICANS TO FIGHT 'WATER THIEVING' AI DATA CENTERS DEVOURING RURAL TEXAS FARMLAND Americans alarmed about water used to cool servers should know data centers’ consumption is a drop in the bucket compared to residential lawn irrigation, household plumbing leaks and golf courses. Here in Virginia, a state legislative committee found "most data centers use about the same amount of water or less as an average large office building." Newer data centers use treated sewage or closed-loop systems recycling water over and over again. These are all decisions that localities should mandate, without giving up the construction jobs, the permanent jobs and the local tax revenue. Communities also worry data centers’ backup diesel generators are dirty and noisy. But these generators typically run only about 20 hours per year (or three minutes per day) for maintenance and testing. As for emissions, the proof is in the air itself. According to the EPA, the air in Northern Virginia – a data center hub – is the cleanest in decades. In addition to facts, skeptics need to weigh the merits of prudent planning. AMERICA'S AI BOOM IS A JOBS OPPORTUNITY, NOT AN EXCUSE FOR UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME Well-conceived development must limit data centers to land properly zoned for their use. Unfortunately, in Loudoun County, my home for the past 26 years, the Board of Supervisors made a poor decision to permit data centers in areas previously zoned for some office space within residential areas. The data center developers and the union labor building the data centers follow the rules, even bad ones. Ultimately, the debate over data centers comes down to one question: Are they net contributors to our communities? For an answer, don’t just look at the tax revenue – look at the high-paying union jobs that are creating a new middle class – employees who are able to buy a home at 28 instead of 41 – jobs that pay $45 to $60 per hour. THE WAR ON DATA CENTERS JEOPARDIZES OUR ECONOMY AND NATIONAL SECURITY Data centers are disproportionately high contributors but light users of public resources. A 2025 PwC study found the industry contributed $162.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2023 alone. Here in Virginia’s Loudoun County, data centers take up 2% of our land but yield 38% of tax revenue. In Mecklenburg County, local officials built the first new school in 75 years with data center proceeds. Data centers’ role in providing jobs and funding public services put the tax incentive debate in a more realistic context than the false claim that the industry receives unmerited "handouts." KEVIN O'LEARY WARNS CHINA IS WINNING THE AI RACE BECAUSE U.S. STATES ARE SLOWING DATA CENTER PRODUCTION In Virginia this year, for instance, Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Democrats in the legislature came under pressure to kill a data center tax exemption common to all industrial companies. Then, the unions came to Richmond in May to express their support for the exemption, because data center investments supported 113,000 highly skilled, well-paying jobs in Virginia alone. Instead of a moratorium, Spanberger and the Democrats brought data center developers into the conversation and found them prepared to pay more taxes to address concerns. The legislature passed a first-in-the-nation tax on energy consumption, a step Spanberger sees as foundational to a longer-term conversation about water usage and energy standards. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION Data centers are private businesses, largely owned and operated by Americans within our framework of laws. Americans will debate; elected officials have an obligation to lead rather than simply react. I’d urge my fellow Democrats: Follow the facts, bring data centers and their heavy spending on capital goods, wages and tax revenue into the conversation. And leave it to local authorities to decide if data centers belong in their communities. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8815f12c5335ae104949c3 Washington is driving America toward a debt crisis we can't ignore any longer te 2026-08-21T09:10:09.175Z Washington is driving America toward a debt crisis we can't ignore any longer A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. Those words are widely attributed to Alexander Tytler, the Scottish judge and historian who lived from 1747 to 1813. There is, however, some debate over the attribution. Historians and researchers have questioned whether Tytler actually wrote the passage in the form in which it is commonly quoted, whether he expressed a similar idea that was later expanded and attributed to him, or whether the passage originated elsewhere. The exact authorship may be debatable. The warning itself is not. Here is the prophetic quote: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage." SEN RAND PAUL: MY PLAN WOULD FORCE CONGRESS TO STOP OVERSPENDING YOUR HARD-EARNED MONEY This is no idle warning. Look at the United States today and the pattern is hard to miss. This is exactly what is happening today. Our founders were statesmen who sacrificed much to create a system focused on the common good. They had businesses, farms, and families and they risked everything to build a limited government unlike any the world had seen. Today we are governed largely by professional politicians, many of whom have never signed the front of a paycheck or run a business. Their careers are spent in government, and they are focused on re-election, promising voters increasingly more, but not paying for these programs. The late Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a practicing physician, saw this coming. In his book The Debt Bomb, written fifteen years ago, he warned of the fiscal path we were on. The problems he described are here. PROGRESSIVES WANT TO TAX BILLIONAIRES FIRST, AND YOU'RE NEXT ON THE LIST Our federal debt is approaching $40 trillion and will cross that threshold soon. It has grown by roughly $3 trillion in the past year, even though the annual deficit is about $2 trillion. Debt relative to the economy stands at about 125% of GDP, higher than after World War II when it peaked at 114%. After the war, we exercised financial restraint with the debt growing at less than 1% per year for 20 years. The economy tripled in size, the ratio declined to under 50%, everyone gained. Now the trajectory points to a higher debt and a higher ratio. Current projections, which assume no new wars, recessions, or major programs, put the debt at $64 trillion in a decade. On top of that sit roughly $86 trillion in unfunded obligations for Social Security and Medicare, promises for which the money does not exist. What are we doing to ourselves? Have we lost our minds? Do we still have a basic understanding of economics and financial prudence? A new wave of voices demands ever more expensive programs without a realistic plan to pay for them. "Tax the rich" they say. Every serious economist who has examined the numbers knows that approach cannot even close today’s deficits, let alone fund the additional spending proposed. Reality requires growth-killing taxes on everyone if the spending continues to grow. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION Limited government and financial responsibility produced the richest and strongest nation the world has known, delivering a standard of living that outpaced other Western countries. Do we want to follow their path of lower growth and lower living standards? Of course not. We must control spending if we want to keep growing and avoid going over the fiscal cliff. At the moment that is exactly where current policy is taking us. The warning signs are not only in the numbers. They are also visible in a culture which demands more from government. A free society depends on citizens who understand that rights come with responsibilities, that prosperity is created through work and innovation, not government programs. When a nation forgets those lessons, the government starts taking control of our lives. America has faced enormous challenges before and has always recovered when citizens returned to the principles of individual responsibility, economic freedom, and constitutional restraint. The same nation that defeated tyranny, built the world’s most dynamic economy, and lifted millions out of poverty still can correct course. But doing so requires honesty about our challenges and the courage to make difficult choices before circumstances force terrible economic choices upon us. Alexander Tytler's apocryphal warning described the cycle with unsettling accuracy. We are today living out the later stages described. Only citizens can interrupt it. Get the facts. Demand that Congress restore fiscal sanity. Together, we citizens can prove this prediction wrong. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8815ec2c5335ae104949a3 U.S. Citizen Who Deleted Phone’s Data Says His Prosecution Puts Privacy at Risk te 2026-08-21T09:10:04.271Z U.S. Citizen Who Deleted Phone’s Data Says His Prosecution Puts Privacy at Risk Samuel Tunick, who faces a felony charge for deleting his phone’s data during an airport customs search, called the government’s peering into people’s private lives “creepy.” Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87fe862c5335ae10493fa1 University Of Arizona, Gila River Health Care Partner To Establish First Medical School Branch On Tribal Land te 2026-08-21T07:30:14.979Z University Of Arizona, Gila River Health Care Partner To Establish First Medical School Branch On Tribal Land By Matthew Holloway | The University of Arizona and Gila River Health Care have announced a long-term partnership to establish what the university says will be the nation’s first MD-granting medical school branch located on the lands of a sovereign Tribal Nation. The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix Regional Medical Branch will operate in Sacaton within the Gila River Indian Community and place medical students inside the community’s tribally operated healthcare system for part of their training. Beginning in July 2027, the branch will admit 10 students each year to the College of Medicine – Phoenix’s three-year Primary Care Accelerated Program. Students will complete the first 18 months of their medical education in Phoenix before moving to Sacaton for another 18 months of clinical education. Gila River Health Care will provide full-tuition scholarships to participating students and has committed more than $25 million through 2034 for scholarships, faculty positions, and educational infrastructure supporting the branch. U.S. Reps. Eli Crane (R-AZ-02) and Greg Stanton (D-AZ-04) joined Gila River Indian Community, university, and healthcare officials at Tuesday’s announcement. Crane praised the agreement Wednesday, saying the partnership would strengthen healthcare in his district. “It was great to visit the Gila River Indian Community yesterday with @RepGregStanton to celebrate an important agreement between @uarizona and @Gilariverhealth,” Crane wrote. “This partnership will strengthen healthcare in #AZ02 for years to come.” It was great to visit the Gila River Indian Community yesterday with @RepGregStanton to celebrate an important agreement between @uarizona and @Gilariverhealth. This partnership will strengthen healthcare in #AZ02 for years to come. Learn more here: https://t.co/G6Z5Qqrt5T pic.twitter.com/5p4FQLNzHq — Rep. Eli Crane (@RepEliCrane) August 19, 2026 The program is intended to increase the number of physicians working in tribal, rural, and medically underserved communities, where officials say recruiting and retaining healthcare professionals has remained difficult. The University of Arizona said Arizona ranks 42nd nationally for primary care access and cited projections from the Association of American Medical Colleges that the United States could face a shortage of as many as 86,000 physicians by 2036. University President Suresh Garimella said the program combines accelerated medical education, scholarships, and potential residency opportunities aimed at keeping physicians in the communities where they train. “Tribal and rural communities have some of the nation’s greatest unmet primary care needs,” Garimella said. “This partnership to establish the country’s first medical school branch within a Tribal Nation will train physicians through an accelerated three-year MD program, support them with full scholarships to free them of debt burden and provide residency opportunities that anchor them to the places and patients they know. That is how you build a physician workforce that remains in the communities that need them most.” Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said the program could allow members of the community interested in medicine to pursue careers closer to home. “For too long, many of our young people who dreamed of becoming doctors had to leave home to pursue that goal,” Lewis said. “This partnership with the University of Arizona changes that. It gives them the opportunity to learn, train and build their careers right here in the Community, where they can make a real difference for the people they serve.” Students will work under faculty supervision across multiple clinical settings within Gila River Health Care while learning about historical, cultural, and social factors affecting healthcare in Native communities. Officials are also exploring the development of primary care residency programs within Gila River Health Care in an effort to retain graduates in underserved communities. Dr. Fredric Wondisford, dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, told Arizona’s Family that patients in some rural communities can face drives of two to three hours to obtain healthcare. “The tribal community has unique ways of viewing Western medicine, all of which requires students to be in that community to learn about the community,” Wondisford said. “If they don’t learn about the community, they’re not really going to reach their patients, and they’re not really going to deliver good healthcare.” Gila River Health Care Board Chairman Robert Pablo said rural healthcare facilities continue to face difficulties attracting trained medical professionals. “There’s a real challenge for rural health hospitals to recruit trained professionals to come and work in their communities,” Pablo said. “We are very fortunate to launch this first-of-its-kind partnership between Gila River Health Care and the University of Arizona, which will establish a starting ground for these young doctors to jumpstart their careers.” The Gila River initiative follows another community-based medical education partnership announced by the University of Arizona with Onvida Health in Yuma last year. The Gila River medical school branch is scheduled to enroll its first 10 students in July 2027. Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com. The post University Of Arizona, Gila River Health Care Partner To Establish First Medical School Branch On Tribal Land first appeared on AZ FREE NEWS. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87fe852c5335ae10493f98 National Debt Surpasses $40 Trillion As Biggs Calls For Discipline On Federal Spending te 2026-08-21T07:30:13.199Z National Debt Surpasses $40 Trillion As Biggs Calls For Discipline On Federal Spending By Ethan Faverino | The United States has surpassed $40 trillion in national debt, marking another record for the federal government and prompting renewed criticism from Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) over Washington’s continued spending and borrowing. According to the Joint Economic Committee’s Debt Monitor, the national debt has increased by approximately $90,257.73 every second over the past year. That amounts to roughly $5.42 million per minute, $324.93 million per hour, and $7.8 billion per day. The national debt crossed the $40 trillion threshold on August 18, 2026, according to U.S. Treasury data. The milestone came less than five months after the national debt surpassed $39 trillion in March, highlighting the accelerating pace at which the federal government is adding to its debt burden. The Treasury Department also reported a federal budget deficit of more than $432 billion in July, adding to concerns about the government’s fiscal trajectory. Biggs, the Republican candidate for Arizona Governor, said the latest debt milestone demonstrates what he characterized as decades of congressional unwillingness to impose meaningful limits on federal spending. “It was fitting that America reached this grim debt milestone while legislators were absent from our nation’s capital,” stated Congressman Biggs.“For decades, Members of Congress have shown catastrophic unseriousness about reining in government spending and leaving a better future for the next generation.” “Regardless of which party controls Congress, I have sounded the alarm on this fiscal cliff since I entered the U.S. House of Representatives and have introduced legislation to help solve this crisis,” added Biggs. “Our children and grandchildren will be forced to suffer the immense consequences of this inaction and fear of making tough decisions. No one should be surprised when that time arrives for our great nation.” The $40 trillion milestone represents a doubling of the nation’s debt in less than a decade. Treasury data shows that approximately $32.3 trillion is held by the public, while another $7.8 trillion consists of intergovernmental holdings. Biggs has repeatedly made federal spending and the national debt a central focus of his legislative work in Congress. His office points to several measures he has introduced aimed at addressing the nation’s long-term fiscal problems. Among them is a proposed constitutional amendment, H. J. Res. 139, that would require the federal government to operate under a balanced budget by permanently prohibiting deficit spending. The proposal would also establish a two-thirds supermajority requirement for any legislation creating a new federal tax. Biggs has also introduced, H. Res. 631, a resolution formally recognizing America’s debt as a threat to national security, as well as hundreds of bills aimed at reducing non defense discretionary spending. The latest debt milestone comes as the federal government continues to run deficits approaching $2 trillion annually. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that federal revenues in FY26 will total roughly $5.6 trillion, compared with approximately $7.4 trillion in federal spending. The rapid increase in federal debt has also raised concerns over the growing cost of servicing that debt. Interest payments have climbed to more than $1 trillion annually, adding another significant expense to the federal budget. For Biggs, the latest milestone represents another warning that Congress will eventually have to confront the consequences of continued deficit spending. Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link. The post National Debt Surpasses $40 Trillion As Biggs Calls For Discipline On Federal Spending first appeared on AZ FREE NEWS. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87fe822c5335ae10493f87 NAU ROUNDUP: Football ranked No. 24 in Preseason AFCA Coaches Poll te 2026-08-21T07:30:10.001Z NAU ROUNDUP: Football ranked No. 24 in Preseason AFCA Coaches Poll NAU football is ranked in the top 25 in the American Football Coaches Association FCS Preseason Poll. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87fe812c5335ae10493f7e Davis Dam releases for Aug. 21 te 2026-08-21T07:30:09.226Z Davis Dam releases for Aug. 21 Friday Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87fe802c5335ae10493f75 Gas prices Aug 21 te 2026-08-21T07:30:08.551Z Gas prices Aug 21 National average: $4.09 Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87fe7f2c5335ae10493f6c Best Bets: Friday, Aug. 21, 2026 te 2026-08-21T07:30:07.740Z Best Bets: Friday, Aug. 21, 2026 Today Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87f9cf2c5335ae10493ed4 Longest-serving US prisoner dies at 101 after escaping death penalty 8 times te 2026-08-21T07:10:07.961Z Longest-serving US prisoner dies at 101 after escaping death penalty 8 times A man believed to have been the longest-serving prisoner in U.S. history has died at the age of 101, having his execution scheduled and postponed eight times as he maintained his innocence despite a murder conviction in Connecticut. Francis Clifford Smith died in his sleep in late June at 60 West, a secured Connecticut nursing facility that cares for older people in the justice system, according to the facility. Smith, who was just months away from turning 102, was cremated without a funeral. "Essentially, he died of old age," 60 West spokesman David Skoczulek told the BBC. "He had very limited family involvement around his passing but we assured it was appropriate, met his wishes and was dignified." CALIFORNIA INMATE WHO SPENT 45 YEARS ON DEATH ROW FOR MURDERING PREGNANT WIFE DIES Smith was 25 when he was first sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of Grover Hart, a 68-year-old night watchman at a Connecticut yacht club, during an attempted robbery on July 23, 1949. Smith was one of two men arrested in connection with the killing. The other man, George Lowden, took a plea deal and initially implicated Smith, although Lowden later said authorities had beaten him into making the statement and refused to testify against Smith at trial. Over the next 76 years, Smith was scheduled to be executed eight different times, but he was spared on each occasion, according to the Boston Globe. He continued to maintain his innocence up until his death, his friends told the BBC. "I’m in here on no evidence at all," he told the Boston Globe in 2023. Over the years, questions about the evidence against Smith emerged as a witness recanted, Lowden repudiated his earlier statement implicating Smith and another man claimed responsibility for Hart's killing. Those developments contributed to repeated efforts to prevent Smith's execution and obtain a new trial. "I'm not even sure he was present at the murder," Major Leo Carroll, one of the officers who had interrogated Smith after his arrest, testified to the Board of Pardons right before his eight planned execution, according to the Boston Globe. A key witness later recanted her account linking Smith to the crime, while Lowden repudiated his earlier statement implicating Smith. Another man serving time in Alabama later claimed that he, rather than Smith, had been involved in Hart's killing. Smith nevertheless never received a new trial. A judge who reviewed the other man's confession rejected it as not credible, and Smith's murder conviction remained intact. Smith’s death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1954. He served 76 years behind bars, except for three short stints of freedom, including 12 days on the run after he escaped in 1967. SOUTH CAROLINA INMATE WHO BELIEVES HE IS IMMORTAL CANNOT BE EXECUTED DUE TO MENTAL ILLNESS, JUDGE RULES Then, in 1975, he was granted parole and remained free for about 10 months before he was arrested on larceny and weapons charges and returned to prison for violating parole. The Boston Globe reported that he was not ultimately convicted of those charges. Records indicate Smith declined or refused to participate in several later parole efforts, although he later disputed that characterization and said he could not remember. But in 2020, he agreed to go on supervised parole to the nursing facility where he recently died. He reportedly had dementia at the end of his life. Connecticut’s Department of Correction has not confirmed this diagnosis but said Smith was struggling with issues associated with old age. "He was 101 and a half," Andrius Banevicius, the public information officer for Connecticut’s Department of Correction, told the BBC. "He did pretty well as far as longevity is concerned." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87e70e2c5335ae10493c62 Charter plane with 8 aboard crashes near remote radar site in western Alaska te 2026-08-21T05:50:06.980Z Charter plane with 8 aboard crashes near remote radar site in western Alaska A charter flight carrying two pilots and six passengers crashed while approaching a remote site in western Alaska on Thursday, officials said. Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska region chief, told The Associated Press that two pilots and six passengers were on board. Johnson did not immediately have information on their conditions. The plane took off from Anchorage and is believed to have crashed early Thursday afternoon while approaching Cape Newenham, according to the AP. PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE HELICOPTER, SMALL PLANE COLLIDE IN MIDAIR, KILLING 1 AND INJURING 2 STATE TROOPERS The twin-engine Cessna was operated by Security Aviation and had been chartered to fly from Anchorage to Cape Newenham, located about 40 miles south of Goodnews Bay, according to KTUU. The Alaska Rescue Coordination Center said it launched a search-and-rescue mission after receiving a report of an "aircraft incident" near the Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, reacted to the crash on X, offering condolences and noting her personal experience flying with Security Aviation. "I join Alaskans in condolences as we learn of the plane crash in Cape Newenham today," Murkowski wrote. "I've traveled extensively with Security Aviation throughout Alaska, and have met many of their experienced pilots." "I appreciate the U.S. Coast Guard, NTSB, Alaska State Troopers, and the Rescue Coordination Center for responding to the site," she continued. "Alaska is praying for those on board, their loved ones, and the team at Security Aviation." Fox News has reached out to the National Transportation Safety Board and the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center for additional information. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87e2612c5335ae10493bbd ‘Darth Vader’ uses dark side to mock controversial surveillance cameras: 'The Emperor is a fan of Flock' te 2026-08-21T05:30:09.305Z ‘Darth Vader’ uses dark side to mock controversial surveillance cameras: 'The Emperor is a fan of Flock' A man dressed up as the "Star Wars" villain Darth Vader showed up at a San Diego City Council meeting to mockingly defend Flock police surveillance cameras, telling council members "this is what the emperor needs." He approached the podium at the Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee meeting on Wednesday, complete with Darth Vader's trademark heavy breathing heard through the council chamber’s microphone. The committee members even addressed the man as ‘Darth Vader’ as he appeared to mock the Flock-linked surveillance system, suggesting the surveillance tool could be an asset to the dark side. "This is what the emperor needs. This technology will help us find the rebel scum and the hidden base on Hoth," the man said, referring to the frozen planet from "The Empire Strikes Back." FLOCK SURVEILLANCE SPREADS ACROSS THE SOUTH AS RED-STATE LAWMAKERS SEEK TO AX '1984'-STYLE TRACKING TOOLS He said the technology "will help us find Luke Skywalker as he traverses the universe in his X-Wing. This technology is a necessary, necessary force." "The Emperor is a fan of Flock, and we must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum as they move from playground to playground, from playground to pool, from pool to gymnasium, because we all know that the Flock cameras are not only following the license plate readers, they are following children," he said. He added that he needs the cameras "so I can stalk my ex-girlfriend." Addressing City Council member Jennifer Campbell, the man said she needs to work on her Jedi mind tricks. "And how will the people trust this City Council when this City Council continues to vote for surveillance technology that imprisons them? Ms. Campbell, you must work on your Jedi mind tricks," he said before waving his hand to the audience. In December 2025, the San Diego Police Department signed a one-year pilot agreement for Flock Nova, a separate investigative platform designed to integrate data from various sources. The department later said it was not using the platform and did not plan to integrate its license plate reader data into it. SDPD later told Axios it was not using the platform and did not plan to integrate its license plate reader data into it. LICENSE PLATE CAMERAS AT HOME DEPOT AND LOWE’S SPARK PRIVACY FEARS Local activists and some city officials have called for alternatives as public criticism of the cameras continues to mount in communities across the country, Axios reported. SDPD uses Flock automated license plate recognition cameras at approximately 500 locations citywide, according to the department’s 2025 annual surveillance report. A crowdsourced map maintained by the anti-surveillance project DeFlock lists additional cameras in the area, though its entries are not an official city inventory. San Diego police say the technology is used for official law enforcement purposes, including locating vehicles connected to investigations. The department says its ALPR database can only be accessed by authorized SDPD personnel and that data is retained for up to 30 days and automatically deleted unless it is preserved as evidence in an active investigation. Flock offers automated license plate readers, video cameras and audio-detection products. Its license plate readers capture plate numbers along with vehicle characteristics such as make, model and color, and some Flock systems can identify distinguishing features such as bumper stickers or aftermarket modifications. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87d6a82c5335ae10493a15 Scrimmage at Lake Havasu 8-20-8841.JPG te 2026-08-21T04:40:08.426Z Scrimmage at Lake Havasu 8-20-8841.JPG Lovieanne Phan serves the ball on Thursday at Lake Havasu High School. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87d6a72c5335ae10493a0c Scrimmage at Lake Havasu 8-20-8875.JPG te 2026-08-21T04:40:07.715Z Scrimmage at Lake Havasu 8-20-8875.JPG The Dust Devils celebrate a point against Kingman during the scrimmage. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87d6a62c5335ae10493a03 Scrimmage at Lake Havasu 8-20-8811.JPG te 2026-08-21T04:40:06.866Z Scrimmage at Lake Havasu 8-20-8811.JPG Addisyn West sets the ball during a scrimmage with Kingman. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87cfa02c5335ae1049391d Lindsay Clancy's ex-husband has quietly remarried and started over amid her murder trial te 2026-08-21T04:10:08.612Z Lindsay Clancy's ex-husband has quietly remarried and started over amid her murder trial If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1—800-273-TALK (8255). When Patrick Clancy took the stand in his ex-wife's murder trial, he had already begun building a new life hundreds of miles away in New York City, over four hours away from the Duxbury, Massachusetts home where Lindsay Clancy killed their her kids. Lindsay Clancy, 36, faces three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children — Cora, Dawson and Callan, all under age 6 — who were found strangled at the family's home in January 2023. The prosecution concluded its case Monday morning, and her defense attorney has since begun presenting arguments, asserting that she was in the grip of postpartum psychosis when she killed her children. LINDSAY CLANCY PROSECUTORS ‘SQUEEZE’ TIMELINE FROM EX-HUSBAND AS JURY WEIGHS ‘MURDER VERSUS MADNESS’: EXPERT Patrick Clancy, a business applications sales executive at Microsoft, has since divorced Lindsay, relocated to New York City and wed Dr. Rachel Danis in a Central Park ceremony in spring 2026. She reportedly moved into Patrick's Upper East Side apartment in 2025. He moved to New York City in spring 2023, just months after Lindsay Clancy killed her three children, according to public records obtained by the New York Post, and filed for divorce in February 2024. Kevin Reddington, Lindsay Clancy's defense attorney, said in court that Patrick "suffered one of the worst tragedies that anyone could ever suffer." "How that guy is not an emotional basketcase is beyond me, and he is trying hard to move on with his life. As the court is aware, they’re divorced, he’s remarried, he has a family," Reddington said. Danis and Patrick Clancy have no children together, though she has spoken publicly about wanting to become a mother. LINDSAY CLANCY’S EX-HUSBAND DETAILS PILL USE AS EXPERT SAYS EVIDENCE COULD SHAPE MURDER TRIAL "I remember when I first froze my eggs, I felt like, I mean, even sometimes still, feel like this black sheep," she said on the Fertility Forward podcast in September 2024. "I think for women, it’s just really hard. We have so much pressure to balance career and personal growth, but like, we’re riddled with this fertility stuff." Patrick Clancy was seen with his wife, Rachel Danis, on Aug. 13 at an apartment in Manhattan, a source told TMZ. A shared passion for hiking and fitness brought the couple together, Men's Journal reported. Patrick Clancy, along with family members, founded the Heard Foundation, which seeks to "change how parents are cared for—so no parent faces perinatal mental illness in silence and no family is left behind." According to the foundation's website, it was "founded in memory of Cora, Dawson, and Callan Clancy." Just days after Lindsay Clancy killed her kids in January 2023, Patrick wrote on a GoFundMe page, "I want to ask all of you that you find it deep within yourselves to forgive Lindsay, as I have...The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring towards everyone - me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients." "The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace," he wrote. Patrick Clancy remained composed while testifying in his ex-wife's murder trial, though he struggled to hold back tears as he spoke about his children. LINDSAY CLANCY JURORS VISIT CRIME SCENE IN KAREN READ-STYLE MOVE TO TEST TIMELINE: RETIRED JUDGE "Cora was into princesses and she had a lot of friends," Patrick Clancy said. "She just liked taking care of people." FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X He said that Callan, the youngest child, "was just a happy baby." LINDSAY CLANCY JUDGE SHIELDS 911 CALL, AUTOPSY PHOTOS IN MOM’S TRIPLE-MURDER TRIAL Patrick Clancy said Dawson "liked the television show Paw Patrol" and was into firefighters and trucks. SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST TRUE CRIME NEWS Donna Rotunno, a criminal defense attorney, noted in an interview with Fox News Digital that Patrick Clancy's own mother, Susan Clancy, was a witness for the defense. PROSECUTOR CORNERS LINDSAY CLANCY'S CATHOLIC MOTHER-IN-LAW WITH 'MORTAL SIN' QUESTION LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE "She is extremely sympathetic to what Lindsay was going through. And if you thought that, you know, anybody would wanna be upset about the loss of their grandchildren, it would be her, correct? She's the father's mother, and she's there supporting Lindsay so much so that she nodded to her as she walked out of the courtroom in this unbelievable, I think, show of humanity," Rotunno said. SEND US A TIP WATCH: LISTEN TO THE NEW 'CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO' PODCAST Sheila Cavanaugh, a board-certified chaplain at Brigham and Women's Hospital, testified Thursday that during her visit with Lindsay Clancy on Jan. 31, 2023 — just days after she killed her children — the woman accused of murder told her, "I am so glad my children are safe." LINDSAY CLANCY DESCRIBED A MALE VOICE ORDERING HER TO ‘KILL HER CHILDREN AND KILL HERSELF’: TESTIMONY GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAIL Cavanaugh said she responded that the children were safe in heaven with God, and the two prayed together. Judge William Sullivan ended court early on Thursday after one witness testified, sending jurors home until Friday. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87caef2c5335ae1049387d No, the Dodgers didn't sign Shohei Ohtani or build a superteam because of Mark Walter's loans te 2026-08-21T03:50:07.042Z No, the Dodgers didn't sign Shohei Ohtani or build a superteam because of Mark Walter's loans The Los Angeles Dodgers have become baseball's evil empire over the last few years, starting with the signing of Shohei Ohtani in late 2023. They added Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Teoscar Hernandez and Tyler Glasnow that offseason as well, then won the 2024 World Series over the New York Yankees. And instead of resting on their laurels, they kept going afterward. The front office signed Tanner Scott and Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki chose LA over the other interested teams and they brought back Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernandez. Then won the World Series again. In the 2025-2026 offseason, baseball fans, particularly on X, lost their collective minds and any and all connection with rationality when LA added Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz. Nobody could compete with the Dodgers talent, the argument went, and with no weaknesses, they were virtually unstoppable other than with a salary cap. MLB'S SALARY CAP PROPOSAL WON'T FIX THE LEAGUE'S NON-EXISTENT COMPETITIVE BALANCE PROBLEMS Fast forward to August, and Tucker's been a below average hitter this year and Edwin Díaz has an ERA around 12. The Dodgers went just 2-11 over a recent stretch against the Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers. Those Brewers, near the bottom in total payroll, have the best record in baseball, along with the tiebreaker over LA in the race for the best record in the National League. The Dodgers' financial advantages over most teams, and their success in building consistently competitive rosters, has created a subculture of fans who view LA as the ultimate enemy. Fans who prefer when teams do not try to win, and when billionaire owners pocket more profits instead of signing players. And those fans were given an enormous gift when news broke that one of the team's owners, Mark Walter, was under investigation by the federal government over a series of loans connected to insurance companies he owns and controls. The details of the investigation are complicated, to say the least, but the short version is that two companies Walter controls, both insurance companies, used investor funds on private-credit deals, essentially making loans directly to businesses. Some of those businesses were also under Walter's control. This isn't entirely unusual, but the scale of it allegedly seems to go well beyond what's "typical" in these types of investments, and there are questions about how they were handled in investor disclosures. The scale of the potentially improper loans could be quite significant, with some reports putting it at $16 billion and others at $20 billion. Even for someone as wealthy as Walter, that's a lot of money. Which could explain why he was willing, or even looking, to sell the Los Angeles Lakers after just a year as team owner, for $12.5 billion. The widespread reaction to this on some corners of baseball internet has been that the insurance company loans meant that the Dodgers payroll and team is based on fraud. Particularly that the massive deferrals built into Shohei Ohtani's contract are part of some sort of Ponzi scheme. That is inaccurate, not what the investigation covers, and viral posts on X are misleading people either through incompetence or purposefully misleading information. One such example? That the Dodgers pioneered deferred contracts or took advantage of deferrals to sign Ohtani. Deferred contracts have been in place in Major League Baseball for decades, and most teams in the league have either used that strategy or are currently using it. Rafael Devers has $75 million deferred. Jose Ramirez has $70 million. Alex Bregman has $70 million. Corbin Burnes has $64 million. Dylan Cease has $64 million. Max Scherzer, Anthony Santander, Francisco Lindor, Nolan Arenado, Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, Framber Valdez, Christopher Sanchez and Devin Williams are all examples of players with significant deferred compensation. Yes, the Dodgers have used it more aggressively than other teams, but the assumption that deferred contracts are simply pushed out for free is wrong. Teams are required to put the present value of the deferred amount into specific accounts within roughly two years of the season the money was made. Organizations and owners can't just use the deferral system to offload every dollar to decades in the future, it has to be accounted for in the present day. Ohtani's specific case, which started the misinformed outrage over deferrals, is even less controversial. The Dodgers didn't demand he take just $2 million in salary and pay the $68 million later, he offered it. And he didn't just offer it to the Dodgers. When deciding between LA, the Giants, Blue Jays and Angels, Ohtani's agent presented the same arrangement to all the interested parties. The Dodgers, Blue Jays and Giants accepted, the Angels didn't. Had he picked the Blue Jays, as was rumored, they'd be the ones with $680 million in deferred payments, not the Dodgers. ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! Deferrals are not simply to benefit ownership either. For players in high tax states like California or New York, deferring that money to after their playing days are over can save them millions in taxes. The money is accounted for, safely in an specific investment account, they still receive big paychecks now, but get tens of millions in their retirement each year, when they live in Florida or Arizona, with much lower income tax rates than they pay in LA. Another supposed controversy? That the Dodgers, and by extension, Walter, own part of the Spectrum SportsNet LA channel. The YES Network is also partially owned by the New York Yankees, along with Main Street Sports Group, Amazon, The Blackstone Group, Red Bird Capital Partners and other investment groups. Welcome to modern financing in the sports world. Walter, too, owns just 27% of the Dodgers, with the rest broken up among members of the Guggenheim Partners group and other individuals. He may or may not need to sell his portion, but that would leave 73% of current ownership in place. Opposing fans on X have spent the past few days saying the Dodgers are broke, bankrupt, that this is worse than the Astros' cheating scandal, or that the entire organization is fraudulent and they signed players because of fraud. None of this is remotely accurate. It was widely reported not long ago that the Dodgers were the first team to bring in over $1 billion in revenue, with the contention being that their television deal is the sole reason for financial advantages over other organizations. The television deal, again, another source of inaccurate information, averages around $325 million per year. That leaves $675 million, at least, in revenue from other income streams. LA also benefits from an MLB rule that shields some of their television income from the revenue sharing that goes to small market teams, due to the team's bankruptcy under previous owner Frank McCourt. Estimates vary, but most estimate around $55 million to 60 million in revenue sharing that the Dodgers are able to keep. Even if that money were distributed to the other 29 teams, that's $2 million per team, per year, at best. Hardly enough to close the payroll disparity. The Dodgers are baseball's enemy because their ownership group has shown a willingness to win, and their front office is smart enough to do so. The Mets spend as much, or more, than the Dodgers. They have deferred contracts and signed the richest contract in sports history. They're also bad, so nobody cares. As is so often the case, though, the facts don't matter. Anger and outrage do. Even if the Dodgers had a smaller TV deal that guaranteed half of its current value, they'd have made more than $830 million in 2025. If Mark Walter sells his 27% stake, it doesn't mean the team will be broke or bankrupt. The deferred contracts have nothing to do with Walter's insurance company loans. Nothing they've done with those contracts is illegal or against MLB rules. Does it matter to the angry masses? No, of course not. Reality never does. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87c63f2c5335ae104937d3 Paige Bueckers grabs Caitlin Clark’s arm, draws foul in tense moment before halftime of Wings win over Fever te 2026-08-21T03:30:07.999Z Paige Bueckers grabs Caitlin Clark’s arm, draws foul in tense moment before halftime of Wings win over Fever Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers added another memorable moment to their growing on-court rivalry Thursday night, this time in the closing seconds of the first half of Dallas’ eventual 91-85 win over Indiana. With less than 10 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Clark controlled the ball as Bueckers played defense. Bueckers then wrapped up Clark’s left arm in an effort to stop the possession before halftime. The Wings notably had a foul to give at the time. Clark appeared frustrated by the contact as Bueckers continued trying to complete the foul. Clark then reacted and fired the ball down the court, with it sailing near Bueckers’ head before the two teams headed to the locker room. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM The moment sparked a brief exchange between the two star guards, though television microphones did not clearly pick up what was said. ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! Bueckers was whistled for a common foul on the play, but the tension seemed to carry into the second half. She was later assessed a technical foul after arguing with an official following a separate foul on Clark in the third quarter. Kelsey Mitchell led Indiana with 37 points, while Clark finished with a team-high nine assists. For Dallas, Arike Ogunbowale scored a team-best 32 points, and Bueckers added eight assists. Just last week, the Fever and Wings squared off, with Clark and Bueckers delivering matching 29-point performances. Indiana ultimately pulled away for a 98-87 victory, but Clark came away impressed with the Dallas star. "Obviously, she's an incredible player. [She] makes it really hard on us defensively... Paige is a tremendous player," Clark told reporters during a postgame media availability. "She takes what the defense gives her; she doesn't force anything; she's smooth; she finds the open teammate. So she's just a really tough guard." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87ba872c5335ae10493631 Fernando Mendoza throws pick-six in second NFL game as Raiders rookie faces growing pains te 2026-08-21T02:40:07.774Z Fernando Mendoza throws pick-six in second NFL game as Raiders rookie faces growing pains And now a reminder that Fernando Mendoza is going to have some difficult moments as a rookie, even though he was the NFL's first overall draft pick and is the hope for a bright future for the Las Vegas Raiders. On his second pass of the preseason game against the Houston Texans on Thursday night, Mendoza threw an interception. And not just any interception, because Texans linebacker Wade Woodaz plucked the ball out of the air and returned it 80 yards for a touchdown. RAIDERS ROOKIE FERNANDO MENDOZA THANKS GOD FOR NFL DEBUT THAT COMPARES FAVORABLY WITH 'MR. BRADY' No bueno, as they say in Miami, where Mendoza was born and grew up. Mendoza, clearly downcast, was seen red-faced on the Raiders sideline after the play even as some teammates tried to console him. Veteran Maxx Crosby, perhaps the Raiders' most accomplished player, was among the first to try to console young Mendoza. "Yeah, that's football, you know? It's not gonna be perfect, you know?" Crosby told ESPN's Laura Rutledge on the sideline. "He's a rookie. You got to go through, you know, some ups and downs as part of the game, and it's how you respond. "So that's basically what I just told him, keep being yourself, keep playing." RAIDERS NEW HEAD COACH KLINT KUBIAK NAMES KIRK COUSINS STARTING QB OVER NO. 1 PICK FERNANDO MENDOZA This outing was nowhere near as clean or efficient for Mendoza as his NFL debut last week. Against the Arizona Cardinals, Mendoza completed 10 of 16 passes for 97 yards and a TD pass. More importantly, Mendoza did not throw an interception in that game. He finished this game completing just over 50% of his passes (8 of 15) and his abysmal passer rating of 42.6 reflected the errant throw returned for a score. Mendoza was also erratic in the first half before his evening ended. He had the interception, then completed six consecutive throws, then missed on two more throws, although one of those was dropped. "Part of what [Mendoza] will learn as he moves through this game tonight, if he plays next week, and then throughout his rookie season, when he gets on the field, is that the relationship between defender and receiver is a lot tighter than what it was in college," said ESPN analyst Troy Aikman, himself a former No. 1 overall selection. "And these guys are that much quicker, and that goes on the inside of the field when they play the ball, as well as on the outside." Shorter transcript: Guys in the NFL are faster and Mendoza needs to figure that out pronto. In that regard, perhaps Mendoza's second NFL game and first start will provide exactly that lesson. FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87b5d92c5335ae10493580 Mom of ex-SJSU volleyball star Brooke Slusser leads 8th 'Sophie Night' rally in Dallas before Fever vs Wings te 2026-08-21T02:20:09.381Z Mom of ex-SJSU volleyball star Brooke Slusser leads 8th 'Sophie Night' rally in Dallas before Fever vs Wings Kim Slusser, the mother of former San Jose State volleyball star Brooke Slusser, helped lead the 8th rally in support of Sophie Cunningham in Dallas on Wednesday. Kim Slusser and the Texas-based Christian advocacy and policy organization Texas Values held the rally outside of American Airlines Center ahead of the Dallas Wings game against Cunningham and the Fever. Kim Slusser gave a speech at Thursday's event, sharing her daughter's story of having to share a volleyball team and an apartment with a transgender teammate without knowing the athlete was a biological male. The entire Slusser family was thrust into the national spotlight in fall 2024 when Brooke decided to sign onto Riley Gaines' lawsuit against the NCAA, citing her experience at SJSU. SJSU VOLLEYBALL SCANDAL PROBE FINDS TEAM ALLEGEDLY RECRUITED MALE FOR ADVANTAGE WITHOUT TELLING FEMALE PLAYERS "Almost overnight Brooke was launched into a media frenzy, there were reporters, cameras, social media, and suddenly, people all over the world were celebrating, and in some cases, smearing our youngest daughter. It was overwhelming at times, and nothing our family was ever prepared for," Kim said at her speech. "And that's why it means so much to our family to be here in our home state Texas, supporting Sophie Cunningham. Sophie chose to use her voice to stand up for women and girls in sports. And what she's standing for is really very simple. Girls deserve a fair chance to compete. They deserve the opportunities created for female athletes. They deserve privacy in their locker rooms and in their apartments." Kim Slusser spoke to Fox News Digital after her speech about what Cunningham means to her family. "My daughter Brooke went through a lot at San Jose State University... it's one of the hardest thing our family has ever been through. So to see a woman speak up, and now its' becoming a movement... People are starting to come around and have a little more common sense thanks to Sophie because she's one of the few professional athletes that has come out and spoken up." Kim Slusser added she is rooting for Cunningham in the game against the Wings, but is open to supporting the Wings and WNBA as a whole if they follow Cunningham's lead. "I would prefer they acknowledge what the W means in the WNBA. I know they had a meeting last week and couldn't quite figure out what the W stood for so they're going to have to reconvene," she said. SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM SEES SUPPORT SURGE AFTER STAR PUTS CAREER ON LINE FOR GIRLS SPORTS "I think focus on sport and focus on the women and focus on the many, and not on the ideology that they're focusing on." The Cunningham rallies have shaken the WNBA since the first one in Seattle in July. What started as isolated demonstrations has quickly snowballed into a season-defining narrative, forcing the WNBA to navigate a level of ideological polarization rarely seen in the league. Since that first rally, a co-owner has been suspended for berating two young girls who supported Cunningham in Seattle, four coaches have come under fire for their answers to questions about their stance on protecting women's sports, former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White have declared for the WNBA Draft and the league has had to put out a statement after fans at Sunday's Fever vs. Dream game were told to cover their XX-XY Athletics shirts. While the WNBA and its players' union have fiercely defended their inclusive policies, the persistence of the rallies — and the loud, visible support they have generated for Cunningham’s stance — has introduced a divisive undercurrent to the season. It has forced league executives into defensive public relations postures, dominated sports talk cycles, and sparked intense debates among fanbases, creating a fracture that front offices are struggling to manage. Ultimately, these ongoing protests have transformed the season into a highly visible battleground for the broader national debate on women's sports. As the regular season pushes toward the playoffs, the narrative remains heavily anchored to the noise outside the arenas. For the WNBA, navigating the rest of the year will require managing not just the fiercely competitive basketball on the court, but the inescapable, polarizing movement that has firmly attached itself to the league's doorstep. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87b5d82c5335ae10493577 Jury awards teens $550K after Oregon amusement park ride left them hanging upside down: report te 2026-08-21T02:20:08.622Z Jury awards teens $550K after Oregon amusement park ride left them hanging upside down: report A jury awarded $550,000 to two teenage girls who were left hanging upside down for nearly 30 minutes when an amusement park ride malfunctioned in Oregon. The jury voted 10-2 this week to award the teens $275,000 each in their case against Oaks Park and ride manufacturer Zamperla over the June 2024 malfunction of the AtmosFEAR ride in Portland, according to FOX 12 Oregon. About 30 riders were stranded upside down when the spinning pendulum-style ride became stuck in a vertical position on June 14, 2024. EXCLUSIVE: TEEN GIRLS RECALL JERSEY SHORE RIDE MALFUNCTION THAT LEFT THEM STUCK HANGING UPSIDE DOWN Portland Fire & Rescue crews responded and worked with park engineers to manually lower the ride. The riders were brought down safely after roughly 25 minutes and medically evaluated. Oaks Park said in a statement to FOX 12 following the verdict: "While we agree that the ride should not have become stuck, we are grateful that all of the riders are safe, and this incident is now resolved," the statement read. "Safety is our top priority, and we will continue to work with ride manufacturers and state inspectors to ensure rider safety." The family of one of the teens, identified as Evie, said Thursday that the lawsuit was intended to seek accountability. MONTANA BOY KILLED AFTER BEING FLUNG FROM CARNIVAL RIDE OPERATING WITH MISSING RESTRAINTS, LAWSUIT ALLEGES "We filed this lawsuit to seek accountability and justice. Not only should the ride have never malfunctioned, but the crisis was further exacerbated by the lack of a safety plan at Oaks Park. They did not possess any knowledge of how to fix the ride if it got stuck in the inverted position, and did not have a tool at the park to lower the ride and rescue the riders," they told FOX 12.  "That required calling a 1-800 number to even know how to fix the ride, then wait for first responders to arrive on scene, and for the first responders to provide the tool. Additionally, Oaks Park evacuated the park without providing traffic control, which delayed first responders from being able to enter the park quickly in an emergency, prolonging suffering." The malfunction occurred on the park's first day of the summer season. Video from the incident showed riders suspended vertically as people gathered below. A spokesperson for Zamperla and Oaks Park did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87b5d42c5335ae1049354d Florida Counts Its Election Ballots Fast. Why Can’t California Keep Up? te 2026-08-21T02:20:04.108Z Florida Counts Its Election Ballots Fast. Why Can’t California Keep Up? Florida counted most of its primary ballots within hours on Tuesday night, well ahead of the days California took to report the results of its major election. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87b37f2c5335ae10493510 Venezuelans, Cubans, Colombians arrive in African nation under Trump deportation deal te 2026-08-21T02:10:07.026Z Venezuelans, Cubans, Colombians arrive in African nation under Trump deportation deal Authorities in Liberia received the country’s first deportation flight from the U.S. on Thursday under an agreement with Washington to accept up to 1,200 foreign nationals over the next year. The West African nation, which was expected to receive 20 deportees, received nationals mostly from Latin America, including Venezuela, Cuba and Colombia, Liberian Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah told Reuters. Many of the deportees were sent to Liberia to seek protection from being returned to their home countries, where judges determined they could face torture or other abuse, Liberian officials said. Liberia has said the arrivals reflect its longstanding role as a sanctuary for displaced people. Officials said the migrants will be "free to depart the country" when desired or apply for formal asylum. The deportees will also receive services from the International Organization for Migration and the U.N. refugee agency, officials said, Reuters reported. SOUTH AFRICA’S ILLEGAL MIGRATION BACKLASH MIRRORS POLITICAL BATTLES ACROSS THE WEST According to Reuters, the plane departed from Louisiana and stopped in Senegal before landing in Monrovia at 12:45 p.m. local time. In a statement Tuesday, Liberia highlighted its history of accepting people "seeking refuge from political and other crises" and said it will not repatriate anyone until legal proceedings are complete. "The Government of the Republic of Liberia agrees not to return any person transferred to Liberia by the Government of the United States of America to their home country or country of former habitual residence until a final decision has been made regarding any pending protection claims," officials said. "The Government wants to emphasize that those being brought to Liberia are not criminals and are not being prosecuted in any manner under United States or Liberian law. They are being received as guests of the Republic of Liberia," officials said. DHS TOUTS MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT DEPARTURES AS BORDER CROSSINGS DROP 94% UNDER TRUMP Liberia said it is not demanding compensation under the deal but will receive "support to help manage the program and strengthen its migration system more broadly." Reuters said the U.S. awarded Liberia $5 million this year for "migration management activities." Liberia’s agreement to accept up to 1,200 deportees makes it one of the largest such deals on the African continent. The U.S. also reached agreements with several other African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana and Sierra Leone, Reuters said. Reuters contributed to this report. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87b12a2c5335ae104934bc New York Times loses defamation suit, ordered to pay $9.25M to former Alabama basketball player te 2026-08-21T02:00:10.433Z New York Times loses defamation suit, ordered to pay $9.25M to former Alabama basketball player The New York Times was defeated in a defamation lawsuit Thursday brought by a former college basketball player and ordered to pay millions in damages. An Alabama jury ruled that The Times defamed Kai Spears, then an 18-year-old freshman walk-on basketball player for the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide, who was swept up in a 2023 report linking him to a fatal shooting. After a nine-day trial, the eight-person jury determined that Spears was owed $9.25 million in damages. ISRAELI PM NETANYAHU INITIATING DEFAMATION LAWSUIT AGAINST NEW YORK TIMES OVER CONTROVERSIAL ‘DOG RAPE’ STORY Spears was mentioned in the March 2023 report authored by New York Times sportswriter Billy Witz. Spears was falsely identified as being a passenger in the car at the scene of a January 2023 shooting that resulted in the death of 23-year-old Jamea Harris. The Times issued a lengthy editor's note to the report in June 2023, but only after Spears filed the defamation lawsuit at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. "The original version of this article, published March 15, misidentified the person who was in the car with [Crimson Tide star player] Brandon Miller when the shooting occurred," the note began. "Based on information from a person familiar with the case, the article erroneously identified that person as Kai Spears, a freshman basketball player. After the article was initially published, Alabama’s athletic director and Spears’s father denied that Spears was present. The Times included those responses and reviewed its reporting, but did not conclude that any other change to the article was warranted at that time." The note continued, "On Wednesday, Spears filed a defamation suit against The Times that included new details about the incident. Based on that information, editors assigned further reporting, which determined that the other person at the scene was not Spears but Cooper Lee, a student manager for the team. The Times regrets the error in the initial report." JURY FINDS CNN COMMITTED DEFAMATION AGAINST NAVY VETERAN, SETTLEMENT REACHED IN PUNITIVE DAMAGES Witz, who began reporting for The Times in 2008, relied on one anonymous source who claimed Spears was at the scene of the shooting. Witz testified the source was a "high-level person, professional." "I think the way I was looking at it, Source A, by their job title and by virtue of their access to the transcript, videos and impound photos, was somebody who knew a lot about this case," Witz said, according to a local report from The Patch. "In my mind, the story had a focus and this tragedy, as bad as it was, could have been much worse." A separate anonymous source had told Witz, "I can tell you it's a white guy on the basketball team, I just don't remember his name," per Witz's testimony. According to The Patch, Witz ultimately conceded from the witness stand, "Yes, [the story] had a mistake, no question." REPORTER WHO EXITED CNN AFTER BEING AT CENTER OF COSTLY DEFAMATION TRIAL LANDS AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH The Times noted in its own report about the verdict that it had not lost a defamation lawsuit brought in the United States over one of its articles in more than 50 years. "We’re disappointed the jury found The Times liable for an honest mistake," a Times spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "We thank the jury for its service, but believe the verdict and award of damages are contrary to law and not supported by the evidence. We are reviewing our legal options." Spears' legal team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87ac782c5335ae10493417 Surrogate says baby 'ripped away' 60 seconds after birth as custody fight erupts after abortion refusal te 2026-08-21T01:40:08.788Z Surrogate says baby 'ripped away' 60 seconds after birth as custody fight erupts after abortion refusal The surrogate mother who refused an abortion request after the baby she was carrying was diagnosed with a serious heart defect is pressing her legal fight after the newborn underwent lifesaving heart surgery — days after she says he was taken from her just 60 seconds after birth. McKenna West, an Alaska mother and cardiac nurse who carried the child, said Thursday she is continuing to fight for the baby after she was separated from him moments after giving birth Aug. 12. "I haven’t been allowed to hold this precious baby boy I carried and protected throughout my pregnancy," West wrote in a New York Post op-ed Thursday. "The only glimpse I got of him was during a very short 60 seconds while his umbilical cord was still connected. As soon as the cord was cut, he was taken away." FLORIDA COUPLE REACHES AGREEMENT WITH DAUGHTER'S BIOLOGICAL PARENTS AFTER ALLEGED IVF MIX-UP West agreed last year to serve as a surrogate for Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar of California, the child's intended parents. According to West, Ahmed and Gilkar asked her to terminate the pregnancy after the baby was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, or HLHS, at about 20 weeks. West refused and later traveled to Texas to give birth. Ahmed and Gilkar's attorney disputes key parts of West's account and says they consented to the child's surgery as soon as doctors determined he was eligible. Lee Budner, an attorney for Ahmed and Gilkar, said doctors determined on Aug. 14 that the baby, whom Ahmed and Gilkar call Rumi, was eligible for the Norwood procedure, the first of three open-heart surgeries for newborns commonly used to treat HLHS. NEONATOLOGIST SOUNDS ALARM OVER MASSACHUSETTS ABORTION LAW ALLOWING PROCEDURES UP TO BIRTH: 'VERY DISTURBING' "My clients immediately provided consent for the surgery to occur at the hospital’s earliest availability," Budner said in an Aug. 17 statement. The baby underwent surgery Aug. 17, and is recuperating under the care of Ahmed, Gilkar and his medical team, Budner said, adding that his condition "remains critical and complex." Budner also accused West of continuing to pursue custody despite court rulings. "Meanwhile, Ms. West continues to assert baseless claims for custody of Rumi, in violation of multiple courts orders out of both Alaska and California," he said. "We look forward to quickly defeating those claims as Rumi’s parents continue to focus on his health and safety above all else." BOARD-CERTIFIED OBGYN WARNS NEW MASSACHUSETTS LATE-TERM ABORTION LAW EXPOSES MOTHERS TO DANGER West, who is being represented with assistance from Alliance Defending Freedom, has said she is not trying to take someone else's child and described her goal differently. "I’m not fighting to try to take someone else’s baby," West wrote Thursday. "I’m fighting because this baby boy needs someone willing to advocate for and fight alongside him as he gets the ongoing treatment his fragile heart requires." Live Action founder and president Lila Rose, whose organization has supported West, told Fox News Digital that West intends to continue fighting for custody. "McKenna is fighting for custody because Gabriel needs someone willing to defend him," Rose said. "He deserves to remain protected and receive every chance to heal and live." PRO-LIFE PUBLISHER FACING DEMANDS TO RETRACT CALLING ABORTION ‘KILLING’ FIRES BACK: ‘THE ANSWER IS NO’ Rose also questioned Ahmed and Gilkar's account of events leading up to the surgery. "If they were willing for Gabriel to receive the surgery, why did a Texas court have to ensure that he received it under the force of law?" Rose said. "The court intervened, and Gabriel has now received the surgery he desperately needed. Praise God." Rose also alleged that Ahmed and Gilkar previously declined to consent to the baby's medical care and are now seeking to take him out of Texas. Their attorney has disputed West’s characterization of the case and said Ahmed and Gilkar consented to surgery once the baby’s medical team determined he was eligible for the procedure. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton previously intervened in the case, notifying two Texas medical centers of what his office said were their legal obligations to provide medically necessary care after the child was born. DEM GOV MAURA HEALEY SIGNS SWEEPING MASSACHUSETTS BILL ALLOWING ABORTIONS UP TO BIRTH The Norwood procedure is the first of three surgeries typically used to treat HLHS, leaving the child's future medical care at the heart of the continuing dispute. Budner said the child's condition remains "critical and complex" and that the family does not intend to provide further health updates. West, meanwhile, said she intends to continue fighting. "My plea, my only goal, is simple: Let’s commit to giving this baby the full treatment he needs to live," West wrote. Alliance Defending Freedom did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87aa212c5335ae104933b0 Murder convict accused of running 'full-service drug operation' selling to minors near Texas schools te 2026-08-21T01:30:09.485Z Murder convict accused of running 'full-service drug operation' selling to minors near Texas schools A Texas man with a prior murder conviction is accused of running a "full-service drug operation" near several schools where authorities say surveillance showed what appeared to be teenagers purchasing narcotics and fentanyl pills disguised to look like ecstasy. The Galveston County Organized Crime Task Force raided a home in the 1200 block of Appomattox Drive in Texas City Aug. 18 after a two-month investigation, and the Galveston County Sheriff's Office SWAT team conducted the tactical entry. The target of the investigation, Jahml McDonald, 50, of Texas City, was arrested and charged with two felony controlled-substance offenses, according to the sheriff's office. MEXICAN NATIONAL FACES FEDERAL CHARGES AFTER CBP FINDS $238K IN FENTANYL INSIDE ELECTRIC MOPED Detectives said they seized approximately one kilogram of fentanyl pills, along with THC wax, marijuana, THC vapes, promethazine and dozens of bottles of liquor. The sheriff's office said the fentanyl pills were "disguised to resemble ecstasy/MDMA pills" and were brightly colored to resemble recreational party drugs. POISON CENTERS LINK GROWING BENADRYL ABUSE AMONG TEENS TO DANGEROUS SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS Task force surveillance observed what appeared to be teenagers purchasing narcotics from the residence, which is near Giles Middle School, College of the Mainland and two local elementary schools, according to FOX 26. "This is a full-service drug operation, including the ability to pay with credit card," Galveston Police Chief Doug Balli said. "This is a convenience store for poison that was taken down." Galveston County District Attorney Kenneth Cusick said McDonald previously served 25 years for a murder conviction and was out on bond in a pending marijuana case at the time of his arrest. FENTANYL DEATHS COULD NOW COST DRUG DEALERS THEIR LIVES UNDER NEW GOP PROPOSAL Cusick pledged to seek the maximum prosecution available. "This offender needs the full attention of my office," Cusick said. "This person has a criminal history, a murder conviction, drug convictions and (is) now peddling these type of substances on a house near a college, a community college, two elementary schools within walking distance. This is outrageous." Residents living near the Appomattox Drive home said they had noticed heavy vehicle and foot traffic around the residence. "Every time I came by, there was traffic, traffic, traffic," neighbor Donald Moore told FOX 26. "Teenagers jumping out, running to the house. ... I know eventually, with all of this traffic and with all the drugs being dealt, the next thing is gonna happen is gunfire. Somebody's gonna get hurt or killed." A judge upheld a combined $2 million bond for McDonald, with $1 million set on each charge, according to FOX 26. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87aa202c5335ae104933a7 Trump says Michael Cohen was 'weaponized' by mainstream media in surprise radio reunion te 2026-08-21T01:30:08.779Z Trump says Michael Cohen was 'weaponized' by mainstream media in surprise radio reunion During an unexpected interview on Thursday with his former personal lawyer turned bitter enemy, Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump said his one-time ally was "weaponized" against him by the mainstream media before the two recently reconciled. In the first part of a two-part radio interview with Trump on his radio show, Cohen recounted his 2016 CNN interview with host Brianna Keilar, which led to him going viral after questioning Trump's standing in the polls. "Do you remember, sir, when I went on CNN with Brianna Keilar, and she told me that you were underwater in the polls, and I responded with those famous two words ‘says who,’ which became some worldwide meme," Cohen recalled. EX-CNN ANCHOR DON LEMON AGREES TRUMP PLAYED LIBERAL NETWORK 'LIKE PUPPETS' "And then they weaponized you like nobody's ever been weaponized, like few have been," Trump responded. "Well, maybe just you and me, sir," Cohen said. "Well, yeah, me too, but mine was at a level that nobody's ever seen before, but they weaponized you, they weaponized a lot of people, and I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said. That's a big thing that you did," Trump said. Cohen then remembered the morning after the interview when Trump had told him, "F--- them, you're stronger than them, we've got this." TRUMP BYPASSES MEDIA GATEKEEPERS AS GOV SANDERS REVEALS LEGACY OUTLETS ARE LOSING THEIR GRIP "Now, the funny thing is that CNN never apologized. They never retracted anything and now, years later, CNN, MS NOW, the other left-leaning outlets, they're doing the exact same thing, constantly talking about you being underwater with favorability numbers," Cohen said. Trump and Cohen continued to criticize media polls later in the interview, with Trump targeting the New York Times specifically. "The polls are crooked. So the reporters that, you know, are crooked, many of them. You have some great ones too. But for the most part … when you read The New York Times, it’s so dishonest," Trump said. "When you read these things and they’re not doing well. Look, the reason they're not doing well is because they've lost a lot of credibility."  "Now you do have great journalists," he added. "You do have great reporters also. Many people are very good, very, very good. I could name them, but by naming them, I’ll leave some out." CNN FIRES BACK AT TRUMP WHITE HOUSE OVER ATTACKS ON REPORTER, CALLS THEM 'BENEATH THE OFFICE' Fox News Digital reached out to CNN, MS NOW and The New York Times for comment but did not immediately receive a response. Cohen told Fox News Digital that the conversation lasted 40 minutes and will be aired in two parts, the second part airing on his Sunday show "When You Know You Know." The man who was a key witness in two New York cases against Trump also penned a Substack post detailing the stunning reunion that was their first public conversation in nearly a decade. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87a7c22c5335ae10493332 On the Radio, Trump Has a Reunion (of Sorts) With Michael Cohen te 2026-08-21T01:20:02.941Z On the Radio, Trump Has a Reunion (of Sorts) With Michael Cohen President Trump’s former personal lawyer tried to revisit the past in a radio interview. But this was not exactly a stroll down memory lane. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a879e682c5335ae104931b8 Vice President JD Vance blasts Mamdani, El-Sayed, AOC and Ossoff in rapid-fire TikTok roast te 2026-08-21T00:40:08.191Z Vice President JD Vance blasts Mamdani, El-Sayed, AOC and Ossoff in rapid-fire TikTok roast Vice President JD Vance offered an unfiltered assessment Thursday of some of the biggest names in politics in a rapid-fire TikTok, calling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a "communist," Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., "lame," and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani "crazy." The vice president was asked to describe a succession of Democrats, Trump administration officials and other political figures as their names flashed across the screen, producing a 30-second barrage of answers that ranged from complimentary to cutting. Vance appeared particularly unimpressed with far-left Democrats. He described Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as "cranky" and Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed as "odd." AOC CRUISES TO PRIMARY VICTORY AS SPECULATION SWIRLS ABOUT POLITICAL FUTURE But one of Vance's most dismissive assessments was saved for Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. "I mean, nothing," Vance said when Schiff's name appeared. "Irrelevant." Vance was considerably more complimentary when members of the Trump administration came across the screen, describing outgoing White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt as "awesome," deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller as "hardcore" and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles as "tough." Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was "interesting," while Vance called Secretary of State Marco Rubio "funny" and House Speaker Mike Johnson "kind." JD VANCE WINS GRUDGING PRAISE FROM JOY BEHAR ON 'THE VIEW,' WHO TELLS HIM TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT One name, however, left the usually sharp vice president unusually short on words. When Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) leader Megan Romer appeared, Vance simply responded, "No comment." The video then cuts to a SpongeBob-style title card declaring "two minutes later" before returning for Vance's assessment of Schiff. President Donald Trump received a much warmer review from his second-in-command. CNN PANEL SWOONS OVER JD VANCE'S GLOW-UP, ADMITS MEDIA BLITZ IS 'IMPRESSIVE' FOLLOWING 'THE VIEW' APPEARANCE "Generous," Vance said of the president. The video offered a lighter glimpse at Vance's relationships with figures inside the administration while also giving him an opportunity to take shots at several prominent far-left Democrats and self-described democratic socialists. Fox News Digital reached out to Vance's office to confirm the identities displayed alongside each response and for additional context on the video. Fox News Digital also reached out to named Democrats and administration officials in the video for comment. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a879c122c5335ae10493155 Danny Tyree: Singing the property tax blues?
 te 2026-08-21T00:30:10.655Z Danny Tyree: Singing the property tax blues?
 “With two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard – and THEN they started taxing the cats!” – apologies to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a879c0f2c5335ae10493147 A rare opportunity to ensure farmers have the labor we need te 2026-08-21T00:30:07.365Z A rare opportunity to ensure farmers have the labor we need There’s no waiting when cantaloupes are ready to harvest. These perishable fruits can go from unripe to unsellable in just a few days’ time. But this spring, our harvesters from Mexico did not receive their temporary work visas to begin their contracts in time. Nearly 15,000 cartons of cantaloupe never made it to grocery stores. They rotted on the vine before help arrived. Sadly, our story is not unique. Many of our neighbors also did not get the labor they needed this year.  And that’s a major blow not only for Yuma, where my family farms, but also to our state and our nation’s ability to feed itself. Farms rely on ag worker program Nearly all the leafy greens, broccoli and cauliflower in American stores during the winter are grown in Yuma, as are about a quarter of the melons in May, June and November. Our farms protect national food security — but only if we can find the labor to do this work.  Technology and automation are no silver bullets. Lettuce, broccoli and melons are delicate. Machine harvesters can easily crush or bruise them. And consumers hold exacting standards for fruits and vegetables. That’s why each piece is still hand-selected by someone who knows how to wield a harvesting knife with gentle hands.  Other workers hand-package produce in the field so it can be quickly transported to stores. It’s tough work. It often requires long hours. And few domestic workers are willing to do it.  According to federal Department of Labor data, domestic workers filled 182 of the nearly 415,000 temporary agriculture positions advertised across the nation last fiscal year. That’s 0.04% of available jobs. H-2A contains many safeguards The H-2A temporary agricultural worker program was created in 1986 to alleviate agriculture worker shortages.  