Naomi Johnson is officially a mom of two. On the evening of Tuesday, January 13, the songstress took to social media to share the news with the world that her second daughter has arrived.
The post included a carousel of photos of Johnson’s hospital stay and celebrating the show of welcoming another baby girl with her husband, Martin Johnson — the frontman of The Night Game and Boys Like Girls.
Photo Courtesy of Naomi Johnson
Within the caption, she wrote, “And just like that the Johnson 3 turned to the Johnson 4. We welcomed another healthy, beautiful baby girl into the world.”
She went on to share gratitude for the outpouring of support she’s received during his chapter of life.
“Thank you all for your love and sweet messages. We couldn’t have done it without our friends and loved ones who helped bring her into the world. We are so in love, grateful and blessed beyond measure,” the message concluded.
Johnson surprised fans with her pregnancy announcement during an appearance on an episode of the episode of God’s Country podcast back in September 2025. She told podcast hosts Dan and Reid Isbell that she’s “happy because I’m having a baby, another baby. I’m pregnant! So happy. …Round two. What a gift.”
The couple’s newest baby, whose name has not been shared, joins their first-born, who arrived in 2023.
The “Growing Up Fast” singer boasted about her husband, stating he “is the best girl dad in the world. He’s like, you know, this tough rock n’ roll guy with all these tattoos and his little girl, they’re watching Cinderella yesterday.”
Naomi Johnson; Photo Provided
At the time of her first delivery, Johnson shared a post that has since been removed. She opened up about the struggles of this birth, noting she spent several days in labor and experienced some unexpected challenges along the way, but ultimately gave birth to a healthy baby.
“I started with a planned home water birth. Me And 9 of my siblings were born at home, 5 of us in a bathtub, and it was important to me to give my child a similar birth experience. After an unexpected 60 hours of labor, complications arose, and I ended up delivering at the hospital.”
She went on to address the midwives and surgeons, thanking them for helping deliver her “healthy, beautiful baby.”
“Childbirth is an incredible rite of passage for a woman. I’m proud to have made the journey and honored to be holding the ultimate reward,” she added.
Just a couple weeks before welcoming her second baby, Naomi Cooke reflected on 2025 as a whole, noting it was nearly “impossible to put this year into a few pictures or measly words.” However, she did manage to share a message of gratitude for all the good that came out of it and even expressed her excitement for what’s ahead this year.
“What I will say is God is great, life is so good and children are the greatest gift one can ever receive from our creator. I am beyond excited for this next chapter in my life and the treasures that await. I welcome you, 2026 with a full heart, anticipation, curiosity and an eagerness for the growth you will bring us all.”
As Naomi Johnson embraces this new chapter as a mom of two, fans are left excited not only for her growing family but also for what the new year will bring in her music
Neither of these men — US President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin — likes being held accountable by the press.Contributor/Getty Images
In its story about the search at Hannah Natanson’s home, at which FBI agents said they were searching for materials related to a federal government contractor, Washington Post reporter Perry Stein wrote that “it is highly unusual and aggressive for law enforcement to conduct a search on a reporter’s home.”
And Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, told The New York Times the raid was “intensely concerning,” and could have a chilling effect “on legitimate journalistic activity.”
While the United States remains institutionally far removed from countries like Russia, the Trump administration has taken troubling early steps toward autocracy by threatening – and in some cases implementing – restrictions on free speech and independent media.
Trump sued the New York Times in 2025 for $15 billion for what he called ‘malicious’ articles; a judge threw out the case. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Public ignorance, free speech and independent media
Ignorance about what public officials do exists in every political system.
In democracies, citizens often remain uninformed because learning about politics takes time and effort, while one vote rarely changes an election. American economist Anthony Downs called this “rational ignorance,” and it is made worse by complex laws and bureaucracy that few people fully understand.
As a result, voters often lack the information needed to monitor politicians or hold them accountable, giving officials more room to act in their own interest.
Free speech and independent media are essential for breaking this cycle. They allow citizens, journalists and opposition leaders to expose corruption and criticize those in power.
Open debate helps people share grievances and organize collective action, from protests to campaigns.
Independent media also act as watchdogs, investigating wrongdoing and raising the political cost of abuse – making it harder for leaders to get away with corruption or incompetence.
