Burning and ransacking of a local communist party building in Cuba was captured on video Friday night, with Cuban officials saying the violence "threatens citizen tranquility."The city of Morón was the focal point of the outrage, which local outlets said was in response to the current energy crisis and lack of access to food.'There will be no impunity for vandalism and violence.'A small group of people reportedly began protesting peacefully on Friday night, but later turned to vandalism after an exchange with territorial authorities. Eventually, cameras captured a group of protesters surrounding a large fire outside the communist party building. Multiple people were seen having scaled the building, running in and out of the second floor window, throwing building contents out into the streets.Cuban outlet Invasor said that protesters destroyed the entrance, started a fire inside the building, and damaged a nearby pharmacy and retail outlet. As a result, five people were arrested.On Saturday, outlets began reporting claims that a man had been shot outside the building by authorities.RELATED: Cuba next? Trump admin eying possible regime change after Maduro arrest: Report Fox News reported on a man's apparent collapse caught on video, which followed the sound of a gunshot. Protesters reportedly said, "They shot him! They're shooting!" before the man was carried away by other protesters.However, state outlet Vanguardia claimed in an X post that "there were no gunshot wounds" and that the "shots were fired into the air to disperse the riot.""The young man they're trying to portray as a victim was one of those responsible for the riots. While trying to tear off the Party ID, he suffered a fall. His own comrades transported him on a motorbike, and he is currently receiving medical attention in the hospital," the outlet wrote, per X's translation.Vanguardia also noted that "tranquility" remains predominant in the province. The same verbiage was echoed by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel.RELATED: America First — or American Empire? Trump’s aggressive global moves signal a new doctrine The president wrote that while it was "understandable" for blackouts to cause distress, he blamed an increasingly cruel and intensified "U.S. energy blockade" for the unrest."And complaints and claims are legitimate, as long as they are made with civility and respect for public order," Diaz-Canel went on. "What will never be understandable, justified, or acceptable is violence and vandalism that threatens public tranquility and the security of our institutions. There will be no impunity for vandalism and violence."Morón is in the province of Ciego de Avila and is located about 250 miles east of Havana, with a population of around 70,000.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Once a niche instrument for occult enthusiasts, mystics, and fringe spiritual groups, tarot cards are a highly trendy item you can pluck off a Walmart shelf today. They’re no longer considered just a tool for divination either. In the modern world, tarot cards are used in many games as well as for self-reflection, spiritual guidance, and storytelling. There are even “Christian” tarot card decks available now.For years, tarot cards were viewed by the majority of Christians as off-limits because of their connection to divination, which Scripture strictly prohibits. But today, views have softened as these colorful, illustrated decks have been absorbed into mainstream culture.But Rick Burgess, BlazeTV host of the spiritual warfare podcast “Strange Encounters,” warns: Tarot cards, regardless of stated purpose or Christian branding, are “highly, highly dangerous.” Rick begins by recounting the strange history of tarot cards.They began as a regular card game — with no spiritual element whatsoever — in Italy in the early to mid-1400s.“But then in the 1780s, French occultists ... took these cards, and they started to make it popular that ... these cards held some sort of ancient Egyptian secrets, and this is when they started the fortune-telling,” Rick recounts.“I don’t want to be sitting down anywhere throwing out a bunch of cards that are used by the occult for some sort of fortune-telling because we know that that’s divination, and the Bible completely, I mean, rejects that. How this has crept into Christianity, I will never know,” he adds.Rick then reads from Deuteronomy 18:10-12: “Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.”To those who think tarot cards, psychic mediums, and fortune tellers are all a hoax, Rick issues this dire warning: “If you start dabbling in these cards, it opens the user up to demonic forces because what you’re saying to demonic forces is, instead of seeking guidance from God, ... you want to seek guidance from whoever shows up.”And spiritual beings do show up, he insists. But they’re never on your side.“Evil spirits — that’s who you’re going to deal with,” he says.“You may very well get a supernatural message from these cards. ... But it’s not from God, and that’s where the caution is. ... It’s misplaced trust. We trust in God and God alone.”To hear more of Rick’s biblical wisdom, watch the full episode above.Want more from Rick Burgess?To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) uses Scripture to promote progressive political causes — and BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey warns that what he is selling as compassionate theology is actually distorting core Christian teachings.“Satan knows the Bible. He makes his lies sound scriptural, sound holy, sound good, and sound palatable to the world. And slowly but surely, chips away at our conscience, chips away at our wisdom, and leads us down a literally damning path,” Stuckey says on “Relatable.”“And I think the person who is most prominent that represents that best, that evil disguised as goodness, is James Talarico,” she adds, before using a clip of Talarico to prove her point.“The first two lines of the Bible, the first two lines in Genesis use two different Hebrew words to describe God. One is the masculine Hebrew noun for ‘divinity.’ The second is the feminine Hebrew noun for ‘spirit.’ God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary,” Talarico said.“So, it’s actually true that God is not male or female like we are. He doesn’t have a body like we do. And yet, this statement is inaccurate because God consistently refers to himself as father, as king, as Lord, in masculine terms,” Stuckey comments.“Regardless of what you think about the masculine features or the feminine features of God the Father, what is clear is that he made us male and female. There are not multiple words there used for male and female,” she continues.