When Congress expelled former Rep. George Santos (N.Y.), whose fabricated life story once dominated headlines, the internet performed its little eulogy — diva down, rest in power.
Two years later, the resurrection arrives precisely on schedule, because Santos is back. And this time, it's as a reality TV contestant on the fifth season of Fox's "Special Forces: World's Toughest Test," a military-themed endurance contest filming in the Malaysian jungle, Fox announced Wednesday.
'I took my fat behind off the coach and tried something new!'
The show subjects contestants to chemical gassing and other military-themed challenges, including a claustrophobic, high-pressure search of an underground bunker to find crucial military weapons and a supply load retrieval while suspended 300 feet above the jungle floor.
Santos announced the news on social media.
“I took my fat behind off the coach and tried something new!” he wrote in a post on X along with a promotional image of himself kneeling in the wild. “And it changed EVERYTHING! I can’t wait to share this experience with y’all!”
He won't be doing it alone. Santos will compete against 14 other celebrities, including former NBA player Matt Barnes and actress Ruby Rose, on a season Fox is promoting as the "ultimate test of physical, mental, and emotional resilience." The season premieres September 24 at 9 p.m. ET on Fox, with episodes streaming the next day on Hulu.
RELATED: George Santos bids a 'fabulous' farewell, surrenders for prison sentence
The casting caps a wild few years for Santos. Elected to the House from New York in 2022 as a Republican, he ran on a résumé that was almost entirely fiction: a Baruch College degree he never earned, a Wall Street pedigree at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup neither bank had any record of, a stint as a star volleyball player during that same nonexistent college career, and a grandmother who fled the Holocaust.
Genealogists found his grandparents were born in Brazil, and Santos, who is Catholic, later clarified he had meant "Jew-ish."
A House Ethics Committee report later found "substantial evidence" he'd funneled donor money into personal spending — Hermès, Ferragamo, OnlyFans, Botox. He served less than a year before Congress expelled him — only the sixth member in history — while he faced charges for stealing from donors, drawing unemployment while employed, and lying about his wealth.
He pleaded guilty, had his sentence commuted by President Trump after 84 days in prison, and briefly floated another House run before abandoning it for lack of funds.
His post-political life has stayed just as eventful. Last month, prediction market Kalshi reportedly reported him to federal authorities after he claimed he would attend Trump's State of the Union, then allegedly bet against his own attendance — a claim Santos called "preposterous."
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A Florida 13-year-old male was arrested after photos of a gun and a written death threat were sent over social media, authorities said Thursday.
Deputies with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office began investigating the incident on July 7 after the victim’s mother called 911 to report the threat to law enforcement, authorities said.
‘I want to remind parents to stay engaged in what their kids are doing online and who they’re talking to.’
The victim, also 13, received several Instagram messages earlier in the day from the suspect that included a photo of the suspect holding a handgun as well as a written message that read, “Tn 8:00 pm we be there we alr got lo,” which translates to, “Tonight 8:00 pm we be there we already got location,” authorities said.
The victim told deputies he believed the suspect planned to show up at his home and shoot him at 8 p.m. that night, authorities said.
The suspect later told deputies that he and the victim used to be friends but had a falling-out, authorities said, adding that the suspect also stated that he had messaged the victim that day, and they were planning to fight.
Deputies arrested the suspect and transported him to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility, where he was later transferred to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, authorities said.
“Threats are no joke, and we take every threat seriously. This teen had already made plans to fight the victim, and he made it clear it wasn’t going to be a fistfight,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “I want to remind parents to stay engaged in what their kids are doing online and who they’re talking to. Teach them the proper way of handling disagreements and be the sheriff of your home.”
RELATED: Florida girl, 12, accused of threatening to 'shoot up' elementary school, threatening teacher
Blaze News has reported extensively on similar arrests in Florida recently:
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Mark Zuckerberg has spent over 20 years building the Facebook brand, but it could all come to an end in one fell swoop.
