Simon Hankinson, a former U.S. diplomat, made a case Monday for what he deemed a rise in “lone wolf amateur terrorism.” Hankinson referred to the high-profile Bondi Beach, Australia, massacre. Within 10 minutes, on Dec. 14, 2025, a father and a son opened fire on hundreds during a festival, ultimately killing 15 people and injuring 40. Hankinson used this tragedy to make a simple point: “In most cases of Islamist terrorism, the perpetrator is of Muslim heritage and has ancestral roots in a Muslim country.” Both the father and son involved in this attack appeared to have been born Muslim. Now, consider the other two stories Hankinson addressed concerning young men like John Michael Garza, described as Mexican American, and Christian Sturdivant, grandson of a Christian minister. Garza, late last year, “was charged in Texas with terrorism offenses, accused of providing bomb components to individuals he is alleged to have believed were acting on behalf of the Islamic State. Garza was arrested after allegedly giving an undercover FBI agent instructions on how to make a bomb.” Sturdivant, Hankinson wrote, “was charged in North Carolina with a similar offense—allegedly attempting to provide material support to IS.” Neither of these individuals appeared to have been raised in Muslim households nor were recent immigrants. And yet, they were allegedly drawn into plans to support IS solely through online interactions. As Hankinson emphasized, they echo earlier figures like Zachary Chesser, the suburban Virginia convert who, post-high school, embraced radical Islam via blogs, websites, and eventual real-world ties. And what stands out today is the shift: radicalization increasingly requires no physical community, no visit to a mosque, no face-to-face recruitment. Screens alone suffice. The chilling cases highlighted by Hankinson serve as a stark reminder of how rapidly and deeply online influences can reshape a person’s worldview—sometimes toward darkness we scarcely imagine. From a Christian perspective, this invites sobering reflection. Scripture reminds us that the heart is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9), and we are shaped by what we see and interact with. “Do not be conformed to this world,” Paul urges us in Romans 12:2, “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” And yet, look around. What do you see happening when the “world” streaming into our lives, far from being a mere cultural drift, results in a life of algorithmic echo chambers, propaganda videos, and increasingly lifelike AI companions that affirm (or only further confuse) our angers, curiosities, or searches for meaning? Hankinson noted how we’ve moved from desktop blogs to always-on social media, where young people can radicalize on religion, politics, or even gender ideology without ever meeting another soul in the flesh. This alone should serve as a wake-up call. But he pushed even further, stressing how “kids are interacting with AI avatars so convincing they might as well be real. And who controls them? People with financial motives at best, political or even terrorist goals at worst.” We must ask ourselves: If evil associations corrupt good manners (1 Corinthians 15:33), what does constant digital “association” with unseen voices do to the soul? When the screen becomes confessor, teacher, and companion, whose lordship are we truly submitting to? These incidents prompt more questions rather than quick answers. How much of our children’s formation have we unwittingly outsourced to devices that know their habits better than we do? In seeking belonging or purpose online, are we equipping future generations to discern truth from manipulation, or leaving them vulnerable to whoever—or whatever—speaks loudest in the feed? Maybe online echo chambers aren’t creating terrorists in our midst. But it’s possible. It’s not even a matter of Islamist terrorist ideology. Just look at the anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests unfolding across the country. The anger, the violence. Almost assuredly, it ties back to what they see online and hear from mainstream media. As Hankinson put it, “With all the time they spend online, our children are vulnerable as never before. Active online radicalization methods will only get more sophisticated.” He suggested parents counter this by reclaiming time together, in person, fostering genuine human connection over endless scrolling. That, I would argue, resonates with the incarnational faith we profess: a God who entered the physical world, not merely messaged it. As followers of Christ called to guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23), it’s important to consider: how do we model and teach a life where real, embodied relationships—family, church, neighbors—hold greater weight than virtual ones? Perhaps the deeper unease is this: If heavy screen time can lead some to pledge loyalty to violent ideologies—even outright terrorism—far from their upbringing, what subtler shifts might it work in all of us? The cases are extreme, yet they illuminate a broader vulnerability. What worlds are our minds truly inhabiting, hour by hour, scroll by scroll—and who, ultimately, is forming them? Originally published by The Washington Stand We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Are Americans Being Radicalized Online and Converting to Islam? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—A U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot an armed man in Minneapolis on Saturday who the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said looked like was about to “massacre law enforcement.” The incident happened just 17 days after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed Renee Good, who had hit the agent with her vehicle, in the same city. DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation that the most recent shooting occurred when agents were carrying out a “targeted operation” and it appeared the now-deceased man was about to inflict “maximum damage” against law enforcement officers. