by Belle Carter, Natural News: Australia is the first country to enforce a sweeping ban on social media access for children under 16, shutting down nearly five million accounts in the first weeks. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok must implement strict age verification, including facial recognition or government ID uploads, or face fines up […]

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A church in Washington, D.C. has gained the attention not only of hundreds of young Christians, but also the mainstream media.   King’s Church has a size of about 600 congregants and is located in the basement of a bar one mile from the White House. With its growth taking off during the COVID-19 pandemic, that appeared unique enough to have earned the church a lengthy exposé in Vanity Fair labeling it a “MAGA” hot spot.   Writing for the magazine, Tara Palmeri painted King’s Church as a “recruitment machine” and asserts that the congregation is a “long-term investment” for the Republican Party.   “What makes King’s so startling—even unnerving—for the secular left is how effortlessly it fills a void progressives never cracked: blending identity, community, and political machinery,” Palmeri writes.   Palmeri describes the church’s nondenominational contemporary worship service as “half revival, half silent disco.”   However, Pastors Wesley Welch, 34, and Ben Palka, 35, say they have never worked in politics. Palka says they would “have no idea how to engineer a ‘recruitment machine,’” adding, “we’re going to be honest about the issues, but we’re not going to wave a particular political banner.”    “What we’re doing is pretty typical church outreach,” Palka said.  “If a church is in a neighborhood, they’ll reach out to their neighborhood, they’ll canvass the neighborhood, they’ll invite people to participate in church and to explore Christianity, and that’s all we’re doing.”   Welch and Palka founded the church in 2018 with a mission to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to Washington, D.C.  More specifically, Palka says King’s Church aims to “take a robust biblical … worldview and apply it to people’s lives in a way that the jobs, the lives that they’re living are Christ focused and Christ centered.”   Pastors of King’s Church Wesley Welch and Ben Palka. (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal) The church’s growth did not begin until 2020, when Palka says he watched amid the COVID-19 pandemic as “young people that previously didn’t take their faith very seriously started taking it very seriously.”  What Palka said surprised him most about the Vanity Fair piece was “how out of touch, the mainstream media is with just Christianity 101.”   “They looked into a pretty normal, young Evangelical church and the only way that they could understand it was through the framework of politics in power, because … that must be how they view the world,” Palka said.  The congregation of King’s Church meeting in the basement of Penn Social bar in Washington, D.C. (King’s Church) Congregants of the church say they chose to join the community because of the positive experience they had after walking through the church, or bar, doors.   “I think it’s evident that God is moving in King’s Church,” Avery Lance, 27, says.   “By all reports and metrics, young people aren’t going to church,” Lance said, adding, “people in a city like D.C. are not going to church, but King’s Church kind of stands in defiance of all of that.”   Lance and his wife Danielle lead one of the 25 small groups for King’s Church, providing a time to study scripture, pray, share a meal and “bear each other’s burdens and encourage each other,” Danielle Lance explained. “It’s my favorite night of the week,” she said.   Avery and Danielle Lance, King’s Church congregants. (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal) On a chilly Sunday morning in January, Welch preached from the book of Daniel in the Bible, using the story of Daniel living in captivity in Babylon as an exhortation to seek the Lord and represent Him regardless of the circumstance.   The church is roughly half Gen Z, 30% millennials, and 20% in the 45 plus age demographic, according to Palka.   “We didn’t set out to be a church for young people. It’s like the Lord’s just done a revival there,” Welch said, adding, “it has been amazing to see the younger generation come hungry for truth and hungry for the Lord, and receiving it.”   Washington, D.C. is young city with 34 being the median age, according to Census Reporter.   Husband and wife Sandra, 45, and Kristopher Klaich, 48, have been attending the church for over four years. As an “older” couple in the community, they quickly became mentors to many of the younger congregants, joking they are shocked so many young people want to spend time with them.    Kristopher and Sandra Klaich, King’s Church congregants. (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal) One of those “young people” is Jack Renner who, now 32, has been attending the church since the first year it was founded and believes so many other young people have chosen to join the church because they are hungry for community.    “When you enter King’s Church you can feel the welcoming hospitality there, the love for God and love for our fellow humans,” Renner told The Daily Signal.    As King’s Church continues to minister to the people of D.C. who join them on a Sunday morning or during the week for a small group, Wesley says the vision for the church is not only to one day have their own building, but also to “create a long term ministry here in D.C.”  The post DC Church Captures Attention of Mainstream Media appeared first on The Daily Signal.

