Folks, I hope you spent a meaningful weekend with friends and family.
I hope you went to church if you are Christian or synagogue if you are Jewish, spent some time with God, with your family, and with your community — because that’s what Charlie Kirk would have done had he not been assassinated last week.
There has been an amazing, uplifting reality in that millions of people are coming together to honor the memory of Charlie Kirk. Over $5 million was raised for Charlie’s family. Turning Point USA, which is Charlie’s organization, according to the New York Post, received 18,000 new chapter requests in less than 24 hours after his widow, Erika, spoke out about the assassination of her husband.
It’s all heartbreaking and horrifying in every way except that Charlie’s legacy is going to be that millions of people went to church yesterday who wouldn’t otherwise have gone to church. Tens of thousands of people are going to get politically involved with TPUSA. Millions more are going to take inspiration from Charlie.
This outpouring for Charlie is truly incredible. I hope that it’s some comfort to Charlie’s family.
Morgan Wallen <a href="https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/1967087630757359929">paid tribute</a> to Charlie Kirk at his concert in Canada. NASCAR driver Christopher Bell <a href="https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1967071738271043918">dedicated</a> his win to Charlie over the weekend. Chris Martin of Coldplay, whom I have been critical of, did <a href="https://x.com/CNviolations/status/1966952491557556453">something</a> similar. A wide variety of NFL teams also paid <a href="https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1967287551682830365">tribute</a> to Charlie Kirk over the weekend.
One of the results of the tragedy is that mainstream people are coming together around the idea that the core values of the West include things like this: “I disagree with you, and we have discussions, and we don&#8217;t murder one another.”
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2280?contentProgram=The%20Ben%20Shapiro%20Show&amp;contentType=ShowEpisode&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;location=Home%20Tab&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Home%20Featured%20Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
I still can’t even imagine. I cannot even imagine. Two young kids who are three and one, a young wife, married less than five years.
Erika Kirk released <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/well-never-surrender-erika-kirk-gives-emotional-fiery-address-following-husbands-assassination?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=30&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=%E2%80%98We%E2%80%99ll+Never+Surrender%E2%80%99%3A+Erika+Kirk+Gives+Emotional%2C+Fiery+Address+Following+Husband%E2%80%99s+Assassination">a video</a> — which was truly hard to watch — of herself seated by Charlie’s casket holding his hand. She also sent an inspiring message in which she stated, “The evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done. They should all know this: if you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea what you just unleashed across the country and this world.”
Erika Kirk is very involved in the Christian community, in giving. She’s been politically involved as well. For her to pick up Charlie’s mantle would not only be appropriate but an excellent thing for her to do.
Notably, the reaction to Charlie’s death has been gigantic memorials and more people going to church — and unlike the Left when they feel someone has been martyred — no violence. I would imagine that Sunday churches were packed; that’s the report I was getting from all my Christian friends. I will say that at my synagogue on Saturday, not only was it packed, but every synagogue that I know, every single synagogue that I know, had a prayer specifically for Charlie, or a speech specifically about Charlie, talking about what he meant to the country.
Charlie is not here anymore, but he’s here so long as you pick up the microphone. We all have to pick up the microphone and we all have to carry on with his message.
The best thing is that tons of people went to church, connecting with God and looking for community. That’s something Charlie would have wanted.
Tons of people are getting involved. That’s something Charlie spent his entire life building.
Charlie’s tragic death may be the turning point for America to return to faith.
And as Erika Kirk stated, “Our God is so good. So incredibly good. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose.”

US-POLITICS-HOMICIDE-MASS-MEDIA-CRIME

Churches Were Packed, Synagogues Prayed: The Awakening Charlie Kirk Always Believed In

Ben Shapiro

Charlie Kirk

Church

Faith

Family Values

Marriage

Opinion

Synagogue

MixCollage-15-Sep-2025-04-51-PM-6957

Don’t Let Them Lie To You. Charlie Kirk’s Killer Is A Left-Wing Terrorist.

assassination

Democrats

Leftism

Leftists

Liberals

Matt Walsh

Progressivism

Imagine facing your nation’s Supreme Court for the “crime” of sharing a Bible verse. On October 30, that’s the reality for Päivi Räsänen, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-finnish-court-to-hear-case-on-politician-charged-over-sharing-bible-verse?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Top+Finnish+Court+To+Hear+Case+On+Politician+Charged+Over+Sharing+Bible+Verse">Finnish grandmother</a>, medical doctor, and parliamentarian. Her soon-to-be seven-year ordeal began in 2019, when she questioned her church’s support for Helsinki Pride and posted a Bible verse on X. That single tweet triggered 13 hours of police interrogation, two full trials, and now a third prosecution under Finland’s “hate speech” law.
Räsänen’s case might sound like an exclusively European story — but it also serves as a warning about the growing threat of censorship coming from the EU. While someone living outside of Europe might assume they are exempt from the troubling wave of censorship spreading across the continent, that assumption is dangerously mistaken.
The EU has implemented an online censorship law that could turn stories like Päivi’s into a legalized norm. The law, known as <a href="https://adfinternational.org/es/article/digital-services-act-unpacked">The Digital Services Act</a> (DSA), poses one of the greatest threats to free speech online, not just in Europe, but worldwide.
Presented as a way to create a “safe online environment,” the DSA is in fact a sweeping censorship regime. It compels major online platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, X, and Google to take down “illegal content” or face crippling fines of up to 6% of their global revenue. For companies like Apple or Meta, that could mean billions. With penalties this steep, platforms have every incentive to preemptively over-censor content, not just in Europe, but everywhere.
And what counts as “illegal” content? That depends on the varying laws of 27 EU member states. One country’s vague definition of “hate speech” or “misinformation” can ripple outward, forcing platforms to delete content across the entire internet. What Brussels bureaucrats decide could silence speech in Boston or Boise — posts fully protected by the First Amendment, gone in an instant.
The enforcement system makes this worse. The DSA empowers “trusted flaggers,” which can include activist groups, regulators, or even private entities, to demand removals. The European Commission itself sits at the top, monitoring and punishing companies that don’t comply. In practice, this means platforms will act first and ask questions later, scrubbing lawful speech before it can cause “problems” in Europe.
<div id="attachment_652929" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-652929" class="size-large wp-image-652929" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-14-at-7.01.23-AM-1024x573.png" alt="Päivi Räsänen" width="1024" height="573" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-14-at-7.01.23-AM-1024x573.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-14-at-7.01.23-AM-300x168.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-14-at-7.01.23-AM-768x430.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-14-at-7.01.23-AM-1536x859.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-14-at-7.01.23-AM.png 1573w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Credit: Alliance Defending Freedom International</div>
Päivi Räsänen’s case shows what happens when governments weaponize vague speech laws: peaceful expression treated as criminal conduct. The DSA threatens to make this dynamic global. By institutionalizing vague categories like “hate speech” and “disinformation,” it builds the <a href="https://constitutionaldiscourse.com/the-eu-digital-services-act-and-freedom-of-expression-friends-or-foes/">architecture for censorship</a> that knows no borders.
Americans should not be lulled into thinking this is someone else’s problem. The internet is global, and so are the platforms that host our speech. Already, U.S. lawmakers — from the House Judiciary Committee to Vice President JD Vance — have warned that the DSA could chill <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/jim-jordan-presses-european-commission-for-answers-over-eu-social-media-law-henna-virkkunen-digital-services-act/">constitutionally protected expression</a> here at home. The danger isn’t hypothetical: EU officials have already floated the possibility of censoring American <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4824438-eu-sends-warning-letter-to-musk-ahead-of-trump-interview/">political figures under the law.</a>
The stakes are enormous. If the EU succeeds in exporting its censorship regime, authoritarian governments worldwide are likely to use it as a blueprint. They will point to Brussels as justification for their own crackdowns. Already, we’ve seen Europe attempt to export the DSA model abroad. For example, at the EU-Canada Summit, Canada and the EU agreed to advance a Digital Trade Agreement that <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/price-testimony.pdf">expands the reach of DSA principles.</a>
Free speech does not stop at national borders. If America cares about freedom of expression, it must push back against the DSA and its creeping global reach. Päivi Räsänen’s trial is a human face on what’s at stake. Her courage reminds us that when governments claim the power to police speech, no voice is safe.
* * *
Lorcan Price is an Irish barrister and legal counsel for ADF International.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-BELGIUM-TECHNOLOGY-MEDIA-EU

