News

News

March 10, 2026

Nashville school clears record of Christian teacher who refused to read same-sex marriage book to first-grader

KIPP Antioch College Prep Elementary reversed course on Monday after receiving a letter from First Liberty Institute, the legal organization representing teacher Eric Rivera

A Nashville elementary school has agreed to clear the personnel record of a Christian first-grade teacher who was disciplined, reassigned, and threatened with termination after he declined to read a book about same-sex marriage to his young students.

It’s a straightforward win, and it shouldn’t have taken a legal threat to get there.

WH Blasts ‘Cowardly’ Sources Over Report on Ukrainian Anti-Drone Offer

The White House blamed “cowardly unnamed sources” for a report the Trump administration “dismissed” a Ukrainian offer in August for technology that downs Iranian-made attack drones, pushing back strongly against claims the decision represented a major tactical misstep.

According to Axios, Ukrainian officials presented the United States with a proposal nearly seven months ago outlining battle-tested technology designed to intercept Iranian-made Shahed attack drones that have become a major threat in modern warfare.

Ukrainian representatives delivered a detailed PowerPoint presentation during an Aug. 18 meeting at the White House attended by President Donald Trump and senior officials.

The presentation warned that Iran was improving the design of its one-way attack drones and suggested establishing “drone combat hubs” in countries such as Turkey, Jordan, and Persian Gulf states where U.S. bases operate.

Ukraine also proposed providing low-cost interceptor drones that it has successfully used to combat the same systems deployed by Russia during the war in Ukraine.

Axios reported that the proposal was not immediately pursued, citing two U.S. officials who characterized the decision as a missed opportunity after Iranian drone attacks intensified during the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran that began Feb. 28.

But the White House forcefully rejected the suggestion that the administration failed to prepare for the threat.

“Iranian retaliatory attacks are down by 90 percent because their ballistic missile capabilities are being totally demolished. This characterization made by these cowardly unnamed sources is not accurate and proves that they are simply outside looking in,” deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told Newsmax in an email.

“Secretary [Pete] Hegseth and the armed forces did an incredible job planning for all possible responses by the Iranian regime, and the undisputed success of Operation Epic Fury speaks for itself.”

Kelly also emphasized that U.S. forces have largely neutralized Iranian retaliation.

How Was The TikTok Killer Caught? Inside José Jurado Montilla’s Double Life as a Convicted Murderer and Influencer

José Jurado Montilla, who became known as the TikTok Killer, was caught and arrested twice — for charges relating to six different murders.

Montilla, who was born in 1961 and resided in the Málaga region of Spain for most of his life, was arrested for the first time in the mid-1980s for the murders of four people in Málaga. He received a 123-year prison sentence, but he was released after 28 years because of a successful appeal to a Spanish sentencing law.

A decade after he was released from prison, Montilla created a TikTok account, where he went by “El Titi” or “Dinamita,” and gained a following for his videos showing him hiking around Spain while professing his innocence. However, it was ultimately his constant posting on TikTok that led authorities to find his whereabouts when they suspected him of two additional murders.

Estepa’s remains were later discovered in 2024, and the evidence connected Montilla to her death, as well. He has denied having anything to do with David or Estepa’s deaths and is awaiting trial. The tales of Montilla’s past crimes and how his TikTok led to his recent arrest are told in the Netflix docuseries, The TikTok Killer.

Here’s everything to know about how José Jurado Montilla, The TikTok Killer, was caught.

Montilla committed his first known murder when he fatally shot his neighbor, 57-year-old Francisco González, at his farmhouse. Montilla was not initially arrested but later confessed to killing González. However, he was adamant that González approached him with a shotgun inside his home, so Montilla grabbed the gun and shot him out of self defense.

In the time before Montilla was charged, he killed at least three more people: chauffeur Antonio Paniagua in March 1987 and a German and British tourist in May 1987.

He was arrested in the late 1980s and was convicted of all four murders though he denied killing the last three people and insisted that he was used as a scapegoat. Montilla was sentenced to 123 years in prison.

“Everything that happened in that part of the country was blamed on me,” he claimed in a TikTok video that was featured in The TikTok Killer. “Even though I had absolutely nothing to do with it.”

Montilla served 28 years in prison before his sentence was re-evaluated after the Spanish Parot Doctrine was appealed. The Spanish Supreme Court had ruled in favor of the doctrine in 2006, allowing prisoners to be held longer than the then-maximum sentence of 30 years of the European Convention of Human Rights.

In 2013, the European Court of Human Rights successfully overturned the doctrine so Montilla was released.

After being released from prison, Montilla launched a TikTok account, called “Dinamita Montilla,” where he documented his travels as an older man. In addition to posting videos about his miles-long hikes across Spain, he also spoke about his past in prison and maintained that he was innocent. He had around 3,000 TikTok followers at the time of his arrest, per the Netflix doc.

In August 2022, Spanish authorities believe that Montilla shot and killed his fifth victim, 21-year-old student David. Before his death, David allegedly told his dad that he had connected with “an older man who looked very shady” and who wanted to hunt foxes, local newspaper 20minutos reported, per A&E. Although the case went cold for a few years, that story would later become relevant, as another person suspected to be one of Montilla’s victims claimed that he met with someone who asked to hunt foxes with him.

The following year, Estepa was reported missing after she failed to get in contact with her mom, who she usually talked to daily. Estepa disappeared while she was hiking along the Spanish coast and stopped in the town of Gandía to treat an injured leg in late August 2023.

On Aug. 23, Estepa’s mom received a few messages from her daughter via WhatsApp, but she later told investigators that the writing seemed off and that she thought they came from someone else. Although her family was initially unaware that Estepa had met Montilla, they became familiar with him after he reached out and expressed his concern over Estepa’s whereabouts.

Seemingly in response to Estepa’s disappearance, Montilla rewalked the same trails and roads that the pair allegedly did days before she was reported missing. He shared his journey on TikTok, relayed Estepa’s story to his followers and claimed he hoped someone would report seeing her.

In February 2024, Estepa’s skull and bones were discovered near a highway in Gandía, per El País. While Montilla was already behind bars in connection with David’s murder, authorities searched his phone and found evidence that they say proves he sexually assaulted and killed Estepa. He has maintained his innocence in both cases and is awaiting trial.

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Betty Jo Simcox

Friday, March 6th