9 Jun 2025

Apple heads into annual showcase reeling from AI missteps, tech upheaval and Trump’s trade war

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By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — After stumbling out of the starting gate in Big Tech’s pivotal race to capitalize on artificial intelligence, Apple will try to regain its footing Monday at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

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The presummer rite, which attracts thousands of developers to Apple’s Silicon Valley headquarters, is expected to be more subdued than the feverish anticipation that surrounded the event during the previous two years.

In 2023, Apple unveiled a mixed-reality headset that has been little more than a niche product, and last year WWDC trumpeted its first major foray into the AI craze with an array of new features highlighted by the promise of a smarter and more versatile version of its virtual assistant, Siri.

Apple had intended the planned Siri upgrade to herald its long-awaited attempt to become a major player in the AI craze after getting a late start in a phenomenon that so far has been largely been led by OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and an array of cutting-edge startups.

Instead, as Apple heads into this year’s showcase, the company faces nagging questions about whether the nearly 50-year-old company has lost some of the mystique and innovative drive that turned it into a tech trendsetter. Instead of making a big splash as it did with the Vision Pro headset, Apple this year is expected to focus on an overhaul of its software that may include a new, more tactile look for the iPhone’s native apps and a new nomenclature for identifying its operating system updates.

Even though it might look like Apple is becoming a technological laggard, Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson contends the company still has ample time to catch up in an AI race that’s “more of a marathon, than a sprint. It will force Apple to evolve its operating systems.”

If reports about its iOS naming scheme pan out, Apple will switch to a method that automakers have used to telegraph their latest car models by linking them to the year after they first arrive at dealerships. That would mean the next version of the iPhone operating system due out this autumn will be known as iOS 26 instead of iOS 19 — as it would be under the current sequential naming approach.

Whatever it’s named, the next iOS will likely be released as a free update in September, around the same time as the next iPhone models if Apple follows its usual road map.

Meanwhile, Apple’s references to AI may be less frequent than last year when the technology was the main attraction.

While some of the new AI tricks compatible with the latest iPhones began rolling out late last year as part of free software updates, Apple still hasn’t been able to soup up Siri in the ways that it touted at last year’s conference. The delays became so glaring that a chastened Apple retreated from promoting Siri in its AI marketing campaigns earlier this year.

“It’s just taking a bit longer than we thought,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts last month when asked about the company’s headaches with Siri. “But we are making progress, and we’re extremely excited to get the more personal Siri features out there.”

While Apple has been struggling to make AI that meets its standards, the gap separating it from other tech powerhouses is widening. Google keeps packing more AI into its Pixel smartphone lineup while introducing more of the technology into its search engine to dramatically change the way it works. Samsung, Apple’s biggest smartphone rival, is also leaning heavily into AI. Meanwhile, ChatGPT recently struck a deal that will bring former Apple design guru Jony Ive into the fold to work on a new device expected to compete against the iPhone.

“While much of WWDC will be about what the next great thing is for the iPhone, the unspoken question is: What’s the next great thing after the iPhone?” said Dipanjan Chatterjee, another analyst for Forrester Research.

Besides facing innovation challenges, Apple also faces regulatory threats that could siphon away billions of dollars in revenue that help finance its research and development. A federal judge is currently weighing whether proposed countermeasures to Google’s illegal monopoly in search should include a ban on long-running deals worth $20 billion annually to Apple while another federal judge recently banned the company from collecting commission on in-app transactions processed outside its once-exclusive payment system.

On top of all that, Apple has been caught in the cross-hairs of President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, a key manufacturing hub for the Cupertino, California, company. Cook successfully persuaded Trump to exempt the iPhone from tariffs during the president’s first administration, but he has had less success during Trump’s second term, which seems more determined to prod Apple to make its products in the U.S..

“The trade war and uncertainty linked to the tariff policy is of much more concern today for Apple’s business than the perception that Apple is lagging behind on AI innovation,” Husson said.

The multi-dimensional gauntlet facing Apple is spooking investors, causing the company’s stock price to plunge by nearly 20% so far this year — a decline that has erased $750 billion in shareholder wealth. After beginning the year as the most valuable company in the world, Apple now ranks third behind longtime rival Microsoft, another AI leader, and AI chipmaker Nvidia.

9 Jun 2025

Texas Quietly Downsizes Border Security Spending

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Without any announcement or open debate, the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature passed a biennial state budget that will effectively halve the amount dedicated to its multi-billion-dollar border security operations—from a proposed $6.5 billion down to about $3.4 billion. 

