Voronoiapp.com collaborated with HouseFresh to identify the cities and towns in America with the worst air quality.

To do this, they sourced the average PM2.5 concentrations from IQAir for all available U.S. cities and towns in 2024.

Then, they identified the city/town in each state with a population of over 10,000 people with the highest average yearly PM2.5 concentration in 2024…

Worst was Shafter, California, with an air quality that is equivalent to smoking 267 cigarettes per year.

Authored by Kyle Anzalone via AntiWar.com,

President Donald Trump refused to approve a proposed arms package to Taiwan. Trump views the breakaway Chinese region as prosperous enough to purchase American arms.

Five sources speaking with The Washington Post confirmed that Trump had rejected a $400 million military aid package for Taiwan. The source described the proposed assistance as “more lethal” than the arms given to Taipei under President Joe Biden. 

Last year, Congress gave Washington $1 billion in Presidential Drawdown Authority funds for Taiwan. The PDA allows the President to send arms from US stockpiles directly to foreign countries. 

Biden used $571 million to send weapons to Taipei before leaving office, meaning Trump could send Taiwan about $430 million in arms before the US fiscal year ends at the end of September. 

While President Biden officially used the PDA to transfer US arms to Ukraine and Taiwan, Trump has been a vocal opponent of military aid. Trump has also stopped using the PDA to arm Kiev, but has allowed NATO countries to purchase American weapons for Ukraine. 

Sources told The Post another reason Trump did not sign off on the military aid package is that he believes it will help facilitate a trade agreement with China. 

Last month, US and Taiwanese officials met to discuss an arms sale. The Post reports that the sale would involve “asymmetric” military equipment, including drones, missiles, and sensors. Taipei is planning to pass a supplemental defense spending bill to pay for the weapons. A Congressional aide told the outlet that the White House notified the Capitol of a potential $500 million arms sale to Taiwan this week. 

The sources speaking with The Post also said that Trump was hesitant to approve the aid package to Taiwan as he looks to make a trade deal with China. Beijing views Taipei as a renegade region of China. Beijing views Washington’s giving arms to Taipei as a violation of the “One China Policy” and encouraging Taiwanese independence. 

However, the White House and the sources who spoke with The Post said it was still possible for Trump to reverse course and sign off on the arms package for Taiwan. 

On Thursday, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun condemned “external military interference” in Taiwan. “We will never allow any separatist plot for Taiwan independence to succeed, and we stand ready to thwart any external military interference at any time,” he said. Dong went on to condemn Washington’s “Cold War mentality, hegemonism and protectionism.”

Taipei is also working to bolster its military with domestically produced missiles. On Thursday, Taiwan’s largest arms manufacturer released a prototype of a “low-cost autonomous cruise missile.” The new munition was co-developed with the American arms firm Anduril. Anduril is owned by Palmer Luckey, a large donor to President Donald Trump’s campaigns. 

Before the political assassination of Charlie Kirk, Marxist-aligned groups operating across America to subvert the nation and collapse capitalism were already on our radar. 

Honestly, for anyone paying attention, the writing was very much on the wall as the Democratic Party normalized assassination culture within part of its unhinged base by labeling political opponents “Fascists” and “Nazis” for a decade. And it wasn’t just leftist politicians; leftist corporate media outlets amplified the dangerous rhetoric, while dark-money billionaire-funded NGOs operated misinformation and disinformation propaganda campaigns in an all-out informational war to label MAGA supporters (more than half the country) as “literal Nazis.”

Where did Charlie Kirk’s murderer learn to call conservatives “fascists”?

“Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?”

Kamala Harris: “Yes, I do. YES, I DO!” pic.twitter.com/RxDjgOYjKY

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 12, 2025

According to Bloomberg data…

In July, we published a report titled “The Protest-Industrial-Complex Isn’t Peaceful, It’s ‘Civil Terrorism’…”. Then, on September 3, we cited civil terrorism expert Jason Curtis Anderson of One City Rising, who profiled the Socialist Rifle Association and the alarming rise of far-left militancy (read the report here).