Europe’s Digital Speech Police Won’t Stop At The Border

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Brussels

Censorship

Europe

European Union

Finland

Freedom of Speech

Social Media Censorship

Closing arguments were finally <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/27/asia/jimmy-lai-hong-kong-trial-intl-hnk">completed</a> at the end of August in the National Security Law trial of Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai. Mr. Lai stands accused of colluding with foreign powers and faces life in prison. In all likelihood, the court will find Jimmy Lai guilty and sentence him to prison. 
While we await the final verdict, the West should make a plan to help free Jimmy Lai.
To say Jimmy Lai has lived a remarkable life is an understatement. Born in mainland China, the now 77-year-old Lai moved to British Hong Kong when he was 12, where he believed he would have a better future. Starting out working in a factory, Lai worked his way up, eventually owning his own factory before starting the world-famous fashion brand, Giordano. As a billionaire with homes in London, Paris, and New York, Lai could have easily rested on his laurels and enjoyed a quiet retirement. However, Lai had a great appreciation for the political and economic system that allowed him to build his wealth.
As a British colony, Hong Kong enjoyed the rule of law and free market economics that allowed it to thrive. However, the handover of the city back to communist China loomed large. In an effort to fight for the values that made Hong Kong great, Jimmy Lai founded the Apple Daily newspaper. Becoming one of the largest pro-democracy newspapers in Hong Kong, Apple Daily and its founder fell in the crosshairs of the communists in mainland China through its pro-liberty content. Lai himself drew attention through his annual commemoration of the Tiananmen Massacre, a huge sore spot for Beijing.
While <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/hong-kong-freedoms-democracy-protests-china-crackdown">promised</a> a degree of autonomy for 50 years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has gradually encroached on the freedoms of Hong Kong, a city of 7.4 million people. The Basic Law, Hong Kong’s constitution, promises freedom of speech and rule of law; the past few decades, however, have seen a gradual erosion of these rights. For example, millions of Hong Kongers took to the streets to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49340717">protest</a> a proposed law that would allow Hong Kongers to be extradited for trials in mainland China. While this law was retracted, it wasn’t long before something similar was implemented to take its place.
That brings us to the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/03/what-is-hong-kongs-article-23-law-10-things-you-need-to-know/">National Security Law</a> (NSL), which came into effect in 2020. Essentially, the NSL criminalizes any speech or behavior that the government sees as threatening its authority. For Jimmy Lai and other pro-democracy activists, this put them in danger. As was feared, the NSL has resulted in the arrest of hundreds of people. In a city once famous for its independent courts, the NSL has seen a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/29/china/hong-kong-47-verdict-intl-hnk">conviction rate</a> near 100%.
It was shortly after the implementation of the NSL that Jimmy Lai found himself in legal trouble. In August 2020, Lai was <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/10/900758905/prominent-hong-kong-publisher-arrested-under-new-national-security-law">arrested</a> and paraded through Apple Daily’s office, allegedly for colluding with foreign powers. The truth, however, was that Lai objects to the authoritarianism of the CCP and wants to fight to preserve the freedoms that made Hong Kong great.
<div id="attachment_971739" style="width: 876px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-971739" class="size-large wp-image-971739" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-1227987205-866x576.jpg" alt="HONG KONG, CHINA - AUGUST 10: A handout photo from Apple Daily showing Hong Kong business tycoon Jimmy Lai led by police officers during a search at the headquarters of Apple Daily after Lai, was arrested at his home on August 10, 2020 in Hong Kong, China. Hong Kong police arrested seven people, including business tycoon Jimmy Lai on Monday on charges of violating the territory's new national security law. Police officers raided the pro-democracy newspapers headquarter while leading Mr. Lai and the company's chief executive, Cheung Kim-hung, through the offices in handcuffs. (Photo by Handout/Getty Images)" width="866" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-1227987205-866x576.jpg 866w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-1227987205-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-1227987205-768x511.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-1227987205.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 866px) 100vw, 866px" />Handout/Getty Images</div>
It isn’t just the cause that makes Jimmy Lai a hero: Lai didn’t need to face the risk of arrest. In addition to his various homes around the world, Lai is a British passport holder. He could have fled Hong Kong at any time after the NSL became law. Many Hong Kongers already have. Running, however, is not in Jimmy Lai’s nature. As he <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/jimmy-lai-and-fight-freedom-hong-kong-1">put it</a>, “I am one of the troublemakers. I cannot cause trouble and then leave.” Lai risked everything by fighting for liberty and again risked it by staying when he could have left.
Even while he waits for a verdict, Lai faces terrible <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2025/09/04/jimmy-lais-life-at-serious-and-immediate-risk-in-detention/">prison conditions</a>. He is being held in solitary confinement, 23 hours a day. He has significant health problems but is being denied proper care. There is a good possibility that Lai could die in prison simply due to the conditions of his imprisonment, which is why the West must act quickly.
What can be done? For starters, political figures across the West should continue calling for Lai’s release. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/13/china/trump-jimmy-lai-closing-arguments-intl-hnk">President Trump</a> has joined the chorus of <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/the-dissident-beijing-cant-break-jimmy-lai-hong-kong">international voices</a> calling for Lai’s freedom. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer needs to fulfill his country’s obligation to stand up for Hong Kong’s autonomy. Lai is a British passport holder and therefore he is Starmer’s responsibility. In addition to public pressure, Starmer must also pause the construction of a new <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c864w2942vdo">Chinese mega embassy</a> in London. China should not be allowed a larger presence in the British capital while it actively persecutes dissidents.
Western governments can also sanction those involved in the administration of NSL trials. The U.S. has already <a href="https://www.state.gov/u-s-sanctions-six-individuals-for-undermining-hong-kongs-autonomy">sanctioned</a> several Hong Kong officials, but it can expand them to include senior HK officials such as Chief Executive John Lee, as well as the judges involved in these trials. The “One Country, Two Systems” framework promises Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy, something the NSL interferes with.
Finally, other economic tools can also be applied. Legislatures should consider efforts such as tariffs on Chinese goods as a way to put pressure on Beijing. Restricting the flow of advanced microchips into China would hit the Chinese government where it hurts and impose a cost for its oppression of Hong Kongers like Jimmy Lai.
The Chinese will, of course, counter by saying this is foreign interference in an internal matter. The problem with that argument is that China’s promises to Hong Kong are recorded in a legally binding international treaty, the <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8616/">Sino-British Joint Declaration</a>. Sanctions are an appropriate response to breaking that treaty.
So, why should the West care about what happens to Jimmy Lai? First, what happens in Hong Kong doesn’t necessarily stay there. The Chinese government already has an extensive network set up to threaten dissidents living abroad. The construction of the mega embassy means these efforts will only continue and affect more British citizens. Second, Lai represents a voice for liberty in Hong Kong and China as a whole. If we want freedom to thrive, the world needs people like Jimmy Lai.
The clock is ticking for Jimmy Lai. Any day now, the judges hearing his case could sentence him to life in prison. His health and prison conditions mean his stay behind bars could quickly lead to his death. If the West wants to preserve its own freedom and that of Hong Kong’s, it needs to act to save Jimmy Lai.
* * *
<a href="https://www.joinyv.org/talent/matthew-cookson">Matt Cookson</a> is an alumnus of the Young Voices Contributor Program and was a Middle East History and Policy Fellow with Young Voices. He also works in the supply chain for a U.S. Defense Contractor. His commentary has appeared in the Mises Institute, Real Clear Politics, the National Interest, Providence Magazine, China Source, and the Idaho Freedom Foundation. You can follow him on X @<a href="https://x.com/MattCookson95">MattCookson95</a> and Substack @<a href="https://substack.com/@thewaythecookiecrumbles?utm_source=user-menu">thewaythecookiecrumbles</a>. 
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

China Imposes National Security Law In Hong Kong

The Clock Is Ticking For Jimmy Lai. Time For The West To Act.

