Two Pennsylvania residents with alleged ties to radical Islam were arrested in New York City on Saturday after homemade explosive devices were ignited in an apparent attempt to target anti-Islam protesters gathered outside Gracie Mansion, the residence of the city’s first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani (D).The New York Police Department identified the two suspects as 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi.'All praise is due to Allah lord of all worlds!'NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch claimed that Balat lit and threw an improvised explosive device toward a group of demonstrators participating in the “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” protest outside Gracie Mansion.A video of the suspect appeared to show him yelling, “Allahu Akbar,” as he threw the smoking device toward the crowd. Balat then allegedly ran southbound, grabbing a second device from Kayumi. Balat was accused of lighting the second device and dropping it near police officers as he ran away.Tisch confirmed that the devices were IEDs and “could have caused serious injury or death.” However, no explosions or injuries were reported after the devices seemingly malfunctioned. Balat’s parents were born in Turkey and became U.S. citizens nearly a decade ago, CBS News reported. Balat, who was living with his parents, is a U.S. citizen. He reportedly traveled to Turkey recently and returned to the U.S. in January. He reportedly spent several months in Turkey last year. Kayumi’s parents are reportedly from Afghanistan and became U.S. citizens over 15 years ago. He reportedly traveled to Turkey and Saudi Arabia in 2024.RELATED: Counter-protester lights explosive amid anti-Mamdani protest, utters 'Allahu Akbar' — but NYC mayor rips 'bigotry and racism' Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty ImagesFBI agents were observed on Sunday searching the suspects’ homes in Bucks County, ABC News reported. Balat is a student in the Neshaminy School District, and Kayumi graduated from Council Rock High School North in 2024, CBS News reported. Both are located in Bucks County.The federal criminal complaint revealed that Balat and Kayumi are facing several charges, including attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the use of a weapon of mass destruction, transportation of explosive materials, interstate transportation and receipt of explosives, and unlawful possession of destructive devices.According to the complaint, while in law enforcement custody, Balat stated, “This isn’t a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet. … We take action! We take action! ... If I didn’t do it, someone else will come and do it.”Balat, who waived his Miranda rights, requested officers provide him with a piece of paper, on which he allegedly wrote, “All praise is due to Allah lord of all worlds! I pledge my allegience [sic] to the Islamic State. Die in your rage yu [sic] kuffar! Emir B.”The complaint explained that “kuffar” is an Arabic word that refers to “non-believers” or “infidels.” It also noted that “die in your rage” is a verse in the Quran often invoked by ISIS. Balat also allegedly told law enforcement that he hoped his attack attempt would be “even bigger” than the Boston Marathon bombing in 2023.RELATED: Liberal media covers for Saturday's NYC terror attack suspects — then the facts come out Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty ImagesThe criminal complaint accused Kayumi of stating that he was motivated by ISIS. After waiving his Miranda rights, he allegedly suggested to law enforcement that he was affiliated with the terrorist group. He also allegedly admitted to watching ISIS propaganda. An FBI special agent explained in the complaint that a preliminary analysis found that the first explosive device, which Balat was accused of throwing into a crowd of protesters, contained triacetone triperoxide.“Based on my training and experience, I know that TATP is colloquially known as the ‘Mother of Satan’; is extremely sensitive to impact, friction, and heat; and has been used in multiple terrorist attacks over the last decade,” the agent wrote. Following the arrests of Balat and Kayumi, police identified a parked vehicle several blocks south of Gracie Mansion that had a New Jersey license plate registered to one of Balat’s family members. Kayumi’s mother filed a missing person report on or about March 7, stating that she last saw her son at their Pennsylvania residence at approximately 10:30 a.m. earlier that day, the criminal complaint noted.Balat and Kayumi remain in custody.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Cornell University says chatbots have the capability for gross misuse, and its researchers are proving it.The school announced recently that it had created a large language model that demonstrated fluency and reasoning capabilities advanced enough to make scam phone calls.'ScamAgent constructs persistent personas, ... and uses deception strategies that unfold over time.'ScamAgent, Cornell wrote, is an autonomous AI that can generate realistic scam-call scripts that simulate real-life scenarios where a call recipient is on the receiving end of fraud.Simply put, it works like a chatbot that has the goal to deceive and persuade the call recipient. Scam scripts were transformed into "lifelike voice calls using modern text-to-speech systems, completing a fully automated scam pipeline," Cornell wrote.At the same time, the research explained that the chatbot showed the remarkable ability to circumvent or ignore safety guardrails built into the language model, meaning it would ignore certain prompts and content filters.RELATED: Mamdani allies push to ban chatbots from answering questions about law, medicine, and psychology "ScamAgent constructs persistent