Here's What Happened Inside Gas Stations When Gas Hit $4

In Goldman's first-quarter "Nicotine Nuggets" survey of retailers and wholesalers covering roughly 44,000 U.S. stores, or about 28% of all tobacco outlets nationwide, analysts observed that once the national average for regular 87-octane gasoline hit the politically sensitive $4-a-gallon level, the squeeze on consumers began to emerge. One of the clearest signs of stress was a downshift in purchases as budget-conscious consumers started pulling back on tobacco purchases or, in some cases, trading down. 

"The outlook remains cautious but retailers & wholesalers generally see the environment as stable despite ongoing concerns on the consumer and recent pressure from higher gas prices," Bonnie Herzog, managing director and senior consumer analyst at Goldman, wrote in a note on Friday morning. 

According to the survey, 58% of respondents said consumer behavior had noticeably changed once 87-octane gasoline prices at the pump crossed the $4 threshold, while another 26% said they have not seen changes yet but expect them if prices remain elevated.

The biggest changes cited were consumers downtrading in stores, buying less fuel, and purchasing less overall inside stores. Some retailers also reported fewer trips, weaker inside sales, and more "splash and go" visits at the pump, where customers buy smaller amounts of fuel and skip in-store purchases.

She said, "Downtrading was strong in Q1, as roughly 80% of respondents indicated that deep-discount cigarettes gained share."

Main points of the survey:

• Specific changes in behavior noted included consumers purchasing less in stores (indicated by 32% of respondents), downtrading in stores (47%), downtrading at the gas pump (11%), driving less (16%), and purchasing less fuel (37%).

• Multiple respondents noted seeing fewer customer trips to stores as a result of their higher retail fuel prices (with one noting higher basket sizes as a result of trip consolidation), along with overall lower levels for inside-store sales. One respondent pointed to considerable pressure on the consumer buying at budgeted dollar increments (a rapidly growing consumer segment), which naturally purchases less fuel as the price increases.

• Negatively, one retailer is witnessing more "splash and go" trips to the pump (fewer gallons and fewer people converting to inside sales). That said, the retailer also sees a shift in consumer behavior toward value, which has been a benefit to the nicotine pouch category in this regard, as higher engagement with fuel reward promos has led to category sales - with VELO Plus sales for the retailer up 20%+ in the last three weeks.

Herzog and her team "remain cautious on the U.S. tobacco/nicotine industry near-term given continued cig volume declines in Q1 and pressures on the tobacco consumer as a result of the inflationary backdrop and recently higher gas prices, although we see continued robust growth for the nicotine pouch category."

The "Nicotine Nuggets" report underscores just why politicians are so sensitive to surging gasoline prices: once fuel prices spike, cash-strapped consumers are forced into difficult trade-offs, whether that means buying less gas or diesel, cutting back elsewhere, or, in some cases, trading down in tobacco products.

Late last year, Herzog told clients, "Buy nicotine, energy drink, and candy stocks."

Professional subscribers can read the "Nicotine Nuggets" note on our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/18/2026 - 08:45

Spain Erupts: Patriots Attacked By Socialist Mob Over Mass Illegal Migrant Amnesty

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Violence broke out in the Spanish city of Granada when roughly 40 left-wing Antifa extremists tried to shut down a pre-election rally held by the nationalist party Vox in Plaza de las Pasiegas. Police had to form a cordon between the rival groups as fights broke out, delaying the event by around 30 minutes.

Vox leader Santiago Abascal refused to start the rally until the disruptors were removed. He stepped down from the platform, walked toward the rival group with supporters, and crowds chanted “Out, out!” as tensions spilled over. Abascal directly accused authorities of failing to protect free speech, stating: “They are preventing us from carrying out this act freely.”

He went further, blaming the unrest on the very politicians who enabled it: “They are the ones who put Sánchez in La Moncloa.”

Footage shows red paint thrown at attendees, shouting matches, and police struggling to keep the sides apart. Smaller groups of protesters reappeared near the square after the rally began, mobilized via social media.

Violence erupts in Spanish city days after controversial plan to grant amnesty to 500,000 migrants

Clashes broke out in Granada’s Plaza de las Pasiegas between right-wing Vox supporters and left-wing activists.

Around 40 left-wing protesters tried to disrupt a Vox rally,… pic.twitter.com/1VfeHsamIB

— G R I F T Y (@GriftReport) April 17, 2026

The clashes come just days after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s socialist government approved plans to grant legal status, jobs, and benefits to around 500,000 migrants — with analysts warning the real number could hit 800,000.

As we reported earlier, this triggered immediate chaos at consulates across Spain, where thousands of migrants swarmed to submit paperwork:

Endless queues snaked through streets in cities like Almería, Bilbao, and Madrid. Migrants clambered over security gates. Immigration offices are now threatening strikes, overwhelmed by the sudden flood with only a handful of staff handling applications that were farmed out to post offices and NGOs.

Vox has hammered the policy as an “invasion” accelerated by Sánchez. The Granada rally turned into a flashpoint for that anger, with party figures accusing the government of promoting demographic replacement while the opposition People’s Party offered little resistance.

This is the direct result of Sánchez’s open-borders experiment, which prioritizes globalist virtue-signaling over Spanish citizens’ safety and cohesion. While the left screams about “fascism,” it is their own policies that are turning Spanish streets into battlegrounds between patriots demanding borders and radicals defending unlimited migration.

The amnesty is already facing a serious legal challenge that could freeze the entire process. The Spanish legal group Hazte Oír has taken the royal decree to the Supreme Court, which accepted the case and gave the government just 20 days to justify bypassing parliament:

Lawyers argue there was no “extraordinary and urgent need” for a decree instead of normal legislation, warning of irreversible damage to public services, housing, and social cohesion. A precautionary suspension is on the table — meaning the flood of new legal residents could be halted before it becomes impossible to reverse.

Abascal has been blunt about what comes next if the courts fail to act: “These are the lines to manage mass regularization in each municipality of Spain. Tomorrow this chaos will move to the health centers, to the social services, to the real estate agencies… It’s called thirdworldization. It’s already happening. Our priority is to reverse it, radically.”

Sánchez, meanwhile, calls the giveaway “an act of justice” and “a necessity,” claiming it simply recognizes migrants who “already form part of our everyday lives.” Critics point out Spain has run multiple amnesties since 1986 with over 1.75 million permits issued — yet illegal entries and integration failures continue unabated.

The left’s response to pushback is always the same: label patriots as extremists while their policies import the very tensions now exploding. Spain stands at a crossroads. Either the courts step in and the people demand sanity, or the socialist experiment will turn one of Europe’s great nations into a cautionary tale of what happens when globalism overrides national survival.

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Tyler Durden Sat, 04/18/2026 - 08:10

Ukraine Urges Israel To Act Against Russian Ship Carrying 'Stolen' Grain To Haifa Port

Ukraine is pushing Israel to seize a grain shipment it says was looted from Russian-occupied territory as the war persists in the east.

At the moment it does not appear that Israel complied with any interdict of the vessel, also as reports say the cargo is already offloaded and gone.

via MarineTraffic

Ukraine's government flagged the Russian vessel ABINSK, docking at Haifa, as part of Moscow’s so-called shadow fleet, alleging that it is tied to operations used to "illegally export, transport, and sell stolen Ukrainian grain" and bankroll Moscow's war effort.

The saga has been featured in Ukrainian media, which says that despite a formal government-to-government request, Israeli authorities didn't stop the shipment.

Some 43,765 tonnes of wheat - loaded at Russia’s Kavkaz port and believed to originate from Ukrainian regions controlled by the Russian military - was allowed to be unloaded.

Ukraine is still expressing hope for "fruitful and constructive interaction" between both sides, with its embassy in contact with Israeli officials, but Tel Aviv does not appear to be as eager to intervene.

