The lawsuit targets Bill 23-26, signed into law July 27 by Democratic County Executive Marc Elrich, which creates vast gun-free zones around thousands of locations across the county.

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon posted a warning letter to the county Thursday, signaling the DOJ would not tolerate the county’s attempt to disarm law-abiding citizens at their places of worship.

“Congregants have a right to protect themselves and their community. The Second Amendment doesn’t stop at the church door.”

The complaint, filed in United States District Court for the District of Maryland, invokes the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Wolford v. Lopez, which struck down a similar law in Hawaii. DOJ attorneys argue Montgomery County cannot rebut the presumption that its law is unconstitutional.

“The nation has no ‘tradition of banning firearms in places of worship,'” the complaint states.

Montgomery County signed the bill in response to an April 28 ruling by Maryland’s Supreme Court that invalidated some of the jurisdiction’s previous firearms restrictions. Rather than comply with the constitutional mandate, county officials doubled down — creating exclusion zones so large that Dhillon says they make it “almost impossible for a law-abiding citizen with a valid carry license to walk down the street and avoid these exclusion zones.”

A spokeswoman for Montgomery County declined to comment on pending litigation.

History teaches us that people are particularly vulnerable to armed attacks during worship. That is why @CivilRights Division @TheJusticeDept is acting quickly to challenge Montgomery Co., MD’s law disarm congregants in houses of worship that permit firearms. pic.twitter.com/z85r04ohbW

— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) July 30, 2026

The stakes are real. History shows worshippers are uniquely vulnerable to attack.

In December 2019, an armed parishioner in Texas fatally shot a shotgun-wielding assailant who opened fire in the West Freeway Church of Christ. The attacker had already taken the life of a member of the church’s armed security team and a deacon before the armed congregant stopped him.

In 2015, nine people lost their lives in a Charleston, South Carolina, church attack. A Mormon church in Grand Blanc, Michigan, was targeted in September 2025 when a man rammed his vehicle into the building and opened fire on congregants.

Two gunmen targeted a San Diego mosque in May, only to be engaged by an armed security guard. The Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh was attacked by an assailant in October 2018.

The Civil Rights Division’s message is clear: Montgomery County’s attempt to create a patchwork of gun-free zones around houses of worship — regardless of what faith leaders want — will not stand.

“The Civil Rights Division will not stand idle while Montgomery County tramples the rights guaranteed to law-abiding citizens by the Second Amendment,” Dhillon said in the DOJ release.

The Supreme Court of Maryland issued its decision today in our challenge to the Montgomery County ordinance that basically banned carry by permit holders through out the County. On that issue we completely prevailed and the County lost. Specifically the Court held that the…

— Maryland Shall Issue (@MD_Shall_Issue) April 28, 2026

The August 5 procession will proceed as planned despite 88 deaths during last week’s migrant chaos, when tens of thousands of Moroccan illegal migrants stormed the North African city.

Ceuta, an 18.5 square kilometer Spanish territory on the northern coast of Africa, has long stood as a symbolic and literal frontier between Europe and Africa. The autonomous city, along with its sister enclave Melilla, represents one of the European Union’s only land borders with the African continent. This unique geographic position has made Ceuta a frequent flashpoint for migration pressures, as those seeking to enter European territory view the small enclave as a gateway to Spain and the broader EU.

The Daily Mail reported Monday a huge mob of Moroccans chanting “Allahu Akbar” clashed with Spanish National Police during demonstrations. Footage showed officers with batons charging toward illegal migrants who had taken over the streets.

The scenes represented the most severe challenge to public order in Ceuta since the 2021 migration crisis, when approximately 10,000 people crossed into the territory in a single day. That incident had been precipitated by tensions between Madrid and Rabat over diplomatic issues, demonstrating how migration flows to the enclave are often influenced by broader geopolitical dynamics between Spain and Morocco. The current crisis, however, has exceeded even those troubling precedents in terms of casualties and the scale of unrest.

“Throughout the centuries, Ceuta has successfully faced all manner of challenges without losing what defines it: its faith, its traditions, and its deep love for its Patroness.”

The Brotherhood of Our Lady of Africa met with city authorities and security officials Sunday and agreed to hold the two most important events — a Floral Offering on Tuesday, August 4, and the Solemn Procession on August 5, when the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary will transit through Ceuta’s streets under heightened security.

The decision came after Ceuta suspended all festivities planned between August 1 and 8, citing “uncertainty, instability, and concerns” following the worst migrant crisis the enclave has seen since 2021.

