News The Rule of Jenny Pen John Lithgow Terrorizes With a Baby Doll in The Rule of Jenny Pen Trailer Retirement is supposed to be relaxing, right? By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on February 3, 2025 Screenshot: IFC Films Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: IFC Films IFC Films has picked up the distribution rights for The Rule of Jenny Pen, a horror film from director James Ashcroft (Coming Home in the Dark) that stars John Lithgow (Dexter, Harry and the Hendersons) and Geoffrey Rush (Mystery Men) as two elderly residents of a nursing home. Lithgow’s character, however, is far from a gentle soul; he sports a creepy baby doll on one hand and appears to enjoy setting residents on fire and maiming and murdering them in other ways. What a way to retire! Here’s the official logline: Confined to a secluded rest home and trapped within his stroke-ridden body, a former Judge (Rush) must stop an elderly psychopath (Lithgow) who employs a child’s puppet to abuse the home’s residents with deadly consequences. The trailer IFC released today gives us a glimpse of Lithgow’s psychopath, who wields the baby puppet on his hand with malicious glee. It also boasts that Stephen King called it one of the best movies he saw in 2024, so odds are good that the film is thoroughly disturbing. Ashcroft won Best Director at 2024’s Fantastic Fest for his work here, and he co-wrote the script with Eli Kent and Owen Marshall. The Rule of Jenny Pen premieres in theaters on March 7, 2025. Check out the trailer below.[end-mark] The post John Lithgow Terrorizes With a Baby Doll in <i>The Rule of Jenny Pen</i> Trailer appeared first on Reactor.

Movies & TV Presence Presence Finds Its Horror in Loneliness Though marketed as a horror movie, Presence is really more of a delicate — and very well-done — drama. By Leah Schnelbach | Published on February 3, 2025 Image: NEON Comment 0 Share New Share Image: NEON Let’s start with the uncanny being in the room: Much like David Lowery’s 2017 film A Ghost Story, Presence isn’t exactly a horror movie. Horrific things happen in it, and yes, there’s a ghost, but don’t come in expecting the kind of jumpscares you’d get in a Conjuring or Insidious film, or even the spoooooky atmosphere of more classic films like The Haunting or The Changeling. Saying literally anything will spoil the whole movie, so I’m going to give you a couple of bare facts and then tell you, in my most portentous haunted house voice, to GET OUTTTTT—until after you’ve seen it. Presence was shot in under two weeks in 2023, and premiered at Sundance in January 2024. I mention this because I think the quick shoot adds to the sense of urgency and claustrophobia that pervades the film, and because I think the long wait between the festival premiere and wide release added to my only problem with the film. Because of that year of lead time, I’d seen lots of advance word that Presence was a terrifying twist on a horror film—when actually the film is a very good, and sad, drama with a ghost in it. It’s still speculative fiction, I think, but not exactly a horror in the way the marketing implied. It’s directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by David Koepp, who previously worked together on Kimi. It follows the Payne family, mom Rebecca (Lucy Liu), dad Chris (Chris Sullivan), elder son Tyler (Eddy Maday), and younger daughter Chloe (Callina Liang), as they move into a new house. Tyler, a high school swimming champ, quickly befriends Ryan (West Mulholland), one of the most popular boys in their new school. Chloe is more withdrawn; her best friend Nadia died quite recently of an overdose. The family dynamic is brittle—there’s tension between Rebecca and Chris, Rebecca tends to coddle Tyler even though he’s an arrogant jerk a lot of the time, and Chloe is treated as a bit of an outcast, with Tyler being openly furious at what he sees as freakish behavior, Rebecca ignoring her daughter under the cover of giving her “time”, and Chris wanting to apply new meds and new therapists until something clicks. We get quite familiar with all the tiny cracks in the family makeup, because they’re being watched, pretty much constantly, by a ghost. This is where Soderbergh has made a choice that will delight some people and alienate others: The movie is shot entirely from the ghost’s point of view. If the ghost can see it or hear it, so can we. If people get in a car and drive away, we have no way of knowing what’s happening. If terrible stuff starts to happen inside the house, we’re trapped in there with it, and, like the ghost, helpless. This worked for me—if anything I think Soderbergh and his team could have pushed the conceit even further—but this isn’t the kind of movie that aims to be a spooky season classic, playing while friends hang out and carve pumpkins. This is a delicate, heartfelt drama