A Christian podcaster appeared to glare at a photographer as he was arrested on allegations that he threatened to kill President Donald Trump and urged that he be executed.

Benjamin Azariah Southworth, 40, was arrested Thursday morning in Los Angeles and now faces charges of making harassing telephone calls, cyberstalking and threatening the life of the President.

Southworth, known for the podcast Yass, Jesus!, was led out of his Westlake apartment in handcuffs, where he was photographed fixing an intense expression toward the camera as authorities escorted him away.

‘As threats against President Trump’s life escalate, the Department of Justice will respond with the full force of the law,’ said Attorney General Todd Blanche.

‘We will hold perpetrators of violent threats accountable, and anyone who makes these threats online will not be allowed to hide behind their screens.’

The podcaster, a staunch advocate for LGBTQ+ rights who came out as gay in 2008, was accused of publishing videos and sharing messages on social media to ‘express his hatred toward President Trump and the President’s supporters.’

‘Southworth used these online platforms to publicly engage in and encourage the abuse and harassment of the President and to threaten violence against the President,’ the Central District of California United States Attorneys’ Office said. 

On April 7 earlier this year, Southworth allegedly posted a video to Instagram featuring a series of threats against the President including: ‘I have been vocal in calling for the execution of Donald Trump’ and ‘This government is illegitimate and out of control. It’s time for course correction. Kill Donald Trump.’

Southworth also allegedly published the home address of an attorney who had served as Trump’s personal lawyer, along with a photo of the victim and a photo of their home, three months prior, according to the Attorneys’ Office. 

The TikTok post was allegedly accompanied by the words, ‘No peace for traitors.’ 

First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said that ‘there is zero tolerance for political violence, especially for threats directed at the President.’

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‘Threatening an elected official with violence is a serious offense, and you will be arrested and charged as Mr Southworth found out this morning,’ he added. 

On the Holy Menace Instagram account, which has since been de-activated, Southworth posted a video of himself on March 31 saying, ‘Since the [United States] Supreme Court has ruled today that psychological, spiritual, emotional and physical torture known as gay conversion therapy is free speech, I want to practice my free speech as a survivor of conversion therapy for five years,’ the indictment obtained by the Los Angeles Times said. 

That same day, the Supreme Court had ruled that Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youths violated the 1st Amendment’s free-speech, the outlet reported. 

‘Kill Donald Trump. Kill that motherf**** pedophile in the White House. Kill that traitor of the United States Constitution. That’s all,’ the podcaster allegedly said in the video.

Southworth, who is also a writer and former television presenter of ‘The Remix,’ also appears to sell stickers that feature a mouse with big eyes and bows accompanied by the phrase ‘Kill Trump,’ the website Holy Menace HQ shows. 

According to court documents obtained by the Times, Southworth also sent text messages that said ‘but if I could kill him, I wouldn’t waste the opportunity’ in January 2025. 

Armando Marquez, Special Agent in Charge of the US Secret Service’s Los Angeles Field Office, said: ‘The safety and security of those we protect is our highest priority, and we are committed to ensuring that anyone who threatens that – whether online or otherwise – will face justice.’

‘Cyberstalking and threats of murder are not considered mere political rhetoric under the law, but are serious criminal offenses that lead to prosecution, as today’s arrest highlights,’ Patrick Grandy, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said. 

If convicted, Southworth faces five years in federal prison for threatening the President, five years for cyberstalking and two years for telephonic harassment.

Southworth pleaded not guilty to the charges and is being held without bond. 

The Daily Mail reached out to the White House and Southworth for comment. 

The Trump administration returned to the Supreme Court on Sunday, asking the justices to step in after a federal judge halted new limits on mail-in ballots in the run-up to the midterm elections.

The emergency filing followed a decision by US District Judge Indira Talwani, who prolonged an order preventing the Postal Service from carrying out President Donald Trump’s executive order affecting mail ballot procedures for the November contests.

The dispute is unfolding at a critical moment in the election calendar, as several states have already begun sending absentee and mail ballots to voters, narrowing the window for the administration to impose significant changes to voting rules.