The suspension had initially encompassed all cultural and religious celebrations during what is traditionally one of the most important weeks in Ceuta’s liturgical calendar. The feast of Our Lady of Africa typically draws thousands of residents into the streets in a display of communal identity and religious devotion that transcends the city’s diverse population. The decision to carve out an exception for the two core religious events reflects the profound importance these traditions hold for Ceuta’s sense of civic cohesion, particularly during times of crisis.

The Brotherhood called the procession a demonstration that “our people remain united around Her.”

“True to that history and legacy, we are pleased to announce that both the Floral Offering and the Solemn Procession will take place as usual, allowing our city to once again come together with the Mother of all the people of Ceuta,” the Brotherhood said in a statement published Sunday.

Our Lady of Africa has been Ceuta’s Patroness since Pope Pius XII declared it in 1949. Her history in the city traces back to 1421, when Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal sent a picture of Our Lady of Africa to Ceuta.

The centuries-long devotion reflects Ceuta’s complex history as a territory that has been under Portuguese and then Spanish control since the 15th century. The Marian devotion has survived multiple sieges, regime changes, and social transformations, becoming deeply interwoven with the city’s identity regardless of political circumstances. The image and cult of Our Lady of Africa has served as a unifying force for the enclave’s predominantly Catholic population through numerous historical challenges.

The city conferred the title of “perpetual Mayor of Ceuta” upon Our Lady of Africa in 1654.

This extraordinary civic recognition, granting symbolic political authority to a religious figure, underscores the inseparable relationship between faith and governance in Ceuta’s historical consciousness. The title remains officially recognized today, with the Virgin’s image presiding ceremonially over city council proceedings during significant occasions.

The local Ceuta government welcomed the news that the events “deeply rooted in the traditions and sentiments of the people of Ceuta” can proceed. Authorities expressed gratitude for the collaboration ensuring the procession counts with necessary safeguards.

Security arrangements for the procession will include reinforced police presence along the processional route, coordination with national security forces, and contingency protocols developed specifically in response to the ongoing instability. The heightened measures reflect authorities’ determination to protect both participants and the broader public while allowing this expression of cultural continuity to proceed.

The Brotherhood proclaimed: “May the streets of Ceuta once again be filled with faith, devotion, and affection for the Virgin, demonstrating once more that our people remain united around Her.”

The apocalypse in Ceuta. pic.twitter.com/S8rEJNJJip

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) August 3, 2026

E.U. Vows ‘Emergency Meeting’ Six Days After Ceuta Illegal Migrant Invasion Beganhttps://t.co/iP8FOZNF7u

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 2, 2026

The Democrat-run state capitulated after the Supreme Court’s Chiles v. Salazar ruling made clear that viewpoint-based speech bans violate the Constitution.

“This is a major victory for children, counselors, and common sense. Kids who are hurting deserve compassion, not a one-way ticket to harmful drugs, hormones, and surgery. Now counselors can offer compassionate counseling without fearing that state bureaucrats will come knocking.”

Luke Goodrich, senior counsel at Becket and lead attorney for the counselors, said Michigan’s surrender confirms that “the Constitution and the best available science are on the side of counselors who help children find peace with their bodies.”

The case, known as Catholic Charities v. Whitmer, dealt with several Michigan-based counselors’ challenge to state laws barring them from engaging in talk therapy with minor clients facing discomfort with their biological sex. The challengers argued that such a prohibition violated their First Amendment rights.

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals handed plaintiffs a favorable ruling late last year, which was followed by the Supreme Court’s Chiles decision in March. In that case, the high court ruled 8-1 that a similar Colorado law “regulates speech based on viewpoint, and the lower courts erred by failing to apply sufficiently rigorous First Amendment scrutiny.”

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority:

“[T]he First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country. It reflects instead a judgment that every American possesses an inalienable right to think and speak freely, and a faith in the free marketplace of ideas as the best means for discovering truth. However well-intentioned, any law that suppresses speech based on viewpoint represents an ‘egregious’ assault on both of those commitments.”

In Thursday’s stipulated order, Biden-appointed Judge Jane Beckering noted that, in light of the 6th Circuit and Supreme Court’s rulings, the Catholic Charities plaintiffs have “demonstrated success on the merits” of their claim that Michigan’s laws represent an unlawful viewpoint-based restriction on speech.

She further observed that the plaintiffs have “established irreparable injury and that an injunction is in the public interest.”

Both parties agreed to the stipulated order and final judgement, which prohibits Michigan from enforcing the talk therapy ban against counselors in the state.