told in a unique way, and I recommend it as that, if not as a traditional horror film. Honestly I wish it wasn’t being marketed as a horror film, because I think people are going in with expectations the movie has no interest in meeting. Come with me for a tangent: I’ve recently fallen head-over-heels for Fontaines DC, a band that writes a lot about death, and in an interview about their newest album, the lead singer talks about how one of their songs was trying to capture a feeling of death as “a warm pat on the back” but also “terrifying”. He said that as the band worked on it, it wasn’t “about finding a balance, or about being  fifty percent this and 50 percent this, it’s about being 100 percent this and also 100 percent this”.  This idea helped me realize what I like so much about Presence. I tend toward maximalism, and I love work that takes big swings, and is 100% one thing but also 100% another thing—and this movie is THAT. It’s full of sadness for the lost Presence trapped in the house, but also full of the comfort that comes from the Presence caring so much for this family. It is 100% both, and I think it works beautifully. I’ve said a few times in reviewing horror films that one of my struggles as a film reviewer is that nothing scares me. Which isn’t completely true; there are single images from Ju-on, Insidious, Hereditary, and Twin Peaks that have stuck in my head and pop up occasionally when I try to fall asleep. And it’s happened again here, with Presence—but the image that stuck wasn’t frightening. It was unbearably sad. Like I had to sit up in bed and turn the light on for a minute so I could fall asleep again. And even then the movie wrapped itself into my dreams in an interesting, reality-blurring way.  And now, as promised: GET. OUTTTTT. because I’m going to spoil things from here. Image: NEON I lied before. There are two jumpscares, one a literal jump, and one a shocking, unexpected scream—not a scream of fright, but a terrible howl of grief. I keep coming back to A Ghost Story, that other recent film about haunting that cares more about grief than about scaring you. Lowery’s film is about legacy, about time, about whether human lives and endeavors are worth anything when our existences are so short, and maybe most of all, whether there’s anything that can cross the gulf of time and death. Lowery also uses a slow pace and long, steady, static shots to create a sense of held breath—or really to make the audience feel the ghost’s lack of breath, I think. What Presence is more concerned with is the line between life and death—how thin that line is, how easily crossed, and how much people squander their time on this side of it. This is a movie where none of the characters listen to each other. Chris tries to reach out to Rebecca, who won’t hear him. He tries to reach out to Tyler, but the boy is so far up his own ass he can’t recognize the gift his father is trying to give him. For most of the film Chloe is adrift, alone, and the only one who seems to listen to her is Ryan—but is he? Or is he tolerating her moods in order to get more time alone with a pretty teenage girl? The Presence makes itself known to Chloe, but she gets the sense that it wants to help them, and jumps to the conclusion that it must be her friend Nadia. The rest of the family is skeptical (or, in Tyler’s case, outright hostile)… until the being trashes Tyler’s room. Their realtor puts them in touch with her sister-in-law, whom, conveniently enough, is a medium, and the medium comes in and says all the stuff you expect a medium to say. She puts on a great show of being overwhelmed by the Presence, she says the antique silver nitrate mirror in the living room is a focal point of energy, she talks about trauma, she says the ghost has unfinished business, and possibly that it’s unstuck in time and trying to complete a task without knowing what or when it is. She seems exhausted and gulps a glass of water while her husband discreetly nudges Chris for a cash payment. It’s everything you expect from a cinematic medium. Not too wacky, but just sketchy enough that, if you weren’t already watching the movie over the Presence’s shoulder, as it were, you’d assume she was bullshitting the family as a sidehustle. Just like you’d maybe assume that Choe’s “sensitivity” was grief and a need for attention. We quickly understand why Chloe needs the ghost to be benevolent: She’s hoping against hope that here, finally, is someone who will pay attention to her with no strings attached. Who cares if they’re dead? It actually made me think of the other not-quite-horror film I saw in the last month, Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu. There too we have a young, vulnerable, isolated girl, desperately calling out into the dark for connection. And, as in Nosferatu, Chloe’s attempts don’t go well. There are so many different