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It may be just two games, but the Packers don’t look quite right at the moment. For the season, Green Bay is 1-1, losing their opener to the Vikings and then beating the Jets last week. In Week 1, the Packers seemed to be in control, but the offense completely stalled out late in the game as they only scored three points in the second half. The defense also failed them, as the Vikings scored repeatedly and beat the Packers 39-22.
In Week 2, the team headed into New Jersey to face the Jets. Winning any football game is difficult, but winning on the road is even harder. The Packers couldn’t muster much offense until late in the game. They scored three times, unanswered, including overtime in order to get the victory. Quarterback Jordan Love ended up with 145 passing yards on 16-of-29 passing and two touchdowns.
Tonight, the Packers get their home opener, even if it is on a short week. They look to move up to 2-1 and find some more consistent offense than they’ve shown in the first two weeks. The defense looks to capitalize on the stops they had late in Week 2.
One thing is for certain: the Underdog promotion of up to $1,000 in deposit match for the Packers-Falcons game using FOXNEWS is a deal you can’t miss.
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Monday, September 28, 2026
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Thursday night in September means we have Thursday Night Football for all pigskin lovers. Tonight’s matchup between the Falcons and Packers should be a good one, and new users can earn $365 in bonus bets from bet365 when placing a $10 wager on the game.
There are plenty of reasons to be excited about Week 3, but this game in particular features some fun battles. The biggest storyline of the game is about Michael Penix Jr. returning to action after starting the season with an injury. The Falcons actually were stuck with their third-string quarterback for the first two weeks.
Now that Penix Jr. returns to action, he will be asked to elevate an offense that has been inconsistent in two weeks. In Week 1, we saw the Falcons play competitively, but not get much going as they lost to the Steelers 20-13. Week 2 was significantly worse. The team only scored three points against the Panthers, a team that allowed 59 points in the first game of the season.
Can Penix Jr. get the most out of this roster with plenty of talented pieces? If his return opens up a bit more space for Bijon Robinson and can get Drake London the ball in space, perhaps this is a game the Falcons can keep close or even pull off an upset. They need it, as starting 0-3 is often a crushing blow to postseason hopes.
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In his third season, Penix Jr. is still looking to make the impact that he had when he was at Washington in college. Penix Jr. did improve last season from his rookie year. As a rookie, he completed 58.1% of his passes. Unfortunately, in five games, he had just three touchdowns and matched that with three interceptions. Last year, he completed 60.1% of passes to go along with nine touchdowns and three interceptions in nine games. His legs haven’t been quite as helpful as they were in college, and maybe that's a way to unlock him this year.
The secret list that tells scammers you're an easy target
Somewhere in a marketing database, something you did years ago could still be helping a company decide what you might respond to next. Maybe you entered a sweepstakes or signed up for a business seminar. That kind of response can become valuable data.
Federal court records show just how far that can go. In a case involving data broker Epsilon Data Management, employees had a name for people targeted by certain solicitations: "opportunity seekers." Those opportunity seeker lists became especially valuable when they reached people running fraud schemes. And as you'll see, the idea of sorting people based on what they are likely to respond to has not disappeared.
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HOW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY DATA CAN REACH SCAMMERS
"Opportunity seeker" sounds like harmless marketing jargon. But in the Epsilon case, the Department of Justice (DOJ) showed how that label was being used inside a business unit that worked with fraudulent clients. According to Epsilon's deferred prosecution agreement, the company's clients included businesses sending deceptive solicitations involving sweepstakes, astrology, auto warranties, dietary supplements and government grants.
Epsilon employees called the people targeted by those offers "opportunity seekers" and referred to the clients sending them as "opportunistic." The court filing also says those opportunity seekers frequently came from the same group: older and vulnerable Americans.
Then there was the data behind the label. DOJ says Epsilon used transactional data and algorithms to identify "responsive buyers," or people most likely to respond to certain offers. Its database covered about 100 million U.S. households. Think about what that means. If you responded to one offer, that response could become a signal that you might respond to another. In the hands of a fraudster, that kind of information can make it much easier to decide who to target first.
Epsilon eventually agreed to pay $150 million, including $22.5 million in criminal penalties and $127.5 million for victim compensation. Two former Epsilon employees, Robert Reger and David Lytle, were later convicted. A federal judge sentenced Reger to 10 years in prison and Lytle to four years.
According to the DOJ, they sold nearly 100 lists of names and addresses to one fraudulent client. That client used the information in a scheme that defrauded more than 218,000 people out of more than $23.7 million. Even more alarming, DOJ says more than 12,000 people were defrauded by that single scheme more than 20 times each.
Other cases followed. KBM Group entered a deferred prosecution agreement requiring a $33.5 million victim compensation payment and an $8.5 million criminal fine. DOJ says employees sold data tied to millions of Americans to more than a dozen clients they knew were engaged in fraudulent mass-mailing schemes.
