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Sat, 02 May 2026 02:55:00 +0000 Mills Drops Out In Maine Governor's Race As Oysterman With Nazi Tattoo Becomes Democratic Frontrunner
Mills Drops Out In Maine Governor's Race As Oysterman With Nazi Tattoo Becomes Democratic Frontrunner
Maine Gov. Janet Mills suspended her U.S. Senate campaign Thursday morning, citing a lack of financial resources.
Read more.....
Mills Drops Out In Maine Governor's Race As Oysterman With Nazi Tattoo Becomes Democratic Frontrunner
Maine Gov. Janet Mills suspended her U.S. Senate campaign Thursday morning, citing a lack of financial resources. That's the official explanation. The more accurate one is that the polls showed her trailing badly to Graham Platner , an oysterman from coastal Maine with no electoral experience.
Mills had every structural advantage working for her: she’d already won a statewide election, had name identification, and the support of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The writing was on the wall for weeks, but Mills’s exit from the race was her concession that all the momentum on the Democratic side was for Platner.
Platner had long lapped Mills in polling and fundraising, and she'd stopped running television ads weeks earlier. Which means Platner will be the party's nominee against Sen. Susan Collins in one of the most consequential Senate races of the 2026 cycle.
In 2007, Graham Platner got a Nazi Totenkopf tattoo on his chest. He kept it there for roughly 18 years. He claims he didn't know what the symbol meant for nearly two decades. But there is significant evidence that he did, and that it was intentional. Platner amplified a social media post from Stew Peters, a neo-Nazi radio host the Anti-Defamation League has called "a prolific antisemite" who blames "'the Jews' for everything he believes is wrong with society" and who has openly called for a "final solution" to mass-deport American Jews. Platner deleted the post, but only after it got attention, not before . He also sat for a lengthy interview with antisemitic conspiracy theorist Nate Cornacchia, describing himself as a longtime fan. He has called the U.S.-Israel relationship "shameful" and praised a violent Hamas attack on Israel in 2014.
"In November Susan Collins, a proven leader with an indisputable record of delivering for Maine, will face a Nazi sympathizing self-proclaimed communist with a record of hate-mongering and dishonesty, " said RNC spokesperson Kristen Cianci. "It's safe to say we are confident going into Election Day."
There’s no denying that a candidate with this profile would have been a liability the party ran from not all that long ago. Now he's the frontrunner with enough momentum that he forced the sitting governor - recruited by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer himself - to drop out of the race.
This didn't materialize overnight. The Democratic Party's tolerance for anti-Israel sentiment has been building for decades.
The trajectory is traceable.
Barack Obama won the presidency despite his two-decade relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a pastor whose hostility toward Israel and Jews was a matter of public record. Once in office, Obama systematically manufactured distance between Washington and Jerusalem, signaling that cool skepticism toward Israel was not just acceptable but arguably sophisticated Democratic foreign policy.
Obama’s administration was the most anti-Israel administration since Jimmy Carter, and it frequently undermined our democratic ally in the Middle East . Obama exposed classified information about Israel's nuclear capabilities - an alarming breach of trust. His IRS targeted pro-Israel organizations, and his administration declined to enforce anti-BDS provisions, effectively offering a federal green light to a movement whose stated purpose is the economic strangulation of the Jewish state. At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, delegates initially refused to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital — a true sign that the party was becoming more openly antisemitic.
Joe Biden accelerated the trend by allowing the antisemitic wing of his party to set the terms of the Israel debate rather than confronting it. Last year, polling showed Democrats favoring Palestinians over Israelis by a staggering 59–21 percent margin, and overall American sympathy for Israel reached a 25-year low.
The line from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama to Graham Platner is unmistakable. It also helps explain how anti-Israel sentiment found a foothold inside the Democratic Party. Each step made the next one easier to accept, and party leadership either accepted it each time or chose not to push back.
Ironically, Democrats spent years calling their Republican opponents Nazis . The charge was deployed so casually and so broadly that it became almost ambient noise in American political life. Now the same party is on the verge of nominating a man who wore a Nazi symbol on his chest for two decades as its nominee for the United States Senate in Maine.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/01/2026 - 22:55 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 02:25:00 +0000 Ex-CIA Analyst Warns Hegseth's Claim Of "Ironclad" Hormuz Blockade Deeply Misleading
Ex-CIA Analyst Warns Hegseth's Claim Of "Ironclad" Hormuz Blockade Deeply Misleading
Ex-CIA Analyst Warns Hegseth's Claim Of "Ironclad" Hormuz Blockade Deeply Misleading
Authored by former CIA officer Larry Johnson
Pete Hegseth is lying about the US blockade of Iranian ports. On April 12, after JD Vance announced that talks with Iran had failed, Trump declared a naval blockade of Iranian ports and coastal areas. CENTCOM clarified that the blockade would be enforced against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports, but would not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports.
Now, after more than two weeks, Pete Hegseth has been saying the US blockade is working and getting stronger, describing it as “ironclad,” “tightening by the hour,” and even “going global.” He said the Navy had turned back 34 ships, that transit through the Strait of Hormuz is now “much more limited,” and that the blockade will last “as long as it takes.”
