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Batula and Wilson confirmed their secret romance in a bombshell statement last month.

For those getting ready to settle down, there is one California spot that has been named the top spot to pop the question.

Jorge Polanco’s ankle by all accounts was feeling better Friday, but the Mets have a new concern with the veteran slugger.

Beijing Boosts BeiDou Satellite System To Try And Compete With GPS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ryan McMahon started Friday night’s game against Kansas City on the bench.

He was 29.

“Recent reports alleging food shortages and poor quality aboard our deployed ships are false,” read a statement released by the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, run by Adm. Daryl Caudle. 

A brutally injured puppy with barely a nose and a shattered jaw is clawing his way back from the brink and stealing hearts while he’s at it. Peanut, a young shepherd-husky mix, was rushed into Pasadena Humane weeks ago after a good Samaritan found him in Sierra Madre in devastating condition. Most of his nose...

Darius Slayton has officially tied the knot.

Ditch The Sanitizer And Exercise Your Immune System

Authored by Joel Salatin via The Epoch Times,

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

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

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

That brings me to people.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are you kidding me?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tory Lanez is putting a price on his suffering — at $1 million per stab wound — in a new bombshell lawsuit filed against the California Department of Corrections.

Morris finalized her divorce from Ryan Hurd in 2024.

Morris finalized her divorce from Ryan Hurd in 2024.

Brave New Autonomous World Takes Shape On America's Highways

Wall Street remains hyper-focused on whether the hyperscalers' AI-driven data center buildout, now approaching $700 billion and roughly 10 times 2020 levels, will ultimately generate enough returns to justify the massive spending boom.

Goldman analysts, led by Mark Delaney, focused on the "impact of AI on profit pools" and, more specifically, on the incremental profit AI-enabled initiatives in the transportation space could ultimately generate.

The good news is that nearly a year after Delaney's June 2025 note to clients, his team found that the "pace of autonomous technology commercialization has accelerateProfits of Autonomous Mobility," driven largely by expanding vehicle deployments in the U.S. and China, as well as rollouts in Europe.

"These deployments are enabled by both captive technology development (e.g. at Waymo, Tesla, Pony AI, etc.) and a growing set of merchant Physical AI tools, including from companies such as Nvidia (e.g. Alpamayo)," Delaney said.

The autonomous ecosystem

Potential global autonomy ecosystem market size in 2035

Delaney's new estimate for the U.S. robotaxi market is set to top $19 billion by 2030, up from a prior $7 billion forecast, and continue rising to $48 billion by 2035.

How the analyst's forecast shifted in just one year:

His team expects the global robotaxi market could reach $415 billion by 2035, with vertically integrated operators potentially generating gross margins of 30% to 50% and approximately $150 billion in gross profit by 20235.

Even though the rollout of AVs will unfold over a decade rather than all at once, the analyst still warned that the proliferation of these robotaxis will be highly disruptive to "existing markets in the long term."

Delaney offered color on the incoming disruption, and it is something Uber and Lyft drivers should be paying close attention to, because over the coming years, their livelihoods could increasingly come under pressure as consumers gravitate toward cheaper rides from robotaxis.

In a worst-case scenario, taxi medallion holders and others will likely become increasingly infuriated by the emergence of these robotaxis.

Here's more from the analyst about the disruption:

While a portion of AV volumes will likely be incremental demand (e.g. as new use cases become affordable or possible), we believe autonomy could also disrupt existing markets in the long-term. We frame risks and scenarios including to human-operated rideshare/taxis, trucking, and light vehicle unit sales in the United States in this report. We estimate the economic size that could potentially be disrupted in the US is ~$440 bn. This is comprised of wages for taxi/chauffeur/shuttle, delivery and truck drivers per BLS data, an estimate for the share of bookings from rideshare allocated to drivers, and how much auto sales could decline in a scenario where personal transport demand is served only by AV rideshare.

There are already signs of change, with Waymo's share in SF reaching 30%, 20 months after being fully launched (per Yipit), and our base case view is for 5% cannibalization of UCAN rideshare gross bookings from AVs (and 16% in a bear case) by 2030.

Here are the current robotaxi deployments across America:

Google searches already show consumer interest.

AV profitability is improving:

Profitability surges in 2030s 

The proliferation of AVs will not just be limited to robotaxis. Delaney expects the last-mile delivery bot market to explode in the early 2030s.

Beyond AVs, Delaney expects penetration rates for vehicles with autonomous capabilities to begin to soar worldwide by the early 2030s.

In addition to robotaxis, Delaney expects autonomous trucking to become another major profit pool, forecasting the U.S. Class 8 AV trucking market at $16 billion by 2030 and $105 billion by 2035, with the global market reaching about $560 billion in 2035. Gross profit from AV trucking could top $135 billion in 2035 and around $300 billion cumulatively over the next decade.

He noted that AV trucking companies across North America, including Aurora, Kodiak, Waabi, and Plus, are set to rapidly expand their fleets in the coming years.

AV trucking costs per mile are set to collapse by the end of the decade and remain range-bound around the $2-per-mile mark by the midpoint of the next decade.

Profitability for AV trucking will be a story in several years.

"Overall, we expect these improving cost dynamics and scaling up of the AV trucking fleet to drive an increase in the global gross profit pool for AV trucking from close to zero in 2025 to ~$135 bn in 2035," the analyst noted.

What's clear is that America's highways, as well as those in many other developed countries, are set to be flooded by AVs. Fleets are already operating, but real scaling begins next year. This will disrupt workers ranging from taxi drivers to delivery drivers and even truckers.

In equities, Goldman highlighted Alphabet, Tesla, Uber, Aurora, Amazon, Pony.ai, Rivian, Mobileye, Lyft, TE Connectivity, Hesai, XPeng, and Volvo Group as beneficiaries of AV deployment.