kinds of monsters waiting to devour young women. Maybe that’s why the best scene in the movie for me had nothing to do with the ghost at all. At one point Soderbergh messes with all of our expectations: We’re watching Chloe from the Presence’s point of view as she sits and does her homework. But then, a few feet away, her door silently swings open. She doesn’t notice it, but we do. Is it a ghost? A different ghost??? Some other terrifying thing? Nope, it’s just her dad, coming up for a Dad Talk. But in one of the two actual jumpscares in the film, Chloe startles and shrieks before Chris comes all the way into the room, and it’s a fantastic moment of horror/humor in what is a pretty elegiac film. Chris, who is Going Through Some Stuff, sits at the foot of her bed and talks to her. First about his mother, who was extremely Catholic, then about his own evolving beliefs, and finally it becomes clear that this has been his on-ramp to telling her that he believes her. He believes that there is something in the house with them, no matter what Rebecca and Tyler say, and he thinks Chloe is simply more sensitive to it. More than that, he thinks she’s really special and he hopes she understands that. It’s an extraordinary scene, I think. Here in the midst of a ghost story we see a moment of genuine care and connection between two living people. But again, here’s what makes this film so interesting: In a regular drama, this would be a heart-wrenching scene between a father and a daughter, sure, but that would be it. In Soderbergh’s hands, in this movie, we’ve just watched a ghost watch this moment of connection—a ghost who has no form, no voice, no way to touch another person, to express love or loneliness. A ghost whose life, whatever it was, is behind them, and who has no hope at all of having this moment for itself. Image: NEON Or at least, we think it doesn’t. And again, I have to beg you all to get out of here if you haven’t seen the movie and want to, because I’m about to give it all away. And be warned that I’m also going to spoil A Ghost Story to talk about the ending of Presence. In A Ghost Story, the twist, if you want to call it that, is that one of the main characters is caught in a time loop—kind of—and he’s been haunting himself—kind of. The ghost can only watch life unfold around him, and he’s stuck in his old home for decades before he seems to commit ghost suicide (I think). He falls through time, but not space, ending up back on the site of his house, but centuries before his own birth. Since the ghost’s sense of time is completely out of joint, we have no idea how much times is actually passing for him. He watches his living self move back in and haunts himself, so we now see earlier moments from the movie from the ghost’s point of view rather than the living couple’s, and he watches himself come back as a ghost again. Then he watches the ghost haunt the people he himself haunted in the last loop. It makes sense while you watch it. And it becomes more of a meditation on the idea of eternal recurrence than a meditation on a ghost story. But my point is that that ghost is truly powerless. He’s been knocked out of life, his choices are to observe silently, or to act as a poltergeist and throw objects around. But he either can’t or won’t use the objects to communicate anything beyond anger, frustration, and grief. In Presence the twist, if you want to call it that, is that the malevolent force is all too human. Because Chloe’s friend didn’t overdose or kill herself, she and another classmate were both murdered—by Ryan. He drugged them and suffocated them, and by the time they were found it seemed like they’d OD’d in their sleep. Planning the same fate for Chloe, he first roofies an already-drunk Tyler to get him out of the way, then spikes Chloe’s drink and waits for her to lose motor function. But here’s where the movie breaks free of its self-imposed constrictions. Just as earlier Chris and Chloe had their emotional breakthrough, the kind of a conversation that forever changes the tenor of a relationship, the ghost finally reached out to Tyler directly, and (probably thanks to the boy being intoxicated), the two made tentative contact. Seeing the danger Chloe’s in, the Presence manages to break through time and corporeality to wake Tyler. He runs to Chloe’s room, tackles Ryan, and both boys crash through the window.  