He also framed the blockade as coercive leverage on Iran, saying it is meant to cut off shipping pressure until Tehran abandons its nuclear ambitions. In the same remarks, he warned the US would “shoot to destroy” any Iranian boats laying mines or otherwise threatening commercial shipping.
Here’s what the available data tells us about Strait of Hormuz transits since April 15:
Daily volumes (around April 15): On April 15 alone, there were 19 transits — 5 inbound and 14 outbound — according to Windward. Around that same period, April 11 saw 17 transits, April 12 saw 21, and April 13 saw 17. United Against Nuclear Iran Windward
Overall picture since April 15: A precise cumulative total from April 15 through today (April 30) isn’t publicly available in a single figure, but based on the data points above, daily transits have been running roughly in the range of 6–21 ships per day . Recent data from Windward and AIS trackers confirm persistent low volumes of 6–13 vessels daily.
That would put a rough estimate somewhere in the ballpark of 100–200 total transits over the 15-day stretch since April 15 — though the true number could be higher due to GPS spoofing. I can’t comment on GPS spoofing, but I can say with certainty that Pete Hegseth is spoofing the American public about the effectiveness of the blockade.
In order to understand Hegseth’s perfidy, you need to understand the US Navy doctrine for handling a blockade. The US Navy’s approach to taking control of a ship seized during a blockade centers on Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) operations, governed primarily by the Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations (NWP 1-14M/MCTP 11-10B, March 2022) and aligned with the law of armed conflict (LOAC), including customary rules on blockades.
Standard Procedure for Seizure & Control
Interception and Warnings : US forces (Navy warships, often with Marine or Coast Guard support) issue radio warnings, visual signals, or warning shots to order the vessel to stop. Non-compliance can lead to disabling fire (e.g., targeting engines) to halt the ship without sinking it.
Boarding (VBSS) : A specialized boarding party—typically from the Navy, Marines (e.g., 31st MEU), or Coast Guard—approaches via small boats, helicopters, or fast-roping. The team secures the bridge, engine room, and key areas to establish control. Teams train for both compliant and non-compliant (opposed) boardings, using tactics for close-quarters battle, searches, and restraint of crew.
Taking Control :
The boarding party assumes operational command of the vessel.
In a formal wartime blockade or armed conflict context, a prize crew (detachment of US personnel) may be placed aboard to sail the seized ship to a friendly port for adjudication. The original crew can be detained, removed, or (for neutrals) sometimes allowed limited continued presence under guard.
The ship and cargo become subject to inspection for contraband, sanctions violations, or blockade breach. Under prize law (revivable in armed conflict), a prize court may condemn the vessel/cargo as lawful prize.
Post-Seizure : Here is the key point: the vessel is typically escorted to a US or allied port for further inspection, potential forfeiture, or release if the capture is deemed unlawful. Crew handling follows LOAC (e.g., humane treatment; possible internment for belligerents).
Blockades are acts of war requiring effective enforcement (impartial, declared, and maintained by force). Violators (enemy or neutral ships breaching or attempting to breach) are subject to capture
Now that you understand the procedure, let’s look at the US Navy's constraints. As I discussed in my last article, the US Navy is keeping its ships 200 miles off the coast of Iran . If the venture any closer to shore they are vulnerable to missile and drone attacks. The Iranian ships — when they leave port — normally stay within 50 miles of the Iranian coast, which means they are outside the reach of the US Navy .
Next, let’s look at the current US Navy order of battle (this is based on publicly available information). As of late April 2026, the US Navy has at least 14 actively operating or supporting in the broader region (Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, and relevant Indian Ocean areas). This includes three Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs); at least eight multiple guided-missile destroyers; six ships attached to the Amphibious Ready Groups (ARG) for the 31st and 11th MEUs, and two additional escorts (not part of the core ARG but often operate with it): the Cruiser USS Robert Smalls (CG-62) and the destroyer USS Rafael Peralta (DDG-115), forming a broader Expeditionary Strike Group. In other words, the US Navy only as 11 ships that could be used in a VBSS operation.
Do you see the math problem? The current US deployment means that the US Navy could do VBSS operations on 11 vessel s… Tops! But that would mean that US destroyers, which have the mission of protecting the US carriers from air attacks, would have to be pulled off of their primary mission leaving the carriers to fend for themselves . If we assume that all 11 US ships carried out successful VBSS operations since 15 April, that means between 89% and 96% of all Iranian ships out of the Strait of Hormuz have evaded the blockade. Hegseth is lying.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/01/2026 - 22:25 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 01:55:00 +0000 This Is The Salary Needed To Live Comfortably In US Cities
This Is The Salary Needed To Live Comfortably In US Cities
How much do you need to earn to live comfortably in a major American city? Increasingly, the answer is a six-figure salary.
This map, Read more.....
This Is The Salary Needed To Live Comfortably In US Cities
How much do you need to earn to live comfortably in a major American city? Increasingly, the answer is a six-figure salary.
This map, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, shows the income required for a comfortable lifestyle across 56 U.S. cities, factoring in housing, food, transportation, savings, and discretionary spending.
The data comes from SmartAsset , using the MIT Living Wage Calculator and updated in February 2026.
The Highest-Cost Cities Now Require Nearly $160K
New York tops the list at $158,954, narrowly ahead of San Jose at $158,080.
California accounts for many of the highest-cost cities overall, with Irvine, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Sacramento all ranking near the top.