Macromark, a Connecticut direct-mail services company, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. The company admitted that lists it provided to fraudulent clients resulted in at least $9.5 million in losses. Wiland Inc. later entered a non-prosecution agreement with DOJ that included $4.4 million in victim compensation over data sold to operators of fraudulent schemes. By June 2025, DOJ said its Consumer Data Victim Compensation Fund had returned more than $129 million to more than 100,000 victims across the country.
It would be easy to look at the earlier cases and think this was an old direct-mail problem. It wasn't. In May 2026, a federal judge sentenced Troy Murray of North Carolina to 121 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
DOJ says Murray collected and sold lists containing names, phone numbers, home addresses and, in some cases, ages and email addresses of older Americans. His customers included people in Jamaica running lottery fraud schemes. And the scale was huge. From 2016 through 2023, DOJ says Murray sent scammers at least 22,000 lead lists containing information on more than 7 million older Americans.
Those lists typically sold for $500 for 100 to 300 names. DOJ says Murray made more than $5.2 million while victims lost more than $9.5 million. That is what makes these lists so valuable to scammers. They do not have to spend time figuring out who might pick up the phone or respond to an offer. Someone has already handed them a list of people to try first.
WHY IDENTITY THEFT COMES BACK FOR THE SAME PEOPLE
These kinds of marketing lists are legal and can be used for legitimate advertising. Just because a list is for sale does not mean the company selling it or the company buying it is doing anything wrong. But the way some of these lists are described today sounds very familiar.
As of September 2026, Geon Media advertises a list called "Prime Opportunity Seekers - Buyers Only!" It includes 397,532 names and focuses on people who purchased business opportunities after responding to marketing campaigns. Marketers can narrow that list even further using details such as age, income, net worth and location. Geon also requires buyers to provide a sample mail piece.
NextMark advertises a list called "Sweeps Winners Only" made up of people who recently responded to sweepstakes offers. Its listing describes that audience as "highly impulsive" and promotes the list for sweepstakes, lotteries, credit cards and other offers.
Exact Data also advertises categories with names including "Sweepstakes Opportunity Purchasers" and "Gambling, Lottery, and Sweepstakes Enthusiasts." Its listings were updated in September 2026. None of that proves fraud. What it does show is how valuable your past behavior can be. Respond to the right kind of offer, and that response can become a data point that helps someone decide what to put in front of you next.
For a scammer, finding someone willing to respond can be half the battle. Calling or emailing random people takes time. A list of people who have already responded to certain offers gives them a much better place to start. That is what made Epsilon's data so valuable. DOJ says the company's algorithms could predict which people were most likely to respond to certain mailings. If you had responded before, that behavior could become another clue about what might get your attention next.
And there is a lot of money on the line. The FBI says people over 60 filed more than 201,000 complaints in 2025 and reported more than $7.7 billion in losses. The FBI does not say how many of those people were targeted through marketing or lead lists, so we cannot say those lists caused those losses. But the DOJ cases show something important: scammers have used targeted lists to help find people they believe are more likely to respond. That is why something as simple as entering a sweepstakes or responding to an offer can be more valuable than you might think. The response itself can become another piece of data about you.
You probably cannot find every private marketing database that contains your name. However, you can reduce the information available about you and become much more selective about what you hand over going forward.
Start with your full name. Then search your phone number and home address. Pay attention to people-search sites displaying your address, age, relatives, phone numbers or email addresses. If you find a profile, look for the site's opt-out or removal process. The FTC says you can request removal from people-search sites yourself for free, although you may need to repeat the process if your information appears again later.
A legitimate contest can still collect information for marketing. Before entering, read the privacy policy and official rules. Look for language explaining whether your information can be shared with advertisers or marketing partners. The FTC specifically warns that contest promoters may sell information to advertisers, which can lead to more targeted advertising, promotional mail, calls and spam.
If an entry form asks for information that seems unrelated to the promotion, stop and ask why it needs it. Avoid handing over extra details simply because a box appears on a form. Also watch for prechecked boxes giving permission for additional marketing. Every unnecessary piece of information you share gives a company one more data point that can potentially be added to your profile.
Consider creating an email address or alias used only for contests, loyalty programs and promotional offers. That keeps your primary email address out of some marketing databases and makes unexpected prize messages easier to spot. If someone contacts your main email account claiming you won a contest you entered with a different address, that alone should raise questions.
This one is simple. Real prizes are free. The FTC says anyone demanding taxes, processing fees, shipping charges or other payments before releasing a prize is running a scam. Also, never provide your bank account, credit card or Social Security number to claim a prize. If you are unsure whether an offer is real, find the company's official contact information yourself rather than calling a number in the letter, text or email.
