This week on The Most Innovative Podcast, Josh and Yaz sit down with Fast Company senior editor Jon Gluck to discuss his powerful memoir that explores the unexpected twists and emotional terrain of his battle with cancer.
The Supreme Court ended its term on Friday with a major decision in the closely watched birthright citizenship case, that is likely to have a profound impact on whether the lower courts can pause or halt President Donald Trump’s executive orderswhich many legal experts say constitute an overreach of presidential power.
What happened?
Ruling along ideological lines 63, the court’s conservative majority decided to curb injunctions from the lower courts that temporarily paused President Donald Trump’s plan to end automatic birthright citizenship via Executive Order 14160, which aims to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country illegally, on temporary visas, or not “lawful permanent residents” at the time of the child’s birth.
However, that right is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
To be clear, the Supreme Court justices did not rule on the merits, or constitutionality, of ending birthright citizenship. The Trump administration didn’t ask the court to rule on the issue itself, and instead asked the high court to rule on whether federal judges have the power to issue injunctions that would block Trump’s order nationwide, while litigation continues. The Supreme Court ruled in Trump’s favor to narrow the scope of nationwide injunctions imposed by federal judges, effectively sending back the rulings to lower courts.
For the 28 states that have not challenged the birthright executive order in court, automatic citizenship could end for children born in the U.S. whose parents are undocumented immigrants, and some temporary residents and visitors, according to the New York Times. The court also stopped his executive order from taking effect for 30 days.
Friday’s ruling is a significant victory for Trump, and a major blow to his opponents who have been trying to limit his executive orders.
Trump calls ruling ‘monumental victory’
On Friday, speaking at the White House, Trump called the decision a “monumental victory for the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the rule of law.”
That’s the opposite of what Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, which argued “the Courts decision is nothing less than an open invitation for the Government to bypass the Constitution. The rule of law is not a given in this Nation, nor any other. It is a precept of our democracy that will endure only if those brave enough in every branch fight for its survival. Today, the Court abdicates its vital role in that effort. With the stroke of a pen, the President has made a ‘solemn mockery’ of our Constitution.”
And added, “The gamesmanship in this request is apparent and the Government makes no attempt to hide it. Yet, shamefully, this Court plays along.”
In a separate dissent, Jackson called the majority decision an existential threat to the rule of law.
In response, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who wrote the majority decision pushed back, and said No one disputes that the Executive has a duty to follow the law. But the Judiciary does not have unbridled authority to enforce this obligationin fact, sometimes the law prohibits the Judiciary from doing so.”
Trump first pledged to end birthright as early as 2015, and again in 2018, before issuing an executive order on the issue in January.
Trump has instituted a crackdown on immigration since taking office that has lead to some immigrants, green card holders, foreigners, and even American citizens being detained by the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Justice for Tiny Chef.
A now-viral clip of the stop-motion animated star of The Tiny Chef Show getting laid off directly by the execs at “Mickelflodeon” has tugged at the heartstrings of the internet.
In a YouTube short posted earlier this week, now with 365,000 views, the tiny green chef (Cheffy, as hes known to friends) is minding his business, dusting his room, when he gets a call delivering the terrible news: His show’s been canceled. But we won an Emmy, he lisps into the phone. “What about Rob? And Jen? Kate, Patty, MK, Leahall my friends.
Wiping away tears, he says: I understand. I love you too, bye. He tries to go back to cleaning before breaking down on the bed. Gut-wrenching.
That little attempt to straighten himself out and then get back to what he was doing only to immediately break down . . . thats REAL grief right there, reads one of the YouTube comments. I have no idea who this is but after watching this he means the world to me and something needs to be done about this great injustice, another commenter wrote.
According to the creators of the stop-motion series, which began on Instagram before being picked up by Nickelodeon in 2022 for three successful seasons, the cancellation was “very unexpected.”
Tiny Chefs creators Rachel Larsen and Ozlem Ozi Akturk told The Wrap, We always try to play Chefs life really authentically and this was a big momentthis was his dream show. They added, I think to not show how that would affect him isnt right.
