President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he canceled his planned meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. “I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” Trump said. Trump believes Beijing is becoming hostile. They are sending letters to […] The post President Trump on “Some Strange Things Happening in China” appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to “the suffering people of Venezuela” and President Donald Trump on Friday. The Nobel Committee honored Machado on Friday “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights” in her home country of Venezuela. Trump supporters and Israel pushed for Trump to receive the award. She […] The post Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dedicates Her Prize to President Trump appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Mainstream critics have been falling all over themselves to praise the political action thriller “One Battle After Another,” but their fawning hasn’t been enough to help the film break even at the box office. Many conservatives balked at the storyline, especially as instances of real-life violence against federal immigration agents continue. “One Battle After Another” stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob Ferguson, a former far-left revolutionary living off-grid in a state of stoned paranoia, but he is forced to return to his old lifestyle when his daughter disappears. Bob teams up with his old crew of comrades to save his daughter and the world from a cabal of right-wing antagonists portrayed as racists. The leftists resort to violence in their mission, raising questions about whether their actions reflect genuine heroism or simply serve as a vehicle for political messaging. The film is loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, per The Daily Mail. Director Paul Thomas Anderson, an 11-time Oscar nominee, went all in with the budget, spending a whopping $175 million to bring the story to life. But so far it’s only earned back $100 million and came in second place last weekend behind Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl: The Official Release Party.” Get 40% off new DailyWire+ annual memberships with code FALL40 at checkout! “This movie has a chance of getting to profitability if it lasts long enough in theaters and/or overperforms abroad,” David A. Gross, head of box office intelligence firm Franchise Entertainment Research, told Variety. “It’s going to get a lot of award nominations, but that’s two to three months away and unlikely to help this immediate release,” he added. This is despite “One Battle” having a 95% critical rating and 85% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. While major critics gush that the movie “represents a cinema of big swings and bold statements,” many conservatives are saying it’s just more left-wing propaganda from Hollywood.  “You can make excuses for it, but basically the [film is] an apologia for radical left-wing terrorism, that’s what it is,” Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro said, also predicting it will win “all the Academy Awards” because of who it presents as heroes and villains. “It has the subtlety of a brick … The basic suggestion is a conspiracy theory in which the United States is run by white supremacist Christian nationalists and all people of color and a few nice incompetent fellow travelers like [DiCaprio’s character] are going to take on that entire system,” Shapiro went on.  “And that system must be taken on at the cost of family, at the cost of friendship, at the cost of decency, at the cost of basic human capacity for success. It is better, in other words, to be a complete loser who wastes your life bombing things randomly in order to free illegal immigrants to run willy-nilly across the border than to be a productive citizen.”

Leftist activists know that capturing the youth is the best way to expedite transformational social change. Accordingly, they have co-opted our schools to indoctrinate our children with radical ideologies. Not only do they insist on allowing men in girls’ sports and private spaces and forcing teachers to use the preferred pronouns of transgender students, but “progressive” states and school districts are also mandating curriculum and lesson plans that teach our children that America and the institutions of our civilization are inherently discriminatory and evil. By shifting its focus away from teaching core fundamentals toward ideological agendas that teach our young students to hate America, public education is neglecting its primary responsibility — turning our children into patriotic and productive citizens. A major part of this effort has been the elimination of the study of the foundational principles of our democracy. In many states, the study of Western Civilization has been replaced with a warped, culturally Marxist narrative that sows division and confrontation based on race, religion, and gender, and seeks to impose specific views on students about politics and sex. It has become commonplace in schools to implement “action or protest” civics, replacing “service learning” with formal civics education in the classroom. The spread of so-called ethnic studies programs across K-12 schools nationwide is a good illustration of what is happening on this front. Defending Education just released a major report documenting how “ethnic studies” programs are being used across the country to indoctrinate students and turn them into activists in support of an extreme Leftist agenda. The report exposes, for example, Berkeley’s High School Ethnic Studies Initiative’s resource hub,  which includes lessons and resources on “drag pedagogy,” “equitable grading,” “teach[ing] Palestine”, and “whiteness as property,” as well as the University of Minnesota “Ethnic Studies Initiative,” which works directly with K-12 districts to create lesson plans and resources for 6th graders that promote defunding the police and glorifying Black Lives Matter. Sadly, we are already witnessing the impact of this indoctrination. According to a June Gallup survey, from 2021 to 2025, less than half (41%) of Gen Z adults said they were very or extremely proud to be American. Not surprisingly, many of them are embracing socialism and taking to the streets to advocate for all sorts of radical causes. It seems obvious that if we do not reverse this trend, we will lose our country. And this requires prompt action and strong leadership at all levels of government. Considering that education is ultimately an issue reserved for the states under the Constitution, governors and state lawmakers should move quickly to revise curriculum and education standards to depoliticize the classroom and ensure our students receive proper civic education that fosters a love of country. Some states have already moved decisively in this direction. Iowa passed a law last year requiring its Board of Education to review and revise the state’s social studies standards to emphasize “United States history, government, founding philosophies and principles, important historical figures, Western Civilization, and civics.” Ideally, states should model their standards on strong, substantive content, such as the American Birthright curriculum of the National Association of Scholars. Parental rights protections should also be strengthened through legislation at both the state and federal levels to guarantee that parents can fully review what their children are being taught and can have them opt out of any class, lesson plan, or survey that is purely ideological. Full, universal educational freedom should also be pursued by states to allow parents to select alternatives to schools that seek to radicalize their children. The publicly funded Education Savings Account programs in Arizona and Florida, available to every student in the state and allowing parents to use funds to pay for school tuition, are excellent models for states to follow. President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act also provides a historic and consequential boost to education freedom by creating a federal tax credit of up to $1,700 on donations to non-profits that grant scholarships that can be used to pay for tuition. As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, let us remember the Founders’ belief in the importance of education, especially classical education, for the preservation of liberty and republican self-government. If we do not act swiftly to take back our schools from the clutches of ideological zealots, our great experiment in freedom and democracy will not endure. Alfonso Aguilar is Senior Director of Government Affairs at Defending Education and former Chief of the U.S. Office of Citizenship in the administration of President George W. Bush. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