If you sent money or personal information to a scammer, act quickly. Contact your bank or payment provider first if money changed hands. Report the scam to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov . If the scam came through the mail, you can also report it to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. If someone used your personal information, IdentityTheft.gov can walk you through recovery steps. For anyone age 60 or older, the DOJ's National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311) offers free help Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern. DOJ says reporting certain financial losses quickly can improve the chances of recovering money, although recovery cannot be guaranteed.
There is no public search box that will show you every private marketing category attached to your name. A people-search or data-broker scan also cannot tell you whether your name appears on one of the specific "opportunity seeker" or criminal lead lists described above. And no data removal service can pull information back once criminals already have it.
What a scan can do is show you where personal details such as your name, address or phone number appear across covered people-search and data-broker sites. From there, you can start reducing that exposure. If the scan finds your information, you have two options. You can contact sites yourself and submit opt-out requests, or you can use a service that handles much of that work for you.
A data removal service can automatically send removal requests to hundreds of covered data brokers and people-search sites. Some plans also let you request removals from additional websites that fall outside the standard automated coverage.
It is worth knowing the limits too. Some private data-broker databases cannot be scanned directly. Instead, removal requests are sent to brokers that may hold your information. These services also cannot remove certain government records, court records or information already circulating in criminal databases.
Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting CyberGuy.com.
For me, the biggest takeaway here is that scammers do not always have to figure out who might respond. Sometimes, someone else has already done that work for them. The Epsilon case showed how marketing data and algorithms could identify people likely to respond to certain offers. DOJ says those "opportunity seekers" frequently included older and vulnerable Americans. And this problem has not been confined to old direct-mail cases. In 2026, a federal judge sentenced a man who DOJ says sold more than 22,000 lead lists containing information on over 7 million older Americans to lottery scammers. At the same time, legitimate marketers still sell highly specific lists based on things like sweepstakes responses and interest in business opportunities. That does not make those lists fraudulent. It does show just how much our past behavior can say about what we may respond to next. You may never know every list that has your name on it. But you can stop handing out unnecessary information, remove exposed personal data where possible and slow down whenever an unexpected offer lands in front of you.
Should companies be able to sell lists built around how likely someone is to respond to money-making or sweepstakes offers, especially when age and financial information can also be used for targeting? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.
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Caleb Williams' repost dismissed antisemitic incident involving Dave Portnoy – and almost no one cares
Most people — including Bears quarterback Caleb Williams — probably didn't think much of it.
To them, it's just a repost on X that went after a common target for keyboard warriors. But what if it's more than that?
Earlier in the week, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy mocked Williams, calling him a "thespian" after he was carted off the field for what was revealed to be a hamstring strain. Portnoy said the emotion Williams displayed was akin to what you'd see for a season-ending injury such as an ACL tear, not a tweak that's put him on a week-to-week basis.
Williams didn't take too kindly to the call-out, and went after Dave on X — using not his own words but those of a poster named Daemar.
''The guy that had a kid arrested and expelled from school for throwing pennies at him is calling someone else soft LMFAOOOOOO," Daemar said of Portnoy.
Williams reposted the comment — which garnered 1.3 million views and 35K likes — to little media or fan criticism. Except ... Daemar was running cover for a clear antisemite.
Here's a more thorough explanation.
In the fall of 2025, Mississippi State student Patrick McClintock was caught on camera yelling "F—k the Jews!" before tossing coins at Portnoy, who's Jewish.
This wasn't a random gesture. The American Jewish Committee made note that such coin-tossing is an "age-old antisemitic trope about Jews and greed." Portnoy posted a video of the affair and condemned the act — calling the student a "loser" while decrying an uptick in his personal antisemitic experiences.
As Outkick's Armando Salguero pointed out, McClintock was later arrested independently for disturbing the peace.
In other words, Portnoy blasted an antisemite in a time when antisemitism is on the clear rise. Sorry, but that does not disqualify you from ridiculing a quarterback for being melodramatic.
Portnoy has since responded to Williams' repost by accusing him of spreading misinformation about him. And though he seemed to make a peace offering by saying "I will not hold this against Caleb...I'm rooting for him and all of Chicago," one has to wonder what the response would have been like if the repost had been in a different context.
For instance, if there had been a highly publicized anti-Black incident on a college campus, I doubt reposting an X user dismissing the affair would be treated so warmly by social media users. If there had been a homophobic or anti-woman gesture, there likely would have been a media uproar if a prominent athlete condoned it.
Look what happened to Texas quarterback Arch Manning when he laughed at an AI meme involving ESPN's Holly Rowe getting slapped by Steve Sarkisian. He was shamed into apologizing for something that was fake. Portnoy being blatantly discriminated against for being Jewish was very real.
