The theme of President Trump’s State of the Union address was the strength of America, but it also called for healing from what he described as the wounds left by the Biden administration and Democratic leadership. During the address, Trump recognized Michelle and Sage Blair, whose painful experience underscores the controversy surrounding gender ideology and parental rights. Their story has received little national attention over the past five years, making the president’s acknowledgment especially significant to their family and other families who suffered a similar fate.
A two-year investigation by Australian Broadcasting Corporation has uncovered evidence that young gay and bisexual males in Sydney were allegedly targeted, lured through dating apps, and violently assaulted in incidents dating back to 2023.
Court exhibits and leaked footage reviewed by ABC show victims being attacked on camera. In one recording, a 16-year-old boy is forced into a public toilet, beaten until bloodied, and called slurs including “f***ot” and “kaffir” as he pleads for his life. Another video shows a victim held in a headlock while attackers shout “Islamic State lives” and demand money, threatening to kill him.
“You wanna be gay?” one attacker asks in footage played in Sydney courts before stomping on the victim’s face.
Five teenagers have been convicted of the assaults. Several were found to have attended the Al Madina Dawah Centre in Bankstown, a prayer hall later shut down following the December Bondi Beach massacre. Police evidence presented in court linked members of the group to prominent pro-IS figures, including cleric Wisam Haddad and alleged youth recruiter Wassim Fayad.
The ABC reported that individuals in the assault videos were connected to the same extremist network as Naveed and Sajid Akram, the father and son responsible for the Hanukkah attack at Bondi Beach that left 15 people dead.
According to the investigation, the attackers used apps such as Grindr and Wizz to identify and lure victims. Authorities said the assaults were coordinated and recorded, with footage later circulated in chat groups.
The incidents have prompted renewed scrutiny of extremist radicalization and online recruitment tactics. A parliamentary inquiry has been established in Victoria to examine a rise in hate crimes targeting LGBTQ individuals, including the role of online networks in influencing youth.
Extremism researcher Josh Roose of Deakin University told the ABC, “We are at risk of seeing these attacks that we’ve seen on videos turn deadly.” He added, “It’s only a matter of time before a young man or men are killed.”
President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union (SOTU) address Tuesday night was not only the longest such speech in history but also perhaps his best ever. It serves as a bookend to his second innaugural speech, where sour Democratic representatives and senators also grimaced and shook their heads.
Democrats have this thing where they oppose anything President Trump does because it's Trump. They don't consider each policy as it comes, they instead stand as as a brick wall against the administration, whether on women's rights, border security, election integrity, and everything else. This wall was on display during Trump's State of the Union address. A party that calls for unity and coming together did everything they could on Tuesday night to rip the country apart.
Those Democrats who sat in Congress and watched the speech sat for the entirety of the speech. When Trump invited those to stand who agree that "the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens and not illegal aliens," they sat. The entire room, other than these Democrats, stood and cheered, applauded, and affirmed their promise to put Americans first over all others. But Democrats sat, some looking down at their phones.
Later Rep. Janelle Bynum said in that moment there was "thinly veiled racist language" from Trump, "anti-immigrant language, in what he was asking and that was uncomfortable." House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republican lawmakers standing was "cult-like behavior."
Federal Security Minister Omar García Harfuch reported Monday that 25 National Guard members, a state police officer, a security guard, and a woman, reportedly three months pregnant, were killed in attacks in Jalisco following a federal operation targeting CJNG leader Nemesio 'El Mencho' Oseguera Cervantes. The cartel leader was shot, detained, and later died while being transferred to Mexico City.