To rub salt in the wound: Bro look at how happy Tiny Chef was back when the show initially got picked up….. one X user posted. In each episode, the tiny herbivore chef created equally tiny dishes, from apple pie to guacamole. Each episode featured a celebrity announcer, with cameos from RuPaul, Alan Cumming, Kristen Bell, and Rebel Wilson.
Bro look at how happy Tiny Chef was back when the show initially got picked up….. https://t.co/vK0TZsHe7a pic.twitter.com/799JWgySKe— Shreeder4092 (@shreeder4092) June 25, 2025
Now Cheffy needs your help. Many of you have said that you would die for Tiny Chef, we dont need all that (!!!) but we do need crowdfunding to keep going, reads a call for donations on the shows website. As soon as the internet found out about Cheffys plight, they sprang into action.
Oh. Nickelodeon BROKE this man. one X user posted, now with over 111.8 million views. How did they make me care about this character despite never seeing a single episode, asked another. (Indeed, it seems many of Tiny Chefs most fervent supporters only learned of his existence this week.)
Oh. Nickelodeon BROKE this man…. pic.twitter.com/OGh0Cz6OCv— Minty (@limooosin) June 24, 2025
Normalize having characters reacting to their shows/films getting cancelled to make people hate CEOs even more, one X user wrote. Another added, This is why animation is so important too. AI slop wont make you feel emotions like this.
This is why animation is so important too. AI slop won't make you feel emotions like this https://t.co/APJ76sRKDV— (@Astr0Papa) June 25, 2025
As for Cheffy, hes over on TikTok feeling his feels.
Microsoft has confirmed that it is killing off its iconic Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). The screen is something most Windows users (unfortunately) are all too familiar withthe azure shade that appears on a person’s PC when Windows suffers a total system crash.
Heres what you need to know about the death of the Blue Screen of Death.
An ignominious Windows staple for 40 years
Though Windows has changed pretty radically since version 1.0 came out in 1985, several elements of Microsofts operating system have stuck around in the four decades since, including file folders, scroll bars, resizable windows, and a blue screen that showed when something went wrong.
Yes, the bane of Windows users everywhere has been a built-in part of the operating system in some form since the beginning.
What is now known as the Blue Screen of Death debuted in Windows 1.0 in 1985, and since then, it has appeared on millions of screensmaybe billions around the world.
The Blue Screen of Death has undergone several revisions over the decades, displaying different layouts and other data intended to help users identify the issue with their computer. And as it has sunk into the public consciousness, it’s even been used by Microsofts rivals to poke fun at the company.
For decades, Apples operating system for the Mac, currently known as macOS, has featured the Blue Screen of Death on the system icon representing networked Windows PCs.
But it was last year that the Blue Screen of Death caught worldwide attention. The Blue Screen of Death appeared on Windows PCs around the world for days after the infamous CrowdStrike update that took down Windows machines across the globe.
Black is the new Blue
Unfortunately, Microsoft isnt killing off the Blue Screen of Death because the company has solved the problem of unexpected crashes and restarts. The BSOD screen will still exist on Windows going forwardjust with a new color.
After an update to the Windows operating system later this summer, the Blue Screen of Death will become, well, the Black Screen of Death.
In a blog post announcing several steps that it is taking to enhance the Windows enterprise experience, Microsoft stated that the changes are part of a larger continued effort to reduce disruption in the event of an unexpected restart.
Specifically addressing the BSOD, Microsoft said it was introducing the simplified user interface to go along with a new, shortened recovery experience.
The updated UI improves readability and aligns better with Windows 11 design principles, while preserving the technical information on the screen for when it is needed, the company said.
When does the Windows Black Screen of Death arrive?
In its blog post, Microsoft said that the new Black Screen of Death will replace the Blue Screen of Death in the Windows 11 24H2 update.
The company says that the update will be available on all compatible devices starting later this summer.
RIP, Blue Screen of Death. We knew you too well.
Dating app Bumble continues to lose its footing. After subpar earnings, sluggish user growth, and internal stagnation, the company has laid off 30% of its staff. Meanwhile, its dating app competitor Grindr is soaring.