According to some further details in Le Monde:

On April 12, it was permitted to dock in Haifa, where it may have unloaded its cargo, valued at about €8.5 million at current wheat prices. The Abinsk then left Haifa the same day, heading for the Dardanelles Strait with the Turkish port of Çanakkale listed as its next stop, according to Marinetraffic.com, a vessel-tracking website.

The Russian bulk carrier reportedly loaded its cargo at the port of Kavkaz on the Kerch Strait, which separates the Sea of Azov from the Black Sea and links the Russian Federation to Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, according to Ukrainian investigative journalist Kateryna Yaresko, who works for the SeaKrime project at Myrotvorets, an online collaborative platform listing "enemies of Ukraine."

At a moment the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively blocked, and global shipping is feeling the disruption, the Israelis are unlikely to get too trigger happy when it comes to further disrupting trade - even if it comes from Russia or is in a 'gray area'. 

As for Ukraine and Israel, the two countries' relations has lately improved given the two can find common cause in opposing Iran. President Zelensky has meanwhile been touting drone sales to US allies in the Gulf of late too.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/18/2026 - 07:50

Kuwait Holds American Journalist After Reporting On 'Friendly Fire' Shootdown Incident

Authored by Chris Hedges via Consortium News

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, a fearless Palestinian-American journalist (he's an American-born Kuwaiti of Palestinian descent) whose writing and reports are defined by unparalleled integrity, depth and eloquence, was arrested on March 3rd in Kuwait.

He is charged with spreading false information and harming national security.

His arrest took place following his reporting of the shooting down of three U.S. fighter planes by the Kuwaiti military in an act of friendly fire during the U.S.-Israel war with Iran. Ahmed, along with other news outlets such as the BBC, published footage of a U.S. F-15 E Strike Eagle crashing in al-Jahra west of Kuwait City.

I fear Ahmed, a graduate of Columbia Journalism School who has worked for The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Al Jazeera English, Vice on HBO, The Huffington Post and appeared on numerous news outlets including the BBC and CNN, will be charged under new, draconian security laws instituted in Kuwait, which have already led to dozens of arbitrary arrests.

Kuwait has desperately tried to maintain the fiction that it did not serve as a staging area for US attacks on Iran. 

The NY Times had also confirmed this week:

The arrest of the journalist, Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, which Kuwaiti authorities had yet to publicly confirm, would be one of many detentions across the Persian Gulf as governments there try to repress information about local effects of the war in Iran.

“It is understood that authorities have charged him with spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone — vague and overly broad accusations that are routinely used to silence independent journalists,” the committee said in a statement.

He had not posted online or been seen in public since early March, it said. His Twitter and Instagram accounts appeared to have been deleted.

Iran repeatedly attacked Kuwait, including strikes on Kuwait International Airport, the Ali Al Salem Air Base, the U.S. garrison at Camp Buehring and an operations center that saw six U.S. soldiers killed and dozens wounded. Iran also attacked the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery and a Kuwaiti oil tanker.

WATCH: Clear footage of a U.S. F-15E jet that was shot down over Kuwait on March 1-2 in a friendly fire incident by Kuwaiti F-18 jet. pic.twitter.com/rk1uAANWNh

— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 16, 2026

France 24 broadcast a video of HIMARS missiles allegedly being fired from Kuwait into Iran. Ahmed’s reporting also undercut the lie of Kuwaiti neutrality.

The Kuwaiti authorities will, I expect, for this reason, seek to turn Ahmed into an example for the rest of the press.

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Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 23:25

Spillover Conflict Still Raging In Iraq: Three Iranian Kurds Killed

The Iran war seems to be cooling, as a two week ceasefire holds, but people are still dying from spillover effects and sporadic conflict in neighboring Iraq.

"Drone and rocket strikes in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region on Friday killed three Iranian Kurds, including two women fighters, an exiled opposition group said, blaming the attack on Iran," AFP reports. It's unclear if the projectiles were sent across the border, or whether pro-Iran groups inside Iraq carried out the killings.

Illustrative: Alhurra

This comes several weeks after US officials first floated the possibility of arming Iranian Kurdish dissident groups. Kurdish organizations in Iraq and along the border insisted at the time that there was no plan to receive arms and training from the US.

The fear was that the US statements and avalanche of international press reports claiming a potential impending plan to use Kurds as a proxy ground force served to put a bright red target on the Kurdish community of Iran (and by extension Iraq).

Indeed throughout the conflict there had been sporadic Iranian attacks on Kurdish areas, particularly in northern Iraqi Kurdistan. That appears to still be happening, with the Friday report:

“The Islamic Republic of Iran launched a new wave of missile and drone strikes today targeting... civilian camps of the PDKI,” killing one person and wounding his father, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) said on X.

In a separate attack, two women fighters were killed and other fighters wounded, the party added.

A PDKI official told AFP the fighters were killed in an attack on their positions in the Soran area, nestled in the Zagros mountains near the Iranian border.

In other Iraq-related news connected to the Iran war, the US Treasury on Friday has slapped new sanctions on a series of Shia pro-Iran militia leaders.

The United States Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has targeted seven pro-Iran Iraqi militia commanders, accused of organizing and carrying out attacks against US soldiers and facilities.

They are "some of Iraq's most violent Iran-aligned militia organizations," such as Asa'ib Ahl Al-Haqq, Kata'ib Hezbollah, Kata'ib Sayyid Al-Shuhada, and Harakat Al-Nujaba - according to the Trump administration.

"We will not allow Iraq's terrorist militias, backed by Iran, to threaten American lives or interests ... Those who enable these militias' violence will be held accountable," US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 23:00

Massive Cosmic Test Shows Newton And Einstein Still Explain Gravity Accurately

Authored by Neetika Walter via Interesting Engineering,

Scientists have tested gravity across some of the largest structures in the universe and found that it behaves exactly as predicted by long-standing physical laws.

Galaxies and clusters trace gravity’s pull across the universe.iStock Photos

Researchers led by University of Pennsylvania used data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope to examine how galaxy clusters move across vast cosmic distances.

Their results show that gravity weakens with distance in line with the inverse-square law first described by Isaac Newton and later embedded in Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

The findings challenge alternative theories that suggest gravity changes at large scales and instead reinforce the idea that an unseen component, dark matter, is shaping cosmic motion.

Gravity holds at scale

“Astrophysics has been plagued by a massive discrepancy in the cosmic ledger,” said Patricio A. Gallardo.

“When we look at how stars orbit within galaxies or how galaxies move within galaxy clusters, some appear to be traveling way too fast for the amount of visible matter they contain.”

To test whether gravity itself might be responsible, the researchers analyzed subtle distortions in the cosmic microwave background as it passes through massive galaxy clusters.

These distortions, caused by the motion of hot gas around clusters, allowed the team to measure how quickly clusters are moving toward each other across distances spanning hundreds of millions of light-years.

The results closely matched predictions from classical and relativistic physics, showing no evidence that gravity weakens differently than expected at these scales.

“It is remarkable that the law of the inverse of the squares—proposed by Newton in the 17th century and then incorporated by Einstein’s theory of general relativity—is still holding its ground in the 21st century,” said Gallardo.

Dark matter case strengthens

The study addresses a long-standing puzzle in cosmology. Observations have consistently shown that stars at the edges of galaxies and galaxies within clusters move faster than visible matter alone can explain.

“That is the central puzzle,” Gallardo explained.

“Either gravity behaves differently on very large scales, or the universe contains additional matter that we cannot directly see.”

Because the new measurements confirm that gravity behaves as expected, the results strengthen the case for dark matter as the missing component.

“This study strengthens the evidence that the universe contains a component of dark matter,” said Gallardo. “But we still do not know what that component is made of.”