Rank
City
Salary to live comfortably
1
New York, NY
$158,954
2
San Jose, CA
$158,080
3
Irvine, CA
$151,965
4
Boston, MA
$139,776
5
San Diego, CA
$136,781
6
San Francisco, CA
$134,950
7
Oakland, CA
$134,410
8
Honolulu, HI
$128,253
9
Seattle, WA
$127,296
10
Jersey City, NJ
$127,005
11
Arlington, VA
$125,882
12
Los Angeles, CA
$120,307
13
Riverside, CA
$119,974
14
Sacramento, CA
$117,021
15
Portland, OR
$116,106
16
Washington, DC
$111,155
17
Denver, CO
$110,781
18
Raleigh, NC
$110,490
19
Virginia Beach, VA
$110,448
20
Plano, TX
$109,242
21
Atlanta, GA
$108,451
22
Miami, FL
$108,077
23
Charlotte, NC
$106,205
24
Phoenix, AZ
$106,122
25
Chicago, IL
$105,830
26
Tacoma, WA
$105,290
27
Newark, NJ
$104,125
28
Boise, ID
$104,000
29
Tampa, FL
$102,710
30
Nashville, TN
$102,502
31
Reno, NV
$102,419
32
Minneapolis, MN
$102,045
33
Anchorage, AK
$101,795
34
Madison, WI
$101,754
35
Durham, NC
$101,296
36
Colorado Springs, CO
$100,464
37
Austin, TX
$98,550
38
Fort Worth, TX
$97,552
39
Richmond, VA
$97,178
40
Philadelphia, PA
$97,094
41
Dallas, TX
$96,970
42
Buffalo, NY
$96,221
43
St. Paul, MN
$96,054
44
Pittsburgh, PA
$95,472
45
Omaha, NE
$94,765
46
Orlando, FL
$93,475
47
Columbus, OH
$92,810
48
Jacksonville, FL
$92,518
49
Kansas City, MO
$92,144
50
Indianapolis, IN
$90,896
51
Houston, TX
$89,981
52
Tulsa, OK
$88,317
53
Baltimore, MD
$87,485
54
Memphis, TN
$86,320
55
New Orleans, LA
$84,406
56
San Antonio, TX
$83,242
Taken together, the top of the ranking highlights how concentrated the highest costs are in a handful of major metros, particularly in California and the Northeast.
Boston, Honolulu, Seattle, and Jersey City also stand out, showing that the highest salary thresholds extend well beyond just a handful of coastal hubs.
Six-Figure Salaries Are Becoming the Norm
A key shift in the data is how quickly six-figure income requirements have spread beyond the most expensive cities.
Beyond the usual high-cost leaders, cities such as Denver, Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, and Boise now require roughly $100K or more for a comfortable lifestyle. That shift suggests higher living costs are no longer confined to the country’s most expensive coastal markets.
Lower-Cost Cities Still Require Substantial Income
At the lower end of the ranking, the salary needed to live comfortably still remains substantial. San Antonio has the lowest threshold at $83,069, followed by Memphis at $86,444 and Tulsa at $87,690.
Even in the most affordable cities on the map, the income needed for a comfortable lifestyle is far above what many households earn, highlighting how even the most “affordable” major cities now require incomes that were once considered high.
If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Where Americans Pay the Most Income Tax on Voronoi , the new app from Visual Capitalist.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/01/2026 - 21:55 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 01:25:00 +0000 DOJ Probes 36 Illinois School Districts Over Sexual Orientation Content In Pre-K–12 Classes
DOJ Probes 36 Illinois School Districts Over Sexual Orientation Content In Pre-K–12 Classes
DOJ Probes 36 Illinois School Districts Over Sexual Orientation Content In Pre-K–12 Classes
Authored by Naveen Anthrappully via The Epoch Times,
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division has launched multiple investigations into 36 Illinois public school districts to assess whether sexual orientation and gender ideology content is being taught in pre-K-12 grade classes.
If the districts are determined to be teaching sexual orientation and gender ideology-related content, “the investigations will examine whether the schools have notified parents of their right to opt their children out of such instruction,” the DOJ said in an April 30 statement.
“The investigation will also assess whether the Illinois School Districts limit access to single-sex intimate spaces (such as bathrooms and locker rooms) and girls’ sports teams based on biological sex.”
The probe will cover whether the districts violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. The districts are “recipients of hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funding,” the DOJ said.
The investigations will also look into whether the school districts adhere to the U.S. Supreme Court’s “extensive precedents on parental rights” as affirmed in Mirabelli v. Bonta and Mahmoud v. Taylor cases.
In the Mirabelli v. Bonta case , the Supreme Court blocked a California policy on March 2 that prohibited school personnel from informing parents when their children requested changing their preferred gender identity at schools.
“The State argues that its policies advance a compelling interest in student safety and privacy,” the court wrote in its decision. “But those policies cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents.”
In the Mahmoud v. Taylor lawsuit , the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Maryland parents, who, for religious reasons, wanted to opt their children out from getting exposed to school storybooks promoting LGBT lifestyles.
Commenting on the DOJ’s probe into 36 Illinois school districts, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the department’s Civil Rights Division said, “This Department of Justice is determined to put an end to local school authorities keeping parents in the dark about how sexuality and gender ideology are being pushed in classrooms.”