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a Saturday press conference that the deceased was a 37-year-old white male who lived in the city. “At 9:05 AM CT, as DHS law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault, an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, seen here,” McLaughlin wrote in her statement. DHS shared with the DCNF a photograph of a gun with two magazines. ICE and Border Patrol are both agencies of DHS. “The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted. More details on the armed struggle are forthcoming,” the assistant secretary continued. “Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots. Medics on scene immediately delivered medical aid to the subject but was pronounced dead at the scene.” “The suspect also had 2 magazines and no ID—this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” McLaughlin added. “About 200 rioters arrived at the scene and began to obstruct and assault law enforcement on the scene, crowd control measures were deployed for the safety of the public and law enforcement.This situation is evolving, and more information is forthcoming.” “This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go – What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers? The Mayor and the Governor called them off? It is stated that many of these Police were… pic.twitter.com/D2MnY9tDiA— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 24, 2026 President Donald Trump accused Democrat lawmakers of “inciting Insurrection” in a Truth Social post Satuday. “The Mayor [Jacob Frey] and the Governor [Tim Walz] are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric! Instead, these sanctimonious political fools should be looking for the Billions of Dollars that has been stolen from the people of Minnesota, and the United States of America,” the president wrote. “LET OUR ICE PATRIOTS DO THEIR JOB! 12,000 Illegal Alien Criminals, many of them violent, have been arrested and taken out of Minnesota. If they were still there, you would see something far worse than you are witnessing today!” he added. “Border Patrol agents are trained extremely well to protect themselves, their fellow agents, and innocent third parties. When a supposed ‘peaceful’ protester brings a weapon (such as a loaded handgun) and brandishes it, there are going to severe consequences and repercussions,” the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), a labor union that represents Border Patrol agents wrote in a Saturday afternoon X post in response to the shooting. “We have pleaded with and warned the media and the politicians that their irresponsible, hate-filled and false rhetoric is going to get people unnecessarily hurt, or worse, killed when they portray our agents and officers as the aggressors,” the union’s post added. “They have encouraged these reckless confrontations and attacks on our agents and officers who are performing their lawful duties and enforcing the laws that Congress has put on the books.” “The fake and dishonest media and the shameless politicians should be held accountable for willfully misleading the public and enticing these protesters and agitators. We have full confidence that when more facts are revealed, our agents and officers will be shown to have utilized justifiable force in eliminating the threat,” the NBPC’s post continued. I just spoke with the White House after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning. Minnesota has had it. This is sickening. The President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) January 24, 2026 “I just spoke with the White House after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning. Minnesota has had it. This is sickening,” Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wrote in a post to X, shortly after reports of the shooting broke. “The President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.” In a Saturday afternoon X post, Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar called the shooting, “Another murder by immigration enforcement in my district.” “I am absolutely horrified that federal agents are targeting and executing our residents instead of protecting them,” the congresswoman, who represents the entirety of Minneapolis, claimed. “ICE and CBP [Customs and Border Protection] must leave Minnesota immediately. [DHS Secretary] Kristi Noem must be impeached. Enough.” The City of Minneapolis referred the DCNF to the initial statement it had posted to X acknowledging it was “aware of reports of” a shooting, when asked for comment. Originally posted by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The Daily Signal added to this article Trump’s Truth Social post. The post Suspect Who Looked Ready to ‘Massacre Law Enforcement’ Shot Dead in Minneapolis, DHS Says appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A Florida group seeking to boost youth knowledge of the U.S. Constitution is marking its 10th anniversary on the same year that America turns 250 years old.  The U.S. Constitution Scholarship Foundation, a nonprofit educational and scholarship organization promoting understanding of the Constitution, was founded in 2016 to provide classes and offer scholarships and awards to students in Nassau County, Florida, in the city of Fernandina Beach. Since the foundation began, the organization has dispensed almost $400,000 in scholarships and awards. Beyond just prize winners, some 400 students graduated from the University of US program over the last decade, said the foundation’s board member Kris Cortes. “As we celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary this year, it is fitting to consider what are some things we can do as a country to increase the probability that our republic continues on for at least another 250 years,” Cortes told The Daily Signal. “I would submit that increasing our citizenry’s knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the U.S.  Constitution, our Founding Fathers, and our American heritage could certainly help.”  The group will be holidng U.S. Constitution Bowl on April 16. It’s similar to the old “College Bowl” format, where student teams in a quiz format hit a buzzer with their answer. The event is a competition with teams of four students from four county public high schools, and one team for homeschool students. The students answer questions about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Supreme Court.  The four first place team members in the Constitution Bowl each receive $2,000 scholarships, with second place and third place team members receiving $1,000 and $250 scholarships, respectively.  