Day: April 13, 2026
Hillary Clinton warns US in ‘very weak position’ with Iran, ‘lost the leverage’ in negotiations
Hillary Clinton said Monday during an MS NOW interview that the U.S. is in a “weak position” on Iran negotiations, urging the administration to bring in new negotiators.
Utah Valley University faces backlash over commencement speaker choice after Charlie Kirk’s assassination
Utah Valley University faces backlash over commencement speaker Sharon McMahon’s past comments about Charlie Kirk following his assassination on campus.
Scottie Scheffler takes issue with Masters’ course conditions after second-place finish
Scottie Scheffler took issue with Augusta National course conditions after finishing one stroke behind back-to-back Masters winner Rory McIlroy Sunday.
WATCH: Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch reunites with dog after 10 days in space
Christina Koch reunites with her dog in emotional video after returning from Artemis II, NASA’s historic 10-day moon mission around the lunar far side.
Trump eyes Iranian ports in plan set to unfold after peace talks fail
After Iran and the United States failed to reach a resolution during the negotiations last week, President Trump has resorted to stricter measures against Iran.
Trump announced late Sunday night his latest plan.
‘The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.’
“The United States to Blockade Ships Entering or Exiting Iranian Ports on April 13 at 10:00 A.M. ET,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
On social media, U.S. Central Command confirmed that the blockade of Iran’s ports would be enforced, pursuant to President Trump’s post: “The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.”
“CENTCOM forces will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports,” CENTCOM added.
RELATED: Pope responds after repeated attacks by Trump over war criticism: ‘I have no fear’
Shady Alassar/Anadolu/Getty Images
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Ode to a 1984 Buick Skylark — and to all the other cars of my life
America is a nation of cars.
Those hunks of metal on four rubber tires are our lifelines. They are how we go to work, go home, go out to eat, go on vacation, and go just about everywhere and anywhere. When we are just a few days old, we come home from the hospital in one, and on our way out, we head to the grave in a hearse.
I bought it for $450 from a friend who was moving to New York City. It was cream with a plush, brown interior.
From birth to death; we live in cars.
We love our cars when they work for us, and we hate them when they don’t. We curse them when they break down, when they don’t start, and when they demand $2,750 for a new computer chip just to get running again.
We even mourn them when they break down once and for all — no matter how much grief they’ve caused us. We become attached to our cars because of course we do. For Americans, they are an inextricable part of life.
1978 Oldsmobile Starfire
And of our history. Cars transport us through space, but also through time — to certain chapters in our lives. A car is a physical reminder of who we were behind that particular wheel.
I remember my first car like we all remember our first car. It’s the first time you are free like an adult even though you are not an adult. You are still very much a stupid kid, but you don’t feel like one in the driver’s seat.
Mine was a 1978 Oldsmobile Starfire. It was light blue, and it was my grandpa’s before it was mine. He “sold” it to me for $1. I loved that car. I felt like I was in an old movie when I was driving down the road. I loved looking at it parked. I loved thinking about the fact it was mine. It was so cool, so retro, so rear-wheel drive, so bad in the rain. One morning on the way to school, I drove it off the road and into a ditch, and that was the end of the Starfire.
1993 Plymouth Voyager
My next car was really my parents’ car, and it wasn’t a car; it was a van. They let me use it pretty much whenever I wanted to. It was a white 1993 Plymouth Voyager. The sliding door was full of sand and barely moved. The crank windows weren’t working so great. There was an MP3 player plugged into a tape adapter shoved into the tape deck on the dashboard.
That van is my senior year of high school. I remember driving with my girlfriend to a crappy Chinese restaurant about 40 miles south just for something to do with a pretty girl I liked. We did that a lot. I got two tickets speeding back from her house late at night in that van.
1984 Buick Skylark
After the Voyager, I drove a 1984 Buick Skylark. I bought it for $450 from a friend who was moving to New York City. It was cream with a plush, brown interior. I don’t even know how many miles it had on it, I just knew that it ran, and it ran good.
I drove that thing all over. Up north, over to Detroit, down to Chicago, out to Wisconsin. It had a cigarette lighter and ashtrays. I remember smoking American Spirits in a yellow pack in that car. Driving with the windows down in the summer and slipping around the road in the winter.
The Skylark was my college car. It was an “old” car then, but now it’s ancient: 1984 was 42 years ago. I suppose that makes me ancient too.
Four years after I bought the Skylark, I sold her to my brother for $300 and moved to Chicago. I didn’t have a car for almost a decade. I didn’t need one there, and I didn’t need one when I was overseas.
2007 Volvo XC90
The next car I bought was with that old high school girlfriend, now my wife. Right after we got married, we left the city, and so we bought a 2007 Volvo XC90 with about 120,000 miles on it. It cost us $3,600, which we borrowed from my wife’s grandparents. We paid them back over the next year.
We didn’t have the Volvo for too long; it broke down a couple years later. But it was a beast of a car and the first thing we owned together. Thinking about it now, the XC90 was kind of a symbolic introduction to married life. It wasn’t my car; it was our car.
