Sen. Steve Daines announced Wednesday night that he will not seek reelection in the upcoming 2026 midterms. The 63-year-old Montana Republican is joining five other GOP colleagues who are retiring from the Senate.   “Serving the people of Montana in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate the past 13 years has been the greatest honor of my professional career. I’m grateful to God for allowing me to serve. But after much careful thought, I’ve decided not to seek reelection,” said Daines in a pre-recorded video posted to social media.   An announcement? pic.twitter.com/7HCofBTUMA— Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) March 5, 2026 Daines withdrew from the Montana ballot minutes before the 5 p.m. deadline Wednesday night, quickly followed by U.S. Attorney for Montana Kurt Alme filing to run for the seat. Daines and President Donald Trump quickly endorsed Alme. “[Daines] has decided to leave the Senate and, ‘pass the torch’ to Kurt Alme,” said Trump. “Kurt is exceptional, and I will be giving him, based on Steve’s strongest recommendation, my Complete and Total Endorsement.” Alme served as the U.S. attorney for Montana in both of Trump’s terms. The president’s endorsement will be important for the November election given that Trump won the state in 2024 by almost 20 points. BREAKING: Senator Steve Daines appears to have withdrawn from the race for reelection. Working this.#MTpol #MTnews pic.twitter.com/2mCrZYOrh5— Bradley Warren (@bradmwarren) March 5, 2026 “As your next Senator, Kurt will fight tirelessly to Grow our Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Champion our Farmers and Ranchers, Promote MADE IN THE U.S.A., Unleash American Energy DOMINANCE, Keep our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, and Protect our always under siege Second Amendment,” announced Trump.   “I’m energized, I’m encouraged, and I’m ready for whatever comes next,” Daines stated in his announcement. “I’m also very thankful to have served alongside President Trump and my colleagues in the Senate.”    Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., praised Daines following his retirement announcement. “His leadership and tireless work were instrumental in securing our Republican majority,” Thune stated on X. “The Senate and our conference are better because of him.”  Colleagues and former staff of Daines also took to social media praising the senator for his service to Montana and the country.   “Starting in 2012, Steve led a conservative revolution in our state that resulted in flipping every single statewide office to Republican control,” said Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont. “Steve is doing something we don’t often see in modern politics: stepping down at the height of his power to clear the way for a new generation of leaders,” he continued.   Senator Daines is a giant in Montana politics and a master political strategist. Starting in 2012, Steve led a conservative revolution in our state that resulted in flipping every single statewide office to Republican control. In 2024, Steve did our country a great service… https://t.co/y8xjWMbvpX— Tim Sheehy (@TimSheehyMT) March 5, 2026 One former staffer recalled on X when she was offered her first job out of college in Daines’ office, feeling like she “hit the jackpot.”   Daines concluded his announcement by saying, “I’m most grateful to my sweet wife, Cindy, of 39 years. For the past 13 years, Cindy has selflessly dropped me off at the airport at 5 a.m. on most Mondays for that commute back to D.C.” Daines and Cindy have seven grandchildren and said they look forward to spending more time in Montana.   The post Republicans Praise Daines Following Retirement Announcement appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The UAE government has decided this is the moment to threaten its 10 million residents with prison for sharing the wrong information online. On February 28, as Iranian ballistic missiles and drones struck the country for the first time, the UAE Public Prosecution announced that publishing or circulating “rumors and information from unknown sources through social media platforms or any other technological means” is a criminal offense under federal law. The warning extends to anyone who reposts such content. Not just people who create it. “Information is a responsibility, and spreading rumors is a crime,” the Public Prosecution said, directing residents to get their information “solely from official and accredited sources.” In a country under active missile bombardment, the government has just told its residents that the only permitted source of information about what’s happening to them is the government. Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 on Countering Rumors and Cybercrimes was already on the books. This isn’t a new emergency measure rushed through in a crisis. It carries a minimum sentence of one year in prison and a fine of at least AED 100,000 (around $27,000) for sharing false, misleading, or unverified information online. Share something the authorities determine “incited public opinion” against the UAE government, or share it during a declared crisis, and the minimum jumps to two years and AED 200,000. The law has been used before. Authorities in Ras Al Khaimah referred seven people to prosecution for social media content deemed to have “undermined community security and stirred public opinion.” The posts that triggered that prosecution were described as inaccurate. The standard for what counts as inaccurate, undermining, or rumor-spreading is set by the same authorities enforcing the law. The Public Prosecution’s statement draws no distinction between deliberate disinformation and honest mistakes. It draws no distinction between fabricated propaganda and a resident sharing a video of fires near their home to warn family abroad. The legal standard is “unverified information from unknown sources.” Everything that isn’t an official press release potentially qualifies. The US Embassy in Abu Dhabi even told American citizens in a March 1 alert that publishing or circulating “rumors, false news, or news from unknown sources” could expose them to prosecution under UAE law. That warning carries real weight when the official position on what’s happening is controlled exclusively by the government prosecuting the war. The UAE is home to one of the largest expatriate populations anywhere in the world. Most residents have family elsewhere. Sharing updates during a crisis isn’t rumor-mongering. It’s what people do. Under this law, doing what people do can get you imprisoned. The Public Prosecution doesn’t need to actively prosecute thousands of residents for the law to work. The threat is enough. A resident filming debris near their building thinks twice before posting it. A worker injured at an airport thinks twice before texting a video to a friend abroad who might share it. A journalist covering the story thinks twice about including details that haven’t been confirmed by official sources first. The message to the UAE’s millions of residents is, as the original reporting notes, unambiguous: in a crisis, what you retweet can be as legally consequential as what you write. What it doesn’t mention is that the government gets to decide, after the fact, what counts as a rumor. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post UAE Threatens Residents With Prison for Sharing Unverified News During Missile Strikes appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Over the past five years, the largest social platforms settled on a clear position about private messaging. Lock it down. Facebook turned on end-to-end encryption. Instagram and Messenger did the same. X joined the club. Yes, metadata is still an issue and the protocols used matter; but, generally speaking, the move was toward more privacy of actual messages. TikTok looked at that trend and made a different choice. Then it scheduled a briefing in London with the BBC to explain the reasoning. The explanation was safety. In the UK, TikTok belongs to ByteDance, a Chinese technology company that operates under Beijing’s jurisdiction. China maintains strict limits on end-to-end encryption inside its borders. TikTok, after its own review of the issue, reached the same policy outcome for its messaging system. Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity professor at Surrey University, raised that point directly. The company’s “Chinese influence might be behind the decision,” he said, adding that end-to-end encryption is “largely banned in China.” TikTok declined to engage with that suggestion, of course. The remark hung in the air. However, it’s worth adding that the US operation of TikTok has made no indication that it is moving towards private messaging standards either. End-to-end encryption is simple in theory. Only the people in a conversation can read the messages. The platform running the service cannot access the content. Governments cannot request it. Engineers inside the company cannot view it. TikTok’s system operates in a different way. Messages on the platform remain readable to the company. Employees can access them under defined circumstances. Law enforcement agencies can request them through legal channels. TikTok argues that readable messages allow the company to identify harmful activity. The debate turns on a basic technical fact. “We can read your messages to catch predators,” and “we can read your messages” describe the same system. The second statement applies to everyone on the platform. Every message becomes part of a structure that remains accessible inside the company. Employees can make mistakes, systems can face breaches, and legal demands differ across countries. Each factor creates another path through which private communication may be accessed. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post TikTok Says Privacy Makes Users Less Safe appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