China

Democracy

Free Speech

Great Britain

Hong Kong

Jimmy Lai

When people say “political violence is wrong,” does that change the underlying substructure of thought that leads to a massive elevation in violence in the country of the political variety?
I don&#8217;t think it means anything to just say that political violence is wrong, because there are actual substrates of thought that lead to the elevation of the violence that compel fringe actors to go out and do things like murder Charlie Kirk.
Thus, having our politicians simply go out there and say, “We&#8217;ve got to take down the temperature; we all have to use better language,” is absolutely true, but it isn&#8217;t specific enough.
Chuck Schumer said, “The bottom line is this is a time that all Americans should come together and feel and mourn what happened. Violence, which affects so many different people of so many different political persuasions, is an affliction of America, and coming together is what we ought to be doing, not pointing fingers of blame.”
Hakeem Jeffries said, “This moment requires leadership that brings the American people together, as opposed to trying to further divide us. Political violence in any form against any American is unacceptable, and should be denounced by everyone. And moving forward, we have to figure out a better way to come together, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans.”
All of this is correct.
But all of this is incredibly vague.
I want to talk about something that we all know is true, but nobody seems to want to say: Not all ideologies are equally prone to violence.
When there is a shooting, a mass shooting at a synagogue, a mass shooting at a church, when Charlie Kirk is shot, everybody&#8217;s mind immediately goes to this: What are the likeliest probabilities in terms of who did the shooting? 
Everyone does this. We cannot pretend that we are blind to the realities of the world. When there is a shooting at a synagogue, I can tell you my mind goes to two places: radical Muslim or white supremacist. Those are usually the options. If there&#8217;s a shooting at a church, your mind might go to a trans radical or a radical Muslim. 
That&#8217;s where your mind is going to go. And this is leaving aside people who are generally mentally ill or where there&#8217;s no political ideology involved. If there is a political ideology involved, your mind immediately goes to the movements that are likely to drive people toward murder.
Not every ideology is prone to this. No one thought that when Charlie Kirk was shot, it was because of his stance on low taxes. No one thought that. We differ on all sorts of politics in this country. Nobody thought that a debate about marginal tax rates was why Charlie was shot. Nobody believes Charlie Kirk was murdered because of his stance on energy policy. 
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2279-breaking-charlie-kirk-assassin-in-custody?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=The+Ben+Shapiro+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
In order for an ideology, for a movement to coalesce in such a way that it allows for violence — the sort of bubbling of violence that lies at the outskirts of a movement — there have to be some preconditions.
I&#8217;ve been talking a lot about lions and scavengers. What we are seeing here is the scavengers at work. 
The basic philosophy of the scavenger is very simple: All models and civilizations are merely guises for power. My failure is a result of one of those corrupt power systems. There&#8217;s a great conspiracy out there. I am the victim. I&#8217;m being targeted. I am the actual victim. 
And thus, if there is a great conspiracy that is targeting me for destruction, I must respond in kind with violence.
This is how you get to the idiotic notion that speech is violence. 
Those are the three elements: “Morals and civilizations that I don&#8217;t like are simply guises for power,” “My failure within that system is a result of that great conspiracy and I am the victim,” and “It is an existential threat to me and therefore I must act out with violence and harm somebody.”
Let me give you three examples, and I&#8217;m going to take them from the top death threats I received. 
I receive an enormous number of death threats. I have 24/7 security on me, on my family. I literally go nowhere without an entire team of security at this point in my life. And that is because of things like what happened to Charlie.
There are three main wings that I get these threats from: Trans ideology/Marxist ideology, white supremacists, and radical Muslims. 
I want to go through each one of those and explain why these particular ideologies, why these particular movements are likely to generate violence. 
A trans ideology says that your argument about biology, that there is simply male and female, is, in fact, a guise for power. You&#8217;re doing it because you hate me; you wish to erase me. I am a victim of your failure to accept my identity, such that you&#8217;re erasing me. You&#8217;re engaging in a “trans genocide,” and therefore, you are threatening me. Your speech is a form of violence. It is wiping away my identity. 
And therefore violence ought to be met with violence.
Marxist ideology, which is derived from the same general area, is the idea that the governmental system, the free market system, is an imposition on me. It is a conspiracy from above to harm me, to destroy me. My failures inside the market are actually not my own. They&#8217;re the fault of the system. And you, as an advocate for the system, are victimizing me. You&#8217;re erasing me. You&#8217;re destroying me. And I must act with violence. There&#8217;s a reason why Marxist movements are so violent. They say that speech, advocacy for the free market, is, in fact, a system of power. It is to be met with violence. 
White supremacy: I know that there&#8217;s an attempt to pretend that this doesn&#8217;t exist, but it absolutely exists in online spaces. Pretending it doesn&#8217;t is bulls*** and everyone knows it. I know it because I&#8217;ve had to have the FBI arrest somebody who was doing this while threatening not just me, by the way, but Donald Trump Jr. 
That ideology says that white people are being put upon in the United States by an entire system. And if you&#8217;re an advocate for that system, you are threatening me with destruction, with erasure, with white genocide, and thus you must be killed. Violence is a proper response to an attempted genocide. That is the argument that is made, at root, by many white supremacists. 
I&#8217;m not talking about what the Left calls white supremacy, which is anything to the right of Hillary Clinton. I&#8217;m talking about actual, honest-to-God white supremacists. I get an awful lot of death threats from them.
Group number three, radical Muslims, who believe that the failures of the Palestinians, for example, are the result of evil Western systems. And thus, if you are an advocate for those systems, it&#8217;s because you want to erase the radical Muslims and you want to kill people and you want to commit genocide, and therefore it is fine to shoot two Israeli embassy staffers dead in Washington, D.C. That is why it is fine to throw a Molotov cocktail at an 80-year-old woman in Colorado who was protesting Israeli hostages being held. 
We all know this is true. Pretending it isn&#8217;t true doesn&#8217;t make it go away. Not all movements are equally likely to bubble up with violence.
And so when we have politicians saying political violence is bad, if you&#8217;re not speaking out against the movements that use this logic, if you&#8217;re not speaking out against the movements that say that speech is in fact a form of violence, that systems are in fact a form of violence, and that violence is the proper response to that, then you are contributing to the environment in which this kind of stuff happens. 
It is not that there are many radical Muslims in the United States, by the numbers, thank God.
It’s not that there are many white supremacists in the United States.
But by the numbers, the increasing radicalism of the Left in the United States is, in fact, a massive issue. 
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) recently did rankings of campus free speech. And what they found is that college campuses are replete with the failure to speak your mind. 
Why? Because people are afraid of violence.
It goes all the way back to when I was in college. There&#8217;s nothing new here. I wrote my very first book, “Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth,” in 2004 about the kind of discrimination conservatives faced on campus. And yes, there was the possibility of violence, even in 2004, not being shot, but the possibility of being physically assaulted, which is something that came close to happening to me multiple times, even when I was an undergrad. 
That&#8217;s going back 20 years, when I was warning that this was going to metastasize and take over huge swaths of the political Left. People ignored it at the time. But it was true.
I spoke in 2015 at the University of Missouri during the Black Lives Matter upsurge, after Ferguson. And I remember people asking about safety. I said, “I&#8217;m not worried about safety. There are some police there; I&#8217;ve got a security team now. No one’s going to take a shot at me. This is America. You don&#8217;t get shot in America for saying things on a college campus. This is America. I grew up in this country. This is my country. This is a country I love. This is where our fundamental value is the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. No one&#8217;s going to do this kind of stuff. No one.” 
But it&#8217;s becoming more and more common. According to FIRE, a record 1-in-3 students now hold some level of acceptance, even if only rarely, for resorting to violence to stop a campus speech. 
Now, I&#8217;m sure not everybody who believes they&#8217;re using violence thinks in terms of shooting someone to death. But when you are drawing from a pool at this point of legitimately tens of millions of young Americans, who are atomistic and isolated and don&#8217;t touch grass, it is not going to be hard to find some unhinged people who decide to take that to its logical conclusion and fire a bullet through the throat of a man who is simply attempting to speak truth to people in the friendliest possible fashion. 
I don&#8217;t like when people say “They shot Charlie,” because “they” isn&#8217;t a person. A person shot Charlie Kirk, and he shot Charlie Kirk for a deranged reason.
With that said, there are movements in which the substrate of their political thinking leads to an elevation in violence. Period. End of story. That is a reality.
And it is not enough to just say “political violence is bad” if you are not calling out the movements themselves.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-HOMICIDE-MASS-MEDIA-CRIME