When free speech and independent journalism disappear, citizens are less likely to learn about government corruption or failures. Ignorance becomes the regime’s ally – it keeps people isolated and uninformed. By censoring information, autocrats create an information vacuum that prevents citizens from making informed choices or organizing protests.
At the same time, the Kremlin built a vast propaganda machine to shape public opinion. This control over information helped protect the regime during crises. As I noted in a recent article, many Russians were unaware of Putin’s responsibility for military failures in 2022. State media used propaganda to shift blame to the military leadership – preserving Putin’s popularity even as the war faltered.
The threat to independent media in the US
While the United States remains far from an autocracy, the Trump administration has taken steps that echo the behavior of authoritarian regimes.
Consider the use of lawsuits to intimidate journalists. In Singapore, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Lee Hsien Loong, routinely used civil defamation suits to silence reporters who exposed government repression or corruption. These tactics discouraged criticism and encouraged self-censorship.
In Singapore, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, left, and his son, Lee Hsien Loong, routinely used civil defamation suits to silence reporters who exposed government repression or corruption. Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump has taken a similar approach, seeking US$15 billion from The New York Times for publication of several allegedly “malicious” articles, and $10 billion from The Wall Street Journal. The latter suit concerns a story about a letter Trump reportedly signed in Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday book.
Although the show was later reinstated, the episode revealed how the administration could use the autocratic technique of bureaucratic pressure to suppress speech it disagreed with. Combined with efforts to prosecute the president’s perceived enemies through the Justice Department, such actions inevitably encourage media self-censorship and deepen public ignorance.
The threat to free speech
Autocrats often invoke “national security” to pass laws restricting free speech. Russia’s “foreign agents” law, passed in 2012, forced nongovernmental organizations with foreign funding to label themselves as such, becoming a tool for silencing dissenting advocacy groups. Its 2022 revision broadened the definition, letting the Kremlin target anyone who criticized the government.
Similar laws have appeared in Hungary, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. Russia also uses vague “terrorist” and “extremist” designations to punish those who protest and dissent, all under the guise of “national security.”
The latter move is especially troubling, pushing the United States closer to the behavior characteristic of autocratic governments. The vagueness of the designation threatens to suppress free expression and opposition to the Trump administration.
Antifa is not an organization but a “decentralized collection of individual activists,” as scholar Stanislav Vysotsky describes it. The scope of those falling under the antifa label is widened by its identification with broad ideas, described in a national security memorandum issued by the Trump administration in the fall of 2025, like anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity. This gives the government leeway to prosecute an unprecedented number of individuals for their speech.
As scholar Melinda Haas writes, the memorandum “pushes the limits of presidential authority by targeting individuals and groups as potential domestic terrorists based on their beliefs rather than their actions.”
Konstantin Zhukov does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, speaks on Jan. 4, 2024, at a town hall meeting on the possible Albertsons-Kroger grocery merger. The meeting was held at the Teamsters Local 959 headquarters in Anchorage. Peltola said on Tuesday she has not decided whether to support her party's likely candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, speaks on Jan. 4, 2024, at a town hall meeting on the possible Albertsons-Kroger grocery merger. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
AP-Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola said Monday that she would challenge Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in this year’s midterm elections, vowing to shake up the establishment to make life more affordable for Alaskans.
“Life is difficult here, and we know that we have to take care of each other,” Peltola said in a video announcement.
Peltola, who is Yup’ik, was the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress. She won special and regular elections in 2022, defeating a field that included Republican former Gov. Sarah Palin. In 2024, she lost to Republican Nick Begich, who had also run in 2022.
Peltola focused on local concerns in her announcement, saying Alaska’s future depends on fixing the “rigged system in D.C. that’s shutting down Alaska, while politicians feather their own nests.”
She said the salmon and migratory birds that once filled the freezers of Alaska Native subsistence hunters are now harder to find, forcing families who live far from the state’s limited road system to rely on grocery stores for pricey staples, driven up by high transportation costs.
“It’s not just that politicians in D.C. don’t care that we’re paying $17 for a gallon of milk in rural Alaska,” she said. “They don’t even believe us. They’re more focused on their stock portfolios than our bank accounts.”