The court’s permanent injunction took effect immediately, according to the order.

“Michigan is now admitting its law is unconstitutional,” Goodrich said. “Its surrender confirms that the Constitution and the best available science are on the side of counselors who help children find peace with their bodies. States still trying to censor that care should take note.“

Michigan’s agreement to end enforcement of the contested laws is a noticeably different path than that of neighboring Wisconsin.

Months after the Supreme Court handed down its Chiles ruling, Democrat Gov. Tony Evers doubled down on seemingly defying the decision.

“I have no intention of repealing the ban on … conversion therapy on kids. Period. End of story. And no question,” Evers said during a June “Pride Flag Raising” event.

The contrast is clear: Michigan folded when faced with constitutional reality. Wisconsin’s Democrat governor is still fighting.

The intimate moment, which has resonated deeply with viewers, demonstrates the profound connection that can exist between parents and their children even before delivery. These kinds of interactions challenge conventional assumptions about fetal development and awareness.

The father placed his face close to the mother’s stomach and said, “Good morning, Happy Saturday. You hungry?”

The baby’s immediate, joyful reaction came instantly.

Such responses are not isolated incidents but part of a growing body of observational evidence documented through advancing ultrasound technology. Modern imaging capabilities have allowed expectant parents and medical professionals alike to witness behaviors and reactions in the womb that were previously invisible, fundamentally changing our understanding of prenatal development.

The video highlights the absurdity of abortion-rights advocates who ignore such unmistakable evidence of life in the womb. Beyond the heartwarming smile of a pre-born baby, remarkable scientific evidence underscores the vitality and humanity of the unborn long before they enter the world.

The advancement of medical imaging technology over recent decades has provided increasingly detailed windows into fetal development. What was once hidden from view is now observable in striking detail, allowing for documentation of movements, responses, and developmental milestones that occur throughout pregnancy.

A 2018 MRI scan captured a 20-week-old baby in utero actively moving around, turning her head, kicking, and displaying a clearly beating heart. Such vivid imagery demonstrates the undeniable truth of pre-born life.

The implications of such detailed imaging extend far beyond the medical realm, touching on fundamental questions about the nature of human development and the point at which life begins. These visual records provide tangible documentation that has become increasingly difficult to dismiss or explain away in policy debates.

“All of biology starts at the time of fertilization, yet we know next to nothing about the events that occur in the human.”

Yet despite these vivid depictions of developing human life, pro-abortion advocates and organizations like Planned Parenthood have continuously fought restrictions on late-term abortions.

This opposition persists even as imaging technology has made the developmental stages of unborn children more visible and accessible to the general public than ever before. The disconnect between what can now be observed and the policies being advocated has become a central point of contention in the ongoing abortion debate.

Planned Parenthood has aggressively condemned proposed 20-week abortion bans, labeling them “dangerous” and “out-of-touch.” Groups like Physicians for Reproductive Health accused pro-life policymakers of using “deceitful tactics.”

The organization’s stance reflects a broader position within abortion-rights advocacy that prioritizes procedural access over considerations of fetal development, regardless of the stage of pregnancy or the capabilities demonstrated by imaging technology.

Pro-abortion advocates consistently oppose efforts to allow pregnant women to view ultrasounds, claiming such procedures are “medically unnecessary” and “demeaning.”

This resistance to ultrasound viewing requirements suggests an acknowledgment, whether stated or not, of the potential impact such images might have on a woman’s decision-making process. The power of visual evidence to influence perspective is precisely what makes these policies controversial.

But the reality is clear: one look at her baby, and any mother is liable to recognize the living human being inside her.

The evidence that life and biological vitality begin at the very start of human existence goes all the way back to the moment of creation itself.

Scientific research has increasingly focused on the earliest moments of human development, seeking to understand the precise mechanisms that initiate and sustain new life. These investigations have yielded findings that have profound implications for how we understand the beginning of human existence.

In 2016, scientists at Northwestern University made a groundbreaking discovery — a breathtaking flash of light occurs at the exact moment of conception.

Researchers demonstrated that when a sperm first meets an egg, a bright light radiates outward in a remarkable burst.

This phenomenon, caused by zinc sparking at fertilization, represents a measurable, observable event marking the creation of new life. The discovery adds a literal illumination to the metaphorical understanding of life’s beginning, providing yet another data point in the scientific documentation of human development’s earliest stages.

Study co-author Professor Teresa Woodruff noted the significance: “All of biology starts at the time of fertilization, yet we know next to nothing about the events that occur in the human.”

