Fans in his native Ireland and around the world expressed condolences online this week after news broke that musician and actor Glen Hansard was killed in a motorcycle collision. Hansard leaves behind a long catalog of work, including his Oscar-winning track on the soundtrack for the independent film “Once.” The New York Post provided these details: “With broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard in the early hours of this morning,” the statement read. “We are still dealing with the shock of it all, so we kindly ask that the privacy of Glen’s family, colleagues and friends is respected at this difficult time.” Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin mourned Hansard’s sudden death, calling him “a talented musician and actor who made ⁠a significant contribution to Ireland’s cultural landscape over many years.” Tributes soon started to pour in via social media: Sometimes I would wonder if Glen Hansard really existed…. Seriously, he was such an angelic presence… not otherworldly…in fact, very present this presence… A smiling rascal if you needed him to be… this most musical and mischievous archangel of Ballymun… no airs, plenty… pic.twitter.com/8d8Cw6YTSb — U2 (@U2) July 29, 2026 Here’s the full text from U2’s Bono: Sometimes I would wonder if Glen Hansard really existed….  Seriously, he was such an angelic presence… not otherworldly…in fact, very present this presence…  A smiling rascal if you needed him to be… this most musical and mischievous archangel of Ballymun… no airs, plenty of graces…   Of course, Glen was the shining star of the Christmas Eve busk… sometimes the only one reminding the rest of us that Christmas began with a refugee born in a manger, which is hardly a step from living on the street.  To be utterly yourself by being more interested in others – a clue for any of us trying out different personas. He really was who you thought he was. He could never walk by a person living rough without checking they were OK… and more than that, he worked very hard so that less people had to live on the streets in the first place. When the crowds got bigger and for safety’s sake Glen had to agree to move the busk to a stage kindly provided outside The Gaiety Theatre, he would say ‘we’ll give it our best but it’s not a busk if we’re not on the street!’ …because that’s who he was – a performer at eye level in any situation. The stage was a separation he wouldn’t recognize. Of all the grand and gigantic venues he and The Frames played, you sensed the street was his most favoured place to perform. And street people, his favourite audience.  Voice of the streets. A choir of angels in one man. The rest of us blessed to stand there beside our very own and very earthed Angel Gabriel… All of us welcome in his choir, whatever shape or form.  ….and I’m telling myself this morning that if he never existed, then he can never cease to exist. For me, he will always be everywhere I see a coin spinning into an open guitar case.  May you rest in the peace you gave to so many.  Bono RIP Glenn one of the all time greats . Dreadfully sad — conor woods (@woodzycon) July 29, 2026 Absolutely heartbreaking. Glen Hansard's music, especially Falling Slowly, touched so many people. Rest in peace, and condolences to his family and loved ones. — Shola (@djjokotola) July 29, 2026 Per Fox News: Born in Ballymun, Dublin, in 1970, he began playing music as a teenager while busking throughout the city.  In 1990, he founded The Frames, a band that developed a devoted following over several decades. Around the same time, Hansard expanded into acting, appearing as guitarist Outspan Foster in Alan Parker’s 1991 film “The Commitments.” His career continued to evolve after “Once.” Alongside Irglová, he formed The Swell Season while also maintaining an active solo career.   His 2015 album “Didn’t He Ramble” earned a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. Hansard was equally recognized for the way he remained connected to Dublin’s music community despite his international success. Each Christmas Eve, he gathered fellow musicians outside Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre for a charity busking tradition benefiting the Dublin Simon Community, an annual event that became a holiday fixture for locals. Here’s a performance of his Oscar-winning song:     What are your thoughts? TAP HERE TO ADD YOUR VOTE This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here. The post Oscar-Winning Musician And Actor, 56, Killed In Motorcycle Crash appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

President Trump’s top commander in the Middle East just delivered a warning that should stop every deployed service member cold. The danger is not coming from some exotic new Iranian weapon. It may already be sitting in a soldier’s pocket. Reuters reported Wednesday that Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, warned American personnel that photos and videos taken on personal devices can give Iran information it needs to make the next attack more lethal. Cooper issued the warning in a July 28 letter as commanders weigh tighter controls on personal phones at bases across the Middle East. Military sources said personnel stationed in Jordan could be required to surrender their devices within days. Cooper’s concern goes far beyond whether a post reveals that an attack happened. Tehran already knows when it launched a missile or drone, but American countermeasures can make the result much harder to see. What Iran may not know is whether the weapon missed by dozens of yards, struck an empty part of a base, damaged equipment, or sent personnel running toward a particular shelter. That uncertainty can protect the people and facilities Iran is trying to hit. A single clip can strip that protection away. It can expose where troops moved, which routes they used, what survived, how quickly a base reacted, and where a follow-up strike might do more damage. That turns an innocent-looking post into free battlefield intelligence. Cooper reportedly pointed to a recent video recorded with camera-equipped Meta smart glasses during an Iranian missile and drone attack. The footage showed where and how the wearer evacuated to a bunker. That is the chilling part. The service member did not need to publish coordinates, identify the base, or describe a defensive system. The video itself carried the answer.   