Graham Platner Wins Maine Senate Democratic Nomination, Locking In Face-Off With Collins

Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times,

Democratic voters in Maine on Tuesday nominated oysterman and military veteran Graham Platner as their candidate to take on incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), locking in the nominees for one of the most critical Senate elections of the 2026 cycle.

Graham Platner, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, greets supporters after speaking at an event hosted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in Orono, Maine, on May 24, 2026. Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo

At 9:23 p.m, The Associated Press formally declared that Platner would be the Democratic nominee. When the race was called, Platner led Gov. Janet Mills - who withdrew her candidacy after polls showed her trailing the dark horse Platner - by tens of percent, though only around 8 percent of the votes were in when the race was called.

Platner's campaign recently come under scrutiny after several media reports about his past treatment of women and other controversies.

Platner's victory formalizes the 2026 Senate lineup, locking in the final picks for a race that has been characterized as the political fight of Collins's life by many observers.

The five-term Collins was first elected in 1996 and has held on long beyond any other New England Republican at the federal level.

This year, she faced no Republican challenger for the nomination.

Though she regularly breaks with President Donald Trump and her party in the upper chamber, the political odds for a Republican in statewide matches have grown increasingly grim in recent years.

Aside from Collins, the last Republican to win a statewide federal race in New England was Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican who won a single term to the Senate in 2010 before being unseated by Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) in 2016.

Maine has never voted for Trump on a statewide level, with Vice President Kamala Harris winning by around 7 percent in 2024.

But Collins's brand of moderate, old-school Republicanism has kept her well ahead of most other Republicans in the state.

In 2020, Collins outran Trump by around 17 percent in Maine, defeating her Democratic rival by around eight points in an election former President Joe Biden won by around nine points.

Still, polls have painted a tough picture for Collins, who has fallen behind Platner in most polls conducted since March.

Platner has campaigned as a progressive candidate, winning the endorsement of key figures such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

However, his campaign has faced some controversies.

The New York Times has run various stories against Platner, which include claims made by Lyndsey Fifield, a Republican political strategist who previously dated him.

Fifield claimed that on one occasion, while they were dating between 2013 and 2015, Platner twisted her arm. The New York Times stated in the article that it was unable to independently corroborate the allegation, which Platner has denied.

A report by The Wall Street Journal also relayed a story involving Platner exchanging sexually explicit text messages with other women during his marriage.

His wife, who knew about the infidelity, had shared the information with a campaign staffer, who later brought the story to The Wall Street Journal. Platner's wife has described the public reporting on the topic as "shameful" gossip.

Polymarket Tyler Durden Wed, 06/10/2026 - 08:50

These Are The Jobs With The Highest And Lowest Divorce Rates

Actuaries have America’s lowest divorce rate at 14.2%.

At the other extreme, several occupations report divorce rates near 48%, highlighting a striking divide across the U.S. workforce.

Using American Community Survey data compiled by FlowingData, Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld created the following graphic ranking the occupations with the highest and lowest divorce rates among more than 500 jobs.

One of the ranking’s most surprising findings is that healthcare occupations appear on both sides. Physicians, dentists, and physical therapists rank among America’s lowest-divorce occupations, while home health aides, psychiatric aides, and practical nurses rank among the highest.

The contrast suggests that schedules, working conditions, and job structure may play a larger role than industry alone.

The Jobs With the Lowest Divorce Rates

America’s lowest-divorce occupations are remarkably similar. Most require years of advanced education, professional licensing, or specialized technical expertise.

Education appears to be one factor. Census-based research shows divorce rates generally decline as education levels rise.

Individuals with only a high school diploma experienced a divorce rate of 38.8%, compared with 30.1% for those with an associate degree and 25.9% for those holding at least a bachelor’s degree.

Notably, America’s lowest-divorce occupations include not only high earners such as physicians and dentists, but also clergy, one of the few modest-paying professions in the group.

The Jobs With the Highest Divorce Rates

Telemarketers, bus drivers, bartenders, home health aides, psychiatric aides, casino workers, and security personnel all rank among America’s highest-divorce occupations, with rates exceeding 45%.

The occupations at the opposite end of the ranking share a different set of characteristics. Many involve irregular schedules, shift work, public-facing responsibilities, or emotionally demanding working conditions.

