News The Handmaid’s Tale The Handmaid’s Tale’s Final Season Begins in April This show has been running since 2017. By Molly Templeton | Published on February 12, 2025 Screenshot: Hulu Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Hulu “The revolution is here” proclaims the teaser for the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale. Said revolution is not very visible in this first teaser, though. In voiceover, as the red dresses of the handmaids are created, Elizabeth Moss’s June Osborne says, “They believed that these garments that they put on our bodies told the world who we are. To mark us, they put us in red—the color of blood. They forgot that it’s also the color of rage. The dress became our uniform, and we became an army.” The rest of the dialogue is a brief string of clichés: “Something big is about to happen.” “If you want to fight, let’s fight together.” And, for good measure, a classic: “Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil.” This season’s synopsis, via Variety, says, “June’s unyielding spirit and determination pull her back into the fight to take down Gilead. Luke and Moira join the resistance. Serena tries to reform Gilead while Commander Lawrence and Aunt Lydia reckon with what they have wrought, and Nick faces challenging tests of character. This final chapter of June’s journey highlights the importance of hope, courage, solidarity, and resilience in the pursuit of justice and freedom.” Hulu and showrunner Bruce Miller have wrung five seasons out of Margaret Atwood’s novel; while this sixth season is the end for this series, Hulu is also working on an adaptation of the sequel The Testaments. That series was announced all the way back in 2019, but as recently as last year, Disney Television Group president Craig Erwich said it was still in development. Along with Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale stars Yvonne Strahovski, Bradley Whitford, Max Minghella, Ann Dowd, O.T. Fagbenle, Samira Wiley, Madeline Brewer, and Josh Charles. The final season begins with three episodes on April 8th; episodes will then drop weekly until the show ends on May 27th.[end-mark] The post <i>The Handmaid’s Tale’s</i> Final Season Begins in April appeared first on Reactor.

Books book review Making Big Life Choices in The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang A review of You Yeong-Gwang’s new fantasy novel By Jenny Hamilton | Published on February 12, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Serin feels stuck. She lives in an apartment block that’s slated for destruction; her sister blew town without a backward glance; and she’s never better than okay at school, or friendship, or her hobbies. Out of desperation, she submits a letter of application to the Rainfall Market. The stories say that if your letter stands out, you’ll receive a ticket to the Rainfall Market. Once there, you can choose a new life—whatever you desire. Serin only half-believes in the Market, until she receives a golden ticket, ordering her to come to a certain address on the first day of the rainy season. She can stay in the market until the end of the rainy season, by which time she must have chosen her new life, contained within a magical Dokkaebi Orb. But wait, there’s more! Serin is the one lucky duck from among the ticket-holders who has a special Golden Ticket (shades of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a very much darker piece of fiction), meaning that she can try out however many lives she wants before choosing the one she wants to keep. Yet as she moves through the Rainfall Market, peering into futures that could be hers, she always finds something lacking from them that she can’t live without. Worse, she begins to realize there’s something badly wrong in the market; and if she doesn’t figure out what it is, her life could be in danger. You Yeong-Gwang’s The Rainfall Market (translated by Slin Jung) reminds me of a video game—one of the dreamy, indie ones from Annapurna that would win acclaim for its art design and people would admit on social media that it made them cry. It has a video game’s quest-like structure: Serin conceives of a life she’d like to live, asks her magical cat Issha to bring her to the relevant Dokkaebi Orb. Then she has to accomplish some small, weird task for the orb’s keeper before she’s allowed to look into the future it contains. If it were a game, you’d be solving small, whimsical puzzles in between cut scenes that are kind of a downer, taking breaks in between to pet the kitty. (The kitty is very good. We love the kitty.) You Yeong-Gwang is clearly having a ball with Serin’s mini-quests. At every stop, the resident dokkaebi identifies the human experience they seek and consume: One takes away serenity, another takes words from human hearts, and a third takes from humans desire to keep themselves clean. Some of these traits matter to Serin’s brief encounter with that dokkaebi. More often, they don’t. Coherent world-building isn’t really the point, because Serin is building agency, not expertise. The unpredictability of the tasks she’s given requires her to think on her feet, consider new ideas, and find greater trust in herself (and Issha) that she’ll be able to handle the next weird, unexpected thing that’s thrown at her. While video games let the player bring their own tastes and experiences to the character we play as, a novel requires more investment in the protagonist. And this is where The Rainfall Market really lost me. As the only Golden Ticket holder, Serin doesn’t have any travel mates who could chat to her and help bring out aspects of her character through dialogue. (Her only companion is Issha, who is a very good kitty but who cannot talk.) As a window shopper for possible lives, she isn’t trying to form lasting connections with the denizens of the market, nor with the occupants of the lives she visits. By design, Serin is a bit of a blank, existing in the world of the Rainfall Market mainly to react to what’s happening