MMN Editor

A 17-year-old boy was Monday in connection to the fatal shooting of a pregnant woman at a Halloween costume store late last week in California.

Unhappiest Place On Wall Street: Disney Readies Thousands Of Layoffs As Managers Told To Slash 20% Of Costs

Three years, two CEOs, at least six rounds of layoffs… and one stock that still can’t get off the floor.On Monday evening, Bloomberg reported that Walt Disney is set to unleash thousands of job cuts, with the entertainment giant asking some managers to target 20% in annual cost savings. Citing “people familiar with the matter”, the savings could come from job eliminations as well as other expense reductions, and some of Disney’s operations, which range from theme parks to the TV networks and the movie studio, “will be affected disproportionately.”Disney declined to comment, but the timing speaks for itself: the company reports fiscal Q4 results in two weeks (Nov 17), and it has already promised investors double-digit growth in adjusted EPS in the current fiscal year. When the top line won’t cooperate, well, there is always the cost line.Regular readers know this is hardly a new chapter. When Disney picked parks boss Josh D’Amaro to replace Bob Iger back in February, the stock was already locked in a trough that started in 2022, and by April we were writing that there would be “no storybook ending” for the roughly 1,000 marketing staff on D’Amaro’s first chopping block. This one is, by all accounts, much bigger.The Unhappiest Place On Wall StreetFirst, some context on why Disney is reaching for the axe (again). The stock closed Monday at $113.11 (and barely budged after hours, up ~0.3%), which is 44% below its March 2021 record close of $201.91. Over the same period the S&P 500 is up 97%. Put differently, anyone who bought Mickey at the peak has watched the broader market almost double while their position lost nearly half its value. Shares are, more or less, where they traded in early 2019.Note the red dots: Iger’s return in November 2022, his 7,000-job, $5.5 billion cost-savings plan in early 2023, and D’Amaro’s appointment this year. None of them moved the needle for more than a few months. So much for the magic.No Storybook Ending, Part VIIBloomberg notes that Disney has already cut billions of dollars in costs and eliminated thousands of positions in recent years, with reductions hitting every division, including ABC, Pixar, ESPN, the film studio and the experiences unit. Here is the abridged version of what has become a rolling layoff calendar, with the newest entry in red:Some of these we covered as they happened: the cuts of 6% of staff at ABC News and Disney Entertainment Networks (Mar 5, 2025), followed by another round in June 2025 as the latest projects bombed at the box office. Then, on Oct 1, the WSJ reported that Disney was planning to restructure its TV division and cut jobs in its legal and global affairs unit:*DISNEY TO RESTRUCTURE TV UNIT AND CUT HUNDREDS OF JOBS: WSJ— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 1, 2026
Back in April, the WSJ also reported that Disney had been working with Bain & Co. consultants on its cost-cutting strategy, which probably makes Burbank the happiest place on earth for at least one group of people.Today’s numbers, though, are on a different scale. Disney had 231,000 employees worldwide at the end of fiscal 2025. This means that even a 2% headcount reduction is roughly 4,600 jobs, which would comfortably qualify as “thousands”. And while the 20% savings target applies to “some managers” and includes non-labor expenses, a target of that size in any budget line rarely gets met with paper clips alone.Cut Here, Spend ThereD’Amaro isn’t pocketing all of it. According to Bloomberg, the CEO aims to reinvest a portion of the savings into film and TV programming, technology, and the theme parks and cruise ship businesses, where Disney is already in the middle of a $60 billion, decade-long investment push. That is also more or less the bull case on the Street.Goldman’s Michael Ng, who reiterated his Buy ahead of the print in his latest F4Q26 preview note (available to pro subs), argues that Disney “remains a multi-year earnings compounder driven by ongoing investment in Experiences, cruise expansion, a strong theatrical slate, and Disney+ ecosystem enhancements.” Ng is looking for F4Q EPS of $1.73 versus $1.66 consensus, on revenue of $25.4 billion and segment EBIT of $4.93 billion, both above consensus (helped by a 53rd week). He also nudged up his F2027 EPS to $7.56, though mostly on lower taxes rather than better operations.The fine print is