DOJ Opens Investigation Into Suspected Race-Based Practices At Arizona State University

Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has launched a Title VI investigation into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices at Arizona State University (ASU), one of the country's largest public universities.

View of the campus of Arizona State University, a public research university located in Phoenix, Arizona. Shutterstock

Wednesday's announcement comes after recent viral videos that appear to show university personnel participating in or concealing the handling of distinguishing students by race, color, or national origin. Federal officials noted the videos raised the prospect that ASU may have violated civil rights protections while benefiting from considerable taxpayer support.

"No student should be denied access to opportunities or resources because of race, color, or national origin," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's (DOJ's) Civil Rights Division said. "The United States is committed to keeping universities free of unlawful discrimination - especially when they try to hide illegal conduct to avoid oversight and compliance."

Federal law does not allow discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin at institutions that receive federal funding. ASU has 194,000 students enrolled across its campuses as of the 2024-2025 school year and receives hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants and aid annually, public records from the U.S. Department of Education show.

The Civil Rights Division's investigation will determine whether ASU's DEI-related policies result in illegal discrimination in areas including admissions, recruitment, scholarships, tutoring, and educational support services. Officials underscored that the investigation is underway.

This action comes amid a broader national effort to examine university practices following changes to federal policy and public outcry over race-conscious programs. Many colleges and universities changed or repackaged DEI initiatives in the wake of executive actions and legal challenges.

The Department of Education indicates that Arizona's major universities, including ASU, have contended with state-level restrictions on certain diversity initiatives while ensuring federal compliance. Universities nationwide have quietly adjusted DEI programs as a result of potential funding cuts and investigations.

The viral videos leading to the DOJ announcement recorded interactions in which university staff deliberated continuing parts of DEI programming under alternative names such as "inclusive excellence."

Accuracy in Media and other watchdogs have noted similar efforts at public universities.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandates equal opportunity without regard to protected characteristics. Past DOJ inquiries into higher education have looked at legacy admissions, athletic recruiting, and targeted scholarships. This investigation joins a growing list of reviews examining programs thought to circumvent race-neutral standards.

Places of higher learning, from Ivy League schools to state flagships, have faced pressure to get rid of race-based preferences after Supreme Court rulings and administrative changes.

ASU officials have not formally responded to the allegations. Public university records detail numerous outreach programs targeting underrepresented groups.

Federal databases show that ASU receives considerable taxpayer funds, including research grants, Pell Grants, and other aid that require nondiscriminatory practices.

The federal government has also investigated medical school admissions and PhD recruitment initiatives at other public universities that allegedly applied different standards based on race.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 19:15

Anthropic's Marketing FUD Playbook Returns With Call To Pause AI Frontier Development

Anthropic has elevated fear-based marketing to an art form. The company routinely warns the public, lawmakers, and corporate America about looming AI doom scenarios - then conveniently positions itself, its products, safety frameworks, and policy prescriptions as humanity’s best defense.

This strategy is hardly new. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) works because we're wired to be risk-averse. Nothing grabs attention faster than a well-crafted existential threat.

In its latest iteration, Anthropic’s message is that AI models are advancing so rapidly they risk outrunning society’s ability to control them. The solution? The very guardrails, verification systems, and safety architecture that Anthropic is helpfully developing.

“We believe it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause frontier AI development to enable societal structures and alignment research to keep up with the advance of the technology,” the company stated in a new post released Thursday.

The Anthropic Institute will conduct research—in collaboration with many others—and take actions to help build the systems that a credible slowdown or pause would require. These systems would enable frontier AI developers to verify that others globally have actually stopped or slowed, and that a bad actor could not use the auspices of a coordinated slowdown to jump ahead in secret. If such systems existed, we expect that we would slow down or temporarily pause, if other developers at or near the frontier also did so in a verifiable manner.

A meaningful slowdown or pause would require multiple well-resourced labs at or near the frontier, in multiple countries, agreeing to stop under the same conditions. It would also require that each can verify that the others have actually stopped. Due to the unique characteristics of AI systems, the detectability (a lower standard than verifiability) element of this arms control problem is much more challenging than with other technologies. Training runs are far easier to conceal than missile silos, their inputs are general-purpose, and the incentive to defect quietly is enormous. A credible pause also has to specify what triggers it, what lifts it, and who adjudicates.

None of this is necessarily impossible in principle—the world has built verification regimes for other complex technologies (e.g., the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty)—but those regimes took decades to build both the infrastructure and the trust. We don't have that long. A unilateral pause by one lab is achievable immediately, but accomplishes much less: it would change who the front-runner is, but it would not create the wider deliberative process that is currently missing.

In the coming months, we will organize conversations where policymakers, researchers, civil society, and other AI companies can help answer some of the questions this piece raises, especially around full recursive self-improvement and how to create better options for coordination and deliberation. We'll publish what comes out of it. The window to investigate these questions together is here, and people outside AI companies should be involved in this deliberation.

This follows a familiar playbook. With the earlier release of Mythos, Anthropic framed the model as so powerful it could autonomously discover thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities - including decades-old bugs missed by prior testing - chain exploits, and execute complex multi-stage attacks. They called it a “moment of danger” for cybersecurity with potentially severe consequences for economies and national security.

Access was initially restricted to a small group of trusted parties. As doomer headlines blanketed mainstream media, the fear cycle ran its course. Then, predictably, access was gradually expanded.

Former AI czar David Sacks captured Anthropic’s approach perfectly on a recent episode of the All-In Podcast:

All of this FUD marketing arrives as Anthropic races OpenAI to reach the public markets first, following SpaceX’s anticipated IPO next week.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 18:50

Weingarten Blames Screens, Not Herself, For Falling Test Scores

Authored by Aaron Withe and Tina Snider via RealClearPolitics,

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten is sounding the alarm about the decade-long decline in student test scores, pointing to screens and devices as a culprit. She's calling it a "call to action."

She left out the part about how she helped cause the problem in the first place.

For two years during the COVID pandemic, Weingarten and the AFT fought aggressively to keep schools closed. In July 2020, as the Trump administration urged schools to reopen, Weingarten called the push "reckless," "callous," and "cruel," and threatened the possibility of safety strikes.

Internal emails later released by a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee showed the AFT had access to draft guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control before it was made public, as well as proposed specific language that could trigger renewed closures.

Research published afterward confirmed what was already evident: Districts with stronger teachers unions were significantly less likely to reopen for in-person instruction, even after controlling for local COVID conditions.

So kids stayed home. They got on computer screens and stayed there for two years, cut off from teachers, friends, and anything resembling a normal childhood.

The consequences were not abstract. The National Assessment of Educational Progress recorded the largest declines in math and reading scores in its history. Reading results dropped to levels not seen since the early 1990s.

Researchers documented surging rates of anxiety, depression, and social developmental delays among children who spent critical years in isolation. The damage, experts say, will take a generation to undo.

In her book published last fall, Weingarten wrote that she "...led the AFT in developing a concrete plan to reopen schools as quickly and safely as possible." That's a remarkable claim given the documented record of what her union actually did.

Weingarten told Congress in 2023 there were "... things we really didn't get right," including the impact of prolonged closures. That acknowledgment was notable, but what followed it wasn't accountability. It was a pivot.

The same union that lobbied to keep students off school grounds is now positioning itself as a champion of children's well-being, pointing an accusing finger at Silicon Valley while the learning-loss data keeps compounding.

The financial record makes that positioning even harder to stomach. A recent analysis of National Education Association and AFT federal disclosures by the Network Contagion Research Institute and the Gevura Fund - of which Tina Snider is president - found America's two largest teachers unions spend roughly $4 on political activities for every dollar spent on direct member representation.

The NEA alone reported more than $51.7 million in political spending in its most recent filing, plus another $123 million in contributions and grants, compared to less than $46 million on the collective bargaining its members thought they were paying for.

Meanwhile, teacher pay in real terms has barely moved in 50 years. The gap between what teachers earn and what comparably educated professionals earn hit a record 26.9% in 2024.

Small wonder NEA membership has fallen by nearly 400,000 since its peak, even as dues have increased every single year.

The union is shrinking, teachers are falling further behind their peers economically, and the students those teachers serve are still recovering from two years of lost learning.

That's the actual record, and it's a shameful one.

The test scores didn't fall because of TikTok. They fell because millions of kids spent two years at home on screens, isolated from the teachers and classrooms Weingarten claims to champion.

She knows who fought to keep them there. So do the parents still watching their kids catch up.

Aaron Withe is the Chief Executive Officer of the Freedom Foundation.