Saying ‘Political Violence Is Wrong’ Doesn’t Go Far Enough

Anti-Semitism

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White Supremacists

The last time I saw my friend Charlie Kirk in person was when I appeared with him on stage at the TPUSA pastor’s summit back in the spring. I spoke with him backstage beforehand and told him, as I had several times before, that I was incredibly impressed by this institution and movement that he built. But he wasn&#8217;t interested in listening to me compliment him. He deflected, as always, and started asking me about myself and saying nice and encouraging things. 
A few months before that, in the wake of Trump’s victory, Charlie made a point of posting something to X to give me credit for helping Trump win. It was one of the very few times that I&#8217;ve disagreed with something Charlie said. The truth is that he was the primary reason why Trump won. It was his organizing and advocacy and activism and mobilization that helped to turn the tide. And yet he wanted to give the credit to other people, even people who didn’t deserve it. That&#8217;s the kind of guy that Charlie was. A rare type in the world today. Even rarer in this business. It may seem like a small thing. But Charlie’s desire to give other people credit, to point to and praise and lift up other people rather than himself, is one of the most profound testaments to his character.
Charlie was truly a great man. Great in personal virtue. Great in achievement. Great in his talents. He was a builder, an organizer, and a fighter — a rare combination. In this movement, you have a bunch of big personalities who can inform, entertain, and hold your attention on stage or in front of a camera. And then you have the organizers who know how to orchestrate and build, harness those personalities and point them in the right direction. Charlie was the only guy I ever knew who was truly great in both areas. He was a one of a kind talent. Everyone who knew him — and so many who did not know him personally — could tell that he was destined to be the President of the United States one day. I would have been proud to vote for him. Tens of millions of Americans felt the same way.
Charlie was brave. He would go anywhere and talk to anyone. He would debate anyone in any environment. He trusted in his own vast rhetorical skill, and in the rightness of his ideas. Most of all, as a man of deep faith, he trusted in the Lord. I don&#8217;t know if he had Isaiah 41:10 written as a mantra in his house somewhere, but it certainly seemed to be written on his heart. “Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” He knew that the Lord was with him, protecting him, guiding his thoughts and his words. Which is really the only way to explain Charlie&#8217;s nearly supernatural ability to win every debate he ever had with anyone. God had called him to this moment, and blessed him as he rose to it, again and again.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1656-america-will-never-be-the-same-after-charlie-kirk-s-assassination?elementPosition=0&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
Charlie was a patriot. He loved America. He fought for her every day. And he died for her. His central ambition was not for his own personal advancement but for the well-being and flourishing of this country. For Charlie, Make America Great Again was not a slogan on a hat. It was his mission, his great project. He did more to complete that mission than you could ever expect one man to do. Most importantly of all, of course, Charlie was a husband and a father. He loved his family dearly. You didn&#8217;t have to know him or ever meet him in person to know that about him. It came across in everything he said and did. This was a man who cherished his family. And would have died to make a better world for them. And did.
Now he’s gone. We have seen him die right in front of our eyes, on stage. He died while trying to have a free and civil debate, which is all he ever did. He didn&#8217;t insult. He didn’t defame. He didn’t shout anyone down. He invited everyone to come and speak to him, to prove him wrong. And for that, they killed him. I have to tell you that, as a fellow conservative in the public eye, I always worried that it would come to this. That eventually they would start killing us. But I never thought it would be Charlie. He was the nicest, most generous and charitable of us. Far less inflammatory than plenty of other people in this space, myself included. And they killed him in spite of that. Or not in spite, but because of that. He was too effective. Too widely beloved, especially among the younger generations. So they killed him.
I can only be honest with you in this moment and tell you that I am sad, I am heartbroken, and I am full of rage. If you want a kumbaya message of unity and togetherness, you will not get it from me. Over the past 24 hours, I have seen some in the media — some of the very same people who intentionally stoked murderous hatred against people like Charlie Kirk — now saying that we need to &#8220;turn the temperature down&#8221; and “start having conversations.” Well, Charlie tried to have conversations with you on the Left. And you killed him for it. You’re killing us in our churches. You tried to kill our president. You killed one of our greatest advocates in Charlie Kirk. You have been openly cheering for and celebrating and encouraging and committing political violence for years. Antifa. BLM. Well-funded, highly orchestrated, widespread movements based in and fueled by violence. You made a hero out of Luigi Mangione. And you celebrate Charlie’s death even now. It is too late to turn the temperature down. This is not a time to hold hands. It&#8217;s a time for justice. It&#8217;s a time for good to fight back against evil. It is a time for the righteous to prevail. For the sake of our country. For our children. For Charlie.
Many of you have seen all of the myriad posts and videos from leftist demons celebrating Charlie&#8217;s death. I know we want to tell ourselves that these are fringe voices, but they aren&#8217;t. There is a very large group of people out there who want us dead. Even in Congress, they tried to have a moment of silence after Charlie&#8217;s passing, but Democrats jeered and heckled. This is who they are. Not on the fringes, but in the main. They could not possibly make themselves any clearer about it. 
But I do want to say this. When I see these rodents gloating now over the death of my friend, I am, of course, disgusted by it. Yet also, I truly see it as a powerful tribute to Charlie’s life and work. Charlie had many friends who loved him dearly. Many fans who adored and admired him. That is, without a doubt, the greatest testament to the sort of man he was. But as a true culture warrior, it must be said that the evil gloating of his enemies is an accolade in its own right. May we all be so successful and productive that our enemies celebrate when we die. May we all be so devastating to the Leftist project that they long for our demise. May we all fight so hard and so effectively that they have no choice but to try to kill us. May our lives be a problem for these people, and our deaths a relief. Let them dance on my grave, as they dance on Charlie&#8217;s. Then I will know that I did my duty. Our opponent should be happy when we leave the ring. If they aren&#8217;t, then we didn&#8217;t punch hard enough.
Charlie punched harder than anyone. He did it with a smile. He did it through speech and debate. But he was a devastating fighter all the same. And his opponents are overjoyed because they think they’ve gotten rid of him. But they&#8217;re wrong. They’ve gravely misjudged the situation. The only thing more powerful than a living fighter is a martyred one. In life, Charlie motivated and rallied us to put on the armor of God and fight for what we believe in. In death, he motivates and rallies us all the more. I want to be very clear that we will not back down after this. We will not shrink away or go into hiding. We will not fall silent. We will not walk in fear. We will stand taller and prouder than we ever have, and be louder and bolder than we&#8217;ve ever been, and fight harder than we’ve ever fought. They think they can kill the movement by killing us. But in the entire history of the world, that strategy has never worked. And it won&#8217;t work now. I promise you that.
You can kill a man. You can shoot him in the neck on stage. You can spill his blood for the whole world to see. But you cannot kill a cause. Especially when that cause is nothing else but love of God, love of country, love of family. That cause is truth. You can&#8217;t kill the truth. No matter how many of us you shoot. You cannot kill it. 
Many of us — conservatives on the public stage — have seen the death threats and death wishes over the last several hours. Leftists across social media are making their wishlist of who they’d like to see assassinated next. I’m often on the list. Ben is on it. Many other names. I do think the chances of a copycat event are very high. And that is why I feel it&#8217;s important for me to say that I will not back down. I am not going to hide. None of us will. If we back down, then the demons who killed Charlie will win. And they cannot win. They will not win.
A day before his death, Charlie posted a picture of Iryna, the young woman who was killed on the light rail in Charlotte, and added a short caption. “America will never be the same,” he wrote. Amen, my friend. You had no idea how right you were. America will never be the same. It will be better. Thanks in large part to your work, your legacy, and your example, America will ultimately be better. But there is a lot more to be done in the meantime. The fight continues. You finished your race, Charlie. You fought the good fight. You kept the faith. Now we will take it from here. And we won&#8217;t give up until the work is done. You can rest in peace, knowing that. Godspeed.

