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FBI nabs more than 350 alleged child sex abuse offenders

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The FBI announced Tuesday the arrests of more than 350 child sexual abuse offenders as part of a sprawling nationwide operation.

More than 200 child victims were located during Operation Iron Pursuit, which involved all 56 national FBI field offices, as well as numerous U.S. Attorneys’ offices.

One victim who was recovered in the operation was a 10-year-old from Utah who was taken by his transgender parent to Cuba, according to the bureau. Investigators say the child was supposed to be on a camping trip with a transgender parent, partner and another child. The group instead flew from Canada to Mexico and then to Cuba.

Rose Inessa-Ethington, the child’s biological father, allegedly flew the child to Cuba with his partner, Blue Inessa-Ethington, without the mother’s knowledge. The child’s family expressed “significant concerns for the minor’s well-being, as the child was born male, however, identified as a female child, which family members largely believed to be due to manipulation by Rose,” the FBI wrote in a press release.

CHILD REUNITED WITH MOM AFTER TRANSGENDER DAD, PARTNER ALLEGEDLY KIDNAP ABROAD AMID GENDER SURGERY FEARS: FEDS

The FBI reunited the child with his mother after fears that his transgender parent shuttled him to Cuba for gender reassignment surgery.

The transgender parent and the transgender partner who assisted the parent were arrested and charged with International Parental Kidnapping.

“Operation Iron Pursuit is just the latest in this FBI’s work with our interagency partners to crush child abuse networks all over this country,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“Last year through Operations like Relentless Justice, Enduring Justice, and Restore Justice, we set records identifying over 6,300 child victims, taking 300+ human traffickers off the streets, and more. President Trump’s law enforcement team is eliminating these criminal actors at a historic pace and we’re not slowing down,” Patel concluded.

The FBI said those arrested during Operation Iron Pursuit are alleged to have committed various crimes, including sexual exploitation, sex trafficking, abuse, kidnapping, and possessing, distributing, or receiving child sexual abuse materials (CSAM).

James Strahler II, 37, pleaded guilty in early April to numerous charges related to his creation of AI-generated explicit material of both adults and children. Strahler pleaded guilty to cyberstalking after prosecutors alleged he used over 100 web-based AI models, telephone calls, voicemails, text messages and web postings to harass victims.

Strahler created over 700 images of both real victims and animations and uploaded them to a website dedicated to child sex abuse material, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Ohio.

He is the first person in the U.S. to be convicted under the Take It Down Act, a landmark bill which criminalizes the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and deepfake AI content that was championed by First Lady Melania Trump.

Another alleged abuser caught in the roundup was New York’s Alber Rodriguez, a 48-year-old who the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy and taking photos and videos of the abuse.

“As alleged, Alber Rodriguez sexually abused a 12-year-old child and recorded that abuse—conduct that is as cruel as it is criminal,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a press release.

“This Office has zero tolerance for those who prey on children.  Protecting New Yorkers, especially our youngest and most vulnerable, is our priority.  If you exploit a child in this District, we will find you, we will charge you, and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.  We will not stop until those who endanger our children are taken off our streets and held fully accountable.”

Anthony Greene, 37, of Pennsylvania, was also arrested in April as part of the sweep and charged with a litany of crimes. Prosecutors charged Greene by indictment with two counts each of manufacture of child pornography; use of an interstate commerce facility to entice a minor, and attempt to entice a minor, to engage in sexual conduct; and receipt of child pornography, and one count each of possession of child pornography and possession of a firearm by a felon, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania wrote in a statement.

BONGINO ANNOUNCES FBI APPREHENDED 449 CHILD PREDATORS, RESCUED 224 KIDS IN FIRST 3 MONTHS AS DEPUTY DIRECTOR

“This operation puts every child predator on notice: we are coming for you,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “The sexual exploitation of minors is an abomination with no place in our society. We will hunt down these offenders, hold them fully accountable under the law, and deliver justice for victims.”

The FBI said Iron Pursuit follows three other successful operations last year.

According to the bureau, 205 children were rescued and 293 offenders are arrested during Operation Relentless Justice, which concluded in December 2025. Operation Enduring Justice, which ended in August 2025, resulted in the rescue of 133 children and the arrests of 234 offenders. The FBI said 115 children were rescued and 205 child sex abuse offenders were arrested as a result of Operation Restore Justice, which concluded in May 2025.

“Every single day this FBI is working 24/7 to break networks of child abusers all across this country,” Patel added. “Let this be a message to criminal actors who seek to target America’s children: you will be pursued, and you will be brought to justice.”