“So, we see Talarico, this theme over and over again, that he really uses God as a mascot, as a means to advance his political ends,” she says, before showing a clip of Talarico turning a sermon at a local church in Austin into “some kind of political stump speech about transgenderism and abortion.”“This summer, more than half our population became second-class citizens. Every one of our neighbors with a uterus became the property of the state. And nothing, nothing is more un-Christian than that,” Talarico said.“I want to acknowledge that our trans community needs abortion care too. Defending trans Texans is something we have to do every day at the state Capitol. And you better believe I’ll be giving sermons on that too,” he continued.“So, when I use the word ‘woman,’ it should not be understood as an exhaustive term but rather as a lens through which to understand, examine, and interrogate patriarchy,” he added.“So, right there he gives us three positions that a Democrat of even 10 years ago would not have dared to represent publicly. One, that’s its normal and even moral to switch sexes, that it’s possible to actually switch sexes, and that it is important that people who do switch sexes, especially people who identify as so-called trans men, are able to have a taxpayer-funded right to kill their baby inside the womb,” Stuckey comments.Stuckey also points out that by referring to women as “neighbors with a uterus” he is reducing “what a woman is into her just biological capacity” and “reproductive organs.”And in an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” last year, Talarico also claimed that the Bible supports abortion because of the story of Jesus being conceived.“I say all this in terms of, in context of abortion, because before God comes over Mary and we have the incarnation, God asks for Mary’s consent, which is remarkable. ... She says, ‘If it is God’s will, let it be done. Let it be. Let it happen,’” Talarico told Rogan.“So, to me, that is an affirmation in one of our most central stories that creation has to be done with consent,” he added.Not only does Stuckey refute his rendering of the story, she explains that Mary is “not actually consenting to that.”“It’s not like a choice that she is making here. She simply is accepting the present reality, what God commands in that moment,” she adds.Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

When the news broke that President Trump followed through on his promise to bar taxpayer-funded gender surgeries in federal prisons, the coverage quickly pivoted to one question: How will this affect transgender-identifying inmates?As a former inmate — I served five years at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla — I kept thinking about the people the headlines keep skipping: the women forced to endure confinement while male inmates encroach on their privacy.Women in prison deserve the dignity to heal without being sacrificed to an ideology.After I did my time, I re-entered civil society and founded a nonprofit to help women build sustainable lives after prison. Not long after I got out, women still inside California’s prison system began calling me with alarming reports: Administrators were moving men into women’s prisons.At first, I couldn’t believe it. No sane person should view placing males in a women’s prison as a “compassionate” policy. It only makes sense if you ignore what prison actually is — or if you want to impose a sinister ideology no matter who gets hurt.Some of these males claim a female identity because women’s prisons tend to be less violent than men’s prisons. In some cases, they don’t even claim to be women. They claim to be “nonbinary” and gain admission anyway. These men do not always come with minor offenses or nonviolent histories. Some are rapists. Some are child molesters. Some committed brutal, unthinkable crimes.For years, Bureau of Prisons policies on transgender health care moved forward with little acknowledgment of the harm they impose on incarcerated women. Women like me watched administrators apply sweeping ideological rules to an environment where the stakes involve physical safety, privacy, and survival.Under the approach that dominated the last several years, officials treated the feelings and demands of men as more important than the safety and dignity of the women forced to live beside them.Prison has never been, and never will be, a place for “one-size-fits-all” social experiments. Every decision inside a facility affects real human beings in extremely close quarters. Housing assignments, medical decisions, and institutional accommodations cannot follow slogans or pressure campaigns from outside groups. They must prioritize the safety and well-being of the people who live there.Anyone who has lived inside prison understands how this plays out on the ground. Women cannot leave their cells without permission. They cannot lock their own doors. They cannot choose their cellmates. They shower under supervision, change clothes in shared spaces, and sleep just feet away from strangers. Many entered prison after surviving domestic violence, sexual assault, or trafficking.Where is the compassion for those women — women trying to rehabilitate while they relive their trauma?The system has told them, again and again, that their trauma doesn’t matter, their fear doesn’t matter, and their right to privacy doesn’t matter. Instead, officials tell them to prioritize the identity claims of men. Give an inch and the activists will take a mile — especially when you put men with histories of violence against women and children into living arrangements that involve showers, sleeping quarters, and constant proximity.RELATED: Groomed for violence? The dark world of furries and transgenderism in America’s classrooms Blaze News IllustrationPresident Trump’s executive order barring taxpayer-funded gender surgeries in federal prisons signals a shift away from treating prisons like laboratories for social experimentation. The order supports women and supports safety.For incarcerated women, it means they no longer have to watch men receive treatments and accommodations designed to make them “feel like a woman,” while the women themselves lose basic standards of privacy and dignity the moment they enter custody.Incarcerated people deserve humane treatment. That includes access to medical care, mental health care, and dignity.But dignity cannot mean denying reality.If you’ve lived behind the walls, you know what the outside world often forgets: These policies shape the daily lives of thousands of women. Their chance at rehabilitation suffers when officials force them to live in fear, relive trauma, and navigate needless threats of real violence. Women in prison deserve the dignity to heal without being sacrificed to an ideology.