around her. Buy the Book The Rainfall Market You Yeong-Gwang Buy Book The Rainfall Market You Yeong-Gwang Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget As such, this book has the quality of parable. Don’t we all feel stuck, and isolated, and beaten down by our circumstances? Don’t we all wish for something different, even before we manage to articulate what that might be? The lesson Serin learns in the end isn’t quite that of It’s a Wonderful Life, although she does come to realize that the life she wants to leave behind was more valuable than she had initially supposed. I thought of it more like the lesson of “The Fisherman’s Wife,” a fairy tale that I love despite how much it comes off like “women, amirite?” Serin’s life is not necessarily the best of those she samples. But she does begin to see the burdens that other people’s lives—glamorous and desirable as they may seem from the outside—have placed upon them. We are all looking for an escape, but escape isn’t always quite the, well, Golden Ticket that it may seem. The Rainfall Market rests comfortably in the genre of healing fiction, which has begun to reach English readers after many years of success in Korea and Japan. Serin’s journey is episodic and lightly fantastical, with a magical cat for company (don’t worry; the cat will be okay), and she’s able to win out in the end with the help of the friends she makes along the way. That she and her friends are thinly drawn is perhaps beside the point. Serin’s escape from her life feels as universally relatable as does her ultimate desire to slip back into it, albeit with a renewed belief in herself and a sense of hope for her future. It’s an open question whether healing fiction would work better for me, a dog person who recently lost her dog, if the magical cats were magical dogs. As it is, I tend to finish these books feeling a little unsatisfied. Certainly that was true of The Rainfall Market. I expected it to be gentle and silly and life-affirming—and it’s all of those things. But it turns out that I want even my comfort reads to have a little sharpness to them, and The Rainfall Market keeps its claws resolutely sheathed. A fun, harmless debut for fans of The Midnight Library and The Cat Who Saved Books.[end-mark] The Rainfall Market is published by Ace. The post Making Big Life Choices in <i>The Rainfall Market</i> by You Yeong-Gwang appeared first on Reactor.

Lawfare hasn’t stopped since Donald Trump became president again, but has been repackaged into civil litigation to stop his second term agenda—and most of the civil lawfare can be traced to groups affiliated with a coalition known as Civil Service Strong.   Members of the coalition scored federal court wins in recent days to temporarily block Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, to delay a federal employee buyout, and to halt the shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The member groups have also been involved in numerous other lawsuits against the Trump administration, including challenging the Schedule F executive order on civil service protections; a suit to block the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative from accessing information; and a lawsuit to prevent disclosure of FBI information.  “The Left is very good at collaborating. Since the election happened, these organizations have been planning which policies to sue over,” Parker Thayer, investigative researcher with the Capital Research Center, a think tank that monitors nonprofits, told The Daily Signal. “They have been in the lab for a while trying to prepare.” Civil Service Strong is a project of Democracy Forward, where leading Democrat lawyer Marc Elias is chairman of the board. Elias has been known primarily for election-related litigation and for his role in initiating the discredited Russia collusion investigation during President Donald Trump’s first term.  Democracy Forward, in a post on X, boasted of filing nine lawsuits against the Trump administration and winning four court orders.  The groups joining Democracy Forward in Civil Service Strong are two federal unions (the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Federation of Federal Employees); two nonfederal unions (the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the American Federation of Teachers); three political lawfare groups (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sued to block Trump from being on the 2024 ballot; the State Democracy Defenders Fund; and Protect Democracy), and two whistleblower-protection groups (the Government Accountability Project and the Project on Government Oversight).  The managing director of Civil Service Strong is Rob Shriver, appointed as acting director of the Office of Personnel Management under then-President Joe Biden.  The Daily Signal reached out to each of these organization for this article, but none responded as of publication time. The Civil Service Strong website identifies “some of the organizations,” and lists 10 groups, which suggests other, unidentified organizations or individuals are part of the coalition. “I don’t expect the Left’s litigation machine to slow down at all,” the Capital Research Center’s Thayer said. “In Trump’s second term, they are taking him more serious. It’s less about show impeachments and media hoaxes, and more about stopping him in court.”  On Wednesday, in federal district court in Maryland, Democracy Forward is arguing on behalf of clients suing to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from entering houses of worship in pursuit of illegal aliens being harbored there. On Monday, a federal district court in Massachusetts sided with the AFGE and AFSCME, both listed as coalition members, as well as the National Association of Government Employees to pause the Trump administration’s buyout offer to federal employees. Democracy Forward represented the unions in the lawsuit.  