Among dating apps, Match Groups propertiesmostly Hinge, sometimes Tinderlead the market. The duos ubiquity frame apps like Bumble and Grindr as boutique alternatives, designed for their innovative features or specialty user bases. Thats a difficult market to occupy, especially as dating app fatigue sets in and Gen Z seems to push for more in-person (and sexless) encounters. Those factors are just part of the reason why Bumble and its competitors are falling behind.
But LGBTQ+ hookup app Grindr is flourishingposting solid growth in both user acquisition and revenue. In May, Grindr CEO George Arison spoke with Fast Company about his efforts to build a broader offering on the foundation of its core location-based grid of usersincluding some popular new features and a foray into telemedicine. He isn’t convinced that generational patterns entirely explain the struggles of dating apps.
“This whole ‘Gen Z-avoiding-apps’ thing makes no logical sense. Gen Z loves TikTok and loves Reels and thinks you can read something online and youre an expert in it, but theyre not gonna do dating online?,” he says. “What I do think and what makes logical sense, is that if you dont build a product that Gen Zers want, theyre not going to use it. Thats where I think some of our peers have fallen flat.”
His vision is still in progress, but here’s how the company’s constant efforts to test and scale new ideas could serve as a guide to its competitors.
Comparing Bumble and Grindr
Bumble and Grindr both went public in the early 2020s, when the dating app market was still hot thanks to the pandemics digital boom. Since their IPOs, both Bumble and Grindr have hit rough watersthough Grindr managed to right itself while Bumble continues to, well, bumble.
Bumble’s stock opened at $43 per sharea height it hasnt reached since late 2021. In 2025, Bumble’s share price was hovering around $5 in early June, jumping above $6 only at the news of layoffs earlier this week. Meanwhile, Grindrwhich debuted at $16.90 in 2022, initially dropped to $5, but has been above $15 since November 2024 and exceeded $20 per share since mid-April.
Revenue figures have told a similar story. Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd returned to Bumble in March on the eve of some sour news: Bumbles Q1 earnings showed an 8% decrease in revenue year-over-year. For the same quarter, Grindrs revenue grew 25% over the prior year.
Arison told Fast Company he sees the company’s performance as a reflection of the contributions that the LGBTQ+ communityhe is gay himselfcan make to the business world. “Part of our mission has to be we do super well as a business and we force everybody to change,” he says.
Neither app releases consistent and specific user counts. Grindr appears to be growing its user base as Bumble’s gains are slow. In its Q1 earnings, Grindr reported more than 14.5 million monthly active users, up from more than 13.5 million the year prior. Bumbles earnings are split by paying users, a focus for former CEO Lidiane Jones. While the company grew its paying app users by 11% in 2024, it has since shed 100,000 of those subscribers in 2025.
What should a dating app look like?
Under Arison’s leadership, Grindr has turned into an innovation powerhouse. In his May interview, Arison emphasized the creation of Albumsbundles of photos sent via chats and not directly displayed on a profilewhich debuted in 2022. In 2024, Grindr users sent over two billion albums. He also pointed toward the apps new Right Now feature, which lets users search specifically for more immediate action. In D.C. and Sydney, two of the features trial markets, Arison said that 25 to 35% of our weekly active users were regularly going into the Right Now experience at least once a week.
Grindr’s new features are available for all users, though paid subscribes receive additional uses. For example, free Grindr users get to post to the Right Now feed three times a week. Down the line, the company plans to make sessions available for purchase. That’s part of Arison’s strategy: Opening new features with limitations as a bridge to paid customer conversion.
I dont want Grindr to end up like some of our competitors, who hollowed out their products focusing only on monetization and building nothing, Arison told Fast Company. “We are doing product-led processesits not just monetize, monetize, monetize. Were saying: Build new things, and those things will lead to revenue.”
In contrast, Bumble has moved slowly with their feature rollouts. The Opening Moves feature debuted in 2024, allowing users to list prompts for new matches to respond to. The feature undercut Bumbles initial mission that women should message first. Since then, theyve also instituted ID verification and date-sharing safety features. Many of the app’s most compelling featureslike backtracking left swipes, Travel Mode, and Incognito Modeare only available to paid users.
With dating app fatigue on the rise, both Bumble and Grindr have also expanded into alternate markets. Both have emphasized the role of friendship and platonic encounters on their apps, with Arison promoting Grindr’s ongoing effort to become the global gayborhood in your pocket,” noting “Our younger, 18-plus cohort wants to be in an environment where there are older pople as well. Friendships between younger and older people are much more common in our community.”