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Emails attempting to reach the Bears and NFL for comment were not returned, and that's understandable. Williams probably didn't know exactly what he was reposting, and giving this matter any extra attention doesn't help the team or the league.
It's also predictable that much of the public seems to side with Williams on this issue. They probably don't know the full extent of what Portnoy — a highly polarizing figure — endured in Starkville that day.
But it is noteworthy how different types of discrimination are treated. Some are condemned swiftly and harshly, others are shrugged off almost entirely.
Portnoy has been a strong critic of cancel culture and clearly doesn't want to see Williams suffer anymore than he has. He took the path of forgiveness and will be better off for it.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who don't think Williams needs forgiveness. They simply don't think he did anything wrong.
As expected, media mocks Jaxson Dart injury because he dared to introduce Trump on stage
When New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart suffered a season-ending knee injury this week, we knew there'd be two reactions from the overwhelmingly liberal sports media.
First, they'd call for the Giants to sign Colin Kaepernick. They do it whenever an NFL team loses a quarterback, even though Kaepernick has not played professional football in a decade.
Second, they'd mock Dart’s injury because he made headlines in May by introducing President Donald Trump at a New York City event.
Both reactions materialized almost immediately.
DAN LE BATARD DEMANDS THE MEDIA MAKE JAXSON DART 'UNCOMFORTABLE' FOR INTRODUCING TRUMP
Sports blogger Mike Florio was the first to urge the Giants to sign Kaepernick. Elsewhere, the usual suspects framed Dart's injury as political karma.
"Media types say 'Trump Curse' has struck again," wrote HuffPost in an article referring to Dart as a "Trump admirer."
"The f—–g Trump curse strikes again," wrote Tara Setmayer, a former GOP communications director on Capitol Hill and CNN commentator, about Dart’s injury on X.
Film and TV critic John Rocha shared a photo of Trump and Dart’s interaction, writing, "Everything he touches, y'all. Everything he touches..."
Ron Filipkowski, the partisan editor of the anti-Trump outlet MeidasTouch, claimed he had predicted Dart’s injury after the quarterback appeared with Trump.
"This was the moment I decided not to draft Dart in fantasy football. He had no chance this season after the Trump Curse," he wrote above a clip of Dart and Trump.
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Other outlets adopted a similar tone.
"Jaxson Dart's injury reignites Trump sports curse possibility," joked USA Today.
The people making these jokes will insist they are harmless. Perhaps some of them believe that. But they know exactly what they are doing and how their majority anti-Trump audiences will respond.
Look at the comments under The Athletic’s report about Dart’s season-ending injury. The comment section resembles a fringe political message board, with readers celebrating the injury, asking whether Dart is "vaxxed" and claiming that he deserves this because he supported Trump.
Interestingly, we do not know whether Dart is a Trump supporter.
Yes, he introduced Trump at an event. But introducing the sitting president is not, on its face, a political statement. The event also took place in the city where Dart plays quarterback. For all we know, Dart would have accepted the same opportunity if a Democrat were in the White House.
Despite what the legacy media tells you, some Americans would welcome the chance to associate with the president regardless of their political views. In fact, we suspect most Americans fall into that category.
That said, we can probably deduce that Dart doesn't consider Trump a Nazi. And that is enough for some in the media to call him "MAGA" and poke fun at his injury.
There's a trend.
In 2020, then-ESPN commentator Mark Jones shared posts mocking 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa after Bosa suffered a serious knee injury. The posts referred to Bosa as "MAGA Bosa" and said he deserved to suffer the injury because he stood during the national anthem.
Three years later, former ESPN host Keith Olbermann celebrated when Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles in the opening minutes of the Jets’ season.
"Another #SuddenLisfranc due to failure to vaccinate," Olbermann posted on X.
When the Jets wrote that Rodgers’ injury was "Not the way any of us wanted it to go," Olbermann responded: "Define 'any.'"
This type of behavior reflects how many Americans suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) react when something awful happens to a Trump voter or someone who does not express open disdain for the president. They genuinely believe that anyone who does not hate Trump as deeply as they do is unworthy and deserves to be punished.
Sticking to sports commentators, Jemele Hill immediately denounced Charlie Kirk as a racist days after his murder.
Of course, sports injuries are not as serious as death. But they matter. Professional athletes have short careers. Major injuries can derail them, and the consequences are not merely physical. Serious injuries can also take a mental toll.
And yet liberal sports fans and media figures abandon common decency whenever an injury allows them to score cheap political points.
Notice that no such mockery or celebration follows when one of the many athletes who openly promote left-wing politics suffers an injury.
Only one side openly celebrates injuries in sports.