“Ballots have already begun to be mailed in North Carolina, and more States will begin the mailing process as the injunction remains in place — including Alabama on Sept. 9 and at least five States the week of Sept. 13,” Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in the Supreme Court filing.

“Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them. And while the injunction allows the Postal Service and the States to continue taking steps to ensure that their envelopes satisfy the Rule’s requirements … each day the injunction is in place risks sowing confusion and chaos because the injunction makes those preparatory steps voluntary, rather than mandatory.”

The appeal marks the third time the administration has asked the high court to intervene. The high court has allowed the plan to move forward but not ruled on whether it is legal.

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The battle could have major ramifications for this year’s elections, when control of Congress is at stake. Nearly one-third of voters in the US cast mail ballots.

Democratic states and voting rights groups say the changes are unconstitutional. Election officials contend there isn’t enough time to revise their systems to comply with the new Postal Service directives.

The Trump administration has framed the restrictions as commonsense changes that are within its power to regulate the mail.

“Simply put, the best way to address respondents’ fears about inability to comply with the Rule is to grant an immediate administrative stay of the order, followed by a full stay pending further review,” Sauer said. “That will remove the improper cloud of uncertainty that the district court has cast over the Rule, making clear to all involved that compliance with the Rule is not optional and must start without further delay.”

The filing added that eligibility for mail-in and absentee voting will continue to be governed by state law and state and local officials will determine who is eligible to use the method and which ballots are eligible to be counted. “The Postal Service will not play any role in determining voter eligibility, maintaining voter rolls, or counting ballots.”

Trump has long sought to limit mail voting, even though he himself often uses that method to cast his own ballot. He has falsely blamed mail balloting for his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Bden, spreading baseless claims of fraud. But so far, he has been unable to change the longstanding voting procedure.

A Missouri foster mother accused of swapping a teenage girl for a monkey will not go to prison for now, despite a judge calling her conduct reprehensible and apologizing to the alleged victims for what he described as a foster care system that failed them.

Brenda Deutsch, 70, received a seven-year prison sentence for child endangerment, but Lincoln County Judge Thomas Frawley suspended execution of that sentence and instead placed her on three years of probation, meaning she can remain out of custody as long as she follows the court’s conditions, FOX2 St. Louis reported.

From the bench, Frawley also revoked Deutsch’s foster care license and sharply criticized Missouri officials for allowing her to retain it.

The judge then addressed the victims who were present in court, telling them he was sorry for the way the system had let them down.

Deutsch’s biological daughter, Brina Johnson, who testified about alleged abuse, said the outcome was not what she had hoped for.

“I’m kinda lost for words because this is not the end we wished for,” Johnson told FOX2.

Johnson said a teenager present in the courtroom was the foster child at the center of allegations that Deutsch traded her for a monkey.

“I have the whole conversation on my phone, which I turned over to the detectives,” Johnson said.

“That’s what she did; she had at least seven monkeys,” Johnson said. “That’s just her thing. But she wasn’t any nicer to those monkeys than she was to a child.”

Deutsch was arrested in April after authorities investigated allegations that she sent the foster child, who is now 17, to Texas to stay in a home Deutsch admitted in court she knew nothing about.

Court documents previously obtained by News Media said the investigation began after Deutsch sought permission to take the girl to visit a friend in Texas. Five days later, an anonymous caller alerted the Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division that Deutsch was allegedly physically and mentally abusing the child.

Investigators later learned of an allegation that the girl had been traded for an exotic animal and was living in Texas.

The teenager told investigators Deutsch informed her Texas friend that the friend could keep the child, but Deutsch “will be keeping the check,” according to court documents.

A witness told police the girl had been left in an unsanitary Texas home filled with exotic animals. She was eventually taken into the custody of child protective services in Texas.

The teenager also described alleged abuse by Deutsch, telling investigators she was struck with objects including a paddle and shoes. During one alleged beating, she said she lay on the floor and tried to “soften the strikes to her body,” according to court documents.

Deutsch also allegedly took away the girl’s clothes and once threatened to kill her “if she did not shut up,” the documents said.

Deutsch declined to comment outside the courthouse, shielding her face with a piece of paper as she walked to her vehicle and drove away.

Deutsch has reportedly fostered more than 200 children over the years.