Tina Snider is president of Gevura Fund.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 18:25

Beer Demand Goes Flat As Even Alcoholics Pull Back With Gas Above $4

Beer sales across the U.S. over Memorial Day weekend were troublingly soft, according to a new Goldman report, which attributed the weakness primarily to a "challenging macro backdrop" and unusually cold weather across parts of the Lower 48 states.

The Gulf-related fuel price shock has kept the national average for 87-octane gasoline above the politically sensitive $4-per-gallon threshold for more than 66 days, or roughly two months. Consumers are already pulling back on purchases at gas stations and convenience stores, with the latest evidence showing a sharp slowdown in energy drink sales growth amid rising fuel prices.

The next victim of the fuel price shock, amid a dismal consumer backdrop of sliding personal savings and a fading tax-refund sugar high, appears to be beer - generally considered a consumer staple product. The latest high-frequency data cited by Bonnie Herzog shows beer trends over the Memorial Day weekend were troubling.

"As expected, the challenging macro environment appears to be the largest drag on beer trends - as consumers have less disposable income and are prioritizing more non-discretionary purchases - while unfavorable weather in several parts of the country further pressured consumption patterns with Memorial Day weekend being the wettest and one of the coldest holiday weekends in the past 5 years," Herzog wrote in the note.

Herzog's "Bev Bytes" Beer Distributor Survey covers feedback from roughly 45 beer distributors, representing about 145,000 retail outlets or 23% of U.S. alcohol-selling locations, providing clients with a solid real-time snapshot of beer demand.

That snapshot showed demand remained uneven, with Constellation Brands standing out as a winner, while Heineken, Boston Beer, and Molson Coors lagged behind.

About half of the respondents in the survey said beer sales slowed in April and May compared with the first quarter, citing a softening in consumer spending, unfavorable weather, and category switching to ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages sold pre-mixed in cans or bottles, and/or THC products.

Most notable takeaways from the survey:

1. Nearly half of all distributors indicated that beer category sales decelerated in April/May vs Q1 - citing a pressured consumer backdrop, unfavorable weather, some category switching (e.g., RTDs & THC), a secular shift away from alcohol, and weak marketing;

2. Consumers are facing increased pressure as a result of the challenging macro/operating backdrop - with notable pressure on the Hispanic consumer;

3. Recent volume trends for STZ in May have been encouraging following a relatively weaker Cinco De Mayo;

4. Recent scanner trends appear to be soft for Modelo Especial - though distributors still see further upside and expect the brand to grow this year;

5. Miller Lite & Coors Light remain pressured with further deceleration in April/May vs Q1;

6. Distributors are cautious on Corona but are mostly positive on Sunbrew;

7. Distributors are split if TAP will be able to successfully grow Monaco Cocktails;

8. Most distributors are upbeat about Sun Cruiser - with most expecting trends to accelerate in 2H vs 1H this year, SAM's brand portfolio elsewhere including Twisted & Truly remain pressured; and

9. SAM's recent innovation LYTT is seeing mixed traction - most view this as an interesting concept, but unsure how it would be received by consumers and durability of growth in context of its novelty packaging.

Herzog pointed out that "tempered beer category growth trends over the Memorial Day holiday weekend and lackluster category growth outlook largely come as no surprise, especially considering the challenging macro environment - we take a selective approach to identifying relative winners within the space that we believe are best positioned to outperform."

Beer Stock Coverage:

• STZ - Our 12-month price target of $180 is based on an equal-weighted EV/EBITDA of 10.8x (vs 10.9x prior) and P/E of 13.4x (unchanged), both of which are based on our Q5-Q8 estimates. We slightly lower P/E multiple to reflect macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures affecting the consumer. Risks to our estimates and price target include: Modelo/Corona Extra lose traction with consumers; Corona Light does not stabilize/return to growth; greater than expected spike in input cost inflation or lower productivity savings; STZ fails to build its new brewery in Southeastern Mexico.

• TAP - Our 12-month price target of $50 is based on an EV/EBITDA multiple of 6.1x (weighted 42.5%), P/E of 8.0x (wtd 42.5%), & M&A value based on EV/EBITDA of 9.4x (wtd 15%) all based on our updated Q5-Q8 estimates. Risks include: TAP cedes recent market share gains to Bud Light as that brand recovers; Acceleration plan fails to deliver mgmt's intended transformation across the broader beer/FMB portfolio driving declines in TAP's beer volume and market share (across both core economy SKUs and Above Premium beer/FMB) or consumer preferences shift away from mainstream/budget-priced beer and TAP's Beyond Beer strategy fails to resonate with consumers.

• SAM - Our 12-month price target is $192 and is based on an equal-weighted EV/EBITDA multiple of 8.0x and P/E multiple of 16.6x, both based on our Q5-Q8 estimates. Risks include: hard seltzer category growth accelerates and Truly gains momentum; Truly gains significant share and household penetration; SAM successfully stabilizes the Sam Adams brand; and supply chain capacity constraints for hard seltzer ease.

Professional subscribers can read the full Beer note here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 18:00

Rubio Says 'We Remember Their Lives And Honor Their Legacy' On Tiananmen Massacre's 37th Anniversary

Authored by Melanie Sun via The Epoch Times,

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement to mark the 37th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s Tiananmen Square Massacre.

“On June 4, the world marks 37 years since the Chinese Communist Party ordered its troops to attack thousands of peaceful demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square,” Rubio said in a statement late June 3 in the United States, which is hours behind China.

“Chinese students, workers, and other civilians who lost their lives had gathered to exercise their natural rights and demand democratic reforms and accountability for corruption. We remember their lives and honor their legacy,” he said.

“No amount of censorship can erase the past. Those who sacrificed to uphold their unalienable rights of free expression and peaceful assembly will be vindicated someday.”

Mention of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre is heavily censored in mainland China, with terms such as “June 4,” “6/4,” “64,” “六四” (in Chinese), and related phrases routinely blocked across all information platforms by China’s internet police. Closer to the sensitive date, even terms like “that year” are censored in an effort to suppress all mention of the Chinese lives lost that day and what they stood for.

Despite being unsuccessful in China, the protests sent shockwaves throughout the world and helped strengthen the resolve of people in other communist states, such as East Germany and Romania, also seeking liberty.

At the same time, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dispatched Vice Premier Yao Yilin to East Germany in October 1989 to share its methods for suppressing protests.

This year may be particularly sensitive for the CCP, following the November 2025 leak of classified video footage of the 1990 military trial of Maj. Gen. Xu Qinxian, who refused to deploy troops against the protesters in 1989.

Xu’s testimony revealed operational details of the military response in 1989—information that the CCP considered to be state secrets.

The video footage was quickly scrubbed from the Chinese internet after it was leaked, but it generated widespread attention among Chinese-speaking users outside of mainland China.

Every year, the CCP harasses or rounds up dissidents, activists, journalists, lawyers, and Tiananmen-related figures for preemptive detention or house arrest ahead of the June 4 date as part of its “stability maintenance” operations.

But in a first such action in more than three decades, the Tiananmen Mothers group, representing the families of victims of the massacre, was blocked from visiting the graves of their loved ones at Beijing’s Wan'an Cemetery by police on June 4, according to Radio Free Asia.

Ahead of the date, arrests were also underway. In May, pro-democracy activist Mao Qingxiang in Hangzhou was detained by Chinese police after he shared a video of recently released dissident Xu Guang, whose post-prison remarks included a call to “never forget June 4.”

Chinese in Hong Kong have also been blocked from marking the anniversary, with the annual candlelight vigil in Victoria Park that once drew tens of thousands of people in remembrance of the human rights travesty banned since 2020 under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

(Top) Hong Kong police officers occupy Victoria Park in the afternoon of June 4, 2021, to prevent people from entering; (bottom) The June 4 candlelight vigil in Victoria Park in 2017. The Epoch Times

Known pro-democracy voices in the city have also been monitored or harassed in an attempt to deter any bigger incidents. But Chinese around the world in cities such as Taipei, Sydney, London, and New York will gather for vigils to commemorate the June 4 anniversary.

In a statement the morning of June 4, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te called on China to acknowledge the deadly clampdown on Chinese protesters in Tiananmen Square 37 years ago and “face the wounds of history” for a better future.

“What was shot and crushed that year was not only the life and youth of those who participated in the democracy movement, but also the desire and practice of the pursuit of freedom and democracy by an entire generation of China,” he said in a post on social media.

“I sincerely hope that China will face up to the June 4 incident 37 years ago, recognize the truth, comfort the pain, and open reconciliation and dialogue.”