This marks the first time that GOP lawmakers have pulled back on their border security spending since Governor Rick Perry inaugurated state operations in the 2000s and Governor Greg Abbott supercharged them with the 2021 launch of Operation Lone Star (OLS). Still, that $3.4-billion level remains four times higher than the $800 million that Texas budgeted prior to OLS.

While the significant spending slash was a surprise decision that emerged in final negotiations by state House and Senate budget writers, it was not entirely unexpected. 

Ahead of the 2025 legislative session, Abbott (and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick) had hinted that he might roll back the state’s border  once incoming President Donald Trump was able to initiate his promised crackdown. But, for almost the entirety of the session, Republican lawmakers pressed forward with a budget that kept Operation Lone Star (OLS) fully funded with $6.5 billion divvied up among a handful of agencies—namely the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Military Department, the governor’s office, and the state emergency management agency.

Throughout the session, the governor was lobbying Trump and the GOP Congress in Washington, D.C., to reimburse Texas for the more than $11 billion in state funds spent on its sprawling border schemes—which have included a surge of National Guard deployments, a criminal arrest dragnet targeting migrants, the busing of tens of thousand of asylum-seekers out of state to Democratic cities, and the building of Trump-style border wall.

Last summer, the state wound down its busing program, and this spring it shuttered one of its temporary detention centers after arrests of migrants in the border region had trickled nearly to a stop. Abbott credited the ability to close that facility in Jim Hogg County to the Trump administration, though records showed that it had been processing very few migrants for many months while Biden was still president. In early April, state police and National Guard soldiers pulled out of Shelby Park on the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, which they had occupied and used as a stage for border security theater for well over a year. 

The brunt of the OLS spending cuts for 2026-27 come from the governor’s office, amounting to $2.7 billion, according to budget documents, leaving just around $230 million of the amount originally requested by the governor. Abbott’s office has controlled billions in OLS funding for local grants, state border wall, migrant busing, and the private contracting of migrant temporary detention centers used to process migrants arrested by state and local police. These have in turn helped fuel a private contracting bonanza, which has proven lucrative for both contractors and Abbott’s campaign coffers. 

The budget cuts largely target Abbott’s border wall construction program, for which future funding appears to be zeroed out or close to it.  GOP state Senator Joan Huffman previously told the Houston Chronicle that most of the cuts are for the border wall. Huffman said Abbott did not push back on the cuts: “It seemed appropriate to reduce the state funding in a way where we still have a presence, we could assist the feds on their operations, but it just didn’t take quite the same amount of state resources,” Huffman said.. 

Abbott first announced his plans for the state to continue building Trump’s border wall in several Texas border counties back in 2021, directing the Texas Facilities Commission (TFC) to oversee the program, with an aim to build several hundred miles of fencing.  Since then, the state has allocated about $3.1 billion for construction of the wall. As of mid-April, contractors had completed 61.8 miles of wall segments across six different counties, and the state had acquired easement rights to nearly 20 additional miles, TFC executive director Mike Novak said at the agency’s most recent meeting in April. With current funding, Novak said “we’re in a position to build up to approximately 85 miles.” 

Asked about the cuts to the border wall construction program, TFC referred the Observer to the governor’s office. “TFC has no knowledge on the future of the [border wall] program,” the agency’s spokesperson said in a statement. The governor’s press office did not respond to the Observer’s emails requesting comment. 

At that meeting, Novak acknowledged that the wall program’s future was dependent on both the state and the Trump administration. “We’re sort of at an intersection right now of both state and federal policy spending decisions, which are pending,” he said in April. “As those policy decisions are made, we are standing by and ready to move forward accordingly. Whatever policies come out in the upcoming weeks and months, we’ll use whatever guidance given.” 

The state has spent anywhere from $20 million a mile to over $30 million a mile, depending on the location and terrain (comparable to what Trump spent in his first term)—and at times has run over budget. Texas is not allowed to use eminent domain to secure private land rights to build its wall and, due to landowner resistance in many areas, has often resorted to building fragmented segments in far-flung locations—including on the land of wealthy ranchers, some being allies of the governor. 

So far, the state has spent about $34 million on easement rights for dozens of parcels along the border—including several $1 million-dollar-plus transactions involving large ranches—state records and prior Observer reporting has shown. 