more interesting. Goldman lists the offsets as “SVOD advertising softness, higher content investment and weaker Asian park attendance”, and despite the above-consensus numbers, Ng lowered his 12-month price target to $140 from $144. When even the bulls trim their targets into a beat, you know the multiple is doing the heavy lifting.And the parks, which Disney is now asking to carry the whole kingdom, are showing some cracks. Back in August, D’Amaro told analysts on the fiscal Q3 call (when Disney beat with adjusted EPS of $2.06 vs. $1.86 expected) that domestic parks were fine, with per-capita spending up 4%, while management flagged trouble abroad. As JPMorgan’s Market Intelligence desk highlighted in its daily earnings macro read-through (available to pro subs), “the most interesting comments came from DIS”:”…as an example, we have seen a weaker consumer in Asia, in our parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong in Q3, and that’s continuing in Q4″Closer to home, Goldman’s latest Orlando tourism tracker, which the bank uses to gauge intra-quarter demand at Disney and Universal parks, showed Orlando airport arrivals down 7% year-over-year in August. Maybe that’s just tough comps against a hot 2025; or maybe even American families have a limit on how many $4.25 bottles of water they are willing to buy.”Technology Set Their Sights On Our Business”The other pillar of the bull case, streaming, has a pricing problem of a different kind: Disney keeps raising prices because it can’t grow subscribers fast enough to do anything else. A year ago we laughed at the latest Disney+ price hike…*DISNEY PLUS PLAN WITHOUT ADS TO RISE $3 TO $18.99/MONTH: VERGELOL— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 23, 2025
…and exactly one year later, to the day, we got the sequel:*DISNEY+ PRICE TO INCREASE 13% TO $21.49 PER MONTH: SOURCES— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 23, 2026
Disney is far from alone. Bloomberg points out that Netflix, Sony Pictures and Skydance’s Paramount and Warner Bros. divisions have all cut jobs as revenue from traditional television declines and streaming subscriber growth slows, while viewers drift to social media, online video and the streaming arms of Amazon and Apple. Reuters added AI adoption, a weaker box office and slowing international park attendance to D’Amaro’s list of headaches.Disney President Dana Walden put it rather bluntly at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference last month:”There is a need to constantly evaluate how you’re structured and how big is the organization. Technology set their sights on our business and we must survive and thrive and grow, and that’s what we’re going to do.”Translation: the tech giants are coming for the eyeballs, and Disney’s answer is a smaller Disney. Which is a curious pivot for a company that, only last December, invested $1 billion in OpenAI to bring its characters to Sora, before walking away from the deal in March, according to the Hollywood Reporter.Cheap For A Reason?To be fair, the sell-side is not exactly running for the exits. Besides Goldman, Wells Fargo’s Steven Cahall recently upgraded the stock to Overweight with a $132 target, and Guggenheim’s Michael Morris reiterated a Buy with a $120 target. On Goldman’s F2027 EPS estimate, Disney trades at roughly 15x forward earnings (napkin math: $113.11 / $7.56), a steep discount to the market.The problem is that Disney has looked “cheap” for the better part of four years, and as the chart above shows, it hasn’t helped much. Cost cuts can deliver an EPS beat; they can’t manufacture revenue growth, and a 20% savings target in a company with 231,000 employees is not what management teams announce when they’re confident about the top line.Magic Kingdom, Shrinking KingdomD’Amaro inherited a company where the parks print money, the linear TV business is in managed decline, streaming leans on ever-higher prices, and the box office remains hit or miss. His answer so far looks a lot like Iger’s: cut, consolidate, reinvest in the parks and promise double-digit EPS growth. Maybe it works this time. But with the Asian consumer weakening, Orlando arrivals falling and even Goldman trimming its target, we suspect the next round of savings will be needed sooner rather than later… and the layoff calendar above will need a few more rows.We’ll find out on Nov 17 how much of the 20% is already baked into guidance.Much more in the full Goldman “F4Q26 preview” note and the bank’s Orlando tourism tracker, both available to pro subs.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 11/02/2026 – 23:07