RELATED: My grandpa’s old desk
Michael Brennan/Getty Images
2009 Volvo S70
After the XC90 was a 2009 Volvo S70. It was a fine car, and it was the car in which our son came home from the hospital. That car was us three. First-time parents, firstborn son. That first year with your first kid is special, and that car was where it happened.
The S70 was a little weird. It wouldn’t start if it was colder than 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside. You would think a car from Sweden would be able to handle the cold, but it couldn’t. I had to hook it up to a starter that plugged into the wall and juice the battery for 30 minutes if we needed to start it when it was cold.
Our last trip in that car was our trip to the hospital when my wife was in labor and about to give birth to our daughter. In the middle of the night, I drove my wife and our son through a snowstorm to the hospital. We hit a massive piece of ice flying off a plow, the car eventually overheated, and the S70 died on the side of the road somewhere in Northern Michigan at about 4:30 a.m.
My wife took an ambulance to the hospital, my son and I took a cop car behind her, and the Volvo took a tow truck to the scrapyard.
2017 Honda HR-V
A few days later, we got a Honda HR-V from my wife’s then-92-year-old grandmother. She never drove it, and she didn’t need it, so she gave it to us, and it’s been our car ever since. I don’t know how much longer we will have the HR-V. Maybe 10 years, maybe one year. We’ve got three kids in there now, and it can’t take any more. One day, maybe we will be lucky enough to upgrade to an SUV with another row. We’ll see.
I can already tell how we will remember the HR-V. I already know the chapter it will define for us. We will say it was our first real family car, our car when we added two kids and grew a lot in quite a few ways. Our lives have become much better in that car. We’ve experienced some bad stuff in it but much more good on the whole. We grew, that’s for sure. It’s a good car now, and someday we hope to remember it as a great car.
It sounds funny to mark our time by our cars. But the more I think about it, the more I think it’s as good a way as any to divide up our time here.
Cars: the things that take us wherever we go.
Domestic fraud > Iran war: Christopher Rufo says crushing blue-state scams is the GOP’s political winner
On April 3, BlazeTV host Christopher Rufo released an investigative report in City Journal documenting fraud in the state of California under current Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom. According to his team’s research, California lost at least $180 billion to fraud and improper payments in programs like Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid), unemployment insurance, and general welfare since Newsom took office in 2019.
Rufo believes targeting domestic fraud is a fool-proof “political winner” for the Trump administration — certainly more than the Iran war, which he says is “at best a 50/50 issue.”
“Portraying Minnesota and New York and California and other bastions of blue governance as havens of outright fraud, ripping off taxpayers, seems like the kind of domestic policy agenda — along with immigration, along with a couple of other issues — that can be a winner, both substantively … but also politically,” he tells “Rufo and Lomez” co-host Jonathan Keeperman.
Keeperman wholeheartedly agrees: “[Domestic fraud] is such a good thing for us to be focusing our attention on, not just because it’s a huge problem that we need to eradicate from our public life and is creating all sorts of downstream pathologies that are making everyday life just more difficult for ordinary Americans, but because it also demonstrates … the problems of democratic governance.”
The best part is that large-scale fraud isn’t even that difficult to uncover.
“A guy like Nick Shirley just takes a camera, finds some public documentation, and just goes and knocks on some doors, and you can uncover that easily hundreds of millions, if not billions, in fraud,” he says, “and so yes, this is the best message for the GOP and for Republicans going forward.”
The mass exodus of people from California, Keeperman argues, is evidence that domestic issues are what people care about most.
“California has, despite being one of the nicest places to live in the country, has net out domestic migration and has had net out domestic migration for the last decade, if not longer,” he says.
“People are voting with their feet on this, and so yes — this is all just to say [domestic fraud] is an obvious winner.”
Rufo confirms Newsom’s direct role in California’s out-migration.
“There’s two stats that we came across in this reporting that I think are really important,” he says.
“Under Gavin Newsom, the state’s population has declined by 0.2%, which is the first time that California’s population has declined ever since it became a state … but at the same time that the population declined, Medicaid spending … for low-income people doubled.”
“And so you have the population going down and then the health care expenses under Medicaid doubling,” he explains, pointing out the vicious cycle of fraud money flowing to unions, which funds politicians, who expand the system even more.
The result, Rufo says, is a two-tiered society. The combination of astronomical taxes and high cost of living creates a population where residents are either “rich enough where it doesn’t really matter” or “poor enough where it doesn’t really matter because you have every part of your life subsidized.”
“I think that’s why people are saying, ‘I’m out,”’ he says.
To hear more of the conversation, watch the episode above.
Want more from Rufo & Lomez?
To enjoy more of the news through the anthropological lens of Christopher Rufo and Lomez, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Democrats dump Eric Swalwell after sexual assault allegations implode his career
Democrats have turned on California Rep. Eric Swalwell after former staffers accused him of sexual assault and other sexual misconduct, prompting the gubernatorial hopeful to scrap his campaign altogether.
