Zorro
Zorro's JournalWall Street Traders Troll Trump With a New Nickname
The president’s handling of the Iran war has earned him a humiliating new nickname among Wall Street traders who are questioning his ability to reopen a critical global oil route.
Traders have adopted the term “NACHO,” an acronym for “Not A Chance Hormuz Opens,” according to Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas, who reported Wednesday that a trader disclosed the nickname. It’s a reference to the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which about a fifth of global oil supplies normally flow.
The chokepoint was shuttered by Iran in response to U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, sending oil prices soaring. With a fragile ceasefire in place, the U.S. and Iran remain in a standoff over the waterway, which is central to global energy markets.
The nickname follows an earlier moniker coined by traders, “TACO,” short for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” which he earned for his shifting stance on trade policy.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/wall-street-traders-troll-trump-with-a-new-nickname/
Nacho Nacho man!
Trump Claims Correspondents' Dinner Shooting Reinforces Need To End Journalism
WASHINGTON—Declaring that the frightening incident underscored a point he had been making for many years, President Donald Trump claimed Monday that the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner reinforced the need to end journalism.
“Over the weekend, there was an act of horrible violence that never would’ve happened if we didn’t have a free press,” said Trump, adding that the senseless crime would have been impossible if anyone had taken his repeated pleas to repeal the First Amendment seriously.
“I’ve spent years trying to warn people of the danger involved in holding my administration accountable for its actions, and look where we are now. We can’t undo the past, but I hope this terrible event proves once and for all that journalism must be banned and banned right now. If it isn’t, then it’s only a matter of time before there’s another, and even more tragic, shooting.”
Trump later conceded he was cautiously encouraged by the growing number of media outlets that had assumed some responsibility and made progress in letting him get away with everything.
https://theonion.com/trump-claims-correspondents-dinner-shooting-reinforces-need-to-end-journalism
Despite lawmaker skepticism, DeSantis' redistricting map moves ahead
Florida’s constitution bans partisan gerrymandering but DeSantis’ office is arguing against that requirement.Florida lawmakers on Tuesday grilled members of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ team over his proposed redistricting plan that could give the GOP four more seats in Congress.
Legislators in particular honed in on acknowledgement by the governor’s staff that they used partisan information to draw the map.
Jason Poreda, an employee with the governor’s office who drew the map, and Mohammad Jazil, a private attorney who often works with the state, presented the plan and DeSantis’ legal justification to the House and Senate.
It was the first chance lawmakers had to ask specific questions about the map, which Poreda said he began working on two weeks ago. He finished his work over the weekend, and the proposal was sent to lawmakers Monday.
Fox News received the proposal before lawmakers, as an exclusive red-and-blue color-coded map showing Republicans’ pickup opportunities.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/elections/2026/04/28/florida-redistricting-special-session-desantis-gerrymander-trump-elections/
Millions of Satellites, but Who's in Charge? It's a Wild West in Space
A few minutes after the sun retreated behind the Olympic Mountains, we spotted our first satellite. It moved across the sky with an eerie persistence, like a car on cruise control.
"That's low Earth orbit. That's pretty standard speed," Meredith Rawls, an astronomer at the University of Washington and my stargazing guide for the night, tells me.
The primal human experience of gazing into a dark, unblemished night sky — something we've been doing for at least 32,000 years, since our ancestors carved Orion onto a mammoth tusk — is vanishing. That nocturnal vista is becoming a dense, industrial field of orbiting debris.
"I tell people, go to a dark site and see the sky now, while it's like this," Rawls says, gesturing to the constellations above us. She lets out a laugh. "It's like, oh my God, what are we doing?"