Her observation highlights both the remarkable nature of the discovery and the vast amount that remains to be understood about early human development. As research continues and technology advances, more evidence emerges about the complex processes that unfold from the very beginning of human life.

From the breathtaking spark of light at the exact instant of fertilization to the visible heartbeat on an MRI and a pre-born child smiling at the sound of her father’s voice, the testimony of science and imagery overwhelmingly confirms the sacred reality of life in the womb.

This is the most detailed MRI scan of a preborn baby. The amazing video shows a child at 20 weeks moving around, turning her head, and kicking. The child's beating heart can also be seen.

Video via Channel Mum. More info: https://t.co/0B6kDp1B7i and https://t.co/MGwTRCzYg3 pic.twitter.com/U78GGziuZm

— Live Action (@LiveAction) January 17, 2018

A University of Warwick professor spent 30 years studying the connection between personality types and church preference — and the results confirm what many suspected but never said out loud.

Churchgoers aren’t a random sample of humanity. They lean hard toward one temperament: Sensing and Judging. The dutiful, the orderly, the people who show up early and bring the casserole.

Among American Catholic priests, more than a quarter test as ISTJ on the Myers-Briggs. In the general male population, it’s about one in six. The people running to the altar are wired a certain way before they ever get there.

Leslie Francis, an ordained minister and psychology professor, took thousands of pastors and churchgoers, ran them through psychological type measures, and published his findings in peer-reviewed journals. The pattern he found is striking.

In sermon-first churches — Bible-centered, plain, practical — 83% tested as Sensing types. In ritual-first churches with ceremony and mystery, that dropped to 69%.

Same denomination. Two personalities, sorted by whether the church has an organ or a fog machine.

The researchers checked whether theology explained the split. In a follow-up study of more than a thousand pastors, the personality gap held up even after controlling for how conservative and how charismatic each person was.

Strip out the theology, and the personality difference is still there. Their conclusion: it tracks a preference for worship style, not doctrine.

The organ people and the fog-machine people were sorting themselves by temperament. They just called it conviction.

Francis’s team has a profile for charismatics, too. Higher charismatic orientation lines up with Extraversion, Feeling, and Perceiving — the exact wiring of the person who wants to feel the room, follow the moment, and isn’t watching the clock.

Studies of brand-new churches — the kind meeting in a school gym or a movie theater — find they pull more Intuitives, more Extraverts, and more Perceivers than the established church down the road.

The science doesn’t say INTJ equals Presbyterian. It says the sensing-intuition axis maps onto ritual-versus-sermon. It says the dutiful SJ fills the traditional pew. It says the feelers chase the charismatic moment.

Here’s the uncomfortable part: if the stream you’re in is partly a function of how your brain came wired, a few of our favorite arguments look smaller.

The Bible-church guy who thinks the liturgy crowd is soft is, in part, a Sensing preference sneering at an Intuitive one. The traditionalist who finds the megachurch shallow is, in part, an Intuitive wrinkling his nose at a room full of Sensors having a perfectly nice time.

We dress our temperament up as discernment, and we call our comfort zone orthodoxy.

None of this makes anybody’s theology wrong. Calvinism isn’t false because it flatters the INTJ. Beauty isn’t a gimmick because Intuitives can’t live without it.

But it brings the question back: we forgive each other every other label. The Enneagram four gets to be dramatic. The ISTJ gets to color-code the church directory, and we call it a spiritual gift.

Denomination is the one tag we damn each other over — and it might be the one sitting closest to the wiring we already agreed to forgive.

The believer across town isn’t your enemy or your project. He might just be a different type, hearing the same gospel in a different key, sitting in the pew that fits how he was built.

Regional foreign policy experts told the Daily Caller the reports appear credible.

Citing current and former U.S. officials, the Washington Post reported Wednesday that the administration is considering strikes in Mali. The Malian government appeared caught off guard by the news.

“We have no confirmation and no official statement from the United States or U.S. officials on this matter. We are waiting to see what stance the U.S. government will take. I can assure you that Mali is not sitting idly by waiting for others to come and solve our problems.”

That was Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop speaking Thursday.

But Mali’s military government isn’t winning its fight against Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin — or JNIM.

The jihadist group is a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. It continues to gain ground as it seeks to replace the junta with a government based on Sharia law.

The White House neither confirmed nor denied that direct attacks are under consideration. But an administration official told the Caller that terrorism in the Sahel is a “multi-national problem” and urged “regional partners and NATO allies to support the Alliance of Sahel States in their war against JNIM and ISIS.”

