Churches are not the only institutions that view baptisms as a stat line. After years of athletes giving their lives to the Lord, Baylor University has also started keeping count. Baylor athletes wear their faith on campus as proudly as the names on their jerseys. “There’s not very many schools across the country that have a competitive athletics program that combine that with a faith-based mission within the school,” Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson told The Daily Wire. “Fortunately, Baylor is one of those schools that does that.” The largest Baptist school in the country has baptized hundreds of athletes in the last five years alone. Credit: Baylor Athletics “Being able to be a part of the athletes’ lives and their spiritual journey is one of the coolest things about working at Baylor,” Head Basketball Coach Scott Drew told The Daily Wire. Drew has been at Baylor since 2003, so he’s seen many lives changed. “We have close to 26 campus ministries. The local churches are packed with Baylor students on Wednesday night. At Sunday church service … there’s probably 500 to 1,000 college kids every service I’m there. At the end of the day, it’s because we have great leadership at Baylor University.” The football team’s faith took the spotlight this season when 10 players were baptized by teammates. Moments Like This Last Forever. Last night, 10 of our own took the next step in their faith through baptism ?⬇️ pic.twitter.com/U9U6GNRe0x — Baylor Football (@BUFootball) November 5, 2025   Robertson, who leads the team on the field, helped baptize some of the players, including his former receiver, whom Robertson baptized before Thanksgiving. Last night, Monaray Baldwin returned home to Waco and publicly declared his faith in Jesus Christ through baptism. #SicEm pic.twitter.com/MmGLI3lCvO — Baylor Football (@BUFootball) November 26, 2025   “How it normally goes is when a player decides that they want to get baptized and give their life to Jesus, they get to decide who baptizes them. So it just happened that three guys wanted me to do it. That’s not something you turn down.” Robertson also baptized Nate Bennett, his backup quarterback. Credit: Baylor Athletics “He’s awesome,” Robertson said. “He’s like a little brother to me, and he would get mad if I said that, but I only say that because he’s younger than me, so I think I’m allowed to say that, but I love him so much.” The baptisms are part of a player-led Bible. About 5-6 small groups meet on Tuesdays to study a video series put together by a teammate. This semester, it was organized by a safety on the team, Michael Allen. The team studied the book of Genesis and looked at Joseph’s life. Robertson said a lot of the team related to this one, which may be why it was the largest group they’ve had commit their lives to Jesus. 50% off DailyWire+ annual memberships will not return for another year, so don’t miss this deal! Join now at DailyWire.com/cyberweek. “Joseph is sold by his brothers because they were jealous of him. Then he gets accused of something that he didn’t do, and gets thrown in prison for two years, and then he eventually always works his way up to second in command of Egypt. The guys are just like, ‘How did he stay the course? This is incredible.'” Robertson calls leading the Bible study a “calling.” For some players, the football team’s Bible study may be the first one they’ve been part of. “That’s been definitely the most fruitful thing,” the quarterback continued. “You can kind of tell based off the questions that are getting asked when you break off into small groups. People have said they had no clue this was a thing, like they didn’t know about this.” I interviewed @BUFootball Quarterback, Sawyer Robertson, on the recent player-lead baptisms. 10 Baylor Football players were baptized at the end of their Bible study. Story Sunday on @realDailyWire. pic.twitter.com/Nnmf5ca13K — Lynden Blake (@LyndenBlake) December 5, 2025 The Bible studies are held anywhere there’s room at the athletic complex, including team meeting rooms and locker rooms. The same goes for baptisms. Coach Drew has baptized so many of his players over his 23 years in Waco — sometimes right on the court — that the team now has a baptism wall honoring all the players who have dedicated themselves to Christ. Credit: Baylor Athletics “Our chaplain baptized five players on the way down to the University of Texas,” Drew said with a laugh. “We’re versatile.” Thankfully for current athletes at Baylor, the days of bringing a cold tub to center court for baptisms are over. The Bears have new athletic facilities, which include a large, warm therapy tub. Some say it’s perfect for baptisms. “It works quite well,” Robertson added. “All the other guys that are part of the player-led Bible study, there’s about 30 to 40 people now, and they’re cheering and applauding, it’s just encouraging.” Credit: Baylor Athletics As you walk around campus, you notice Bible verses everywhere. The basketball team attends a chapel before every home game. Coach Drew calls it a “Christian atmosphere” that leaves an impact on players long after they’ve graduated. “I keep some of the letters from past players,” Drew said. “Whenever you’re having a really bad day, or you’re like, why do we do