Johnson said the judge’s acknowledgment of the system’s failures offered some validation despite her disappointment with the outcome.

“It was good to know somebody knows from the other side of the street, that this shouldn’t have happened,” Johnson said. “None of it should. And the system did fail us, failed them all.”

Earlier this year, I underwent an arm lift and hand rejuvenation. Now, I have turned my attention to my ears. Once, people said a woman’s age could be read in her hands. Then the focus shifted to the neck, and later to the arms. Earlobes are another giveaway — except these days, they do not have to be.

We tend to pour our energy into our faces and bodies, while ears are barely considered. That is, until we suddenly spot them. It might be the sight of a pair of earrings hanging uneasily from stretched, thinning lobes that look flatter, longer and more creased than they once did. Then comes the inevitable mirror check, and the uncomfortable realisation that our own lobes may be going the same way.

If your earlobes no longer look as smooth, plump or youthful as they used to — and your favourite earrings seem to highlight the problem rather than hide it — there is now a solution. Welcome to the Ear Job.

Earlobes 101 

Earlobe ageing may not be something you have spent much time worrying about. I have, but after almost four decades working as an aesthetic consultant, noticing these small but telling changes is part of the job.

The science is straightforward. Unlike most areas of the face, earlobes do not have muscle or bone underneath them. They are made up of skin, connective tissue and a modest pad of fat — and little else. That delicate structure is exactly what makes them so susceptible to time’s effects. The internal changes begin well before they are obvious on the surface.

Heavy earrings are often the first contributing factor. Worn regularly over many years, their weight gradually pulls the lobe downward, stretching it in a way nature never intended.

But downward-stretched ears are only the beginning. The real giveaway comes later. With time, the earlobe loses fat, along with the collagen and elastin that once gave it firmness – and the underlying support is gone. The poor lobe becomes a shadow of its former self. Even a smaller stud earring cannot sit correctly in place on an earlobe without support. Instead, it tilts forward, sits at an unintended angle, or slides toward the front of a lobe that has lost the structure required to hold it upright.

I monitor everything to do with anti-ageing, both in the industry and on my own face and body, leaving no stone unturned when it comes to keeping all my body parts looking roughly the same age. When I realised my earlobes were looking older than the rest of me, I wasted no time getting them done; they had thinned, flattened, lost volume and developed wrinkles. As you’d expect, my earrings, instead of sitting the way they used to, had begun to droop forward at an angle due to a lack of support.

My ears were starting to look old, and once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

How to fix it

The procedure is called earlobe rejuvenation – though I prefer Ear Job – and essentially involves hyaluronic acid filler being injected directly into the lobe.

This is the same compound used routinely in facial rejuvenation: hyaluronic acid occurs naturally in the body, which is precisely why it carries a low risk of reaction and why it has remained a trusted option in injectable treatments for years.

The filler performs two functions in a single sitting. First, it restores volume to the lobe, rebuilding the structure and cushioning required by earrings to sit correctly in their holes. The same applies to clip-ons, by the way, which arguably need even more cushioning for a firm enough grip. No one wants a clip-on dropping into their soup.

Second, filler smooths the wrinkling and creasing that forms on the lobe’s surface as it thins, giving a more youthful appearance.

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The injection itself takes only minutes. Most practitioners apply a topical numbing cream beforehand, and the filler often contains lidocaine for additional comfort. I found it less painful than getting my ears pierced.

Ear enhancement requires no downtime. There may be temporary mild swelling, but there was none in my case. And it lasts.

Most fillers have a lifespan tied to how much the treated area moves. Lips and cheeks, for instance, are almost continuously in motion, and that constant activity brings richer blood flow to the area, which appears to speed up the natural enzymatic process by which the body breaks hyaluronic acid down.

Earlobes have a distinct advantage in this respect: they barely move at all. That lack of movement allows the filler to hold its shape considerably longer than it would elsewhere. It’s often well over a year before any touch-up is necessary, so fewer visits to the clinic. What’s not to love?

Are you a candidate?