The assassination of Kirk put Armed Queers and their Marxist founder firmly on the radar of the FBI, so much so that federal agents have been investigating the group for possible connections to Tyler Robinson, the far-left, furry-loving suspect charged in Kirk’s shooting. 

Diving deeper into the rabbit hole of far-left militancy in America, a new Daily Wire report by Luke Rosiak reveals that the Socialist Rifle Association has 10,000 members nationwide and is “planning for war against fascists.”

Here’s part of the report: 

A 10,000 member-strong group called the Socialist Rifle Association has been conducting weapons training for transgender and Marxist-Leninist extremists, and its members have been linked to at least four major crimes, including the firebombing of Tesla dealerships, a Daily Wire investigation found.

Members stock up on assault rifles and tactical gear like gas masks, and receive membership cards bearing an image of Karl Marx and the quote, “Any attempt to disarm workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary.” Videos show them preparing for engagements that look more like war than self-defense, running through the woods and hitting long-range targets. A common logo is the transgender flag with an assault rifle and the phrase, “defend equality.”

SRA members say their interest is to defend against fascists and Nazis. But according to court documents, they apply those labels loosely, citing incidents like the January 6 Capitol protests, where guns were largely absent, as reason to prepare for war.

. . .

The Socialist Rifle Association has a chapter in Utah, where Kirk was shot. It advertises “inclusive firearms education,” with a rainbow-colored target and the tagline “women-friendly, BIPOC-friendly, queer-friendly.” One of its posters says “I will die fighting for this cause,” a quote attributed to John Brown, “a radical abolitionist who was murdered by the capitalist slave-owning class.” On June 19, the Utah chapter asked members to “Support Arturo Gamboa, an Antiracist accused of murder.”

. . .

The radical organization has, however, spread disinformation to label Kirk a threat. On SRA’s Reddit forum, a thread falsely claimed years ago that “Charlie Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USA, is openly calling for the lynching of transgender individuals.” After Kirk was assassinated, SRA members mocked him, expressed enthusiasm, and wished that the man who shot President Donald Trump had similar marksmanship.

Rosiak continued: 

Civil terrorism expert Anderson explained: 

The Socialist Rifle Association has 52 local chapters across 33 U.S. states, and claims to have 10,000 members. Considering they are the armed wing of the anti-American revolution, people should be more concerned about what is going on with the growing militant left. Earlier this year, the Democratic Socialist of America held a meeting to debate merging with the SRA, and afterward, many DSA members went online to voice their opinions about the decision not to do it. Regardless, the discourse was still highly alarming. Some DSA members tweeted that the revolution is here, and not being weapons-trained is a mistake. Others claimed that merging with the SRA would just put a giant target on their back for the feds to shut them down. All of this discourse came about because certain chapters of the DSA and SRA are already merged or partnered. Needless to say, the DSA having 200 elected officials in office while also flirting with left-wing militias does not bode well for the future of our country. 

Earlier this week, the White House requested an additional $58 million in security funding for the executive and judicial branches as threats of civil terrorism from radical leftist groups became more apparent. President Trump has also called for designating the Antifa movement as a terrorist organization, and the administration has declared war on radical leftist NGOs. Recall that Bill Gates parted ways with Arabella Advisors earlier this year.

Authored by Leslie Corbly via American Greatness,

Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk’s assassination forces Americans to confront the dark side of progressive values. This confrontation is fundamentally reshaping society by exposing the hatred harbored behind plateaus of love and tolerance.

Decades of cultural messaging have focused on the harms caused by religious, conservative belief systems. Individuals and groups who fall on the margins of conservative ideology have been studied in universities, profiled in elite magazines, and their plights have been sympathetically portrayed in Hollywood.