TFC has estimated that it will cost as much as $500,000 per mile to maintain the wall it’s already built, along with the adjoining patrol roads, lighting, and other infrastructure. Funding for that ongoing maintenance was also cut from the Texas budget. During his recent push for federal reimbursement from Washington, Abbott has floated the idea of transferring the state’s land rights and border wall to the federal government. The state’s easements with private landowners include a clause allowing Texas to transfer control of the property and wall to the feds. 

The U.S. House budget bill—aka Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”—was recently passed with $12 billion for state reimbursements for border security, as well as an astronomical $46.5 billion for federal border wall and “river barriers” likely akin to Abbott’s controversial buoys. The U.S. Senate is still considering the budgetary proposal. 

The other big OLS cut is $500 million to the Texas Military Department, though the agency still has a total of $1.7 billion for border security—enough to retain much of its large soldier deployment on the border. (Last year, the Military Department built a permanent military base outside Eagle Pass that can house up to 1,800 soldiers.) 

Abbott’s office told the Houston Chronicle that any TMD reductions in deployment will be supplanted by troops sent by Trump and that “total border security posture will remain at similar levels.” 

Untouched by the OLS cuts is the Texas Department of Public Safety, the massive state police agency that has effectively directed all facets of OLS since it began—and has dramatically expanded its technology and surveillance capabilities via the state’s border security windfall. Its $1.2 billion allocation for border security appears to have remained untouched, budget documents show. 

Meanwhile, the governor’s office still has plenty of money to play with for his border operation. Much of it will continue to flow to local counties to subsidize their own law enforcement efforts related to OLS. 

Among the finer print, Abbott and the GOP budget-writers were kind enough to include a $1 million line-item to reimburse the City of Eagle Pass for the costs incurred by the year-plus military occupation of Shelby Park. 

The post Texas Quietly Downsizes Border Security Spending appeared first on The Texas Observer.

9 Jun 2025

Unsubstantiated ‘chemtrail’ conspiracy theories lead to legislation proposed in US statehouses

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By SARA CLINE and MELISSA GOLDIN

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As Louisiana Rep. Kimberly Landry Coates stood before her colleagues in the state’s Legislature she warned that the bill she was presenting might “seem strange” or even crazy.

Some lawmakers laughed with disbelief and others listened intently, as Coates described situations that are often noted in discussions of “chemtrails” — a decades-old conspiracy theory that posits the white lines left behind by aircraft in the sky are releasing chemicals for any number of reasons, some of them nefarious. As she urged lawmakers to ban the unsubstantiated practice, she told skeptics to “start looking up” at the sky.

“I’m really worried about what is going on above us and what is happening, and we as Louisiana citizens did not give anyone the right to do this above us,” the Republican said.

Louisiana is the latest state taking inspiration from a wide-ranging conspiratorial narrative, mixing it with facts, to create legislation. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a similar measure into law last year and one in Florida has passed both the House and the Senate. More than a dozen other states, from New York to Arizona, have introduced their own legislation.

Such bills being crafted is indicative of how misinformation is moving beyond the online world and into public policy. Elevating unsubstantiated theories or outright falsehoods into the legislative arena not only erodes democratic processes, according to experts, it provides credibility where there is none and takes away resources from actual issues that need to be addressed.

“Every bill like this is kind of symbolic, or is introduced to appease a very vocal group, but it can still cause real harm by signaling that these conspiracies deserve this level of legal attention,” said Donnell Probst, interim executive director of the National Association for Media Literacy Education.

Louisiana’s bill, which is awaiting Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s signature, prohibits anyone from “intentionally” injecting, releasing, applying or dispersing chemicals into the atmosphere with the purpose of affecting the “temperature, weather, climate, or intensity of sunlight.” It also requires the Department of Environmental Quality to collect reports from anyone who believes they have observed such activities.

While some lawmakers have targeted real weather modification techniques that are not widespread or still in their infancy, others have pointed to dubious evidence to support legislation.

Discussion about weather control and banning “chemtrails” has been hoisted into the spotlight by high-profile political officials, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Recently, Marla Maples, the ex-wife of President Donald Trump, spoke in support of Florida’s legislation. She said she was motivated to “start digging” after seeing a rise in Alzheimer’s.

Asked jokingly by a Democratic state senator if she knew anyone in the federal government who could help on the issue, Maples smiled and said, “I sure do.”

Chemtrails vs. contrails

Chemtrail conspiracy theories, which have been widely debunked and include a myriad of claims, are not new. The publication of a 1996 Air Force report on the possible future benefits of weather modification is often cited as an early driver of the narrative.

Some say that evidence of the claims is happening right before the publics’ eyes, alleging that the white streaks stretching behind aircrafts reveal chemicals being spread in the air, for everything from climate manipulation to mind control.