Trump needs to warn China’s Xi against ‘dangerous alliance’ with Iran, expert says
President Donald Trump needs to warn Chinese President Xi Jinping against pursuing a "dangerous alliance" with Iran when the two world leaders meet at the White House Thursday, an expert told Fox News Digital.
Jonathan Schanzer, the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, made the remark after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reportedly told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during talks in Beijing last week that China was prepared to play a "constructive role" in resolving international disputes. The U.S. war against Iran is nearing the 7-month mark.
"The president needs to tell Xi Jinping that this is a dangerous alliance. The Chinese assistance to the Iranian regime has actually spanned a number of fronts," Schanzer told Fox News Digital. "The first is, of course, the provision of drone parts and motors. This has actually helped the Islamic Republic attack all of its neighbors.
"On top of that, they've been providing some dual-use chemicals that have been helping the Iranians with their missile program. On top of that, we've watched a lot of targeting that looks a little bit too precise for the Iranian regime. So that looks like it may be helped from the Chinese as well," Schanzer continued.
"On top of that, there's an economic relationship that I think is keeping the Islamic Republic afloat while it continues to hammer away at the oil economy worldwide. These are all things that need to stop. And the hope here is, of course, that Donald Trump is going to make a demand here that Xi Jinping stop all of this," he said.
When asked to respond to the Chinese and Iranian foreign ministers meeting in Beijing, Schanzer said, "When you look at what's happening here, it's pretty clear that the Chinese government is just not ashamed of this at all."
TRUMP TO ASK XI TO FREE WRONGFULLY DETAINED US CITIZEN AS WIFE SPEAKS OUT
"In other words, there's a war going on. The Iranians have spiked the price of oil. They have clogged the Strait of Hormuz. They're looking to do the same in the Bab al-Mandab, and they are completely unashamed by this. It's important for Donald Trump to bare his teeth here and to make it clear that the Iranians cannot get this kind of support and that the Chinese government is at risk of escalating with the United States," he added.
A senior administration official told Fox News Digital that when Trump last visited China in mid-May, he and Xi agreed that Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon and that the Strait of Hormuz should be reopened without any tolls.
"I think the big thing in the background here is that we're obviously watching great power competition between two of the world's largest economies and largest militaries," Schanzer also said ahead of Thursday’s meeting. "The thing that I watch right now is that Taiwan is clearly the main target for the Chinese Communist Party. They want to reunite with the island, as they would call it, and they're putting enormous pressure on Taiwan with that in mind. The United States needs to stand pat here. We have an enormous amount invested in chips in Taiwan, the Taiwan Semiconductor Company. This is the big one here. And if we're going to win the AI race, we need to maintain control of that company. More importantly, we need to make sure that that island remains secure."
President Trump to hold high-stakes summit with China's Xi and more top headlines
1. Trump-Xi reunion comes with unfinished business
2. Anthropic, OpenAI CEOs warn AI could threaten humanity
3. Fear grips SEC college town after deaths, student makes new claim
TENSE TEHRAN — Bessent calls Iran regime 'cornered animal,' touts US 'sequencing' strategy. Continue reading …
FOREIGN TENSIONS — Melania Trump’s home-country leader rips UN ‘double standards’ as Trump promise is revealed. Continue reading …
BOLT FROM ABOVE — Couple recounts 'miraculous' rescue after surviving harrowing lightning strike during evening stroll. Continue reading …
ON THE ROAD — 'Home Improvement' child star Jonathan Taylor Thomas detained by police. Continue reading …
DIGITAL DECEPTION — Stanford forced to explain controversial alteration after side-by-side images emerge. Continue reading …
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GAME CHANGERS — Republicans face brutal midterm headwinds — Six forces could help them defy history. Continue reading …
‘RED FLAGS’ — Dem candidate in hot seat over upcoming event hosted by man enveloped in fraud scandal. Continue reading …
BROKEN COVENANT — Javier Milei blasts UN as 'useless' den of 'fatally arrogant parasites' in raucous speech. Continue reading …
CAT FIGHT — Kitten rescue defends ‘NO F---ING MAGA’ adoption policy as PETA calls for it to be abolished. Continue reading …
NO THANKS — Kansas Senate Democrat hopeful begs Harris 'please do not come to my state'. Continue reading …
OVERSIGHT DEMANDED — New York Times sued by shareholders over claims of anti-Israel bias in reporting. Continue reading …
FAITH FRICTION — Christian nurse says Oregon hospital tried to force employee group to go ‘interfaith’. Continue reading …
DOUBLE LIFE EXPOSED — Teacher reveals White, Jewish identity after years posing as Palestinian and Black. Continue reading …
HUGH HEWITT — Morning Glory: El-Sayed might have a problem with the Black vote in Michigan. Continue reading …
HORACE COOPER — Lawsuits cost every American household thousands of dollars. Supreme Court can help. Continue reading …
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SWAPPING VICES — People are ditching vapes only to pick up another hard-to-quit habit. Continue reading …
FASHION STATEMENT — Sophie Cunningham's pregame shirt sends a clear message to her haters. Continue reading …
SQUEEZED OUT — Alarming object spotted by officer on TSA X-ray before bizarre twist unfolds. Continue reading …
AMERICAN CULTURE QUIZ — Test yourself on fast-food frenzy and campaign controversy. Take the quiz here …
Tune in for a preview of the Trump-Xi summit and the major issues shaping U.S.-China relations, from Taiwan and Iran to the intensifying global race for AI. Check it out ...