The word “bigotry” has long been associated with backward, conservative values. Manhattan Institute Fellow Colin Wright captured the left’s lurch towards extremism in a viral meme, updated after Kirk’s assassination:

Kirk’s assassination comes at an inflection point in American culture and politics. Donald Trump’s political career, and the corresponding progressive response, have revealed the degree to which leftist cultures can serve as incubators of hatred. Casual progressive dehumanization has spread into disturbing displays of gruesome violence. In just the past year, the public witnessed Trump’s attempted assassination, an anti-Trump transgender slaughter of Catholic school children, and a gruesome stabbing in Charlotte.

While each individual is responsible for their individual actions, the media and other left-wing responses to violent incidents paint a clear and troubling picture. Violence on the left tends to be minimized, while rhetoric on the right is treated as synonymous with violence itself.

That Kirk was assassinated on a college campus—a sanctuary of left-wing thought—is profound. Progressive students sought to silence Kirk by petitioning the college to deplatform him on the grounds of hate speech just prior to his death.

In light of the left’s unchecked, ideologically based dehumanization of their political opponents, words like “bigot” and “fascist” are simultaneously losing their stigma and morphing in meaning. People no longer assume the person labeled a bigot is morally corrupt. Instead, the individual hurling the insult is suspect.

In true 1984 fashion, words have inverted meaning. The public implicitly knows the angry anti-fascist is more threatening than a conservative, church-going man with a microphone.

Creating language for leftist intolerance

The numerous assassination attempts against prominent right-wing figures over the past year did not arise in a vacuum. To understand the left, it is necessary to dissect its prejudice. This is the subject of my first nonfiction book. Progressive Prejudice blends autobiography and cultural commentary to give voice to challenges to progressive ideas by giving voice to the pain caused by progressive hatred.

Books like these are vital. To combat the hatred of the left, it is essential to name the moral deficiencies of progressive ideology. This includes an honest and complete conversation of the people the left loves to condemn, marginalize, and kill.

Understanding the dark side of the left is essential because all worldviews have victors and victims. The inability to confront the hatred of any ideology, particularly one dominant in culture and society, creates conditions ripe for polarization, mistrust, and violence.

The left has monopolized righteous superiority by painting their opposition as extreme, morally reprehensible, and narrow-minded. Among the most effective tactics of their movement has been storytelling. By controlling the framing of narratives, the left guaranteed that people and groups they scorned were appropriately reviled.

However, society is not static, and in the 20th century, secular progressivism transformed from a marginalized set of ideas to the establishment. From the Ivory Tower to DC, Hollywood, media, and law, progressive beliefs set the benchmark for moral goodness.

Now that these ideas are facing serious challenges, the mask of hatred is falling, revealing the dehumanization and authoritarianism that those on the left love to deny.

Turning towards the good

Our culture is at a critical crossroads. Societies are composed of people, and the wheels of history move according to the emotional logic of humanity. No matter the governing ideology, there is a cap on the oppression people are willing to tolerate. The left’s iron grip on the moral imagination of the nation is slipping. And, as that grip loosens, progressives lash out in anger, determined to control the public they claim to liberate.

To avoid sustained social ruin, America must return to goodness, order, beauty, and peace. But this reorientation cannot occur under the value system of radical progressives. The ideology itself is rooted in force, coercion, and the destruction of human dignity.

Charlie Kirk contended with progressive prejudice, and it got him killed. Still, regardless of the risks, the danger, hatred, and prejudice of progressive culture must be boldly proclaimed. For the body may be killed, but truth overcomes the grave.

Skydio CEO Adam Bry spoke Thursday at the drone company’s “Ascend 2025” event at Seascape Beach Resort in Aptos, California, unveiling a new launch system for surveillance drones called Robotic Takeoff and Land (RTOL). The new launch technique is set to redefine how autonomous drones deploy and recover, with applications ranging from search and rescue missions to special forces operations.

Bry demonstrated RTOL using one of the company’s long-range F10 fixed-wing drones, launched from the bed of a Cybertruck by a robotic arm. The presentation felt straight out of the 2030s and underscored how much the West has learned from drone warfare in Ukraine. This also confirmed how America desperately needs its own drone supply chains (more here from Goldman).