Electronic jamming and other countermeasures can make it difficult for Iran to assess the success of a strike in real time. Public videos, photographs, news reports, and social posts can fill that gap before the next wave is launched. Reuters also reported that some U.S. personnel could soon be ordered to surrender their phones. Military sources said troops stationed in Jordan may face new restrictions within days. That would be a painful change for deployed Americans who depend on their phones to speak with spouses, children, and parents back home. But commanders are dealing with a brutal equation: convenience on one side, operational security and American lives on the other. The military has warned about this threat for years. U.S. Army Social Media Safety guidance tells personnel to turn off geotagging and location-based social networking on phones and digital cameras. It specifically warns troops not to post images revealing locations, equipment, tactical unit details, personnel numbers, security procedures, or damaged gear. The guidance applies to ordinary personal posts as well as official military accounts. Those details may appear harmless when viewed one at a time. An enemy intelligence officer can combine landmarks, timing, uniforms, vehicles, equipment, and background activity into a map of how a base operates under attack. The Army’s warning is blunt: assume adversaries are reading every public post. It also urges military families to understand operational security because information shared from home can expose deployment dates, movements, and unit activity. There is grim history behind that rule. Military officials have previously described how geotagged photographs uploaded from a base in Iraq exposed the precise location of newly arrived attack helicopters before enemy fire destroyed several aircraft. Geotagging can place map coordinates inside a photograph without the person posting it ever typing a location. Even when that metadata is absent, visible clues in the frame can still identify a position. Today’s devices can reveal even more. A modern phone or pair of smart glasses can record high-resolution video, location data, landmarks, defensive reactions, shelter entrances, and the timing between an alarm and an impact. None of that needs to be classified to become deadly in the wrong hands. Cooper’s warning is really about discipline in a war where the battlefield extends into every camera roll and social feed. A deployed American may see a ten-second clip to send home. Iran may see a battle-damage report, a response-time study, and a target list for the next attack. That is why the order may soon become much simpler than another reminder about privacy settings. Put the phone away — or hand it over. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here. The post President Trump’s Top Middle East Commander Warns One Everyday Device Could Cost American Lives appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

The numbers are in, and they are the kind of numbers the political class cannot talk its way around. Homicides are down. Carjackings are down. Robberies are down. Vehicle thefts are down. And the United States is now on track for a homicide rate not seen in more than a century. That is the public-safety picture taking shape 18 months after President Trump returned to the White House with a promise to restore law and order. The White House put the result front and center Wednesday: Crime Plummets to Another Historic Low Under President Trump whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/… — Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) July 29, 2026 The new mid-year data comes from the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice, and the top-line number is remarkable. Across 30 cities with homicide data, killings fell 18 percent during the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year. That translates to 215 fewer people murdered in just six months. The decline is even more dramatic when measured against the recent peak. Homicides are down 51 percent from the first half of 2022. Carjackings have dropped 73 percent from their 2023 peak, residential burglaries are down 56 percent from their 2018 peak, and motor-vehicle theft is down 51 percent from 2023. The Council on Criminal Justice examined 13 offenses in 36 large cities that consistently publish monthly figures. Nine of those 13 offenses were lower in the first half of 2026 than they were during the same stretch of 2025. Carjacking posted the largest one-year decline at 47 percent. Motor-vehicle theft fell 20 percent, robbery dropped 17 percent, residential burglary declined 13 percent, and homicide fell 18 percent. Only shoplifting remained above its pre-pandemic 2019 level when the researchers compared the broader nine-year trend. The homicide count fell in 21 of the 30 cities that supplied data for that offense. Rochester dropped 76 percent, Little Rock fell 61 percent, Arlington declined 60 percent, and Colorado Springs was down 53 percent. The report also recorded setbacks instead of hiding them. Homicides rose in eight cities, while reported domestic violence increased 8 percent and drug offenses rose 12 percent across the available sample. The group says the national homicide rate is likely headed for another historic low: Homicide is down 51% from the recent peak at mid-year 2022, putting the national homicide rate on track for another historic low, building on the record low CCJ projected for