The Presence is left looking down at the broken bodies on the ground. This could have been it. The ghost fulfilled the purpose the medium said it had, now it can disappear or go poof, like the Ghost in A Ghost Story, right? But no. Soderbergh cuts to black again, but then he brings us back. We’re with Rebecca, the member of the family we know least, the one who has kept herself remote and locked down. The house is cleared out; the family is moving to escape trauma once again. But first Rebecca wants to take one last look at the last place that will hold memories of her son. The Presence makes itself known with the eerie vibration it’s used before; usually only Chloe could hear it, but this time it breaks through to Rebecca. She follows it into the loving room, and there, in the antique mirror, is Tyler. Here is the second jumpscare. Rebecca wails—a horrific sound in the quiet of the scene—and crumples to floor screaming. She’s not afraid, though. She knows now, really knows, that the Presence was her son all along, and that he came back, impossibly, to save his sister. Chris and Chloe rush in, and they hold Rebecca as she sobs on the floor. Here, at last, is a moment of true connection and care between the whole family. Here, finally, the Presence has made their connection, because thanks to the vision in the mirror, they are part of this moment. And finally, after 85 minutes trapped in the house, we follow the Presence as it floats through the door, takes a last look at the house, and floats up. Soderbergh gives us a slow fade to white rather than an abrupt cut to black. Presence gives us a ghost story with a happy ending—at least as much as possible—and a ghost story where all the basic tropes are subverted to push us not towards fear, but towards empathy. It’s not a horror movie—except in the sense that, as always, the shape of horror allows artists to connect with their audience on the deepest levels. Presence has stayed in my mind just as Nosferatu did, just as A Ghost Story did, and I’m glad to be haunted.[end-mark] The post <em>Presence</em> Finds Its Horror in Loneliness appeared first on Reactor.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—The Chinese government is reportedly preparing to begin trade talks with the U.S. after President Donald Trump slapped China with a 10% tariff, according to The Wall Street Journal. Beijing is reportedly gearing up to discuss trade relations in an attempt to ward off further tariffs from the U.S., according to the WSJ. The WSJ report comes after Trump announced on Saturday that he is implementing 10% tariffs against China as well as 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada in an attempt to crack down on illegal immigration and the trafficking of illicit drugs such as fentanyl stemming from the countries. China’s initial trade proposal will be aimed at restoring a trade agreement that the country signed during Trump’s first term in 2020 but did not implement during former President Joe Biden’s term, anonymous sources told the WSJ. Beijing is now preparing to discuss with the Trump-Vance administration areas where China can purchase more from the U.S., the outlet reported. When announcing the tariffs on Saturday, the White House wrote that there was an “extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl” which “constitutes a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.” The White House stated in the announcement that tariffs are a “powerful, proven source of leverage for protecting the national interest.” Beijing on Sunday denounced Trump’s tariffs, stating that fentanyl was “America’s problem,” Reuters reported. Notably, deaths in the U.S. involving synthetic opioids other than methadone—primarily illicitly manufactured fentanyl—rose to 73,838 in 2022. The global fentanyl supply chain often starts with chemical companies based in China, and often passes through Mexico and then into the U.S. Concerns about Beijing threatening U.S. national security have been mounting amid China’s growing global influence. Various reports have shown that China has stolen intellectual property from America. Notably, there has been a massive influx of Chinese migrants crossing the U.S. border in recent years, with thousands of Chinese nationals crossing the southern border illegally in 2024. Before his recent White House return, Trump vowed to impose various tariffs against foreign countries, including China, Mexico and Canada. During his first presidency, Trump implemented various trade restrictions against Beijing, setting off a contentious trade war between the U.S. and China in early 2018. Tensions over trade between the U.S. and China have been amping up in recent months with Beijing warning in December that there would be “no winners” in a new trade war between the two countries. Ahead of the 2025 presidential inauguration, Trump said on Jan. 17 that he had spoken with China’s President Xi Jinping over the phone about fentanyl, trade and various other topics. Trump stated that the phone call with China’s leader was “a very good one.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. Originally published by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The post It’s Only Been Two Days Since Trump’s China Tariffs Dropped and Beijing Already Wants to Make a Deal appeared first on The Daily Signal.

