Your entire life lives on your phone — account logins, complex passwords, banking information, contact lists, notes. Everything. If you don’t have an up-to-date backup of your phone, you could lose some or even all of your data when you upgrade, or even worse, if it’s lost or stolen. Follow these easy steps now to make sure all your phone data is safe and encrypted in the cloud.How to back up an iPhoneMany folks have a love-hate relationship with Apple’s iCloud service. On one hand, the backup feature is great for capturing everything on your device. It basically makes a carbon copy of your phone, freezing your data, settings, files, and the rest in carbonite and leaving it there until you need it. It’s one of the most robust backup services available, in my humble opinion.When it comes to phone backups, it’s not a matter of if you’ll need it but when.On the other hand, iCloud backup can take a huge chunk out of the measly 5 GB of storage Apple has offered to customers since iCloud launched in 2011. If I was a betting man, I’d guess you either haven’t backed up your iPhone in ages because you ran out of cloud storage years ago, or like me, you begrudgingly pay Apple every month for enough storage to save everything in your precious device.Wherever you stand, device backups are non-negotiable if you value all the information stored in your phone. Here’s how to enable iCloud backup now:Open the Settings app on your phone.Scroll down to the very bottom and tap “iCloud.”Select “iCloud Backup” after that.Finally, check the toggle beside “Back Up This iPhone” and then “Back Up Now.” Screenshots by Zach LaidlawIf you want to optimize your iCloud backup settings even further, there are a couple things you can do. First, find “This iPhone” under the “All Device Backups” section and tap on it. Once you’re inside, uncheck any app that you don’t want to save. This could slim down your device backup and free up bits of valuable storage.You can also completely remove old devices from the “All Device Backups” section. Simply click on the device, scroll to the bottom, and select “Turn off and Delete from iCloud.” Congrats! Your iCloud storage is now several gigs lighter.BONUS TIP: iCloud backup works on iPad, too, but it’ll count against your cloud storage limit, so keep this in mind.How to back up most Android phonesRegardless of make and model, all Android phones sold in the USA come with Google’s built-in cloud backup service that’s designed to save your most important data, including photos, videos, messages, call history, apps and data, and device settings. You can enable Google backup on your Android by following the quick steps below.RELATED: Do blue-light glasses actually work? Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesNote: Depending on your device and Android version, these steps may look a little different, but as long as you get to the backup section within your device settings, you will be able to save the correct data. For reference, the following screenshots were taken on a Google Pixel running Android 16.Open the Settings app.Scroll down and tap on “System.”Then select “Backup.”Tap on “Photos & videos,” then check the backup toggle at the top.Go back one screen inside the backup section in the Settings app.Tap on “Other device data” and check the “back up other device data” toggle above your name. Screenshots by Zach LaidlawKeep in mind that many of these saved pieces count against your 15 GB of free Google Drive storage, so if you run out, you won’t be able to back up your phone completely until you upgrade your cloud storage with a Google One plan.While Google’s backup service keeps most of your data safe in the cloud, there are some holes in its system. For instance, Google backup may not save the settings on all of your apps; currently, developers have to opt in to allow this, and while many apps do support it, there are plenty of apps that don’t. Google’s backup solution also doesn’t save local files on your device, including documents in your Downloads folder or password-protected secure folders. Make sure you manually move these to another device or cloud service before you reset your old phone.How to back up a Samsung Galaxy phoneGoogle backup works perfectly fine on Samsung phones, but Galaxy owners need to take some extra steps to back up Samsung’s first-party apps. In order to save your call logs, messages, alarm clocks, voice recordings, home screen layouts, and settings, you need to enable Samsung Cloud via the following steps:Open the Settings app.Scroll down and tap “Accounts and backup.”Under “Samsung Cloud,” tap “Back up data.”Check each item you want to save and then click “Back up now” at the bottom of the screen.Then go back one screen, tap on “Back up data” under the “Google Drive” section, and follow the steps above to make sure Google’s backup service is active too. Screenshots by Zach LaidlawWhile Samsung Cloud backups do count against your 15 GB storage limit, there are no upgrade plans, so Samsung won’t prompt you to buy more. They also offer a 30-day temporary backup option that’s completely free. There are also limitations to what you can save. For example, Samsung can’t back up any files that are synced with other accounts (i.e., your Google contacts will sync to your Google account, not your Samsung account), and it won’t save any backup files larger than 1 GB.A matter of whenWhen it comes to phone backups, it’s not a matter of if you’ll need it but when. For everyone who received a new phone for Christmas, a backup is vital to getting your new device running exactly like your old one. It doesn’t stop there, though. Your phone could fall to the bottom of a lake, or it could get swiped by a thief, or your favorite pet could mistake it for a chew toy. Whatever happens to your device, make sure your backups are on and set to save new data automatically every night. You’ll save yourself a lot of trouble in the future.