“Supreme Court precedent leaves no doubt: parents have the fundamental right and primary authority to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children,” he said. “This includes exempting their children from ideological instruction that contradicts their values or decisions about their children’s health and best interests.”
The Illinois school districts under investigation include Bloomington Public Schools District, Lick Creek Community Consolidated School District, O’Fallon Community Consolidated School District, and Pembroke Community Consolidated School District.
The Epoch Times reached out to these school districts for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
The full list of school districts being probed was posted on the DOJ website.
Gender Ideology Investigations
On April 17, the Department of Education said it found four school districts in Kansas to have violated Title IX and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
These districts had policies “that were likely to prevent schools from notifying parents of their child’s so-called ‘gender transition,’ even if the parent requested their child’s records,” the department said.
In August 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) asked 46 states and territories to remove gender identity references from teaching materials, failing which they would face penalties, including the termination or suspension of federal funding.
This was met with a legal challenge by a coalition of 16 states and the District of Columbia, which filed a lawsuit in September 2025, arguing that terminating funding would harm “the very populations Congress intended to help.” The plaintiffs said complying with the order would conflict with their own laws and policies that require “inclusive” sex education curricula.
“The federal government’s far-reaching efforts to erase people who don’t fit one of two gender labels is illegal and wrong—and would deny services to millions more in the process,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement. The case is still ongoing in the court.
The HHS justified its order by citing a Jan. 29, 2025, executive order signed by President Donald Trump—Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling—which said that no federal dollars should go towards indoctrinating children in “radical, anti-American ideologies.”
At the time of the HHS order, Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary for the department’s Administration for Children and Families, said that “federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/01/2026 - 21:25 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 00:55:00 +0000 Hawaii Has America's Highest Life Expectancy, West Virginia The Lowest
Hawaii Has America's Highest Life Expectancy, West Virginia The Lowest
Life expectancy varies widely across the U.S., with clear regional patterns emerging in the latest data.
States in the Northeast and on
Read more.....
Hawaii Has America's Highest Life Expectancy, West Virginia The Lowest
Life expectancy varies widely across the U.S., with clear regional patterns emerging in the latest data.
States in the Northeast and on the West Coast tend to have higher life expectancies, while many in the South and Appalachia rank lower.
This map, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, shows these differences using data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics , based on 2022 life tables published in December 2025, the latest publicly available state-level figures as of March 2026.
The CDC’s report uses period life tables, which estimate how long a hypothetical group would live if it experienced the death rates observed in 2022 at every age. In other words, the measure captures current mortality conditions in each state, not a forecast for babies born there today.
Where Americans Live the Longest, and the Shortest
Among the 50 states and D.C., Hawaii had the highest life expectancy at birth in 2022 at 80.0 years. Massachusetts followed at 79.8, with New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut close behind.
The data table below shows the life expectancy of every U.S. state and D.C.:
Rank
State
Life Expectancy (Years)
1
Hawaii
80.0
2
Massachusetts
79.8
3
New Jersey
79.6
4
New York
79.5
5
Connecticut
79.4
6
California
79.3
7
Minnesota
79.3
8
Rhode Island
79.2
9
Utah
79.0
10
New Hampshire
78.7
11
Colorado
78.5
12
Idaho
78.4
13
Washington
78.4
14
Nebraska
78.3
15
Vermont
78.3
16
Wisconsin
78.1
17
North Dakota
77.9
18
Iowa
77.9
19
Florida
77.9
20
Maryland
77.8
21
Oregon
77.7
22
Illinois
77.5
23
Virginia
77.5
24
Pennsylvania
77.3
25
South Dakota
77.3
26
Montana
77.3
27
Texas
77.1
28
Wyoming
76.8
29
Michigan
76.8
30
Arizona
76.7
31
Maine
76.6
32
District of Columbia
76.6
33
Delaware
76.5
34
Kansas
76.5
35
Nevada
76.4
36
Georgia
75.9
37
North Carolina
75.9
38
Alaska
75.8
39
Ohio
75.6
40
Indiana
75.4
41
Missouri
75.2
42
South Carolina
75.1
43
New Mexico
74.5
44
Arkansas
73.9
45
Oklahoma
73.8
46
Tennessee
73.8
47
Alabama
73.8
48
Louisiana
73.8
49
Kentucky
73.6
50
Mississippi
72.6
51
West Virginia
72.2
On the other end of the ranking, West Virginia came in last at 72.2 years, behind Mississippi at 72.6 and Kentucky at 73.6.
The broad pattern is regional: the Northeast and West Coast have higher life expectancies, while many Southern and Appalachian states cluster at the bottom.
Why the National Average Misses the State Divide
While the national average is 77.5 years, only 21 states cleared that mark. Illinois and Virginia matched it exactly, and the remaining 28 states came in below it.
The CDC also found that females had higher life expectancy than males in every state and D.C., but the size of that gender gap varied widely. States on the lower end of life expectancy tended to have larger divides, while higher-ranked states had smaller gaps.
For example, New Mexico (ninth-lowest life expectancy at 74.5) recorded the largest female-male gap at 6.9 years, while Utah (ninth-highest at 79 years) had the smallest at 3.6 years.