THE CENTER SQUARE—The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency has been aggressively identifying and eliminating a wide swath of federal spending since President Donald Trump took office. Now, a new subcommittee in the House bearing a similar name, Delivering on Government Efficiency, is taking a look at National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, both of which are partially funded by the federal government. Subcommittee Chair Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., accused NPR and PBS of “systematically biased content” and invited the heads of both groups to testify before Congress. “The Subcommittee is concerned by National Public Radio’s (NPR) blatantly ideological and partisan coverage and looks forward to your participation in our upcoming hearing,” Greene wrote in a letter to NPR. “This hearing is an opportunity for you to explain to Congress and the American people why federal funds should be used for public radio—particularly the sort of content produced by NPR.” NPR has been under fire for years for its perceived liberal bias. Greene pointed to NPR’s coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story, the Russian collusion story, and most recently its coverage of Elon Musk’s salute at a rally that many Democrats alleged was a Nazi salute. Musk is at the helm of DOGE, which has been on a spree of federal cuts, along with Trump’s decision to wipe out entire diversity, equity, and inclusion teams and departments within the federal government. Up next could be funding for NPR and PBS. Critics of Musk and Trump point out most of the groups’ funding does not come from the federal government. “This sort of bias betrays the principles of objective reporting and undermines public trust. As an organization that receives federal funds channeled through its member stations, PBS should provide reporting that serves the entire public, not just a narrow slice of like-minded individuals and ideological interest groups,” Greene wrote in a letter to PBS. Trump’s head of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, opened up an investigation into PBS and NPR, saying they may have violated the law by airing commercials. NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher released a statement in response: “NPR programming and underwriting messaging complies with federal regulations, including the FCC guidelines on underwriting messages for noncommercial educational broadcasters, and Member stations are expected to be in compliance as well,” she said. “We are confident any review of our programming and underwriting practices will confirm NPR’s adherence to these rules. We have worked for decades with the FCC in support of noncommercial educational broadcasters who provide essential information, educational programming, and emergency alerts to local communities across the United States.” Originally published by The Center Square The post NPR and PBS Funding in the Spotlight as DOGE Committee Eyes Cuts appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has sharply criticized a high-ranking appointee of California Gov. Gavin Newsom for dismantling the state’s emergency-response volunteer firefighting units. Shortly after Newsom appointed Matthew Beevers as adjutant general of the California Military Department in May 2023, Beevers decommissioned the Emergency Response Command, a highly trained joint command consisting of two volunteer units, according to Maj. Gen. Jay Coggan, retired commanding general of the California State Guard. “Your article was very important, because the fact is that dismantling volunteer fire departments is not only an additional cost, but it eliminates a force multiplier,” Issa said, referring to a Jan. 16 article on The Daily Signal. A Newsom appointee dismantled the state's volunteer fire department, @DailySignal reported. @DarrellIssa, R-Calif., said this ?created "an additional cost" and "eliminated a force multiplier.""This didn't fit a union agenda of the administration," he said. pic.twitter.com/fwBwemYd5C— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) January 31, 2025 Prior to Beevers’ decision, Emergency Response Command included Team Blaze, a firefighting detachment with two years of training to operate five fire engines specially designed to fight wildfires in terrain like that of Los Angeles and act as firefighting handcrews. More than 300 wildfires in Los Angeles and other areas of Southern California have killed at least 28 people, destroyed an estimated 16,000 structures, and burned more than 57,000 acres, according to CAL FIRE. “There’s no question at all, you cannot afford to have rank-and-file fire departments in these rural areas at any cost, so as a result, there were less people responding,” Issa said. “These volunteer teams, they’re protecting their own homes, they have long histories, and they’re very affordable. But this didn’t fit a union agenda of the administration.” A senior enlisted leader told The Daily Signal that the California Professional Firefighters Union complained to Cal Fire that it didn’t want “nonprofessional firefighters” on their fires. According to the enlisted leader, Cal Fire put pressure on Beevers, who is said to have caved because Taskforce Rattlesnake, a large program run by the California Military Department, is funded by Cal Fire.   California Professional Firefighters Union and Cal Fire did not respond to The Daily Signal’s requests for comment.   “In reality, these people don’t want their jobs,” Coggan, the retired commanding general of the California State Guard, told The Daily Signal, referring to the volunteer firefighters. “They’re just filling it during the gap.”  The website and social media accounts for the firefighting unit, Team Blaze, vanished in the days after the report on the controversial decision by Beevers. “Suppressing free speech is something the [Biden] administration did regularly,” Issa said. “It’s something that still happens in California.” “It’s a big part of what President [Donald] Trump and this Republican majority want to do, make sure it doesn’t happen again,” the California Republican continued. “We believe free speech, even when we disagree with it, is critical. The other side doesn’t.” Issa said there is “no question” that California’s far-left leadership is at fault for the consequences of the wildfires. “Multiple Democrat leaders and Democrat administrations, not just administrations, but the Legislature, has progressively made more fuel to be on the fire and less ability to on the ground and less ability to fight it,” he said. Issa added that California voters are frustrated with leaders like Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. “They want to have government do what it’s supposed to do,” he said, “and for years, that hasn’t been what the leadership has done.” The post California Congressman Slams Newsom Appointee for Dismantling Volunteer Fire Unit appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Offshore Wind-ing Down in Europe

Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid down the law in Panama over the weekend, making expressly clear to President José Mulino that the Trump administration will not tolerate the influence of the Chinese communist regime over the Panama Canal as it now stands. It appears the Panamanian leader heeded the American's warning. Within hours of their meeting, Mulino announced that Panama will not be renewing its memorandum of understanding with China concerning its Belt and Road Initiative. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce indicated in a statement Sunday that Rubio impressed upon Mulino and Panama's foreign minister, Javier Martínez-Acha, "that President Trump has made a preliminary determination that the current position of influence and control of the Chinese Communist Party over the Panama Canal area is a threat to the canal and represents a violation of the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal." 'Absent immediate changes, it would require the United States to take measures necessary to protect its rights.' According to the Panama Canal Treaty and Neutrality Treaty signed in 1977 by former President Jimmy Carter and Panama's then-chief of government, Omar Torrijos, the canal "shall be permanently neutral" and in time of both peace and war "shall remain secure and open to peaceful transit by the vessels of all nations on terms of entire equality." Rubio reportedly told the Panamanian leaders that the current level of Chinese influence over the canal was "unacceptable and that absent immediate changes, it would require the United States to take measures necessary to protect its rights under the Treaty." Evidently keen to avoid consequences — which Rubio apparently did not spell out in detail — Mulino announced that he will not only let Panama's Belt and Road Initiative partnership expire but will look into the possibility of terminating it early, as it was not set to be renewed for at least another year. Mulino also expressed a willingness to review a number of Chinese businesses in Panama, including the 25-year concession to the Chinese company that operates ports at both ends of the canal, reported Reuters. Mulino's announcement "that Panama will allow its participation in the CCP's Belt and Road Initiative to expire is a great step forward for U.S.-Panama relations, a free Panama Canal, and another example of @POTUS leadership to protect our national security and deliver prosperity for the American people," Rubio stated Monday. Through its BRI, the Chinese Communist Party helps poorer nations build ports, rail lines, and telecommunications networks, as well as secure financing. Since this assistance is usually unaffordable by design, the BRI effectively transforms countries into vassal states. The State Department noted during the first Trump administration that the Belt and Road Initiative "preys on other countries via unsustainable and corrupt lending while ignoring global labor and environmental standards." The department stated further that the Chinese military utilizes BRI to establish a presence in partner nations and to "challenge the United States globally." Panama was the first country in Latin America to partner with China on the BRI, signing a memorandum of understanding to that effect in 2017. Since 2017, China's influence in Panama has grown considerably, raising concerns stateside that America's ability to transit the canal it built in the early 20th century for a price tag of $375 million and thousands of lives could soon be strategically hindered. 'We gave the Panama Canal to Panama. We didn't give it to China.' A Congressional Research Service report updated on Dec. 17, 2024, noted that some U.S. military leaders are concerned that Beijing-linked companies along the canal "may present a security vulnerability for the United States." China presently controls ports at both ends of the canal through Hutchinson Ports PPC, a Hong Kong-based company closely linked to the regime in Beijing. Trump said on Truth Social in December that the canal and its independence from communist Chinese interference were "crucial for U.S. commerce, and rapid deployment of the Navy, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and drastically cuts shipping times to U.S. ports." Weeks ahead of taking office, Trump stated at a press conference that the "Panama Canal is vital to our country. It's being operated by China. China. And we gave the Panama Canal to Panama. We didn't give it to China, and they've abused it. They've abused that gift. It should have never been made, by the way. Giving the Panama Canal is why Jimmy Carter lost the election, in my opinion." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he has become the acting director of the United States Agency for International Development after DOGE found questionable spending at the government organization. USAID has been charged with spending taxpayer money for foreign development and civil aid across the globe. Musk said that the more DOGE looked into the organization, the more it found spending on anti-American programs that were previously hidden. 