what we do, you pull out one of those letters, and it makes it all worthwhile.” Robertson’s relationship with God keeps him grounded through the grind of being a college athlete. “I want to be as successful as possible, but at the end of the day, if my relationship with the Lord isn’t right, then none of what I do on Earth matters,” he says. “At the end of the day, like it’s got to be my foundation, and I’ve got to make that the priority of my life.” Before games, the quarterback reads 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” “I like thinking about that one before games because it kind of like relaxes me and takes the pressure off, even though I know there’s a lot of people watching. Just going out there and not having any fear of it and just playing, playing to honor God, really, it relieves some of that pressure.” The 22-year-old also lives by Mark 8:36: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” “It’s not all about likes and popularity and attention,” Robertson adds. “But seeking something that’s actually like true and like what can I put my identity in.” If you Google Scott Drew, you’ll see how the world views the veteran coach. He’s a National Championship coach and a three-time Big 12 Coach of the Year. Accolades he’s beyond proud of. But Drew said the only winning that lasts is winning eternity. “One day I’ll get to heaven and see a bunch of Baylor Bears up there,” he says. “People we had a chance to help grow spiritually.”

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz says President Donald Trump is directing him to steer the group back to its original mission: peace. In an interview with the Daily Wire editor-in-chief Brent Scher, Waltz laid out how his new role at the United Nations advances President Trump’s unapologetic America First approach to international diplomacy in a body that he claims has been ineffective. “You’re supposed to be stopping wars, ending wars, preventing wars,” Waltz said. “That was the establishment of the UN and its purpose after World War II to prevent any other future world wars. And yet here we are 80 years later and we have more conflicts around the globe than ever.” While critics have advocated that the United States abandon the UN, Waltz said the organization can be salvaged if it implements the reforms at the top of his agenda. According to Waltz, the UN is a mechanism to get other countries to start “pulling their weight” to establish peace. As an example, he cited the efforts to combat the gangs in Haiti, shifting from a primarily United States-led effort to include other countries such as Kenya. “Sharing the burden and having a mechanism where everyone can come in and do that is also important,” he said. “We’ve just got to get it back focused on those peacekeeping and peace enforcement missions that they did so well in the past and that they strayed from in recent decades.” Waltz also stressed that certain UN agencies and programs need to be defunded when they do not align with American interests. “We walked away from WHO, the World Health Organization. UNRWA, the UN agency in Gaza that’s been completely infiltrated by Hamas. We walked out of it and defunded that too. The so-called human rights councils that cater to countries like North Korea and Venezuela and Iran. We’ve walked away from that,” he said. “It’s really about focusing our effort on the parts that align with an America First agenda and defunding and walking away from the rest of it — the nonsense.” Waltz added that there are also far too many UN agencies focused on climate change. “At most you need one, if not none, but you definitely don’t need seven. So that’s the kind of reform agenda that we’re driving here. We’re defunding all kinds of these agencies again, led by the president with an America First agenda,” Waltz said. Among the agencies he believes are essential, he cited telecommunications, global shipping, and civil aviation. “When I land, when flying internationally, I want everybody speaking English,” he said. “Landing the planes the same way, the mechanics train the same way. We want them aligned with our standards, not China or Russia’s standards.” Overall, Waltz emphasized the UN’s importance as a platform for countries to discuss diplomacy. “We should have one place in the world where everybody can talk, where everyone can come together and at least try to hammer things out with using diplomacy, either to end wars or prevent wars,” he said. “ I want that American-led and in the United States, not in places like Beijing or Moscow. But I’m 100% on board. We’ve got to clean house.” Of the successes so far under the Trump administration, Waltz says the UN agreed to cut over 2,600 bureaucratic positions, a 15% overall budget cut, and 25% of its peacekeepers around the world. “So we’re cutting, we’re DOGE-ing, we’re going to get them back to basics in line with the president’s vision.” “They need to get back to basics, stop with all of the other nonsense, trying to do everything for everybody all over the world. Stop with the focus on climate, stop with the focus on gender and all of these other social issues, regardless of how you feel about them, and let’s get back to peace,” Waltz said. 50% off DailyWire+ annual memberships will not return for another