President Donald Trump sought to reassure voters the day before the midterm elections that Iran is not a “forever war,” but a “soft war” that the United States could end at any time.”We’re not fighting a war … When was the last time we fired anything? This isn’t a war, this is a very soft war,” Trump said Monday on “Hannity.”Iran could be a key deciding issue as voters go to the polls on Election Day Tuesday as Americans continue to grapple with surging gas prices and the economic fallout from the United States’ conflict, which began eight months ago.AMERICANS ‘FRUSTRATED’ ABOUT IRAN WAR GOING INTO MIDTERMS AS TRUMP ADMIN HAS DECISION TO MAKE: GOP LAWMAKER”What’s a war? A war is fighting. Take a look at World War I, World War II. When was the last time you saw us fighting with them? We go months and months, we talk,” Trump told host Sean Hannity.”This is not much of a war, Sean, because there hasn’t been shooting for months.”TRUMP ADMIN THREATENS IRAN WITH ‘CONSEQUENCES’ AS ALLIES CONVENE AMID THREATS OF POST-ELECTION ESCALATIONTrump’s comments come shortly after the United States struck Iran’s Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz Monday after Iran fired at a U.S. aircraft. Officials confirmed to Fox News that the “defensive” strike does not indicate a return to full-blown U.S. military strikes in Iran.The president said Monday that he was in no hurry to resume military strikes against Iran but warned that the U.S. will give Iran “the hammer” soon if the latest round of peace talks are not fruitful.TRUMP WARNS IRAN WILL BE HIT ‘REALLY HARD’ IF NUCLEAR NEGOTIATIONS COLLAPSE AGAIN”With [Operation] Midnight Hammer, we bombed out all of their potential nuclear power. Now we have might have to go after Pickaxe [Mountain], but that’s not a big deal. We can do it in literally one hour,” Trump told Fox News.”This isn’t like a war that’s going on, there’s no war raging,” he added. “It could happen if they don’t make a deal. But they want to make a deal very badly, and there is a very good chance we make a deal.”FOX NEWS POLL: 71% THINK TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LACKS PLAN TO END IRAN WARThe financial toll of the Iran conflict has emerged as a political liability for Republicans ahead of Election Day as the Pentagon estimates the war has cost taxpayers more than $47 billion.President Trump, however, dismissed criticism of the staggering price tag, describing the expense as “peanuts” and saying that the war was necessary to disarm Iran from building a nuclear weapon.TRUMP SAYS IRAN IS ‘DEAD’ — EXPERTS POINT TO THE REAL SIGN TEHRAN IS NEARING THE BRINK”Their military is gone, their navy is gone, their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft is gone, and they have some missiles, but they don’t have many of them – very little capacity to build more. They have drones, but they don’t have very many, they have very little capacity to build more,” he said.”What we’ve done is amazing,” the president continued.Trump said the U.S. is dealing from a position of “total strength” and that the conflict can be ended “at any time.”

Abdul El-Sayed
Back in June, the FBI arrested eight people at the University of Michigan for engaging in an ongoing campaign of terror against Jewish community leaders and officials at the University of Michigan.
Over this weekend, four more people were arrested as part of the same investigation.
It has now been revealed that one of the original eight arrested by the FBI was a campaign worker for Abdul El-Sayed.
Anyone surprised?

Former El-Sayed campaign worker among anti-Israel activists indicted for terrorizing Michigan’s Jewish community: feds https://t.co/5Z3dvc1mh4 pic.twitter.com/0OlS4hPbns
— New York Post (@nypost) November 2, 2026