Intelligence whistleblower Dylan Borland delves into government secrecy on ‘Hang Out With Sean Hannity.’ Check it out…
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What's it looking like in your neighborhood? Continue reading…
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People are ditching their vapes only to pick up another surprising habit
E-cigarettes have long been used as an alternative to traditional smoking, but public health data suggests some adults trying to quit vaping are turning back to cigarettes.
Recent data from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) shows that some smokers and dual users who stop vaping opt for traditional tobacco products instead, a shift that addiction specialists say may be driven by nicotine dependence and the challenges of withdrawal.
Trent Carter, a board-certified nurse practitioner and CEO of Renew Health — a behavioral and mental health practice based in New Mexico — said that while the shift from vapes back to cigarettes might seem counterintuitive, there are behavioral reasons some users make the switch.
SINGLE WORKOUT CUTS CRAVINGS, OFFERING NEW HOPE FOR SMOKERS TRYING TO QUIT
"Vaping can become constant throughout the day, whereas a cigarette is more of a defined episode," Carter told Fox News Digital.
"Subconsciously, you may not even realize that you’re constantly vaping throughout the day, whereas cigarettes you feel like you're more in control because you have to think about it. You [have] to go outside, you [have] to light it up."
Unlike cigarettes, vaping can be done throughout the day and often indoors. That easy access can lead to more nicotine use and reinforce the hand-to-mouth habit, according to the expert.
E-cigarettes can be highly addictive because of the way they deliver nicotine. Many vaping devices use highly concentrated nicotine salts, allowing users to inhale large doses with each puff compared to traditional cigarettes.
"If you're consuming a large amount with every single puff ... it's going to be harder to stop when compared to a lower dose," Carter said.
SHARON STONE'S TERRIFYING WEED WITHDRAWAL SPARKS WARNING ABOUT TODAY'S POTENT MARIJUANA
Nicotine dependence alters brain chemistry by stimulating neurotransmitters like dopamine that govern mood and pleasure, according to Cleveland Clinic.
When someone abruptly cuts off high-volume intake, it can trigger rapid withdrawal symptoms, ranging from intense cravings and irritability to severe sleep disturbances and brain fog.
Because high-potency vapes drive up physical tolerance, standard quitting aids — like over-the-counter patches or nicotine gum — can sometimes feel inadequate to a user seeking immediate relief.
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"While a patch or gum could definitely help with the nicotine cravings, if you're not addressing the behavioral aspect of it, then you're really falling short," Carter said. "You're leaving a huge component of why they may be smoking — whether it's because of anxiety or even insomnia during the day."
When e-cigarettes first hit the market, early public messaging framed them as a healthier, doctor-approved alternative to smoking, which gave many consumers a false sense of security about how difficult it would be to drop the habit, according to Carter.
"If you're being told something is safe or doctor-approved, we tend to feel we're making the right choice," Carter said.
"While traditional cigarettes have toxins that e-cigarettes do not, if your daily consumption of nicotine becomes much higher, we find ourselves in a nasty cycle. You got rid of the toxins, but now you're consuming much more nicotine."
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The elevated chemical intake carries a physical and mental toll, Carter cautioned. Heavy, uninterrupted nicotine ingestion can trigger blood pressure spikes, elevated heart rates, sleep disruption and heightened anxiety.
For people trying to quit vaping, health providers warn that switching to cigarettes reintroduces harmful toxins, tar and carbon monoxide.
Instead of switching between vaping and cigarettes, addiction specialists recommend medically supervised strategies that combine behavioral therapy with gradual nicotine reduction.
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"The goal shouldn't be to find another way to consume nicotine," Carter said. "The goal should be to treat the dependence itself."
"It's not trading one for the other, but finding the underlying cause and addressing that head-on — that's how someone truly takes steps in the right direction."
For those struggling to exit the cycle, Carter advises building self-awareness and immediately consulting a licensed addiction or mental health professional who can recommend a personalized recovery plan.