There is nowhere to hide at the base of the Washington Monument. And so, on the early-early morning of New Year’s Eve, a gregarious but bleary-eyed video producer from Florida named Kyle Barrett shifted side to side, bracing against a bitter wind while waiting on edits from senior administration officials. In less than 24 hours the obelisk would be bathed in moving light. This was the only dress rehearsal for what organizers called the “Illumination of America,” a titanic spectacle of living images projected directly onto the monument above and the kickoff for the 250th anniversary of the United States. This made Barrett, at least in that moment, the man most responsible for the story Trump’s America tells about herself. “In the middle of the night, 3:30 a.m. on the 30th, was when we finally, for the first time, saw any of our content up on the monument,” he told RealClearPolitics of the rush job that he had accepted only three weeks prior. It is the crowning achievement of his career. Five years earlier, he was making television commercials for Ashley Furniture. Congress had only just passed a special authorization into law allowing the monument lightshow on Dec. 2. Barrett and his team got the call five days later, leaving them just under three weeks to develop a visual script and execute it. Christmas was postponed for their families. Long nights and work on the weekends, guaranteed. Up until that moment in the cold, no one had seen a preview of their work. The digital files were so massive that they couldn’t even fit on a single server. The show could only be previewed directly onto the 555-foot marble canvas in the middle of D.C. A grid that had been projected onto the monument for digital mapping earlier in the week was immediately spotted and had sent the Internet aflutter. To avoid ruining the reveal, the first preview of the show had to be done in the middle of the night at the last possible moment. They threw the switch. Light and sound exploded. The monument transformed into the open ocean, and Christopher Columbus discovers the New World. Next, hooves pound the marble pavement, and Paul Revere cries out that the British are coming. Then George Washington crosses the Delaware, and afterward, the Declaration of Independence is written in real time by a glowing quill on the towering obelisk. The subsequent American story plays out in four acts and runs less than 20 minutes from Discovery and Independence to Westward Expansion and from the Industrial Revolution to the Space Age. The White House wanted the monument lit up like “the world’s tallest birthday candle.” It has to be seen to be understood. In the early morning, Barrett and his team rushed to take notes from assembled leaders of Freedom 250, the organization responsible for pulling off the national semi-quincentennial. The sky needed to be two shades bluer. The water wasn’t crystal clear. The giant faces of the Founding Fathers chiseled into the monument seemed too faint. “We rushed back to the office at about 4:30 a.m. and didn’t sleep again until after we uploaded the final piece of content into the servers on the 31st,” Barrett said. The final version was locked in with one hour to spare. While the technical aspects needed to be nailed down, the story was never in doubt. It was a patriotic celebration of America, not critical introspection. “Some bipartisan entities want to apologize for American exceptionalism. We’re just not going to do that,” explained a source close to Freedom 250. “We took everything that is the best of the best of our nation, whether it was Columbus discovering the Americas, Washington crossing the Delaware on Christmas, or the Apollo missions and the moon landing. We are unapologetic about it.” The Saturn V rocket was projected onto the Washington Monument six years ago to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. But it was only visible on one of the four faces. For America 250, they would use all four. “Trying to decide when and how to use the monument to tell a particular story,” Barrett explains, “that was challenge number one.” And the images would not be static. They would be a mix of moving animations. A single image would be projected onto each of the four faces at one moment—for instance, when the astronaut boot of Neil Armstrong touched down on the moon. During other points in the show, a moving canvas would wrap around the entire obelisk as when Sacagawea led Lewis and Clark into the West. All of it was narrated and accompanied by a completely original score. Organizers positioned 40 different laser projectors around the monument, putting 10 on each side for redundancy. Three of the projectors had to be rushed in last minute from Belgium. They were Barco UDX-4K40s, capable of producing 37,000 lumens, enough light to turn night into day and make certain the Washington Monument was visible everywhere within a 25-square-mile radius. The second challenge: finding and sourcing historical paintings. They scoured archives, poured through history textbooks, and reviewed the famous paintings that adorn the national capitol. For the transition from the Wright Brothers to the Space Age, Barrett bounced ideas off his wife, Merlin, a fifth-grade science teacher. It had to be perfect. The display was the kickoff for an entire year of celebration. “President Trump has spared no effort in ensuring that America gets the spectacular 250th birthday it deserves—and the New Year illumination of our Washington Monument is just the beginning,” said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly. “Between