Is Mitch McConnell still fit to serve? Glenn Beck investigates Washington's silence



Senator Mitch McConnell was confirmed to have been hospitalized on June 14 for an unknown condition — but that was now weeks ago, and the people of Kentucky have received no meaningful updates about his condition.

Now, Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck is asking questions that Washington refuses to answer.

“Here are the rumors. And they’re rumors. If they’re true, they’re tragic. If the rumors are false, then somebody needs to step up and tell the American people the truth. Either way, this is not how a constitutional republic is supposed to function,” Glenn says.


According to these rumors, it’s been three weeks since the people of Kentucky have heard about the condition of Senator Mitch McConnell.

“His office has issued really carefully worded statements. He’s recovering. He appreciates everyone’s support. They don’t say what happened. They don’t say when he’s going to return,” Glenn explains. “They don’t answer even the basic question every citizen has a right to: Can he still do the job?”

“Is he still thinking? And this is not a cruel question, but the guy is a sitting senator, and it’s a question that matters, because this is bigger than Mitch McConnell. We watched America do this with President Biden,” he continues.

“Republicans are now the mirror image of the people they criticized,” he says. “You know, if your party has spent years demanding honesty about the president’s health, you kind of have an obligation to demand honesty about your own leader in your own GOP.”

“This is not about left or right. This is about representation,” he adds.

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Inside the UK's under-16 social media ban: AI girlfriends, Bluesky, and a few open questions



Alongside the fact that the British government is now apparently in the business of regulating AI girlfriends, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer just announced a sweeping ban on social media for anyone under 16 in the U.K.

Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X are the platforms named so far in the U.K. government's official announcement. Modeled on Australia's ban, the list may not be final.

'Is this simply overt political censorship?'

Restrictions will also be enforced on gaming sites, including blocks on livestreaming and stranger communication with children under 16.

Starmer previously said he was personally opposed to a "blanket ban," but according to GB News, a government consultation closed in May with nearly 120,000 responses and over 90% of parents backing a ban.

The U.K. government also preloaded the announcement with a spending pledge.

A £132.5 million "Every Child Can" program was unveiled to fund "enriching activities" in sports, art, and nature — framed as alternatives to doomscrolling.

RELATED: New York schools banned smartphones a year ago — and it seems to be a smart idea

Isabel Infantes/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

But nobody can say for sure whether Bluesky, the left-leaning alternative to X, is even covered by the ban. GB News says it "looks set to escape a ban" entirely, but according to LBC, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told a radio host on Monday, "In Australia, Bluesky is included in the ban, and we plan to use their model."

Reem Ibrahim of the Reason Foundation suggested the ban could be a form of "political censorship": "The UK is banning under-16s from social media, under the guise of 'protecting kids', but it will not include Bluesky. Is this simply overt political censorship?"

The U.K. government's definition is broad enough to cover almost any app "whose purpose is to enable social interaction and which allow users to post material" and therefore could include sites like Reddit, Pinterest, and Tumblr.

And buried in the same announcement is a ban on under-18s using "romantic companion chatbots," with all AI chatbots required to dial back "intimate functionalities" for minors.

Washington isn't thrilled either. In its formal response, the U.S. Embassy in London said it preferred "narrowly targeted requirements" over "broad social media bans," adding that "most content should remain accessible by default, including political speech."

Making any of this stick will likely require platforms to confirm who is underage, though the government has not said how that will work yet.

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America has culture — just ask the World Cup fans discovering Waffle House



Forget the final score. The real World Cup upset this summer is how many international fans are discovering that America is, against all odds, kind of great — especially in a "why does this gas station have 40 kinds of jerky and also a Wi-Fi password printed on the receipt" way — and they're documenting their delightful experiences on social media.

The breakout star of the bunch is a German fan known on X as Freddy who has been chronicling a six-week road trip across the U.S. and Canada, following Germany's national team, and has picked up hundreds of thousands of followers in his trek.

‘The European mind can't comprehend this.’

Freddy's Atlanta stop hit the respectable tourist beats — Stone Mountain, the MLK National Historical Park, some "Stranger Things" filming locations — and then immediately abandoned all dignity for Taco Bell, which he called "the holy land."

A 1 a.m. Waffle House visit got a perfect 10/10 — food, prices, and staff included.

His Wendy's stop in Tennessee produced the single best exchange of the whole tour. His order somehow came back under the name "John," and when he posted his haul of burgers and fries, the official Wendy's account replied with one demanding question: "WHERE IS THE FROSTY."

