Despite Tucker Carlson publicly gushing about Russia at any opportunity, the leader of the country he’s falling in love with decided to publicly lambast him. 

The former Fox News host recently made headlines after traveling to Russia and sitting down with President Vladimir Putin. It was the leader’s first Western interview since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands. 

The video has gotten over one million likes since being posted on X (the site formerly known as Twitter) on February 8. In the over two-hour video, Carlson lets Putin take complete control and ramble on about whatever subject matter he likes. At one point Putin talked for over half an hour. The interview has been described as “embarrassing” and “sycophantic". 

Those who champion Carlson declared the interview as a brave journalist willing to expose a dangerous truth, but outside of his (vocal) fanbase, Carlson’s interview was met with a more muted response. Even the subject of the softball interview questioned Carlson’s interviewing skills. 

"To be honest, I thought that he would behave aggressively and ask so-called sharp questions. I was not just prepared for this, I wanted it, because it would give me the opportunity to respond in the same way," Putin said in a Russian TV interview. "Frankly, I did not get full satisfaction from this interview.”

The most cringe moment of the interview occurred when Putin mocked Carlson for once wanting to be a CIA operative. 

Carlson was fired from Fox News in 2023, as his firebrand backing of Trump, role in a massive lawsuit, and allegations of a toxic workplace all became too much for Rupert Murdoch. However, despite losing the backing of the right-wing media giant, Carlson remains relatively popular and influential. Unsurprisingly, since going independent, the content he features in his interview show has drifted even deeper into the realm of conspiracy. He’s featured infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as well as a man who claimed he had drug-fueled sex with former President Barack Obama. 

Being roasted publicly by the subject of a loving interview hasn’t seemed to dampen Carlson’s love for Russia however. In a series of videos posted to his website, Carlson shows his viewers why Russia is superior to his home country. He made a loving video about the subway system in Moscow, set to swelling classical music, where he talks about how there are no “bums, or drug addicts, or rapists, or people waiting to push you on the tracks to kill you.” 

In another video, Carlson—who made millions hosting a television show for Fox News—stated that he had been “radicalized” against the leaders of the United States because of the grocery prices in Russia. He revels over the Moscow store offering such things as having to put in a coin to take a cart away and a “grocery cart escalator.”

“Seeing how much things cost and how people live will radicalize you against our leaders, that’s how I feel radicalized,” Carlson said. “We’re not making this up by the way, at all.”

Proponents of the racist “great replacement” theory are gloating after the GOP-led House of Representatives narrowly voted to impeach DHS Secretary Alexander Mayorkas on Tuesday. 

All but three Republican House members voted to impeach Mayorkas for allegedly failing to enforce immigration laws, making him the first cabinet member to face impeachment in almost 150 years. 

The proposition will most likely be squashed when it goes before the Democratic-controlled Senate for trial. But the vote alone has bolstered the spirits of the far right, which sees it as further proof that it has allies in Congress. 

“Big news,” white supremacist Nick Fuentes said on a livestream Tuesday. “The House has finally voted to impeach the Jewish DHS secretary Alexander Mayorkas.”

“Got 'em,” white supremacist Jason Kessler, one of the organizers of the violent 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, wrote on Telegram. The Jew Mayorkas has been impeached.”

“Bolshevik Mayorkas now must be tried [for] treason,” wrote conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer David Wolfe on Telegram. “Will the Senate try him?”

The “great replacement” conspiracy theory claims that there is a nefarious plot to diminish the influence of white Americans via immigration. In its most extreme iterations, Jews are cast as the masterminds of the plot. 

The far right has recently made Mayorkas, who is Jewish, the face of the great replacement conspiracy theory. Mayorkas briefly sat on the board of HIAS—the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society—which was originally founded to help Jews fleeing pogroms in Europe, and today helps refugees and at-risk immigrants get settled in the United States. The far right also views the organization as a key facilitator of “the great replacement.” The white supremacist who opened fire on the Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018, killing 11, railed against HIAS online before his deadly attack. 

GOP members of Congress and right-wing commentators have repeatedly accused Mayorkas of “intentionally” facilitating an “invasion” of the U.S. 

In an appearance on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called on the Senate to “remove this traitor [Mayorkas] who has invited the invasion of America.”Former Trump advisor Stephen Miller wrote on X that Mayorkas will “be tried before the Senate, the nation and history of his sinister role in masterminding Biden’s invasion of our Republic.”

“The kind of damage he’s done to cities and families is something you expect from a hostile adversary looking to destabilize and destroy America,” said Texas Rep. Beth Van Duyne in a first impeachment hearing last week, which resulted in a failed vote. 

