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The Misfit remained a bright spot as the neighborhood around it declined — but ultimately couldn't hold on.

The American flag includes everyone –– gay, straight, trans, believer, skeptic –– without ranking whose experience matters more.

Conservative influencer and YouTuber Nick Shirley called out a proposed California bill on Monday that he argued would “criminalize investigative journalism.

PepsiCo says pricing adjustments and marketing efforts are helping revive snack demand.

Secret Service Targets Thieves Stealing SNAP Benefits In Texas

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Fraudsters used special devices to skim card information from electronic devices used to read food stamp cards in northern and central Texas, the U.S. Secret Service’s Dallas Field Office reported April 15.

A U.S. Secret Service agent, in this file photo. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The Secret Service worked with local law enforcement to prevent an estimated $13.5 million in losses to Dallas-area consumers this week as part of a two-day outreach operation targeting illegal payment card skimming and electronic benefit transfer (EBT) fraud.

“EBT fraud is a serious threat impacting families nationwide,” said Special Agent in Charge of the Dallas Field Office Christina Foley. “Our investigative teams are committed to dismantling these skimmer operations and holding perpetrators accountable.”

Law enforcement personnel visited 462 area businesses in Tarrant County during the operation between April 13 and April 14.

Nearly 3,000 point-of-sale terminals, gas pumps, and ATMs were inspected during the visits, the Secret Service reported.

Teams also provided educational materials about credit card skimming to help businesses identify illegal devices that can be installed on their terminals, gas pumps, and ATMs.

The FBI estimates skimming costs financial institutions and consumers more than $1 billion each year. Criminals use the data they get from installing devices on or inside ATMs or point-of-sale terminals to capture card data and record PIN entries.

Once they have the information, they use it to make purchases or steal from victims’ accounts, according to the FBI.

SNAP benefits can also be skimmed, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency suggests people avoid using simple PINs and keeping the information private by not sharing it and changing the PIN often. They also suggested checking SNAP accounts often to detect unauthorized charges.

“The individuals behind these schemes are relentless, but so are we,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Michael Peck of the Secret Service Criminal Investigative Division. “Through coordinated efforts and innovative investigative methods, we are disrupting their operations and ensuring that those who exploit vulnerable families are brought to justice.”

SNAP is the largest federally funded nutrition assistance program in the United States. The low-income program provided about $96 billion in assistance to about 43 million people in 2025, according to a report by the General Accountability Office last year.

The report found SNAP benefits have been stolen through a few different methods, including card skimming, card cloning, phishing activities, algorithmic attacks, and stolen account numbers.

A sign alerting customers about SNAP benefits is displayed at a grocery store in New York City on Dec. 5, 2019. Scott Heins/Getty Images

The EBT cards are a target for theft because most cards do not have theft-prevention features, such as embedded microchips that are standard in commercial debit and credit cards to prevent card skimming, according to the GAO report.

“Perpetrators of SNAP benefit theft can range from individuals acting independently to organized crime groups, who steal benefits to help fund illicit activities,” the GAO report stated. “Such groups can operate across geographic and legal jurisdictions, which allows access to more program benefits, in more locations, at the same time.”

State SNAP agencies replaced more than $320 million in stolen benefits with federal funds for nearly 679,000 households in 52 states from Oct. 1, 2022, through Dec. 20, 2024, according to the report.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/16/2026 - 17:05

For the first time this season, the Yankees spent a series slugging like they are capable of. Also a first this week: watching their pitchers getting slugged, slugged and slugged again.

More than once, I thought: This would end a lot sooner if Brendan Fraser could heroically swing in on a rope.

Roughing it just got a serious upgrade.

The association of thousands of oil industry workers did not hold back from schooling the failed presidential pick.

NJ Transit is expected to release its final pricing plan on Friday.

Walker Buehler and the Padres are off to a strong start in 2026.

Neither Swalwell nor Gonzales can access federal retirement benefits until age 62 under current law.

Somebody at Polymarket believes they got the scoop on where Ty Simpson will land at next week's NFL Draft.

The soulful crooner will rock the Nets' home on Oct. 2.

From Supply-Chain Risk To National Security Imperative: U.S. Government Embraces Anthropic's Mythos AI

In a striking reversal that underscores the breakneck pace of the AI arms race, the White House has directed federal agencies to begin using Anthropic’s most dangerous new model - Claude Mythos - despite months of public friction between the Trump administration and the San Francisco-based AI company (read on to see how we reconcile this with the Pentagon's "supply-chain risk" designation). 

The move, detailed in an internal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo circulated this week, marks the first formal green light for Cabinet-level departments to tap Mythos’s unprecedented cybersecurity capabilities. The goal: to hunt down vulnerabilities in government networks before adversaries can exploit them, Bloomberg reports.