the Patriot Games, Great American State Fair, UFC 250 Fight, and other exciting events, 2026 will feature a renewal of patriotism and national pride under this president’s leadership.” Barrett and his team raced back to the Washington Monument to feed a copy of the 19-minute show, about two terabytes of data, into four servers. They had kept an eye on social media, particularly Reddit, all day to see if images of their dress rehearsal that morning had leaked. They had not. Back on the National Mall, they confronted another final, frustrating challenge—high winds had shifted the projectors six inches off target. “I was terrified when the project started,” Barrett admits. The show attracted an estimated audience of 299 million on television and brought in 7.4 billion online impressions. Beginning on New Year’s Eve, it reran for five days straight. According to a source with direct knowledge, when returning President Trump to the White House on the final night, Marine One circled the monument twice for a better view. “I was filming sofa chairs and futons five years ago. That’s all I did was shoot broadcast spots for Ashley Furniture,” Barrett said. “The pivot from shooting furniture to counting myself as being seen by 400 million people, or whatever the most recent numbers are, is mind boggling.” But Barrett admits he had an audience of one in mind on opening night. His wife, Merlin, had helped him brainstorm ideas. She hadn’t seen the final draft and didn’t know her suggestions, particularly the transition from the rocket to information age, had made the final cut. Before the crescendo, he told her, “I want you to know that all of this is for you.” “The insane no-sleep-in-two-and-a-half-weeks unimaginable timeline was worth it to be able to say that to her in that moment,” he recalled. “And then she got to watch the fireworks.” This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.  The post The Man Who Lit the Washington Monument Like a Candle appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Minnesota fraud scandal rocked the nation. But, it’s just the beginning. Because, it’s not just Minnesota. Now, the Trump administration is starting to uncover the massive amounts of fraud happening in other states — like California. President Trump’s CMS Administrator Dr. Oz says that the Minnesota Somali fraud scheme pales in comparison to what he saw happening in California. He’s estimating that over $40 billion in fraud has been committed in Gavin Newsom’s state — and, that’s just within the hospice and home care sectors. Watch what Dr. Oz had to reveal here: Backup here if needed: DR. OZ: “What we’re seeing in Minnesota is the tip of the iceberg because it is dwarfed by what I saw in California, which is wholesale cultural malfeasance … The magnitude of fraud we believe is approximating $4 BILLION just in hospice and home health care.” pic.twitter.com/CeMUz8TV81 — Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 18, 2026 Earlier this month, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into medical fraud in California. Speaking at a press conference announcing the investigation, Dr. Oz gave more details on how the scam works. Per The New York Post: Billions of dollars in alleged fraudulent healthcare spending is being investigated in California, specifically probing foreign nationals operating illegal hospice facilities — officials announced Friday in a bombshell press conference. “We have witnessed a sevenfold increase in hospice in LA County, sevenfold. That doesn’t happen naturally,” Dr Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told The Post during at the press conference. “There is not seven times more deaths in LA County than there were five years ago. These are fraudsters, and these do tend to be foreign influences, either Russian and Armenian gangs, mafia, that are leading a lot of these efforts.” Fraudsters who run these facilities are working with about “100 bad doctors,” who convince a patient they’re dying to enroll them in hospice care, Dr Oz said, adding about 100,000 people have handed over their Medicare numbers. “We are major focused on this issue, and I think our suspicion, our belief, is that the fraud in California will magnify whatever’s happening in Minnesota,” United States Attorney Bill Essayli said. “What’s happening in Minnesota pales in comparison to the level of fraud that we believe is occurring in California.” Dr Oz said the Trump administration is also cracking down on taxpayer money being used to treat illegal immigrants for elective procedures. “We’ve already identified about $1.3 billion of federal dollars spent to take care of illegal immigrants,” Dr Oz said. “The state is giving that money back.” Hundreds of billions of dollars flow through California’s healthcare system, according to Essayli, who said $10 billion is for “illegal immigrant health care.” “No federal dollars is supposed to be used for that,” said Essayli, who back in April launched a task force investigating corruption in the state, specifically focused on homelessness. Absolutely infuriating. If this is only hospice fraud, then can you imagine how much fraud in total must be going on in California? And, furthermore, in the entire nation? Imagine how many Trillions of our debt is due to fraud. — Southern FFA Family (@FFAFamily) January 18, 2026 These are our tax dollars being stolen by scammers and fraudsters… Audit the entire system! pic.twitter.com/yyxFvXBCym — God & Country (@GodandCountryy) January 18, 2026 How would you assess this?