The unlikely South American ally helping lead Trump's drug cartel crackdown
NEW YORK — Ecuador has emerged as a key regional ally in President Donald Trump’s expanding crackdown on drug cartels and narcoterrorism, with U.S. and Ecuadorian forces working side by side to intercept narcotics shipments and dismantle transnational criminal networks, the country’s foreign minister told Fox News Digital.
Foreign Minister Roberto Kury said the increasingly close cooperation with Washington has delivered "a lot of positive results" in recent months, pointing specifically to drug shipments uncovered through U.S. intelligence and joint work on the ground.
"There is an intelligence and cooperation from the United States, but there is also always the presence of Ecuadorian military or police. They work together," Kury told Fox News Digital in an interview on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly this week.
For Ecuador, the stakes are enormous. Roughly 70% of the world’s cocaine passes through Ecuadorian ports, an FBI official told lawmakers earlier this year, according to the Congressional Research Service, as criminal groups battle for control of trafficking routes carrying cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru to markets abroad.
Meanwhile, Kury noted: "Most of the drugs go to the United States. So that’s why the United States shares the problem."
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For the U.S., Ecuador has become a proving ground for an early priority laid out in Trump’s foreign policy: using American military power against threats closer to home as Washington turns its attention back toward the Western Hemisphere.
The explosion in the drug trade has transformed the small South American country. Once considered one of Latin America’s safer countries, Ecuador is now at the frontline of the region’s cartel fight, fueling a surge in violence that prompted President Daniel Noboa to declare an "internal armed conflict" against criminal groups and deploy the military against them.
"We have found many drugs and shipments through this cooperation, so it’s very positive for Ecuador," Kury said of the partnership with the U.S.
Asked whether U.S. forces were participating directly in operations against cartels rather than limiting their role to intelligence and training, Kury was unequivocal about the joint nature of the effort, noting, "They work together with our local authorities."
But Kury stopped short of giving Washington carte blanche to use military force inside Ecuador when asked whether his government would permit the U.S. to strike a cartel target on Ecuadorian soil.
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"Ecuador has our sovereignty, and they respect that sovereignty," Kury said, adding that Quito welcomes U.S. involvement "as long as we work together, aligned with our local military and our local police."
Kury's comments come as Ecuador has emerged as a testing ground for the Trump administration's effort to take the fight against Latin American drug cartels beyond maritime interdictions and into partnered military operations on land.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has praised Ecuador as the U.S.’s most "aggressive" partner in its Western Hemisphere crackdown.
He told reporters during a recent trip to Quito that U.S. and Ecuadorian "elite forces" from both countries "are working jointly on a day-to-day basis in a way that has no precedent in order to try to dismantle these terrorist organizations."
The expanding partnership comes as Ecuador battles a cocaine trade that President Noboa has estimated at roughly $30 billion a year. The country is looking to Washington for additional help taking on the criminal organizations behind the explosion.
Noboa said this week that his government asks the U.S. for help "every day" as Ecuador seeks to choke off a drug trade that has fueled years of violence and transformed the once relatively peaceful South American nation into a key front in the regional fight against organized crime.
Kury said Ecuador and other countries in the region need more than funding from Washington as criminal groups increasingly operate across national borders.
"Our countries in Latin America have the problem that we need support," Kury said. "We need not only monetary support but also intelligence, technical cooperation."
"That’s why we have the Shield of the Americas," he added, pointing to the U.S.-led regional initiative against cartels. "I think that the whole Latin American continent should work together."
The growing relationship extends beyond the cartel fight: Ecuador has also agreed to accept some third-country nationals deported from the U.S., part of the Trump administration’s effort to enlist regional partners in carrying out its immigration agenda.
Kury told Fox News Digital there are limits and "explicit rules" governing the arrangement, describing Ecuador as a temporary stop rather than the final destination for those sent there.
"The deported people come to Ecuador for a few hours, one day, two days, and they are then deported back to their country of origin," Kury said. "So it’s the way to cooperate, and that’s how we support each other, each country."
Kury emphasized that Quito wants the expanding relationship with Washington to translate into greater U.S. investment and trade in Ecuador.
"The United States is the main trade partner of Ecuador," he said, pointing to opportunities for American investment in mining, oil and gas, energy, tourism and agriculture. "We look not only [for] cooperation in the security side, but we also look to build more jobs in our country, to bring investment from the United States."
The U.S. is Ecuador’s largest trading partner, with U.S. exports to the country totaling $7.7 billion in 2024 and accounting for 28% of Ecuador’s imports, according to the Commerce Department. Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar as its currency but does not have a free trade agreement with Washington.
Mistress says she gave ‘American Idol’ contestant ultimatum before wife’s killing blew up affair
Former "American Idol" contestant Caleb Flynn repeatedly talked about wanting his wife dead and once told his mistress he was "thinking about ways to kill her," the woman testified Wednesday in his Ohio murder trial.