Although Democrats are hopeful about picking up seats in this year’s midterms, Alaska could prove to be difficult political terrain. Sullivan, a former state attorney general and natural resources commissioner, defeated the state’s last Democratic senator in 2014.
The Republican National Committee said Peltola became “a rubber stamp for the far-left the second she got to Washington.”
“Alaskans saw through her empty promises then showed her the door, and she’ll lose to Dan Sullivan who fights for Alaskans every day,” RNC spokesperson Nick Poche said in a statement.
While serving in Washington, Sullivan has been involved in military and resource development issues, and he was endorsed by then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
“Senator Sullivan has spent years delivering real results for Alaska: historic investments in our state’s health care, major funding for our Coast Guard, helping protect those who can’t protect themselves and policies that are finally unleashing Alaska’s energy potential,” his campaign spokesperson, Nate Adams, said in an email to The Associated Press.
“His opponent,” Adams said, “served a term and a half in Congress where she didn’t pass a single bill. Alaskans deserve a senator with a proven record of getting things done, and the contrast couldn’t be clearer in this race.”
Peltola has long touted her ability to work across party lines, such as supporting the large Willow oil project on Alaska’s North Slope. She angered some Democrats in 2024 when she refused to endorse then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race won by Trump.
Peltola said Alaska’s Republican congressional delegation used to ignore partisanship and do what was right for the state, such as backing public media and disaster relief, and even invoked Republican former Sen. Ted Stevens.
“It’s about time Alaskans teach the rest of the country what Alaska First and, really, America First looks like,” Peltola said.
Alaska has open primaries and ranked choice voting in general elections. The top four vote-getters in the August primary regardless of party affiliation will advance to the November general election.
Only three power-conference teams remain unbeaten. Here’s how long Arizona, Vanderbilt and Nebraska can keep their perfect seasons alive.FOX Sports Digital
The widow of slain podcast host Charlie Kirk, Erika has hosted rallies, visited the White House, and granted countless interviews in the months since her husband’s death.
Her new role as CEO of Turning Point USA, the organization founded by her late husband, has made Erika one of the most visible women in modern media.
And the discourse surrounding her sudden rise to fame has resulted in some heated debates.
Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk, widow of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, speaks during Turning Point’s annual AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona on December 18, 2025. (Photo by Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images)
A recent article from Washington Post fashion columnist Ashley Fetters Maloy has sparked backlash due to its focus on Kirk’s wardrobe choices.
“Erika Kirk is walking a fine line in a glittering pantsuit,” Maloy wrote, adding:
“Kirk, a mother to two toddlers, continues to take on public-facing leadership duties while promoting traditional ideas about prioritizing marriage and motherhood, and her clothes are attempting to walk the same high wire… her styling of late suggests that she’s aware that she now needs to be able to blend into mainstream, secular, political contexts well enough to be taken seriously — but not so well as to be mistaken for a career woman or a feminist.”
We should reiterate here that this was an article that appeared in the Post‘s fashion section.
On social media, however, many are under — or are creating — the impression that the newspaper is attempting to diminish a female political figure by focusing on her clothes.
Erika Kirk discusses the newly released book “Stop, In The Name of God: Why Honoring The Sabbath Will Transform Your Life” on “Hannity” at Fox News Channel Studios on December 08, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
“For crying out loud will this s— never end,” former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema wrote X (formerly Twitter), according to Yahoo News.
“Erika isn’t ‘prioritizing marriage’ because a radical leftist shot and killed her husband Good Lord. These people will never stop attacking the Kirk family,” conservative pundit Jack Posobiec added.
“I’ve been reporting for a quarter century now, and I still remember at my first daily newspaper job, we had to read a style guide that specifically cautioned reporters to be very careful about describing women’s clothes in depth because it can be viewed as sexist,” Axios reporter Marc Caputo chimed in.
“How does this get printed?” right-wing commentator Jason Rantz asked.
Erika Kirk interviews surprise guest Nicki Minaj on the final day of Turning Point USA’s annual AmericaFest conference at the Phoenix Convention Center on December 21, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona. Minaj spoke about her frustrations with California Governor Gavin Newsom, and about why she has embraced the conservative movement. (Photo by Caylo Seals/Getty Images)
An op-ed that focuses on the clothing worn by a famous woman does indeed run the risk of coming off as sexist.