From the New York Post:
A former Abdul El-Sayed campaign worker was among the dozen anti-Israel activists accused of terrorizing members of Michigan’s Jewish community, according to feds.
Mariam Odeh, 24, was one of eight included in the original rounds of indictments by the US Attorney’s Office for allegedly threatening University of Michigan officials in an attempt to force the school to cut ties with Israel, the US Attorney’s Office in Eastern Michigan said.
The number of conspirators grew to 12 Friday when four more alleged co-conspirators were indicted, federal prosecutors said.
Odeh, who was charged in June for her alleged role in the scheme, did a stint working for El-Sayed’s Michigan Senate campaign, The Detroit News reported that same month.
She had been paid twice by the lefty candidate’s campaign, records obtained by the outlet showed.
An El-Sayed spokesperson later confirmed Odeh’s position as an hourly employee on the campaign for two weeks to the outlet.
The Dearborn, Michigan native left the campaign gig on April 15, after raking in nearly $750, El-Sayed spokesperson Roxie Richner told the paper.
Odeh was allegedly among the crew of pro-Palestinian activists who planned and carried out the harassment and intimidation of school officials to try to get the university to cut ties with Israel, according to feds.
This is the type of person who is attracted to El-Sayed as a political candidate.
It speaks volumes, doesn’t it?

The post Campaign Worker for Abdul El-Sayed Among Those Arrested by the FBI in Michigan for Terrorizing Jewish Community Leaders and University Officials appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Army Tests Autonomous Robots That Hunt Enemy Targets

Authored by Austin Campbell and Nicholas Slayton via Task & Purpose,Four robotic vehicles were sent hunting for enemy targets during a military demonstration at Fort Knox, Kentucky, recently, but only one initially moved.Guided by satellite imagery, the unmanned vehicle climbed a hill, scanning the surrounding terrain while the other three waited behind. Halfway up, it spotted a potential target and abruptly stopped.Two other robotic vehicles advanced to provide support before a simulated rocket strike hit a target roughly 300 yards away.Autonomous off-road vehicles capable of hunting enemy targets might sound like something out of the “Terminator” franchise, but the Oct. 15 demonstration offered a glimpse of how the technology could work on a modern battlefield.The four experimental vehicles were developed under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s RACER program, which aims to give unmanned ground vehicles the ability to navigate difficult terrain without human drivers.The system used satellite images to help locate potential targets, while a human operator could review what the vehicles found and decide whether to launch an explosive drone at them.The drone demonstration was conducted in response to a request from U.S. European Command, which wanted to explore whether autonomous vehicles could operate ahead of American troops to locate potential enemy forces without putting soldiers directly in harm’s way.Fort Knox was selected in part because its terrain could simulate conditions American forces might encounter in Europe.”We looked at how a unit could deploy these types of autonomous capabilities in a theater like EUCOM to discover potential operational value and relevant technical challenges,” Dr. Jason Gregory, DARPA’s deputy program manager, told Task & Purpose.The technology remains experimental, but DARPA hopes other Pentagon programs will build on the demonstration to develop systems that could eventually be used in combat.”We showed what’s possible,” Gregory said. According to DARPA, the system was designed to comply with Defense Department policy requiring human oversight of decisions to use lethal force.The Fort Knox demonstration comes as the Army is testing an expanded range of unmanned vehicles designed to take on dangerous battlefield missions, from delivering supplies and evacuating wounded troops to locating enemy forces and supporting attacks.Earlier this year, an Army solicitation highlighted the dangers of the “last tactical mile,” the final stretch of a journey to troops on the front lines, describing it as “often the most dangerous and logistically complex.”While the technologies serve different purposes, they reflect a growing effort to expand what unmanned systems can accomplish on the battlefield while reducing the number of American service members exposed to danger.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 11/02/2026 – 22:35

