Spam texts are on the rise, mucking up your phone with group chats filled with people you don’t know and who didn’t ask to be lumped together for some nefarious reason. While these texts might seem like a simple nuisance, they can ultimately lead to more spam, phishing attempts, or worse. Just like with spam calls, though, there’s an easy way to silence spam text alerts and block messages from your phone.Spam texts are on the riseIf you’ve received more spam text messages lately, you’re not alone. Consumer Reports confirmed that text-based scam attempts have risen by 50% as of 2025. Part of this is due to the broad-scale availability of RCS, a fairly new texting standard that replaced the antiquated SMS on both Android and iPhone. Although RCS is generally more private and secure than SMS, the new service makes it easier for scammers to send media attachments designed to get you to click through to a spam website where they can steal your private information.What to do if you receive a spam textIf you receive a spam text, do not respond! Don’t ask why you’re in the group chat, don’t demand the head of the person who added you, don’t talk to anyone else that asks the same things, and for the sake of your future sanity, don’t click on any shared links. Doing any of these actions simply confirms to the sender that your phone number is valid, and you will be added to other spam lists for future scam calls and text messages. It’s better for spammers to think your number is inactive than to let them know that you are a viable target. Instead, here’s what you should do the next time you receive a spam text message. How to block spam texts on iPhoneOn iPhone, open up the Settings app. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page and tap “Apps.” From there, scroll to the center of your app list and tap into “Messages.” Scroll halfway down the page again and find the section titled “Unknown Senders.” From here, you’ll want to enable “Screen Unknown Senders.” This will automatically flag any text messages you receive from unknown numbers and move them to a separate list within your Messages app. Next, check the “Time Sensitive” toggle. This will allow alerts, two-factor verification codes, and urgent texts to still come through so you won’t miss anything important that’s non-spam related. Finally, check the “Filter Spam” option to hide spam notifications and move these unwanted messages to a separate list in the Messages app. With these features enabled, you won’t be alerted when a spam text comes in, but you’ll still get the chance to review the message and decide if it’s actually spam. Screenshots by Zach LaidlawTIP: Keep in mind that these settings are available on iPhones running iOS 26. You may not see these options, or they may be slightly different, if you’re on an earlier version of iOS.If you want to view your quarantined spam texts, open the Messages app on your iPhone. Tap the filter menu in the top right corner. Click on either “Unknown Senders” or “Spam,” depending on which you want to view. From here, you can either read the messages for fun, remove them from the spam list if they’re not actually spam, or delete them entirely. Whatever you do, though, don’t reply.How to block spam texts on AndroidFor Android, we’re specifically looking at the spam blocking features built directly into the Google Messages app. If you’re using a different messages app, these features may differ or may not even be available. For what it’s worth, Google Messages is the best native SMS and RCS app on Android, thanks to its simplicity, security, and broad support. I strongly recommend switching to Google Messages if you haven’t already.To get started, open the Google Messages app on your Android phone. Tap on your profile picture in the top right corner, followed by “Messages Settings.” Near the bottom of the page, select “Protection & Safety.” Finally, toggle “Spam Protection” into the on position. Once enabled, Android will automatically scan and filter your spam text messages into the spam section in your messages app. Screenshots by Zach LaidlawWARNING: Although most of Android’s spam detection features happen directly on the device, Google admits that “spam information is sent to Google anonymously to improve spam and abuse protection.” This information can include the phone numbers of unknown senders who aren’t in your contacts list. Google maintains that your name and phone number are not shared with Google and that your identity remains anonymous.Reclaim your messages appSpam text messages are annoying, but thanks to these features built directly into iOS and Android, it’s easier than ever to make them disappear. Toggle a few quick settings and reclaim the peace of a quiet messages app where only the people you want to talk to can actually reach you.