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America Will Never Be The Same After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination

America Will Never Be The Same After Charlie Kirk's Assassination

Conservatives

Turning Point USA

Few things are more important than the education of our young people. 
That’s why, when the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released the <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/">Nation’s Report Card</a> earlier this week, I became concerned. Average scores among 8th and 12th grade students were lower across all three primary assessments — science, math, and reading. For example, only 22% of 12th graders were proficient at their level of mathematics and 35% were proficient at their level of reading.
Scores like these should remind all of us just how important a high-quality education is for every student. While these scores are discouraging, I believe when parents and students are given a choice in education and the right leadership is in place, we will see test scores like these go up, not down. 
Most students spend more awake time in school than at home during the week and thousands of families are counting on their state officials to deliver for their children. That’s why I’m running for governor of South Carolina, to ensure that every student has access to a high-quality education – whether that’s their local traditional public school, a high-performing public charter school, or a high-quality private school. I am confident that there are thousands of outstanding teachers across South Carolina, but there are also gaps in excellence in far too many places.
I’ve spent my career in business and understand that competition makes everyone better. When traditional public schools are competing against private and public charter schools, it drives innovation, efficiency, and a desire for excellence. This free-market principle is what creates great organizations that serve people well, and it’s the same principle that will improve education for South Carolina students.
Status quo politicians and special interests have tried to pit education freedom against great public schools. I fundamentally reject this flawed argument. I attended public school and many of my grandchildren currently attend public school – and I strongly support education freedom. South Carolina parents deserve the opportunity to choose what’s best for their child.
Fortunately, South Carolina has made significant strides in improving student-centered education over the past few years, but we have room to grow. As governor, my mission will be to improve public education, increase education freedom, and ensure high school graduates are ready for a job or college.
We know what moves the needle in public education – great teachers in classrooms and great principals leading schools. The research is overwhelming: the quality of teachers and principals are two of the top in-school factors for student success. I firmly believe that leaders should make data-informed decisions, and that’s why, based on this research, we should be rewarding our top-performing teachers and principals across the state.
I want South Carolina to become the top destination in the country for the best and brightest teachers and principals. We should create a merit pay structure statewide that offers bonuses to educators who are top performers – and we should offer an extra incentive to educators who are willing to bring their high-quality instruction to low performing schools. Infusing the principles of the free market into public education will improve outcomes for students.
Concurrent with statewide merit pay, South Carolina must expand education freedom for all families in the state. Education freedom is about ensuring parents are empowered to exercise their God-given right to choose what’s best for their children. As governor, I will work every day to expand education freedom until every family has the opportunity to choose the best education for their child.
Finally, as governor, I am committed to dramatically expanding career and technical education in South Carolina. For too long, schools and businesses have been ships passing in the night. Schools enroll students in career and technical education without actually talking to businesses about what skills are needed in the workforce. I’ve spent most of my life in the private sector and I know what it takes to bring business leaders into the conversation and ensure our students are being prepared with the skills needed for family-sustaining jobs. When schools and businesses are working together for student success, the entire state wins.
Few things are more important than education. As governor, I will focus every day on leading with students at the center of the conversation. Education funding is a core function of government and it should be treated as a treasure to invest in our next generation’s education.
* * *
Ralph Norman was born and raised in South Carolina. After a successful career as a small business owner in real estate development, he entered into public service, first as a South Carolina State Representative, then as a U.S. Congressman in 2017. He’s now running to be the next Governor of South Carolina. 
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Open Book On Wooden Desk With Blurred Empty Classroom Background.

When Test Scores Drop, It’s Time For Real Education Reform

Charter Schools

Education

Parental Rights in Education

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School Choice

South Carolina

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The kids are not okay. 
We now have an enormous amount of poll data suggesting that Generation Z has some very serious problems, problems that they didn&#8217;t create for themselves.
These are problems created by generations of bad parenting in the United States of America.
A new NBC News poll shows young people are not fond of the idea of getting married or having babies — and they like socialism.
This is disastrous.
According to the NBC News poll, respondents aged 18 to 29 were asked about 13 different options for their top priorities. For women, the number one priority, the number one priority in life, was having a job or career they found fulfilling. Number two was having enough money to do the things that you want to do. Number three? Achieving financial independence. Number four? Having emotional stability.
And then, if you go all the way down the list, number ten was having children, and number 11 was being married.
This is a massive problem. If young women between the ages of 18 and 29 believe that it is a 10th priority to have kids and an 11th priority to get married, and their number one priority is having a job or a career, that is a gigantic mistake when it comes to the purpose of life.
How about for men?
Number one, having a job or career that you find fulfilling. Number two, having enough money to do the things you want to do. You have to go all the way down to number seven to get to “being married.” And number eight, “having children.”
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2276-the-ben-shapiro-show?elementPosition=4&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Any society that does not make its number one focus — not number two, not number three —  getting married and having kids, is a society doomed to failure because that is the priority of any society. You cannot pass your values on to the next generation if there is no next generation. And you can&#8217;t pass your values on to the next generation if you have no values.
The reality is that the central purpose in life comes from the book of Genesis: Leaving your father and mother, marrying a member of the opposite sex, and having kids. 
And that&#8217;s not just because it&#8217;s in the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis has lasted from time immemorial specifically because that happens to be true. Any society that believes yearning for individualistic pursuits — as shown here by the number two priority being having enough money to do the things you want to do — any society that is focused on hedonistic personal fulfillment is a society that is doomed to failure. 
People will stop having kids. People will stop getting married. People will not be happy. And when they are not happy, because it turns out that the fruits of economics are not enough to make you happy, they will turn on the economics themselves, because you cannot fill that family-shaped hole in the heart with cash. 
It is not possible to do it. You can&#8217;t. What gives fulfillment in life to human beings is getting married and having kids. 
I know in our radically individualistic society, we&#8217;re supposed to believe that all forms of familial formation, all forms of sexual behavior, are equally admirable and equally the target of aspiration for society. 
That is wrong and untrue. We should be teaching our kids that it is important to marry a member of the opposite sex, and have kids with those people. 
Will there be people for whom this doesn&#8217;t apply? Sure, because for every rule there are exceptions. But if that is not the societal aspiration, what you end up with is people who are inward-focused. 
That’s because what takes you out of your own emotional narcissism is getting married and having children. 
In my book “Lions and Scavengers,” I talk about this: The word in Hebrew for love is “ahava.” The root of the word “ahava” is “hov,” to give. Thus, giving is at the root of love. 
If you have no one to give yourself to, if you do not have, as it says in the Bible, an “ezer kenegdo,” which means a “helper against him,” it is not good. 
The point is that a woman completes a man and a man completes a woman. And yes, they do need each other, and that is a beautiful thing. And when they come together, they have children. And that is the most beautiful thing. 
Any society that vitiates that purpose and treats that purpose as not only secondary or tertiary, but 10th on the list of priorities, is a society that won’t have kids, and is doomed for unhappiness. 
And then when that unhappiness materializes, people blame the economic system. These two things are connected. There&#8217;s polling data showing that young people, in particular, are warming toward socialism. 
Why? 
The answer is that if you can&#8217;t get what you want in the form of economics, then you tend to blame the economic system. It used to be that so long as you were able to earn for your family, that was the purpose of earning: to be able to buy a house for your family. Not just for you. For your family, to provide a better life for your kids.
But if you separate family and kids from that purpose, no amount of money that you earn will ever be enough to do all the things you want to do, because there are always new things that you want to do. 
I don&#8217;t blame young people for this. I blame their parents. Parents did not hand down the values that they were taught by their parents to their kids.
We now have three generations in American life that have degraded the value of family and childbearing and child-rearing in favor of atomistic individualism that was supposed to provide a libertarian fulfillment.
It’s empty. People are unhappy.
The reality of the world is that it is women, traditionally speaking and biologically speaking, who long to have children. This pretend, nonsense, made-up world in which women are taught that they shouldn’t want to have children is unnatural.
There&#8217;s a reason why every study of rhesus monkeys shows that if you give female rhesus monkeys a truck, they will take the truck and start cradling the truck. The male rhesus monkeys will start hitting each other with it.
Men and women are different. When you tell women they don&#8217;t want the most natural thing for them to want, you get unhappy women. And when men can&#8217;t fulfill their highest purpose because many women don&#8217;t want to fulfill that purpose either, they get angry at women, and they become counterproductive and bad citizens of society.
When you alienate women from their magical superpower, having children, and you tell them that&#8217;s exactly what they shouldn&#8217;t want, that what they actually should want is to be more like men working 2200 billable hours at a law firm, what you&#8217;re going to end up with is an enormous amount of unhappiness.
And that unhappiness stems from women who have been alienated from the central purpose in life, and men who actively would like to form families with women and then fulfill their central purpose in life.