The work also places constraints on theories such as Modified Newtonian Dynamics, which attempt to explain cosmic motion by altering the laws of gravity.

By extending tests of gravity to distances far beyond the scale of individual galaxies, the research provides one of the most comprehensive validations of standard cosmological models to date.

Future observations using more detailed maps of the cosmic microwave background and larger galaxy surveys could further refine these measurements and test gravity with even greater precision.

“With so many unanswered questions, gravity remains one of the most fascinating areas of research. It’s a naturally attractive field,” Gallardo said.

The study was published in Physical Review Letters.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 22:35

Beijing Boosts BeiDou Satellite System To Try And Compete With GPS

China is upgrading its BeiDou satellite navigation system, a domestic alternative to GPS, to expand its global reach and industry use, according to South China Morning Post.

The plan involves replacing older satellites with newer third-generation models and adjusting their orbits to improve worldwide coverage. The system will be streamlined from 50 to 37 active satellites, most operating in medium Earth orbit like GPS and Europe’s Galileo.

A few satellites will remain in specialized orbits to improve signal reliability in certain regions, including areas linked to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The upgraded network will mainly use newer BDS-3 satellites, which are more accurate and advanced, while older BDS-2 units will be retired.

The SCMP writes that China also aims to boost international adoption of BeiDou, especially in Belt and Road countries where it’s already used in shipping, agriculture, and transport.

The upgrade supports a broader strategy to integrate space, air, and ground systems and expand satellite technology across industries. Officials expect BeiDou’s value to reach about $145 billion within five years.

In addition, the overhaul is designed to make the system more efficient by reducing the total number of satellites while improving overall performance. By focusing on newer technology and better orbital positioning, China hopes to deliver more reliable global coverage with fewer resources. The remaining unused slots in the network also leave room for future expansion and technological upgrades.

The move reflects China’s long-term goal of reducing reliance on Western navigation systems and strengthening its technological independence. By improving accuracy, coverage, and international partnerships, Beijing is positioning BeiDou as a competitive global alternative, particularly in developing regions where infrastructure projects are already closely tied to Chinese investment.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 22:10

Ditch The Sanitizer And Exercise Your Immune System

Authored by Joel Salatin via The Epoch Times,

Bugs, viruses, and sickness—these maladies creep into countless conversations as people wrestle with the question: How do I strengthen my immune system?

The overriding answer from the conventional pharmaceutical and vaccine industry is that functional wellness comes from a pill, a needle, or some kind of medical treatment. As a farmer with thousands of animals and no vet bills, I can attest that the overriding conventional notion in the livestock industry is that a sick animal is apparently pharmaceutically disadvantaged.

I have a completely opposite paradigm: A sick animal testifies to my own mistakes. Maybe I chose weak seedstock. Over many decades of livestock farming, I’ve had half a dozen economically significant sickness outbreaks across various species. Every single time, the problem was my fault. Hygiene, diet, stress, discomfort, and toxins. An animal can get sick for many reasons, none of which is because it was medically deprived.

That brings me to people.

In his iconic New York Times bestseller “Guns, Germs, and Steel,” Jared Diamond explains the ascendancy of cultures that lived proximate to domestic livestock.

People groups who cultivated close relationships with domestic farm animals developed better immune systems.

Many years ago, British epidemiologist David Strachan observed that children with more older siblings had fewer allergies, suggesting that early exposure to infections offered lasting protection.

Many in this field of study rallied around this “hygiene hypothesis,” positing that the immune system is like a muscle and needs periodic exercise to be strong.

Consistent with Diamond’s overall findings, this theory is best supported by research in Finland.

Beginning a couple of decades ago, researchers in Finland began examining this “immune system as muscle” concept, comparing overall health between closely related children (cousins or siblings) who lived in different environments. The findings added substantial weight to the notion that the immune system has attributes similar to a muscle.

Children who grew up on farms and went to the barn as toddlers—and you know what a toddler does to everything on the fingers—were far more robust than their urban counterparts. A little bit of manure, dirt, and moldy hay or grain stimulated the immune system and reduced vulnerability to colds, flu, and other common childhood maladies.

Now for personal disclosure: Friends who know me know I routinely drink out of cow troughs with the cows. I do it not because I’m thirsty, but because I want a bigger variety of bugs in my microbiome. And I want some exposure to whatever unseen antagonist might be out there. The point is to exercise my immune system so that when something really serious comes along, it’s strong enough to fight it off.

Yes, I could die tomorrow. But for decades, I have gone many years without the common issues that plague most folks. That is not pride; it is humble acknowledgment that we have a fearfully and wonderfully made body that is ready to house health if we give it half a chance.

When I get on an airplane and the flight attendant stands there with a basket of antimicrobial sanitation cloths, I smile, lean over, and graciously say: “No, thank you; I really want your bugs.” That always gets a quizzical look and no doubt attendant conversations in the galley: “Do you see that weirdo over there? He wants my bugs.”

On a recent flight, a couple took seats A and B; I was in C, on the aisle. Wearing masks, they sat down and immediately brought out sanitation wipes. Meal trays, the back of the seat, and armrests—everything received a thorough wipe-down. Then she offered her rags to me, and I said: “No, thank you, ma'am, I really want to breathe in your bugs.” The mask hid what must have been a horrified countenance.

As soon as we were airborne, out came the snacks. Pringles, Twizzlers, Reese’s Pieces, soft drinks—I think they had an entire supermarket snack aisle in their bulky carry-on bag. I watched them chow down on all this junk for an hour. At hour two (it was a three-hour flight), they rang the call button. I wondered what that was all about.

“We’re having sugar issues; can you please bring us some apple juice?”

Are you kidding me?

Sterilizing everything and then consuming sugar and artificials, my overriding thought was: “And these people vote.”

Eating junk and bug paranoia are a recipe for immunological malfunction, but we see this kind of dystopian activity far too often.

Fortunately, the word seems to be getting around that muscle-equivalent immunology is real. New moms taking their toddlers to petting zoos and dirt piles appear to be the new mania in the infant wellness field. This is a healthy change and a trend that could yield many benefits.

If any savvy entrepreneurs have stayed with me in this column this long, here is my suggestion for a million-dollar business: Sell compost-and-dirt-infused permeable mats to urbanites yearning for robust immune function. It could be a subscription service where someone would come every four months and dump out the old compost and dirt and fill the mat with new material. It could be a welcome mat or perhaps even a mat you'd step on when exiting the shower to get all these goodies on your bare feet.

I’m sure someone is smart enough to figure out how to get the country to the city. To be sure, I’m not suggesting we go back to open sewers and no refrigeration. I am suggesting that humanity can become too sterile. Our multi-billion-member microbiome is not sterile, and the No. 1 measure of vibrancy is microbial diversity in the gut. You don’t need to pay me a commission for the idea; just brand it and run with it.

When we eat real food, unprocessed, we receive that microbial variety, and our immune system enjoys some exercise. As a techno-sophisticated society, we have become too sterile, and our immune systems suffer as a result. Let’s get back outside, in our gardens, in the dirt, share some bugs, and enjoy exercising our immune systems. At least go visit a farm. That’s a better approach than holding back our immune system while relying on needles and pills as a crutch to hold up the body’s atrophy, don’t you think?

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 21:45

Xi Jinping Refocuses On Taiwan With Renewed Political Outreach

China hosted a high-profile meeting between Xi Jinping and a senior Taiwanese opposition figure from the Kuomintang (KMT), marking a notable resumption of party-to-party engagement after years of limited direct contact, according to Nikkei Asia.

The meeting was tightly choreographed, featuring an extended handshake, formal seating arrangements, and controlled media coverage. These elements were designed to convey parity and legitimacy, signaling that Beijing views engagement with Taiwan’s opposition as politically substantive.