The official said the U.S. wishes the Alliance of Sahel States success. But the alliance’s reliance on Russia’s ineffective counterterrorism capabilities has contributed to the “deteriorating security situation,” the official argued.

The administration hopes “other African nations take note of Russia’s terrible performance in combating terrorism.”

Russia’s incompetence may be exactly what draws the U.S. into the conflict.

Scott Morgan, a D.C.-based security consultant with Red Eagle Enterprises, told the Caller that a strike remains plausible. He suggested that although Russia’s partnership with Mali complicates matters, the opportunity to embarrass the Kremlin may be the draw.

A successful U.S. counterterrorism operation would give Russia a “black eye” and “screw over Putin,” Morgan said. He noted that money generated from the African conflict has helped prolong Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Morgan remains skeptical, however. Recently confirmed Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Frank Garcia visited Mali in mid-July. Yet no apparent agreement emerged — despite Garcia being the most likely administration official to broker one.

Ebenezer Obadare, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an expert on the region, was more confident that the U.S. will eventually become involved.

“It’s always been clear to people like myself who study the Sahel that, at some point, something has to be done.”

Obadare believes Russian incompetence, coupled with American inaction, could eventually force the U.S. to intervene as JNIM moves closer to destabilizing the region and threatening American interests across Africa.

He said that if Trump does intervene, it cannot be a two- or three-month operation. Instead, it would require a long-term commitment and partnership between the U.S. and Mali.

Such a partnership could share some features with the counterterrorism agreement between the U.S. and neighboring Nigeria.

That agreement seeks to advance the White House’s stated goals in Africa by preventing jihadi groups from establishing bases capable of launching attacks against the U.S. — while also seeking to “protect Christians, who have been slaughtered at the hands of these Jihadi groups.”

But both Obadare and Morgan said any agreement with Mali would differ significantly from the one reached with Nigeria.

Unlike Nigeria, which has a struggling but civilian government, Mali’s current leaders came to power through a series of coups beginning during the Obama administration.

A strong partnership between the world’s leading superpower and Mali could further entrench and legitimize the military government. However, Obadare said a carefully negotiated collaboration could both halt the jihadi advance and create conditions for the junta to eventually relinquish power.

The administration’s public rationale for intervening in Mali would also likely differ from its justification for working with Nigeria.

In Nigeria, Trump has repeatedly emphasized the persecution of Christians by jihadist groups. Experts say U.S. involvement in Mali would likely be framed around national security concerns instead.

Still, the State Department stressed that protecting persecuted Christians remains an administration priority.

“The Trump Administration has made it clear that protecting religious freedom for all individuals, including Christians — the most persecuted religious group worldwide — is a priority,” a State Department spokesperson told the Caller.

Open Doors, the Christian advocacy and research group whose figures Trump has cited in discussing U.S. policy toward Nigeria, ranks Nigeria as the seventh most dangerous country in the world for Christians.

Mali is not far behind at No. 15.

Five of these countries are in the top 15 of the latest list (#Somalia, #Eritrea, #Sudan, #Nigeria and #Mali), making them a place of extreme persecution for many of their Christians.

The escalating and widespread persecution in the region reinforces the importance of your… pic.twitter.com/FosKb8Kzvz

— Open Doors UK (@OpenDoorsUK) January 17, 2026

A legal expert working with Open Doors in sub-Saharan Africa told the Caller that the reports of possible U.S. action should draw international attention to the often-overlooked crisis facing Christians and moderate Muslims across Mali and the broader Sahel.

“Christian communities have faced attacks on churches, kidnappings of clergy, displacement, and pressure to abandon their faith, while millions across the region live under the constant threat of violence,” the legal expert said.

“As one local church leader told Open Doors, ‘While security in Bamako has improved, the situation remains deeply worrying for those in rural areas. Church activities in many communities remain limited because of the ongoing insecurity.'”

He added that any national or international response must prioritize protecting civilians. “Lasting peace will require sustained regional cooperation, accountability, and the protection of every community vulnerable to violence.”

Christians in Mali report being given a devastating ultimatum from Islamic extremists: give the militants money or soldiers, or flee their homes.

Read the story: https://t.co/XMo70CWRgMpic.twitter.com/vQzb2nnWfK

— Open Doors UK (@OpenDoorsUK) August 30, 2024

However, Obadare believes there are too few Christians remaining in Mali to generate the same level of documentation and advocacy seen in Nigeria — efforts he said are necessary to build broader continental support for counterterrorism operations.