Under the proposed buyout, the Office of Personnel Management offered to pay federal employees through Sept. 30 and provide them with full benefits if they agreed to take the buyout by Feb. 6. A judge already delayed the deadline until Monday, making that the second interim ruling until making a determination on the legality of the buyout offer. Separately, Democracy Forward and the Public Citizen Litigation Group represented the AFGE and the American Foreign Service Association in a ruling Friday to temporarily halt closing USAID.  Federal unions are funded through employees’ mandatory dues.  Lawfare nonprofits groups are funded through private donors. Among the biggest contributors to Democracy Forward was the Sandler Foundation, which provided $2.5 million, according to the most recently available financial information. The Sandler Foundation has been a longtime donor to organization such as the liberal Center for American Progress, the American Civil Liberties Union, and ProPublica. The Susan Thomas Buffett Foundation gave $2.14 million to Democracy Forward in 2023. It was established in 1964 by investor Warren Buffett and named after his late first wife.  On Monday, Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit in a federal district court in Virginia to stop DOGE from accessing government data. A similar lawsuit was filed by another group in the Civil Service Strong coalition, Protect Democracy, which made a complaint the same day in federal court in Maryland against DOGE.  In a separate lawsuit, Protect Democracy sued on behalf of the Government Accountability Project—also part of the Civil Service Strong coalition—as well as the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association to stop Trump’s executive order to recategorize thousands of career employees to be political employees, which would mean no more civil service protections.  Protect Democracy was founded in 2017 by Ian Bassin, a former associate White House counsel in the Obama administration.  In 2023, one of the biggest donors was the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a left-of-center grant maker, which contributed $3 million to Protect Democracy. The Silicon Valley Community Foundation has donated to other liberal organizations, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Brennan Center for Justice.  Another coalition member, the State Democracy Defenders Fund, scored its own win Monday, teaming with other organizations in a lawsuit in a New Hampshire federal court to block Trump’s executive order revoking birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants born in the U.S.  On Friday, a federal judge in the District of Columbia sided with States Defending Democracy Fund to block the Justice Department from releasing the names of FBI personnel involved in the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol protest.  On Feb. 3, the State Democracy Defenders Fund joined the Public Citizen Litigation Group to represent the AFGE, the Alliance for Retired Americans, and the Service Employees International Union in a lawsuit to prevent the Department of the Treasury from sharing confidential data with DOGE staff investigating government waste. The State Democracy Defenders Fund was founded in 2024 by former Obama White House ethics czar Norm Eisen, who Obama later named as U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic. An author of at least three anti-Trump books, Eisen was also a former special counsel in 2019 to the House Judiciary Committee for the first impeachment of Trump.  In a recent MSNBC interview, Eisen called Trump an “autocrat” and asserted “the lawsuits we’re bringing, I’m planning 100 this year.” Other countries have peacefully evicted autocrats & the US can too!I explained how we are working together w/ allies to do that in the court of law & of public opinion @TheWeekendMSNBC ? pic.twitter.com/HwcbA8bgNH— Norm Eisen (#TryingTrump out now!) (@NormEisen) February 9, 2025 Eisen was also a founding member in the early 2000s of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, which is also a member of the coalition.  For its part, CREW—part of multiple lawsuits against the first Trump administration—is representing the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, in a lawsuit challenging the Trump executive order on “Schedule F,” which recategorized thousands of federal employees from civil service to political appointees. That’s applicable to employees who have a role in implementing policy. The post LAWFARE: Web of Leftist Groups Working in Tandem to Tie Up Trump Agenda in Court appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used the AI Action Summit in France to warn against what he says are dangerous uses of this technology that people are worried about – including, but not limited to, “cunning disinformation.” With a directly opposing view of the US Vice President JD Vance, other instances of “misuses” of AI Trudeau spoke about are the possibility it may result in driving citizens “further towards cynicism, populism, hopelessness, and hatred.” And his remedy is to have governments and the private sector team up and take action along with civil society, to deal with these presumed harms. Not least because of his track record, one way of interpreting what Trudeau is describing, and the direction of the push he is making towards tighter control of the tech (with governments and private companies enmeshed) – is to make sure AI’s use is curtailed when it comes to expressing dissenting viewpoints that are slated for censorship. “Governments and businesses are facing new challenges, new disruptions, but also new opportunities,” he said, adding, “That’s why the path forward must be working together with like-minded partners as we maintain the competition that is healthy for innovation, but keeping in mind the requirements to keep people safe.” Trudeau repeatedly played the wealth inequality card to drum up support for this approach to future AI development, asserting that unless done “the right” way, it would create a greater divide “between the haves, the