If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Why Living Longer Isn’t Always Living Healthier on Voronoi.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/01/2026 - 20:55 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 00:35:00 +0000 Russia Now Main Supplier Of Oil To Post-Assad Syria, Despite Pivot To West
Russia Now Main Supplier Of Oil To Post-Assad Syria, Despite Pivot To West
Russia Now Main Supplier Of Oil To Post-Assad Syria, Despite Pivot To West
Via The Cradle
Russia has become Syria's leading supplier of oil since the collapse of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government and the rise to power of former Al-Qaeda chief Ahmad al-Sharaa, according to Reuters .
Shipments of Russian oil have risen by 75 percent this year to roughly 60,000 barrels per day (bpd), based on Reuters calculations using official data and vessel tracking from LSEG, MarineTraffic, and Shipnext.
Getty Images
While these volumes account for only a small fraction of Russia’s total global oil exports, they are significant for Syria . With domestic production still well below demand, Russian supplies have made Moscow the country’s leading crude provider.
According to two analysts and three Syrian officials cited by Reuters , the trade is driven by economic necessity in Damascus while also allowing Moscow to maintain influence in Syria .
The energy supplies risk complicating Syrian ties with Washington and the EU, sources were cited as saying.
“If the US were to fail to reach an agreement or settlement with Russia regarding Ukraine, it wouldn’t be a surprise if it told Syria overnight to stop buying these oil shipments,” said economist Karam Shaar.
Syria has undergone a major shift toward Washington and the west since Assad’s ouster. The US has declared Damascus a partner and ally in the fight against ISIS – ignoring the Syrian government’s ties to the extremist organization .
Damascus was also engaged in talks with Israel throughout last year, and began a crackdown on Palestinian resistance factions in Syria at Washington’s request.
As a result, most US sanctions have been lifted. Despite this, Syria has not been fully integrated into the global economic system .
Russia was a prime supporter of the Assad government. Throughout the 14-year war in Syria, Russian airstrikes repeatedly targeted extremist groups – which now make up the bulk of Syria's official military and security apparatus.
But ties have improved , and Russia has retained a military presence inside Syria following negotiations with Damascus throughout 2025.
In March last year, Reuters reported that Syria was receiving currency shipments from Russia.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/01/2026 - 20:35 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 00:10:00 +0000 Estée Lauder Accelerates Turnaround, Adds 3,000 Jobs To Chopping Block
Estée Lauder Accelerates Turnaround, Adds 3,000 Jobs To Chopping Block
Beauty and cosmetics giant Estée Lauder is accelerating its workforce restructuring, announcing Friday morning that it will cut another 3,000 jobs, bringing tot
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Estée Lauder Accelerates Turnaround, Adds 3,000 Jobs To Chopping Block
Beauty and cosmetics giant Estée Lauder is accelerating its workforce restructuring, announcing Friday morning that it will cut another 3,000 jobs, bringing total planned reductions to as many as 10,000 roles. The move is expected to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in additional savings. Still, it also suggests a deeper reset in the company's workforce after its hiring spree leading up to Covid, potentially putting a long-term cap on headcount.
The owner of Clinique, La Mer, MAC, Aveda, Bobbi Brown, Jo Malone London, Le Labo, Tom Ford Beauty, Too Faced, and others wrote in an earnings press release that it now "estimates a final net reduction in positions of 9,000 to 10,000, an increase from 5,800 to 7,000." In other words, management found another 3,000 jobs to cut.
According to Bloomberg data, Estée Lauder has a global workforce of about 40,470 as of the second quarter of 2025. The total workforce peaked in 2022 at around 44,800, ending a multi-decade hiring spree.
"Over 70% of the increase is attributable to the reduction in point-of-sale demonstration roles at select unproductive doors in its department store and freestanding store channels, as the Company continues to evolve its focus towards high-growth channels," the company noted.
Management said the restructuring is based on four objectives:
reorganization and rightsizing of certain areas,
simplification and acceleration of processes,
outsourcing of select services and
evolution of go-to-market footprint and selling models, all to help rebuild operating margin and also fuel reinvestment in consumer-facing areas to drive sustainable sales growth.
Shares jumped as much as 16% in premarket trading, and if those gains hold through the cash session, it would be the largest increase since November 3, 2011. The optimism stemmed from Estée Lauder's earnings report, which raised its profit outlook.
The company now expects adjusted EPS of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates tracked by Bloomberg and higher than its prior $2.05 to $2.25 range. Organic sales growth is expected to be 3%, at the high end of previous guidance.
Shares are trading around 2016 levels after what can only be described as a boom-and-bust cycle, peaking in 2021. Shares remain down roughly 80%, as of Thursday's close, from the peak of $370 in late 2021.
The question Wall Street analysts have been asking is whether CEO Stéphane de La Faverie's turnaround will be successful.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/01/2026 - 20:10 Close
Fri, 01 May 2026 23:45:00 +0000 A Robot Economy: Who Gets Rich, Who Gets Left Behind
A Robot Economy: Who Gets Rich, Who Gets Left Behind
A Robot Economy: Who Gets Rich, Who Gets Left Behind
Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,
Robots are coming to the economy. It is inevitable, really, and there is nothing that will stop it. At some point in the not-so-distant future, robots will infiltrate every aspect of our lives, from office work and manufacturing to service work and trade skills, and even your home. Here are some numbers for you.