Lai said that a “sound government” should support the next generation to “live a better life than themselves, instead of killing their dreams and erasing their opinions with violence, surveillance, etc.”

“Taiwan will stand with all those who pursue freedom and democracy until the truth is seen, the pain is comforted, until no one else loses their lives in the pursuit of freedom. Because a country that respects its people, protects freedom, and practices democracy is a country that is truly worthy of respect,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump also made a statement condemning communism as June 4 arrived in China.

“Remember, breathtaking ‘Popularity’ first, and then, guaranteed DEATH AND DESTRUCTION!” he wrote on Truth Social.

“Has anyone ever seen a Happy Communist?” he added.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 17:40

Korean Officials Are "Paying Close Attention" As Foreign Outflows Trigger Bond/Won Collapse

Unless you have been living under a rock, you'll know that South Korea's stock market has been rocketing higher on the back of the AI/Semi speculation as SK Hynix and Samsung have dominated (accounting for over 40% of the KOSPI market cap)...

But, as the following chart from Goldman Sachs shows, this surge in Korean stocks has been driven by domestic Retail investors as Foreign investors have fled that market en masse...

These outflows have sparked a collapse in the Korean Won (exacerbated by pressure some Asian currencies face as the Iran war drags on), now at its weakest versus the USDollar since 2009...

...and pushed yields for South Korean bonds to their highest in almost 3 years...

With all that in mind, Bloomberg reported earlier in the week that South Korean officials have intensified monitoring of the government bond market through daily phone calls and a private messaging group with market participants, as authorities step up efforts to contain rising yields.

Since May 18, a group of deputy directors in the finance ministry’s treasury-bond division have been calling bond dealers and asset managers before the start of trading to gauge market sentiment and investor positioning, Hwang Soon Kwan, deputy finance minister for treasury, said in an interview. In some cases, the discussions are held in person, he said.

“We are paying close attention to managing the bond market and are determined to respond firmly to any excessive moves,” Hwang said Friday in Seoul.

The ministry also set up a private KakaoTalk chat room on May 21 that now includes about 17 participants, according to Hwang.

Members include Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol, senior ministry officials, researchers, primary dealers and fund managers, who share research reports and market views on a daily basis.

The moves are not intended to press yields down, but to signal authorities are closely monitoring the market, he added.

The government last week reduced planned bond issuance for June by about 21% from the previous month, adding to efforts to ease upward pressure on yields.

Additionally, just days later, Bloomberg reports that Finance Minister Koo Yun Cheol said authorities were closely monitoring FX market developments “with a high degree of vigilance to prevent anxiety from spreading,” and vowed to “take prompt, necessary measures in case of excessive market moves.”

Asian policymakers are coming up against the limit of their currency defense as elevated oil prices hurt the region’s importers.

Authorities in Indonesia and the Philippines also stepped up measures to defend currencies. 

“The authorities are doing what they can, but given that the won is being driven by external factors, it’s likely difficult to control,” said So Jaeyong, chief economist at Shinhan Bank in Seoul.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 17:20

63 Arrested, Crypto Millions Frozen As FBI, DOJ Team Up With Meta, Coinbase And Starlink To Bust Scammers

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

More than 1 million scam-related online accounts were taken down, and millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency were frozen, as part of a crackdown on Southeast Asian scam networks.

Scam center workers, many of whom were trafficked and forced to work for criminals, are guarded by Karen Border Guard troops in Myawaddy, Burma, on Feb. 26, 2025. Stringer/Reuters

The crackdown operations, conducted by U.S. and international agencies led by the Department of Justice (DOJ), began on May 18, when the DOJ's Scam Center Strike Force brought together the FBI, Royal Thai Police, and law enforcement agencies from Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand to identify and disrupt criminal scam networks.

Meta, Microsoft, Starlink, and Coinbase were part of joint operations held in Washington and Bangkok, Meta said in a June 3 statement.

"More than a million online assets were disrupted as a result of the operation - including 1.4 million accounts, pages, and groups across Facebook and Instagram, 20,000 Microsoft accounts, and thousands of Starlink kits - and the Royal Thai Police has arrested 63 individuals involved in scam operations," Meta said.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase "froze more than $3 million in cryptocurrency assets tied to criminal networks." In addition, Starlink "terminated connectivity for thousands of Starlink kits that were attributed to unlawful use," it said.

Criminal syndicates behind the fraud have exploited millions of people globally via romance scams and investment fraud, and through utilizing forced labor. This makes coordinated disruption critical to protecting people, Meta said.

FBI Director Kash Patel thanked Meta for the company's assistance in a June 3 post on X, and said the operation was "just the beginning!"

The DOJ said that the joint initiative interrupted malicious network connections hosted by scammers. Moreover, servers and hosting infrastructure associated with the scam networks in Southeast Asia were decommissioned.

Many scam centers are run from Laos, Cambodia, and Burma along the border with Thailand, across several industrial-scale compounds.

As for forced labor, criminal networks lure unsuspecting people to Thailand with promises of high-paying jobs, then seize their identification and coerce them to work at such sites. The victims run scams against targets under the threat of violence.

In its recent statement, Meta said that intelligence-sharing among entities has led to the identification of several potential new scam center locations and networks.

"Blockchain technology is one of the most powerful tools we have in the fight against financial crime," Leah Bressack, vice president at Coinbase, said.

"Unlike traditional financial systems, the transparent and immutable nature of transaction data means bad actors can't hide - every transaction leaves a trail. That transparency is exactly what allowed us to work with law enforcement to trace, freeze, and disrupt these criminal networks."

Crackdown On Fraud

The crackdown follows President Donald Trump's signing of an executive order on March 6 to counter scam operations - Combating Cybercrime, Fraud, and Predatory Schemes Against American Citizens.

"Cybercrime, fraud, and predatory schemes are draining American families of their life savings, stealing the benefits of years of work, and destroying the lives of our youth," Trump said in the order.

"It is the policy of the United States to protect Americans from, and harden our financial and digital systems against, these threats. The United States shall counter attacks on Americans with a commensurate response that includes law enforcement, diplomacy, and potential offensive actions."

According to the recent DOJ statement, the Scam Center Strike Force is a "critical node" in executing Trump's order.

Online scams pose a major financial threat to Americans. An April 2025 report from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center revealed that the center received 859,532 complaints of suspected internet crimes in 2024.

The total financial losses from these crimes amounted to $16 billion, a 33 percent increase from the previous year.

Older adults were significantly affected, with 147,127 complaints filed by people aged 60 or older, totaling $4.88 billion in losses.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 17:00

Communist Hasan Piker Blames "Homo-Fascism" After Scott Wiener Crushes His Preferred SF Candidate

Far-left Turkish-American millionaire and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker lashed out during a Tuesday livestream after his friend, San Francisco congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, was badly defeated in the primary race to succeed Nancy Pelosi.

Chakrabarti, a former aide to the unhinged socialist NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, spent $10 million of his own money but was polling around 15% with about half the vote counted. 

Piker strangely blamed Chakrabarti's poor performance on San Francisco's urban layout and car dependency, despite the city's reputation for public transit.

He then pivoted into attacking the city's affluent liberal voter base: 

You know what it is? I know what it is. F**king car-reliant infrastructure. The more cars you have, the more chuddy the f**king city is.

That's it. No public transit. No f**king people living close to one another. It's just f**king rich liberals who just want homo-fascism in the country, that's it. They want gay fascism. They want gay techno-fascism.

X user Dipper captured Piker's livestream meltdown in a post titled "He's so fucking mad, commies down horrendously."

He's so fucking mad, commies down horrendously. https://t.co/VAySH1m6kV pic.twitter.com/J0SM3dXEO9

— Dipper (@dipperid) June 3, 2026

Late Wednesday, Chakrabarti blamed his loss on outside money from AI, crypto, and AIPAC-linked interests ... 

The campaign has ended, but the mission remains. We must wrest control of our country away from the corporations and back into the hands of people. And the only force capable of doing that is a movement of people unlike any we have seen in generations. Thank you to everyone who… pic.twitter.com/P1yDPz4Aie

— Saikat Chakrabarti for Congress (@saikatc) June 4, 2026

As for Piker, he's made the news in recent weeks after committing an operational-security mistake by publicly identifying American Marxist tech financier Neville Roy Singham, who has reportedly been living in China and has been linked by The New York Times to CCP-aligned propaganda networks, as a major financier of pro-Marxist revolutionary NGOs operating inside the U.S.

The question political observers are asking is: What has the Democratic Party become? Really it has been radicalized, championing anti-American values, promoting socialism and Marxism, aligning with revolutionary far-left NGOs funding chaos in the streets, and some of that may point to foreign influence operations run through the Singham network and other dark-money-funded NGOs.