“You can watch the full keynote in the link below, or just check out these sick highlights of the Cybertruck-mounted robot arm snatching F10 out of the air, R10 flying through <10″ gaps with ease, and X10s going off out of Docks like fireworks,” Bry wrote on X. 

The robots are here and they fly.

Today at Ascend, we announced:
• R10 – a breakthrough indoor drone that uses AI and autonomy to get into the most dangerous places so people don’t have to.
• F10 – a prototype Robotic Takeoff and Land (RTOL) drone that will unlock long-range,… pic.twitter.com/JpeNx02wWP

— Adam Bry (@adampbry) September 18, 2025

California-based aftermarket company Unplugged Performance’s UP.FIT appears to have secured a partnership with Skydio, but details remain scarce. Recall UP.FIT revealed the “STING” package for the Cybertruck that protects against “14.5mm heavy machine gun rounds” and “IED/mine protection” for military and defense operations. 

In April, the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) included in a Statement of Objectives document for the purchase request of two Cybertrucks that all fluids and batteries from every vehicle must be removed. USSOCOM acknowledged that the Cybertruck is the most advanced truck on the market (read the report).

An upgrade from the Toyota Hilux?

Via American Greatness,

A coalition of 27 state Attorneys General have filed a multi-state brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take up and overturn a Washington State ban on so-called “high capacity” firearm magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds.

Breitbart reports that four separate amicus briefs have been filed with the Supreme Court in regards to the case of Gator’s Custom Guns, Inc. v. Washington which challenged Washington state’s ban on standard capacity magazines that are not limited to an arbitrary number of rounds.

That case is currently on appeal from the Washington state Supreme Court which upheld the ban, following a Cowlitz County judge overturning the state law earlier this year.

In upholding the ban, a majority of Washington Supreme Court justices held that commonly-owned firearm magazines do not qualify as “arms” which are protected by the Second Amendment.

An amicus brief filed by the National Rifle Association states:

District of Columbia v. Heller’s plain text analysis expressly concluded that “[t]he Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms.” This Court should intervene to clarify that firearm magazines—regardless of capacity—are bearable arms that are presumptively protected by the Second Amendment.

The states of Montana, Idaho, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming, and the Arizona Legislature are arguing that the Washington Supreme Court failed to show how a ban on “plus-ten magazines” comports with the 2022 Bruen decision.

The U.S. Supreme Court will also likely be debating whether to grant certiorari in the California case of Duncan v. Bonta which challenges California’s magazine ban.

If the High Court grants certiorari, it will most likely consolidate the two cases.

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador accused California and Washington state courts of attempting to rewrite the Second Amendment by excluding standard capacity magazines from its protection.

Labrador said, “These rulings would let anti-gun states ban virtually any firearm component by declaring the Constitution irrelevant, threatening every American’s ability to defend their family. We’re asking the Supreme Court to reject this infringement and ensure law-abiding citizens in every state can exercise their inalienable constitutional rights.”

President Trump wants Afghanistan’s Bagram “back” – as he said while in the United Kingdom alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday.

“We gave it to them for nothing,” he said in reference to the Taliban, after long criticizing the botched Biden-ordered US withdrawal from the country. “We want that base back,” he said.

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that senor US admin officials are currently in discussions with the Taliban about re-establishing a small US military presence there.

The Pentagon is seeking to have a central Asian launchpad for ‘counterterrorism’ operations there. The only problem is, their ‘host’ would literally be Islamist radicals and terrorists – namely the Taliban.

WSJ details, “President Trump’s surprise announcement Thursday that he is seeking to reclaim Bagram Air Base is a potential component of a broader diplomatic effort to normalize relations with the Taliban, the people said.”

“The talks—which are led by special envoy for hostage response Adam Boehler—include a potential prisoner exchange, a possible economic deal and a security component, according to a U.S. official,” the report continues.