The real question I want to explore in today’s post is what happens to the people who don’t own the robots? Let’s dig in.
I spent the past week reading through a detailed account of what’s happening inside Figure’s robotics facility in San Jose, and I want to be direct: the humanoid robots economy is no longer a thought experiment. Figure’s latest robot ran for 67 consecutive hours of fully autonomous work, kitchen tasks, package handling, and logistics, without a single error. That’s not a demo reel, that’s a product. When you factor in a projected lease cost of roughly $10 a day, it’s a product priced to replace the single largest input cost on every corporate income statement in America: human labor.
The optimists call what’s coming the “age of abundance.” Cheaper goods, freed-up time, robots building robots until supply constraints essentially disappear. That would be incredible, and you should not dismiss that vision. Furthermore, I think it’s directionally correct over a long enough horizon. But after 35 years of watching economic cycles play out, I’ve learned that the gap between a macro promise and the lived experience of actual households is where the real story lives.
In an upcoming article, we will dig deeper into the problems plaguing the K-shaped economy. However, that bifurcated structure, in which higher-income households ascend while lower-income ones stagnate, was already a structural feature of American life before a single humanoid robot touched a factory floor. Back to our question, does the arrival of humanoid robots at scale fix that problem? Or, does it make it dramatically worse? The answer, I believe, is both, in that order, and separated by a decade of potential pain.
The Technology Of Robots Is Not Waiting For A Policy Response
It’s worth taking the technology seriously before discussing the economics, because the economics are downstream of the hardware reality. Figure has replaced over 100,000 lines of handwritten control code with a single neural network — what they call Helix 2 — that controls the robot’s entire body in real time. The key shift is that neural networks learn from data rather than explicit instructions. Once a robot masters a task, that knowledge propagates instantly across the entire fleet. Humans don’t work that way. Robots do.
At $300 per month to lease, against a U.S. minimum wage that runs $15 to $20 per hour, a humanoid robot is already 50 times cheaper than the human it displaces, and it works around the clock without benefits, turnover, or OSHA violations. The corporate incentive to adopt is not subtle. JPMorgan’s own disclosures describe AI-driven efficiency gains of 40% to 50% in certain operations. Add a physical labor layer to that, and you have the most powerful deflationary force for corporate margins in modern history.
While shareholders of corporations with large labor forces will love the improvement in profit margins, workers will not. That asymmetry is not a flaw in the system; it’s a feature of who owns the system. And that ownership structure is the core issue this article is really about.
The K-Shaped Economy Was Already Broken
Here’s what makes the discussion of humanoid robots’ economy so complicated: we’re not starting from a position of broad-based prosperity. The K-shaped economy is already a structural, not cyclical, feature of modern America. The Federal Reserve’s own data shows the top 1% of households hold nearly 32% of total net worth, while the bottom 50% collectively hold 2.5%. The portion of GDP flowing to workers as compensation just hit its lowest level in over 75 years of Bureau of Labor Statistics tracking. The middle class shrank from 61% of the population in 1971 to barely 51% in 2023.
Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi described this not as a temporary anomaly but as “a structural, fundamental issue.” U.S. Bank’s economics team concluded in their 2026 report that income concentration now exceeds its pre-pandemic peak and sits at levels not seen in 60 years. These figures predate the meaningful deployment of humanoid robots. They reflect decades of technology-driven productivity gains that have flowed disproportionately to capital owners rather than to labor.
“The gains from technology have reliably accrued to capital. There is no structural reason to expect the arrival of humanoid robots to reverse that pattern — and strong structural reasons to expect it accelerates it. ” – US Bank
Fortune’s analysis earlier this year captured the consensus view among economists. That view is that while AI and robots may eventually close the inequality gap, productivity gains need to first reach low-skilled workers. That must come through real wage increases at the bottom of the distribution, before that convergence happens. That process won’t complete until well into the 2030s at the earliest. In the meantime, the wealth effect continues to push the two tracks of the K further apart.
Stanford’s Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, drew a blunt historical parallel: the Midwest auto communities hollowed out by trade and automation in the 1990s. But the coming displacement is potentially 10 to 100 times more disruptive — not because it’s faster, but because it spans both blue-collar and white-collar work simultaneously. Software engineers, call center workers, and administrative roles face AI-driven displacement. Factory workers, warehouse staff, and service workers are facing displacement by humanoid robots. There’s no obvious “up-the-ladder” escape hatch when both rungs are being removed at once.
We already discussed the structural challenge in our January 2026 piece on AI Productivity, Employment, and UBI. The IMF estimates that AI could significantly affect nearly 40% of jobs worldwide. But the distribution of risk is deeply unequal. Entry-level roles, historically the on-ramp for younger workers without established skills, are exactly the jobs being automated first.
“The pace of technological change means millions of Americans face an uncertain labor market. Young workers entering the workforce find fewer traditional hiring pathways and rising expectations around digital and AI-related skills. Older workers frequently lack the time or resources to retrain in rapidly shifting skill environments. Across age groups, employers deploying AI experience reduced labor costs and increased productivity, which simultaneously puts pressure on wages and job security.”
The problem already exists, and robots will likely only make things worse. For example, layoffs in 2025 ran more than 50% above the prior year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That displacement risk will grow further as robots enter the mainstream.