It includes multiple safeguards to ensure that domestic workers are chosen first for open positions and that hiring foreign workers won’t negatively affect U.S. wages. Extensive reviews are completed before workers are issued temporary work visas and granted admission to the country. Farmers pay for these reviews, often flying prospective employees hundreds of miles to available embassies or consulates for interviews.  Once workers arrive, farmers ensure they are well cared for by providing them with housing, transportation and meals. That includes transporting workers once a week to the supermarket if their housing includes a kitchen, and if it does not, providing them with three meals a day that meet federal nutrition guidelines. The program has serious shortcomings Despite these considerable costs, an American Farm Bureau Federation analysis found that H-2A is on track for record use this year. For many farmers like me, this is the only way to legally fill some jobs. But H-2A has plenty of shortcomings. The program is administered by five federal agencies that often issue contradicting guidance, making it difficult and time-consuming to use. H-2A is also notoriously inflexible, requiring farmers to determine months in advance when they’ll need help.  Visas can be delayed with little explanation, sometimes missing short windows to complete time-sensitive work. Not to mention that the program only allows temporary work, when local irrigators and equipment operators also are in short supply.  Without domestic labor to fill these year-round positions, critical work to grow and harvest food for Americans simply goes undone. And our country steadily loses its ability to feed its people.  Congress must pass reforms now Many have tried and failed to reform H-2A in the four decades since it was created. This one is different. U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Penn., has spent more than two years gathering ideas to expand and modernize this critical program.   Unlike previous attempts, his Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act has garnered wide support from agricultural groups. It allows farmers to recover more of their costs for housing and transportation. It opens H-2A to dairy, forestry and other agricultural industries experiencing extreme labor shortages.  And it allows employers to hire workers for longer portions of the year. In a perfect world, farmers like me would not need H-2A. But the strong market forces driving domestic labor shortages leave us little choice. This is a national issue, but reasonable labor reform will have lasting and positive impact for Arizona.  Congress has a rare opportunity to ensure farmers have the labor we need, when we need it. They must act quickly, so we can continue to deliver high-quality food to your plate. John Boelts is president of Arizona Farm Bureau. He grows lettuce, melons and other crops on a 3,000-acre farm in Yuma. Reach him at johnboelts@azfb.org. The post A rare opportunity to ensure farmers have the labor we need first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a879c0a2c5335ae1049311f Tesla, Uber, and Waymo all get the OK to operate thousands of robotaxis in Nevada te 2026-08-21T00:30:02.449Z Tesla, Uber, and Waymo all get the OK to operate thousands of robotaxis in Nevada Together, these permits would allow up to 8,000 robotaxis to be deployed over the next 12 months. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8799b12c5335ae104930c5 AI data startup Micro1 reaches $500M gross run rate amid AI training boom te 2026-08-21T00:20:01.738Z AI data startup Micro1 reaches $500M gross run rate amid AI training boom Surging demand for AI training data is driving rapid growth for the startup and its rivals. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a8797602c5335ae10493086 Bodycam shows Oklahoma secretary of state’s arrest outside a McDonald’s on public intoxication allegation te 2026-08-21T00:10:08.554Z Bodycam shows Oklahoma secretary of state’s arrest outside a McDonald’s on public intoxication allegation Newly released police bodycam video obtained by Fox News Digital shows Oklahoma Secretary of State Benjamin Lepak's encounter with police outside a McDonald's before officers arrested him on suspicion of public intoxication. Lepak was arrested Friday night in Edmond, after police responded around 10:45 p.m. to a report of a man who appeared to be drunk in public, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Fox News Digital. Officers found Lepak standing near the restaurant's drive-thru window and saw his vehicle in the parking lot, according to the affidavit. Lepak reportedly confirmed the vehicle belonged to him. According to the arrest affidavit, an officer said Lepak had "extremely slurred speech" and an "odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath." The officer also said Lepak struggled to remove his identification from his wallet. NEVADA GOVERNOR NAME-DROPS DURING TRAFFIC STOP AND AVOIDS RED-LIGHT CITATION Body camera video obtained by Fox News Digital shows officers questioning Lepak about where he had been, how much alcohol he had consumed and how he arrived at the McDonald's. Lepak told officers he had attended a gathering with other fathers at a church earlier in the evening, according to the video. As officers continued questioning him, Lepak disputed that he was unsteady on his feet. Police allege Lepak was unable to maintain a "coherent train of thought" during the encounter, according to the affidavit. Lepak acknowledged to drinking beer while speaking with officers. "I had a beer… that’s it," Lepak said, according to the affidavit. He later said he had consumed less than one beer because he did not finish it. BODYCAM SHOWS NANTUCKET OFFICIAL SLURRING, SWAYING DURING DUI STOP AFTER CRASHING INTO SIGN: POLICE Police allege Lepak also gave contradictory statements about whether he drove to the McDonald's and how he arrived there, according to the affidavit. Officers ultimately placed Lepak under arrest on suspicion of public intoxication. A spokesperson for Lepak told Fox News Digital that he was waiting outside the restaurant for his dinner and noted that police did not administer a breathalyzer test. "Mr. Lepak was waiting outside McDonald's for dinner. He was not given a breathalyzer test," the spokesperson said. "Mr. Lepak will address the ticket appropriately through the legal process." The arrest prompted Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond to call on Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt to fire Lepak. OKLAHOMA STATE AGENCY FIRES STAFF ATTORNEY AFTER ANTI-ICE SOCIAL MEDIA TIRADE "After reviewing footage from law enforcement body cameras, it is clear that Secretary of State Ben Lepak was thoroughly inebriated and very likely lied to law enforcement about how much he had to drink and how he and his car both arrived at the same place without him driving it," Drummond said in a news release. "This conduct is thoroughly unbecoming of a such a high ranking state official, and I am demanding that Gov. Stitt fire him immediately." Drummond also criticized Stitt for appointing Lepak. "Given the fact that Mr. Lepak had been arrested just a few years ago after being found unconscious in a running vehicle, Gov. Stitt should have known better than to elevate him to such a senior leadership position. Gov. Stitt has made countless errors in judgment like this during his tenure in office, including most recently when he intervened to help a campaign donor avoid further jail time," he added. "He cannot undo those past mistakes, but he can help our state avoid further embarrassment by firing Mr. Lepak immediately." FLORIDA MAYOR SAYS SHE 'DID NOT RESIST' ARREST OVER ALLEGED PROBATION VIOLATION FROM DUI CASE Stitt appointed Lepak to serve as Oklahoma secretary of state in October 2025. Lepak previously served as the governor's general counsel and as executive director of the State Chamber Research Foundation. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/post/6a87975f2c5335ae1049307d Carville unloads on DSA socialists: 'Don't use our god---- name' te 2026-08-21T00:10:07.836Z Carville unloads on DSA socialists: 'Don't use our god---- name' Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville did not mince words when he unloaded on his party's far-left insurgency on Thursday. "We get subjugated by some of the more outspoken people who, by the way, [are] not even Democrats," Carville said during a video news conference. "I wish they'd take the word Democrat out of their name. I have no idea why the Democratic socialists — if you hate the Democratic Party so much, well, then don't use our god---- name. Go think of your own name." JAMES CARVILLE BLAMES BERNIE SANDERS FOR TRUMP BEING PRESIDENT IN FIERY RANT He was one of several speakers at a media event promoting the Promise To America, a set of principles created in part by moderate House lawmakers, Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., and Adam Gray, D-Calif., as their party experiences a civil war over its identity and agenda. The Promise To America is about celebrating "capitalism, safety, fiscal responsibility, effective government, common purpose, and patriotism," according to its website. VULNERABLE DEMOCRAT WARNS PARTY TO 'FIGHT BACK' AGAINST GROWING SOCIALIST MOVEMENT It's the latest bid by moderate and pragmatic members of the left to distance themselves from the socialist wave that's already toppled several establishment-backed Democrats. The intraparty feud has also become a central campaign talking point for Republicans, who have argued that Democrats will try to push a far-left vision of the country beyond what most Americans want if they win the midterms in November. JOHNSON TURNS DEMOCRATS’ SOCIALIST CIVIL WAR INTO NEW WEAPON FOR MIDTERMS Carville said during the news conference that it was "just common sense." "That's so often what people are forgetting in politics. And for the life of me, I hope...that we do things like this that are popular, are actually helpful, that can help the country. Who's not for lower crime? I mean, everybody is, but we just need to restate it," he said. CARVILLE SAYS ONE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST'S 'LUNACY OF THE HIGHEST LEVEL' POLICY COULD HAUNT SWING-STATE DEMS He maintained that "80% of Democrats really want" what the Promise To America is promoting and criticized the far-left for drowning out those moderate voices. But just 10 House Democrats have signed onto the pledge so far — which Republicans have argued is evidence that the far-left is really capturing their party. Out of the litany of Democrats running for the House, just five are signatories. Suozzi argued, however, "We only want 10 members of Congress because we don't want to make it only about Washington. That's why we're going out to the state and local officials." Those who have not signed on include House Democrats' senior leaders, who have said little on the socialist insurgency. But Gray and Suozzi dismissed the notion that they were not getting enough support from their leaders when asked by Fox News Digital. "I think the leadership is being very supportive," Suozzi said of his own experience. "They have a lot to balance. They've got the whole country to worry about." Gray said, "The efforts on the cable news networks and everything else to nationalize our politics all the time, pretend that, you know, somebody in some big city represents all of us is absurd...it's a distraction, this idea that somehow some leader somewhere is supposed to win my district." Andhra Pradesh, Telangana https://meenews.co/home