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Perez Hilton joins ‘Tomi Lahren Is Fearless’ and declares cancel culture is now a sport

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In a striking crossover of media personalities, Perez Hilton joined the latest episode of OutKick’s “Tomi Lahren is Fearless” to discuss the cutthroat reality of modern cancel culture.

The two found common ground in criticizing digital mobs they say are more interested in destruction than accountability.

ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!

Lahren opened the discussion by contrasting today’s climate with the past, noting that traditional PR cleanup has been replaced by a mass horde looking to end lives over minor mistakes.

“The cancel culture of today and especially of a few years ago is like cutthroat,” Lahren said. “There are people that we still don’t have in entertainment life because they made a small slip up and there was like this mass horde of people online that are like, cancel them, end their life, make sure they’re bankrupt.”

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Lahren emphasized that her stance applies even to her critics. “I personally don’t like it,” she noted. “Even the people I don’t like, I don’t believe in cancel culture, unless you’re violent. It’s a much different environment now.”

Hilton, who became a household name for his own brand of celebrity call-outs in the mid-2000s, agreed that the landscape has fundamentally shifted.

“I don’t believe in cancel culture either,” Hilton said. “Nick Cannon says, counsel culture, not cancel culture. I love looking at it that way. But that’s if we’re assuming that people are being genuine.”

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Hilton argued that most canceling today isn’t about social justice but is instead a form of entertainment for the masses.

“What I’ve noticed over the last five to 10 years is that canceling somebody has really become a form of entertainment and a sport,” Hilton explained. “People are not trying to hold others accountable for the right reasons. They’re just doing it to get their rocks off.”

Hilton noted that while mid-level figures can be wiped out by a single controversy, the industry’s elite often remain untouched.

“There’s also a rule that I have, which is, yes, sadly, cancel culture still exists,” Hilton asserted. “But if you’re an A-lister, you’re cancel proof.”

Send us your thoughts: [email protected] / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela 

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Bryson DeChambeau was ‘completely shocked’ by LIV Golf collapse, says he’s ready to move to YouTube full time

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The collapse of LIV Golf’s financial backing was sudden and unexpected. After years of support from the Saudi Arabia-backed Public Investment Fund (PIF), in a matter of weeks, rumors spread, followed by confirmation that the PIF would be ending its support of the tour at the end of the 2026 season. 

Plenty of questions were raised immediately afterward: what happens to the remaining events on the calendar? Will the players continue to get paid for the rest of the season? Will there be new investors who step up to keep funding the LIV business model in 2027 and beyond? 

And of course, what happens to the players? 

Some have already said they aren’t interested in returning to the PGA Tour. Others have said they’re not sure what happens next. On Tuesday, Jon Rahm and the DP World Tour resolved their differences, setting him up to return to European events this year.

ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!

But there’s no question that the biggest star on LIV is Bryson DeChambeau. DeChambeau is a two-time major champion, won the U.S. Open for a second time in 2024 at Pinehurst, and has raised his profile substantially through his wildly popular and successful YouTube golf channel. He spoke about his future on Tuesday, with an honest assessment of where he sees himself going. 

Bryson DeChambeau says he wants to grow his YouTube channel

DeChambeau told the media ahead of this weekend’s LIV Golf event at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia that he’d love to focus on YouTube more if LIV does shut down after the year. 

“I think, from my perspective, I’d love to grow my YouTube channel three times, maybe even more,” DeChambeau said. “I would love to. I’d love to do a bunch of dubbing in different languages, giving the world more reason to watch YouTube. And then I’d love to play tournaments that want me.”

He also implied that in conversations with the PGA Tour, potential penalties they’ve raised have been “quite unfortunate in my opinion, considering what I could do for them.”

“The egos need to get dropped,” he added. “Everybody needs to come in with a level-headed playing field, with an opportunistic mindset to grow the game of golf. That’s why I came over here. That’s why I do what I do on YouTube.”

DeChambeau was up front about his reaction to the news that the PIF was pulling out of the tour moving forward, saying he was “shocked” about the timeline.

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“I was completely shocked,” he said. “I didn’t expect it to happen. A couple months before that, it’s like, ‘We’re here until 2032. We’ve got financing until 2032,’ and so I told everybody, and that’s what I was told.

“And then, you know, I haven’t had any communication. And unfortunately, things are moving on in a different direction. Obviously, they wanted to move on.”