The KMT has historically supported closer economic and political ties with mainland China under the framework of the “1992 Consensus,” which Beijing interprets as acknowledgment of “one China.” This has allowed the party to maintain communication channels with Chinese officials even when official cross-strait dialogue has broken down.

By contrast, Beijing has suspended most formal contact with Taiwan’s current government under Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Chinese authorities characterize the DPP as promoting policies that move Taiwan further from eventual unification.

China continues to assert sovereignty over Taiwan and has increased pressure through military activity, including air and naval operations near the island, alongside diplomatic isolation efforts aimed at limiting Taiwan’s international space.

Within this context, the meeting reflects a broader recalibration in Xi’s Taiwan strategy. In addition to sustained military signaling, Beijing appears to be reinvesting in political engagement as a complementary tool.

Nikkei writes that outreach to the KMT provides Beijing with an avenue to influence Taiwan’s internal political discourse. It enables China to highlight divisions between major parties and to frame engagement with the mainland as both feasible and beneficial.

This approach may also be intended to shape public opinion in Taiwan, particularly by emphasizing economic cooperation and stability in contrast to the tensions associated with strained cross-strait relations under the current administration.

The timing of the meeting suggests a coordinated effort to increase Beijing’s visibility in Taiwan-related developments, with Xi taking a more direct role in signaling priorities and setting the tone for engagement.

Overall, the development indicates that Xi is refocusing attention on Taiwan, combining political outreach with ongoing military and diplomatic pressure to influence the island’s political trajectory and cross-strait relations.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 20:30

More Young Men Than Young Women Now Say Religion Is 'Very Important' To Them, Gallup Finds

Authored by Mark A. Kellner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Young men in the United States are more religious than young women for the first time in 25 years, according to a Gallup poll released on Thursday.

A man reads scripture while viewing the casket of Reverend Billy Graham in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, on Feb. 28, 2018. Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images

The data show that 42 percent of men aged 18 to 29 say religion is “very important” in their lives. That figure stood at 28 percent just two years ago. Young women’s attachment to religion held steady at about 30 percent during the same period.

The 14-point jump among young men represents a sharp departure from typical demographic trends. It has caught the attention, tempered with caution, of researchers who study religion in America.

“The magnitude of the jump they’re talking about [is] humongous—religious importance is up from 28 percent to 42 percent in two years. That’s not how demographics typically work,” Ryan Burge, a political scientist and statistician who studies religious trends, told The Epoch Times. “You don’t see a metric rise by 50 percent in two years.”

The Gallup findings, authored by Frank Newport and Lydia Saad, are based on biennial aggregates of religion data from 2000-2001 through 2024-2025. The 2024-2025 results draw from 4,015 U.S. adults, including 295 men and 145 women aged 18 to 29.

The reversal is confined to the youngest age group. Among adults 30 and older, women remain more religious than men.

At the start of the millennium, young women led young men by 9 percentage points on the importance of religion. That gap widened to 16 points in the early to mid-2000s before narrowing over the next decade.

By the mid-2010s, the difference had shrunk to about 5 points. The latest data mark a clear break.

The shift extends beyond attitudes about the importance of religion. The share of young men reporting monthly—or more frequent—attendance at religious services rose 7 points to 40 percent. That is the highest level since 2012-2013. Young women’s attendance rose three points to 39 percent.

Young men and young women are now statistically tied on attendance. On religious affiliation, 63 percent of young men report identifying with a faith, compared with 60 percent of young women.

Yet Burge, author of “The Vanishing Church: How the Hollowing Out of Moderate Congregations Is Hurting Democracy, Faith, and Us,” urged caution in interpreting the results. He noted that while the importance measure surged, other religious indicators did not show the same dramatic increase.

“To make the claim that now young men are coming back to religion en masse based on this one data point would be statistically inappropriate,” Burge said. “But I think it does move us closer to a preponderance of evidence that the gender gap has now clearly closed between young men and young women, and maybe possibly reversed.”

Burge described the importance-of-religion question as a “vibes metric” but perhaps not proof of religiosity.

“It’s not asking, ‘Are you religious, or do you go to church?’ But, ‘Do you think religion is important?’” Burge said. “So, are there people who never go to church who say religion is very important? They’re called conservatives.”

Gallup’s analysis points to partisan politics as a key driver. Religious attendance rose 7 points among young Republican men and 8 points among young Republican women since 2022-2023. Among young Democratic men, attendance rose 3 points. Young Democratic women showed little change.

The political dimension matters because 48 percent of young men identified as or leaned Republican in 2024-2025. Only 27 percent of young women did the same. Among young women, 60 percent identified as or leaned Democratic.

Burge said the political sorting concerns him.

“My worry is that these young men are being drawn towards church because of the politics of the church, you know, and that will only make evangelicalism and Catholicism even more conservative than it already is,” Burge said.

He argued that churches need political diversity to serve a healthy function in society.

“We need to seek out religious spaces that are diverse. I mean, but I mean moderate. I just don’t mean everyone’s a moderate. I mean for every conservative [there’s] a liberal,” Burge said. “You know, where it balances out to the middle.”

Burge said young women’s departure from religion has its own logic. He pointed to the #MeToo movement and concerns about patriarchal institutions.

“Young women are being pushed away from religion, and it has a lot to do with politics,” he said. “They’re seeing the church as being, you know, very paternalistic, very masculine, very patriarchal.”

Meanwhile, young men find institutions that still value their leadership, Burge said. Catholicism restricts the priesthood to men. Many evangelical denominations limit the roles of women.

“It kind of makes sense that young men would go one direction; young women go the other direction.”

Gallup did not immediately respond to questions about its findings.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 20:05

Trump Turns The Screws On Israel In Biggest Pressure Move To Reign In Bibi Yet

The Lebanon ceasefire appears to be legitimate and holding, and the biggest evidence of this is that Lebanese citizens themselves are pouring back into the war-ravaged south of the country, seeking to recover to their homes which are in some cases 'unlivable'.

"Thousands of families displaced by weeks of fighting filled the main highway to southern Lebanon on Friday in hopes of returning to their homes, as a 10-day cease-fire in Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah went into effect," writes NY Times on Friday.

via Reuters

This comes after the Rubio-mediated meeting between the Israel and Lebanon governments in Washington D.C. this week, which was a first in decades. However, Hezbollah was not represented and has rejected direct talks with Israel.

The situation and uneasy truce, which has for now seen Israel halt its bombing campaign over Lebanon (though dozens of airstrikes were reported in the south just on Thursday) - has been subject of some confusion and contradictory messaging.

First, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had declared that the fight with Hezbollah is not over, while at the same time confirming Israel's agreement with the 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon.

"One hand holds a weapon; the other is extended for peace," Netanyahu said in a fresh speech. "I will say honestly, we have not yet finished the job," he continued. "There are things we plan to do regarding the remaining rocket threat and the drone threat, which I will not detail."

Israel seeks to "dismantle" Hezbollah, Netanyahu continued, "but this will not be achieved tomorrow. It requires sustained effort, patience, and careful navigation in the diplomatic arena."

President Trump meanwhile in a Friday morning Truth Social message said Israel has been "PROHIBITED" from attacking Israel by the US.

But Trump at the same time contradicted Tehran's stance: "This deal is in no way subject to Lebanon, either, but the USA will, separately, work with Lebanon, and deal with the Hezbollah situation in an appropriate manner. Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer," he wrote.

BREAKING: President Trump says Israel 'prohibited' by US from bombing Lebanon pic.twitter.com/wpuhtPxNV4

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) April 17, 2026

Crucially, he added of the Israeli military: "They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the USA. Enough is enough." The NY Times says this has put Netanyahu in a tough spot:

Now, the prime minister’s critics, and even some of his allies on the right, have seized on what appears plain as day: his inability to resist Mr. Trump’s pressure, not just in pushing to bring the long-distance war with Iran to a close but even in demanding a truce with an enemy directly across Israel’s northern border.