This year, the program has about 100 students participating, up from about 70 the prior year. When it began a decade ago, fewer than 30 students were involved, Cortes said.  The foundation is composed of volunteers but has drawn some big-name speakers, including Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, former Heritage Foundation President Kay James, and former Attorney General Edwin Meese. Yale Law professor Akhil Amar, a national left-leaning commentator, was also among the speakers.  The foundation was started to address concerns over constitutional literacy. An Annenberg Public Policy Center survey last year found almost one-third of adults could not identify three branches of government. A Pew Research Center survey in 2023 showed that only 44% of adults knew that U.S. senators serve six-year terms.  “There should be a more concentrated effort for these future adults,” Cortes said. She added, “Young people are cynical about trust in government. Participation in voting is much less among young people.” Cortes and her family moved from the Chicago area to Nassau County, Florida in 2020. Her daughter, Christina, wrote a winning essay about gerrymandering four years ago. Her son Dominic is participating in the University of U.S. and the Constitution Bowl this year. Cortes said she would like to see the template used elsewhere.  “We hope that programs like ours which strive to bring the Constitution to life, will inspire young people to become more engaged in public policy and participate in civic life as educated voters,” Cortes said. The University of US is the flagship program of the foundation. Juniors and seniors who pass the final exam get a certificate of graduation, and will be eligible to compete for five scholarships in the essay competition.  Students from the four Nassau County public high schools, as well as homeschooled students, attended classes with the “university” that include “Amendments to the Constitution,” and the “Federalist Papers.” Teachers led the classes in full costume, portraying Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, authors of the Federalist Papers.  Cortes recalled sitting in a University of US session that her daughter was participating. “It was fabulous. So I started to volunteer and attending the adult speaker forums, which are wonderful,” she said. “I was then asked to join the board a couple of years ago. “ “If we look at the history of republics that have survived over long periods of time, there are common aspects that lead to success,” she added. “And for America, I agree with something that Sam Adams once said: ‘If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.’” The post As America Turns 250, Volunteers Fight Cynicism With Constitution Education appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Think about it. Heads of government do not normally reveal the texts of private communications from other heads of state. Yet that is what Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway did Sunday, on the first weekend of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where the international press would have no difficulty finding appalled foreign leaders to comment. You could think of this as a hostile act of a statesman appalled that the American head of government does not know that the government of Norway does not decide who gets the Nobel Peace Prize. It is probably better to think of it as an intervention by a sympathetic observer who has noticed that President Donald Trump backs down from untenable positions in response to ructions in political and financial markets. Which is what Trump has done between the publication of his letter on Sunday and his speech at Davos on Wednesday. On Sunday, he seemed to be threatening war with Denmark, and European commentators, not without reason, lamented that he was risking breaking up the NATO alliance out of pique of not being awarded a prize by a committee that was never going to honor a non-leftist American president. Proof of which was the granting of that prize to President Barack Obama in 2009 for what even Obama himself admitted was for no tangible accomplishment. And Trump has never forgotten the ridicule heaped on him by Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, ridicule that led directly to that ride down the Trump Tower escalator four years later. Actually, Trump has some valid points on Greenland. It sits astride missile, drone, and air transport routes between North America and Western Russia and Eastern Europe. The United States would have even more flexibility than it does under current agreements with Denmark if it were to become U.S. territory. That’s one reason the U.S. holds on to Guam in the West Pacific and has spent billions upgrading military facilities there. All that said, Trump’s usual negotiating technique of starting off with extravagant demands was, in the careful words of social scientist Charles Murray, “next-level crazy.” Denmark has been an active ally of the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq, has increased its rate of defense spending above levels Trump demanded, and has adopted immigration policies in line with Trump’s advocacy. With Denmark as with Canada, as with fellow Republicans in Georgia and other states, Trump’s obnoxious maximalist demands have alienated him from sympathy and empowered the forces against him. Other leaders have figured out that he requires gushers of praise to permeate every dialogue, and they’re probably ready with encomiums for his avowals in his Davos speech that he won’t use violence to obtain Greenland. Some surely consider this a humiliating process. But national leaders dealing with American presidents at least since the time of Franklin Roosevelt have felt themselves duty-bound to cater to their personal styles (Roosevelt’s was condescension, Lyndon Johnson’s domineering) despite personal distaste. Only a leader as disciplined and aloof as Charles de Gaulle dared do otherwise. And it has to be said that Trump’s bluntness and braggadocio have had some of their intended effect. The American Enterprise Institution’s Yuval Levin, in an interview with The New York Times’ Ezra Klein, makes the point that many of Trump’s lurching policy changes, not