"This realignment of Democratic Party power, away from the old-school, Ivy League establishment, into the hands of the socialists, the radical Muslims and the guys with Nazi tats, will have profound implications for the 2028 presidential race," Owen Gregorian noted on X.

The age of the Democratic Party blocking fringe outsiders is officially over | David Marcus, Fox News

There were two events on Tuesday that offered more proof of a national Democratic Party establishment that has lost control: One was a meeting, one an election, and both are… pic.twitter.com/ENMYpVJmIe

— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) June 4, 2026

Democrats have become the party of incoherent lunatics.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 16:40

Obamacare Fraud Estimated To Cost $25 Billion This Year: Report

Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times,

Taxpayers will foot the bill for up to $25 billion in improper Obamacare payments due to organized fraud and improper enrollments in 2026, according to a June 3 report from Paragon Health Institute.

A pedestrian passes an insurance agency that offers Affordable Care Act plans in Miami, on Jan. 28, 2021. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Some 6.2 million enrollments in the healthcare exchanges during the most recent open-enrollment period were improper, the report said, accounting for 27 percent of all enrollments.

The conservative think tank has studied fraud in the Obamacare program since 2024.

The problem of improper enrollments persists despite recent attempts to curtail it, and appears to involve organized efforts by unscrupulous insurance brokers, the report concluded.

Meanwhile, some industry groups have criticized the findings.

Incentives For Fraud

Obamacare's premium subsidies, which cover 100 percent of the health coverage policy for many beneficiaries, and referral bonuses offer an incentive for both enrollees and brokers to abuse the system, the report concluded.

Researchers identified improper enrollments by comparing Obamacare data to Census Bureau population estimates. The improper enrollments were calculated by a state-by-state comparison of enrollments in the lowest income category to the number of people having that income level in the state.

The lowest income category is 100 percent to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $16,000 to $24,000 per year for an individual or about $27,000 to $41,000 for a family of three.

Enrollees with incomes at that level receive the highest subsidies. During the 2026 open enrollment period, 29 percent of enrollees chose a plan with a $0 premium.

That gives enrollees and the agents who sign people up for Obamacare an incentive to misstate their income, the report concluded.

The American Hospital Association has said Paragon's research results are not valid due to flawed methodology. "The Census uses different income and household size definitions than the Marketplace so there is no possibility of the data matching," the group said in an August 2025 statement. The association also said the Census relies on reported income but Obamacare asks for projected income.

The total value of Obamacare subsidies to be paid in 2026 is $88 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Agents who enroll individuals or families in Obamacare earn a commission averaging around $20 per enrollee per month for as long as the policy is active.

Obamacare received more than 23 million enrollments during the 2026 open enrollment period.

Subsidies and commissions are paid on "effectuated" enrollments, meaning enrollees who selected a plan and paid the initial premium.

The number of effectuated enrollments for 2026 has not yet been released, though about 96 percent of signups became effectuated enrollments in 2025.

Weak Controls

Congress allowed Obamacare's enhanced subsidies to expire in 2025, which reduced the number of people eligible for a 100 percent subsidy.

Yet improper enrollments persist in part because of automatic re-enrollment, said Brian Blase, Paragon's founder and president.

"Automatic re-enrollment remains pervasive. Nearly 40 percent of 2026 exchange enrollees were automatically re-enrolled," Blase told The Epoch Times by email.

That allows previous improper enrollments to carry over from year to year.

Congress and the Trump administration have taken actions to strengthen checks on improper enrollment, but most are not yet in effect.

Enacted law will require annual income eligibility verification. That takes effect in 2028.

The administration implemented stricter verification rules in May 2026, but they did not impact the 2026 open enrollment, which ended Jan. 15.

Legal Action Center, a human rights advocacy group, has opposed mandatory re-enrollment and income verification because it places an administrative burden on those dealing with substance abuse, mental health conditions, or criminal convictions.

"There is an ongoing need for an automatic re-enrollment mechanism, given that some people do not actively return to the Marketplace to make plan choices during open enrollment," the group wrote to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in April 2025. Rather than requiring action on the part of enrollees, Legal Action Center urged the federal government to verify continued eligibility using existing data such as the Social Security Administration and state unemployment databases.

Bad Actors

Unscrupulous brokers appear to have contributed to improper enrollments by steering consumers toward plans that pay larger commissions, Blase said. And the report suggests that some agents have created fictitious enrollments.

"Some brokers and agents continue steering low-income enrollees into $0-premium plans," Blase said, even though it may not provide them the best value.

Bronze plans have no premium for an enrollee at 100 percent of the federal poverty level. But the out-of-pocket costs could total nearly $7,500 per year, according to Paragon.

The same individual could qualify for a silver plan for which the enrollee premium plus out-of-pocket costs totaled $415.

"One plausible explanation is that brokers moved enrollees into $0-premium bronze or gold plans because some consumers will only enroll if coverage is free," Blase said. "And phantom enrollees cannot pay premiums."

Paragon defines phantom enrollments as those that are fictitious, or unaware they are enrolled, or are enrolled in other coverage.

In 2024, 35 percent of Obamacare enrollments reported no medical claims. "The percentage of zero-claim enrollees in the exchanges is dramatically higher than observed in the broader private market and strongly suggests a substantial number of phantom enrollees."

Also, about half of all enrollees reported unknown race or ethnicity in 2026, a trend that began in 2024, according to the report. Researchers say this could indicate that the agents had little contact with the enrollees.

"These findings suggest that a substantial portion of recent ACA exchange enrollment growth may not reflect legitimate increases in insured individuals," the report stated.

America's Health Insurance Plans, an association of health insurers, has been critical of Paragon's previous research on phantom enrollees.

"A 'no-claims' year is evidence that a consumer stayed healthy or only had a few months of coverage - not that taxpayer money was misdirected or that their policy was illegitimate," the group said in an August 2025 statement.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 16:20

Mapping America's Robotaxi Boom As Driverless Fleets Hit More Cities

Robotaxi deployments are entering the scaling phase across major U.S. cities as Waymo, Lyft, Tesla, Zoox, and other autonomous vehicle firms push fleets deep into cities.

The autonomous rideshare market remains in its early chapters, but the direction of travel is clear even to the modest observer: robotaxis are moving from the test phase to becoming an increasingly common sight on the roads.

With that comes the general public capturing these robotaxis doing some pretty weird stuff in the wild, such as bottlenecking in a quiet Atlanta neighborhood last month...

And this.

Pro tip: Waymo is more drunk friendly than uber. https://t.co/tYNgWzLBl5

— Old Row (@OldRowOfficial) May 11, 2026

The latest update on commercial AV deployments comes from Goldman analysts led by Eric Sheridan, who told clients these deployments are gaining momentum.

Based on NHTSA crash data from July 2025 through mid-April 2026, along with Waymo and Tesla disclosures on miles and trips, Tesla robotaxis had an accident every 100,000 to 120,000 miles, while Waymo had an accident every 150,000 to 175,000 miles.

Tesla's Austin fleet includes a mix of vehicles with and without safety monitors, while Waymo operates commercially across more cities and has a much larger fleet.

Sheridan estimates that Waymo's fleet size is over 3,800 vehicles (including 577 in Texas), while Tesla's fleet in Texas is around 42 vehicles.

SensorTower data for the US market shows that Waymo's app usage continued to expand in April, though momentum appears to be slowing. Monthly active users rose 20% year over year, a slower pace than in recent months.

Announced current and future deployments

Sheridan's ratings and price targets on robotaxi or robotaxi-aligned companies:

Related:

• Brave New Autonomous World Takes Shape On America's Highways

• Beyond Chips: U.S. And China Enter Robotaxi Race As Physical AI Emerges

• Robotaxis Enter Commercialization Phase In North America With Hyperscaling Next

Increased deployments will likely usher in rising regulatory pressure from local, state, and even federal governments. We wouldn't be surprised if taxi or human drivers revolted at some point. Or at least some left-wing NGO mount a pressure campaign with paid protests.

Federal safety agencies are currently investigating Waymo incidents, New York backed away from allowing commercial robotaxi service this year, and metro areas such as Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco are considering restrictions.

The emerging problem for robotaxi firms is that, even if AVs crash less often per mile than human drivers, highly visible accidents in unusual real-world conditions are becoming a political and regulatory headwind.

Consider this before the next Waymo ride. 