Bumble launched its friend-focused Bumble B.F.F. in 2016, and broke it out into a stand-alone app, Bumble for Friends, in 2023. While Bumble for Friends doesn’t release stand-alone user numbers, its million-plus Google Play downloads is dwarfed by Bumble’s more than 50 million downloads. Grindr’s “gayborhood” model also flows easily with the original app; users have been employing Grindr for non-dating activities since its advent. By spinning their Friends function out into a separate app, Bumble must seek out an entirely separate user base.
In this area, Grindr is making a similarly big bet on how it can show up in different ways for its users. The company recently launched Woodwork, a telemedicine company selling erectile dysfunction pills, in Illinois and Pennsylvania. Arison also predicted that Grindr would expand into haircare, skincare, and other things of that nature.
When I started talking to shareholders, part of the conversation was: What do we want Grindr to be? Just a dating app or something more? Arison told Fast Company. Their view was very strong: We want to be a lot more.
Power plants and industrial facilities that emit carbon dioxide, the primary driver of global warming, are hopeful that Congress will keep tax credits for capturing the gas and storing it deep underground.The process, called carbon capture and sequestration, is seen by many as an important way to reduce pollution during a transition to renewable energy.But it faces criticism from some conservatives, who say it is expensive and unnecessary, and from environmentalists, who say it has consistently failed to capture as much pollution as promised and is simply a way for producers of fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal to continue their use.Here’s a closer look:
How does the process work?
Carbon dioxide is a gas produced by burning of fossil fuels. It traps heat close to the ground when released to the atmosphere, where it persists for hundreds of years and raises global temperatures.Industries and power plants can install equipment to separate carbon dioxide from other gases before it leaves the smokestack. The carbon then is compressed and shippedusually through a pipelineto a location where it’s injected deep underground for long-term storage.Carbon also can be captured directly from the atmosphere using giant vacuums. Once captured, it is dissolved by chemicals or trapped by solid material.Lauren Read, a senior vice president at BKV Corp., which built a carbon capture facility in Texas, said the company injects carbon at high pressure, forcing it almost two miles below the surface and into geological formations that can hold it for thousands of years.The carbon can be stored in deep saline or basalt formations and unmineable coal seams. But about three-fourths of captured carbon dioxide is pumped back into oil fields to build up pressure that helps extract harder-to-reach reservesmeaning it’s not stored permanently, according to the International Energy Agency and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
How much carbon dioxide is captured?
The most commonly used technology allows facilities to capture and store around 60% of their carbon dioxide emissions during the production process. Anything above that rate is much more difficult and expensive, according to the IEA.Some companies have forecast carbon capture rates of 90% or more, “in practice, that has never happened,” said Alexandra Shaykevich, research manager at the Environmental Integrity Project’s Oil & Gas Watch.That’s because it’s difficult to capture carbon dioxide from every point where it’s emitted, said Grant Hauber, a strategic adviser on energy and financial markets at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.Environmentalists also cite potential problems keeping it in the ground. For example, last year, agribusiness company Archer-Daniels-Midland discovered a leak about a mile underground at its Illinois carbon capture and storage site, prompting the state legislature this year to ban carbon sequestration above or below the Mahomet Aquifer, an important source of drinking water for about a million people.Carbon capture can be used to help reduce emissions from hard-to-abate industries like cement and steel, but many environmentalists contend it’s less helpful when it extends the use of coal, oil and gas.A 2021 study also found the carbon capture process emits significant amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that’s shorter-lived than carbon dioxide but traps over 80 times more heat. That happens through leaks when the gas is brought to the surface and transported to plants.About 45 carbon-capture facilities operated on a commercial scale last year, capturing a combined 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxidea tiny fraction of the 37.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector alone, according to the IEA.It’s an even smaller share of all greenhouse gas emissions, which amounted to 53 gigatonnes for 2023, according to the latest report from the European Commission’s Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research.The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis says one of the world’s largest carbon capture utilization and storage projects, ExxonMobil’s Shute Creek facility in Wyoming, captures only about half its carbon dioxide, and most of that is sold to oil and gas companies to pump back into oil fields.