As we concluded in that previous article:
“The reality is stark. The economy may grow, but how the gains are distributed will determine whether everyday Americans thrive or struggle. Without structural policy interventions, technological displacement risks widening income inequality and weakening labor market attachment. The promise of more leisure, education, and family time from productivity gains remains theoretical. If workers lack stable incomes, employment opportunities, or bridging support, the rest won’t matter.”
But, this is where the “cries for UBI” become most vocal.
The UBI Trap
When people confront this picture, the political reflex is predictable: send checks. Universal Basic Income has become the default policy proposal for managing automation-driven displacement, and it’s worth taking seriously, not because it works, but because understanding why it doesn’t tells you a great deal about what actually might.
We covered the evidence in detail in our earlier piece on UBI experiments. The real-world results were consistent: cash transfers increased short-term consumption and reduced reported stress. They did not raise employment. They did not meaningfully increase retraining, skill development, or entrepreneurship. The largest behavioral response was an uptick in what researchers categorized as “social and solo leisure activities.” Legendary investor Howard Marks framed the core problem plainly: financial support alone cannot replace the psychological and social benefits of employment. Work provides identity, structure, and purpose, not just income. A check replaces the wage. It replaces nothing else.
The structural flaw is deeper than behavioral. An economy cannot function on transfers alone. Production must precede consumption. When the government sends checks to households without a corresponding increase in productive output, the result is inflation, exactly what 2020–2022 demonstrated. Producers observe increased purchasing power and raise prices to capture it. The real value of the transfer evaporates. A national UBI program large enough to offset meaningful displacement would cost trillions annually, requiring higher taxes or debt expansion, each of which suppresses the private investment needed to create new roles.
While that all seems bad, there is a more optimistic possibility, and why I want to push back on the dystopian framing. First, I don’t think the outcome is predetermined. The Industrial Revolution created enormous displacement: artisans lost work to mechanized production, and whole trades disappeared. But it also produced a century of rising living standards for people who successfully transitioned into new economic roles. The difference between that transition going well and going badly was not a UBI check. It was access to new skills, new institutions, and new markets.
The economy of humanoid robots creates real demand for roles that robots genuinely cannot fill. Trades requiring tactile judgment in unpredictable environments, such as master electricians, structural engineers, and experienced surgeons, aren’t going anywhere quickly. Secondly, AI and robotics are capital-intensive industries themselves, generating sustained demand for maintenance technicians, fleet managers, training data specialists, and deployment engineers. These aren’t science-fiction roles, but the downstream jobs for the infrastructure being built right now.
Lastly, there’s one lever that doesn’t get discussed enough: ownership. The K-shaped economy is, at its core, a problem of capital ownership. The households that benefit from automation are the ones that own the companies deploying it. Expanding the share of Americans with meaningful exposure to productive capital, whether through 401(k) reforms, Employee Stock Ownership Plans, or accessible investment platforms, does more for long-term inequality than any transfer payment. If a displaced warehouse worker owns shares in the company whose humanoid robots replaced her, the economics look very different than if she doesn’t.
What This Means for Investors Right Now
From a portfolio standpoint, the humanoid robots economy creates some of the most asymmetric opportunities I’ve seen in my career. However, the risk distribution is equally asymmetric, and most retail investors are positioned to capture the downside more than the upside.
The companies building the enabling infrastructure, robotics manufacturers, neural network chip designers, industrial automation software, and energy infrastructure to power the compute are the obvious beneficiaries. But valuations in that space already reflect extraordinary expectations. Morgan Stanley’s Global Investment Committee assigns roughly a 50/50 probability to AI-related capital expenditures meeting investor expectations, noting that implementation timelines frequently slip and productivity gains tend to concentrate in a handful of large firms. That’s not a reason to avoid the sector. It is a reason to size positions carefully and not chase narratives at elevated multiples.
The overlooked angle is the deflationary pressure on companies that rely heavily on service labor. Hospitality, food service, residential services, and logistics firms currently trade at labor cost structures that will look dramatically different in five to seven years. For some, that’s a margin expansion story. For others, it’s a demand destruction story. A significant portion of their customer base works in exactly the jobs being displaced. The companies that survive the transition are the ones that both reduce labor costs and retain the purchasing power of their customer base. That’s a genuinely difficult needle to thread.
The investors who benefit most from the humanoid robots economy will be those who own the productive assets. Investing in equities, real estate, and capital-allocating businesses will far outpace depending solely on earned income. That pattern is not new. It’s the same dynamic that has driven the K-shaped divergence for the past 50 years. The robotics revolution amplifies it; it doesn’t invent it. Which means the single most important investment decision most Americans can make today has nothing to do with picking the right robotics stock. It’s making sure they own enough capital to participate in the upside that’s coming, whatever form it ultimately takes.
The age of abundance is coming. I genuinely believe that. But abundance distributed through ownership looks completely different from abundance distributed through government transfers. The first compounds. The second erodes. History has run this experiment repeatedly, and the result is not ambiguous. The question isn’t whether humanoid robots will transform the economy. They already are. The question is whether you’re positioned on the right side of the ledger when they do.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/01/2026 - 19:45 Close
Fri, 01 May 2026 22:55:00 +0000 New California DMV Rules Allow Autonomous Vehicles To Be Cited
New California DMV Rules Allow Autonomous Vehicles To Be Cited
New California DMV Rules Allow Autonomous Vehicles To Be Cited
Authored by Lear Zhou via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
SAN FRANCISCO—Driverless vehicles such as Waymo robotaxis could be ticketed for moving violations, according to updated autonomous vehicle (AV) regulations approved by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) on April 28, to enhance safety, oversight, and enforcement requirements.