Earlier this month a coalition of Jewish organizations, including HIAS, released a statement expressing alarm about what they perceived as the normalization of great replacement conspiracy theories and antisemitism in relation to efforts to impeach Mayorkas. 

“We now see Members of Congress and other leaders arguing that Secretary Mayorkas is intentionally orchestrating an “invasion’ and the ‘replacement’ of Americans,” they wrote.

“These dangerous, dehumanizing conspiracy theories have fueled a cycle of deadly violence against Jewish, Hispanic, Black, Muslim, and other communities in recent years – and we are deeply concerned that such bigotry and divisiveness will only make our community, and so many others, even less safe at this tenuous moment.”

The great replacement conspiracy theory was paraded through the streets of Charlottesville in August 2017, when neo-Nazis and white supremacists chanted “you will not replace us” and “Jews will not replace us.” It has since had a profound influence on white supremacist terrorists; it was referenced by Tree of Life shooter, by the man who opened fire on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in March 2019, by the man who targeted Latinos at a supermarket in El Paso, Texas, in August 2019, and by the man who opened fire on Black supermarket shoppers in Buffalo, New York, in May 2022. 

Despite the clear links between the conspiracy theory and violence, in recent years the “great replacement” narrative has made its way out of white supremacist online forums and gained ground in mainstream political rhetoric. Multiple polls have found that half of Republicans believe in the core tenets of the conspiracy theory—and those same tenets have made their way into recent speeches by former President and presumptive GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. It was even explicitly embraced  by former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy during a debate. 

Mayorkas stands accused of releasing migrants into the U.S. when they should have been detained, and lying to lawmakers about the situation at the border—both allegations he denies. 

The Israeli air force is bombing Hezbollah targets deep inside Lebanon after the militant group fired dozens of rockets at military bases and border towns.

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Israel Defense Force (IDF) Chief of Staff told local officials Wednesday that despite the strikes, there was a “long way to go,” before the border with Lebanon would be quiet and the tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from the border area would be able to return.

“There are very great achievements in hitting Hezbollah in Lebanon, but we continue to act,” he said. “This is not the point to stop. There is still a long way to go.” 

The exchange began on Wednesday morning when Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon fired multiple rockets at key military facilities including the IDF’s northern command and an air force base at least 20km inside Israel’s border, killing one person and wounding nine. 

The attack is the largest escalation yet of the clashes between Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, and Israel, which began days after the October 7th attack by Hamas and its allies in Gaza, on Israel. 

"Numerous launches were identified crossing from Lebanon into the areas of Netu'a, Manara, and into an IDF base in northern Israel,” the military said in a statement according to the YNet news site. “The IDF struck the sources of the fire." 

Since October both sides have been carefully calibrating their attacks and responses to avoid a regional war. 

Hezbollah’s move immediately drew massive criticism, directed at embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, from right wing members of his cabinet, who have demanded stronger action in both Gaza and Lebanon to suppress Hezbollah, Hamas, and other Iranian backed allies but now seemed to call for all out war on Hezbollah.

“These are not drips,” tweeted Itimar Ben Gvir, a right wing-firebrand and the current Israel Security Minister, referring to what he saw as significant attacks. “This is war.”

“The red line became a white flag - the war cabinet surrendered to Hezbollah and lost the north,” also tweeted Avidgor Liberman, a former Netanyahu ally turned rival.

Military officials immediately announced that Israel would retaliate and not limit the strikes to the launch sites used in the attack. So far concerns about a broader war have generally limited both sides' attacks and retaliation in the increasingly tit-for-tat conflict. 

By Wednesday afternoon, the IDF said it was conducting “broad strikes” throughout South Lebanon. The Lebanese media announced at least four people had been killed in Israeli attacks on half a dozen towns and villages that continued on Wednesday afternoon.

“The [Israelis] are bombing all over the south,” Abu Ali, a resident of the southern city of Nabatiyah about 20 km from the border, told VICE News “They are targeting the resistance from [eastern] Shebba to [the coastal city of Tyre].”

A Hezbollah official refused to comment directly on either of the attacks but said Israel had further escalated the conflict.

“[Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah has said there will be no pause to the resistance operations so long as the [Israelis] continue to massacre the people of Gaza. They will not sleep in safety as long as Gaza suffers.”

Close allies with Hamas under Iranian tutelage, Hezbollah entered the conflict a few days after October 7 after Israel began a massive bombing campaign that became an all out ground invasion against Hamas in revenge for the attacks that killed about 1,200 people and saw at least 240 kidnapped by the Gaza-based militants. 