“This is not just about defending Christians, which we should do,” Obadare said. “It’s about protecting our long-term interests in making sure the bad guys don’t become squatters in a region of West Africa, making themselves comfortable, and then ultimately bringing problems to us here in the United States.”

“West Africa is the epicenter of the Islamist insurgency in the entire world,” Obadare said. “You don’t need extra justification for that.”

Utah Senator Mike Lee and Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, along with more than 50 other lawmakers, are calling on Blanche to “comprehensively investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths of five preborn children” whose remains were recovered by the Metropolitan Police Department in 2022.

The babies were allegedly aborted at the Washington Surgi-Clinic operated by late-term abortionist Dr. Cesare Santangelo.

“For four years, members of Congress have remained alarmed at this clear violation of life and law, but the Biden Administration Department of Justice refused to act.”

The lawmakers want to know if the babies were victims of infanticide or illegal partial-birth abortion. Their remains are currently in the possession of the D.C. Medical Examiner.

Blanche, who has been acting attorney general since April, is in the midst of a confirmation battle on Capitol Hill. He faced the Senate Judiciary Committee last week in a two-day hearing where lawmakers questioned him about the Trump administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, among other issues.

Lee and three other signatories of Tuesday’s letter — Senators Chuck Grassley, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley — all serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Blanche will need their votes to get to a full floor vote and then for confirmation.

As the committee prepares to vote, the signatories are calling on Blanche to conduct a thorough investigation into each child’s circumstances, including autopsies of the infants and preservation of all collected evidence.

That is not all. They also want the babies to be properly buried.

The letter reads: “We cannot undo the grievous, barbaric acts that killed these children in their most vulnerable stage, but we equally cannot allow such lawlessness and inhumanity to evade our justice system any longer. Under President Trump’s and your leadership, we are hopeful that these children will finally receive the justice they deserve.”

A Justice Department official told The Daily Wire on Tuesday afternoon that the DOJ has gathered and reviewed documents related to the DC Five and is in the process of finalizing that process and turning things over to Congress. Should Congress identify any crimes in the DOJ’s trove of documents, the DOJ will “certainly investigate those matters,” the official shared.

DOJ spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said, “The Department of Justice is aware of the Senators’ request and takes these matters seriously. As with all allegations of potential criminal conduct, the Department will review the information carefully and will investigate any credible allegations of criminal actions. The Department remains committed to following the facts and the law wherever they lead.”

Pro-life activists Lauren Handy and Terrisa Bukovinac originally discovered the baby bodies in boxes outside a Foggy Bottom abortion clinic in 2022 shortly before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Advocates and Republican lawmakers have sounded the alarm for years about these babies, warning that they appear to have been brutally and illegally aborted in violation of federal law. But the Biden administration took no steps to properly investigate the matter, instead targeting the women who recovered the bodies.

Doctors estimated to The Daily Wire in 2022 that several of the babies were victims of late-term abortions — and that at least one baby may have been aborted using illegal partial-birth abortion methods, showing “deep lacerations to the posterior neck which presumably correlates to the method of abortion used to end her life.”

If the baby girl was alive when the abortionist made these lacerations, her circumstances would directly violate the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 (18 U.S. Code § 1531), which criminalizes the partial deliverance of a living child for the purpose of performing an overt act that intentionally takes the life of the child.

The lawmakers also point to the estimations of pro-life doctors, noting that one baby boy was estimated to be around 28 to 32 weeks, while another baby looked “like he should have been in the nursery” and was “about the same size as [her] granddaughter when she was born.”

Lee and Smith called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to conduct an investigation into the babies in 2022, but the Justice Department never investigated or responded.

Worse, after two years of inaction, reports indicated that the Department of Justice advised the Chief Medical Examiner to discard the bodies of the infants. Fortunately, members of Congress were able to intervene with the Chief Medical Examiner and urge him to preserve the bodies.

As recently as April, Republican Reps. Chip Roy (TX) and Andy Biggs (AZ) pushed FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate the babies and their circumstances.

The charges remain allegations. The case has not been proven in court.

The film preserves Homer’s ancient moral universe intact: a masculine, conservative ethos forged in an age when humans answered to a higher order, choices carried consequences, and family, kingship, and faith imposed obligations.

“Any online notions that Nolan has ‘gone woke’ are misguided or intentionally misleading.”