full-year 2025. counciloncj.org/crime-trends-i… — Council on Criminal Justice (@CouncilonCJ) July 23, 2026 The scale goes far beyond a small statistical wobble. Multiple categories of violent and property crime are moving lower at the same time. Twenty-one of the 30 cities reporting homicide data recorded fewer killings. Rochester was down 76 percent, Little Rock fell 61 percent, Arlington dropped 60 percent, and Colorado Springs declined 53 percent. Some cities still moved in the wrong direction. Homicides rose sharply in Norfolk, San Francisco, Dallas, and Salt Lake City, and domestic-violence and drug-offense figures also increased across the wider sample. That matters because honest reporting should never turn good national news into a claim that every neighborhood is suddenly safe. It is not. The researchers also caution that their 36-city sample does not represent every city in America. They do not credit any single policy, and they note that the homicide decline began during the second half of 2022. Fair enough. Crime is complicated, local policies matter, and no president can take personal credit for every arrest made by every officer in every city. But presidents are judged by what happens on their watch, by the priorities they set, and by whether progress continues or collapses under their leadership. On that test, these numbers are a major win for President Trump. The White House highlighted the 18 percent homicide decline, the 47 percent drop in carjackings, and the steep improvement in cities where the administration has surged federal attention and resources. Memphis homicides are down more than 43 percent this year, while Washington, D.C., is down more than 42 percent. New Orleans is down more than 32 percent. Los Angeles is down more than 18 percent. The administration ties those results to backing police, enforcing immigration law, targeting violent offenders, and refusing to treat public disorder as an unavoidable feature of American life. It also points to fewer murders last year in Memphis, New Orleans, Chicago, and Washington as evidence that the improvement was already broadening before the new mid-year figures arrived. Its case is strongest in cities where federal task forces put more agents, prosecutors, intelligence, and enforcement pressure against repeat offenders and organized criminal networks. The White House says the same approach produced fewer than 200 murders in Memphis last year for the first time since 2019. That last point is bigger than any campaign slogan. For years, Americans were told to lower their expectations. They were told that brazen theft, carjackings, fentanyl, gang violence, and unsafe downtowns were problems too complicated to solve — and that demanding order somehow made them cruel. President Trump rejected that entire premise. He made public safety a federal priority, put law enforcement back on offense, and insisted that the government’s first duty is to protect innocent people. Now the numbers are moving in the direction Americans were told was impossible. There is more work to do, especially in the cities still moving backward. One victim is one too many, and no family comforted by a national trend gets its loved one back. But 215 fewer homicides in six months means 215 people who were not added to that terrible count. Those 215 lives are a result worth defending — and a reminder that law and order is a flesh-and-blood responsibility, not an abstract political argument. It is life or death. The post New Crime Numbers Just Delivered a Stunning Verdict on President Trump’s First 18 Months appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

President Trump just moved America’s technology fight with China out of the computer chip and into the physical world. The Federal Communications Commission has blocked new foreign-made humanoid robots, four-legged robot dogs, and connected power inverters from entering the American market without a national-security clearance. Yes, robot dogs. And the reason this move matters goes far beyond a futuristic machine walking around a trade-show floor. The FCC confirmed the action Tuesday evening: FACT SHEET —Today, the FCC updated its Covered List to include two new categories of devices—“advanced robotic devices” (defined as mobile robots, such as humanoids and quadrupeds) and, separately, connected power inverters produced in foreign countries. Read more pic.x.com/IdVwHjywwr x.com/BrendanCarrFCC… — FCC (@FCC) July 28, 2026 These devices can see, listen, map rooms, connect to networks, move through homes and workplaces, and collect enormous amounts of real-world data. Put a hidden back door inside one, and the threat can walk through the building. The Federal Communications Commission added two categories to its Covered List: foreign-produced advanced robotic devices and foreign-produced connected power inverters. The robot category covers mobile machines such as humanoids and quadrupeds. The inverter category covers connected equipment that converts direct current into alternating current for solar systems, data centers, industrial facilities, and other parts of the electric economy. A White House-convened interagency group determined that both categories can pose unacceptable risks to national security or to the safety and security of Americans. The FCC says those risks include cyberattacks, surveillance, supply-chain disruption, and vulnerabilities affecting critical infrastructure. National-security officials warned that a compromised robot could collect sensitive information or be remotely controlled, while manipulated inverters could threaten the systems delivering electricity to homes, businesses, and data centers. The order leaves devices already in American hands alone. Americans can keep using devices they already own, and retailers can continue selling models previously approved through the FCC process. The restrictions apply to new models seeking authorization