Future of US tax credits is unclear
Even so, carbon capture is an important tool to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, particularly in heavy industries, said Sangeet Nepal, a technology specialist at the Carbon Capture Coalition.“It’s not a substitution for renewables . . . it’s just a complementary technology,” Nepal said. “It’s one piece of a puzzle in this broad fight against the climate change.”Experts say many projects, including proposed ammonia and hydrogen plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast, likely won’t be built without the tax credits, which Carbon Capture Coalition Executive Director Jessie Stolark says already have driven significant investment and are crucial U.S. global competitiveness.They remain in the Senate Finance Committee’s draft reconciliation bill, after another version passed the House, though the Carbon Capture Coalition said inflation has already slashed their value and could limit projects.
Associated Press reporter Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed to this report.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Tammy Webber, Associated Press
Rite Aid has selected a successful bidder for its Thrifty Payless subsidiary, which includes the beloved Thrifty ice cream brand, according to a bankruptcy court filing on Thursday.
The buyer was identified as Hilrod Holdings, a limited partnership linked to Hilton Schlosberg and Rodney Sacks, top executives at the energy drink company Monster Beverage Corporation. Hilrod is seeking to pay $19.2 million for Thrifty’s assets, the filing revealed. The partnership is mostly known for its real estate investments
Thrifty ice cream is available at scoop counters located inside many Rite Aid locations in addition to being sold by third-party retailers. It was not immediately clear what Hilrod plans to do with Thrifty should the sale be approved by the court. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for June 30.
Fast Company reached out to a lawyer for Hilrod Holdings, and representatives for Monster Beverage and Rite Aid for comment. We will update this story if we hear back.
Schlosberg and Sacks had until recently been co-CEOs of Monster Beverage. A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that Sacks planned to retire this month, while Schlosberg would continue to lead the company.
Thrifty Ice Cream caught up in Rite Aid’s bankruptcy
The fate of Thrifty ice cream has been uncertain since Rite Aid announced in early May that it would see Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for a second time. The embattled pharmacy chain is winding down its operations, closing or selling its physical stores, and has sold off most of its prescription files to competitors, including CVS and Walgreens.
The Thrifty brand stretches back decades in Los Angeles, where it was sold at soda fountain counters inside the Thrifty Drug Store chain. It became part of Rite Aid through Rite Aid’s purchase of Thrifty Payless in 1996.
This story is developing and could be updated.
An opportunity to choose chance.
Thats what social platform startup 222 claims to offer its members. It isnt a dating apptheres no swiping, and, more notably, theres no actual choosing of who you might be meeting.
Instead, an AI-driven algorithm does it for you.
We wanted people to be out and meeting each other.It was [based] on this whole idea of the death of third places, and that people arent just running into each other anymore, says 222 cofounder and chief operations officer Danial Hashemi. Theres no more chance encounters, so the whole [algorithm] has always been about engineering chance.
A backyard origin story
In 2021, twenty-something-year-old friends Keyan Kazemian, Arman Roshannai, and Hashemi came up with the idea for 222 as part of an independent research project.
They created a personality questionnaire and asked friends and strangers to complete it. Participants were grouped based on their answers, then invited to Kazemians backyard for wine and food. Afterward, the trio would assess how well everyone got along.
It convinced us of two things: one, it is possible to solve the social isolation problem by using machine learning and AI, and two, that even at its [initial] stage, with just us randomly assigning people, they enjoyed it so much, Hashemi says.
Social isolation isnt a new problem in our increasingly digitized lives, but it remains a persistent one. Despite access to every niche thought, community, or subreddit imaginable, society is, statistically, lonelier than ever.
According to a 2023 report from the Department of Health and Human Services, we are experiencing an epidemic of loneliness. Between 2003 and 2020, time spent alone increased by 24 hours per month nationwide. Over the same period, time spent engaging with others dropped by 10 hours per month.
In 2018, only 16% of Americans felt connected to their communities.
So, can AI truly be the cure to social isolation? Hashemi thinks it canthrough 222, which he believes can deepen relationships and connect people to their cities.