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Disaster: Gen Z Hates Babies, Likes Socialism 

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Social Issues

Voters

Yesterday, I covered at <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-savage-crime-the-media-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about">great length</a> the horrific killing of Iryna Zarutska, the 23 year-old Ukrainian refugee who was savagely stabbed to death on a train in Charlotte by DeCarlos Brown, an evil, psychotic criminal barbarian with a lengthy rap sheet. To review: Iryna was on her way home from a shift at the pizza place where she worked. She boarded the light rail car and sat down in front of Brown without a single word exchanged between them. A few minutes into the ride, Brown pulled out a knife, stood up, and began butchering Iryna to death without warning. He then proceeded to walk around the train, leaving a trail of blood behind him. Nobody attempted to intervene at any point.
We now know Brown had been arrested 14 times before this awful crime was committed. The criminal justice system — which has no interest in dispensing justice to criminals — had 14 chances to get this creature off the street. They could have permanently removed him from society after the third arrest, or the fourth, or the seventh, or the tenth, but instead they gave him 14 chances. Even after he committed armed robbery, and assault, and more than a dozen other crimes. The system simply churned him back out, waited for him to get arrested again, and then churned him out again, like some kind of demonic merry-go-round.
This is a huge national story. A young woman lost her life in one of the most heinous ways imaginable. It is everything that George Floyd was purported to be, but never actually was. Floyd’s death didn’t matter that much. He was a violent career criminal who contributed nothing of value to society and then overdosed. Iryna, on the other hand, is an actual innocent victim of brutal interracial violence. Her death is a major scandal. It is the direct result of deep and widespread systemic failures and corruption. She should have the murals and the streets named after her. The judges and city officials who let her killer loose on the street should all get the Derek Chauvin treatment.
Instead, up until yesterday, Iryna’s case, far from being treated like a national scandal, was completely ignored by the national media. None of the major national outlets had said a word about it. CNN and MSNBC hadn’t spent even 30 seconds of airtime reporting on it. The New York Times and the Washington Post hadn&#8217;t dedicated 5 sentences of coverage to it. It was a total media blackout, made all the more infuriating by how utterly, disgustingly predictable it was.
But these days the media don’t lead the conversation, as much as they wish they could. The conversation happens without them, until they are forced to chime in for fear of being reduced to permanent irrelevance. So, over the 24 hours since our episode aired, finally some of the major corporate outlets decided to acknowledge this case, as we had left them no choice. And their spin is exactly what you would expect. To the media, the story isn&#8217;t the murder itself, but the fact that conservatives are talking about the murder. It isn’t that a black criminal butchered an innocent white woman, but that we have noticed it.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1654-the-matt-walsh-show?elementPosition=0&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
There are now headlines like this one from Politico: “Ukrainian refugee killed in North Carolina gets dragged into political messaging war. President Donald Trump and MAGA allies are using the killing of Iryna Zarutska to attack Democrats.” Yes, you see, Democrats are really the victims here. A young woman bled to death in public but the real concern is that Democrats are being attacked by conservative pundits on social media.
Axios had a similar spin. Headline: “Stabbing video fuels MAGA&#8217;s crime message.” They’re right, of course. The stabbing video does fuel our crime message. That’s because our crime message is that crime is bad. And people who commit crimes should go to prison, and not be permitted to stab women to death on the train. In the same way you could say that a video of a house fire fuels our firefighting message, which is that it’s bad for houses to burn down, and we should put out the fires rather than allowing them to engulf entire neighborhoods. Our messages tend to be pretty simple in that way.
But there is one part of this absurd <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/11/12/trump-media-maga-influencers-election">Axios piece</a> that warrants special mention:
<blockquote>“MAGA influencers are drawing repeated attention to violent attacks to elevate the issue of urban crime — and accuse mainstream media of under-covering shocking cases. <a href="https://www.wbtv.com/2025/09/05/light-rail-stabbing-graphic-video-shows-moments-before-after-woman-killed-charlotte/">Shocking video</a> of the fatal Aug. 22 <a href="https://www.charlottenc.gov/cmpd/News-Information/Newsroom/Homicide-Investigation-in-the-Central-Division-08.22.25">knife attack</a> on 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on a light-rail car in Charlotte, North Carolina, dominated weekend conversation on Trump-friendly social media… The rising number of surveillance cameras in public spaces, including on Charlotte&#8217;s light rail, has become a big accelerant in these cases. The video is easily shared or leaked, and can instantly pollinate across social media — a visual counterpoint to statistics showing crime decreases.”</blockquote>
That’s correct. As I&#8217;ve covered extensively in the past, crime stats can be manipulated in many ways. You can show “decreases&#8221; in violent crime simply by now reporting the crime, or not charging the criminals. If a city decides to pretend that vast categories of crime are no longer crimes, then “crime,” statistically, will go down. It is not hard to make a city safer on the stat sheet.
Making it safer on the light rail car, however, is a different matter. A city can be safe on a sheet of paper, but not safe on the street, or the sidewalk, or at the gas station, or on public transportation, and so on.
The videos break through the false narratives and the juked crime stats by showing us what’s actually happening. It is one thing to hear that a city has X number of murders. It&#8217;s another thing to see what that means, to see how these murders are happening, and where they&#8217;re happening, and who they&#8217;re happening to, and who they’re being committed by. That’s why all of the security cameras and police body cameras are becoming a major problem for the Left. Don’t be surprised when there’s a major push to get rid of the cameras in the name of “privacy.” As we’ve talked about many times, we&#8217;ve already seen the beginnings of this process with police body cams. The left-wing race hustlers demanded the body cams, and then the body cams proceeded to annihilate all of their narratives about police brutality, and now they’re not so hot on body cams anymore. A similar thing will happen — and is already beginning to happen — with security cameras.
Here’s a story out of Canada:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Hamilton is forcing a home owner to remove his security cameras which are on his house &amp; property. 
Only the Government is allowed to watch you citizen. <a href="https://t.co/3mErbvJXc8">pic.twitter.com/3mErbvJXc8</a>
— Ryan Gerritsen🇨🇦🇳🇱 (@ryangerritsen) <a href="https://twitter.com/ryangerritsen/status/1964322252205224411?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Credit: @ryangerritsen/X
So, he has ten cameras because of a rash of attempted break-ins. The cameras have been used not only to protect himself against burglary and other crimes, but to help solve and prevent other crimes in the neighborhood. Now his local city school marm bureaucratic tyrants are telling him to take the cameras down because of &#8220;privacy&#8221; concerns. But we all know the real concern. It’s that the cameras are not only documenting crime, but documenting who is actually committing most of the crime. And that is the thing we aren&#8217;t supposed to notice. The noticing is the problem.
That’s certainly what CNN is worried about:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
CNNs reaction segment tonight about the horrific murder of Iryna Zarutska tonight was to express sympathy for the suspect and harshly criticized social media pundits.
Van Jones decided to weigh in, criticizing <a href="https://twitter.com/charliekirk11?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@charliekirk11</a> due to alleged racial hate mongering.
He claimed that… <a href="https://t.co/6i2LPK6sTF">pic.twitter.com/6i2LPK6sTF</a>
— Media Lies (@MediasLies) <a href="https://twitter.com/MediasLies/status/1965241746008207612?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Credit: @MediasLies/X
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A black man murdered a Ukrainian refugee &amp; proclaimed he “got that white girl.”
CNN: “The open racism on sites like X today, it&#8217;s eye-popping.”<a href="https://t.co/l1y57QwlN4">pic.twitter.com/l1y57QwlN4</a>
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) <a href="https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1965158814849835080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Credit: Breaking911/X
So the narrative we hear from the media is as predictable as it is revolting. They are infinitely more outraged at the alleged “racially charged language” of conservative pundits than they are at the actual butchery of an innocent woman by a 14 time career felon on public transportation. They are not angry that this woman was killed. They couldn’t care less. They wouldn&#8217;t even be talking about it, if they had their way. Instead they’re outraged by the “racism” of conservatives who have noticed that the murder happens.
Then we hear from Van Jones that we can’t say for sure whether that black criminal killed Iryna because she was white. So just to review: the media can say for sure that it’s racist to say mean things about a black guy who killed a white woman, but they can&#8217;t say for sure that it’s racist for a black guy to actually kill a white woman. The murder isn’t racist. The commentary is. That&#8217;s what these despicable snakes are actually claiming.
Keep in mind, this is coming from the same people who declared from the first moment that the George Floyd footage went viral that it was a racist hate crime. There was nothing in the video — not a single thing — that indicated any kind of racial motivation whatsoever. And yet when a black suspect ODs while being detained by a white cop, it&#8217;s a racist killing. When a black criminal slaughters a white woman on the train, it’s a mental health episode. This is what these soulless goblins expect us to believe.
Hey, Van, here&#8217;s what we know. Statistically, a white person is 30 times more likely to be killed by a black person than the other way around. In 2019, there were about 560 thousand violent interracial incidents between blacks and whites. 470 thousand of them were black on white. That&#8217;s 85%. 240 black people were killed by whites. 560 white people were killed by blacks. And this is all in spite of the fact that white people make up 60% of the population. Blacks are 13%. Just by raw numbers — not even per capita, but raw numbers — there are more black interracial killers than white. There are 171 million more white people in the country, and yet there are more black interracial killers. That kind of disparity should be impossible. And yet it&#8217;s real, and it&#8217;s happening.
Per capita, the situation is even more dire. Black people — young black males in particular — are an order of magnitude more violent and more likely to commit crimes than any other group in the country. Black men are 5 or 6% of the population but they commit the majority of murders in this country. That makes black males in America more dangerous than perhaps any other demographic in the entire world, let alone the country. And we know all of this despite the efforts by the FBI and every other institution to hide and bury racial crime statistics. Imagine how much worse it really is. Imagine how grisly it would look if they let us see the whole picture, instead of just pieces of it.
But we can see enough to know, without any doubt whatsoever, that the violent crime epidemic is driven by one demographic to an overwhelmingly disproportionate degree. And all of this has happened while you, Van, and your propagandist cohorts, have spent years claiming that the reality is exactly the opposite of this. You paint a picture of a country where black people walk around in fear of white violence. Where black people are constantly tired and exhausted by the brutality inflicted upon them by the villainous whites.
But those of us who you condemn as “racists” — we are the ones who are tired. We are tired of not being able to walk down the street in our own cities. We are tired of losing good, productive citizens at the hands of violent degenerates who contribute nothing to society. We are tired of the total lack of accountability and responsibility. We are tired of a system that prioritizes the “restoration” and “rehabilitation&#8221; of violent psychopaths over the protection of innocent, law abiding people. And we are tired of pretending that all of this isn’t happening. We aren&#8217;t going to pretend anymore.