have-nots, and the have-yachts.” More attempts at garnering backing for his “vision” by invoking social issues are made when Trudeau speaks about the middle class needing to be that segment of society that benefits the most from AI, instead of “only the rich”; he also mentioned that positive effects from incorporating the technology into everyday life and the economy should be “equally shared” and enjoyed by workers and small and medium-sized firms. The Canadian PM is resolute that in order to avoid what he sees as the worst outcome and at the same time allow what he considers to be the good sides of AI to flourish, the situation must be under (government) control – AI can impact the world positively, he said, “but only if we choose to shape it that way.” But he at the same time made the obligatory nod to the need to avoid “too heavy-handed” legislation around AI – so as not to stifle innovation. Trudeau used this point to reiterate his ideas about “partnerships” between governments, companies, researchers, etc. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Trudeau at AI Action Summit: AI Must Be Controlled to Prevent “Disinformation” and “Cynicism” appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The AI Action Summit, held in Paris this week, resulted in 60 signatories supporting a statement on “inclusive and sustainable artificial intelligence for people and the planet.” Among the dozens of countries are the European Union and the African Union Commission, along with Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany – but not the US or the UK. The gathering in France brought together representatives of governments, international organizations, civil society, academics, researchers, and, the private sector. The declaration commits to a number of UN initiatives, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), that are routinely criticized for ushering in censorship and surveillance. Some of the other international initiatives cited are the UNESCO Recommendation on Ethics of AI and a number of UN General Assembly resolutions. But the document signed in Paris talks about reinforced international cooperation and better coordinated international governance as main priorities, while also worryingly (given how “information integrity” is often used as a “code word” for censorship) pledging to “keep addressing the risks of AI to information integrity.” In order to strengthen joint work on “public and private” AI initiatives, those backing the declaration launched the Public Interest AI Platform and Incubator. When it comes to the endorsement of the UN’s SDGs, and how that may stand in the way of free speech, it’s worth remembering that this set of 17 interconnected global goals promotes not only digital ID, but also indirectly censorship of what the authorities find to be “threats to information integrity” that can negatively impact SDGs – such as “hate speech,” “misinformation,” etc. Another UN initiative referred to by the Paris Declaration in the Global Digital Compact, which the signatories agreed is the basis for launching a Global Dialogue on AI governance and the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, as a way to “align ongoing governance efforts.” The Global Digital Compact is one of the annexes to the UN’s Pact for the Future, prominently pushing digital ID (via what the UN, the EU, the WEF, and the Gates Foundation like to call, digital public infrastructure, DPI), as well as a number of censorship and surveillance policies, tied to “countering and addressing” things considered “hate speech,” “misinformation,” “disinformation,” “cyberbullying.” The Pact for the Future, while claiming privacy safeguards are built in, also promotes greater “cross-border data flows (sharing).” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Over 100 Countries Back UN-Linked AI Pact Pushing Censorship and Surveillance appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Islamic Health Care Workers in Australia: We Kill Israelis Who Seek Treatment

In 2022, “He Gets Us” — a nondenominational campaign aimed at shifting public discourse toward Jesus and Christianity — was launched. Since its debut, we’ve seen several television commercials, billboards, and online advertisements, but none so popular as the campaign's Super Bowl ads. This year’s commercial, titled “What Is Greatness?” featured several scenes of various people helping out and being kind to their neighbors. These scenes included a barber giving a homeless man a beard trim, a man power-washing the words “GO BACK” off a home implied to belong to illegal immigrants, a man in a John 3:16 hat hugging another man at an LGBTQ+ Pride event, and a man in a wheelchair lifted up by the crowd that surrounds him, among several others. The message is: “Jesus showed us what greatness really is.” While it’s true that Jesus is the ultimate example of greatness, the ad gets a lot wrong about our Savior, says Allie Beth Stuckey. She's not surprised, though. LERMA/ is the “far-left, pro-LGBTQ ad agency” that produced the advertisement. LERMA/’s website outlines the company’s intentions to promote “LGBTQIA+ visibility in marketing.” The website also states that “He Gets Us tells the story of Jesus through a modern lens to demonstrate the way he fought for radical love and inclusion.” Except the commercial doesn’t really tell the story of Jesus, at least in terms of his life, death, and resurrection, says Allie. It also gets the idea of godly love and inclusion wrong. While Jesus certainly radically loved people and wanted all to be included in God’s plan for salvation, evidenced by John 3:16, he was in no way “inclusive” by modern standards, which argue that we must accept and celebrate every idea under the sun. Allie points to Matthew 7:13-14 as evidence: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Further, Jesus told “everyone who he came into contact with to ‘go and sin no more,”’ she adds. While it may seem strange that a Christian campaign would choose an advertising agency with these views, it makes sense when you look at what He Gets Us stands for. Allie reads from the campaign’s website: “No matter who you are, you are invited to explore the story of Jesus and consider what it means for your life.” “Well, that’s not the gospel,” she says, pointing out that the text leaves out any mention of our “need for a savior.” It also claims that Jesus “showed that the greatest thing we could be is in humble service to others,” which is “not completely true,” says Allie, noting that loving others is only great when it’s an outflow of our primary love for God. Overall, the ad affirms the worldly message that Jesus was just this “moralistic hippie teacher,” which is an “outright misrepresentation of who Jesus is.” To hear more of Allie’s analysis, watch the episode above. Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