personas, maintains conversational context, and uses deception strategies that unfold over time. This design allows it to bypass existing safety guardrails by decomposing harmful tasks into benign subgoals and leveraging contextual carryover to avoid triggering filters."The agent was used in a series of real-world fraud scenarios that Americans have become all too familiar with, like medical insurance verification scams, impersonations, prize or lottery fraud, and government benefit enrollment scams. However, researchers used a different chatbot as the recipient, not real people.Researchers also noticed that it was not very difficult to convert scripts into audio to be used for scams and recreate an automated call without requiring much technical expertise.RELATED: This new laser farming technique could free us from pesticides — forever Photographer: Kuni Takahashi/Bloomberg via Getty Images For those wondering what the purpose of building such a deceptive AI agent would be, Cornell researchers said they wanted to highlight an urgent need to detect and disrupt conversational deception powered by AI agents.They added that even "state-of-the-art" AI models are vulnerable to being used for deception, while also calling for "proactive safeguards" and "regulatory oversight."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

New York Times opinion writer David French, a self-described evangelical conservative, has made a habit out of supporting radical leftists over those Republican officials who have time and again delivered meaningful results for the causes of life and liberty.French announced in 2024, for example, that he was supporting then-candidate Kamala Harris over President Donald Trump "to save conservatism."'French always saves his most demonic takes for Sunday morning columns.'The former National Review writer's rationale was that the GOP supposedly wouldn't survive another Trump term but could be rebuilt as a "force for genuine good" in the event that Harris — an advocate for abortion, child sex-rejection procedures, and infringements on the Second Amendment — won.Although his propaganda didn't work in 2024, French clearly hasn't given up on promoting radical leftists and is now promoting James Talarico, the Democrat state representative hoping to succeed Republican John Cornyn in the U.S. Senate.French — who has not only embraced homosexual "marriage" but also non-Christian speech codes about gender — claimed in an editorial on Sunday that "Talarico shines" as "one of the few openly Christian politicians in the United States who acts like a Christian, and by acting like a Christian he reveals a profound contrast with so many members of the MAGA Christian movement that’s dominated American political life for 10 years."French proffered Talarico's Senate primary victory speech, during which he criticized competition, as an example of the Democrat's supposed Christianity in action, "right heart," and loving ways."I am tired of being pitted against my neighbor. I’m tired of being told to hate my neighbor. It’s been more than 10 years of this kind of politics," said Talarico. "Politics as blood sport, politics as trolling and owning, politics as total war. It tears families apart. It ends friendships, and it leaves us all feeling terrible all the time."RELATED: Democrats swapped Crockett’s preening for Talarico’s pulpit — and it worked Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty ImageThough gushing about Talarico's supposed Christian decency and compassionate public face, French neglected to mention any of the Democrat's nastier remarks about those political opponents and fellow Christians with whom he fundamentally disagrees.Talarico previously suggested, for example, that Trump is a "business cheat, a pathological liar, a serial adulterer, a twice-impeached insurrectionist, a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist," many of whose supporters "have forgotten all about Jesus."Trump sued ABC News over host George Stephanopoulos' false on-air assertion that the president had been found civilly liable for rape. Per the terms of the late 2024 settlement, ABC News ultimately agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump's presidential library.Despite the apparent narrowness of Talarico's love and understanding, French — making no secret of his soft spot for Cornyn and hard liking for Talarico — presented the Democrat challenger as the supposedly virtuous antithesis of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.French's case relies not only on selective outrage and his apparent ability to judge the hearts of men but on severing both candidates from their relevant activities, namely their work in office. "For too long we've evaluated Christians in politics primarily through their policy positions," wrote French. "Yet this is exactly backward."French expressed outrage over Paxton's failed marriage and portrayed him as an exemplar of vice while strategically ignoring Talarico's:support for the dehumanization and elimination of the unborn, as signaled by his 0% score on the Texas Right to Life's pro-life scorecard and his correlated recognition as "a Pro-Choice Champion" by the Texas Choice Tracker;attempted use of scripture, specifically Genesis 2:7 and the Annunciation, to justify the slaughter of the unborn;votes against sparing children from sex-rejection mutilations as well as against keeping men out of girls' sports;claim that displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms is "deeply un-Christian";claim that the Supreme Court's Dobbs ruling was effectively "un-Christian";claim that God is "non-binary";claim that there are six sexes, despite the clear assertion in Genesis, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them"; complaint that "Republican politicians are banning drag queens in the name of protecting children"; andclaim that "you can't call yourself a Christian and destroy God's creation with greenhouse gases."Critics blasted French over his commentary, suggesting that his understanding of "decency" is confused if not outright deceptive.Radio host Erick Erickson noted, "It is not decent to twist scripture to lead others to hell. It is not decent to claim whiteness itself is like a virus. It is not decent to use Christ’s conception as a justification for abortion. It is not decent to reduce women to 'neighbors with uteruses.' Only if you have been radicalized by your critics can you land at this position."'Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.'"David French is endorsing a guy who wants free abortion mills in every courthouse and who also claims God is trans," wrote Sean Davis, CEO of the Federalist. "That French always saves his most demonic takes for Sunday morning columns is a pretty good indicator of who he actually worships now."William Wolfe, executive director for the Center for Baptist Leadership, alluded to the conspiring demons in C.S Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters," writing, "Now tell them that pro-abortion, pro-child mutilation politician who preaches that God is non-binary is a 'shining' example of a Christian. Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape."Weeks prior to French's opinion piece, BlazeTV host Steve Deace suggested that Talarico was an "object and a vessel of malevolence. All right? When he speaks, he's not deceived; he's the deceiver. ... He is who Paul would have said in Acts, 'You are a son of the devil.' He knows what he is doing."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Communist China isn’t hiding its ambitions. Beijing wants to displace the United States as the world’s leading power. It flies spy balloons over our country, runs influence operations, steals technology, pressures neighbors, menaces Taiwan, and builds missiles and ships meant to drive America out of the Western Pacific.The Pentagon’s newly released National Defense Strategy puts the People’s Republic of China at the center of the threat picture. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth frames the task in blunt terms: “peace through strength,” including a favorable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific so that China can’t “dominate us or our allies.”China won’t ‘take over the world’ in some comic-book way. But it will keep testing the seams of American power — and it will keep exploiting our habits of denial and delay.That doesn’t mean the United States and China are “destined for war.” China’s weaknesses cut against that. It lacks the kind of soft power that makes alliances easy and coercion unnecessary. Outside its borders, China inspires far more fear than admiration. Demographic collapse also looms. The one-child policy left China facing an aging population and a shrinking workforce.None of that makes Beijing harmless. A declining regime can still lash out. It can still intimidate neighbors, manipulate markets, and exploit American openness. It can also run influence operations in plain sight — through front companies, academic partnerships, lobbying, investment vehicles, and the slow capture of key choke points in tech and infrastructure.That calls for something Washington too often refuses to do: enforce rules like a serious country.Start with basic counterintelligence hygiene. Aggressively investigate covert foreign influence. Enforce FARA. Protect sensitive research. Tighten screening around critical supply chains. Treat strategic industries like strategic industries. Strip Chinese “paper Americans” of their citizenship and deport them.This is where internal discipline matters as much as external posture. A national strategy collapses when parts of the bureaucracy slow-walk it, freelance against it, or treat it like optional guidance.Consider the recent ouster of Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater. She was in charge of the Department of Justice’s antitrust division until last month. But she butted heads repeatedly with Attorney General Pam Bondi. Their disagreements slid into insubordination. Slater allegedly lied to Bondi on national security matters that appeared to help China.RELATED: Iran, China, and Trump’s ‘art of the squeal’ White House via X Account/Anadolu via Getty ImagesFor example, Slater opposed the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise acquisition of Juniper Networks, which national security experts say is essential to combat Chinese tech dominance. Blocking the deal would have hurt U.S. industry and helped Chinese telecom giant Huawei. Happily, the administration overruled her and approved the deal.Washington can’t run a serious China policy with internal sabotage, bureaucratic drift, or officials acting like they answer to a different set of priorities.The same standard applies to national security decisions in the tech arena. If competition with Huawei and China’s tech ecosystem matters — and it does — then Washington should evaluate mergers, procurement, and infrastructure policy through that lens, not just through abstract theories divorced from geopolitical reality. America needs to win the next generation of networks, not regulate itself into strategic dependence.China won’t “take over the world” in some comic-book way. But it will keep testing the seams of American power — and it will keep exploiting our habits of denial and delay.Peace through strength isn’t a slogan. It’s a posture: defend critical systems, enforce the law, remove vulnerabilities, and stop treating strategic competition like a seminar topic. The first step is simple and unglamorous: clean up our own house, then face Beijing with the seriousness the moment demands.