He also fit in a Walmart run for water, socks, and USA soccer merch and somehow found time to watch the NBA Finals at Chili's amid all this.

Before a single World Cup match had kicked off, Freddy watched the War Eagle fly over Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium and called it the most "the European mind can't comprehend this" moment of his life.

One of Freddy's posts got enough traction that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shared it on X, writing: "There's no better way to see our country than on a road trip! Because to LOVE AMERICA you have to SEE AMERICA."

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) invited him back for football season. When he posted from the Gulf Coast, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis welcomed him to Florida — but couldn't let it go that Freddy had called the Gulf "the sea."

RELATED: 'I had the right papers': Somali World Cup referee booted from US gets an answer from the White House

Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images

Freddy is not even the only German on this beat. Finn Agostinelli has been touring Chicago — the Riverwalk, "the Bean," and a visit to Portillo's so good that he posted a petition to get one opened back home in Hamburg.

His best moment came at Macy's, where he had ducked in to find a restroom and instead found himself staring up at an enormous American flag. "I respect how proud Americans are of their country," he wrote. "Unimaginable back home in Germany."

Texas, for its part, did not go unnoticed either. A group of Japanese fans told KDFW their assessment of the state in six words: "Texas is good — everything is big." Which checks out. Everything is bigger in Texas.

And in a tradition that has followed Japan's national team since its 1998 World Cup debut, Japanese fans were spotted picking up trash in the stands after a 2-2 game against the Netherlands in Dallas, a habit rooted in a saying that a bird leaves no trace when it flies. Stadium staff, presumably, were thrilled — and possibly a little confused.

Meanwhile, a young Swedish fan named Elsa Thora landed in Indianapolis and immediately discovered ranch dressing, which, by the tone of her posts on X, may have been a bigger moment for her than the actual soccer.

"Why did no one tell me ranch sauce is like crack? EUROPE WE NEED RANCH ASAP," she said.

Elsa screamed at a school bus in Indiana, posted a photo of Twinkies and Combos pretzels with the caption "I feel like I'm in a movie," and has been working her way through Trader Joe's ever since.

She also discovered that Amish people are, in fact, real.

Not every discovery has been a hit, though. Elsa also found shampoo locked behind anti-theft barriers at a store, a security measure uncommon in much of Europe, and called it her first negative experience of the trip.

She's not alone on the friction front. Scottish fan Shaun Cumming arrived in New York after flying from Edinburgh and was blunt about the cost of everything — especially after a $150 Uber ride into Brooklyn.

He also noted to Newsweek that Americans are noticeably more open than people back home.

"People here are very positive, enthusiastic, and they're not shy at all," he said. "They will tell you how they feel for good or for bad. And sometimes for British people, it can catch us off guard a little bit."

Cumming had no complaints about the food. He said American cooking is simply better seasoned than what he's used to: "Here, you get flavor, you get fed well, they put a lot spices, herbs and seasoning into their food in general, which just makes it really good" — and that the regional variety is what stuck with him most.

RELATED: Trump and Mamdani are on a collision course about ICE at the World Cup

Joe Lamberti/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Underneath all of it is something that keeps surprising people more than the food: the locals.

A tourism expert told Fox News that visitors driving nine hours across Texas are running into "overwhelming American kindness," often from small-town residents who have no idea why someone with hundreds of thousands of followers just pulled into their gas station.

A New Jersey deli owner gave a couple of British tourists a free lunch, and Alabama firefighters gave other British fans a station tour and sent them off with free gear.

Waffle House has been open at 1 a.m. for 50 years. Buc-ee's has always been enormous. Ranch dressing has been sitting in American refrigerators, unremarked upon, since the Reagan administration. Perhaps the deli owner who fed the British tourists wasn't doing anything he wouldn't do for a local who looked lost.

What's new is that someone finally pointed a camera at it.

For years, the conversation about America — at home and abroad — has been almost entirely about Washington: the politics, the division, the sense that the country is somehow failing itself. But that was never the whole country.

The actual texture of American life — the diners, the gas stations, the absurd portion sizes, the stranger who will drive you to a game because your Uber didn't show — was always there, underneath all of it, completely unaffected by whatever was happening in D.C.

This summer, a few hundred thousand people from somewhere else have seen the real America: big, weird, generous, a little much.