The scale is hard to overstate. At the turn of the century, there were just over 700 active satellites in space. Now, with plans for hundreds of thousands more satellites — going from 15,000 today to half a million by 2040 — the new space race is not just a visual nuisance, it's a toxic threat to our existence.
https://www.cnet.com/science/space/features/satellite-overcrowding-space-junk-low-earth-orbit-starlink/
One man has filed 1,800 disability lawsuits against SoCal shops. Store owners are fed up
• Court records show a handful of people mostly represented by the same law firm have sued thousands of local businesses under the Americans with Disabilities Act.• Business owners say they are being squeezed for cash over what they claim are minor violations.
• Advocates argue the lawsuits are an effective way to get businesses to make their stores accessible to the disabled.
Anthony Bouyer has been on a suing spree around the San Fernando Valley.
On Sept. 24, the 55-year-old internet marketer confronted a counter at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican spot that was difficult to reach over in his wheelchair. He sued the business for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. In L.A. County, it was at least his 231st case of the year.
At the convenience store next door, he found a produce scale out of arm’s length. He sued them too.
Two shops over at another Mexican spot, he noticed a cracked parking lot and cumbersome door hardware. Owner Elia Barraza was served a day before her 53rd birthday.
“This person is just suing anyone,” said her still-fuming son, Steven Barraza. “It’s just for nitpicking things.”
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-04-27/los-angeles-restaurants-disability-lawsuits
Critics slam Trump's purge of National Science Board: 'Wholesale evisceration of American leadership in science'
The future of the National Science Foundation is in question after a slew of scientists who serve on the National Science Board, an independent body that promotes the progress of American science and provides advice to the U.S. president and Congress, were abruptly dismissed from their positions Friday by the White House.
All 22 current members of the board, which establishes policies for the National Science Foundation, were terminated, according to Yolanda Gil, a research professor of computer science and spatial sciences and principal scientist at USC Information Sciences Institute, who has served on the board since 2024.
Many of them received a curt email from President Trump’s presidential personnel office.
“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I’m writing to inform you that your position as a member of the National Science Board is terminated, effective immediately,” read an email reviewed by the L.A. Times. “Thank you for your service.”
After receiving an email Friday afternoon, Keivan Stassun, a professor of physics and astronomy at Vanderbilt University and director of the Vanderbilt Initiative in Data-intensive Astrophysics, said he reached out to fellow board members. Every member he heard back from — about a third of the board — reported receiving the same termination notice.
For Stassun, a board member since 2022, the termination represented “a wholesale evisceration of American leadership in science and technology globally.”
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-04-26/trump-purges-national-science-board-scientists-warn-of-ai-shift
The Billion-Barrel Hormuz Oil Shock Is About to Crash Demand
The Strait of Hormuz oil shock has yet to crash demand as the rich world borrows from its stocks and pays up to secure supply. Traders are now sounding the alarm that a harsh adjustment is coming.
The longer the vital oil channel doesn’t reopen, traders say, the more consumption is going to have to recalibrate lower to align with supply that’s dropped at least 10%. And for that to happen, people will have buy less, either through prices they can’t afford, or government intervention to force consumption down.
A billion barrels of supply loss is already all-but guaranteed — more than double the emergency inventories that governments released not long after the conflict began at the end of February. Buffers are being used up fast, helping to keep a lid on oil prices for now. But with the closure now in its ninth week, demand destruction that started in less obvious sectors like petrochemicals in Asia, is quietly spreading to everyday markets the world over.
“Demand destruction is happening in places that are not visible pricing centers,” Saad Rahim, chief economist of trader Trafigura Group, told the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne this week. “That adjustment is already happening, but if this continues, it has to get larger and larger. We’re at a critical inflection point.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-25/the-hormuz-billion-barrel-oil-shock-is-about-to-crash-demand?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc3NzE1NTA4MCwiZXhwIjoxNzc3NzU5ODgwLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJURFdIM1dLSkg2VjUwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDNjgyQTUwQzJCRDM0MTFCQTgwQjEwQjZEQjczQzM1MSJ9.tz5x81QNa1VWXOiAZEbdnTVFBml35AaPz96TbP_-cN0
For those adverse to the Bloomberg gift link: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hormuz-billion-barrel-oil-shock-113000076.html
Britain and Spain Reject Reported Plans by Trump to Punish Them
Britain and Spain pushed back against Washington on Friday in response to a report that the Trump administration is considering whether to punish the two nations over their failure to offer full-throated support for the war against Iran.