He was also adamant that the team model LIV uses has been successful, with some of them reaching high levels of valuation. That could be beneficial if both tours pursue a potential merger.

“If we have a great business model and they’re very interested in combining forces, that’s the Kumbaya moment, right?” DeChambeau said. “So, it’s our job to come up with a better business plan on the [top company] side. The team franchises, there’s enough making profit now to where we could sell them for close to $200 million, and that’s not talking about my team either.

“I think it requires a little bit of everybody kind of just lowering their guards and all coming together and going, ‘OK, what’s best for the game of golf?'”

He also said that the PGA has plenty to learn from the LIV format, saying that despite people “on the side” who help support them, there are financial issues brewing there too.

“There’s a few different models,” he explained. “Look, the [PGA Tour] isn’t doing great either. Let’s be honest about the situation. They’ve got the media. They’ve got everybody on the side that helps pump it up. But they’re reducing field sizes, cutting employees and restructuring their business too.”

There’s plenty to take from this, first and foremost that getting DeChambeau back should be the PGA Tour’s top priority. He’s arguably the most popular player in golf right now, thanks in large part to his YouTube following, and having him compete against Rory McIlroy or Scottie Scheffler consistently would be must-see TV. Like the 2024 U.S. Open was. There would need to be some form of penalty, sure, but making it too punitive and keeping him out of the PGA would be a tremendous missed opportunity. That said, there’s an argument to be made that “the game” would have been better served by all the top players staying together and pushing for reforms from the PGA Tour internally. Though the counter to that would be that changes may never have been made if not for external competition.

DeChambeau’s also unique among star players in that he does have an external outlet with YouTube. There’s little chance of him ever making as much money from his channel as he would from competitive golf, but it does give him more options. Of course, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil might find new investors and keep the tour together. Retaining Bryson would be key for him too. 

If this all ends with DeChambeau focusing exclusively on YouTube, it would be a fascinating statement on where the game is headed. That seemed impossible a few weeks ago. But in a sign of how fast the modern world of golf moves, it sure doesn’t now.

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South Carolina inmate who believes he is immortal cannot be executed due to mental illness, judge rules

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A South Carolina inmate convicted of killing a state trooper more than 25 years ago cannot be executed due to a mental illness that has him believing he is immortal, a judge ruled.

John Richard Wood, 59, lacks the ability to rationally communicate with his lawyers and does not have a rational and factual understanding of his crimes, why he is being punished or the nature of his punishment, Judge Grace Knie found, based on the opinions of three mental health experts, according to WSPA and the South Carolina Daily Gazette.

A psychiatrist with the prosecution as well as a psychiatrist and a psychologist with Wood’s legal team all agreed that he failed this two-pronged legal standard for competence to be executed.

With this ruling, the judge upheld his attorneys’ claim that the debilitating effects of his schizophrenia prevent him from facing the death penalty at this time.

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Knie’s ruling must be reviewed by the state Supreme Court, which could determine whether to uphold or overturn her decision.

The judge said Wood believes that he is immortal, has already died three times on death row and will be resurrected again if the state executes him, citing the mental health experts’ testimony during a hearing in March, the South Carolina Daily Gazette reported.

Wood also believes he has already received a pardon from South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster.

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The experts have said that while Wood understands why he received the death sentence, he mistakenly believes law enforcement officers were “trying to frame him for a brutal rape.”

Additionally, Wood believes the judge at his 2002 trial and courtroom personnel were working against him because they were agents of “Beloved Kevin Rudolph,” a deity that he thinks is part of a battle to rule the planet, according to the South Carolina Daily Gazette. Wood also believes he was given wings and immortality to win this fight.

He is the first inmate on death row in South Carolina found to be not competent to be put to death since the state restarted executions in September 2024 after a 13-year pause because the state was struggling to obtain lethal injection drugs. The state added the firing squad as an execution method during that hiatus. Seven executions have been carried out in the state since capital punishment was resumed, including three men who chose to die by firing squad.

Wood was convicted of killing South Carolina State Trooper Eric Nicholson in December 2000 during a traffic stop in Greenville County. Wood shot Nicholson five times during the traffic stop, according to authorities.

During a subsequent pursuit, he shot at police and hit one officer in the face with a bullet fragment. Wood was eventually taken into custody after he hijacked a truck.

He was sentenced to death in February 2002. He was among death row inmates in line to receive a death warrant after exhausting regular appeals.

While his death warrant is paused, Wood’s original conviction and sentence still stand.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the South Carolina Department of Corrections and Knie’s office for comment.

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