What this Waymo post is doing isn’t really about Waymo. It’s not about sanitation, or sex work, or operational edge cases. That’s just the wrapper. The real function of the post is emotional routing. It takes a complex transition — autonomous systems entering messy human reality… pic.twitter.com/Jt87RkG64x

— Joe (@JoeMaristela) January 30, 2026

Professional subscribers can read the full Robotaxi note here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 15:40

Zelensky Pens Lengthy Letter To Putin: 'Enough Of War, I Am Proposing A Meeting'

On Thursday Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin in a rare open letter sent to the Russian leader. It said Ukraine is also ready for a "full ceasefire."

"Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us - and you. I am proposing a meeting," Zelensky said in the letter. "Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire for the duration of the negotiations," he added.

The letter, which is somewhat lengthy at one point says, "The choice is yours now. Enough of war" and then spells out that "Ukraine proposes to end this war."

"This must be done honestly, with dignity, and with guarantees that the war will not be reignited," Zelensky added. And then interestingly, "We see that the United States is fully focused on the issue of Iran, and it would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the center of its attention."

via AP/The Hill

The new letter was issued just Europe's most influential powers of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom are trying to again jump-start Ukraine war peace talks, collectively operating as the E3 group.

They seek to implement a new framework aimed at engaging Russian President Vladimir Putin in direct negotiations to end the war. Reuters on Wednesday reports that "A window for dialogue is slowly opening between Russia and Europe on Ukraine, ​although it is likely to be months before talks can ‌begin, a German government official said at a briefing on Wednesday."

It seems this window of opportunity is based to some degree on perceptions that the war tide and momentum is finally shifting in Ukraine's favor, given the increasing effectiveness of Ukraine's devastating cross-border drone attacks of late.

European leaders apparently view the current battlefield and political dynamics as having strengthened Kiev's bargaining position, creating what they believe is the optimal moment to press Moscow for talks. It seems that Zelensky agrees, and believes that it's time to get back to the negotiating table.

Putin on sidelines of the ongoing St. Petersburg International Economic Forum: We can control whole Donbass region AND strike a deal. One thing doesn’t contradict the other, why would you think that it does? — Putin to AP News Director

We can control whole Donbass region AND strike a deal. One thing doesn’t contradict the other, why would you think that it does? — Putin to AP News Directorhttps://t.co/T9H7QsH7g4 pic.twitter.com/9waCc6M6oO

— RT (@RT_com) June 4, 2026

Putin also said Thursday that his view is there's no need to stop fighting in order to start talks.

Below is Zelensky's full newly published letter, kept in the original formatting, and as issued in an official English version.

*  *  *

Open Letter

To the President of the Russian Federation

From the President of Ukraine

When you came to power in Russia more than 26 years ago, many people in Ukraine viewed you positively. That is how it was. But that is now in the past.

Now, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians view it positively that our long-range drones paid a visit to the opening of your forum in St. Petersburg, covering a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers. As you know very well, that distance is not the limit of our capabilities.

For 26 years, your time in power has completely changed the agenda of relations between Ukraine and Russia. From discussions about trade and other civilian matters, our nations have moved to talking almost exclusively about strikes and losses.

You have spent nearly half of your 26 years in power in Russia waging war against Ukraine.

Whatever you may say about NATO, geopolitics, or the Russian language, this war is your personal choice — a war without a real cause. That is how history will remember it.

Those years could have been very different.

We often hear that you are comfortable with this war. Of course, not in those cases when it comes to the security of your residence in Valdai or your parade in Moscow. Your own life is valuable to you.

But now we can all see that Russians are finally becoming less comfortable with this reality — with the fact that the war is bringing more and more negative consequences to Russia.

They do not like our drones and missiles.

They do not like gasoline shortages and constantly rising prices.

They do not like constant restrictions.

They do not like your intention to launch a second wave of mobilization in order to expand the war into another direction in Ukraine or to use it against other countries neighboring Russia.

They do not like the fact that there is no end in sight to your war.

Yes, you can still force Russians to exist this way. But your resources are shrinking significantly.

You will not have enough money or political capital to keep buying the loyalty of Russians the way you have for the past 26 years.

And we will do everything we can to ensure that the world helps bring that moment closer.

As you yourself like to say, “we need to run the numbers.”

Yesterday, I received a report on the losses of your army on the front in Ukraine during May. Once again, the number exceeded 30,000 Russian soldiers killed and seriously wounded. We have been maintaining that level month after month, and we have video confirmation of every one of your losses — these are not empty claims.

We know that 63 percent of your battlefield losses are killed, while only 37 percent are wounded. In the 21st century, no army can afford such a ratio. And the share of those killed will continue to grow.

It is not as if we in Ukraine are concerned about the fate of Russian soldiers after everything your war has brought to our country.

But I do care about Ukrainians.

We are losing our people, and every loss is painful to us. Even when the ratio of Ukrainian losses to Russian losses is one to five or one to six, it still matters greatly.

It also matters that you regularly postpone, every few months, your own deadlines for capturing our regions — especially the Donetsk region. And you will not capture it this year either.

But we in Ukraine do not want a permanent war. We know very well that life without war is infinitely better. And we want to achieve that.

I am convinced that the majority of Russians would respond positively to this as well — and you know it.

Many did not believe that Ukraine would be able to hold out for so long. You did not believe it. And those who advised you did not believe it either. That was a mistake.

You did not expect full-scale resistance from Ukraine, and you did not foresee that things would go this far. Yet here we all are — in the fifth year of this full-scale war.

Do not be afraid to take the path out of this war. That is the main thing that is required of you now.

Ukraine has preserved its independence. And it will preserve it. Despite all predictions to the contrary.

We have united many around the world to stand with Ukraine and against you. We found the weapons and the financing we needed.

We receive support. You receive sanctions. And this will continue until there is justice for Ukraine — the justice we seek and the justice that can be achieved.

We will not allow those who are trying to convince you that sanctions against Russia will be significantly eased, and that support for Ukraine will be significantly reduced, without any meaningful change in your position toward Ukraine, to succeed. The example of Orban shows how those who choose to help Russia in its war against us end in disgrace.

Ukraine has endured harsh winters while you tried to destroy our energy system. We held firm — and even in darkness, the resilience of Ukrainians remained intact.

We brought the war onto your territory, and you would not have been able to cope with it without North Korea’s help. You are the first ruler of Russia to turn to Pyongyang for assistance.

And today you are fully dependent on China — also for the first time in Russia’s history.

You believed Ukrainians would not have the strength to defend themselves. Yet today, our people are helping our partners in the Middle East and the Gulf build their own defenses.

You hoped for internal unrest in Ukraine. Instead, it was your own military formations that staged a mutiny against you. June 23 will mark another anniversary of that event, and silence will not erase this fact from history.

And now it is you whom your own officials, businessmen, and propagandists look at with obvious fatigue. The world can see it.

The world has not grown tired of Ukraine, as you long hoped it would. But there is growing fatigue with Russia — even among those in the wider world who help you bypass sanctions and keep your economy afloat.

You cannot fail to notice it. After 26 years in power, age is beginning to take its toll. And with time, the fatigue with you will only grow.

We have seen intelligence reports showing that you are now considering plans to continue the war into 2027 and 2028. We also know that you hope ballistic missiles will achieve for you what everything else has failed to achieve. You want to draw Belarus even deeper into this war, and we are now forced to prepare for that as well. We see that you are trying to orchestrate something around Transnistria. Your propagandists threaten, in one way or another, every country neighboring Russia. Do you really want to go through all of this?

The choice is yours now.

Enough of war.

Ukraine proposes to end this war.

This must be done honestly, with dignity, and with guarantees that the war will not be reignited.

We see that the United States is fully focused on the issue of Iran, and it would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the center of its attention.

Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us — and you.

I am proposing a meeting.

Everyone heard your representatives, smiling, say that I could supposedly come to Moscow. But after these 26 years, there is nothing for a Ukrainian leader to do in your capital — just as there is nothing for a Russian leader to do in Kyiv.

There are countries that have traditionally hosted leaders to resolve issues of war and peace. Switzerland, Türkiye, the countries of the Arab world — many are able and willing to host such a meeting.

It is leaders who resolve the key issues. That has always been the case, and it always will be.

I propose to set a clear date for such a meeting.

We have heard that you were promised in Alaska the resolution of certain issues concerning Ukraine and Europe. But you can see for yourself that Ukrainian and European issues are not decided in Anchorage.

Other agreed participants could join the bilateral track to be established between us.

Since the war is taking place in Europe, and since Ukraine needs security guarantees, while you also seek security guarantees for yourself, it would be logical to involve those who can genuinely serve as guarantors.

We believe Europe should be part of this process — those who truly have the capacity to influence the situation.

We also believe that the United States must be part of the process. This is what could help shape a new security architecture for our part of the world.