Alleigha Botner, who testified she had an affair with Flynn for roughly a year and a half and had given him an ultimatum about their relationship just weeks before the killing, told jurors his comments about Ashley Flynn grew increasingly disturbing in the months before she was fatally shot inside the couple’s Tipp City home.
"At first it was, ‘I want her dead. I wish she was gone,’" Botner testified.
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She recalled Flynn later telling her, "If I could kill her and not go to jail, I would."
Then, she told jurors, his comments escalated further.
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"One night he was up really late thinking about — told me that he was thinking about ways to kill her," Botner said.
The comments about wanting Ashley to die came at least once a month, Botner testified.
Prosecutors later walked Botner through thousands of messages recovered from the relationship, including one attributed to Flynn from February 2025 that read, "I need her to die, to cheat again, to leave."
Other messages attributed to Flynn included, "I want her dead and gone" and, after Botner asked what she could do for him, "kill her."
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Flynn is accused of fatally shooting Ashley in the back of the head inside their home Feb. 16 before staging the scene to look like an intruder had broken in. He has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and other charges.
Botner also placed a gun in Flynn’s possession before the killing, telling jurors he once showed her a firearm he kept inside the center console of his truck.
"He showed me a gun," she testified.
Flynn told her he kept the firearm in the console, though Botner could not remember what it looked like because she only saw it once.
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Investigators have never recovered the gun prosecutors allege Flynn used to kill Ashley despite extensive searches of the family home, nearby woods, storm drains and other areas.
Jurors also heard that Flynn and Botner routinely deleted messages throughout their relationship.
Asked when she advised Flynn how to delete data from his devices, Botner responded, "Multiple times."
"One of them being the night before Ashley was murdered," she testified.
Botner later testified that she used ChatGPT that night to research whether messages documenting the affair could be permanently deleted and sent Flynn screenshots of the results.
She told jurors she feared the affair could surface during a divorce and cost her her job. Prosecutors established that Botner sent the screenshots about 5:47 p.m. Feb. 15, hours before Ashley was killed.
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Their relationship began turning personal in March 2024 and became sexual roughly two months later, Botner told jurors. She recalled Flynn telling her he hated Ashley, viewed his wife as little more than a "roommate" and remained in the marriage because of their two daughters.
Botner acknowledged knowing Flynn was married when the relationship became sexual and admitted she knew what they were doing was wrong.
"I never morally justified it," she testified. "I just did it. Even while I knew it was wrong."
The two exchanged roughly 107,000 messages over about a year — nearly 300 per day on average — while routinely deleting their conversations.
By January, Botner testified, she had grown tired of waiting and gave Flynn a final deadline: leave Ashley by Jan. 11 or she would move on with her life and end their relationship.
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He did not leave.
Botner stopped communicating with Flynn until Feb. 14 — Valentine’s Day and two days before Ashley was killed.
That day, she testified, Flynn told her he was "filing [for divorce] from Ashley" and was "actually leaving her this time."
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The two later met at Christian Life Center, where they had initially met through the church’s worship ministry. During that conversation, Botner recalled Flynn telling her he had already spoken with Ashley and told his wife he was divorcing her.
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By the following night, Botner testified, Flynn was still telling her he planned to end the marriage Feb. 16.
"He said it'll be a day I never forget," she recalled.
Their communications continued past midnight, with Flynn allegedly telling her, "Tomorrow is a big day," "I choose you" and that he was "about to be free." Hours later, Ashley was dead. Botner told jurors she understood those comments at the time to mean Flynn was finally going through with the divorce.
Botner expected to hear from Flynn first thing that morning but instead received an Instagram message from a fellow church congregant asking whether she had heard about Ashley.
The congregant sent her a news story about Ashley's death.
"My heart started pounding," Botner testified. "It just seemed like too much of a coincidence that the day he's divorcing her, she's just dead all of a sudden."
Botner testified that she immediately messaged Flynn.
"I said something like to Caleb, ‘What's going on? Were you involved? Is this real?’" she recalled.
Flynn did not respond, Botner testified. She acknowledged deleting the message because she believed investigators would search his phone and feared they would discover the affair.
Botner admitted Wednesday that she initially lied to the FBI about her relationship with Flynn when investigators interviewed her days after the killing.
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"I was selfishly afraid that my reputation was going to be ruined and that I was going to lose my job," she testified. "And now that there was a murder attached, I didn't want to be attached to that in any way."
She began revealing more about the relationship after investigators told her they had found text messages on Ashley’s phone, Botner testified.
Prosecutors asked Botner how she feels about Flynn today, and she said, "I hate him."
When asked why, Botner responded, "Because I believe that he murdered his wife."
Fox News Digital reached out to Flynn's attorney. Botner is expected to return to the stand on Thursday.