How it works
The name 222 comes from the street address in Los Angeles where the idea was first developed. The platform is accessible via both app and website. There are no profile photo uploads, and the experience begins with what feels like the final boss of personality quizzes.
With prompts ranging from favorite movies to political views to how likely would you be to do cocaine?, the algorithm gathers input through a labyrinth of questions. These span categories like identity, interests, and media, shaping each users curation profile.
Eventually, users receive curated invite cards to activities like dinner and a comedy club or pickleball and lunch, matched to their algorithmic personality type.
To acceptand to help fund the app alongside its investor backingusers can pay a per-event curation fee of $22.22, subscribe monthly for the same price, or choose a discounted three-month or annual plan.
Were not trying to be some novel experience that someone tries one time and then doesnt come back, Hashemi says. Were trying to build the lasting product that people build their social infrastructure on top of.
After each group event, users can give feedback on whether theyd like to hang out or date specific individuals. This helps fine-tune the algorithm and increases the retainment factor, according to Hashemieither deepening existing connections or making space for new ones.
It just feels like were more divided than ever and theres more echo chambers than ever, Hashemi says. All of these social media platforms are only showing you what you love and arent challenging you.
Originally launched in L.A., 222 has since expanded to New York City, San Francisco, and most recently, Chicago. To date, 222 has raised $3.6 million in seed and angel investments from the likes of General Catalyst, Y Combinator, Upfront Ventures, and the 1517 Fund.
On July 2, the platform will become available internationally for the first time, launching in Toronto, with London and D.C. to follow later in the month.
The big question following U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear program is: What remains of it?
U.S. President Donald Trump has said three targets hit by American strikes were “obliterated.” His defense secretary said they were “destroyed.”A preliminary report issued by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, meanwhile, said the strikes did significant damage to the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan sites, but did not totally destroy the facilities.The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said that as a result of Israeli and U.S. strikes, the agency has “seen extensive damage at several nuclear sites in Iran,” including those three. Israel claims it has set back Iran’s nuclear program by “many years.”Officials and experts are still assessing the damage, and their evaluation could change.Two of the major questions they are trying to address are where Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is and what is the state of the centrifuges that enrich the fuel.The answer to the first is not clear, but the IAEA believes significant damage was done to centrifuges at the two enrichment facilities in Natanz and Fordo.The IAEAand the worldwant to know the state of both the uranium and centrifuges because if Iran chooses to make a nuclear weapon, then making the fuel required would be just a short, technical step away.Iran has always maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.But it has enriched significant quantities of uranium beyond the levels required for any civilian use, and Israel launched strikes on nuclear and military targets on June 13, accusing Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons.The U.S. joined that attack on Sunday, dropping 14 bunker-buster bombs on two sites. Iran retaliated with strikes on Israeli and American targets. Israel and Iran have since agreed to a ceasefire.Here’s what we knowand don’t knowabout the state of Iran’s nuclear program.
It’s possible the nuclear fuel was moved
At least some of Iran’s highly enriched uranium may have been moved before the U.S. strikes, the assessment from the DIA suggests, according to two people familiar with the evaluation. The people were not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.That would mean that some of the stockpile may have survived.The assessment was preliminary and will be refined as new information becomes available, the agency has said. Its authors also characterized it as “low confidence,” an acknowledgement that the conclusions could be mistaken.The White House has called the assessment “flat-out wrong,” pointing to the power of the bombs to back up the president’s characterization that the sites hit had been destroyed.Iran has previously threatened to hide its enriched uranium if attacked, and reiterated its pledge the day Israel launched its military campaign. Enriched uranium is stored in canisters that can be moved around fairly easy.In May, the IAEA, which is the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said Iran had amassed 408.6 kilograms (900.8 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%. If it is further enriched to 90%, it would be enough to make nine nuclear weapons, according to the U.N.’s yardstick, though a weapon would require other expertise, such as a detonation device.Before the war, experts believe the stockpile was mainly stored in two places: underground tunnels at a facility in Isfahan, and in a heavily fortified underground enrichment site in Fordo.U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Thursday that he was “not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to bemoved or otherwise.”