Waymo driverless vehicles charge at a Waymo charging station in Santa Monica, Calif., on May 30, 2025. Daniel Cole/Reuters
The new rules allow law enforcement agencies to cite the companies that own the AVs for traffic violations committed by their vehicles.
Part of the regulations, which were implemented based on the California Legislature’s Assembly Bill 1777, also require companies to respond to calls from police, firefighters, and other emergency officials within 30 seconds.
The rules also authorize emergency response officials to issue electronic geofencing requests to an AV manufacturer to direct its AV fleet to leave or avoid the area within two minutes. “AVs that violate this restriction may be subject to permit restrictions or suspension,” according to DMV’s news release.
“Autonomous vehicle innovators operating in California have a clear, workable path to test and deploy, ensuring the state will continue to benefit from autonomous technology through safer roads, enhanced accessibility, and strengthened supply chains .” said Jeff Farrah, CEO of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA), referring to the new regulation in an April 29 statement.
AVIA is a non-governmental organization advocating for the safe and timely deployment of autonomous driving technologies.
The new rules send a clear message that “autonomy does not remove responsibility,” Ahmed Banafa, an engineering professor of San Jose State University, told The Epoch Times via email.
“These vehicles must integrate smoothly into real-world environments that include law enforcement, pedestrians, and unpredictable situations.” he said.
Previously law enforcement officers often didn’t know how to deal with driverless cars. The new rules are meant to lead to more standardized procedures, clearer communication channels, and better coordination between AV fleets and the law enforcement agencies.
“While it may introduce additional compliance costs and slow down some rollouts, it creates a clearer framework for companies to operate within ,” Banafa said.
DMV’s new rules based on AB 1777 would require AV manufacturers to maintain a dedicated emergency response telephone line, and equip each AV with a two-way voice communication device for emergency response officers to communicate with a remote human operator.
The deadline for the AV companies to comply was set as July 1, 2026.
The rule updates come after issues were revealed involving autonomous vehicles in San Francisco, including Waymo cars blocking intersections during a massive blackout that disabled traffic signals in December .
The San Francisco Fire Department also complained after dozens of incidents involving driverless vehicles interfering with emergency response teams in 2023.
To comply with the new regulations, the AV manufacturers must increase human involvement, but in a different form, Banafa ssaid. “Humans are now part of a centralized support system rather than physically inside the car.”
On Feb. 4, 2026, in a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Waymo’s chief safety officer Mauricio Peña testified that when the company’s robotaxis encounter unusual situations, a remote human operator may step in.
Peña said some of the operators are located in the United States, while other workers are abroad, including in the Philippines.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/01/2026 - 18:55 Close
Fri, 01 May 2026 22:30:00 +0000 Trump Pulling 5,000 US Troops From Germany In Punitive Move Amid Merz Spat
Trump Pulling 5,000 US Troops From Germany In Punitive Move Amid Merz Spat
In a huge late in the day Friday development, the Trump administration plans to pull some 5,000 troops from NATO member Germany , Read more.....
Trump Pulling 5,000 US Troops From Germany In Punitive Move Amid Merz Spat
In a huge late in the day Friday development, the Trump administration plans to pull some 5,000 troops from NATO member Germany , CBS is reporting. Citing senior defense officials, the Pentagon expects the troop draw down will happen over a six to twelve month period , Reuters has also separately reported, in what clearly appears a punitive measure aimed at Berlin by the Trump White House.
Over several years, and stretching back decades, the US has maintained the most number of troops on the European continent in Germany - currently estimated at over 36,000 active duty personnel . So the 5,000 - while significant - is still somewhat of a symbolic move and number.
Source: DPA
The large US presence hearkens back to the post WWII division of Germany and post-war order, and is also a legacy of the Cold War. Ironically at this very moment European leaders have hyped a 'new Cold War' with Russia, as the Ukraine war continues raging.
"The officials characterized the move as a signal of President Trump's discontent with the level of assistance that European allies have offered in the U.S.-Iran war ," CBS writes.
The significance of the planned move also lies in the fact that America's German bases serve as headquarters of US European Command and Africa Command - with the historic Ramstein Air Base being the key hub.
The announcement via US reporting comes just a day after Trump again lambasted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz :
"The Chancellor of Germany should spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine (Where he has been totally ineffective!), and fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy, and less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat, thereby making the World, including Germany, a safer place!" Trump wrote on Truth Social .
Merz had in a rare moment torched US foreign policy and the Trump administration's Iran war gambit in Monday remarks given at a local event in Germany.
Included in that very head-on critique of Operation Epic Fury came in the following : "An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards. And so I hope that this ends as quickly as possible."
Merz had also claimed, "If I had known that it would continue like this for five or six weeks and get progressively worse, I would have told ?him even more emphatically." ?
Yet the reality is that criticisms from EU leaders in the opening days were somewhat muted, meager, and weak. Indeed, where was Merz during the opening days of Operation Epic Fury as it was bombs away?
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/01/2026 - 18:30 Close