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Marie Gluesenkamp Perez Calls Herself a 'Business Owner in SW Washington.' Her Shop Is in Oregon, Where Employers Can Pay Much Lower Salaries.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D., Wash.) suggested she owned a business in southwestern Washington earlier this year while trying to relate to her constituents' struggles. But the business the congresswoman co-owns with her husband, Dean's Car Care, is actually located across state lines in Portland, where the minimum salary requirement is much lower.

The post Marie Gluesenkamp Perez Calls Herself a 'Business Owner in SW Washington.' Her Shop Is in Oregon, Where Employers Can Pay Much Lower Salaries. appeared first on .

'One nation under God': Christians to march through DC as part of 2,000-mile Eucharistic procession



American Catholics kicked off the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in St. Augustine, Florida, over the Memorial Day weekend. In the days since, pilgrims from numerous dioceses have joined the procession — the theme of which is "one nation under God" — along its roughly 2,000-mile route, which threads most of the original 13 colonies.

The procession, which began just days after the similarly themed multidenominational Rededicate 250 event at the National Mall, will ultimately conclude over the 4th of July weekend in Philadelphia, where pilgrims will honor the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The "perpetual pilgrims" will also carry the Eucharist — which Catholics hold to be the real and substantial presence of Jesus Christ — through the national capital on Saturday.

'We ask God to bless the United States.'

"This procession is both an act of faith and a prayer for the country: that amid division and uncertainty, Americans remember that human dignity, freedom, and unity are rooted in something greater than politics or ideology," said Jason Shanks, president of the National Eucharistic Congress, in a statement obtained by Blaze News.

Fr. Charles Trullols, director of the Catholic Institute Center, which has partnered with the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, will receive the consecrated host at the Basilica of Saint Mary in Alexandria on Friday evening. He will then begin this leg of the pilgrimage and carry the Blessed Sacrament through the night, blessing Virginia and the District of Columbia along the way.

The procession will resume on Saturday morning and weave through the streets of Washington — stopping at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine, then ending at "America's Catholic Church," the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for Mass.

Pilgrims will be led on Saturday by the Metropolitan D.C. Police.

"It is a great joy to bring the Body of Christ to the streets of our nation’s capital," said Fr. Trullols, whose organization has held Eucharistic processions in the national capital annually since 2023, in a statement obtained by Blaze News.

"A Eucharistic procession is a public expression of our devotion and belief in the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. This year’s procession is especially meaningful to me, as Pope Leo XIV leads a Eucharistic procession this weekend in my home country of Spain, which historically suppressed Eucharistic processions in the 1930s."

RELATED: Pope Leo XIV recognizes martyrdom of Christians slaughtered by Spanish leftists

Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Robert Knopes/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

"As we approach America’s 250th birthday, we join the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in remembering and giving thanks for being One Nation Under God," continued Fr. Trullols. "We ask God to bless the United States and pray that hearts be set aflame with love for [the Eucharist,] the Source and Summit of the Christian life."

The pilgrimage has been placed under the patronage of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American citizen to be canonized as a saint.

Cabrini, the youngest of 13 children, was a nun who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Italy to take care of poor kids in schools and hospitals. She continued this mission in the United States, founding 67 institutions, including orphanages and hospitals. Years after becoming a citizen, she succumbed to complications from dysentery at one of her hospitals in Chicago.

Next week, as part of the broader religious celebrations coinciding with honors paid to America on her 250th birthday, U.S. Catholic bishops plan to consecrate the U.S. to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

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Half Of The Nation Joins Federal Initiative To Welcome Christians Back To Foster Parenting

The Trump administration is reversing Biden-era rules that tossed Christian families from foster care, reducing homes available to desperate children.

Thomas, Alito Blast SCOTUS For Ducking Case On Illegal-Alien Truck Drivers ‘Causing Fatal Accidents’

'This Court declines to even hear Florida’s claims, even though it has nowhere else to bring them,' Justice Thomas wrote.

Washington State Democrats Find New Way To Defund The Police

'Gross miscarriage of justice'

'Bye': Seattle mayor laughs off wealth exodus from her flagging, crime-ridden city



Katie Wilson, the 43-year-old leftist blogger elected mayor of Seattle last year, apparently finds it amusing that deep-pocketed residents and businesses are fleeing her crime-ridden city.

During a recent event at Seattle University, lecturer Joni Balter raised the matter of downtown Seattle's apparent inability to "grow job these days," noting that "the city has lost 25,000 jobs over four years, and the thinking is — the data folks say — that if you extend that out five years, it could be as high as 37,000 jobs."

'We still have the very regressive tax system.'

