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https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/2034056356185993726 Benny Johnson@bennyjohnsonBarack Obama's portrait moved out of main viewing areaMarch 17 Grok@grok·11hTrump moved Obama's official portrait from its prominent spot in the White House Grand Foyer (where recent presidents' portraits traditionally hang) and replaced it with a painting of himself fist-pumping right after the July 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, PA.Later, he relocated Obama's portrait (along with the Bushes') to the top of the Grand Staircase, out of public tour view. The video shows the updated interiors.

“The speed with which American democracy is currently dismantled is unprecedented in modern history,” one of the world’s top democracy researchers says in a new report. The Varieties of Democracies Institute, or V-Dem, a research group based in Sweden, cites the “suppression and intimidation of media and dissenting voices” as a key reason for the “derailment of democracy” in the United States. The researchers say that freedom of expression in the US “is now at its lowest level since the end of WWII.” The findings are featured in the 2026 edition of V-Dem’s annual Democracy Report, which finds that the...

Newly released emails reveal how the Biden administration’s Department of Education (ED) in 2022 attempted to form a secret parent advisory council to give teachers unions and left-aligned activist and parent groups power over federal education policy. Under former President Joe Biden, the department created the National Parents and Families Engagement Council ostensibly as a “partnership between parents and families, educators, district leaders, and entire school communities to support student success.” But behind the scenes, the short-lived council was composed of hand-picked activist organizations that focused on radical racial, gender and immigrant-focused ideologies. As Defending Education notes, “not a single...

HUGE News: Did NASA Just Replace Boeing With SpaceX?! | 5:02 Ellie in Space | 221K subscribers | 9,362 views | March 19, 2026

The U.S. intelligence community has eased its assessment of a near-term Chinese invasion of Taiwan, saying Beijing is more likely to pursue control of the island without military force and has no fixed timeline for unification. The updated view marks a shift from earlier warnings that pointed to 2027 as a potential deadline, a scenario that had driven urgency in Washington and Taipei. In its latest threat assessment, officials said Chinese leaders are not planning an invasion within that timeframe. Still, the report underscores China’s broad strategic challenge to the U.S. It describes Beijing as a leading cyber threat, a...

Piers Morgan angrily stormed off his own show after a “Manosphere” influencer made a crude remark about his wife seeking out pool boys, flashing a photo of her in a bathing suit. The British broadcaster called it quits after just 15 minutes speaking with Harrison Sullivan, better known as “HSTikkyTokky” — a social media influencer who was featured in journalist Louis Theroux’s documentary “Inside the Manosphere” on a controversial ultra-masculine network online. SNIP “What I do with my children is up to me,” Sullivan added. “I don’t agree with you going to [Jeffrey] Epstein’s island and having freak-offs with Ghislaine...

Four San Diego-area families allege that Rady Children’s Health violated the civil rights of their transgender children by deciding to discontinue gender-affirming care, according to a class action lawsuit filed Thursday. The complaint, filed in San Diego County Superior Court, accuses the regional health system of discriminating against transgender children in violation of multiple state laws. It claims the roughly 1,900 patients of Rady’s gender clinic suffered harm from canceled appointments, inability to access medications such as hormone therapy and emotional distress caused by the hospital’s decision.

My niece had been unwell for two weeks and getting progressively worse so she went to her heart doctor who sent her to ER immediately. Diane has had problems with her heart for a long time. I have asked for prayers for Diane before and I am asking for your prayers again. Please pray that the problem in fixable. Her doctor said, "It's a good thing you didn't wait until tomorrow - she is in that much danger.

The Thurston County Board of County Commissioners passed an ordinance requiring home sellers to conduct Home Energy Score assessments when listing a house for sale. The decision makes the county the first in the nation to mandate such a program, said Ashley Arai, Director of the county’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department. The board voted 4-0-1 to pass the ordinance on Tuesday, March 17, with Commissioner Wayne Fournier abstaining due to concerns about the county's legal authority to implement the program. A Home Energy Score is a U.S. Department of Energy standardized rating system that evaluates a home's energy...

Iran executed 19-year-old national wrestling team member Saleh Mohammadi on Thursday, along with two other men, in the regime's first announced executions tied to January protests. Mohammadi, Mehdi Ghasemi and Saeed Davoudi were executed in Qom after being found guilty of killing two police officers during unrest in Nabut Square on January 8. They were convicted of the capital crime of waging war against God, known as moharebeh under Iran's Sharia law.

Vice President JD Vance is projecting loyalty to Donald Trump as the president leads the United States into the type of war the Iraq veteran didn’t want — and as the new conflict complicates Vance’s political future. Vance allies have played down the impact the operation in Iran could have on his presidential ambitions, insisting that a mission involving the U.S. military only for a matter of weeks won’t stay in voters’ memories. People close to the vice president have also conceded to The Washington Post, however, that a months-long conflict will pose a problem for whoever is the next...