after the change. Foreign manufacturers can also seek conditional approval from federal national-security agencies if they can prove a device or product line does not present the identified risk. The Department of War can grant a conditional approval for qualifying robots or inverters. The Department of Homeland Security also has approval authority for power inverters, giving legitimate manufacturers a path into the market after a security review. China will feel the new screen hardest. Axios reported that China is far ahead in the physical side of the artificial-intelligence race, with more than two million industrial robots operating inside Chinese factories — roughly five times the American total. The report also pointed to research finding an apparent back door pre-installed on popular Unitree robot dogs. A networked machine with cameras, microphones, sensors, and remote-control capability becomes a mobile security threat when its software cannot be trusted. Worldwide deployments now exceed 500,000 new robots each year, more than double the annual total a decade ago. China has also built an enormous home-market advantage that helps its companies lower costs, improve hardware quickly, and push aggressively into overseas markets. That growth means a security problem discovered after mass adoption would be expensive, disruptive, and potentially impossible to remove quickly. The power-inverter risk runs alongside the robotics threat because both categories combine foreign hardware, embedded software, internet connectivity, and access to sensitive physical systems. That is precisely why the administration acted before millions of these devices could spread through American homes, warehouses, laboratories, police departments, and power facilities. The electric-grid piece may be even more consequential. Power inverters sit between electricity generation and the systems that consume that power. They are essential in solar installations and increasingly important to the massive data centers powering the AI boom. A foreign adversary with hidden access to enough connected inverters would not need to send a bomber to threaten the grid. The vulnerability could already be bolted to a wall in plain sight. Representative Mary Miller called the move a win for American security: The Trump Administration took a major step to protect America’s power grid by banning imports of new Chinese power inverters used in solar projects covering our farmland. America’s electric grid should never depend on technology from a foreign adversary. This is a win for pic.x.com/2y00evP2a — Rep. Mary Miller (@RepMaryMiller) July 29, 2026 The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party warned last month that Beijing’s massive subsidies allow Chinese robotics companies to flood markets with artificially cheap machines. Committee leaders argued that the result could be the destruction of American competitors followed by deep dependence on Chinese suppliers. They also pointed to Beijing’s military-civil fusion strategy, which connects commercial robotics, sensors, batteries, and artificial intelligence to the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army. The committee’s bipartisan GUARD Act would place foreign-made robotics communications equipment under the same kind of scrutiny already applied to other sensitive technologies. Supporters said cheap subsidized imports could bankrupt American robot makers before the domestic industry has a chance to scale. Security specialists supporting the bill warned that mobile robots create a gap in the existing framework because their communications systems, cameras, sensors, and physical movement give them access unlike an ordinary appliance. That is the familiar Chinese playbook: subsidize a strategic industry, undercut foreign producers, capture the supply chain, and turn economic dependence into political leverage. America watched it happen with rare-earth minerals, solar panels, batteries, drones, pharmaceuticals, and telecommunications equipment. President Trump is refusing to let the same thing happen with machines that can physically move through American life. Critics will call the action protectionist. Beijing already has. But there is nothing “free market” about forcing American companies to compete against firms subsidized by the Chinese Communist Party while ignoring the security cost of putting foreign-controlled sensors and machines into critical infrastructure. Innovation still matters. Competition still matters. So does the basic right of the United States to decide that a foreign adversary does not get an unchecked pipeline into America’s power grid, factories, data centers, and homes. The age of humanoid robots is coming whether Washington is ready or not. For once, America is setting the security rules before the technology becomes impossible to unwind. The post President Trump Just Shut the Door on a Chinese Technology Most Americans Never Saw Coming appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

A federal judge just put a major legal fight involving President Trump on a new clock. U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday has kept the dispute alive while giving Trump’s attorneys another opportunity to sharpen their complaint before he rules on a pending dismissal request. The deadline is now set: August 27. The case is President Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, several of its journalists, and Penguin Random House. The latest order carries real weight, but it is more complicated than a simple Trump win or loss. Merryday has not decided whether Trump’s claims ultimately have legal merit. He has deferred that decision long enough to let the president’s legal team address potential weaknesses in the pleading. The judge kept the courthouse door open — with conditions. Bloomberg Law reported that Merryday deferred ruling on The Times’ motion to dismiss and gave Trump until August 27 to file a revised complaint. Once that document is filed, The Times will have three weeks to submit what the judge called a “succinct” response. The schedule tells us exactly where the case stands. The dismissal request remains unresolved, and the defendants retain the right to challenge whatever Trump files next. Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers get another chance to make their allegations specific enough to survive federal pleading rules. That means the lawsuit remains alive, but it has not reached discovery or a trial on the merits. The next complaint could determine whether the fight advances or runs into another dismissal effort. For both sides, August 27 is now the date that matters. Trump’s lawyers have a very specific assignment. Defamation cases involving a public figure are difficult by design. It is not enough to show that a publication was harsh, damaging, or politically hostile. A plaintiff generally must identify the challenged statements, explain why they are false and defamatory, connect them to the defendants responsible for them, and plausibly allege actual malice. Actual malice is a demanding legal standard. It concerns whether a defendant knew a statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for whether it was true. Trump has said the revised complaint will lay out those allegations in far greater detail. He celebrated the order and vowed to keep holding major media organizations accountable for coverage he considers false and defamatory. That is the political message. The legal assignment is narrower: turn those accusations into a complaint that can withstand another round of motions from some of the most experienced media lawyers in the country. This will be the second major rewrite opportunity. The federal docket collected by Justia identifies the lawsuit as Trump v. The New York Times Company et al., No. 8:25-cv-02487-SDM-NHA, in the Middle District of Florida. It also traces the sequence from the original September filing to the October amended complaint and the defendants’ December dismissal motions, giving the latest order context as the next step in a pleading dispute that has been active for months. Merryday is listed as the presiding district judge, and the case remains assigned to the federal court in Tampa where Trump originally filed it. The original complaint, filed in September 2025, ran 85 pages and accused the defendants of defamation tied to years of reporting and a book about Trump’s business career and public rise. Merryday struck that filing under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8, which requires a short and plain statement of the claim. Trump responded with a shorter amended complaint on October 16, 2025. The current defendants are The New York Times Company, journalists Susanne Craig, Russ Buettner and Peter Baker, and book publisher Penguin Random House. The Times and the other defendants moved to dismiss in December, and that is the request Merryday has now deferred. The history raises the stakes for the August filing. The court has already demanded a cleaner pleading once. Trump’s legal team now has another opportunity to present the challenged statements and supporting allegations in a form the judge believes complies with federal rules. The Times insists the extra time will not save the lawsuit. TheWrap reported that The New York Times characterized Merryday’s order as another chance for Trump to draft a complaint that demonstrates legal merit. The newspaper maintained that his lawsuit has none. The Times’ response is an important counterweight to Trump’s celebration. Its motion was not granted, yet its arguments were not rejected. The defendants will see the new allegations before filing their next response, and they will be able to attack any claim they believe still falls short. Merryday’s instruction that the response be “succinct” also suggests the next round should focus tightly on the revised pleading. The legal fight is moving forward on a controlled schedule, not racing toward a jury. For now, Trump gained time and another opening. The Times preserved its central argument that the case should be dismissed. The $15 billion demand covers years of disputed coverage. Fox News reported that the suit accuses The Times of a long-running campaign of libel and defamation. The allegations reach from the newspaper’s reporting on “The Apprentice” to stories about Trump’s taxes and business record. The complaint also targets a book published by Penguin Random House and written by Times journalists Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner. Trump contends that the reporting and book damaged his reputation and were published with actual malice. The revised complaint will have to do more than repeat that broad theory. It must connect particular statements to specific defendants, explain why those statements are actionable, and provide enough factual support for the court to let the claims advance. That is where the next filing will either strengthen Trump’s hand or give the defendants fresh ammunition. The real test comes after August 27. For President Trump, the immediate result is straightforward: a $15 billion lawsuit that The New York Times wanted dismissed remains alive. For The Times, the motion to dismiss is still pending. Its lawyers will get another chance to challenge the revised complaint after seeing exactly what Trump adds. If Trump’s attorneys deliver the detail the court is looking for, the case could move beyond the pleading fight and toward a much more serious battle over evidence. If they do not, The Times will argue that the extra chance changed nothing. Either way, Merryday has made one thing clear: he is not ending this fight yet. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here. The post Federal Judge Hands President Trump A New Deadline — And Keeps A Major Legal Fight Alive appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.