Faith-based films have come a long way, baby.Remember the hardscrabble tales told by the Kendrick Brothers (“Fireproof,” “Facing the Giants”) on shoestring budgets? Think Kirk Cameron and a sea of unfamiliar faces.'The way that faith shows up in this particular film is around a sense of longing. ... I wanted a sense of yearning for something.'Or the “God’s Not Dead” franchise, a saga that mainstream critics lined up to smite like so many pinatas?Now faith is more mainstream than ever in pop culture circles. Amazon teamed up with Jon Erwin’s Kingdom Story Company to create the popular “House of David” series for Prime Video. Netflix partnered with Tyler Perry and DeVon Franklin for a line of original faith-based films, including last year’s “Ruth & Boaz.”Newer, faith-friendly films boast recognizable stars like Oscar winner Hilary Swank (“Ordinary Angels”), Kelsey Grammer (“Jesus Revolution"), and Dennis Quaid (the “I Can Only Imagine” series).Defying easy labels“Midwinter Break” — which hits theaters Friday — offers something that’s aesthetically different while spiritually profound. The indie drama focuses on an older couple, Stella and Gerry (Lesley Manville, Ciarán Hinds), traveling in Amsterdam.Their decades-old marriage teeters when Stella recalls a traumatic experience and an unfulfilled spiritual promise. The drama looks nothing like a standard faith-based film, which some critics have derided as sanding too many of life’s rough edges smooth.The story’s core conflict is deeply religious and handled with care. It defies easy labels but may resonate all the same.“Midwinter Break” director Polly Findlay treats the marriage and subject matter with a delicacy that belies her status as a first-time filmmaker. It helps that she brought a heady background in live theater to the task at hand. Shared vocabularyAnother obvious benefit? Having two veteran stars building a credible marriage on the brink of collapse. Manville and Hinds also brought significant stage experience to the film, offering a “shared vocabulary” when the cameras turned on, Findlay tells Align.That, plus three days of rehearsal, ensured the couple’s on-screen bond appeared like it was decades in the making.“We were able to read [the script] a lot together and build a shared sense of back history,” Findlay said. “They didn’t want to plan too much in advance. They wanted to feel things in the moment, to riff off each other and improvise.”Manville and Hinds aren’t kids anymore. She’s 69 and he’s 73, and it’s rare for films to feature older couples either falling in love or navigating years of complicated romance.“That was something I was really drawn to ... a grown-up love story,” she said. “It’s not always documented on screen. The relationship is a series of new beginnings. And so it’s really, really hopeful without being sentimental.”A key part of the film finds Stella reflecting on a life-changing event in her younger years, a time when she was with child. What flowed from that pivotal moment got lost over the years, but the Amsterdam journey finds it rushing back to the present.RELATED: ‘The Case for Miracles’: A stirring road trip into the heart of faith Fathom EntertainmentA life unlived“For Stella, her faith is very, very real, of course, and very specific. The way in which that faith manifests itself in her is a product of the country that she’s from, the moment in time from which she’s from ... and the things that happened to her in the past,” the director says.“The thing that she’s carrying with her in a more macro way is ... a thing we can all related to, a sense of a life unlived.”Manville captures that challenging arc.“As she gets older ... there’s a whole different Stella that could have been if she made choices differently,” she says.Different layersFor the director, bringing faith to the screen meant different layers of storytelling.“The way that faith shows up in this particular film is around a sense of longing. ... I wanted a sense of yearning for something running underneath it,” she says, adding the Amsterdam setting enhances that with its beauty and “sense of melancholy.”“Midwinter Break” can be heavy, and audiences won’t know if this relationship can survive the couple’s marital chasm. That reflects both Stella’s faith and the harsh realities of any long-term relationship.It’s a duality that spikes the film’s waning moments.Some couples can loathe each other in the morning and, later, realize what they’ve built is both precious and vital, she notes.“Sometimes your emotion toward somebody is red, and sometimes it’s blue. ... You can just go from red to blue without necessarily having to go through purple, because that’s how we are,” she says. “It felt important for those moments of despair and doubt to feel 100% and that somehow the kind of hope you then arrive at is dependent on going through that 100%.”