According to a recent report from the the Downtown Seattle Association, the Emerald City's downtown has seen a 14% decrease in brick-and-mortar retail jobs since 2010 and lost an estimated 13,000 jobs just last year, amounting to the biggest decrease in jobs since the pandemic.

The report noted further that Seattle's downtown office vacancy remained at a post-pandemic high of 25%; the central business district experienced an office vacancy rate of 32% last year, nearly double the previous high point during the Great Recession in 2009; and the combined taxable value of the 20 highest-valued properties in Seattle's downtown has declined from over $10 billion in 2021 to roughly $5.1 billion this year.

When asked about her plan to "turn that around," Wilson — who appeared on stage alongside fellow radical Girmay Zahilay, the newly elected King County executive — attributed Seattle's exodus of jobs and businesses to a number of factors including potential workers' apparent inability to afford living in or near the downtown; homelessness and public safety issues; and the "tax environment."

While apparently interested in tackling the affordability, homelessness, and public safety issues, Wilson signaled that her city's crushing taxes won't soon be changed.

RELATED: Mamdani finally admits what people knew about his candidacy from the start

David Ryder/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Wilson, who co-founded the Transit Riders Union in 2011 and endeavored in years past to "Trump-proof Seattle," was later asked about the "taxing climate" and whether progressive taxes were an "easy and promising solution."

After noting that she found it "very exciting" that state Democrats passed a 9.9% tax on annual taxable income exceeding $1 million for individuals or households and recalling her efforts to push similar taxes in Seattle, Wilson said that claims that wealthy residents will flee the state are "super overblown."

But to those beleaguered residents who have chosen to leave or might do so in the near future, the mayor waved, said, "Bye," and laughed in concert with fellow travelers in the sparsely populated audience.

"In general, we still have the very regressive tax system, and my office is doing a lot of work to look at what our options are in terms of progressive taxation," continued Wilson. "We do have more flexibility at the city than the county, in terms of our taxing authority."

Despite Wilson's casual dismissal, high taxes in Seattle appear to be chasing jobs to cities like Bellevue.

Jon Scholes, president of the Downtown Seattle Association, suggested that Amazon's decision to relocate thousands of employees from Seattle to other King County locations was the direct result of Seattle's overwhelming tax burden, reported the Center Square. Starbucks, which is headquartered in Seattle, also appears to be angling for greener pastures.

Among the taxes the city has implemented is the Social Housing Tax, a 5% levy on employee compensation exceeding $1 million, and the JumpStart Payroll Expense Tax, which the city slapped on companies with employees making more than $150,000 annually.

"What we need is more businesses in Seattle paying taxes," said Scholes. "That's how we strengthen the tax base."

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Armed crooks allegedly enter home in middle of night, but homeowner is prepared — and opens fire



Armed individuals allegedly entered a Kent, Washington, home in the middle of the night earlier this week, but the homeowner also was armed — and opened fire. Kent is about a half hour south of Seattle.

Officers were dispatched to the residence on Hampton Way shortly before 3 a.m. Monday, KOMO-TV reported.

'It's just terrifying.'

The victims told officers that several armed people entered the home, the station said.

But the homeowner shot at the intruders and hit one suspect several times, KOMO noted, citing a Kent Police Department spokesperson.

The other suspects fled before officers arrived, the station said.

Police entered the home, cleared it, and began treating the wounded suspect until medics arrived and took him to Harborview Medical Center, KOMO reported.

While a K-9 team tried to find the other suspects, the station said none were located.

RELATED: 'I didn't have any hesitation': Gun-toting homeowner says he spotted intruder in his house and 'just let it fire'

"It's just terrifying," neighborhood resident Sarah told KOMO. "We have kids here, two schools, we've got a middle school, an elementary school."

Many commenters underneath the station's story seemed squarely behind the homeowner's actions:

  • "I love starting the day with a feel good story," one commenter said.
  • "Too bad this was in King County," another commenter wrote. "The homeowner will likely need to hire a lawyer and spend lots of $$. Even though this was pretty clear[ly] a justified shooting."
  • "Excellent," another commenter stated. "Well done, sir!"
  • "Awesome!" another commenter declared. "Too bad he didn’t drop all of them!"
  • "I love a 'good news' story to start off the week," another commenter quipped.
  • "More target practice is required," another commenter observed.
  • "FAFO," another commenter stated. "YOU are the first responder."
  • "Great job by the homeowner!!!" another commenter exclaimed. "Need more of this kind of rock-solid SELF-protection. Thank you!"

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