year, so don’t miss this deal! Join now at DailyWire.com/cyberweek. Waltz said a major focus is ensuring that the United Nations does more to stop the persecution of Christians around the world. “Well, it actually started with President Trump, who put a spotlight on the persecution of Christians around the world, but according to most NGOs, 80% of Christians that are killed and persecuted actually happens in Nigeria,” he said. Waltz praised rapper Nicki Minaj for advocating to stop the persecution of Christians in Nigeria alongside him in the UN last month. Thrilled to be Honorary Ambassador to the Barbz! @NICKIMINAJ pic.twitter.com/Sq9OHYhaZu — Ambassador Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) November 19, 2025 “Someone like her, with her quarter billion followers across all of our platforms. It’s an unlikely pairing. I didn’t see that one coming, but where we can work together to not just put a spotlight and educate people but to make sure there’s real action.” Waltz acknowledged that representing the United States at the UN can be challenging, given the presence of adversarial countries, including an incident in which the Cuban ambassador disrupted one of his speeches and accused him of lying. “There are times where I think the tribes in the Middle East, Afghanistan are easier than here,” Waltz said. “I’m a Green Beret by background. I’ve served all over the world. It isn’t easy. My wife sometimes says I’m a masochist, but look, this is the world stage right here in New York.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to take government equity stakes in strategic industries doesn’t apply to major defense firms, the head of Boeing’s defense unit said on Saturday, in contrast to previous comments by a senior government official. The government wants industry to make investments in facilities, and large contractors are expected be able to do this without government assistance, Steve Parker, Chief Executive Officer of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, said on a panel at the Reagan National Defense Forum, an annual industry event in Simi Valley, California. Speaking about the prospect of the U.S. government investing in exchange for ownership rights, “it really only applies on the supply chain, particularly for the smaller companies coming through where that might be a way forward for them,” Parker said. 50% off DailyWire+ annual memberships will not return for another year, so don’t miss this deal! Join now at DailyWire.com/cyberweek. “I don’t think it really applies to the Primes,” Parker added, referring to big legacy defense contractors like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, RTX and Northrop Grumman. Parker pointed to Boeing’s recent billions invested in St. Louis, Missouri where the company makes fighter jets. In August, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the Trump administration was weighing equity stakes in major defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin, a move that sent shares of Lockheed, Boeing and other defense firms higher. This year, the Trump administration has taken equity stakes in chipmaker Intel and rare earths company MP Materials, in an effort to prioritize national security in critical sectors where China has become increasingly dominant. Trump has said the government will take stakes in more companies. (Reporting by Mike Stone and Joe Brock; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Deepa Babington)

A large-scale Russian drone and missile attack damaged power facilities in eight Ukrainian regions, causing blackouts and forcing nuclear power plants to cut power output, officials and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday. Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector and infrastructure in recent weeks, targeting power stations and railway hubs as winter deepens and the war approaches its fourth anniversary. There was no breakthrough in U.S.-brokered talks this week aimed at ending the conflict. Ukraine operates three nuclear power plants which produce more than half of the country’s electricity and IAEA said the plants cut production due to “widespread military activities overnight”. The Ukrainian military said Russia had launched 653 drones and 51 missiles on Ukraine overnight. Ukrainian forces downed 585 drones and 30 missiles, the military said. Power and heat generation facilities in Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions were targeted in the attack, Ukraine’s ministry for development of communities and territories said. It said on Telegram that 9,500 customers remained without heat and 34,000 without water supply in the southern Odesa region. “Port facilities (in Odesa) have also been attacked: part of the infrastructure has been de-energised, and operators have switched to backup power from generators,” the ministry said. “Emergency repair work is already underway where safety conditions permit. Energy companies are doing everything possible to restore power to all customers as quickly as possible,” the energy ministry said on Telegram. 