CBP Commander Gregory Bovino just extended an invitation to Minneapolis police officers who want to work for an agency that actually supports them. Bovino said that a lot of rank-and-file officers in the city want to join ICE or Border Patrol and is encouraging them to do so. In fact, he said he would be happy to personally meet up with those who are interested! Watch here: Backup here if needed: HOLY CRAP! Border Commander Bovino just invited Minneapolis police officers to JOIN ICE or BORDER PATROL, after the rank-and-file began walking up to his men thanking them for deporting illegals “I’d be HAPPY to PERSONALLY meet those officers that want to join us!” Mayor… pic.twitter.com/SACDffpyEo — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 17, 2026 HOLY CRAP! Border Commander Bovino just invited Minneapolis police officers to JOIN ICE or BORDER PATROL, after the rank-and-file began walking up to his men thanking them for deporting illegals “I’d be HAPPY to PERSONALLY meet those officers that want to join us!” Mayor Frey’s own police are DISOBEYING his insurrectionist orders! “I’m hearing they want to join Border Patrol ICE. We welcome you!” “They’re saying thank you, we support you, in DIRECT opposition to a Mayor Frey calling for cops to fight federal agents. WE have the support of the rank-and-file!” This is incredible, @CMDROpAtLargeCA. This proves you are doing it RIGHT. When you start digging in to Minneapolis leadership, it’s easy to see why a lot of their police officers are considering switching up their jobs… For one thing, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara supports Somalis over U.S. citizens. He has instructed Somali immigrants to call the Minneapolis police if ICE tries to arrest them: Never forget when Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told Somalians to call 911 if ICE showed up to arrest them saying MPD officers will “immediately respond” and “intervene.” Someone should tell the Chief that interfering with immigration enforcement is a federal offense. pic.twitter.com/4JbmzUWkHM — Liberacrat (@ViralVideos) January 8, 2026 Absolutely unreal. The Minneapolis police chief is a left-wing hack — but, their mayor is even worse! In fact, earlier this week, Mayor Jacob Frey stunned the liberal police chief by calling on officers to fight ICE. For reference, here’s that clip: Minneapolis Mayor Frey wants police officers “to fight ICE agents on the streets.” The chief of police’s reaction is priceless… pic.twitter.com/OxcULwM5qW — Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) January 15, 2026 Regular members of the Minneapolis police are fed up. They know way more about what’s actually happening on the streets and in the city — enough to want to help ICE and Border Patrol clean it up. Or, maybe it’s just that they actually care about their city and its residents. This X user makes an excellent point: Great addition to ICE. The beauty is they already know the bad guys. They already know the lay of the land. — texnbob (@texnbob1) January 17, 2026 In stark contrast to Mayor Frey, Commander Bovino was right there on the streets on Saturday. Flanked by his security and decked out in a custom Border Patrol coat, he led the charge to clear out anti-ICE protestors. I’ll end with this awesome clip: Chief Greg Bovino walking around Minneapolis in a custom Border Patrol coat with his security detail, clearing out protesters. Absolute patriot. pic.twitter.com/eWMwJg4Yu2 — johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) January 17, 2026 Do you have a viewpoint?