President Trump asserted on Thursday that he had no plans to commit ground forces to the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, even though he has acknowledged he is contemplating moves that could drag the military into land combat operations. Mr. Trump’s comments still left some room for him to reverse course. “I’m not putting troops anywhere,″ Mr. Trump told a reporter who asked about using ground troops. “If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.” The president has spent several days alternating between threats to escalate strikes on Iran — which at times he has insisted are an “operation” or an...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) late Tuesday said President Trump has “no reason” to invade Tehran but urged the president to “take” Kharg Island to cripple the Iranian regime’s economy. “No, we’re not going to evade Iran,” Graham told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “There’s no reason to, we’re going to destroy their ability to hurt us, have a nuclear weapon, build missiles to hit America and terrorize the region.” “Kharg Island — 90 percent of their income comes from oil and gas revenue,” he continued, adding that “100 percent of that revenue generating capabilities on a single island, Mr. President, take...

Uncover the sunken remains of a 4th-century basilica in Turkey. Submerged beneath the waters of Lake Iznik for hundreds of years, the church could reveal crucial insights into the early days of Christianity. Join a team of international researchers as they travel back through time—and grapple with Turkey’s many earthquakes, which could sink the structure deeper at any moment. Sunken Basilica Reveals Glimpse of Early Christianity | Full Episode Secrets of the Dead | 55:35 PBS | 1.69M subscribers | 23,809 views | March 18, 2026

Nigel Farage insisted "the British people will not put up with this any longer" amid a row over a Ramadan event held in London. Tory MP Nick Timothy sparked controversy with a tweet saying public Muslim prayer is an "act of domination and division", following the Open Iftar in Trafalgar Square on Monday. He is facing calls, including from Sir Keir Starmer, to be sacked as shadow justice secretary over the post. But Mr Farage echoed Mr Timothy's comments as he weighed in on the furore. The Reform UK leader wrote on X: "What we witnessed in London at the...

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- — Duke barely avoided a shocking upset to open the NCAA Tournament, with the No. 1 overall seed having to rally from 13 points down and going ahead for good in the final 5 minutes to beat 16th-seeded Siena 71-65 on Thursday. Cameron Boozer had 22 points and 13 rebounds for the East Region's headliner, which hit its first four shots yet need a comeback against a fearless upstart playing just five players right up to the final seconds. And yet, the Saints took it to the Blue Devils (33-2) at every turn. The No. 1 seeds...

Iranian state-aligned media and senior regime figures have again invoked supernatural and conspiratorial language in describing the conflict with Israel, with recent and past material referring to a “war of occult sciences”, “Zionist sorcery,” jinn, and Jewish talismans. The theme has also surfaced in Iranian claims that Israel used “occult and supernatural spirits” during the 12-day war. The clearest recent example appeared in a Mehr News Agency report published this week, which said the confrontation with Israel extends beyond military, cyber, diplomatic, and cognitive fronts to what it called a “war of occult sciences.” The rhetoric echoes earlier material preserved...

Former reality TV star Joseph Duggar is facing a child molestation charge in Florida, almost five years after his brother Josh, who also starred in the TLC show "19 Kids and Counting," was convicted of downloading child sexual abuse images. Joseph Duggar, 31, was arrested in Arkansas, where he lives, and was awaiting extradition to Florida on Thursday. Duggar is charged with lewd and lascivious behavior on a child under 12 years old, according to an arrest affidavit from the Bay County Sheriff's Office in Panama City, Florida. Police officers in Tontitown, Arkansas, on Wednesday contacted deputies in Bay County,...

There is something extraordinary about how a young woman, born and raised in the United States, can become a voice for people she has never met in a country she has never seen, thousands of miles away. But for Iran’s Princess Noor Pahlavi, daughter of the exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and granddaughter of the former shah, Mohammad Reza, that is the situation she finds herself in. As the Islamic Republic regime of Iran faces daily strikes and military pressure from the US and Israel, and with its leadership decimated, many are looking to the day the regime falls. And...

Why are men breaking up with—and abandoning—their girlfriends mid-hike? Breakups tend to follow a few predictable scripts, whether it’s an ominous “we need to talk” in the living room, a tense phone call, or, if someone’s particularly terrible, a text. But apparently, some men take them to new heights (literally), ending relationships mid-hike on mountaintops, which reads like the plot to a true-crime series. Yes, this is happening in real life, and often enough to earn its own name: alpine divorce. Despite the tongue-in-cheek branding, an “alpine divorce” is anything but playful. The name nods to a 19th-century short story...