50% off DailyWire+ annual memberships will not return for another year, so don’t miss this deal! Join now at DailyWire.com/cyberweek. Among the sites hit overnight was a railway hub near Kyiv, where the depot and railway carriages were damaged, Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said. The railway did not report any casualties from the attack, in the town of Fastiv. “Russia continues to disregard any peace efforts and instead strikes critical civilian infrastructure, including our energy system and railways,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X. “This shows that no decisions to strengthen Ukraine and raise pressure on Russia can be delayed. And especially not under the pretext of peace process,” he added. Ukrzaliznytsia said on the Telegram messaging app that it was forced to cancel several suburban trains near the capital and the city of Chernihiv in northeastern Ukraine. The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces launched a “massive strike” overnight in response to what it called Ukrainian attacks on civilian targets. The ministry said the strike used high-precision, long-range air- and ground-based weapons, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and long-range drones. It targeted Ukraine’s military-industrial enterprises, energy facilities supporting their operations, and port infrastructure used for military purposes, the ministry added. Separately, sirens sounded early on Saturday in Lubartow in the Lublin region of eastern Poland, private broadcaster RMF FM reported. RMF quoted local mayor Krzysztof Pasnik as saying the warning was activated due to the situation in Ukraine. Poland scrambled jets overnight due to the Russian attacks on Ukraine, but the Operational Command of the Armed Forces said there were no airspace violations. (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; additional reporting by Alan Charlish in Warsaw; Editing by William Mallard, Bernadette Baum and Aidan Lewis)

The Somali-tied welfare fraud scheme in Minnesota is likely far worse than the American people think, involving “complicit” state government officials and totaling far more stolen money than original early estimates stated, according to Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller. Billions of taxpayer dollars have been stolen from the state, and much of the welfare fraud has been tied to Somali migrants, as first reported by City Journal. And, alarmingly, some of the stolen money was allegedly funneled to Al-Shabaab terrorists.  “We believe that the Somali fraud operation in Minnesota is the single greatest theft of taxpayer dollars, through welfare fraud, in American history,” Miller said on Fox News. “We believe we have only scratched the very top of the surface of how deep this goes.” Miller noted that some of the reported welfare scams include people “pretending that children have autism, who are not in fact autistic,” and “pretending to enroll people in food programs, when, in fact, nobody was ever enrolled.” These fraudsters, Miller said, engaged in “massive fraud, lying, and theft, and grift on a scale we’ve never seen before in American history.” “The total bill, the total tab for this, is going to be far beyond the numbers being reported,” he said, suggesting we are dealing with billions of stolen tax dollars tied directly to welfare schemes. 50% off DailyWire+ annual memberships will not return for another year, so don’t miss this deal! Join now at DailyWire.com/cyberweek. “Based on the records we already have — this is a significant undercount, by the way — 75% of the Somali population in Minnesota is on welfare, and that’s likely a significant undercount of just how much of a financial burden the Somali refugee population is imposing on this country,” Miller added. .@StephenM: “We believe that the Somali fraud operation in Minnesota is the single greatest theft of taxpayer dollars, through welfare fraud, in American history… and we believe that what we are going to uncover is going to shock the American people.” pic.twitter.com/h4jfFit0jD — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 6, 2025 The Trump administration advisor also claimed that Democrat leaders in the state were “fully complicit” in the fraud. “We believe the state government is fully complicit in this scheme and we believe that what we are going to uncover is going to shock the American people,” he asserted. Controversial Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) could be tied up in the scandal. “Omar’s close ties to the $1 billion welfare scam in her Minnesota congressional district are being uncovered,” the New York Post reported this past week. “Omar held parties at one of the key restaurants named in the fraud, knew one of its now-convicted owners, and one of her own staffers has also been convicted — both for stealing millions. Omar even introduced the bill that led to $250 million in fraud. Yet she claims to have been completely unaware of it.” There are also serious questions about the oversight, or lack thereof, from Democrat Gov. Tim Walz.  Currently, the Treasury Department is investigating allegations that “under the feckless mismanagement of the Biden Administration and Governor Tim Walz, hardworking Minnesotans’ tax dollars may have been diverted to the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced this week. Related: Ilhan Omar Says Trump Supporters Might Attack Somalis, Brushes Off Fraud Scandal