If you’re over 30 and have worn heavy earrings regularly for a significant part of your adult life, there’s a reasonable chance the lobe-drooping process has already begun. If you’re over 50, even if you don’t wear earrings, age alone can cause volume loss and creases. Candidates for Ear Jobs are those who are noticing, for whatever reason, thinning, drooping, wrinkly earlobes – with or without stretched piercings, and with or without earrings that no longer sit as they once did. (I’m aware this sounds like the ultimate first-world problem.)

It’s also worth noting that Ear Jobs pair naturally with other procedures. Filler in the earlobes, alongside facial rejuvenation, tends to produce one coherent, harmonious result. No one wants a beautifully rejuvenated face with saggy old ears on either side of it, and vice versa. Consistency is key.

How much does it cost?

Depending on provider, location and the amount of filler required, it can vary quite widely – from £250 upwards.

This is a simple procedure, though simple should not be read as foolproof. As with any injectable treatment, the practitioner is as important as the product. Specific experience in treating earlobes is required, along with an understanding of the tissue involved, and a policy of natural results over volume.

For decades, I’ve been saying that anti-ageing procedures, when performed correctly, mean looking naturally younger, not ‘done’. They should also consider the overall picture. Earlobes are a prime example of how a small, easily overlooked detail can undermine everything else one has invested in. You can be otherwise beautifully presented, with well-maintained skin, a youthful face (naturally or otherwise), and an elegant wardrobe – only for a pair of droopy earlobes to let the side down.

By now I’m guessing everyone reading this has inspected their own earlobes. Take a look at my before-and-after images. Before: thin and wrinkly, the earring listing forward under its own weight. After: full, properly supported, sitting as nature intended – 30 years ago.

That comparison is the entire case for the procedure. No exaggeration required – simply tissue that has been given back the volume it had lost.

For information about Cindy Jackson and her consultancy, visit cindyjackson.com

On a deceptively quiet Sunday in Sugar Land, the affluent Houston suburb hums along with its usual manicured calm: matching homes, trimmed lawns and neighbors who appear blissfully unaware of what is unfolding behind one of those polished façades. No frantic Nextdoor alert will warn residents that a covert operative is being tortured inside a bland McMansion. No curtain-twitching homeowner will spot Joe McNamara (Zoe Saldaña), shrouded and handcuffed to a chair in a bare upstairs room, surrounded by armed Russians. America’s sprawl has its advantages, and anonymity is one of them. Six days after she was knocked out on Raven and secretly moved from Baltimore to Texas, Joe is forced to confront a grim truth: rescue may not come in time. In Episode 6 of Lioness Season 3 on Paramount+, her predicament reaches its most desperate point yet.

Before the season’s present-past structure crashes into its final stretch — with only three episodes remaining — the story rewinds six months, where the outlook is far more favorable. The team’s sweep of Russian assets is paying off in a big way. Compromised Americans and their handlers are in custody, while much of the Russian embassy in Washington is being expelled. The resulting “espionage scandal” has erupted into national headlines. At Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse in D.C., Secretary of State Mullins (Morgan Freeman) is almost gleeful as he corners Senator Olson (Joe Nemmers), whose role in the operation has been exposed. Mullins offers him a choice: resign immediately or face a public treason prosecution. After Mullins exits, Joe presents an even darker third option. “You could kill yourself.” To her, Olson is not merely a corrupt politician; he belongs in the same moral category as the people who came after her family.

Olson takes the CIA case officer’s chilling suggestion to heart. Within minutes, panic overtakes him. Sweating, unraveling and unable to face what is coming, the senator steers his Mercedes directly into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer. Tucker (LaMonica Garrett) and Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira), watching from the follow vehicle, can only register the aftermath. “The coward’s way out,” Tucker tells Joe, who shows no sign of pity.

The fallout from the operation lifts the mood at the safe house. For the first time in a while, Joe seems lighter, laughing and sparring playfully with Neal (Dave Annable). “That’s not the soldier in me, that’s the Dominican in me,” she jokes, giving Kate and Charlie a rare glimpse of their parents at ease. Joe even reassures the girls that the family will be able to go home because the people who wanted her dead will not be returning. But comfort quickly turns into instruction. “They don’t deserve your fear, and they forfeited their right to your compassion,” she tells them. Much like her earlier “kill for this life” speech, Joe continues to school her daughters in the brutal code of the Lioness universe — and, by extension, the Sheridan-O-Verse — where problems are settled violently, and the hardened people who do the settling are framed as righteous for bearing the burden.