An internal Pentagon email, reported by the Reuters news agency, suggested that options under review include withdrawing American support for Britain’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands — which are also claimed by Argentina — and seeking to suspend Spain from NATO.
In a statement, the Pentagon did not directly address the Reuters report or the options discussed in it, but the press secretary, Kingsley Wilson, said: “Despite everything that the United States has done for our NATO allies, they were not there for us. The War Department will ensure that the president has credible options to ensure that our allies are no longer a paper tiger and instead do their part.”
The report follows a succession of statements from an administration that has appeared disdainful of international law, questioned the value of the NATO and scolded allies who did not join the fight against Iran.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/24/world/europe/trump-britain-spain-falklands.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dVA.vSF-.uegd_7rzwqiG&smid=url-share
Why Meta is laying off 10% of its workforce
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is planning to lay off 8,000 employees, or roughly 10% of its workforce, in May, as it seeks to cut costs to better prepare to do more with artificial intelligence.
Meta told its employees about the layoffs in a Thursday memo that said the company will also close 6,000 open roles. Bloomberg earlier reported about the memo.
Meta is among tech companies that have cut thousands of workers since 2022 after going on a hiring spree during the COVID-19 pandemic. From restructuring to AI investments, tech executives have cited various reasons for layoffs.
Amazon, Snap, Block and other tech companies have continued to slash their workforces this year, flooding the competitive job market with more talent. From January to March, tech companies announced 52,050 layoffs, up 40% from the same period last year, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-04-23/why-meta-is-laying-off-10-of-its-workforce
This Scammer Used an AI-Generated MAGA Girl to Grift 'Super Dumb' Men
LIKE MANY MEDICAL school students, Sam was broke.
The 22-year-old aspiring orthopedic surgeon from northern India got some money from his parents, but he says he spent most of it subsidizing his licensing exams, and he’s still saving up to hopefully emigrate to the US after graduation. So he started searching for ways to make additional money online.
Sam, who requested a pseudonym to avoid jeopardizing his medical career and immigration status, tried a few things, with varying degrees of legitimacy and success. He made YouTube shorts and sold study notes to other med students. It wasn’t until he started scrolling through his Instagram feed that he landed on an idea: Why not make an AI-generated girl using Google Gemini’s Nano Banana Pro and sell bikini photos of her online?
But when Sam started posting generic photos of a beautiful, scantily clad woman on Instagram, he was dismayed to find that none of the content was hitting. He turned to Gemini for advice. “If you create a generic ‘hot girl,’ you’re competing with a million other models,” it said, according to a transcript Sam provided to WIRED.
Sam says he presented Gemini with a few possible options to help his model stand out, and the chatbot selected one in particular: the “MAGA/conservative niche,” referring to it as a “cheat code.” Plus, it said, “the conservative audience (especially older men in the US) often has higher disposable income and is more loyal.” (A representative for Gemini said, “Gemini is designed not to give a particular opinion unless you tell it to. Instead, it is designed to offer neutral responses that don't favor any political ideology or viewpoint.”)
So last January, Sam created Emily Hart, a registered nurse and Jennifer Lawrence look-alike. On an Instagram account for Emily, @emily_hart.nurse, Sam posted photos of her ice fishing, drinking Coors Light, and shooting off a few rounds at the rifle range, with emoji-laden captions like “If you want a reason to unfollow: Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegals must be deported,” and “POV: You were assigned intelligent at birth, but you identify as liberal .”
https://www.wired.com/story/ai-generated-maga-girls/
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