Parent company Meta used words like "outlandish" and argued there was no historical precedent for its proposed punishment in recent legal filings for a lawsuit that could completely wipe out the company.
'A sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement.'
Twenty-nine states are currently engaged in a lawsuit against Meta that accuses the company of violating child privacy laws that bar the collection of data from underage users.
The online company is facing court battles from almost every cardinal direction, but four particular states are threatening Meta with penalties of $1.4 trillion, which nearly equals its entire valuation; according to Yahoo Finance, Meta's market cap is $1.48 trillion.
Meta responded to the sum in documents from the case in California, saying the "sheer magnitude" of the demands from the attorneys general "offends constitutional and ethical limits."
"In just a single one of their 'Remedy Chart' calculations, the AGs seek over one trillion dollars in penalties and disgorgement, and they then layer on various other double-counting charts," Meta wrote.
The massive sum comes from the AGs in California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey, who reportedly came up with the figure by estimating every under-13 user in each state that could have been affected by Meta's policies.
"Each of these charts applies the maximum statutory penalty to every teen and purported under-13 user and every monthly instance of time spent at certain arbitrarily-selected thresholds," Meta claimed.
Meta argued, "A sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement. Indeed, the Federal Trade Commission recently described a '$1 billion penalty' as 'the largest ever in a case involving an FTC rule violation."
RELATED: New Senate bill punishes chilling of online speech — if it passes
Meta further argued that the demands made were in "gross disproportion" to the alleged violations, and are "unsubstantiated" and "outlandish."
The defense went on, calling the trillion-dollar figure a "construct of lawyers" that counts the same individuals "many times over."
The aforementioned jurisdictions are also looking to pin claims of misleading the public on Meta, which they say "prioritized profits over the safety of kids."
A spokesperson for the California attorney general's office told the New York Post that Meta helped fuel the mental health crisis that is "impacting a generation of American children."
"The California Department of Justice looks forward to holding Meta fully accountable at trial in August," the spokesperson added. The two sides will meet in court on August 18 in Oakland, California.
RELATED: Meta had 17-STRIKE policy for sex traffickers, ex-employee says
Another parallel claim Meta is battling accuses the company of being aware of the harm its platforms can cause.
A former employee alleged that Meta stopped internal research that would have shown that ceasing use of Facebook saw users become less depressed or anxious. Blaze News reported on this portion of the lawsuit in November, which allegedly included a study called Project Mercury.
Project Mercury was allegedly initiated in 2019 to "explore the impact" of Meta apps and how they can affect "polarization, news consumption, well-being, and daily social interactions."
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A convicted "high-risk" pedophile hired by the city of Syracuse, New York, was fired after he was arrested for "horrific" allegations involving a 12-year-old girl.
On Thursday, police responded to a report of a man with an underage girl in a parking lot. The man fled the scene after being approached by another adult, according to the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office.
He allegedly lured the child to an isolated area in the Town of Lafayette and subjected her to a sexual act two separate times.
An investigation of the victim's social media found that she had been interacting with a male through Snapchat. The messages indicated they had been having a sexual relationship.
The man was identified as 45-year-old James M. Desantis, who was already registered as a high-risk sex offender.
Desantis was arrested Thursday and booked into the Onondaga County Justice Center. He faces a slew of charges that include:
Desantis was previously convicted of sex crimes against children in 2004 and 2005. In the first case, he was sentenced to 10 years probation for the rape of a 14-year-old girl. In the second case, he was convicted for the rape of another 14-year-old girl and sentenced to five years in prison.
Both victims were known to Desantis.
In the more current accusations against Desantis, he allegedly lured the child to an isolated area in the Town of Lafayette and subjected her to a sexual act two separate times. Both times, he sent a photo of a firearm to her and said he knew where she lived.
Desantis was hired by the Syracuse Department of Public Works in 2017 and was promoted to an on-location supervisor in 2024. He was fired after the arrest, and city officials are now being questioned about how a child sex offender had been working for years at the city.