When FBI agents searched the home of Benjamin John Martin, 46, in Madera, Calif., they were looking for clothing, electronics, and other evidence related to his presence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Having noticed a large safe in the garage of Martin’s home, agents obtained a separate search warrant and discovered eight firearms, including an AR-15, a Mossberg shotgun, a Benelli 12-gauge shotgun, and a Kimber 1911 handgun. Agents also found hundreds of rounds of ammunition, court records show. 'She heard one of the agents rack a weapon.' The FBI opened the safe using a jaws-of-life-type hydraulic rescue tool supplied by local authorities, a defense attorney said. When agents arrived to search the premises, they pointed their weapons at Martin’s fiancee, Cara, as she opened the front door. “Show me a warrant,” she said, according to Martin’s attorney, Brad Geyer. “As I understand it, they did not have one, and the guns were pointed at her and she heard one of the agents rack a weapon,” Geyer told Blaze News. “This is not justice — it’s lawfare,” Geyer said. “This is a terrible example of selective and vindictive prosecution that we are hoping will be interpreted by a Department of Justice that will modify its position with new leadership as being righteously covered by President Trump’s pardon.” Under federal law, Martin was not allowed to possess firearms because he had a local misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence, the FBI said. Police allege Martin choked his then-girlfriend and dragged her back into a home when she tried to flee. Martin’s fiancee had sole ownership of the weapons and exclusive access to the gun safe since 2018, Geyer said. “Prosecutors charged Ben in a separate California federal case under a ‘constructive possession’ theory, citing a prior misdemeanor as justification,” Geyer said. “Due to legitimate concerns from his legal counsel about potential government retaliation against his fiancee if she testified in his defense, Ben insisted she not take the stand, and he was convicted in a bench trial.” Based on the two search warrants, the U.S. Department of Justice opened two criminal cases against Martin: one for his presence at the Capitol and one for the weapons found in the safe in his garage. The FBI says the cases are “unrelated.” Martin is one of seven or more former Jan. 6 defendants who remain behind bars despite a pardon or case dismissal powered by President Trump’s Jan. 20 pardon declaration. Jeremy Brown still held Arguably the most egregious of those cases is that of former Green Beret Jeremy Brown, who was shuttled out of the District of Columbia jail just after being told he would not be released. Although Brown’s D.C. criminal case was dismissed more than two weeks ago, he was told that his Florida federal conviction prevents his release. 'The last three weeks have been a nightmare.' The DOJ and a U.S. district judge have stated for more than two years that the Florida weapons case brought against Brown was related to Jan. 6 and grew out of a Jan. 6 search of his residence and property. As such, his attorneys argue, it falls under President Trump’s pardon. Brown, 50, of Tampa, remains behind federal bars in Atlanta as he waits to see if the DOJ or White House will act to set him free. Brown has been cut off from at least four supporters — including his girlfriend — who had been communicating with him via the Bureau of Prisons messaging system. A Feb. 7 email received from the prison by one supporter said her communication with Brown “is detrimental to the security, good order, or discipline of the facility, or might facilitate criminal activity.” Oath Keeper Jeremy Brown (left) on his way from the Ellipse to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. At right is Florida Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs. Photo by Luke Coffee After being shuttled to three prisons during one week, Brown said the uncertainty of his situation is taking a toll. “I’m just struggling,” he wrote in a Feb. 8 update message to supporters. “The last three weeks have been a nightmare. I’m tired from not being able to sleep. I’m cold from not having anything. “My mind is frayed from lack of information, limited communications, and staring at the walls for hours, constantly wondering if the next sound I hear is the sound of them coming to let me out or take me to the next worst place.” Carolyn Stewart, Brown’s attorney, said she has had some discussions with Trump administration officials, but so far there has been no action. “I am disgusted that Jeremy is still in prison,” Stewart told Blaze News. Stewart said the nexus of the weapons case to Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol is strong. Brown denied any connection to the grenades found at his residence, and the FBI was unable to tie them to Brown via forensics. Yet he was found guilty of possessing the explosives. Brown has long asserted that his criminal cases were payback for his December 2020 refusal to inform on the Oath Keepers after two agents from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force tried to recruit