A child in New York state’s Lewis County died in the first known measles-associated death in the state in more than 30 years amid an ongoing measles outbreak, officials announced on Monday.Gov. Kathy Hochul said she was “heartbroken” to learn of the child’s death.”As a mother and grandmother, I cannot imagine what this family is going through. My heart goes out to everyone who knew and loved this child,” Hochul said in a statement.”Measles is highly contagious, and vaccination remains our best protection against this dangerous disease. This is New York’s first measles-related death in 30 years, a devastating reminder of what’s at stake when Washington deliberately erodes decades of progress in protecting Americans from preventable illnesses,” she added. “In New York, we will continue to stand by proven public health measures and do everything we can to keep New Yorkers safe and healthy.”DEADLY MEASLES OUTBREAK HITS NORTHEAST AS STATE RECORDS FIRST DEATHS IN 35 YEARSThe Trump administration has made changes to federal vaccine policy, including revising the childhood immunization schedule and reviewing how vaccines are recommended. The CDC, however, continues to recommend two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine for children and says two doses provide the best protection against measles.Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for a response to Hochul’s comments.The child’s death comes four weeks after Hochul declared a State Disaster Emergency in response to the measles outbreak across areas of New York and neighboring states, expanding the pool of eligible people who can administer measles vaccines and providing quick access to additional resources if needed.The governor said last month she planned to seek federal assistance to combat the outbreak.TRUMP SURGEON GENERAL PICK BACKS MMR VACCINE, REJECTS LINK BETWEEN CHILDHOOD VACCINES AND AUTISMThe New York State Department of Health said it is working with county health departments and local partners to provide the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to any unvaccinated people who request it and to closely monitor and investigate all reported cases.As of Oct. 24, New York had recorded 178 measles cases this year — 170 outside New York City and eight in the city.State health officials urged New Yorkers to protect themselves by making sure they are up-to-date on their measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines and be aware of health advisories if traveling with unvaccinated people, especially young children.”We are deeply saddened by the death of a child in Lewis County associated with the ongoing measles outbreak. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the child’s family and loved ones and ask that their privacy be respected during this difficult time,” the New York State Department of Health said in a statement.The department said measles is a highly contagious disease that can cause serious complications and death, stressing that vaccination is the “best protection against measles.””The Department has offered resources to Lewis County to assist with community outreach and support local vaccination efforts – both in response to this case, and as part of our ongoing efforts to support counties that are facing this ongoing measles outbreak,” the department’s statement reads. “We urge New Yorkers to ensure they are up-to-date on measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccinations and speak to their healthcare provider about immunizations.”

Screencap of Twitter/X video.
On today’s episode of ‘The Five’ on FOX News, Greg Gutfeld tore into the Democrats for throwing Haley Stevens under the bus over her endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan.
Gutfeld pointed out that the Democrats have been saying for months that they are a ‘big tent’ party. So the tent is big enough for people like Abdul El-Sayed and other radical leftists, but not big enough for Haley Stevens?
The truth is that Democrats have reduced their entire world view into either being on their side or being seen as the enemy.
Partial transcript via Overton News:
Greg Gutfeld just NAILED the hypocrisy coming out of the Democrat Party over Rep. Haley Stevens endorsing Republican Mike Rogers.
GUTFELD: “She lost a primary, she didn’t want to support the nominee over concerns that we’ve talked about…”
“Allies accuse her of abandoning the party.”
“Okay, that’s a far sharper line than they apply to socialists, who are viewed…whose views are already deviant.”
“So if the big tent can tolerate dissent in one direction, why can’t it tolerate dissent in the other direction?”
“If socialists remain in good standing, which pushes the party leftward, why can’t they tolerate people who are trying to keep the left from pushing that way?”
Spot on take from Gutfeld.
The Democrats’ “big tent” has a very narrow entrance.
It only allows entry from one ideological direction…and the Stevens and Fetterman crowd clearly isn’t welcome.
Watch the video below:

Bingo.
Greg Gutfeld just NAILED the hypocrisy coming out of the Democrat Party over Rep. Haley Stevens endorsing Republican Mike Rogers.
GUTFELD: “She lost a primary, she didn’t want to support the nominee over concerns that we’ve talked about…”
“Allies accuse her of… pic.twitter.com/gQbmIwcXuy
— Overton (@overton_news) November 2, 2026

The Democrats have no principles. All they want is power.
That has never been more obvious than it is now.

The post Greg Gutfeld Slams Democrats for Ex-Communicating Haley Stevens While Tolerating Radicals in Their Party (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

President Donald Trump delivered his closing message for the midterm elections at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Monday, hours before polls open across the country.
The post Trump Delivers Closing Midterm Message on National Mall appeared first on Breitbart.