Trucks seen at nuclear facility prompt speculation
Satellite imagery showed trucks and bulldozers at the Fordo site beginning June 19, three days before the U.S. struck.Eric Brewer, a former U.S. intelligence analyst and now deputy vice president at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, said it’s “plausible” that Iran used the trucks to take nuclear fuel away.But Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Breugel think tank in Brussels, disagreed: “I think that that was a decoy more than anything else.”Subsequent satellite imagery “revealed that the tunnel entrances into the underground complex had been sealed off with dirt prior to the U.S. airstrikes,” said Stephen Wood, senior director at American satellite imagery and analysis firm Maxar Technologies. “We believe that some of the trucks seen on 19 June were carrying dirt to be used as part of that operation.”Trump offered a similar explanation.In a post on his Truth Social network on Thursday, he wrote: “The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!”Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the bombs were dropped onto the two main ventilation shafts of Fordo.He said Iran attempted to cover the shafts with concrete before the U.S. attack, but the cap was “forcibly removed by the main weapon.”
Centrifuges are highly sensitive and vulnerable to damage
Inspectors from the IAEA have remained in Iran throughout the war, but they are currently unable to inspect any nuclear sites due to safety concerns.But with the “explosive payload utilized, and the extreme vibration-sensitive nature of centrifuges,” the agency believes “very significant damage is expected to have occurred” as a result of U.S. airstrikes at Fordo, according to a statement from IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi to the agency’s board earlier this week.The centrifuges there are “no longer operational,” Grossi told Radio France Internationale on Thursday.Centrifuges are used to enrich uraniumand could eventually bring it up to weapons-grade levels, if Iran chooses to do so.Natanz, Iran’s biggest enrichment site, also houses centrifuges.In its underground plant, the IAEA believes most if not all of the centrifuge cascadesgroups of centrifuges working together to more quickly enrich uraniumwere destroyed by an Israeli strike that cut off power to the site.Its aboveground plant has also been “functionally destroyed,” the agency said.Strikes also caused “extensive damage” at Isfahan, according to the IAEA, especially at the uranium conversion facility and the plant for making uranium metal that’s vital to producing a nuclear bomb.
What the damage means for Iran’s program is disputed
Much like Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Iran’s nuclear program has been brought “to ruin.”The Israel Atomic Energy Commission believes the recent strikes have set back Tehran’s ability to develop an atomic weapon by years. Israel officials have not said how they reached this assessment.The DIA assessment, however, suggested that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months, according to the people familiar with it.U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in an interview with Politico, limited his own evaluation to saying Iran was “much further away from a nuclear weapon today than they were before the president took this bold action.”Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that Trump “exaggerated” the impact of the American strikes.
Associated Press writers Sam McNeil in Brussels, Michelle L. Price and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington, and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report._ The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. _ Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/
Stephanie Liechtenstein, Associated Press
Apple has revamped its app store policies in the European Union with hopes of fending off escalating fines under the 27-nation bloc’s digital competition regulations.It’s a last-minute bid by the iPhone maker to avoid further charges following a 500 million euro ($585 million) penalty in April. The bloc’s executive Commission punished Apple for preventing app makers from pointing users to cheaper options outside its App Store, and gave it a 60-day deadline, which expired Thursday, to avoid additional, periodic fines.The changes made by Apple will make it easier for app makers to point users to better deals on digital products and options to pay for them outside of Apple’s own App Store, including other websites, apps or alternative app stores.The California company is also rolling out a two-tier system of fees to accommodate app developers that want to use alternative payments.“The European Commission is requiring Apple to make a series of additional changes to the App Store,” Apple said in a statement. “We disagree with this outcome and plan to appeal.”The commission noted Apple’s announcement and “will now assess these new business terms for DMA compliance,” referring to the EU’s Digital Markets Act. The rulebook was designed to rein in the power of big tech companies under threat of hefty fines worth up to 10% of a company’s global annual revenue.Among the DMA’s provisions are requirements that developers inform customers of cheaper purchasing options, and direct them to those offers.Apple’s restrictions preventing developers from steering users to outside payment channels had been fiercely opposed by some companies. It’s the reason, for example, Spotify removed the in-app payment option to avoid having to pay a commission of up to 30% on digital subscriptions bought through iOS.
Associated Press