However, for now it seems the Taliban government has rejected the proposal, which could see manned aircraft or possibly drones operate out of the massive airbase which sites north of Kabul.

“We’re trying to get it back, because they need things from us. We want that base back,” Trump had said Thursday from England.

The Taliban’s foreign minister Zakir Jalaly, wrote the following in a new social media post:

“Afghanistan and America need to engage with each other and can have economic and political relations based on mutual respect and common benefits, without America having military presence in any part of Afghanistan,” Jalaly wrote. “Military presence has never been accepted by Afghans in history, and this possibility was completely rejected during the Doha talks and agreement, but doors to other engagements have been opened.”

‘Impossible’ – Kabul is now saying. Indeed US troops in the heart of Afghanistan might also be essentially sitting ducks for potential attacks from various armed militant groups, or even the Talban itself.

Islamists have long boasted of their possession of the prized, sprawling base:

This is Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and it will remain under the control of the Islamic Emirate as long as this true system and ideology endures. pic.twitter.com/QAR4JFZQu9

— W.A. Mubariz – وکیل احمد مبارز (@WakeelMubariz) September 19, 2025

Washington has long been worried that in the wake of its withdrawal, China’s military could move in – or the PLA military might even make use of Bagram. Over the years, some reports even claimed Chinese troops already initiated a presence there.

Authored by Ken Silva via Headline USA,

Alleged Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson used the pseudonym “Donald Trump” while playing on the gaming platform Steam, according to a Thursday report from Bloomberg.

The factoid about Robinson’s gamer name came in a report that also revealed that the Secret Service is investigating the assassin, even though Kirk wasn’t under the agency’s protection.

“Agents are working with the FBI to study Robinson’s behavior and online activity, including his use of Trump’s name on Steam, as part of a profile they are building,” Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources.

“The aim is to understand how suspects form grievances, how they select targets and whether their actions signal broader risks to current or former officeholders.”

According to Bloomberg, Robinson’s Steam account is 11 years old.

“It lists an account that appears to belong to his partner as a friend. Some comments on the account were disabled shortly after Bloomberg reached out to Valve [the company that runs Steam] for comment,” Bloomberg added.

The government has falsely linked assassin’s to Steam in the past.

Indeed, days after the July 13 assassination attempt against Donald Trump, Congress was provided information from the FBI that Thomas Crooks “previewed” his attack on Steam.

However, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress weeks later that the Steam account in question did not, in fact, belong to Crooks. Wray admitted that his own agents were duped by a fake account—meaning that the FBI briefed Congress with fake evidence in the crucial hours following an assassination attempt against the presidential frontrunner.

“That’s a situation where in our effort to give real-time information, since we’ve provided that information, we’ve since learned that the July 13 ‘premier’ profile page on the gaming platform—it turns out, it was not the shooter. It was some other individual, who as a sick joke, after the shooting created the profile page pretending to be the shooter,” Wray said in response to questions from Rep. Benjamin Cline, R-Va.

“That person has since admitted to it,” Wray said, referring to the hoaxer. “Among the other challenges we as investigators have, we have people creating accounts pretending to be somebody when it’s not the actual person.”

Wray did say that Crooks had multiple accounts on gaming platforms.

“We do believe he was a gamer and that he did have different types of gaming accounts,” Wray said.

The FBI has yet to release any information on Crooks’s gaming account.

The House Oversight committee has subpoenaed the heads of Steam, Discord, Twitch and Reddit to testify in a hearing about the radicalization of online forum users, including instances of open incitement to commit politically motivated acts.

Earlier this week Islamic countries Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defense pact, greatly deepening and formalizing decades-long security partnership amid heightened regional tensions. Big on the minds of Gulf leaders is the long reach of Israel’s military and intelligence, following last week’s unprecedented strike on the capital of Qatar, which infuriated Arab leaders.