Months before Rolling Stone published its false 2014 article about a gang rape at the University of Virginia that never happened, former President Barack Obama told the nation that "it is estimated that 1 in 5 women on college campuses has been sexually assaulted during their time there."This statistic — an apparent reference to a federally funded 2007 study that was reliant on an online survey of students at two universities that had a low response rate — has been treated as the gospel truth, with the media dutifully repeating the notion of American campus "rape culture" ad nauseam over the past decade.A new study suggests, however, that the real rate of female sexual victimization on campus might be closer to 1 in 100.'The campus anti-rape movement has coincided with college-enrolled women's risk of sexual violence victimization now exceeding that for non-enrolled women.'A pair of researchers at Washington State University's criminal justice and criminology department set out to "estimate the risk of sexual violence against 18-to-24-year-old women with comparisons between college students and non-students, between residential and commuter college students, and between the years before and after the mainstreaming of the campus anti-rape movement in 2014."According to their peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of American College Health, previous estimates not only suffered from issues of generalizability but failed to account for the "impact upon victimization risk of increasing activism against sexual violence on college campuses."RELATED: Horror in Ohio home: Male accused of raping, beating pregnant woman over course of 2 days. But that isn't the half of it. Photo by Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImageKeen on correcting for such issues and on gaining a clearer idea of the threat of predation on campus, the duo analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau-administered National Crime Victimization Survey regarding 61,869 women ages 18 to 24 years, who were interviewed a total of 112,624 times between 2007 and 2022.The sexual violence recorded in the NCVS data apparently "includes rapes (any forced/coerced sexual penetration) and sexual assaults (any unwanted sexual contact including fondling or grabbing) whether threatened, attempted, or completed."The researchers found that the six-month rate of sexual victimization was 0.17% for female students living on and off campus from 2007 through 2014, and 0.46% for female students on and off campus from 2015 to 2022.The numbers were higher for students living on campus during both periods under review but still nowhere near 20% — 0.34% in the former and 1.05% in the latter."The above estimates indicate that the mainstreaming of the campus anti-rape movement has coincided with college-enrolled women's risk of sexual violence victimization now exceeding that for non-enrolled women," the study said.The researchers expressed uncertainty about why the victimization rate had increased during the "anti-rape movement" and the #MeToo era but suggested that misogyny cultivated online might be to blame or alternatively "college student sexual violence victims' increased acknowledgement of their victimization as rape or sexual assault."When asked by the College Fix about the significance of their findings — particularly as they cast doubt on previous estimates that the victimization rate was 1 in 5 — Kathryn DuBois, one of the authors and an associate criminology professor at Washington State, said, "Our results cannot speak to earlier estimates of sexual violence occurring over a 4-year college 'career' because NCVS questions only deal with victimizations experienced during a 6-month period.""As such, we really cannot say if 1-in-5 or 1-in-100 is a more reliable estimate of risk," DuBois added.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Five Republican senators joined Democrats to defy President Donald Trump, voting to advance a war powers resolution to rein in military action in Venezuela. The war powers resolution advanced in a 52-47 vote on Thursday, with Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Todd Young of Indiana joining 47 Democrats. 'I oppose socialism everywhere but that’s not today’s debate.'If passed, the resolution would limit Trump's authority to enact military intervention in Venezuela without congressional approval. Although the resolution is likely to pass the Senate, the House rejected a similar war powers resolution in December. Notably this resolution was blocked before Trump ordered the military operation to capture Nicolas Maduro.RELATED: 9 Republicans aid Democrats to advance Obamacare subsidies Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty ImagesPaul and Hawley justified their votes from a constitutional perspective, arguing that war powers belong to Congress and not the president."I oppose socialism everywhere but that’s not today’s debate," Paul said in a post on X. "The question is simple: Does the Constitution allow one person to take us to war without Congress? The answer is no. War powers belong to the people’s representatives. Full stop.""With regard to Venezuela, my read of the Constitution is that if the President feels the need to put boots on the ground there in the future, Congress would need to vote on it," Hawley said in a post on X. "That’s why I voted yes on this morning’s Senate resolution."RELATED: 'Errand boy': Mike Collins rips Jon Ossoff's silence on Maduro, points to Laken Riley's Venezuelan killer Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for MoveOnIn contrast, Collins supported the war powers resolution to curb Trump's authority because she disagreed with his vision for a post-Maduro Venezuela. "I believe invoking the war powers act at this moment is necessary, given the president’s comments about the possibility of ‘boots on the ground’ and a sustained engagement ‘running’ Venezuela, with which I do not agree," Collins said.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The Trump administration is uprooting the United States from another large money-sink as it continues to try to put America first. On Thursday, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent announced that the U.S. is "immediately" withdrawing from the Green Climate Fund, a United Nations-aligned organization that has cost the U.S. billions in the last decade. 'Continued participation in the GCF has been determined to no longer be consistent with the Trump administration's priorities and goals."Our nation will no longer fund radical organizations like the GCF whose goals run contrary to the fact that affordable, reliable energy is fundamental to economic growth and poverty reduction," Bessent said in a statement on social media. The Green Climate Fund is an affiliate of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The GCF was established in 2010, according to a timeline on its website.In a press release, the Treasury Department said that while the administration "is committed to advancing all affordable and reliable sources of energy, ... the GCF was established to supplement the objectives of the UNFCCC, and continued participation in the GCF has been determined to no longer be consistent with the Trump administration's priorities and goals."RELATED: Biden seeks to blow $1 billion on a UN climate fund that has already diverted $100 million to America's top adversary Photographer: Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesThe GCF Board — directed by James Catto, an American, until Thursday's announcement — is "charged with the governance and oversight of the Fund's management." The GCF, according to its website, "embodies a new and equitable form of global governance to respond to the global challenge of climate change."Under the Biden-Harris administration, the United States pledged $3 billion in a multi-year "replenishment" of the fund spanning from 2024 to 2027. The United States also seeded the fund at its inception, providing $2 billion, according to the same 2023 press release. The Green Climate Fund did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