Swalwell suspended his campaign for California governor just two days after several bombshell reports cited ex-staffers accusing the congressman of sexual assault and inappropriate behavior. Although Swalwell has denied all the allegations, pressure in the form of leaked videos, investigations, and rescinded endorsements pushed the lawmaker to drop out Sunday.
‘We should take her story seriously.’
“I am suspending my campaign for Governor,” Swalwell said in a statement on X. “To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past.”
“I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s.”
ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP/Getty Images
Swalwell’s trouble did not stop there, with dozens of his colleagues condemning the congressman in the immediate aftermath of the reports about the allegations.
“I have read the San Francisco Chronicle’s account and I am deeply distressed by its allegations,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said in a statement on X. “This woman was brave to come forward, and we should take her story seriously. I am withdrawing my endorsement immediately, and believe that he should withdraw from the race.”
“Following the incredibly disturbing sexual assault accusations against Congressman Eric Swalwell, we call for a swift investigation into these incidents and for the Congressman to immediately end his campaign to be California’s next Governor,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in a post on X. “This is unacceptable of anyone — certainly not an elected official — and must be taken seriously.”
Not only did Democrats call for a full-fledged investigation, but several lawmakers and former staffers called for Swalwell’s removal from office.
RELATED: ‘I made a mistake’: Tony Gonzales admits to affair with staffer who set herself on fire
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Lawmakers are now leading a bipartisan effort to expel Swalwell and Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, who similarly suspended his re-election campaign after admitting to an affair with a former aide who tragically took her own life by setting herself on fire.
“I’ve seen enough,” Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman of California said in a post on X. “With his nuanced statement aimed at defending likely criminal charges, Swalwell all but admits a per se abuse of power under House ethics rules: sex with a subordinate.”
“He must now drop out of the Governor’s race and resign from Congress. Rep. Tony Gonzales, who admitted to the same violation, should also resign. If they don’t, I will support voting to expel both of them.”
The overcrowded Democratic primary for California governor is now down to five candidates. Notably, Republican candidates Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco are leading the general election polls, but Swalwell’s support is likely to shift to the remaining Democrats.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Liberals celebrate election results for Trump-endorsed ‘fighter’ Viktor Orbán: ‘Hungary has chosen Europe’
Liberals around Europe are raising their glasses in celebration after seeing the results of the election in Hungary on Sunday.
With nearly 99% of the votes counted, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party had secured only 55 of the 199 seats in the Hungarian parliament, bringing Orbán’s 16-year stint as prime minister to an end despite an endorsement last week from President Donald Trump.
‘Hungary has sent a very clear signal against right-wing populism.’
“He is a true friend, fighter, and WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Hungary — VIKTOR ORBÁN WILL NEVER LET THE GREAT PEOPLE OF HUNGARY DOWN,” Trump wrote Tuesday.
Tisza, the party led by Orbán’s former underling Peter Magyar, managed to secure 138 seats. Our Homeland Movement, a conservative nationalist party, won six seats.
Tisza’s supermajority — won in an election in which approximately 77.8% of eligible voters participated — will enable Magyar and his party to alter the country’s constitution and possibly undo the Fidesz party’s legacy.
Tisza’s manifesto reportedly advocates for a more pro-EU, pro-NATO approach and commits to expediting Hungary’s embrace of the euro as its official currency.
Liberal leaders in Europe were apparently ecstatic over the end of Orbán’s rule and his Christian, nationalist, “migrant-free, pro-family” agenda — an agenda that delivered domestic results that prompted the European Union to deny Hungary billions of euros in funding.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whom a recent survey showed had the lowest approval rating among 24 democratically elected world leaders, characterized the result as a “heavy defeat” for “right-wing populism,” reported Deutsche Welle.
RELATED: Trump lashes out at crumbling NATO alliance following ‘frank’ closed-door meeting
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
“Hungary has sent a very clear signal against right-wing populism across the whole world. In that respect, yesterday was … a good day,” said Merz. “This demonstrates that our democratic societies are evidently much more resilient to Russian propaganda and further external interference in such elections.”
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission, stated, “Hungary has chosen Europe. Europe has always chosen Hungary. A country reclaims its European path. The Union grows stronger.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said that “France welcomes the victory of democratic participation, the Hungarian people’s commitment to the values of the European Union, and Hungary’s commitment to Europe.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who threatened Orbán on March 5, also celebrated Tisza’s rise to power. “Ukraine has always strived for good-neighborly relations with every European country, and we are ready to advance our cooperation with Hungary. Europe and every European nation must strengthen; millions of Europeans yearn for cooperation and stability.”
The Orbán government angered the European liberal establishment in part with its rejection of LGBT cultural imperialism, its refusal to implement the EU’s radical migration policies, and its refusal to “fulfill Ukraine’s demands.”
Magyar said on Facebook that he will “work for a free, European, functional and humane Hungary in the next four years.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Leon Barretto to Sophia Laforteza after Katseye’s Coachella performance: ‘You were amazing’
Leon Barretto attended the Coachella to support Sophia Laforteza as she performed with her group Katseye in the popular music festival.