Former Victoria's Secret CEO and Bath & Body Works co-founder Leslie Wexner was questioned at his Ohio home on Wednesday by Democrat members of the House Oversight Committee over his relationship to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The 88-year-old billionaire said in a prepared statement that he has "been the subject of outrageous untrue statements and hurtful rumor, innuendo, and speculation," adding that he was "naive, foolish, and gullible to put any trust in Jeffrey Epstein."Although he has not been charged with any crime, Wexner was identified in the newly released Epstein files — both in a 2019 FBI document and an FBI email — as a possible co-conspirator in Epstein's sex-trafficking case.DenialWexner, whose net worth is presently estimated to be $10.8 billion, told lawmakers that he was introduced to Epstein in the 1980s by Bob Meister, the former vice chairman of the insurance giant Aon. 'Taunting and poking him with impatience, that little demon he really loves.'After allegedly receiving references for Epstein from two of the pedophile's former superiors at Bear Stearns and Élie de Rothschild of the Rothschild family banking dynasty, Wexner developed a relationship with Epstein, then ultimately hired him to manage his personal finances.The New York Times reported that during the time he managed Wexner's personal finances, Epstein not only became extraordinarily rich but came into the possession of a New York mansion, a private plane, and a luxury estate in Ohio, altogether valued at roughly $100 million and all previously owned by Wexner or one of his companies. Wexner told lawmakers on Wednesday that Epstein purchased the New York property from him for what he "was told was the appraised value."Wexner noted in his prepared statement that Epstein "was clever, diabolical, and a master manipulator" — a deceiver living a "double life" who "carefully used his acquaintance with important individuals to curate an aura of legitimacy that he then used to expand his network of acquaintances, and apparent credibility, even farther."The billionaire claims that he was only personally acquainted with the one side of Epstein — the "sophisticated financial guru," not the "side of Epstein's life for which he is now infamous."Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre alleged in court documents that she had been trafficked to Wexner, according to multiple outlets. Wexner, however, claimed both that he has never been unfaithful to Abigail, his wife of 33 years, and that he completely severed ties with Epstein around the time of the pedophile's guilty plea in 2008 for solicitation of a minor for prostitution.RELATED: 'I wasn't his girlfriend': Whoopi Goldberg breaks silence on her presence in the Epstein files Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty ImagesWexner claimed in 2019 that he had severed ties with the sex offender a year earlier, in 2007. Wexner stressed in his statement to lawmakers that while he was "conned," he has "done nothing wrong."Following the deposition, Rep. Robert Garcia (Calif.), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, stated, "There was no one more involved in providing Jeffrey Epstein with the wealth and financial support he needed to commit his crimes than Les Wexner. There would be no Epstein Island, no Epstein plane, and no money to traffic women and girls without the wealth of Les Wexner.""And yet, with all this evidence, Mr. Wexner admitted that the FBI and DOJ never questioned him," continued Garcia. "That’s outrageous and unforgivable."A Wexner spokesperson said in a statement obtained by Politico that the billionaire "honestly answered every question put to him today by the Committee" and that "Wexner reiterated that he has no knowledge of, and did not participate in, Epstein’s illegal conduct."Another malicious spiritEpstein may not have been the first "master manipulator" to exert influence on Wexner. In an interview that served as the basis for Julie Baumgold's August 1985 profile in New York Magazine, Wexner discussed "his dybbuk, which pokes and prods and gives him the itchiness of soul that he calls shpilkes."According to Jewish folklore, a dybbuk is an evil human spirit whose past sins preclude it from finding peace. These spirits are believed to seek refuge in the bodies of living human beings whom they cling to and/or possess. Rabbi Julian Sinclair, writing for the Jewish Chronicle, noted that "Kabbalistic works, at least from the 16th century onwards, sometimes contain instructions and protocols for the exorcism of dybbuks, ceremonies to drive them out of the bodies they have colonised."Baumgold wrote that when Wexner was a boy, his father called the dybbuk "tummel, a churning, so he feels 'molten' and unformed, pricked by these spiritual pins and needles.""[Wexner] met this demon again when he was 40 and already worth half a billion," continued Baumgold, "when he climbed the mountain in front of his house in Vail and almost froze to death and decided to change his life. This demon he calls 'terminal shpilkes,' which makes him wander from house to house, repeating the pattern of his childhood on a luxurious scale, wanting more, swallowing companies larger than his own. It is precisely the reason that Wexner has a billion and didn't stop at, say, 5 million and a new Mercedes every other year and what he calls 'normal life.'" The profile concludes with:Lex Wexner picks up his heavy black case and flies off in his Challenger, with his dybbuk sitting next to him, taunting and poking him with impatience, that little demon he really loves. The dybbuk turns his face. What does he look like? "Me," says Les Wexner.Journalist Whitney Webb suggested that while "one may interpret this use of shpilkes, literally 'pins' or 'spikes' in Yiddish and often used to describe nervous energy, impatience, or anxiety, as Wexner merely personifying his anxiety," his decision to use the word "dybbuk" was "significant." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