Matt Damon stars as a grizzled Odysseus, the cunning Greek soldier whose intellect proves inseparable from his hubris. Nolan’s Bronze Age world dispenses with poetic frills — soldiers speak in ordinary American accents and hurl F-bombs. Nobody sounds like they wandered in from a classics seminar.

The director’s most direct treatment of the journey-home theme opens with the Trojan Horse. Nolan depicts the storied horse with intriguing practicality — a crude vessel washed ashore rather than a picturesque wooden statue. Greek soldiers spend days crammed inside under harrowing conditions, explaining why Trojans lower their guard.

Odysseus’s journey becomes a reckoning for arrogance. After sacking Troy, he begins to believe himself above the gods and above reproach. His voyage home punishes that pride through a collection of famous ordeals.

The cyclops Polyphemus sequence delivers spectacle deserving of the biggest screen available. A 60-foot cyclops stalks through darkness, plucking soldiers from the ground for supper, while Ludwig Goransson’s pounding score drives the terror home.

After escaping, Odysseus heedlessly fires an arrow into Polyphemus’s eye, inviting the wrath of the cyclops’s father, Poseidon, and condemning his men to a torturous voyage.

The film’s teasers read “defy the gods.” The phrase turns out to describe Odysseus’s folly rather than heroic aspiration. To sail past the sirens, he orders his men to bind him to the mast so he may hear their forbidden music. It reminded the reviewer of President Donald Trump staring directly into a solar eclipse without protective eyewear.

Sirens, Circe’s transformation of Odysseus’s men into pigs, and his encounter with the Laestrygonians — towering, man-eating giants armed with tree-sized cleavers — rank among the most masterfully terrifying sequences in recent memory.

Back in Ithaca, the moral architecture of Homer’s world expresses itself through Zeus’s law — the sacred obligation of hospitality known as xenia. Strangers arriving at one’s doorstep are to be welcomed with food and wine. Penelope’s suitors violate it extravagantly, occupying Odysseus’s home, consuming his stores, threatening his son, and pressuring his wife into marriage.

The performances deliver uniformly. Pre-release anxiety over casting feels silly once immersed in Nolan’s grim, torchlit world where everyone is weary and coated in dirt or oil.

Lupita Nyong’o appears in only two scenes as Helen of Troy, but she is appropriately arresting. Her dark complexion immediately sets her apart, lending Helen the otherworldly presence demanded of the face that launched a thousand ships. Because the contrast serves the film’s visual mythology, it never feels like diversity-focused casting.

Anne Hathaway shines as Penelope, the grieving queen awaiting her husband while scores of suitors vie for her hand. Robert Pattinson stands out as Antinous, the most brazen suitor who carries the ruthless entitlement of a man plotting to murder Penelope’s son, Tom Holland’s Telemachus, while feasting through his inheritance.

Nolan takes creative liberties. Odysseus recounts his ordeals to his captor, Calypso (Charlize Theron), reimagined as a benevolent therapist and desperate romantic. More significantly, Nolan largely removes the gods from the action. Athena (Zendaya) appears sporadically in visions, closer to a manifestation of conscience than a deity intervening in mortal affairs.

Yet The Odyssey endures for reasons deeper than its gods and monsters. Nolan treats the storms, sirens, and shipwrecks as consequences of Odysseus’s pride — external manifestations of a man who believes himself above the mortal plane.

Whether that higher order is personified by Poseidon or understood through monotheistic faith, the moral proposition remains: no man, however clever, is sovereign over creation.

Homer’s great question is whether a man can be stripped of his name and decades of his life yet still return home and reclaim the identity he left behind. Everyone is trying to find a way back — to a home, a love, an identity, or the person they were before life altered them.

Along with its epic scale and cinematic grandeur, this is what Nolan succeeds in capturing.

State Rep. Francesca Hong, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, and State Sen. Kelda Roys each made the pledge during a July forum co-hosted by the Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance and Wisconsin Muslim Civic Foundation.

The event brought together Wisconsin’s Muslim community and allies for what organizers described as “an evening of civic dialogue, accountability, and engagement.”

In video provided exclusively to Breitbart News, the forum host framed anti-Sharia legislation as unfairly targeting Muslim religious practice and violating the First Amendment before asking whether the candidates would veto such bills.

“SHARIA LAW IS AN EXTREME IDEOLOGY, AND THESE RADICAL DEMOCRATS ARE WILLING TO PUT SHARIA LAW ABOVE WISCONSIN VALUES. WISCONSINITES WILL FULLY REJECT THEM.”

Hong, Barnes, and Roys all indicated they would veto the legislation.