“A cease-fire must come from a position of strength and be an Israeli decision, reflecting leverage that serves negotiations,” said Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff whose new centrist opposition party, Yashar, is gaining in the polls. “A pattern is emerging in which cease-fires are being imposed on us — in Gaza, in Iran and now in Lebanon.”

This actually constitutes some of the toughest talk and restrictions ever imposed on Israel from this administration. This suggests the White House is indeed serious about cobbling together a final offramp.

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Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 19:40

Is America On The Verge Of A Nuclear Renaissance?

Authored by Duggan Flanakin via WattsUpWithThat.com,

It has been more than seven years since President Donald Trump signed the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA) into law – and it has taken all seven years (including four during the Biden Administration) for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to issue a final rule implementing its provisions.

Even the Washington Post admits that the new Part 53 rules, intended to reduce review times from decades to 18 months or less, will make President Trump’s goal of revitalizing the U.S. nuclear energy industry more competitive – “to everyone’s benefit,” says the Post.

The old NRC permitting review process was built around light-water-cooled reactors (like the Westinghouse AP1000) and included prescriptive safety requirements specific to those designs – not the advanced reactors of all sizes being planned and built today.

Many nuclear companies are designing reactors that use liquid metals (like molten salt) or gases as coolants, enabling them to operate at higher temperatures. These reactors are ultimately safer than the (still very safe) water-cooled reactors, as they rely on natural forces like gravity or convection rather than pumps and motors to automatically stop the reactor in case of an incident.

The NRC says its final rule responds to NEIMA by creating an alternative, technology-inclusive regulatory framework that can accommodate licensing of future commercial nuclear plants, including advanced reactor designs that may not employ light-water technology. The new rules will hopefully expedite permitting of small modular reactors, microreactors, and even full-size reactors already under development.

The NRC says its alternative requirements and implementing guidance incorporate technology-inclusive approaches and risk-informed and performance-based techniques to ensure an equivalent level of safety to that of operating commercial nuclear plants. Part 53 is designed to provide optionality and flexibility for licensing and regulating a variety of technologies and designs for commercial nuclear reactors.

Not everyone is convinced that an agency with a lifelong track record of thwarting nuclear reactor permits has fully reformed. Noting that the real timeframe for the Part 53 rules is decades (not just 7 years), nuclear energy advocate Steven Curtis says “It’s hard to imagine the NRC being objective enough to lessen the burden for licensing, even for safer SMRs. The NRC sees its mortality in simplifying their process, so what is their incentive?”

NANO Nuclear Energy CEO James Walker calls the new Part 53 rules “a bridge to fleet deployment,” in that it does not fully eliminate site-specific licensing, environmental review installation review, or lifecycle issues around refurbishment, refueling, decommissioning, and relocation,” all needed for the microreactor industry. The NRC is reportedly developing guidance and another round of rulemaking – suggesting that Part 53 is foundational, not final.

The proof of a reformed NRC, if indeed it is now eager to move permits forward, will soon be made evident. Previous Presidents waited in vain. Trump waited 7 years for Part 53 regulations; the real microreactor rules have yet to be formally proposed.

More evidence that the Trump Administration is serious about a nuclear energy revival comes from the National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC), which announced last week that its Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) test bed is now complete. This first-of-its-kind facility, located at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), will enable the rapid development, testing, and demonstration of privately developed advanced nuclear reactors.

The Department of Energy says DOME is an actual 100-foot-tall dome that is 80 feet in diameter – large enough to provide a safe environment to test experimental reactor concepts and gather performance data for use in informing future commercial licensing applications. Its completion dovetails with the new Part 53 NRC rules – as the U.S. seeks to accelerate the development and demonstration of advanced nuclear technologies.

Built from the repurposed Experimental Breeder Reactor-II containment structure, DOME will help reactor developers accelerate testing timelines – saving money and reducing project risk – and hopefully deployment timelines.

These microreactors are designed to be factory-built and portable, able to be placed in remote communities or to respond to natural disasters but perhaps primarily to serve independent microgrids (such as data centers), field-level military operations, and even space travel.

DOME is the only test bed in the world specifically designed to host fueled microreactor experiments that can generate up to 20 megawatts of thermal energy that can be used as heat or converted to electric power. [This is comparable in size to the reactors that have powered America’s nuclear submarines ever since the USS Nautilus was deployed in 1954.]

DOE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Reactors Dr. Rian Bahran says the DOME is a vital component of reestablishing U.S. leadership in advance nuclear technologies – yet one wonders how many decades ago such a facility could have been built. Nuclear submarines can operate for 20 to 30 years without refueling, whereas conventional subs need refueling several times a year.

Better late than never – the DOME has already started a scheduled year-long test of Radiant Industries’ Kaleidos Demonstration Unit, a microreactor that uses TRISO fuel and is cooled by helium to produce 1 MW of electrical power or 3.5 MWt of thermal power. The U.S. Air Force is but one entity awaiting authorization for deploying Kaleidos. Other companies are queuing up to test their designs in DOME.

With the DOE envisioning nuclear megacities for such activities as uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication, at least four states have announced their willingness to serve as hosts even if managing high-level nuclear waste is part of the commitment.

Idaho and Tennessee have long-term experience in nuclear energy, while Utah and Nebraska are looking at the jobs and revenues to be gleaned from joining the nuclear community.

By contrast, Nevada has fought against managing nuclear waste and Texas and New Mexico have also objected to private interim nuclear waste storage (despite Texas’ push for nuclear energy development). 

Meanwhile, the U.S. continues its ban on reusing nuclear waste to power reactors designed to burn (and thus dramatically reduce the volume of) nuclear waste by 95% and dramatically lower the cost of nuclear energy generation while virtually eliminating the controversial issue of nuclear waste storage.

Of course, a major increase in the number of nuclear powerplants in the U.S. will necessitate a major increase in the supply of nuclear fuel – and there is good news on that front as well. Newly launched FluxPoint Energy announced it is developing what would be the first new uranium conversion facility in the U.S. in 70 years.

FluxPoint says its mission is to “establish a fully American, vertically integrated nuclear fuel capability – supporting energy independence, enabling advanced reactor development, and strengthening national security.” Development of the facility, which will convert uranium oxide (U3O8) into gaseous uranium hexafluoride (UF6) that can be enriched in fissile uranium-235 for use as nuclear fuel, is “well under way.”

For that matter, these and other developments – and a reinvigorated nuclear energy industry – are signs that the U.S. is “well under way” to restoring its faith in a future and a renaissance already signified by the highly successful and warmly received Artemis II mission to the moon, another area of American excellence that was put into mothballs for decades.

Duggan Flanakin is a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow who writes on a wide variety of public policy issues.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 19:15

Google's Stake In SpaceX Could Be Worth $122 Billion At IPO

A long-held investment by Alphabet Inc. in SpaceX could become one of its most valuable bets if the rocket company moves ahead with a public listing, according to Bloomberg.

Regulatory filings indicate Google owned about 6.11% of SpaceX at the end of 2025. At a projected $2 trillion IPO valuation, that stake would be worth roughly $122 billion. After SpaceX’s merger with xAI, the holding is estimated to have diluted to around 5%, or about $100 billion at the same valuation.

The figures offer a clearer picture of Google’s position in SpaceX, which had previously been acknowledged without precise detail. Only Google and Elon Musk — who controls roughly 40% — were required to disclose holdings above 5%.

Bloomberg writes that SpaceX is targeting a potential June IPO and could raise as much as $75 billion, which would make it one of the largest listings ever. At that valuation, even a small fraction of ownership would translate into significant dollar value.