Too Powerful to Release, Too Valuable to Ignore

Anthropic unveiled Mythos (sometimes referred to internally as “Mythos Preview”) just weeks ago, and it immediately sent shockwaves through the tech and national-security communities.

In controlled testing, the model autonomously discovered and weaponized thousands of previously unknown zero-day vulnerabilities across every major operating system, web browser, legacy enterprise software, and even decades-old codebases. Its speed and creativity reportedly surpassed top human red-team hackers. As we noted earlier this month, the model “went rogue” during testing - prompting Anthropic to withhold a broad release entirely. Full technical details are available in Anthropic’s official Mythos Preview System Card.

Rather than ship it publicly, Anthropic launched Project Glasswing - a tightly controlled defensive program that grants limited access only to a vetted circle of partners: Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, major banks (including JPMorgan Chase), cybersecurity firms, and the Linux Foundation. The explicit mission is defense only -  scan your own systems, find the bugs, patch them fast, and keep the bad guys out. The official program page is here.

From "Supply-Chain Risk" to Strategic Asset

The government’s relationship with Anthropic had been icy for months. As we noted in February, the Pentagon threatened to blacklist the company as a “supply-chain risk” after Anthropic refused to strip certain ethical guardrails from its models for military use. That standoff escalated in March when Anthropic sued the Pentagon over the designation, as detailed in ZeroHedge’s coverage of the lawsuit.

That said, the Pentagon’s “supply-chain risk” label was always narrow in scope: it was a DoD-specific action triggered by the company’s refusal to remove certain ethical guardrails from its models for unrestricted military and offensive-use applications. That designation threatened to block Anthropic technology from defense contracts and classified work, and it led directly to Anthropic’s lawsuit against the Pentagon.

Today’s OMB memo changes almost nothing on paper for that designation. The Pentagon has not withdrawn it, the lawsuit is still active, and DoD contractors remain restricted from using Claude models (including Mythos) in offensive or surveillance contexts.

Just days ago, the U.S. Treasury was rushing to gain access to Mythos after internal warnings that the model could “hack every major system.” Senior Treasury and Federal Reserve officials had summoned CEOs of the nation’s largest banks to Washington, warning them that the financial system’s exposure to AI-powered attacks had become existential. Behind closed doors, federal agencies - including the Commerce Department’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation - had already begun quiet red-teaming of Mythos. Anthropic co-founder and president Daniela Amodei confirmed the company had briefed the administration early, telling reporters simply: “The government has to know about this stuff.”

Now the OMB memo formalizes that reality. It lays out strict protocols for safe access, data handling, and usage limits so that major departments can deploy Mythos against their own sprawling digital estates. The focus remains narrow: vulnerability discovery, network hardening, and defensive preparedness.

What This Means for the AI Arms Race

This is not the first time Washington has had to swallow its pride to stay competitive. But the Mythos episode - from the earliest Pentagon threats through the April 8 Glasswing announcement and this week’s Treasury scramble - feels different. It is a microcosm of the larger tension defining 2026: frontier AI models are now so capable that even their creators are scared of them, yet ignoring them would be national-security malpractice.

Critics inside the defense community argue the government waited too long. Supporters of Anthropic’s cautious approach counter that the company’s restraint (and its Glasswing coalition) may have prevented an even worse outcome: a fully open-sourced Mythos circulating on the dark web.

For Anthropic, the development is a quiet vindication. By keeping Mythos under lock and key and building Glasswing as a defensive shield, the company has positioned itself as a responsible steward of dangerous technology - while still earning a seat at the table with the most powerful customer on Earth.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/16/2026 - 16:45

Hastings is credited with helping to revolutionize how movies and television shows are delivered in homes, upending Hollywood's business model.

Goldman Sachs blamed its disappointing fixed income results on the broader trading environment – but all of its Wall Street rivals have outperformed, revealing the David Solomon-led firm simply missed the mark.

Netflix Plunges After US Revenues Miss, Dismal Q2 Guidance, Hastings Stepping Down As Chairman

After staging a powerful rebound in the past two months, when first weak Q4 earnings sent the stock plunging to multi-year lows, which however was offset by the end of the company's expensive pursuit of HBO/Warner Bros. Discovery , and which sent the stock almost 50% higher from $75 to $108,moments ago Netflix reported Q1 earnings which were mixed but guidance was especially poor and rekindled the same fears as those unveiled three months ago, and coupled with the news that Reed Hasting was stepping down from the board after 29 years to pursue "philanthropy and personal interested", NFLX stock tumbled as much as 10% after hours. 