'As we dug into USAID, it became apparent that what we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have, actually, just a ball of worms. It's hopeless.'On Monday, Rubio announced that he had taken control of the department. He said that he had been frustrated with the organization during his time in the Senate. "I'm the acting director of USAID," Rubio said to reporters. "Every dollar we spend will be aligned with the national interest of the United States. USAID has a history of ignoring that and deciding that they're a global charity," he went on to explain. "These are not donor dollars; these are taxpayer dollars," he added. "We owe the American people assurances that every dollar we are spending abroad is being spent on something that furthers our national interest."Musk, who has been tapped to head the Department of Government Efficiency, claimed in comments on social media that USAID had a far worse problem than the proverbial "worm in the apple.""As we dug into USAID, it became apparent that what we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have, actually, just a ball of worms," he said. "It's hopeless. USAID is a ball of worms. There is no apple. And when there is no apple, you just gotta basically get rid of the whole thing."After beginning to dismantle the organization, Musk derided the employees seeking help from politicians. "And the worms are crawling to their pet politicians to save them," he said on social media. USAID was founded by John F. Kennedy in 1961 and has an annual budget of $50 billion and more than 10,000 employees. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that Venezuela has agreed to repatriate its citizens living illegally in the United States.Trump wrote in a Saturday post on Truth Social that Venezuela has reached an agreement with the White House to accept its citizens, including members of the violent gang Tren de Aragua.'We are in the process of removing record numbers of illegal aliens from all Countries, and all Countries have agreed to accept these illegal aliens back.'Venezuela has historically refused to cooperate with U.S. repatriation flights. However, Trump’s tough stance on immigration appears to have pushed Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro to reconsider.Trump’s envoy, Richard Grenell, visited Maduro in Venezuela on Friday. Grenell returned with six American citizens who were being detained by Maduro’s regime following the country’s July presidential election.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that Grenell’s visit does not indicate that the Trump administration recognized Maduro as the legitimate leader. U.S. officials have maintained that Maduro lost the election, recognizing challenger Edmundo González as Venezuela’s president-elect.Grenell told the Wall Street Journal, “The only award for Maduro was my physical presence, the first senior U.S. official to visit the country in years.”“It was a big gift to him to have a visit by an envoy of President Trump,” Grenell added.Mauricio Claver-Carone, the State Department’s special envoy for Latin America, told the Washington Post that the agreement between the U.S. and Venezuela to take back its citizens was “not a negotiation.”“The Venezuelan criminals of Tren de Aragua and other groups have to be deported and Venezuela has to accept them. It is their responsibility ... it is not negotiable. ... And if they don’t comply with these requirements, obviously, as President Trump himself has said, there will be major consequences,” Claver-Carone stated.Trump wrote on Saturday, “It is so good to have the Venezuela Hostages back home and, very important to note, that Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their Country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S., including gang members of Tren de Aragua.”“Venezuela has further agreed to supply the transportation back,” Trump continued. “We are in the process of removing record numbers of illegal aliens from all Countries, and all Countries have agreed to accept these illegal aliens back. Furthermore, record numbers of criminals are being removed from our Country, and the Border numbers are the strongest they have been since the First Term of the Trump Administration!”The Biden administration previously extended Temporary Protected Status to roughly 600,000 Venezuelan nationals residing in the U.S.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced last week that the Trump administration had terminated an extension that would have shielded Venezuelan nationals from deportation until October 2026. The existing protections are slated to expire in April and September.Leavitt noted on Friday that there are currently 400 Tren de Aragua gang members in custody waiting to be deported to Venezuela.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A tragic plane crash in Washington, D.C., has claimed the lives of over 60 Americans. Now, we’ve all been left wondering what could have caused it. The tragedy began when an American Airlines plane collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter that was carrying three military service members over the Potomac river in D.C., while the passenger plane was on its final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. “There were a lot of questions as to what in the world went wrong,” Sara Gonzales of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered” comments. “You have this American Airlines flight that’s carrying potential figure skaters on the 2026 Olympic skating team flying from Wichita, Kansas, to D.C., and air traffic control staff.” According to the preliminary report, the number of air traffic control staff members was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic. There were 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2024, which was well below the target of 30. “Then, you add on top of that,” Gonzales says, “you have these new DEI initiatives and policies when it comes to the FAA and air traffic control.” Upon taking office, President Donald Trump signed a memo that “orders the secretary of transportation and FAA administrator to immediately stop Biden DEI hiring programs and return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring.” The memo also stated that “safety and competence should be the only job criteria for FAA employees, yet the Biden administration violated the public trust — as well as the law — by prioritizing illegal DEI hiring.” “We just need for you guys to do your jobs so people don’t die in a plane crash,” Gonzales says. “It’s like, you had one job. I don’t care what color your skin is, I don’t care who you sleep with.” “DEI kills, period,” she adds. Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.