MixCollage-09-Sep-2025-02-15-PM-155

The Media Is Outraged That You’re Outraged By The Murder Of An Innocent White Woman

The Media Is Outraged That You're Outraged By The Murder Of An Innocent White Woman

Blacks

Charlotte

Crime

Legacy Media

Murder

Van Jones

Violent Crime

Whites

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The Savage Crime The Media Doesn’t Want You To Know About

Criminal Justice

Stabbing

It&#8217;s become perfectly predictable at this point.
Let&#8217;s say there&#8217;s a violent incident in which a black person and a white person get into conflict. Let&#8217;s say it&#8217;s the white person who ends up killing the black person. Even in a situation where the black person was actually performing an aggressive act and the white person was acting in defense of self or others in the situation, we get months of discussions about white on black violence.
If it&#8217;s Michael Brown, months and years of talk about white on black police and crime. Derek Chauvin, George Floyd. This is just the way it goes.
If, however, the crime is reversed, if it is a black perpetrator and a white victim, then, of course, it just disappears into the ether and we never hear about it again. The latest case of this happens to be this horrifying video out of North Carolina.
According to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/09/06/us-news/ukrainian-refugees-stabbing-death-on-north-carolina-train-caught-on-video/">New York Post</a>:
<blockquote>Haunting new video revealed the terrifying moment a homeless ex-con allegedly fatally <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/08/25/us-news/ukrainian-refugee-23-who-fled-war-for-safer-life-in-us-knifed-to-death-by-homeless-career-criminal-in-north-carolina/">stabbed a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee</a> in what police said was a random attack on a North Carolina light rail train. Iryna Zarutska, who fled war-torn Ukraine for a safer life in America, was on the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte just before 10 p.m. Aug. 22 when she was ambushed, <a href="https://www.charlottenc.gov/cmpd/News-Information/Newsroom/Homicide-Investigation-in-the-Central-Division-08.22.25">according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.</a>
The <a href="https://www.wbtv.com/2025/09/05/light-rail-stabbing-graphic-video-shows-moments-before-after-woman-killed-charlotte/">surveillance footage</a>, released Friday by the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS), shows Zarutska boarding the train in her pizzeria uniform at 9:46 p.m. and sitting, looking at her phone, unaware of the danger behind her.
Just four minutes later, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr. allegedly whips out a folding knife and lunges forward, stabbing her three times, at least once in the neck, police said.
The chilling video then appears to show Brown walking through the rail car, stripping off his sweatshirt and waiting by the doors — as passengers began to notice blood dripping from him.</blockquote>
Zarutska, collapsed in her seat and was pronounced dead on the light rail train. Brown apparently got off at the next stop. A folding knife was later recovered near the platform.
There are a couple of issues here.
This particular perpetrator had multiple arrests dating back to 2011. His record included larceny, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and communicating threats.
The first issue has nothing to do with race. It has to do with our criminal justice system not keeping criminals in prison long enough. I know this cuts against the left-wing view that we are an “over-incarcerated” society.
Wrong. We&#8217;re a radically under-incarcerated society.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2275-the-ben-shapiro-show?elementPosition=3&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
My point is not that we need more random misdemeanor defendants in jail — my point is that if someone is arrested for armed robbery, that person should be in jail for the rest of his or her life. They should not be let back out on the streets. It’s wrong to stick someone like that in jail for only three or four years, especially if they&#8217;re a homeless, mentally ill person, which is what this person was.
What we end up with is crime on the street. This idiocy where we arrest career criminals, take them off the streets for five minutes, and put them back on the streets is insane. It&#8217;s totally ridiculous and insane at every possible level. It gets human beings murdered. 
There are judges who give light sentences that allow for this catch-and-release nonsense. This process needs to be ended immediately.
Evil people need to go to jail forever. Forever. They should not be out. There&#8217;s a very, very high recidivism rate with regard to violent crime.
The second issue is the racial angle, which is less about race and more about media coverage of race. There are some people who will attempt to turn this into some sort of salient point about the difference between races.
Let&#8217;s be very clear. Crime is a result of individual evil human action. It is not inborn into any race. What you have in a lot of areas are different cultural orientations toward crime. This is just a reality. If you don&#8217;t have fathers in the home with high crime areas, if you have people who see other criminals around them acting like criminals, they act like criminals.
The media coverage is always radically disparate. If a white person commits a crime against a black person, it is a national news story. If a black person murders a white Ukrainian girl on the train in Charlotte, it gets zero mainstream media coverage.
Zero.
As of Sunday, The New York Times had not covered the story at all.
Liz Wheeler <a href="https://x.com/Liz_Wheeler/status/1964875008209301552">pointed out</a> that The New York Times dedicated some 6,000 articles to George Floyd, roughly 1,200 articles to Trayvon Martin, 56 to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, roughly 100 to Daniel Penny, and ZERO to Iryna Zarutska.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
George Floyd—5,897
Trayvon Martin—1,190
Kilmar Abrego Garcia—56
Daniel Penny—100
Iryna Zarutska—0
New York Times is propaganda. <a href="https://t.co/042SZW0g3G">pic.twitter.com/042SZW0g3G</a>
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) <a href="https://twitter.com/Liz_Wheeler/status/1964875008209301552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
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It is not out of line to point out the radical disparity in attention to these headlines. If you ask people who work in legacy media why they have their biases, they will say they don&#8217;t want to “reinforce stereotypes.”
The only stereotype that&#8217;s being reinforced when they don&#8217;t report the news is that the legacy media are trash, and they&#8217;re not giving you the full information.
Donald Trump Jr. <a href="https://x.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1965016826141958650">noted</a>, “Strangely, all the clowns with Ukraine flags in their bio are also all silent on this one.”
What he means by that is that many of the people who have the Ukraine flags in their bio are people who are leftists, people who are oriented against the Trump administration. But when a Ukrainian woman gets killed on a subway by a black man, it turns out that the intersectional hierarchy has been upended.
And so they have to ignore the murder.
The bottom line here is, as always, legacy media are perfectly willing to overlook stories that do not match their narrative.
The death of this young woman will not become a national issue. It will not spur a national conversation about crime rates, about policing, or about people getting out too early on bail.
It won&#8217;t do any of those things because it doesn&#8217;t match up with the corrupt legacy media and what they wish the world were really all about.