When gasoline surged past $5 a gallon in 2022, the impact landed on every household, every small business, and every industry that depends on transportation — which is to say, nearly all of them.Families were reshuffling budgets, truckers were adding unavoidable surcharges, and businesses were raising prices simply to stay afloat.It remains true that no president controls gas prices outright. But federal policy does shape how quickly American energy can be produced, moved, and delivered.At the same time, Americans were told that there was little anyone in Washington could do to ease the burden. The message stayed the same for months: Global forces were responsible, and there was no quick fix for the pain drivers were feeling at the pump.Yet while families struggled with the highest fuel prices ever recorded — a national average of $5.02 per gallon — the federal government was encouraging Americans to buy electric vehicles costing between $50,000 and $70,000.All pain, no gainTransportation officials suggested that the “more pain” people felt from gasoline prices, the more attractive EVs would become. Energy officials repeated that an electric car was the fastest way for families to reduce their gas bills to zero. For most households, though, the math just didn’t work. The average new EV price in 2022 was $66,000 according to Kelley Blue Book, while the median U.S. household income was around $74,000. A new electric car was not an immediate or practical solution.Meanwhile, federal actions during those early years reflected a shift away from domestic oil development. The Keystone XL pipeline permit was canceled on day one, new federal oil and gas leasing was paused, existing Arctic leases were withdrawn, and a record 180 million barrels were released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Drilling permits decreased, and U.S. oil production fell below 2020 levels despite growing demand. Those choices — combined with refinery constraints and global volatility — kept domestic supply from growing at the pace needed to bring relief.Supply highThe landscape looks very different today. By late 2025, U.S. energy production had expanded significantly. Federal lands reopened for leasing, permitting became faster, and producers were able to meet more of the country’s energy needs. American crude oil production climbed to an all-time high of 13.4 million barrels per day, and the number of active drilling rigs rose substantially from pandemic-era lows. More supply began moving through the system, helping stabilize markets that had been strained for years.The results are unmistakable. The national average for regular gasoline sits near $3 per gallon — roughly 40% lower than the 2022 peak. Eighteen states now have average prices below $2.75. These aren’t isolated discounts; they are widespread indicators of stronger supply and more balanced market conditions.RELATED: America First energy policy is paying off at the pump Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesWhere the rubber meets the roadIt remains true that no president controls gas prices outright. Global crude markets, refinery operations, seasonal demand, transportation costs, and taxes all influence what drivers pay. But federal policy does shape how quickly American energy can be produced, moved, and delivered. When supply is constrained, prices rise. When supply grows, prices ease. The past three years have demonstrated this in real time.The contrast between the experience of 2022 and the reality of 2025 underscores a simple point: Energy policy affects everyday life in immediate, measurable ways. It determines what families pay to commute, what businesses spend to operate, and what consumers pay for goods delivered across the country. It is not theoretical. It shows up every time someone fills a gas tank.For millions of Americans now seeing sub-$3 gasoline again, the numbers tell the story more clearly than any political argument.

DOJ Confirms Receiving Criminal Referral That Might Partly Explain Why Tim Walz Has Become Extra Unhinged

Holy BUTT-KICKIN', Batman! Walter Hudson NUKES Democrats in Heated Back-and-Forth Over MN Fraud (Watch)

Trump Enraged As 5 GOP Senators Join Dems on Vote to Limit His Military Authority in Venezuela

New: ICE Agent in MN Shooting Was Hospitalized Last Year After Being Dragged by Illegal Alien’s Car

JD Vance Predicts 2028 Democrat Presidential Nominee — His Pick Is Hilarious and Spot On