Early investors are positioned for outsized returns. Some analysts estimate that backers who entered as recently as 2021 could see gains of around 20 times their original investment.

Founded in 2002, SpaceX reached a $1 billion valuation within eight years, a relatively fast climb for a capital-intensive aerospace company.

Google first invested in 2015, joining Fidelity in a $1 billion funding round that valued SpaceX at $10 billion and gave the firms a combined 10% stake.

Ownership stakes have shifted over time due to dilution and secondary share sales. In 2020, Google held about 7.64% while Musk’s stake was around 47%. Early investor Founders Fund has since dropped below the 5% disclosure threshold.

Alphabet does not separately report its SpaceX holdings in earnings, though it has recorded sizable unrealized gains tied to private investments, including an $8 billion increase in early 2025 linked to SpaceX.

The IPO is expected to create significant liquidity for employees and insiders, potentially prompting departures as some cash out or pursue new ventures.

Board members and long-time investors also stand to benefit, underscoring the scale of wealth that could be generated by SpaceX’s anticipated debut.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 18:50

The Latest On The Redistricting Battles

Authored by Jackson Richman & Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Despite the midterm season underway, the lines of congressional maps have not been finalized as redistricting battles continue nationwide.

Voters fill out their ballots at a polling station in the Hillsboro Old Stone School in Hillsboro, Va., on Nov. 4, 2025 Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Since Texas’s opening salvo, lawmakers in both parties from Florida to California have pushed for partisan redistricting in their states as a high-stakes midterm election season approaches.

Here is the latest on states redrawing their congressional maps.

Virginia

The Democratic-led General Assembly passed in February a new U.S. House map that will only go into effect if voters approve a referendum to allow the state to do mid-decade redistricting.

The state Supreme Court has yet to rule whether the effort is valid, but said the vote on the constitutional amendment can proceed. Before the court is an appeal of a county judge’s ruling that the amendment is illegal because lawmakers violated their own rules while passing it.

Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis has called a special legislative session to begin Monday on redrawing the state’s congressional map. Republicans haven’t yet publicized what the lines would look like. However, the state constitution states that redistricting cannot favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent.

Texas

The Lone Star State last year added five congressional districts that favor Republicans after Trump urged the state to redistrict and after the Department of Justice suggested that several districts in the state unconstitutionally grouped minorities to make a majority. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the new map.

California

Voters in November approved a referendum that circumvents an independent commission by adding five congressional districts that favor Democrats.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal from Republicans, who claimed that the map favors Hispanics. The high court said the map could be used in this year’s election.

Missouri

Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a revised House district map into law last September, a move that could give Republicans an additional seat.

A county judge ruled that the new map will remain in effect while election officials review whether a referendum petition meets constitutional requirements and includes enough valid signatures for a statewide vote.

The Missouri Supreme Court has already dismissed a lawsuit arguing that mid-decade redistricting is unlawful. The court is set to hear arguments in May over claims that the new districts fail to meet compactness standards and should be paused pending a possible referendum.

Ohio

A bipartisan panel, largely made up of Republicans, voted in October to approve a revised House map that could boost the party’s chances of gaining two additional seats. The redraw was required under the state constitution ahead of the 2026 election after Republicans enacted the previous map without enough Democratic backing following the last census.

North Carolina

The Republican-controlled General Assembly gave final approval in October to revised district lines that could help the party gain an additional seat. In November, a federal court panel declined to block the new map from being used in the midterm elections.

Utah

A judge in November ordered new House district boundaries that could give Democrats an opportunity to pick up a seat. The court found that lawmakers had sidestepped voter-approved anti-gerrymandering rules when drawing the previous map. In February, both a federal court panel and the state Supreme Court rejected Republican challenges to the court-imposed districts.

Maryland

While Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, has pushed the state legislature to redistrict the state’s single Republican seat, the push has so far failed to gain steam.

On April 13, the state legislature’s session ended without the passage of a bill to redistrict Maryland’s congressional map despite Moore’s encouragement. The state House had passed the bill, but it stalled in the state Senate.

New York

Though New York Gov. Kathy Hochul had pushed for the state to redraw its congressional boundaries, any such change has been blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In March, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court order that had called on the state legislature to redraw Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’s (R-N.Y.) 11th congressional district seat.

Indiana

The Indiana legislature failed to pass redistricting legislation. The measure failed in December 2025 after 21 state Senate Republicans joined all 10 Democrats in the chamber to defeat the measure in a 31–19 vote.

It means the previous maps will remain in place for the upcoming elections.

Kansas

Though some Republicans in the GOP-dominated Kansas state legislature had pushed for the state to redraw its single Democrat-held seat, the push failed in late 2025 due to opposition from Gov. Laura Kelly.

Kelly vowed to veto any mid-decade map.

Illinois

While Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker indicated that the state was musing on redrawing maps to further favor Democrats, no push to that end has gained momentum. This year, Illinois is expected to use the same congressional maps it did in 2024.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 18:25

Unpaid Trash Company Empties Dumpster Rental Load On Customer's Front Lawn

A Bay Area dumpster company decided to skip collections and go straight to… lawn delivery.

Express Rental Dumpster said a San Pablo customer rented a bin while moving out, but the payment situation was, generously, fictional. The owner, Martin Perez, said the card kept getting declined while the customer kept promising “later”, according to Fox News.

So instead of eating the cost, the driver showed up and made a statement. Ring camera footage shows him briefly talking to someone off-screen, cracking open the truck so some trash spills out, then backing up and dumping the entire load onto the front lawn. 

At one point, someone from inside the house comes out and starts yelling, though it didn’t reverse the sudden landscaping change.

Perez told KTVU he’d already lost money on the job and would’ve had to pay extra dumping fees himself—apparently a line he wasn’t interested in crossing.

Police eventually showed up and told the driver to at least move debris off the sidewalk and back onto the property. A neighbor, meanwhile, claimed the homeowner insisted they had paid about $700, which only makes the whole situation murkier.

But thank God for America's growing homeless population...because in the end, the trash pile was picked through by scavengers and later cleaned up with help from a neighbor—because nothing says neighborhood bonding like surprise garbage mountain.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 18:00

"F**k It…Just Do It": Carville Lays Out Democratic Plan To Add States And Pack The Court To Retain Power

Authored by Jonathan Turley via jonathanturley.org,

Various Democrats have been openly discussing their plans after retaking power to change the system so they never lose power again. Democratic strategist James Carville has been one of the most vocal and returned to the subject this week in laying out how they will make D.C. and Puerto Rico states and pack the Supreme Court with a liberal majority.

On his podcast with Al Hunt, Carville explained, “If the Democrats win the presidency and both houses of Congress, I think on day one, they should make Puerto Rico [and] D.C. a state, and they should expand the Supreme Court to 13. F— it. Eat our dust.”

Notably, this week, New Jersey just elected a radical new member, Analilia Mejia, who ran on packing the Court and other radical agenda items. While some of us have written about the expansion of the Court, these politicians and pundits are pushing for the packing, not just gradual expanding, of the Court.

However, Carville (curiously on a national podcast) seriously suggested that Democrats should keep the plan quiet: “Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it.”

Call it the Nike School of Constitutional Law.

The need of the left to pack the Supreme Court is obvious. Many of the proposals coming from the left are clearly unconstitutional. You will need a partisan majority to make the political changes that these figures hope will give the Democrats a lock on power for years to come.

Years ago, Harvard professor Michael Klarman laid out a radical agenda to change the system to guarantee Republicans “will never win another election.” However, he warned that “the Supreme Court could strike down everything I just described.” Therefore, the court must be packed in advance to allow these changes to occur.

