Iran, AI layoffs & teleportation

On Tuesday, the U.S. and Iran reached a cease-fire deal that includes plans to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Why does that matter? Lots of the world’s oil and liquified natural gas passes through the strait, and Iran retaliated against U.S.-Israeli attacks by attacking ships passing through it, effectively closing it off.

At the time of writing this, uncertainty looms around whether the cease-fire will hold. Israel attacked Lebanon on Wednesday and killed over 200 people there, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Iran called the attack a violation of the cease-fire deal, and one Iranian official said ships would only be allowed to pass through the strait when U.S. aggression ends and Israel ends its attacks on Lebanon. The Israeli defense minister said the attacks were meant to target Hezbollah, but residents and officials said mostly civilians were killed. And before the war, Iran’s own crackdown on protesters killed more than 30,000 people by some estimates.

So, what was the point of this war? Trump has talked about wanting to take Iranian oil, but Iran has leveraged its control over the world’s oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz. The administration has talked about seeking regime change, but even after the U.S. assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the rest of Iran’s power structure remains in tact, with Khamenei’s son Mojtaba now at the helm. The U.S. also wanted to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb, but there was never any evidence that Iran was close to building one.

Tech giant Oracle laid off up to 18% of its workforce last week. The layoffs come as the company’s stock has fallen as it’s continued to borrow and spend tons of money for AI data centers. Other tech companies have similarly cut jobs, related to their AI investments.

A 2025 MIT study found that 11.7% of the labor market could be replaced by AI. And a more recent analysis found that more than half of all jobs could be “reshaped” by AI over the next couple of years.

As news stories like these continue to shape public opinion around AI, OpenAI has sought to regain control of the narrative by buying the Technology Business Programming Network. TBPN is a podcast that’s popular with tech bros that’s generally favorable toward Silicon Valley. OpenAI claims the show will remain “editorially independent.” But because the podcast team is reporting to an OpenAI executive, and because this structure violates pretty much every journalistic rule around independence, I do not believe them.

While I was absolutely demolishing a salted caramel carrot cake I brought to an Easter brunch, President Donald Trump was at The White House Easter Egg Roll, a real event that I’ve never heard of and am resisting the urge to go down a rabbit hole learning about.

At the event, Trump talked about an Air Force member who was shot down by Iran and rescued days later. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth compared the rescue to Jesus’ resurrection, continuing a pattern of using the war with Iran to promote Christian nationalism.

During the Egg Roll, in front of children, Trump also boasted about weakening Iran since attacking the country in February. See the first blurb of this newsletter for more on how the extent to which the U.S. has much to boast about from this war is pretty debatable. Trump later told children about former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen. Trump has no evidence to back up allegations that Biden misused the autopen.

During a press conference later that day, Trump threatened to jail a journalist for covering the military’s search for a missing Air Force crew members. Although he seemed to be singling out one unnamed reporter, multiple outlets have reported on this.

FEMA official Gregg Phillips claims he teleported to a Waffle House. He’s continued to stick to those claims.

Phillips is a conspiracy theorist who has falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen. He has previously talked about wanting to punch Joe Biden and said he deserves to die.

A New York Times reporter, in what actually is an exercise in good journalism but is still hilarious to me, interviewed Waffle House employees to double check whether Phillips teleported into one. The employees did not remember a man teleporting into any of their locations.

Voters in Kansas City, where Dave lives, revived a 1% earnings tax. It’s the city’s largest revenue source. Many officials and union leaders endorsed the tax.

Over 75% of voters opted to renew the tax for five more years. It applies to salaries and wages of people living and working in Kansas City, but not to retirement income.

Voters will decide again whether to renew the tax in five years.