RELATED: Michigan parents charged with murder and torture after 7-year-old boy dies with disturbing weight
Syracuse Mayor Sharon Owens said her administration is investigating how Desantis was hired by the city and reviewing hiring practices.
"I'm very angry," Owens said to WSYR-TV. "I spent my life working with children and protecting families, and this, quite frankly, is pissing me off."
Desantis is scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday.
The sheriff's department asked for help from the public to find other possible victims in the case.
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A Millennial Democrat hoping to dive into the U.S. Senate has abandoned her campaign after damaging posts she made about her constituents resurfaced.
Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, 39, announced on Sunday that she was throwing in the towel and endorsing whichever competitor wins the Democratic primary in the pivotal race.
McMorrow called for a change in the leadership of the Democratic Party and said she would continue in that fight.
"I want to be very clear about what this announcement is not. I may be suspending this campaign, but I am not leaving the fight," McMorrow wrote in a statement on social media.
The Democrat tried to launch the Senate campaign after a speech she gave at the 2024 DNC went viral online, but her campaign was damaged greatly by the resurfaced posts. She had deleted thousands of tweets, but a CNN investigation documented the missing missives.
"I had a dream that the US amicably broke off into The Ring (coasts+Can+Mex+parts Mich/Tex) and Middle America," she wrote after Democrats lost the 2016 presidential election.
McMorrow, who lived for a time in California, responded positively in another post to a user calling everyone outside California "morons."
"There are days like these that make me miss California even more," Morrow responded at the time.
She also appeared to try to cover up posts that contradicted her claim in her book that she moved to Michigan "permanently" in 2014.
In her announcement Sunday, McMorrow called for a change in the leadership of the Democratic Party and said she would continue in that fight.
"I love this country. I love Michigan. And I love the little girl who waves at me from the window every morning, trusting the grown-ups to leave her a state and a country worth inheriting," McMorrow wrote about her daughter.
"That's who I'm fighting for. And I'm not going anywhere," she added. "I hope you'll join me."
The Michigan primary election will be held on August 4.
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Snapchat said what researchers found when they signed up for the app was not a balanced assessment, despite an overwhelming amount of "unsafe" content reportedly being shown to teens.
A study from ParentsTogether Action and the Heat Initiative has revealed that new Snapchat accounts meant for 13-year-olds are allegedly recommended a bounty of violence, sex, and drug-themed content as soon as they sign up.
'A systematic failure to keep kids safe on Snapchat.'
The adult researchers say they created Snapchat accounts registered as 13-year-old users with no saved contacts and used avatars, not real photos, before documenting their interactions with recommended accounts and videos.
The users watched one hour of Snapchat's recommended "Spotlight" videos and one hour of videos on Snapchat Stories and said that "within the first minute," the accounts were suggested unsafe content.
Unsafe content was defined as being sexual in nature, promoting depression or self-harm, containing drug use/alcohol/violence, promoting plastic surgery, and more.
There was reportedly no shortage of such material, as researchers said they were recommended 739 unsafe videos that included 244 sexual videos and 257 videos about drugs or alcohol.
Some of the content showed bags of marijuana, allegedly underage teens using drugs, and even teens talking about killing themselves.
Other sexual content contained one girl talking about being a "dirty little slut," while another talked about her experience with anal sex.
Additionally, Snapchat also "recommended adults who were using their Snapchat accounts to promote adult-oriented businesses, including shoes and costumes for exotic dancers, a burlesque club, and lingerie modeling."
This was in addition to content showing very young girls in revealing outfits doing dances or trying on outfits. Many comments sexualized the young girls and used pizza-related emojis, which is allegedly a veiled reference to pedophilia.
RELATED: The KIDS Act would turn web browsing into a TSA line
NBC's "Today" ran a segment that stated half of Americans ages 13-17 say they use Snapchat every day. The program interviewed three teenagers who said they joined Snapchat before turning 13 years old, with one girl saying it is "normal" to see "extremely hyper-sexual" and "extremely violent" content on the app.
"I think it's kind of omnipresent," a male teen said about the content.