After all, we rarely see opinion pieces criticizing the clothing worn by a male pundit or politician.
Brad Paisley and his wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley have been married for over two decades, and their love story is truly one for the ages. The country star recently opened up about the clever, unexpected way they found each other and the incredible life they’ve built together, including their two children and shared philanthropic work.
Kimberly WIlliams-Paisley, Bad Paisley
It’s known that the lovebirds met when Kimberly starred in his “I’m Gonna Miss Her” music video in 2002, but sitting down with TODAY’s Hoda Kotb, Paisley now reveals how an ex-relationship is actually partly the reason they came to work together.
The story begins with Paisley’s first serious girlfriend in college. He says for their first date, they went out for pizza and saw the iconic movie “Father of the Bride,” which stars Kimberly as Annie Banks, the bride-to-be. All was going well between them until Paisley made the move to Nashville in pursuit of his dreams and transferred to Belmont University, leaving the girlfriend behind in his hometown. Then, Paisley says the girl cheated on him with his best friend and it was the “best gift she could have ever given me.”
This heartbreak fueled his creativity and inspired him to write new music, but he admits it wasn’t an easy heartbreak to get over.
“My songwriting best friends and all my friends were songwriters and co-writers and they were like, ‘You just got to get over this,’” he recalls.
His songwriter friends finally stepped in, encouraging him to face the pain head-on by recreating the night where the relationship first began in hopes that it would bring either fate or closure. So in one last attempt to determine if he was meant to be with the girl or not, he returned to the same theater one year later to watch Father of the Bride Part II.
“So I do that. I go home for Christmas, I buy a ticket to ‘Father of the Bride Part II’ at the theater we went to…by now [I’ve] had thought for weeks about this, she’s going to be there. And I go in, movie starts, I’m sitting in the back and watching people come in. She doesn’t come in, but the movie’s good, so I stay. So I leave, go to get in the car and I’m going to put the key in the door and it’s like closure. I needed this too.”
Paisley then noted that he wasn’t convinced so he bought another ticket for the same movie, saw it for the second time, only to realize that the girl was never coming. He headed back to Nashville and ended up writing a song about his entire experience called “Part II” that later became the title track to his second album.
In a full-circle moment, the West Virginia native reached out to Kimberly, who he only knew from her role in the classic film, and asked her to be part of his music video. “I’m Gonna Miss Her” began as a fun song he penned in college and evolved out something much bigger. It became Paisley’s third number one on the Billboard country charts and more importantly, the reason he met his now wife.
“I got Kim’s number from a friend and that knew her or had met her. I didn’t know much about her at all. And I just said, ‘it would be poetic justice if you were in the music video, wouldn’t it?’ And there’s more to it than that. But in the end, we talked on the phone, I talked to her manager first, told the manager the story, and the manager’s like, ‘She’ll call you.’ So she calls me. The manager calls Kim and says, ‘I know he says he wants you to be in the video, but you’re going to date.’”
The lovebirds eventually tied the knot in March 2003 and have two sons together, William Huckleberry, born in 2007, and Jasper Warren, born in 2009. Along with raising their kids and pursuing their respective careers in the entertainment business, they also make sure to give back to their community.
Philanthropy is something Paisley says both his parents and Kimberly instilled in him at an early age, and now they’re focused on passing those same values on to their kids. That commitment shows up in their charitable work through The Store, an organization they co-founded in Middle Tennessee. The nonprofit works to combat food insecurity by offering a more dignified approach to food assistance and aims to empower individuals and families with choice, education, and support.
“The values instilled in Kim by her parents, some of her earliest memories are driving around with her mom who was delivering Meals on Wheels that really stuck with her. She would take her kids in the car and meanwhile, they didn’t have any money.
Kimberly WIlliams-Paisley, Bad Paisley
He continued, “And then in my case, my parents used to really make me give back because I was doing these cool things like playing that radio show and opening for really neat people like The Judds and Charlie Daniels or whoever would come through town and Charlie Pride and got people like that. And then they would say, ‘Well, you’re booked, this week you’re going over to hospice and singing for the hospice floor at the hospital,’” Paisley recalls. “And it was like instilled in me that, okay, so if you’re getting to play music, you should be doing something good with it, not just selfish with it, not just trying to make it in the music business.”