“Jackpot on plane, four bandits down.” Back in the present, six days after Joe’s abduction, Oleksandra’s (Elizaveta Neretin) intelligence has helped Kyle (Thad Luckinbill) and the Delta Force crew track the jet to Texas. The listed flight plan points to the Caribbean, but the aircraft is carrying 40,000 pounds of fuel — enough avgas to reach Russia, or possibly the Middle East. The pilot refuses to answer Kyle’s questions. Outside the plane, when the crew surrounds Grady and pulls weapons, they are swiftly eliminated. The discovery tells the team they are closing in on Joe, prompting them to fan out across the Houston area and check known Russian SVR safe houses. In Sugar Land, Renat (Dimitry Rozental) and his armed men watch from darkened windows as Randy (Austin Hébert) and Tex (Jonah Wharton) conduct a slow observational drive-by. Sensing the net tightening, Joe’s captor makes an urgent call. “You need a new out. They’re circling. Now come get your problem before we throw her in the street.”

Who did Renat call? He and his men are Russian speakers, and given the action in the Lioness past, Russia always seemed the likely culprit for Joe’s predicament. Tied to her chair, still in the shroud, she hears a new voice in the room. “I am here to take you to your death,” a bearded man named Babat (Kamyar Jahan) tells her, and gives commands to his men in Farsi. Joe, for her part, remains unbroken, and insults this guy once the shroud comes off. But she can only scream when he unfolds a blade and hacks off a toe without hesitation. In just a few moments, Babat has elevated the awful stakes of her capture, and as Renat – the guy we were led to believe was in charge – steals off into the Texas night, Joe’s new crew of captors haul her into a truck for transport. Their promises of even more torture, of being stoned by children, and of a terrible death by fire illustrate how close yet far away the team really is. 

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QRF for Lioness Season 3 Episode 6 (“Sugar Land”): 

• This episode features another great scene with Elizaveta Neretin as Oleksandra Balakin. We haven’t heard anything definite about a Lioness Season 4, but in our version, Oleksa joins Joe and the team full-time.

• FBO FBO FBO FBO – what the hell is an FBO? Taylor Sheridan loves to have his characters spout undefined acronyms, and this one stands for “fixed-base operator,” essentially a privately owned and operated airstrip. People saying FBO are all over this ep of Lioness, just like they were in Landman.

• “Brother, I am getting fucking flanked out here.” As Grady, when Ian Bohen says this during the gunfight at the jet, we flashed back to when Bohen said essentially the same line as Evan in Wind River. Written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, the 2017 film is like a Sheridan-O-Verse incubator – Bohen’s in there, as is James “Two Cups” Jordan, as is Kelsey Asbille, as are Jeremy Renner and Hugh Dillon from Mayor of Kingstown.

An East Texas sheriff’s deputy had a heart-stopping roadside surprise when a deer he believed was dead suddenly jumped up, prompting the startled officer to yell and bolt back toward his patrol vehicle in a dashcam moment that rapidly spread across social media.

The unexpected encounter was recorded by the deputy’s dash camera and later posted to Facebook by Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace, who quipped that some moments really can “scare the heck out of a person.”

Wallace leaned into the humor of the viral video, urging viewers to “[w]atch when he encounters what he thinks is a dead deer until it comes back to life!”

The clip begins with the deputy cautiously walking toward a doe lying still near the edge of the road, apparently lifeless.

As the deputy gets closer to examine the animal, the deer suddenly springs to life.

The startled deputy lets out a scream and races back toward his patrol vehicle.

“OK, we’re good,” the deputy says with a laugh after recovering from the surprise.

The deer is last seen sitting up on the side of the road before the video ends.

“Instead of a citation, the ‘suspect’ made a four-legged getaway and vanished into the East Texas woods,” Wallace wrote on Facebook.

“Just another night shift where anything can happen,” the sheriff added.

Wallace later assured viewers that the doe was unharmed and “made a full recovery.”

The unexpected roadside encounter quickly found an audience online, with Wallace saying the video has been viewed more than 10 million times.