him just weeks before Jan. 6. Medical freedom activist Martin has a similar split case, but it differs in some key respects. Court records show that the FBI had Martin’s residence under surveillance from April to September 2021, when he was arrested on Jan. 6 charges. A high-school acquaintance called an FBI tip line after allegedly spotting Martin in news coverage of the U.S. Capitol. The tipster had been following Martin on Facebook but decided to stop because “Martin had become increasingly political in his views,” the FBI said. The tipster’s “significant other” still followed Martin on Facebook “to keep an eye on him,” court records said. “Despite his peaceful conduct, Ben became the target of intense government surveillance in the months that followed,” Geyer said, “with authorities even using high-tech equipment to identify and monitor his fiancee's gun safe in their garage.” Martin, a real estate broker, was also an activist protesting local and state COVID-19 regulations that required patrons to wear masks while shopping. One grocery chain obtained a restraining order against Martin. Geyer said Martin might have been targeted in part because of his COVID activism before Jan. 6. The local Fresno Bee newspaper referred to Martin as an “anti-masker” in a November 2024 headline. The newspaper also routinely referred to Jan. 6 as an “insurrection.” Martin held a door on the north side of the Capitol open even after a police officer smashed at his hand with a baton, prosecutors said. He eventually entered the Capitol. While still outside the entrance, Martin was hit with pepper spray fired by police. On June 26, 2024, a federal court jury found Martin guilty on six criminal counts, including civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. Benjamin Martin (wearing flag gaiter) went to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Photos courtesy of Brad Geyer He was also found guilty of the controversial felony of obstructing an official proceeding. Two days after the verdicts, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that vastly limits the use of 18 U.S. Code § 1512(c)(2) — a white-collar crime statute designed to combat accounting fraud. The charge in Martin’s case was dropped by prosecutors on October 15, 2024. On Dec. 20, 2024, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced Martin to 13 months in prison and four years of supervised release. The pardon proclamation signed by President Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, saved Martin from the prison term. Martin was also sentenced to 38 months in prison on the weapons charge. In their sentencing memo in the weapons case, federal prosecutors accused Martin of engaging in “domestic terrorism,” although he was not charged with terrorism offenses. Prosecutors asked for 66 months in prison. While maintaining that the weapons case grew from and was related to Jan. 6, Martin nevertheless reported for his prison sentence in late January. According to the Bureau of Prisons website, he is being held at FCI Lompoc, a low-security federal prison in Santa Barbara County, California. Geyer said, however, that Martin has been moved. “The affidavit used to justify the search of his home and his fiancee's gun safe was based solely on his peaceful participation on January 6,” Geyer said. “This gun prosecution would have never occurred if not for that day.” Martin filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the gun case. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston denied his motion for bail pending the appeal. She ruled that President Trump’s pardon does not apply to Martin’s weapons case because “possessing weapons in California” did not “occur at or near the Capitol.” In his appeal, Martin is challenging the constitutionality of the federal statute barring those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from possessing or owning firearms. Protesters on the U.S. Capitol West Plaza on Jan. 6, 2021. Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images Former FBI Special Agent Steve Friend, a whistleblower against the FBI’s weaponized tactics in Jan. 6 cases, said it’s not unusual or improper for agents to open a second case if they find evidence of a crime during execution of a separate search warrant. “They were doing a search warrant for one thing and came across evidence of another crime,” Friend said. “So they got a second warrant.” Friend said the FBI does not have to show a warrant until after agents complete the search. Other pardoned Jan. 6 former defendants are also still behind bars due to various case-specific factors. Elias Nick Costianes Jr., 46, of Nottingham, Md., had his Jan. 6 case dismissed by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon on Jan. 21. Costianes was arrested in February 2021 on three Jan. 6 charges: felony obstruction of Congress; unlawful entry; and violent entry, disorderly conduct, and other offenses on Capitol grounds. On March 3, 2021, a grand jury indicted Costianes on six Jan. 6 criminal counts, adding the charges of entering and remaining in a gallery of Congress and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. According to the FBI’s statement of probable cause, Costianes rode a senators-only elevator and captured video with his phone in the Senate gallery. While his main Jan. 6 case was dismissed, Costianes must report to federal prison on Feb. 12 on a conviction based on the Jan. 6 raid of his Maryland residence. The FBI said it found four vials of liquid testosterone, which is a controlled substance. Agents also found a "substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine," according to the indictment, as well as four firearms, two of which the FBI said were not registered to Costianes. Kelley created a 'kill list' of officials. Costianes was charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute and possession of firearms and ammunition by an unlawful user of any controlled substance. Costianes said he was diagnosed with male