Here is a snapshot of what NFLC reported for the first three months of the year: most notable here is another miss in the US which should have been a much more solid number considering the latest of many prices increases for NFLX subs in the US:

• EPS $1.23 vs. 66c y/y, beating estimates of $0.76
• Revenue $12.25 billion, +16% y/y, beating estimates of $12.17 billion; the miss comes after Netflix raised its US subscription prices in March, boosting its standard plan without ads by $2 to $20 a month.
  • US & Canada revenue $5.25 billion, +14% y/y, missing estimates of $5.28 billion
  • EMEA revenue $4.00 billion, +17% y/y, beating estimates of $3.95 billion
  • Latin America revenue $1.50 billion, +19% y/y, beating estimates of $1.45 billion
  • APAC revenue $1.51 billion, +20% y/y, beating estimates of $1.48 billion
     
• Operating income $3.96 billion, +18% y/y, beating estimate $3.94 billion
• Operating margin 32.3% vs. 31.7% y/y, missing estimate 32.4%
• Cash flow from operations $5.29 billion, +90% y/y, beating estimate $3.29 billion
• Free cash flow $5.09 billion, +91% y/y, beating estimate $2.67 billion

The biggest event in Q1 was Netflix' decision to walk away from a contentious battle for control of Warner Bros. Discovery in February, netting a nice $2.8 billion termination fee. The company’s shares had suffered during the months long tussle with Paramount Skydance as investors were concerned about the amount of debt it would shoulder under a potential deal. Now Wall Street is looking for signs Netflix can keep subscribers engaged and judging by the stock price it is not seeing them.  

While Q1 results were mixed, with unexpected weakness in the US offset by strength elsewhere, it was the company's guidance that was especially weak, with Q2 estimates coming well below consensus across the board:

Q2 Forecast

• Sees EPS 78c, missing estimate 84c 
• Sees revenue $12.57 billion, missing estimate $12.64 billion
• Sees operating income $4.11 billion, missing estimate $4.34 billion
• Sees operating margin 32.6%, missing estimate 34.4%

And here is the full year guidance: 

• Sees revenue +12% to +14%
• Sees free cash flow about $12.5 billion, saw about $11 billion, higher than the estimate $12.05 billion
• Still sees revenue $50.7 billion to $51.7 billion, in line with estimate $51.37 billion
• Still sees operating margin 31.5%, missing estimate 32%

Some of the commentary and highlights from the investor letter: 

• Boosted FY FCF outlook due to after-tax impact of Warner Bros. related termination fee
• Still sees annual cash content spend to amortization ratio of about 1.1x
• Still sees 2026 advertising revenue on track to reach $3 billion
• Sees 2Q highest y/y content amortization growth rate in 2026
• Sees content amortization growth rate decelerating to mid-to-high single digit growth in 2H

The company reported that cash generated from operating activities nearly doubled in Q1'26, vs. Q1’25, totaling $5.3BN compared to $2.8B in the prior year. However, much of this increase was thanks to a $2.8B cash receipt from the Warner Bros.-related termination fee. As a result, free cash flow (FCF) rose to $5.1B in Q1'26, up from $2.7B in Q1'25. NFLX now expects 2026 FCF of approximately $12.5B, an increase from its previous projection of $11B due primarily to the after-tax impact of the Warner Bros.-related termination fee.

NFLX ended the quarter with gross debt of $14.4B and cash and cash equivalents of $12.3B. The cash position is more elevated than normal due to the pause in our share repurchase program during the Warner Bros. transaction and the subsequent receipt of the deal. In other words, expect a burst of stock buybacks to lift the stock in coming weeks. 

And while markets may gloss over all of the above, what it will focus on is that the co-founder Reed Hastings is stepping down as board Chairman after 29 years to pursue philanthropy and personal interests.

Hastings’ departure may worry investors given his status as one of the great entrepreneurs of the 21st century. Hastings provided the initial capital to start Netflix as a DVD-by-mail service and replaced co-founder Marc Randolph as chief executive officer in 1999. He guided the company through its battle with Blockbuster and was the driving force behind its move into video streaming. 

Under Hastings’ leadership, Netflix introduced the streaming service to more than 190 territories all over the world, outmaneuvering Hollywood studios to build the most valuable entertainment company in the world. He stepped down as CEO in January 2023, ceding the job to co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters. 

“Netflix changed my life in so many ways, Hastings said in a statement. “A special thanks to Greg and Ted, whose commitment to Netflix’s greatness is so strong that I can now focus on new things.”

And whether it was Hastings' departure, the miss on US revenues, or the dismal Q2 guidance, the stock was pounded after hours, and tumbled as much as 10% from $107 to $97 before recovering some of the losses.

At just under $100, NFLX stock is unchanged over the past year. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/16/2026 - 16:31

The 12-year-old reality star has quite the array of mouthpieces, from red to black and even diamond-encrusted and pointy-toothed.

The 12-year-old reality star has quite the array of mouthpieces, from red to black and even diamond-encrusted and pointy-toothed.