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Mentally Ill, Repeat-Criminal Kills Young Ukrainian Female Refugee. Media Silent. Guess Why.

George Floyd

Ukraine

America is in a global artificial intelligence (AI) race. The stakes are historically high with economic and national security implications. As President Trump <a href="https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/1949249312363626843">declared</a> in July, “Whether we like it or not, we are suddenly engaged in a fast-paced competition to build and refine this groundbreaking technology that will determine so much about the future of civilization.”
The President, First Lady, and the Trump Administration are taking decisive steps to ensure America is prepared and positioned to win one of the most consequential competitions among nations in modern history, determining future global dominance.
On Thursday, First Lady Melania Trump hosted a meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education. Michael Kratsios, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, serves as the chair of the task force. Other members include the Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Energy, Director of the National Science Foundation, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, Special Advisor for AI and Crypto, Assistant to the President for Policy, and Assistant to the President for the Office of the First Lady.
<div id="attachment_969609" style="width: 875px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-969609" class="size-large wp-image-969609" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2233064229-865x576.jpg" alt="Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., from left, US President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation, during a dinner with tech leaders in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. Trump said he would be imposing tariffs on semiconductor imports &quot;very shortly&quot; but spare goods from companies like Apple Inc. that have pledged to boost their US investments. Photographer: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="865" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2233064229-865x576.jpg 865w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2233064229-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2233064229-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2233064229.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px" />Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
The task force is providing vital leadership for implementing the actions outlined in the “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/advancing-artificial-intelligence-education-for-american-youth/">Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth</a>” executive order, signed into law by President Trump on April 23. As the executive order <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/advancing-artificial-intelligence-education-for-american-youth/">states</a>, the President and First Lady recognize that “to ensure the United States remains a global leader in this technological revolution, we must provide our Nation’s youth with opportunities to cultivate the skills and understanding necessary to adapt to and thrive in an increasing digital society.” K-12 education and workforce development training are foundational avenues for this to occur.
Students need to not just learn about artificial intelligence; education in America must be modernized to incorporate this rapidly advancing technology, thereby personalizing and enhancing student learning.
While artificial intelligence tools are the latest form of student academic dishonesty, they cannot be excluded from the learning process in the future based on fear. Students must be taught and held accountable for the appropriate use. Developers are designing educational technology tools that strengthen critical thinking and other essential cognitive skills — enhancing rather than supplanting learning — to meet the quickly accelerating market demand.
With clarity and candor, the Trump Administration has <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/advancing-artificial-intelligence-education-for-american-youth/">cast the vision</a> for charting a strategic path forward: “Early learning and exposure to AI concepts not only demystifies this powerful technology but also sparks curiosity and creativity, preparing students to become active and responsible participants in the workforce of the future and nurturing the next generation of American AI innovators to propel our Nation to new heights of scientific and economic achievement.”
As part of promptly putting this plan into action, First Lady Melania Trump recently launched the <a href="https://www.ai.gov/initiatives/presidential-challenge">Presidential AI Challenge,</a> which aims to cultivate interest and expertise in artificial intelligence technology among elementary through high school students and educators. Mrs. Trump beautifully <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Presidential-AI-Challenge-Guidebook-for-Participation.pdf">articulates</a> that the “President’s National Artificial Intelligence Challenge invites every student in America — from kindergarten to 12th grade — to unleash their imagination and showcase the spirit of American innovation.” Speaking directly to students, she explains, “our extraordinary educators will guide and empower you through this process to build a brighter, stronger future for us all.”
Acknowledging that America’s K-12 education institutions are largely unprepared to step into this moment, the Trump Administration has created crucial public-private partnerships to provide resources and advanced technological expertise and tools necessary to bring this vision into reality. Already, over 135 companies and organizations have signed the “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/edai/">Pledge to America’s Youth: Investing in AI Education</a>.”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai <a href="https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/ai-education-efforts/">announced</a> at the White House Task Force meeting that $150 million of the company’s $1 billion pledge, made in August, will support education and workforce training through AI education grants. This includes $2 million to the Flourish Fund, which provides financial support for nonprofit organizations that assist foster care youth with workforce development tools as they age out of the system. Additionally, it includes $3 million for Code.org to incorporate artificial intelligence features into its curriculum.
Winning the AI race isn’t merely aspirational. The Trump Administration is working with undeniable resolve because winning the AI race is imperative for ensuring the American Dream remains alive and thriving for future generations.
In January, the President hit the ground running, signing the “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/removing-barriers-to-american-leadership-in-artificial-intelligence/">Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence</a>” executive order. In July, the White House released the “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdf">Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan</a>.” These executive orders are key, setting the stage to advance artificial intelligence nationwide through accelerating innovation, building infrastructure, and leading the world in diplomacy and security. The action plan <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/07/white-house-unveils-americas-ai-action-plan/">asserts</a>, “Winning the AI race will usher in a new golden age of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security for the American people.”
President Trump has proven he can win, is winning, and will never stop working to win for the American people. And in the race for AI, as in every fight for America’s future, his leadership is driving our nation not only to lead the world, but also to secure a new era of strength and prosperity.
* * *
<a href="https://www.discovery.org/p/ingraham/">Dr. Keri D. Ingraham</a> is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a Senior Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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