What started as a young heartbreak ultimately led Paisley to the partner he was meant to find, and together, he and Kimberly have built not just a lasting marriage, but a life rooted in family, and generosity. Their love story shows how unexpected moments can end up shaping life in meaningful ways.
This is a good thing for television, for LGBTQ+ media, for HBO Max, for Canada, for viewers, and of course, for the actors.
But Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams have also become targets of invasive speculation about their real-life sexualities.
Their reactions to the chatter is pretty chill.
Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams attend the premiere of “Heated Rivalry” at TIFF Lightbox on November 24, 2025. (Photo Credit: Harold Feng/Getty Images)
‘Heated Rivalry’ is a smash hit
What began as a faithful Canadian adaptation of Rachel Reid’s novel has become a breakout hit in the United States by way of HBO Max and a much larger audience.
Storrie portrays Ilya Grigoryevich Rozanov, a Russian-born hockey player and captain of the Boston Raiders.
Williams plays Shane Hollander, an Ottawa-born hockey star of Japanese descent. He is the captain of the Montreal Metros.
The story covers these rival captains as widespread media coverage hypes up their apparent animosity on the ice.
In private, however, the two develop a sexual relationship. It begins casually, but intensifies over the years until it is no longer a secret.
The show has a compelling premise. LGBTQ+ sports fandom is larger than you might think (especially with hockey).
Real-world hockey players have remarked on how eerily similar the characters’ stories are to their own lives when they were closeted.
Heated Rivalry comes out at a time when LGBTQ+ rights are under siege across the United States. Watching a show isn’t activism, but representation does matter.
Also, the show has butts. Pretty famously, the series faithfully adapted the book’s steamy scenes.
And that has put the two main stars in a pickle (pun unintended) when it comes to some frankly inappropriate fan speculation about their own lives.
Hudson Williams attends the 83rd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 11, 2026. (Photo Credit: Monica Schipper/Getty Images)
Sexuality speculation about the real actors has run rampant
Storrie and Williams have unquestionable on-screen chemistry.
While speaking to Deadline, Williams discussed the speculation that the actors might themselves be part of the LGBTQ+ community.
He chalked this discussion up to “just the nature of celebrity.” You know? He’s not wrong.
“I think there’s never a question for me, when I would dream of becoming in the public eye, that I would want just a level of privacy,” he admitted. “But of course, I agree.”
Williams affirmed: “I want queer people telling queer stories, but also, there’s the element of Connor and I — we’re best friends, and we love expressing that physically.” They do have phenomenal chemistry.
Storrie emphasized in the same interview that he values having “a little bit of separation from the character in the show.”
He expressed: “All I can really say is that I love Ilya, I love the community that this is a part of and that this caters to.”
Storrie continued: “I think that’s so much more interesting and valuable than doing just another run-of-the-mill, straight story.” He’s so right.
Speaking for himself, he added: “Who I date, who I sleep with, who this, that, whatever, I’m gonna keep that to myself.”
Storrie concluded: “But regardless, I think this is super important, and I think also on top of that, it’s just really cool.”
Actor Connor Storrie poses during the 32nd Annual Actors Awards nominations announcement at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Tom Hanks & Rita Wilson theatre in Los Angeles on January 7, 2026. (Photo Credit: Valerie MACON / AFP via Getty Images)
An alleged ex is rumored to have been leaking old photos
According to various social media posts, including one on Reddit, a man claiming to be an ex of Storrie’s has been attempting to show evidence of a past relationship.
Obviously, this is bad behavior. Either it’s true, and he’s betraying a former partner for, what, clout? Revenge? Or it’s false, and it’s a weird lie.
Speaking of weird, how is it 2026 and people are still doing the public speculation about actor sexualities?
Yes, it was annoying like 20 years ago when famously straight actors would win awards for playing gay roles while gay actors were told to remain in the closet. And yes, gay and bi actors are sometimes still discouraged from coming out for the sake of their careers.
But we just cannot be, as a society, outing or attempting to out actors. It’s an inherently homophobic behavior. Also the people trying to find “proof” sound just a few steps removed from transvestigators.
Imagine the laughter backstage as two artists decided to swap pants mid-concert. It’s a story that highlights the fun side of life on tour. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