Although Hezbollah’s opening of a second front has put massive pressure on the IDF, which has mobilized over 300,000 reservists, the fighting has been mostly limited to small scale attacks and responses that have killed a handful of Israelis and, according to Hezbollah, about 200 of its fighters and allies. 

French negotiators have repeatedly attempted to propose a diplomatic solution to fighting on this front, which has been the worst since the 2006 summer war between Hezbollah and Israel. Solutions have included key Hezbollah units being withdrawn from the border and replaced by the Lebanese Army. But Hezbollah’s chief, Nasrallah, has repeatedly refused to discuss an agreement so long as the Gaza conflict continues.

“Except for some right-wing extremists in the cabinet, nobody wants a regional war, at this time,” said an Israeli security official who would not speak on the record criticizing the government. 

“But that doesn’t mean a regional war won’t happen. Israel has a very weak leader in Bibi who might not be able to resist his more militant coalition partners. And of course our enemies in Hezbollah and Iran might also decide on the timing [to start a war].” 

The far-right is desperate to make “trans terrorism” a thing. So desperate, in fact, that it’s willing to push out incorrect or false information just to shore up their baseless narrative that trans people are inherently dangerous. 

The latest example has played out since Sunday, when a woman, with her 7-year-old son in tow, walked into the Lakewood megachurch in Houston, Texas, and opened fire with an AR-15. 

The shooter, 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno, was killed by armed off-duty law enforcement at the church, which is run by celebrity televangelist Joel Osteen. Two people were wounded: A 57-year-old man, and the shooter’s son, who was critically injured. 

On Monday, the account Libs of TikTok, which targets LGBTQ people and has been accused of inspiring bomb threats against dozens of schools nationwide, posted a document online that suggested the shooter had used the name “Jeffrey.”

“The Lakewood Church shooter was transgender,” Libs of TikTok asserted. “Another act of trans terrorism. We need to have a national conversation about the LGBTQ movement turning youth into violent extremists.”

Chaya Raichik, the far-right activist who runs the account, also asked “what kind of hormones and drugs was the trans terrorist who shot up the Texas church taking?” Elon Musk also weighed in, suggesting that hormones taken in most gender affirming care regimens “could be a major causal factor in violence.” There is no evidence for this claim.

In a press conference later on Monday, police officials noted that, although the shooter appeared to utilize both male and female names, they found no indication that she ever identified as anything but a cisgender woman. 

So far, it’s unclear why the shooter targeted Osteen’s church. According to a social media post unearthed by CNN, the shooter donated to the Lakewood Church in March 2020. Police say that they discovered “antisemitic writings” among her personal items, and her AR-15 was emblazoned with a sticker saying “Palestine.” Police also said there was some sort of “familial dispute” that took place between her ex-husband and her ex-husband’s family, some of whom are Jewish. 

The shooter was also being treated for schizophrenia, according to a Facebook post by her ex-mother-in-law, Rabbi Walli Carranza. Carranza described her as a “very sweet and loving woman,” and railed against the fact that Texas does not have a “red flag law” in place that would allow concerned family members to remove firearms from people believed to be a danger to themselves or others. The shooter legally purchased her AR-15 in December 2023, police said. 

“[The shooter] had a particular kind of schizophrenia that caused her to become violent,” Carranza told KHOU, a CNN affiliate. “She threatened her husband, my own son, and we still couldn’t get intervention.” 

In addition to having an extensive history of mental health troubles, the shooter has a long criminal record which includes, among other things, forgery, theft, assault of a detention officer, and unlawful carrying of a weapon. 

The far-right has been laser focused on the concept of “trans terrorism”—just one prong of their all-out assault on LGBTQ rights—ever since a transgender man carried out a mass shooting at a Christian school in Nashville where he was once a student. 

Following that shooting, which unleashed a fresh wave of transphobia from the right, Donald Trump Jr. falsely claimed that there had been “an incredible rise” in mass shootings perpetrated by trans people. Fact checkers debunked that claim, noting that there had been four shootings perpetrated by transgender people in the space of five years—and that mass shootings are overwhelmingly committed by cisgender men. 

Since the Nashville shooting, in the wake of other mass shootings, far-right accounts like Libs of TikTo typically scramble to uncover a “link” between the attack and the LGBTQ community. 

There is no evidence to support claims that transgender people are more prone to violence, and researchers have historically struggled to identify a correlation between testosterone and violence. There is, however, mountains of evidence showing that transgender people disproportionately experience violence, and that hormonal therapy for trans teens and adults significantly improves mental health and lowers the rate of suicidal ideation.