A Modest Proposal: Paxton for Homeland Security? UPDATE: Trump Rebukes Paxton

A North Carolina woman used the sign-off "Transforming the Masses" when responding to questions about her candidacy.LaKeshia Mashonda Ruddi Alston was the lone Republican candidate for North Carolina state Senate District 22 and will face Democrat Sophia Chitlik in the midterms in November.'[W]hen I was a child, I thought as a child.'Alston ran unopposed and shocked readers by posing for her board of elections photo wearing a niqab-style head cover, revealing only her eyes. The headdress is typically part of an Islamic garb for women. However, the Facebook account for the Durham County Board of Elections posted a second photo that showed her face, saying that Alston requested an additional photo.Despite running as a Republican, Alston has reportedly voted for Democrat candidates in the past, twice in 2012 and once in 2024. She told the Daily Caller News Foundation that her party switch came as she matured."[W]hen I was a child, I thought as a child, but as I matured. I'm converted as a Republican. In order to form a more Perfect Union," Alston said in an email.The outlet noted that Alston signed her email with the phrase "Transforming the Masses."RELATED: Former MLB star wins GOP primary to replace Chip Roy in Texas Photo by Durham County Board of Elections With a population of about 200,000 as of 2020, the district has been dominated by Democrats for more than a decade. This started with Democrat Mike Woodard winning in 2012 by more than 30 points. He remained in office until he was unseated by fellow Democrat Chitlik in the 2024 primary. Chitlik won the general election by almost 72 points over a Libertarian opponent that year.Although Republicans had previously controlled the district, a redistricting in 2011 changed the map to include the more Democrat-leaning Durham County.Durham County has voted for Democrats all but twice in presidential elections as far as history can tell, dating back to 1920, when the county voted for Democrat Governor of Ohio James M. Cox.In 1928, the county voted for Republican President Herbert Hoover, then in 1972 for Republican President Richard Nixon. The county has not voted red since and last supported Vice President Kamala Harris with over 144,000 votes, giving President Donald Trump just under 33,000 votes.RELATED: Trump to intervene in Texas' Senate race, anoint his preferred candidateReaders on Facebook were not shy about letting their opinions be heard in reaction to Alston's photos, with one calling the candidate a "devil in disguise."A woman named Ronda said that "changing parties seems to be the trend" in North Carolina, while Shana pointed out that the candidate is a "'Republican' who has been voting Democrat since 2008."Elizabeth added, "Any face cover should be banned," and 23 people agreed with her sentiment.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Britney Spears was arrested Wednesday night in Ventura, California, on suspicion of driving under the influence, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing online records from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.The California Highway Patrol arrested the 44-year-old pop star around 9:30 p.m., the Times said, adding that she was booked around 3 a.m. Thursday.It wasn't Spears' first run-in with the law.Her car was impounded, and she was released just after 6 a.m., the paper said.The Times said Spears' occupation was listed as “celebrity.”Spears is scheduled for a May 4 hearing in Ventura County Superior Court in Ventura, the paper said.The Times said it wasn't able to immediately reach a Spears' representative Thursday morning.RELATED: 'All we can do is keep praying': Britney Spears' father gives first interview in a decade, believes controversial conservatorship may have kept pop star alive It wasn't Spears' first run-in with the law.She was arrested in 2007 in Los Angeles County not long after her divorce from Kevin Federline was finalized, the paper said, adding that Spears was charged with misdemeanors for an alleged hit-and-run and driving without a license.The Times said the case was dropped in October 2008 after a jury split 10-2 in favor of acquittal.Variety said Spears recently sold her song catalog. The outlet also said Spears in January wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post that she “will never perform in the U.S. again because of extremely sensitive reasons.”More from Variety:Spears was released from her 13-year conservatorship in 2021 and has largely kept a low profile since then. The pop superstar has not released an album since 2016’s “Glory,” and she last performed live in the U.S. in 2018, when she closed out her “Piece of Me” tour with a show at the Formula One Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. She had been scheduled to return to Las Vegas in 2019 for a second residency, “Domination,” but she ultimately postponed the show and stepped away from performing indefinitely.Spears' father, Jamie Spears, was in control of the pop star's assets during the conservatorship. Following his daughter's release from it, Jamie Spears in December 2022 asked, "Where would Britney be right now without that conservatorship? And I don't know if she'd be alive."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Current Iranian Regime Allows CNN to Report From Tehran (and People Have Questions)

Congress Loves Transparency - Just Not the Bill to Release Its Sexual Misconduct Files

Hegseth Hosts Anti-Cartel Conf., Vows to Take Battle to the Enemy and 'Make the Americas Great Again'

President Donald Trump, in a pair of social media posts on Thursday, urged congressional Republicans to prioritize passage of the SAVE America Act, describing the voting legislation as a defining issue for the country. Republicans should pursue the bill "with PASSION, and at...