hypogonadism, known colloquially as low T, but did not like dealing with prescriptions. On April 21, 2022, a grand jury indicted Costianes on nine criminal counts, adding a second count of conspiracy to distribute and possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute, three counts of use of any communication facility to facilitate a drug felony, and three counts of distribution of a controlled substance. The controlled substances at issue in the indictment were liquid testosterone and cocaine, court records showed. In June 2023, Costianes agreed to plead guilty to the firearms count in exchange for dismissal of the other charges. Senior U.S. District Judge James Bredar sentenced Costianes to one year and one day in prison. In a ruling on Jan. 28, 2025, Judge Bredar denied Costianes’ motion to postpone his prison surrender date while he pursues an appeal. Edward R. Kelley, 36, of Maryville, Tenn., was found guilty in November 2024 on 11 criminal counts including civil disorder, assault, destruction of government property, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, and disorderly conduct. He was found not guilty by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of obstruction of an official proceeding. Kelley was accused of throwing a U.S. Capitol Police officer to the ground under the scaffolding that covered the northwest steps. Prosecutors said Kelley used a long 2"x4" section of lumber to smash through a window at the Senate Wing Door. He was among the first two rioters to jump through the broken window and breach the U.S. Capitol at 1:13 p.m. Security video showed that he helped kick open the Senate Wing Door from the inside before moving farther into the Capitol. Kelley was due to be sentenced in April 2025. Under President Trump’s pardon proclamation issued on Jan. 20, the Jan. 6 case against Kelley was dismissed. Edward Kelley stands on the Peace Monument near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Department of Justice Kelley was also charged in Tennessee federal court in December 2022 with conspiracy to kill the FBI agents who investigated his Jan. 6 case. On Nov. 20, 2024, a jury in the Eastern District of Tennessee found Kelley guilty on three conspiracy-related charges. He is set to be sentenced in that case in June 2025. Kelley and Austin Carter were charged in an indictment with conspiracy to murder employees of the United States, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, and influencing a federal official by threat. Trial evidence showed that while awaiting trial on his dozen Jan. 6 charges, Kelley developed a plan to murder law enforcement officials including FBI agents, according to the DOJ. Kelley created a “kill list” of officials who worked on his Jan. 6 case and distributed the list with video images to Carter, 29, of Knoxville. Carter took a plea deal offered by prosecutors that limits his prison time to 10 years or less. Both men were facing possible life prison sentences. On Jan. 27, Kelley filed a motion to dismiss the conspiracy indictment against him based on President Trump’s pardon proclamation. That motion is still pending in federal district court in Knoxville. Daniel Charles Ball, 39, of Homosassa Springs, Fla., had his Jan. 6-related case dismissed Jan. 21, 2025, on a request from the new DOJ based on President Trump’s pardon declaration. Ball had not yet gone to trial on an indictment that charged 11 criminal counts including use of an explosive to commit a felony; unlawful possession of an explosive in the Capitol grounds or buildings; civil disorder; assaulting police officers; and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon. Ball was charged with tossing an explosive device into the entrance of the Lower West Terrace Tunnel just before 5 p.m. on Jan. 6. The explosive created a massive blinding flash and a heavy concussion, security video showed. Some police officers reported suffering hearing loss for months after Jan. 6, according to court records. An explosion inside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel just before 5 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, was caused by an incendiary device prosecutors said was thrown by Daniel Charles Ball of Homosassa, Fla.U.S. Capitol Police CCTV Ball was arrested while in federal custody on Jan. 22 on a warrant from August 2024, charging him with possession of a firearm by a felon. He was ordered to be moved from D.C. to the Middle District of Florida. On Feb. 10, Ball was freed under a supervised-release order on the Florida charge. Taylor Franklin Taranto, 39, of Pasco, Wash., was charged in a criminal complaint in June 2023 with four trespass-related misdemeanor crimes, including knowingly entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, two disorderly conduct charges, and one charge of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. Video shows Taranto was in the hallway where Ashli Babbitt was shot at 2:44 p.m. on Jan. 6. Police searching the van in which Taranto was apparently living in D.C. found two firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He was arrested near the home of former President Barack Obama in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The search of his van led to six weapons-related charges made in a superseding indictment on Feb. 14, 2024. Edward R. Martin Jr., the new U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, filed a motion in U.S. District Court to dismiss with prejudice five Jan. 6 charges against Taranto. A sixth charge is under consideration for dismissal. The gun-related charges are being viewed as unrelated to Jan. 6 and not subject to dismissal under President Trump’s pardon declaration. “The government will continue prosecuting the charges unrelated to January 6 and intends to proceed with the trial that is scheduled to begin on May 12, 2025,” the DOJ wrote in a Jan. 25 filing. Dominic Xavier Box, 35, of Savannah, Ga., had his Jan. 6 case dismissed with prejudice on Jan. 22 on a motion from the new DOJ. Box was found guilty in an October 2024 bench trial on six criminal counts but had not been sentenced by the time President Trump issued pardons and sentence commutations on Jan. 20. Box is behind bars in a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, on a hold filed by prosecutors in Duval County, Fla., for an alleged misdemeanor offense. Box wants the Florida prosecutor to lift the hold so that he can post bond on the Florida charge and be freed from custody. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The Senate voted on Wednesday to advance Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services.After Kennedy cleared the Finance Committee in a party-line vote, the Senate voted 53-47 to invoke cloture on his nomination. The Senate is now expected to take up Kennedy's final confirmation vote Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, after the 30-hour post-cloture window has passed. 'If we're going to Make America Healthy Again, the agencies doing this important work have to rebuild some trust with Americans.'Kennedy was the subject of scrutiny during his pair of heated confirmation hearings in late January, leading skeptics to hold reservations about the nominee's success down the road. But like all of President Donald Trump's more contentious nominees, Kennedy managed to pave himself a path to victory. "President Trump has tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the charge in making America healthy again," Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said. "He promises to make HHS a collaborative, transparent, and science-driven agency under his leadership.""Our public health agencies do critical work, and I'm a supporter of their research, and I'm proud of the contributions they make to American leadership and medicine and innovation," Thune continued. "But if we're going to Make America Healthy Again, the agencies doing this important work have to rebuild some trust with Americans." Kennedy's looming confirmation is likely a product of yet another successful pressure campaign led by Trump and his political allies. We first saw this pressure campaign in full swing for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was projected to have a tough confirmation battle. After identifying the behind-the-scenes defections, Trump's allies successfully rallied enough Republicans to narrowly confirm Hegseth. Similarly, newly confirmed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard became the subject of bipartisan scrutiny following a fiery confirmation hearing at the end of January. However, in the weeks after her hearing, senators one by one rallied behind Gabbard, who eventually sailed through her confirmation Wednesday in a 52-48 vote. It's becoming increasingly clear that Trump's mandate from the people is being heard, even on Capitol Hill. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

An investigation spanning more than half a year reportedly found immigration fraud involving Australian kickers who have attended U.S. schools and played for NCAA programs.The seven-month project reported that there are at least some kickers and punters playing U.S. college football that should not have received a scholarship nor were they eligible for a student visa.Fox San Antonio spoke to investigators, college coaches, and competing kicker schools in order to determine whether or not Australian punters and kickers were submitting fraudulent stories and/or transcripts to obtain scholarships with American schools."The injustice is there are players that are doing it the right way, Australian and international players, American players that are doing it the right way, that have legit transcripts," a college coach told the outlet under the condition of anonymity.The same coach revealed that one player from Australia claimed to have four years of eligibility and was being looked at to be recruited into the NCAA. Despite the Australian academy claiming the player had never been to college, the coach discovered through his own research that the player only had three years of eligibility.Using a cyber investigator — Ken Gamble, chairman of IFW International — the San Antonio outlet discovered another athlete whose transcript was misrepresented. While an Australian player's authentic transcript showed failing grades, the report alleged a different transcript was submitted to the NCAA that showed significantly higher grades that had been altered in order to meet athletic standards.The report cited another anonymous source, this time an Australian trainer and recruiter, who said he received a doctored transcript from a kicking academy that changed a player's grades from a "C" to a "B.""His GPA wasn't high enough out of high school, so they redid it, and he sent it to me. I said, 'Why is it that this one, you got a B in it. And this one, you got a C?'" the recruiting expert reportedly asked.Another scenario described an Australian student who accidentally revealed he had attended school previously and had lied about his eligibility."There was a kid that actually outed himself," the anonymous trainer recalled. "They sat down. He sat down with his adviser and said, 'Oh, you need to take these classes and these classes.' And then he was like, 'No, no, I already took that in university.' And they said, 'What?' They did some research. And they said, 'You've already gone to uni? You've got, you know, two weeks to pack your bags and get out of here.'"Gamble stated the students who he investigated have already attended university full-time, and he and his team "don't believe" that this fact was disclosed.The Australian kicking academy did not reply to the local outlet's request for comment.While Gamble said the responsibility to investigate the transcripts of international students falls on the American universities, a source with the NCAA reportedly told the outlet the investigations are a rather challenging endeavor.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!