codified into law, can easily be wiped away by the next Democratic administration, perhaps even by a Democratic House of Representatives next year. But despite his own preference for procedural regularity in making institutional change, Levin admits that “they’ve driven a lot of change that will be durable.” Initial polling reaction to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, has been negative. But there’s no doubt that Trump has proved that the border can be controlled under current legislation—which would increase the political cost of any subsequent administration adopting the open border policy of President Joe Biden’s. It is also telling that the best estimates of both pro- and anti-immigration analysts are that the substantial numbers of ICE deportations from within the United States, far above those of other recent administrations, are orders of magnitude lower than the numbers of self-deportations. As on other issues (like military recruitment), Trump is uninterested in institutional change but interested in sharply changing the behavior of the larger public. The effect of Trump policies, and the possibility that they may be put back in place at some later date, will likely discourage many illegal aliens from living in this country more or less permanently, as some 10 million have been up through January 2025. As I wrote last fall, “Who will want to make long-term plans that can be ruined by sudden deportation or hurried self-deportation?” We learn from experience, and just as the former real estate developer sometimes seems to accept discipline from financial markets, so the former reality TV show host sometimes seems to accept discipline from the ratings. On Greenland, he has responded to the cues of the markets and the ratings and backed off from threats of force, while retaining the possibility of increasing the already significant U.S. presence there. Meanwhile, the NATO alliance remains in place, with its increased number of European members spending increasing percentages of their economies on defense. Three more years of this Trump administration will strain and irritate foreign leaders and American politicians, with wild threats and childish petulance driving one crisis after another. But it may continue to get them, often grudgingly, doing things Trump’s way. COPYRIGHT 2026 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Trump’s Outrageous Threats Get Practical Results appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The leftists on social media have hilariously caricatured CBS News under new Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss as “CBS Newsmax,” like it’s lurched dramatically to the right. But if you’re monitoring CBS in real life, there’s plenty of evidence that “classic CBS” is still operating. In recent days, CBS has proven to be worse than ABC and NBC in its tilt to the left. A new NewsBusters study of 10 days of evening news coverage of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after the death of Renee Good found that CBS statements on ICE were 96% negative, compared to 91% on ABC and NBC. On CBS, 26 of the 27 sound bites were critical of (or, more often, outright hostile toward) ICE. Both ABC and NBC aired 21 such sound bites, versus each offering only two that were positive. CBS never explicitly admitted that Good hit ICE agent Jonathan Ross with her car moments before he fired at her. ABC and NBC did so only once each. CBS reporter Nicole Sganga even described this event as the “murder” of Good, despite no charges being filed yet. When it came to Sunday’s invasive leftist protest at an evangelical church in Minneapolis, none of the networks wanted to pay much attention. But CBS only gave it 13 seconds (before any arrests), while NBC aired 99 seconds, in part because NBC’s Maggie Vespa offered a platform to protest leader Nekima Armstrong. On Sunday night, Sharyn Alfonsi’s crusading leftist “60 Minutes” report against President Donald Trump deporting some illegal aliens to a “notorious” prison in El Salvador aired without a single edit—although there was window dressing offering some Trump comment surrounding the segment. The elitist media treated a delay of Alfonsi’s segment as Democracy Dying in Darkness, so maybe that’s why it was aired in its propagandistic entirety. There are some examples of a better CBS—Minnesota-based Jonah Kaplan is the only broadcast TV reporter explaining the massive Somali fraud in that state. New “Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil’s interview in Detroit with Trump was firm but respectful. The “CBS Newsmax” scolds would prefer classic CBS, where Dan Rather yelled at George H.W. Bush about ruining America in the eyes of the world. Later, Rather’s interviews would basically kiss the Clintons on both cheeks. Everyone knows the entrenched leftists at CBS mock Weiss for having no experience in TV news and making some rookie mistakes. But none of these “CBS Newsmax” people objected when NPR hired Katherine Maher, a CEO with no newsroom experience and a pile of crazy anti-Trump tweets. The issue isn’t the experience on your resume—it’s the perceived ideological tilt. So there is a rash of panicky stories quoting anonymous leftists inside the network—the ones who don’t care about staying in third place for decades as long as they’re airing their rages—describing Weiss and Dokoupil’s arrival as a complete disaster. The Ringer literally cartooned Weiss’ CBS as “pancaked, Wile E. Coyote-style, against the side of the mountain.” Variety’s CBS sources described the network being on the verge of “a death spiral” that is “hard to reverse.” In real life, in 1980, Walter Cronkite’s “CBS Evening News” ruled the roost with 53 million viewers. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the same show under John Dickerson and Maurice Dubois drew 4 million viewers. A lot of that dramatic decline is the changing nature of media consumption. But don’t miss that in that fourth quarter, ABC’s “World News Tonight” drew 7.8 million viewers to CBS’s 4 million—almost two to one. Apparently, the classic CBS types aren’t unhappy with that in any way. COPYRIGHT 2026 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal The post In Real Life, There’s No New ‘CBS Newsmax’ Under Bari Weiss appeared first on The Daily Signal.