Work schedules may be part of the explanation. A landmark study of more than 3,400 married couples found that irregular schedules, such as night shifts, were associated with significantly higher odds of separation or divorce than regular daytime work.

Other research has linked night-shift work to greater marital instability and work-family conflict, particularly for new parents.

The Surprising Healthcare Divide

One of the ranking’s most surprising findings is that healthcare occupations appear on both sides.

Physicians, surgeons, dentists, physical therapists, optometrists, and physician assistants all rank among the lowest-divorce occupations in America.

Yet healthcare support roles tell a very different story. Home health aides, psychiatric aides, practical nurses, ambulance attendants, and other healthcare support workers rank among the highest-divorce occupations.

The divide suggests that job conditions may matter as much as industry. Workers in healthcare can face vastly different schedules, levels of autonomy, educational requirements, and workplace pressures, even while serving similar patient populations. In other words, two people can work in healthcare and face entirely different relationship pressures depending on their role.

What the Rankings Reveal

The rankings suggest that occupation and family life may be more connected than many people realize. While no profession determines whether a marriage succeeds, factors such as work schedules, stress levels, educational attainment, and job autonomy appear to be linked with markedly different divorce outcomes.

The healthcare divide is perhaps the clearest example. People working in the same industry can face entirely different relationship pressures depending on the role they hold.

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on America’s 30 highest-paying jobs.

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/10/2026 - 06:55

Chinese Firm To Deploy 100 Humanoid Robots To Households For Daily Chores

Authored by Kaif Shaikh via Interesting Engineering,

A Chinese robotics company has begun placing its humanoid robots inside real homes, marking a significant step in the race to develop machines capable of performing everyday household tasks.

Wuhan-based GigaAI recently deployed the first batch of 100 SeeLight S1 humanoid robots for household testing, according to reports from China. The trial is being positioned as China's first large-scale real-home test of a general-purpose humanoid robot designed for domestic use.

While humanoid robots have become increasingly adept at performing carefully choreographed demonstrations, researchers say the real challenge lies in operating inside unpredictable human environments.

From Robot Demos To Real Household Work

In a demonstration apartment in Wuhan, two SeeLight S1 robots carried out a variety of household chores. According to Global Times and China Daily reports, one robot prepared breakfast by retrieving food items, heating chicken in a microwave, clearing dishes, and loading a dishwasher. Another removed laundry from a dryer, folded clothes, and organized them in a wardrobe.

According to GigaAI, the robots learned these tasks through less than a month of on-site training. The company's executives argue that household robotics represents a fundamentally different challenge from the acrobatic robot videos that often dominate social media.

"Tasks such as dancing or performing flips mainly rely on what we can call the robot's cerebellum," GigaAI co-founder and chief scientist Zhu Zheng told Global Times. "Household robots, however, depend on the brain."

That distinction reflects a broader challenge in robotics known as embodied AI, where machines must perceive their surroundings, understand spoken instructions, plan actions, and adapt to constantly changing environments.

Check out China's SeeLight S1, a household humanoid robot capable of cooking, doing laundry, folding clothes, and organizing spaces pic.twitter.com/oHqbb0B6oZ

— Shenzhen Channel (@sz_mediagroup) May 22, 2026

Why Are Homes Harder Than Factories?

Factories are structured and predictable. Homes are not. Furniture gets moved, objects are left in unexpected places, lighting conditions change throughout the day, and every household follows different routines.

Researchers often point to Moravec's paradox, a long-observed phenomenon in artificial intelligence where tasks humans consider difficult, such as advanced mathematics or strategic games, can be easier for machines than seemingly simple activities like folding clothes, grasping objects, or navigating cluttered rooms.

The SeeLight S1 attempts to address this challenge through what GigaAI describes as an embodied foundation model. Rather than following pre-programmed action sequences, the system is designed to process natural-language instructions, interpret its surroundings, create a plan, and execute tasks autonomously. According to the company, the robot can also adapt when furniture layouts change and continue operating even when interrupted during a task.

Still Far From A Robotic Maid

Despite the impressive demonstrations, reports from users and observers suggest there is still considerable room for improvement.