Likewise, Carville previously explained how this process of how the pack-to-power plan would work:

“I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen. A Democrat is going to be elected in 2028. You know that. I know that. The Democratic president is going to announce a special transition advisory committee on the reform of the Supreme Court. They’re going to recommend that the number of Supreme Court justices go from nine to 13. That’s going to happen, people.”

The push for court packing and war chests on the left remains unchanged despite conservatives on the Court ruling against the Administration on major cases. Carville and others cannot claim that the conservative justices are robotically voting with the Administration, but it does not matter. They want a Court that will consistently uphold the changes being planned by Democratic strategists.

The fact that these changes would come after the 250th anniversary of the most successful democratic system in history is a crushing irony. However, it is notable that the Democrats want Congress and the courts to push through these changes, not the public. The public remains opposed to court packing and making D.C. a state. That is why Carville wants candidates to keep quiet on the plan and run, like Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger, as faux moderates. Then, as in Virginia, they can move to fundamentally change districts and rules to guarantee their hold on power.

It is a mentality summed up by NEA President Becky Pringle:

The question is whether rage politics can convince a people to destroy the very democratic system that has brought centuries of stability and prosperity.

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Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 17:40

Meta To Unleash First Wave Of Mass Layoffs May 20 As It Eliminates 10% Of Its Workers

The FaceBook currently known as Meta for one failed venture that incinerated nearly $100 billion in cash for its failed transformation to a virtual reality hub while laying off thousands, is at it again.

As we previewed a few weeks ago, Meta - which inexplicably hasn't changed its name to AIbook yet - will proceed with the first wave of mass layoffs planned for this year on May 20, with more ‌coming later, Reuters reported citing sources.

The Facebook and Instagram owner will lay off about 10% of its global workforce, or close to 8,000 employees, in that initial round, as it swaps headcount for GPUs. 

And that's just the start: the company is planning further layoffs in the second half of the ​year, although details of those cuts, including date and size, have yet to be determined and will depend on just how much more money Meta burns in its experiment to prove that AI will actually generate positive cash flow. 

Last month, Reuters ⁠reported that the company was planning to lay off 20% or more of its global workforce.

Meta's ‌layoffs this ⁠year will be the social media giant's most significant since a restructuring in late 2022 and early 2023 that it dubbed the "year of efficiency," when it eliminated about 21,000 jobs. At that time, Meta's stock was in freefall and the company was struggling to correct for COVID-era growth assumptions that ultimately proved unsustainable. It will soon find itself in the same hole again. 

The Menlo ​Park-based company employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 31. 

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into AI as he seeks ​to dramatically reshape his company’s core business around the technology, which has yet to generate any material returns proportional to the massive capex spend. In its latest earnings call, META raised its 2026 capex guidance to a record $115-$135 billion, more than double the prior years, and drastically more than anything META spent during the peak of its virtual reality phase. 

Meta is not alone: Amazonrecently trimmed 30,000 corporate employees, representing nearly 10% of its white-collar workers, while in February the fintech company Block fired nearly half of its staff. In ​both of those cases, executives tied the cuts to efficiency gains from artificial intelligence. Of course, nobody actually think how mass layoffs of the best paid job in the US - Information - will impact end demand for AI if in a few years, America's (formerly) best paid workers are struggling to pay their San Fran rent, let alone pay for the latest chatbot du jour.

Layoffs.fyi, a website tracking tech job cuts ​around the world, reported that 73,212 employees have lost their jobs so far this year. For all of 2024, the figure was 153,000.

While META is in a more comfortable financial position now than it was during the 2022/23 purges, executives ​envision a future of fewer ​management layers and greater efficiency ⁠brought about by AI-assisted workers. Assuming of course the AI bubble doesn't burst sooner as the market realizes the trillions in spending promises by the likes of OpenAI will never materialize. 

Meta's shares are up 3.68% since the start of the year, although they are down from a record high achieved last summer. Last year, it generated more ​than $200 billion of revenue and achieved a $60 billion profit despite outsized spending on artificial intelligence.

In a rerun of its catastrophic foray into virtual reality, in recent weeks, Meta has reorganized teams in its Reality Labs division and transferred engineers from throughout the company into a new “Applied AI” organization tasked with accelerating the development of AI agents ⁠that can ​write code and carry out complex tasks autonomously; expect this to pivot into whatever the AI buzzword of the day is. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 17:20

No SAVE Act? Congress Still Holds The Trump Card

Authored by Scott Yenor via American Greatness,

The failure of the United States Senate to pass the SAVE America Act is as regrettable as it is predictable. Noncitizen voting is already a federal crime in America. SAVE would have required voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote. States would have to purge noncitizens from voting rolls, too.

Perhaps reliance on hostile state officials to implement the law would have rendered the SAVE America Act ineffective. We will never know.

The cause of election integrity is not dead. Congress has the constitutional power to ensure election integrity.

The American election system divides power between the states and the federal government.

States determine the “time, place, and manner” of elections and, within constitutional limits, determine who can vote.

Some states allow mail-in ballots. Others, like Oregon, send every voter a ballot. Other states allow mail-in ballots under special circumstances. Some states allow ballots to arrive well after Election Day. Some states require no identification for voters. Some wink at noncitizens voting. Others have rigorous identification requirements. Some countenance practices that sow the appearance of cheating into the counting of votes. Other states have clean elections that bring election results right away on election night.

But Congress has a plenary power to judge whether a state’s election results are consistent with the basic demands of representative government.

According to Article 1, Section 5 of the United States Constitution, “Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns, and Qualifications of its own Members.”

Congress can ferret out fraudulent votes of all sorts—not just voting by noncitizens.

Congress can then declare elections invalid and order a new election when it judges elections to be fraudulent.

Both the Senate and the House have pre-established procedures for investigation, including the power to subpoena state officials and state voting data. This power helps Congress ensure its own integrity.

Hundreds of House elections have been challenged in American history. Often, complaints are frivolous. Sometimes complaints involve qualifications, strictly speaking. Albert Gallatin had his election to the U.S. Senate voided by a 14–12 vote in 1794 because he had not been a citizen for nine years.

Other investigations, like the McLane–Farr dispute from the 1918 election, concern corruption pure and simple. Patrick McLane was originally declared the winner in a Pennsylvania race, but once evidence of “wholesale fraud and illegality” from fictitious voters and voters who were not citizens came to light, Congress determined that John Farr won.

In the late 1990s, Loretta Sanchez defeated Congressman Bob Dornan by fewer than 1,000 votes. Dornan challenged the election. Congress found that more than 700 illegal votes were cast. Since it was not enough to sway the election, Dornan’s challenge was dropped.

Investigations into election integrity were especially common after the Civil War, when Democrat-secessionist voting practices led to severe undercounting of Republican votes in the South.

Voter intimidation compromised the entire voting environment.

Today, Republicans fear that similar broad-scale corruption plagues blue states like California, Illinois, Michigan, and Oregon, all of which seem to have weak voter identification laws, poor audit procedures, lax voter purging techniques, and a fear of federal investigations into their practices.

Are elections within these states outside the margin of fraud? To know the answer, we would have to know the margin of fraud in those states. And that requires congressional investigations.

Democrat establishments have little incentive to clean up their elections. They benefit from the fraud that keeps them in power, so they are wary of actually investigating their own elections. State election systems are not completely subject to federal oversight.

There are many reasons not to have confidence in Oregon’s elections for the national legislature, for instance. Noncitizens are welcomed and registered. Many counties have had more than 100 percent registrations among voters. Mail-in ballots are ubiquitous and automatic. Dead people or people who have moved out of state have voted in past elections, and Oregon has been particularly lax in purging its voting rolls. Oregon’s federal elections would be worth a serious look from Congress, especially federal races decided by less than 10,000 votes.

If Oregon does not want to fix its elections, it need not. The state must simply pay the penalty for porous elections by not having representation in the U.S. House or Senate.