Late Thursday, Islamabad officials revealed that a significant part of the pact is the sharing of nuclear capabilities. Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif made clear that Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities would be extended to Saudi Arabia if necessary. Of course, on the other side of this there’s India, which is going to be angry and alarmed.

It marks the first ever explicit confirmation that Pakistan has placed Saudi Arabia under its nuclear umbrella, again – significantly at a moment Gulf tensions are rising with nuclear-armed Israel.

The defense pact, which signed at a ceremony in Riyadh Wednesday, spells out that an attack on one country will be considered an attack on both, Asif confirmed.

Though they are proud to publicize the nuclear-sharing agreement, neither Pakistan nor Saudi Arabia has clarified whether the agreement includes actual access to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

Such a scenario would be a game-changer in the region, which could possibly remove or take care of a key incentive for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham accords. All of this also signals Riyadh’s desire to be less dependent on American security guarantees and protection in the region as Israel is increasingly seen as just doing what it wants.

Peace or ‘normalization’ with Israel is now off or at least on indefinite hold due to the Gaza crisis, but Saudi Arabia was said to be demanding Washington approval of a nuclear energy development program. On the Israel issue, the Saudis are trying to downplay the curious timing of the defense pact:

“This agreement is a culmination of years of discussions. This is not a response to specific countries or specific events but an institutionalization of longstanding and deep cooperation between our two countries,” a senior Saudi official told Reuters.

Pakistani officials have underscored Saudi Arabia’s crucial role in its past nuclear program, as it offered “generous financial support” that helped sustain its nuclear development.

Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan have signed a mutual defense pact, pledging an attack on one would be considered as “an aggression against both.” But ties with India complicate the agreement: pic.twitter.com/gkzSTsS7Zg

— DW News (@dwnews) September 18, 2025

This helped Pakistan’s program and broader military endure periods of international sanctions, related to US punitive actions related to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr said in an interview that ABC’s “The View” could be investigated after Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, was suspended earlier this week over remarks he made about the late Charlie Kirk.

“I would assume you could make the argument that ‘The View’ is a bona fide news show, but I’m not so sure about that,” Carr said on “The Scott Jennings Radio Show” on Sept. 18.

“And I think it’s worthwhile to have the FCC look into whether ‘The View’ and some of the programs that you have still qualify as bona fide news programs and therefore exempt from the equal opportunity regime that Congress has put in place.”

“The View,” a daytime talk show, is hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Ana Navarro.

ABC suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” indefinitely after a group of ABC-affiliated stations said it would not air the show following comments Kimmel made about the assassination of Kirk, a conservative influencer, during an episode earlier this week.

Kimmel appeared to suggest that the suspected assassin, Tyler Robinson, was a supporter of President Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

Prosecutors have said that Robinson allegedly had left-wing and pro-transgender views.

Carr said that Kimmel was attempting to mislead the public with his on-air statements.

“The issue that arose here, where lots and lots of people were upset, was not a joke,” Carr told CNBC on Thursday.

“It was appearing to directly mislead the American public about a significant fact.”

Under the FCC’s jurisdiction, ABC, CBS, and NBC have special requirements to “operate within the public interest,” Carr said on Sept. 17.

“Broadcasters are different than any other form of communication.”

Carr said his agency had a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC, and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading false information.

Prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, were critical of Kimmel being suspended by ABC and other broadcasters.

“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” Obama said in a post on X.

President Donald Trump said that Kimmel was removed partially because of a “lack of talent,” along with his recent comments on Kirk.

“Kimmel is not a talented person; he has very bad ratings more than anything else, and they should have fired him a long time ago,” Trump said during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the UK on Sept. 18.

“You can call that free speech or not—he was fired for lack of talent.”

In posts on Truth Social this year, including one last month, Trump also suggested that the FCC go after the broadcasting licenses held by ABC and NBC.

Kimmel has not issued a public statement on his suspension, and it’s unclear whether he will return to the show he’s hosted since May 2002.

The Epoch Times has contacted ABC for comment.