At just nine years old, John O’Leary laid in a hospital bed covered in bandages, burned on every inch of his body. His parents prepared for the worst as doctors gave him a one percent chance to live. But O’Leary didn’t die — and decades later, the boy who was never expected to live grew up to teach millions how to appreciate the lives and circumstances they were given. O’Leary’s extraordinary story is hitting the big screen this week as Sony’s “Soul on Fire” heads to theaters. The emotional film tells the true story of how he survived a catastrophic house fire and went on to become a bestselling author and speaker. Directed by Sean McNamara (“Reagan,” “Soul Surfer”), the movie is based on O’Leary’s memoir “On Fire: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life” and was filmed in St. Louis at the real-life locations where his story unfolded. O’Leary said during an exclusive interview with The Daily Wire that, in his opinion, the most impactful aspect of the film was its authenticity.  “The entire thing was shot on location where it happened,” he said. “When you see the home where little John was burned or eventually comes home to, that’s my mom and dad’s house.” And while that dramatic scene is likely to impact audiences, it’s not the one O’Leary points to as the most emotional to watch for him. The most powerful scene for O’Leary was a recreation of his real wedding day. “That’s the church where John and Beth married,” he said. “In the second row behind John Corbett and Stephanie Szostak are seated my actual mom and dad.” His father, who had Parkinson’s Disease for decades, hadn’t been able to stand for years. “But in that scene, when Sean yelled action, this warrior pulls himself up,” O’Leary said. “He is immortalized in film, upright, smiling, and stoically celebrating his son’s life.” O’Leary’s story began when he survived that devastating house fire that left him with burns on 100% of his body. He made a remarkable recovery thanks to the steadfast support of his family, community, and faith, including an unlikely friendship with Baseball Hall of Fame announcer Jack Buck.  That experience shaped his lifelong mission to help others find purpose and possibility in the face of hardship. It’s a mix of realism and grace that defines both O’Leary’s story and the movie that seeks to capture it.  When asked what he hopes people will understand about the reality of suffering, he answered bluntly: “You can’t run from it. I think you embrace it instead.”  The author and public speaker credits his mother, who “seemed to almost rejoice in pain and suffering,” for shaping that outlook. She forced him to confront life’s hardest questions directly. “Do you want to die? Do you want to return to life?” she asked him early on. “It wasn’t about the piano,” he said of her teaching him to play again. “It was about living. It’s about agency. It’s about potential. And I would have chosen none of that on my own, but my incredible mother instilled it in me and still does.” That inner strength became the foundation for everything that followed. “We were going to live,” he said. “We didn’t know how long it would take, but we knew the outcome.” When asked if he wishes the accident had never happened, O’Leary said, “You would not want to go through this again for a million reasons,” he said. “You don’t want to go through five months in the hospital… and you don’t want to go through a lifetime with scars.”  But time, faith, and perspective have changed how he sees the painful struggles of his past.  “I’m married to a stunningly beautiful woman in no small part because of this story. I’m animated and active in my faith because of this story,” he said. “Ease will never bring you courage. It’s only in the struggle we discover our bravery.” He distilled the message of the movie into one word: “Love.” But not the sentimental kind.  “It’s a verb that puts you into motion to serve someone bigger than yourself,” he said. “The only non-hero in the entire film is John O’Leary. Every single other person steps up, models love, and in doing so changes this person’s life.” One line that O’Leary’s father repeats throughout the film is, “I love you. There’s nothing you can do about it.”  “It’s the greatest quote because right now we live the exact opposite,” he said. “I love you if… is the way most of us go through life. My dad went through life the exact opposite. I love you, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” That kind of clarity about love, faith, suffering, and eternal gratitude is what “Soul on Fire” exemplifies. It doesn’t do so in a sentimental way, but rather in a gritty, real-world example of how beauty can blossom even from the most difficult circumstances. It takes the countercultural stance that a hard life can be a great life, and that even when it’s very difficult, life is always worth living. “Soul on Fire” hits theaters nationwide today.

'Biden is responsible'

'I just don’t remember'

'He hated Benny because of his views'