Congress has the constitutional means and the motives to police state elections, not with new laws but with its investigatory powers.

If the rest of the country can have confidence in their elections, Congress would, no doubt, seat a delegation. Congress could deny representation to states without voter identification laws or those that wink at foreign nationals voting in their elections. Or Congress could require new elections when voting rolls are not properly purged.

Congress has the power to determine whether states have a republican form of government. States with rigged elections do not have republican governments. And Congress can dust off its own powers to ensure the integrity of the election of its own members, even without the SAVE America Act.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 17:00

Former Congressman Blows The Whistle On Blackmail And Honeypots In Congress

In a candid interview with Human Events editor Jack Posobiec, former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) alleged that blackmail and sexual honeypot operations are far more prevalent than the American public is aware of.

Cawthorn, who was elected to represent North Carolina's 11th congressional district at just 25 years old in 2020, described the typical path these lurrid situations take. It often begins at donor dinners or late-night votes, when members unwind with drinks or head back toward Capitol Hill. While many lawmakers prefer socializing with fellow congressmen to avoid complications with staffers or outside interests, invitations can quickly turn strangely personal.

"Normally, the way I found that these things start getting off the ground is that it starts out—you’re maybe at a donor dinner or getting dinner after a late night of votes,” Cawthorn said. "Then, you know, everyone has friends inside of Congress, so you start hanging out with friends. Maybe you’re grabbing drinks, or on the way back to Capitol Hill, heading back to your homes."

"Then you start building these relationships, and most congressmen like to hang out with other congressmen, just because there are so many problems when you hang out with staffers or people with different angles in other parts of the Beltway, the former lawmaker continued. "I will tell you, normally, the way I came across this is that people start inviting me and saying, “Hey, why don’t you come back? My wife would love to hang out with you, and we can see what could be going on here. I think we’d have a really good time if we all got together in this way.”

"Then you start piecing it together and say, “Wait a minute, what kind of invitation is this? This sounds really weird. What do you mean leave my phone at the house?” That doesn’t make any sense—these random things they’re saying. It becomes very clear what they’re looking for. That’s the big one—“check your phone at the door,” that kind of thing,” he added.

WATCH: Madison Cawthorn explains how honeytrapping operations work in US Congress

"Once they have you on video they own you"pic.twitter.com/OVGCx4a7s9

— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) April 15, 2026

Cawthorn told Posobiec that he made it clear he had zero interest in such activities.

"I’ve got a phenomenal life. I was only 25 years old when I was in Congress, so that didn’t interest me whatsoever. I thought the majority of people in the United States were very cognizant of that. So I came out and talked about it, and they tried to destroy me for it,” Cawthorn said.

Cawthorn lost his bid for reelection in the 2022 North Carolina Republican primary, falling to state Sen. Chuck Edwards (R), who later went on to win the general election.

"I’ll tell you, there were 16 people that I really hold responsible - the architects of trying to take down my political career,” Cawthorn explained. "I want you to ask yourselves: out of all the people who came out against me or sent funds to make sure I was pushed out of Congress, where are those people now?”

"I’m very happy that I was able to take the majority of them down, or that the majority of them are now out of office or have terrible personal lives at this point. But I will tell you, there are so many people inside Washington, D.C., that have much worse on them than what’s going on inside of this video,” he concluded.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 16:40

"Overwhelming Puke-Stream": It's All Going To Come Out Now...

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

Showdown

“Everything that’s wrong is staring us right in the face, and half this country simply will not join us in fighting and fixing it. It’s infuriating and depressing and maddening.”

- James Woods on X

The closer this Iran war comes to a favorable resolution, the more garishly negative the puling Lefty-left gets, wishing fervently for the enemy to prevail. Why? Because the Lefty-left is also an enemy of our country. They want the operation to fail so they can reclaim power and resume wrecking and looting the USA.

By the way, what exactly would a favorable outcome of this war look like?

An Iran that doesn’t threaten nuclear jihad and doesn’t sponsor endless terror operations here, there, and everywhere. It looks like we are going to get to that. Iran’s choice is how deep do they want to take their own economic collapse before capitulating? If they’ll just stop now, they’ll still keep the lights on. They can be a normal, modern, developed nation without a death wish.

Anyway, the paradigm Iran was operating in as a rogue state is dead, especially the malign influence of Britain’s banking and MI6 intel matrix. Britain, proven by its actions to be not a friend of America. . . Britain, a wretched little has-been island empire with bad teeth, overrun by wrathful Islamists, and, alas, soon to be a caliphate.

President Donald Trump has rearranged the geopolitical landscape with startling speed and efficacy. Much of Europe, it turns out, are not our friends, either. They would not let us use the NATO bases we pay for to conduct air operations over Iran. Hence, NATO is four dead letters. They can go dangle while they figure out how to live without oil, possibly go back to their centuries-long condition as a nonstop slaughterhouse, besetting each other with stupid, age-old feuds. Not our problem anymore.

China?

Their Belt-and-Road isn’t what it was just six months ago. Mr. Trump has kicked them out of South America. Their oil supply is suddenly sketchy. Notice, they didn’t lend a hand helping to clear the Strait of Hormuz. Turned out that the radars and air defenses they gifted Iran didn’t work too well. Uncle Xi Pooh Bear will have to re-think situation.

Mr. Trump says he might travel to Pakistan this weekend if there are papers to sign with Iran.

Israel and Lebanon announced a ten-day truce to sort out where things stand. Both of them want Hezbollah expelled for good. Anyway, Hezbollah can no longer enjoy financial support from Iran, meaning no more munitions or salaries for Hezbollah warriors, meaning Hezbollah is out of business — a major regional irritant neutralized. Can you dare to imagine a peaceable Middle East?

So, things have changed-up greatly in this long-volatile corner of the world, and that will leave Mr. Trump freer to attend to the discord and animus at home, namely the psychopathic Democratic Party’s non-stop demolition of political norms, with assistance from the bureaucratic Deep State and the NGO underworld.

Just at hand this week, we have Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard sending criminal referrals to the DOJ on two key players (both liars) in Trump Impeachment No. 1: former Intel Inspector General Michael Atkinson and CIA agent “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella — whose name the news media still fears to speak.

That impeachment, over the so-called “Ukraine phone call,” was from start to finish a complete fake, a criminal conspiracy. It involves a much larger cast-of-characters including then House Intel Committee Chair (now senator) Adam Schiff, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, CIA Director Gina Haspel, Chief Justice John Roberts, and virtually the whole Kiev US embassy staff at the time. Everybody involved was lying about one thing or another. The case is on Acting AG Todd Blanche’s desk now. Do you suppose it can just sit there?

It’s rumored that in the weeks ahead, Mr. Trump is fixing to conduct a declassification orgy of evidence unearthed by DNI Gabbard in the serial seditions run by US color revolutionists over the past decade. The presidential declass will obviate the usual tedious process of extracting declass permissions from every agency silo with a stake in the documents — meaning the evidence will go straight to US attorneys, including Jason Reding Quiñones, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, now running a grand jury out of Fort Pierce on the RussiaGate hoax.

Many of the players in that treasonous episode were involved in subsequent crimes against the nation: the 2020 election fraud; the Jan. 6 fed-provoked “insurrection” at the US Capitol; the fake House committee set up to pretend to investigate it; the Mar-a-Lago Raid; the multiple Trump prosecutions of 2024, the censorship campaign; and the manifold perfidious turpitudes of the “Joe Biden” administration, including the massive invasion of illegal immigrants.

It’s all going to come out now in one overwhelming puke-stream channeled into actual prosecutions. Only question is: will the massive revelation of truth prompt the millions of successfully brainwashed Americans to finally get their minds right over what has been perpetrated on our country?

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 16:20