In the late 20th century, we entered Marshall McLuhan’s global village, in which instant communications collapsed distances and weakened the boundaries of the nation-state. We are now entering its next chapter, a lifting of the internet’s physical backbone above terrestrial soil. Blue Origin’s TeraWave project is a manifestation of what Manuel Castells called the “space of flows”: a domain in which social practices occur in real time, indifferent to geographic contiguity. By moving critical infrastructure into orbit, we are creating a planetary nervous system that transcends the old constraints of territory.An attack on a private communication satellite could constitute an act of war.What does it mean when that network is physically located in the global commons of space, beyond the reach of any nation’s laws? Communications that once passed through national gateways now beam directly from overhead, challenging the ability of governments to control information flows within their own borders.Geopolitical lifelines — and severanceControl over communications infrastructure is a strategic advantage. On the very first day of World War I, British forces cut the undersea telegraph cables linking Germany to the outside world, save one cable, which they tapped. This cable-cutting gambit isolated an empire and yielded intelligence coups, such as the Zimmermann telegram, that influenced the course of the war. Networks are a geopolitical lifeline, and to control them or deny them to an adversary is an exercise of power.The Cold War moved this struggle into the skies. In 1964, the United States led the formation of Intelsat to project soft power through global television and telephone links. The Soviet Union, wary of an American-dominated system, responded in 1971 with Intersputnik. Even as these satellites orbited above Earth’s politics, they were enmeshed in them.Technology is now catching up to the strategic ambition. While early attempts in the 1990s, such as Motorola’s Iridium, struggled economically, the 2020s brought a drop in launch costs that made massive constellations feasible. SpaceX’s Starlink proved the concept, deploying thousands of satellites to become the world’s largest operator by 2025.Weaving the orbital fiber TeraWave is Blue Origin’s bid for the terabit-scale backbone. The system is not designed for the mass-market consumer but is instead a “provider for providers,” an infrastructure as a service for telecom companies, large enterprises, and governments. The technical blueprint calls for a multilayered architecture of satellites: 5,280 in low Earth orbit to interface with ground users and 128 larger satellites in medium Earth orbit acting as high-capacity relay nodes.RELATED: Amazon's Ring is running a spy ring from your home. Here's how to turn it off. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesTeraWave and Starlink serve different purposes. Starlink is an access network, a wireless ISP from space. TeraWave is “orbital fiber,” a point-to-point, symmetric link for the heavy-duty data needs of data centers and military command posts. Each customer link can access up to 144 Gbps, while the MEO layer provides trunk connections of up to six terabits per second.To achieve this bandwidth, TeraWave pushes into the Q and V radio frequency bands, which allow high throughput but require precise, power-hungry ground antennas and remain susceptible to atmospheric attenuation. It also employs optical inter-satellite links to create a laser-based network. Blue Origin’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has opted for a methodical engineering approach that separates backhaul from access, perhaps learning from the single-stack complexities of SpaceX’s pioneering forays.The ultimate high ground In space, private innovation meets the hard edge of national security. We saw this in Ukraine, for which Starlink became a digital lifeline after terrestrial networks were disrupted by the Russian invasion. Ukrainian troops used Starlink to coordinate defense and control drones, nullifying attempts to sever their communications. When Elon Musk reportedly curtailed coverage near a conflict zone, citing fears of escalation, the U.S. Department of Defense found itself negotiating contracts to ensure service continuity.China has announced its own GuoWang mega-constellation of 12,000 satellites to ensure that it is not dependent on Western systems. The European Union has approved its IRIS² initiative to achieve European strategic autonomy and avoid reliance on non-European players. India now requires satellite operators to route data through local ground gateways to protect national security and comply with data localization laws. The transnational nature of these networks is in constant tension with the territorial jurisdiction of states.Vulnerable in the void The orbital backbone has a certain resilience, providing route diversity: the ability to act as backup if undersea cables are cut, a real concern given recent incidents of sabotage in Northern Europe and Asia. TeraWave is explicitly marketed as a way to keep critical services online during disasters or outages. For smaller states or enterprises, these networks reduce exposure to local infrastructure attacks.The stakes in space are high. If conflict extends to orbit, a cascading debris field could indiscriminately knock out the satellites. As militaries integrate TeraWave into their operations, these satellites may become targets, blurring the lines between civilian and military assets. An attack on a private communication satellite could constitute an act of war.Benefit or Babel?Low Earth orbit is largely ungoverned. International frameworks lag behind the current technical reality. There is no binding treaty on how many satellites one company can deploy. The lines of accountability are blurred. If a nation’s internet is provided by a private corporation’s satellites, is that nation’s infrastructure still its own?Blue Origin’s slogan for TeraWave is “For the Benefit of Earth.” It’s a noble sentiment, but achieving it will require more than engineering. It will require wisdom that matches the scale of the technology. We are wrapping the Earth in a collective nervous system; whether this yields a harmonious village or a Tower of Babel is yet to be determined.

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