Republican Governors Association Communications Director Kollin Crompton told Breitbart News: “Sharia Law is an extreme ideology, and these radical Democrats are willing to put Sharia Law above Wisconsin values. Wisconsinites will fully reject them.”

The three candidates are competing alongside Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and former Gov. Tony Evers aide Joel Brennan in the Democrat primary to succeed Evers, who is not seeking another term.

Hong, a democratic socialist, recently called hospitals “cowardly” for stopping what she described as “gender-affirming care” for minors. She has pledged to veto legislation targeting LGBT and transgender-identifying people and supports using taxpayer funds to expand access to gender-transition treatments, including by investing in clinics.

Barnes unsuccessfully challenged Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in 2022, with his campaign and outside groups spending more than $96 million combined. He has called the nation’s founding “awful,” said national parks “weren’t made for the enjoyment of people who weren’t white,” and backed reducing police spending, abolishing ICE, allowing illegal aliens to receive driver’s licenses and in-state tuition, ending the Senate filibuster, establishing government-run health care, and criminalizing certain expanding ammunition.

Roys has supported additional firearm restrictions, including a proposal to bar licensed concealed-carry permit holders from possessing guns on university or college property. “When people have unfettered access to firearms, we can’t live free from the fear of gun violence,” she said.

After a December 2024 handgun attack at Abundant Life Christian School, Roys advocated background checks and red-flag laws, arguing that states with such measures “see gun deaths and firearm injuries go down.”

On the Republican side, President Trump endorsed Rep. Tom Tiffany in January, calling him a “Highly Respected America First Congressman” and giving him his “Complete and Total Endorsement.”

Tiffany has raised more than $10 million since launching his campaign in September 2025, including more than $8 million from January through June. He has pledged to freeze property taxes, block Chinese ownership of Wisconsin farmland, preserve sex-based distinctions in sports and state law, reduce regulations, and “clean up the bull” in Madison.

A major Supreme Court ruling just exposed the surveillance state hiding inside America’s K-12 schools, and parents need to know what’s at stake.

The Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Chatrie v. United States focused on whether law enforcement accessing Google Location History data constituted a Fourth Amendment search. The court ruled it does.

“An individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in records about his cell phone’s location, and police intrude on that constitutionally protected interest when they demand the information from a third-party tech company.”

The court explained that Location History “tracks and tracks and tracks” the device and the user carrying it. The location data collected provides the government “a virtual panopticon with which to scrutinize its citizens’ activities” — and thus qualifies for Fourth Amendment protections.

Fourth Amendment searches require probable cause. Law enforcement must detail that probable cause in a warrant application, get approval from the correct judicial authority, and conduct the search within the parameters outlined in the warrant.

But schools are doing this without warrants.

Schools collect location data on students through education technology programs and apps. Most parents have no idea the extent to which their own location data is collected and used.

One example: the Thomson Reuters CLEAR software, which allows designated school district personnel to “access license plate data and develop pattern of life information” on students and families.

The software markets itself as a solution to help school personnel save time verifying student addresses. But the capabilities go far beyond address verification, with features such as alert functions to allow district personnel to “get notified immediately when any relevant information changes with a student.”

These expansive surveillance functions are not surprising, given the company’s own description of the product as a “powerful online investigation software” with applications in law enforcement and investigative financial services.

Parents are not informed of the intense level of location surveillance being conducted on them, their student, and their family members.

The CLEAR searches are not being conducted by law enforcement personnel, but by school administrators. No warrants are needed. No uniform compliance protections are in place.

Programs such as Google Workspace for Education and many other education tech applications collect student location data based on tracking and storing school-issued device locations. These devices are often carried by students outside the classroom — to sports practices, work, coffee dates, and ultimately to their private homes.

This essentially mimics the “virtual panopticon” referenced in Chatrie as it captures the student’s pattern of life via their location history — which is fully accessible to designated school administrators at all times.

Even as students have reduced Fourth Amendment protections at school, they still have them — and they certainly have them outside the school premises.

The tension between these K-12 education programs and Chatrie is bound to create a stir as parents and their students begin questioning these surveillance practices and asserting their Fourth Amendment constitutional rights.

The Supreme Court just handed parents the legal ammunition to fight back against school surveillance overreach.

Truth in Education offers an opt-out form covering a variety of sensitive subjects along with instructions on how to file it with your child’s school. Parents can visit the organization’s website or contact info@truthineducation.org for help enforcing opt-outs or with questions about school district data collection capabilities.

The charges remain allegations. The case has not been proven in court.