Showing kids this type of content, the teenager argued, has "redefined" kids to be "unsurprised by vile ... acts."
One teen named Emma said she often gets added by strangers who "most of the time" send her pictures of their "anatomy."
Snapchat told "Today" that it automatically makes young peoples' accounts private and undiscoverable by adult strangers. Snapchat also said it "will not connect adults with underage users unless they have three mutual contacts."
Snapchat further told "Today" that the report is "based on a handful of 'researcher'-created accounts," which "does not provide a balanced or representative assessment of teen safety on Snapchat."
Snapchat insisted that "no single safety feature or policy can eliminate every potential risk," adding that the company continues to "invest in new protections and work closely with safety experts, law enforcement, parents, and policymakers ... to keep all Snapchatters safe."
RELATED: US company will use Chinese humanoid robots at Michigan data center
"Our research makes clear that Snapchat’s own product design, particularly its recommendation algorithms, consistently puts children in harm’s way, sometimes within minutes of joining the platform," said Heat Initiative President Brooke Istook in a statement to Blaze News.
Istook added, “Parents have been sounding the alarm for years. Lawsuits have documented the harms. Children continue to be targeted, exploited, and exposed to dangerous content because Snap has not fixed the systems that cause these risks."
Shelby Knox, director of online safety for ParentsTogether Action, said in a statement that what researchers found "wasn't just disturbing; it was a systematic failure to keep kids safe on Snapchat."
The organizations called for Snapchat to redesign its platform with safer defaults and recommendations.
Snapchat did not respond to a request for comment by Blaze News.
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As Europe's record-breaking heat wave continues and excess deaths in France climb past 1,300, a Paris official says Americans bear responsibility for the crisis because of emissions and air conditioning.
Audrey Pulvar, Paris' deputy mayor for international relations, lashed out at American tourists and influencers who had mocked the city for its lack of widespread air conditioning as temperatures soared past 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
'OMG, this is so rich.'
"Dear American journalists and social media 'influencers': for days, some of you have been criticising and making fun of Paris because the city does not have A/C in every room. ... OMG, this is so rich!" she wrote on Instagram.
She argued the U.S., which she claims is the world's second-largest greenhouse gas emitter, bears a "significant amount of responsibility responsibility" for the warming driving the crisis, noting American cities are roughly 90% air-conditioned. "So please, enough with the lecture. Just start doing your part."
France has recorded at least 1,300 excess deaths since June 21, according to Sante Publique France, with officials warning the count could climb higher.
About 15,000 elderly people died in France's 2003 heat wave, though air conditioning still hasn't caught on nationwide. As of June 25, officials had confirmed at least 55 drowning deaths — a toll likely to keep climbing — after many have sought relief in unsupervised waterways.
Paris went so far as to ban public alcohol consumption on streets and in parks to "preserve emergency services and allow medics to concentrate on taking care of the most vulnerable."
RELATED: Here's what the war in Iran means for you at the gas pump
Only about a quarter of French households have air conditioning, versus roughly half in Spain and Italy and 90% in the U.S. and Japan. The French have long associated air conditioning with illness, attributing colds to "thermal shock" from sudden temperature changes, according to GB News.
With Parisians sleeping in parks and booking hotel rooms to escape the heat, even traditionally AC-skeptical politicians — including France's Green Party — have conceded wider adoption may now be unavoidable.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright drew fire days earlier, telling a London conference that "cold is a vastly larger killer than heat is," citing deaths tied to high energy prices after Russia's 2022 Ukraine invasion.
On Europe's air conditioning scarcity specifically, Wright said a "shale gas revolution" in the U.K. could have cut electricity bills and avoided the shortage altogether.
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The Chinese planned to stoke Black Lives Matter riots and other social unrest in 2020, using the corporate media to launder the narrative in order to tank the election for President Donald Trump, according to documents released by the White House on Thursday. Intelligence summaries from 2020, which were apparently hidden from the president at […]
The lesson our foreign friends should learn is that America’s heart and soul has very little to do with our fast food and fast cars.
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