We’ve already experienced many agreements with Russia, including the Minsk agreements, that ultimately failed. That is why we must first find direct answers between us to the questions that remain, and not hide from difficult issues behind formulas, technical working groups, or endless time lost in shuttle diplomacy.

Your war has permanently set Ukraine and Russia apart.

The front line today is the line from which diplomacy must begin.

Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire for the duration of the negotiations. This is standard practice, and current developments around Iran only reinforce that point. An attempt to establish real silence is the best way to begin talking to one another. We believe it would not simply be an attempt, but a real ceasefire — if that is what you want.

You know that the United States has the capability to monitor a ceasefire along the line where hostilities stop.

Ukraine is ready for an all-for-all exchange of prisoners of war, and this could become a good prologue to ending the war.

Serious steps must be taken to return civilians and children who were taken away during the war.

We must determine what kind of future awaits the generations of Ukrainians and Russians who will come after us.

If you do not personally come to the conclusion that it is time to end this war, Ukraine will continue fighting for its existence. We will have those who support us.

But you, too, will have to fight much harder for your own existence — not Russia’s, but your own. And this is not a threat from me or from Ukraine. It is a fact of Russian history that you know well: when Russia grows tired, change comes.

We can work toward that fatigue.

You can stop your war.

Eternal memory to all those whose lives were taken by this war.

Glory to Ukraine!

*  *  *

Despite the long appeal, President Putin and the Kremlin have demonstrated a willingness to allow a long war to drag on, and are unlikely to be moved. Putin has said there's no need for a truce unless a deal is already close or about to be signed. But the two sides aren't any closer to being at the negotiating table as yet.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 15:20

"Bring Your Own Capacity" - Google And Voltus To Deploy Virtual Power Plant 

Google signed a three-year Bring Your Own Capacity (BYOC) agreement with Voltus for up to 100 MW of accredited distributed capacity in the PJM Interconnection. Voltus will aggregate batteries, smart thermostats, electric vehicles, and other flexible assets from homes and businesses into a Google-funded Virtual Power Plant (VPP). 

When the grid needs relief, the software dispatches those resources in concert. Participants get paid, and Google gets capacity without waiting for traditional interconnection queues.

A VPP is not a physical plant at all. It is coordinated software that turns thousands of small, customer-sited resources into something that behaves like dispatchable generation. Distributed energy resources (DERs) such as solar panels, batteries, smart thermostats, and flexible loads already sitting on the grid become a decentralized fleet. 

Instead of building another transmission line or expensive peaker plant that sits idle most of the year, the VPP squeezes more value out of what already exists. Brattle Group analysis suggests better utilization of existing infrastructure could save U.S. consumers over $100 billion this decade.

Voltus has positioned itself as the leading operator in this space. The company manages more than 7.5 GW of DERs across all nine North American wholesale markets and launched its BYOC offering specifically to help large loads shortcut interconnection delays. Google is the first named hyperscaler customer. The deal runs in PJM, the largest U.S. grid operator and one already feeling the strain of AI-driven load growth.

This move fits the broader pattern of Google methodically assembling exposure to nearly every generation and flexibility technology currently in play. Considering the alternative is to just sit back and watch grids like PJM start to go black in the years ahead...

On the firm, always-on side, the company struck a deal with NextEra to restart the 615 MW Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa. Google is also looking to offtake power from Kairos' molten salt reactors in Tennessee. 

For next-generation geothermal, Google has a long-running partnership with Fervo Energy. The Nevada pilot is already feeding carbon-free power to Google data centers, and the companies expanded via a Clean Transition Tariff structure with NV Energy for an additional 115 MW. Google also holds PPAs with Ormat under the same tariff framework.

On the renewables and storage front, Alphabet closed its $4.75 billion acquisition of Intersect Power earlier this year. Intersect develops co-located data center and energy infrastructure, including large-scale solar and battery storage projects. 

Google has maintained a steady drumbeat of wind and solar PPAs for years; the Intersect deal accelerates co-location and gives the company more direct control over project development timelines.

Long-duration batteries even caught Google's interest with the Form Energy deal for iron-air technology and the batteries that will likely participate in the new Voltus VPP. 

The through-line is speed. PJM and other grids are not adding transmission and firm generation fast enough to match announced data center builds. Hyperscalers have responded with every available lever: restarting nuclear, advancing geothermal, buying developers outright, and now directly funding distributed capacity. 
 

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 15:00

Lights Out For Sleep Number, Shares Crash On Potential Bankruptcy Filing

Sleep Number Corporation shares crashed after multiple outlets, including The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, reported that the mattress and bedding retailer is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

WSJ said that Sleep Number is "expected to use the Chapter 11 process to restructure its balance sheet while continuing operations. The reorganization could also include a potential sale of the business."

As of late 2024, Sleep Number had 640 retail stores across the US, with a footprint actively shrinking in recent years.

The company has been hit hard by a confluence of factors - think higher interest rates have reduced demand for big-ticket items, like a $5,000 bed, industry pressure, and tariffs. Plus, let's not forget that all the demand was pulled forward during the easy-money bubble of the Covid era.

Revenue fell 16% in 2025 to $1.4 billion ...

... while the stock has plunged about 97% over the past four months to roughly 32 cents.

WSJ noted that Sleep Number recently hired Guggenheim Securities to evaluate opportunities to strengthen its balance sheet and improve liquidity. The struggling retailer has secured $55 million in additional liquidity through a new $25 million term loan and $30 million in added flexibility from existing lenders.

Our read-through: another consumer discretionary story has collapsed, with demand for big-ticket home goods continuing to sink under elevated interest rates and a tapped-out consumer nearing the end of the tax-refund sugar high.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 14:40

Heavily Shorted Rumble Soars After Landing "Largest Customer Commitment To Date" In $270M AI Cloud Deal

Shares of the free-speech video platform and cloud-services company Rumble soared in premarket trading after it announced in an 8-K filing that it had signed a multi-year, $270 million deal with a third-party cloud customer for dedicated GPU cloud capacity powered by Nvidia Blackwell B300 systems.

The deal, announced Thursday morning, is Rumble's largest customer commitment to date and signals the video platform's push deeper into AI infrastructure and cloud computing services.

"Rumble entered into a multi-year, $270 million agreement with a third-party cloud customer, representing Rumble's largest customer commitment to date," the company wrote in the filing.

The filing continued, "Under the agreement, the customer has committed to purchase dedicated GPU cloud capacity from Rumble powered by NVIDIA Blackwell B300 systems," adding, "The agreement includes potential for greater value and extended length based on market success." 

Rumble went public through a SPAC merger with CF Acquisition Corp. VI, a Cantor Fitzgerald–backed blank-check company. The deal closed in mid-September 2022, and the shares began trading on Nasdaq.

Since then, shares have traded sideways, unable to break above $16 resistance, and have plunged as low as $3.39 in early 2024.

News of the AI cloud-capacity deal sent shares soaring 14% in premarket trading.

Notably Rumble is heavily shorted, with 28% of the float short, or about 24.5 million shares. Days to cover stand around 7.1. 

What's notable about Rumble is that it's no longer a free-speech YouTube alternative, but is now shifting toward AI infrastructure and GPU cloud services.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 13:40

Satellite Imagery Appears To Show Damage At US Airbase In Kuwait After Iranian Attack

Via Middle East Eye

Satellite imagery appears to show damage to a US air base in Kuwait following Iranian strikes on Wednesday.

New imagery of the site released by Soar Atlas seems to show a destroyed shelter at the US Ali Al Salem Air Base, despite US Central Command (CENTCOM) insisting that all the missiles and drones targeting the site were "defeated".

Screengrab of satellite imagery of the US Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait released by Soar Atlas (via X)

Soar Atlas noted that the area surrounding the base "appears charred, with multiple impact craters visible nearby".

In a statement, Centcom said that Iran had fired "several ballistic missiles toward regional neighbors", but claimed that "all failed to hit their intended targets".

It added that the two missiles fired at Kuwait "fell short or broke apart enroute" and that three missiles launched at Bahrain "were immediately intercepted" by air defences.

Kuwait's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that a volley of Iranian missiles had struck the country's international airport and diplomatic missions. Local officials reported that one person was killed in the attack - who was later identified as an Indian citizen - and another 60 injured.

DropSite News: New Soar Atlas satellite imagery appears to show damage at the U.S. Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait following yesterday’s Iranian attacks.

⭕️ BREAKING: New Soar Atlas satellite imagery appears to show damage at the U.S. Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait following yesterday’s Iranian attacks.