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Ken Leppert, an associate professor of atmospheric science at the University of Louisiana Monroe, said the streaks are actually primarily composed of water and that there is “no malicious intent behind” the thin clouds. He says the streaks are formed as exhaust is emitted from aircrafts, when the humidity is high and air temperature is low, and that ship engines produce the same phenomenon.

A fact sheet about contrails, published by multiple government agencies including NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency, explains that the streaks left behind by planes do not pose health risks to humans. However, the trails, which have been produced since the earliest days of jet aviation, do impact the cloudiness of Earth’s atmosphere and can therefore affect atmospheric temperature and climate.

Scientists have overwhelmingly agreed that data or evidence cited as proof of chemtrails “could be explained through other factors, including well-understood physics and chemistry associated with aircraft contrails and atmospheric aerosols,” according to a 2016 survey published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. In the survey of 77 chemists and geochemists, 76 said they were not aware of evidence proving the existence of a secret large-scale atmospheric program.

“It’s pure myth and conspiracy,” Leppert said.

FILE – Jody Fischer, director of flight operations for a North Dakota-based cloud seeding business, adjusts flares used for a seeding on a plane outside the company headquarters in Fargo, N.D., Sept. 20, 2017. (AP Photo/Dave Kolpack, File)

Cloud seeding

While many of the arguments lawmakers have used to support the chemtrails narrative are not based in fact, others misrepresent actual scientific endeavors, such as cloud seeding; a process by which an artificial material — usually silver iodide — is used to induce precipitation or to clear fog.

“It’s maybe really weak control of the weather, but it’s not like we’re going to move this cloud here, move this hurricane here, or anything like that,” Leppert said.

Parker Cardwell, an employee of a California-based cloud seeding company called Rainmaker, testified before lawmakers in Louisiana and asked that an amendment be made to the legislation to avoid impacts to the industry.

The practice is an imprecise undertaking with mixed results that isn’t widely used, especially in Louisiana, which has significant natural rainfall. According to Louisiana’s Department of Agriculture and Forestry, a cloud seeding permit or license has never been issued in the state.

Geoengineering

While presenting Louisiana’s bill last week, Coates said her research found charts and graphics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on spraying the air with heavy metals to reflect sunlight back into space to cool the Earth.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 directed the Office of Science and Technology Policy, with support from NOAA, to develop an initial governance framework and research plan related to solar radiation modification, or SRM. A resulting report, which Coates holds up in the House session, focuses on possible future actions and does not reflect decisions that had already been made.

SRM “refers to deliberate, large-scale actions intended to decrease global average surface temperatures by increasing the reflection of sunlight away from the Earth,” according to NOAA. It is a type of geoengineering. Research into the viability of many methods and potential unintended consequences is ongoing, but none have actually been deployed.

Taking focus

In recent years, misinformation and conspiratorial narratives have become more common during the debates and committee testimonies that are a part of Louisiana’s lawmaking process.

And while legislators say Louisiana’s new bill doesn’t really have teeth, opponents say it still takes away time and focus from important work and more pressing topics.

State Rep. Denise Marcelle, a Democrat who opposed Louisiana’s bill, pointed to other issues ailing the state, which has some of the highest incarceration, poverty, crime, and maternal mortality rates.

“I just feel like we owe the people of Louisiana much more than to be talking about things that I don’t see and that aren’t real,” she said.

Associated Press writers Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida, and Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, contributed to this story.

9 Jun 2025

Gophers men’s hockey releases stacked nonconference schedule

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Minnesota men’s hockey released a stacked, home-heavy nonconference schedule on Monday. Eight of the 11 two-game series will be held at 3M Arena at Mariucci beginning Oct. 3.

Former WCHA rival Michigan Tech will be at Minnesota Oct. 3-4, the first meeting between the schools since they split a series in 2012. That’s followed by a rare Thursday-Friday home series against Boston College Oct. 9-10.

The Gophers will begin their four-year home-and-home series against North Dakota Oct. 17-18 in Grand Forks, then play host to Minnesota Duluth Oct. 24-25.

Minnesota will make its first trip to play nascent Division I program Long Island Nov. 14-15 before playing University of Denver in the annual U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game at the Colorado Avalanche’s Ball Arena. That will be Nov. 28 or Nov. 29, depending on the schedule of the NHL team.

The Gophers will play an exhibition game at former WCHA rival Bemidji State on Jan. 2 while the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championships are being held on campus before returning to Big Ten play.

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