According to Global Times, some household tasks remain slow. Organizing a few books can take several minutes, while folding a single piece of clothing may require more than ten minutes. The robot has also reportedly struggled with tasks such as handling cups without spilling liquids.

Those limitations highlight the gap that still exists between controlled demonstrations and practical household automation. The current SeeLight S1 is therefore less a finished consumer product and more a data-collection platform designed to learn from real-world environments.

GigaAI plans to launch an upgraded SeeLight S2 later this year with a smaller chassis, longer battery life, improved arm reach, and more advanced AI algorithms. The company also intends to expand testing into homes with elderly residents, children, and various living arrangements to expose the robots to a wider range of real-world scenarios.

While humanoid assistants capable of seamlessly handling household chores remain a work in progress, the deployment of 100 robots into actual homes represents an important experiment. The question is no longer whether robots can perform tasks in carefully staged demonstrations. It is whether they can cope with the messy, unpredictable reality of everyday life.

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/10/2026 - 06:30

Marriage Benefits Men's Life Expectancy More Than Women's

One data point has recently caused much astonishment, confusion and also anger online.

As Statista's Katharina Buchholz details below, it is the finding that men benefit more from being married in terms of life expectancy than women do.

In other words, that men live longer and healthier lives if they are backed up by a spouse in doing so, while women don’t see the same support in prolonging their length and quality of life.

The notion that men rob years of life from their wives and basically tag them on to theirs is, however, not supported by (most) research on the topic.

Yet, the differences in how men’s and women’s lives are affected by marriage or the lack thereof are still significant.

You will find more infographics at Statista

In general, women tend to live longer and healthier lives than men for a variety of reasons, including greater health consciousness and a tendency to avoid risky behaviors, but also genetic and hormonal factors. A study published in 2020 in the Journal SSM – Population Health shows that at 65 years old, U.S. women were expected to live for an additional 19 to 21 years, while for U.S. men, this number only stood at around 16 to 18.5 years. Nevertheless, the devil is once again in the details and reveals itself when looking at the differences in sex and marital status.

Here, married men aged 65 gain almost 2.5 years of life expectancy over their unmarried counterparts of the same age, boosting their outlook on life significantly. The data shows how having a spouse brings the life expectancy of married men quite close to that of never-married women - quite significant if one considers how fundamental the longer life span of women has been across ages and cultures. Married and never-married women, on the other hand, have a more similar expected lifespan. However, marriage also benefits women and increases their life expectancy, if only by 1.8 years on average compared to never-married females.

Another study looking at Danish people at age 50 even shows that men benefited from an added life expectancy of around eight years through marriage, while married women could expect to live approximately five years longer compared to never-married women. This gave men an increase that was 60 percent bigger than that of women, compared to the 33 percent U.S. researchers found in 65-year-olds. A study in Asia even found benefits of marriage in reducing mortality only in men, but not in women, concluding that more traditional Asian marriages where female partners take on a lot of household and child-rearing chores on top of possible employment might cancel out any potential benefits.

The role women play in marriages as planners and facilitators of medical care as well as advocates for healthy habits becomes clear when looking at divorced and widowed men’s life expectancy. In the U.S., it falls to basically the same level as that of never-married men when considering 65-year-olds. In the case of U.S. women, the differences are again not that stark. Even if a women is divorced or widowed, her life expectancy is still somewhat above that of a never-married woman, highlighting how women benefit from the overall advantages of marriage rather than just their spouse. These come in the form of so-called marriage protections, like adopting better habits, better mental health outcomes and better social connectedness. They are also often explained by so-called marriage selection, the idea that those individuals who manage to get married are already starting out with a better outlook on life.

Newer research into these factors has added an important distinction to these theories, however. It finds that while overall, marriages tend to provide benefits to a majority of individuals, this doesn’t mean that every marriage is beneficial. A bad marriage or one that places a lot of additional burdens on both or one of the individuals involved can diminish the positive effects of marriage significantly. Likewise, smaller differences between the life expectancies of married, divorced, widowed and never-married women potentially mask a set of more diverse outcomes for women.

Where men’s benefits stemming from marriage seem more widespread and typical, women may still often find positive outcomes from a marriage that is going well for them, but many might also see minimal or even adverse effects, culminating in a less clear picture of marriage and female longevity.

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/10/2026 - 05:45