There's a lot more in the Goldman note titled "Analyzing the Impact of AI on Profit Pools - Part II - A Transportation Case Study." Professional subscribers can read the full note here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 21:20

Two fires involving Amazon shipping containers on freight trains in Los Angeles are under investigation, with officials suspecting a connection to theft and possible arson.

Temperatures will cool down next week, while some areas will remain cool until the end of April.

DENVER –– Freddie Freeman has made a future Hall of Fame career out of a simple offensive approach. “My dad always taught me: Hit the ball to left field,” he said. Which, during his childhood in Orange County, made Garret Anderson his favorite baseball player to watch growing up. The Angels’ Garret Anderson was Freddie...

"Depraved Evil": Gay Couple Mocks Baby's Cry For 'Mama' In Viral Surrogacy Video

Authored by Steve Watson via modernity.news,

Two gay men in Nashville recorded themselves taunting the baby they obtained through surrogacy as he cried desperately for his mother. The now viral clip has ignited fury across X.

The clip opens with one man asking the infant, “Who do you want, Dada or Pop?” The baby responds, “Mama.” The man replies, “No, there is no mama,” and the baby cries.

Two gay men in Nashville are sparking nationwide outrage after recording a video of themselves mocking the baby they had via surrogacy as it cries for its mother for content.

Man: “Who do you want, Dada or Pop?”

Baby: “Mama”

Man: “No, there is no mama.”

Baby: cries pic.twitter.com/ym3ujfdS0Q

— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) April 16, 2026

Podcaster Tim Pool reacted “This is fucking depraved evil my god.” 

This is fucking depraved evil my god https://t.co/gHwBs71iPE

— Tim Pool (@Timcast) April 16, 2026

The moment exposes the raw cruelty baked into certain surrogacy arrangements: a child biologically wired to seek his mother is denied her existence while adults film his pain for likes. 

The evil one moves his thumbs up to the upper part of the sternum, and positions the baby for painful stimuli, because a baby wasn’t giving him the right answer. Just watch. pic.twitter.com/P1sVvltLBi

— Jesus Sotelo Jr. (@JesusSoteloJr44) April 17, 2026

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the man left the following responses to sick comments on the video:

Gay couple shared footage of their infant son repeatedly calling out for “Mama" and began crying.

One online commenter jokingly suggested, “Throw it away and start over.”

Commenter: "Throw it away and start over."

Shane McAnally: "😂😂😂"pic.twitter.com/jD4rSaIGkI

— The Patriot Oasis™ (@ThePatriotOasis) April 17, 2026

No mainstream outlet has rushed to cover it yet, but the clip has racked up millions of views and replies laced with raw disgust.

When the baby answered wrong. He would dig his thumbs into the baby’s chest. Painful stimuli is often used to train mammals. This person is evils for sure. pic.twitter.com/rkkt2lfs6m

— Jesus Sotelo Jr. (@JesusSoteloJr44) April 17, 2026

Babies need the physical touch of their mother. This shit just pisses me off.

— Mr. Idaho (@IDSurvivalPrep) April 17, 2026

ABSOLUTELY SICKENING. Nashville gay surrogacy couple films their crying baby screaming “MAMA!” — then laughs in her face: “There is NO mama!”
Deliberately breaking an innocent infant’s heart for social media clout.
This is demonic child abuse. Denying a baby her mother is pure… pic.twitter.com/qVVc9xTCWL

— Dr From Long Island USA (M.D) (@nycliusa) April 17, 2026

A gay couple films their baby via surrogacy crying out for “Mama,” only to laugh and tell the child: “There is no mama.”

The toddler breaks down in tears while they mock the very longing every child instinctively feels for a mother.

This isn’t parenting — it’s cruelty… https://t.co/Xn7Bq2JsHv

— Myrna 𝕏 (@GigaBeers) April 17, 2026

The post continues : “…dressed up as content. Deliberately depriving a child of a mother, then laughing at their pain for likes? Children aren’t accessories or props for adult validation. They deserve a mom and a dad, not to be bought and emotionally tormented to prove a point. My heart aches for this little boy. How is this normalized? How is surrogacy that severs a child from their biological mother still legal? We’re failing our kids. Protect children first — always.”

These reactions represent just a fraction of the firestorm. The clip has exposed how surrogacy can reduce a living child to a prop for adult validation.

The story first broke wide via independent reporting that identified the Nashville couple as country music songwriter Shane McAnally and his husband Michael Baum, who shared the video on Instagram. McAnally had previously told People magazine he pursued surrogacy despite his age because “rules” do not apply to their “non-traditional family.” The pair already has adopted twins.

This is their third surrogacy pic.twitter.com/ATvM0pBckP

— CocoB (@Coco_B_7) April 17, 2026

Critics have long warned that commercial surrogacy treats children as commodities and severs the maternal bond children instinctively crave. The baby’s cry for “Mama” shattered any illusion that two dads can simply substitute. The video arrives amid growing pushback against unchecked surrogacy practices that prioritize adult desires over child welfare.

This is the logical endpoint of a culture that celebrates “families” built on contracts rather than biology and dismisses the mother’s irreplaceable role as outdated bigotry. Leftist media and activists who champion these arrangements remain silent while everyday Americans see the footage and feel visceral revulsion.

The surrogacy industry markets babies as customizable accessories. When the product cries for the one person it was denied, the response is laughter and a camera. That is not progress. It is a betrayal of the most vulnerable.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

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Tyler Durden Fri, 04/17/2026 - 20:55

Tracy McGrady sits down with The Post's Steve Serby for some Q&A ahead of the Knicks-Hawks playoff series.

Does California really want to go to war with ICE? Sane people say no. Tom Steyer says yes.