CENTCOM insisted yesterday that all incoming missiles and drones were “defeated,” but Kuwaiti authorities also released footage… https://t.co/dNhtnODXe9 pic.twitter.com/BqYyMtHROA

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) June 4, 2026

Video footage from the airport showed extensive damage, with fires raging in terminal one, a collapsed roof and billowing clouds of smoke. 

After the attacks, Kuwaiti defence ministry spokesperson Brigadier General Saud al-Otayan condemned what he described as "criminal Iranian aggression".

Iran on Wednesday said that the strikes on Kuwait's airport were the result of a US Patriot missile interceptor hit, a claim that Centcom immediately denied.

Judging from #Iran's regime's large scale attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain, it appears increasingly emboldened that it can escalate and test U.S. red lines, taking advantage of a U.S. reluctance to end the ceasefire. The recent Iranian strikes could have killed Americans. The below… https://t.co/TI3Ji5n88w

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) June 4, 2026

Iran's Tasnim news agency cited the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as saying that they did not fire at Kuwait airport. 

The US said that claim was false and that Iran targeted the airport in a "deliberate, calculated and unjustified attack".

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 13:20

US Sellers Pull Homes Off Market At Near-Record Pace As Buyers Balk At High Prices

With March home prices across the US sliding sequentially almost 0.2%, and rising just 0.83% YoY, the weakest annual appreciation since July 2023...

...  the balance in the real estate market is rapidly shifting away from a sellers' market. And sellers are not happy.

A near record 5.8% of all US home listings were pulled off the market in April, according to Redfin. That’s tied with December 2025 for the highest share since March 2020, when the onset of the pandemic ground the housing market to a halt and spooked sellers. April delistings surged 3.8% month-over-month, the second straight month in which they have increased. Prior to 2020, delistings were never as common as they are now.  

Delistings are on the rise largely because it’s a buyer’s market. Many homeowners want to sell - but only if they can get the price they want.  In many cases, prospective sellers test the waters but pull their home off the market when they don’t get the price or terms that make selling worth it.  And with most homeowners in possession of sufficient liquidity buffers to avoid the need for liquidation, expect many more delistings as expectations for rapidly rising home prices crash and burn. 

“Sellers are still getting used to the post-pandemic normal,” said Patricia Ammann, a Redfin Premier agent in Arlington, VA. “Prices aren’t soaring like they were five years ago–high gas prices and the rising cost of living overall is trickling down to the housing market, making buyers much less likely to bid prices up. Buyers know they have negotiating power, often offering under the asking price and completing inspections, but some sellers just won’t budge.”

The growing flood of AirBnB properties being dumped into a bidless market aside, Ammann noted that the most desirable properties still elicit multiple offers and sell above asking price with no contingencies. 

According to Redfin, there are a few forces driving the trend:

• Homes are taking longer to sell. Mortgage rates came down from their recent peak in April, but they were still double pandemic-era lows–and home prices are still rising. Affordability is strained, which has pushed many house hunters to the sidelines. With fewer buyers competing for homes, sellers are more likely to wait weeks or months without a strong offer.
• Inventory is rising faster than demand. In many parts of the country, listings have piled up as more homeowners try to sell as buyer activity slows. That increased competition among sellers means some homes sit unsold, prompting owners to pull them off the market rather than cut their price.
• Some sellers still have pandemic-era price expectations. Homeowners who watched prices soar during 2020-2022 may still expect bidding wars or top-dollar offers. But today’s buyers are more price-sensitive because monthly housing costs are much higher. When sellers don’t receive the offers they anticipated, some choose to delist and wait for conditions to improve.
• Economic uncertainty is making both buyers and sellers cautious. Concerns about the Iran war, inflation, tariffs and job security are causing some homeowners to hesitate about moving unless they can get a strong price.
• Delisting can be a strategic reset. Sellers sometimes remove a stale listing to relaunch it later with a new price, new photos or during a more active season. Others are deciding to rent their homes instead, especially if they have a low mortgage rate they don’t want to give up.

Meanwhile, as the first wave of sellers is delisting, another wave of more motivated sellers - those who delisted their homes previously - are now re-listing them: 2.5% of homes that were on the market in April belonged to sellers who had pulled their listing in the previous 12 months, then relisted. That’s tied with the prior two months for the highest share since mid-2020, when many homeowners were putting their homes back on the market after delisting at the start of the pandemic

Homeowners who pulled their home off the market over the last year are increasingly trying again as they come to terms with today’s buyer’s market. As high mortgage rates and growing inventory continue giving buyers negotiating power, sellers are aligning with the realities of the market. 

They were also betting on a stronger spring market, hoping for a bump in homebuying demand after a slow few years that were marked by sky-high mortgage rates. The market did improve in April as rates dipped a bit, though it slowed down again in May as rates jumped. 

“Many of last year’s sellers delisted when they couldn’t get the price they wanted. Now, some of them are circling back, willing to price realistically and do what it takes to sell their home,” said Monica DiSchiano, a Redfin Premier agent in Austin, TX. “They’ve realized that if they’re selling for less, the next home they buy will cost less, too.”

Delistings Most Common in Atlanta and San Jose 

In Atlanta, one in 10 (10.7%) homes listed in April were pulled off the market–the highest share among the 50 most populous U.S. metros. Next come San Jose, CA (9.3%), Los Angeles (7.8%), Dallas (7.8%) and Seattle (7.7%). Buyers hold the negotiating power in all those metros, meaning they often try to negotiate prices down or get concessions, which can lead sellers to pull their homes off the market instead of hitting lowball bids.

Delistings were least common in Pittsburgh, where 3.5% of April’s listings were pulled off the market. Next came Columbus, OH (3.6%), Chicago (3.6%), Cincinnati (3.7%) and New Brunswick, NJ (4.4%). Chicago and New Brunswick are two of just a few metros in the U.S. that are not buyer’s markets. 

Bay Area Homeowners Are Relisting at High Rate

In San Francisco, 4.2% of the homes that were on the market in April were relistings of homes that had been delisted in the prior 12 months. That’s the highest share of the metros analyzed by Redfin. It’s followed by neighboring San Jose, where 4.1% of all listings were relistings. Next came Boston (3.8%), Oakland, CA (3.7%) and Riverside, CA (3.7%). 

Relistings are most prevalent in the Bay Area because the local market is hot, fueled largely by the AI boom. Many homeowners are taking advantage of rising demand by putting their houses back on the market.  Relistings were least common in Pittsburgh (1.6%), also the metro area where delistings were least common. It’s followed by Virginia Beach, VA (1.7%), Cincinnati (2%), Montgomery County, PA (2%) and New Brunswick, NJ (2.1%). 

The list of the 20 US metro areas with the highest delisting rates is shown below.

Source: Redfin

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 13:00

Trump Signs Executive Order To Facilitate Firing Federal Employees

Via American Greatness,

President Donald Trump on Wednesday formally advanced a long-sought effort to make it easier to remove senior federal employees involved in policymaking, arguing the change will help ensure government agencies are responsive to elected leadership and the American people.

Trump signed an executive order implementing Schedule Policy/Career, or Schedule P/C, a new employment classification that places certain career federal workers into positions that can be hired and removed in a manner similar to political appointees.

The policy is a revival of the first Trump administration’s Schedule F initiative and is expected to affect roughly 8,000 federal employees.

According to the White House, the move is designed to address longstanding difficulties in removing federal workers accused of poor performance or misconduct.

The executive order states that employees placed into the new category would be “exempted from the adverse action procedures that make removals for poor performance or misconduct so difficult.”

The administration argued that some high-ranking career officials have remained in influential government positions despite poor performance or resistance to implementing presidential policies.

“Consequently, employees with significant policy-making responsibilities can stay in their jobs for years even if they perform poorly, engage in misconduct, or are unwilling to advance Presidential policy across administrations, making their agencies less capable of delivering for the American people,” the White House said in a fact sheet.

The administration described the reclassified positions as “at-will positions.”

Most of the employees expected to be affected occupy some of the highest-ranking career positions in government. According to the White House, approximately 97 percent of workers likely to be reclassified hold GS-15 positions, the highest level on the federal pay scale.

Supporters of the change argue it will strengthen accountability within the federal bureaucracy by ensuring policymakers can more effectively carry out the agenda voters elected them to implement.

The White House also sought to reassure critics that political affiliation would not determine employment decisions.

“These remain ‘career’ positions and the non-partisan hiring processes, competitive status, and other aspects of these roles will not change,” the administration said.

“Removal decisions will also be made without respect to political affiliation,” the fact sheet added.

Federal employee unions criticized the move, arguing it weakens longstanding civil service protections.

Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, called the order “a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons.”

Kelley argued that workers could become reluctant to report wrongdoing if they fear losing their jobs.

“Workers who once felt comfortable reporting waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement at their place of employment because they were protected from retaliation will now be afraid for their jobs if they speak out,” Kelley said.

The administration’s action comes amid a debate over the role and accountability of the federal bureaucracy.

The modern merit-based civil service system was established in 1883, replacing an earlier patronage system that often distributed government jobs based on political loyalty.

The Trump administration finalized the rule creating Schedule P/C in February, but the policy remains the subject of multiple lawsuits filed by federal employee unions.

Those lawsuits contend the new classification violates the Civil Service Reform Act by removing protections guaranteed under federal law and weakening the merit-based hiring system.

The administration, however, maintains that the policy targets only employees with substantial policymaking authority and is intended to improve government performance rather than alter the nonpartisan nature of career civil service positions.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 12:40

Coinbase Launches Pre-IPO Perps, Starting With Elon Musk's SpaceX

Authored by Ryan Gladwin via Decrypt.co,

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is rolling out a perpetual futures product for pre-initial public offering (IPO) companies, allowing traders to speculate on a company's valuation before its debut.

The first pre-IPO company to be traded on the platform is Elon Musk's aerospace company, SpaceX.

The SpaceX pre-IPO will be settled using the USDC stablecoin, can be traded 24/7, and all positions will automatically translate when the IPO is complete.

That means traders could make massive profits or losses depending on the difference between the pre-IPO valuation and the debut stock price.

"Pre-IPO perps are great to get exposure to private companies before they go public (outside the U.S. only for now) and to help with price discovery," Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO at Coinbase, tweeted.

It is worth noting that the pre-IPO perp product is not available for users from the United States. The Coinbase blog post explained that more pre-IPO listings will be announced "soon," including companies in technology, AI, energy, and space.

Pre-IPO perps are great to get exposure to private companies before they go public (outside the U.S. only for now) and to help with price discovery.

Now on Coinbase with SpaceX as our first listing. https://t.co/bQLLymd9wb

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) June 4, 2026

This news comes the same day that Forbes reported that SpaceX's estimated IPO price of $135 per share would make Musk the first-ever trillionaire. Reuters reported that the IPO is targetted for June 12.

On prediction market Myriad, owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, users place a 91% chance on Musk reaching the milestone net worth before July.

Perpetual futures, or simply perps, allow traders to speculate on the direction of an asset via a "long" or "short" position, without needing direct exposure to the underlying asset. Unlike traditional futures contracts, perps do not have an expiration date—making them a useful tool to hedge bets across a prolonged period of time.

Last year, perps became the crypto degen's new favorite way of investing with the rise of decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, which allowed anyone to use the investment tool.

Coinbase's new product combines this popular trading method with pre-market trading—another common offering in crypto. Often, exchanges offer users the opportunity to speculate on the price of a soon-to-debut crypto token in what's called pre-market trading.

However, traders be warned: pre-market prices are often inaccurate and extremely volatile as new information emerges.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 12:00

House Defies Trump By Advancing $8BN New Ukraine Aid Package

Late Wednesday saw President Trump receive a rare and much belated rebuke from the House of Representatives as it voted to pass a war powers resolution related to Iran. The passed resolution directs the withdrawal of US troops from armed hostilities with Iran, in a closely divided 215–208 vote, aided by four Republicans.

But this wasn't the only Trump-defying vote that took place Wednesday, as The Hill reports: "Six Republicans joined Democrats on Wednesday to push through a vote on military aid for Ukraine, a blow to President Trump’s handling of Russia’s war against the country and his withdrawal of U.S. support for Kyiv."

via Politico

"The House voted 218-204 in a procedural motion that clears the way for a vote on the Ukraine Support Act, authored by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee," the report adds.

So interestingly, and in a bit of a blaring contradiction, the House has shown itself to be dovish on the Iran war but hawkish on Russia-Ukraine.

Or rather, they are 'pro' Ukraine war but 'anti' Iran war, strangely enough.

"This vote is not a process vote, it’s a statement on whether this Congress and all of its members stand with and support Ukraine and the people of Ukraine, and its fight for freedom, its fight for democracy, and its fight for liberty," Meeks said on the floor after the vote.

There was no mention of using this massive funding for diplomacy, and to get Ukrainian and Russian negotiators back to the table:

It provides $8 billion in military financing loans to Ukraine, extends the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) through 2027, which allows for the U.S. to send Ukraine weapons directly from Pentagon stockpiles, additional sanctions against Russia, among other provisions.

Instead, there was the usual simplistic black-and-white moral posturing in a Bush-style "with us or against us" kind of way. "It’s between Ukraine or Putin, I choose Ukraine," Republican Rep. Joe Wilson stated.

Late last month Ukraine and Russia moved on from a brief ceasefire and resumed blasting each other. Russia has continued to make gradual progress in taking control of both the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts which together comprise the Donbas region. Moscow is insisting that Ukraine's ceding of the last parts of the Donbas is a precondition to resumed peace talks.  

Not accounting for more billions in taxpayer dollars thrown into the Ukraine war -- to say nothing of the money pit that is the US-Israeli war on Iran -- the US government was in February projected to post a fiscal-year 2026 deficit of $1.9 trillion. Not that anyone in Washington cares. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 11:40

Standard Chartered Sees Bitcoin Bottom "Almost In" As Crypto Crashes To 3-Month-Lows

Authored by Naga Avan-Nomayo via TheBlock.co,

After a brutal week for bitcoin (down over 20% in the last 9 days), Standard Chartered said the worst may soon be over for the largest cryptocurrency and the broader digital asset market.

The bank's Global Head of Digital Assets Research, Geoffrey Kendrick, said in a note entitled "The Low Is Almost In", the bitcoin market is close to a bottom, arguing that structurally resilient spot exchange-traded fund holdings and an anticipated large buyback by Strategy make a compelling case that the worst of the current sell-off is over.

"This week has been painful in crypto. There is really no other way of putting it," Kendrick wrote in a client note on Thursday.

"But I think when we look back at the end of 2026 with BTC at $100,000 and ETH at $4,000, we will say this was the buying zone we all wanted."

Bitcoin was trading around $64,000 at the time of writing, down roughly 2% on the day (after bouncing back from deeper losses), 14% on the week, 22% over the past month, and more than 40% over the past year.

Ether was flat on the day (also bouncing back from 6%-plus losses earlier, and 26% over the past month, trading around $1,780.

What changed since February

The note is a direct bookend to a February 12 call in which Kendrick warned of "pain and final capitulation" for digital assets, cutting his near-term bitcoin target to $50,000 and ether to $1,400. The Block reported on that note at the time.

The key variable that has shifted, Kendrick argued, is the holdings of spot bitcoin ETFs.

In February, he flagged ETF capitulation as a real downside risk.

It has not materialized, in his view.

ETF holdings went from 682,000 bitcoin to a peak, then settled back to around 674,000 - broadly flat over the period.

"This tells me that ETF holdings are more structurally strong than I had feared in February," he wrote.

The Strategy factor

The proximate cause of this week's pain, Kendrick said, was Strategy's sale of 32 BTC — a move he described as unfortunate timing that "fit the DAT naysayer thesis perfectly."

The question now, he argued, is what Strategy does next.

Kendrick’s reading on historical precedent here is instructive.

When Strategy last sold bitcoin on December 22, 2022 - 704 BTC sold for tax optimization - it bought back 810 BTC just two days later.

The analyst said he expects this week's response to be materially more aggressive.

In his view, Strategy could execute either a 10x repurchase of roughly 320 BTC or a 100x repurchase of around 3,200 BTC.

A confirmation of that buying, Kendrick argued, would be a tentative signal that the low has printed.

Liquidations and the residual risk

Kendrick also contextualized this week's futures liquidations, which ran to around $1.5 billion - comparable in scale to each of the January 29-31 and February 3-6 events, which he treats as separate liquidation episodes.

He acknowledged residual downside risk below $60,000 but argued the pool of vulnerable longs has been reduced given how poorly bitcoin has tracked equities year-to-date.

"There are a lot of ifs in the above, so accumulation is a better strategy than trying to outright declare the low has been printed," Kendrick wrote.

The view aligns with the bank's broader constructive stance on digital assets.

Kendrick has maintained a $100,000 year-end bitcoin target and a $4,000 ether target throughout the recent drawdown, and, in late May, he drew parallels between current ether price action and Amazon stock during the dot-com bust.

At the time, Standard Chartered’s analysts opined that onchain metrics would eventually drive a price catch-up.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 11:20