But will it see the same success as the MacBook Neo?

Apple‘s first foldable iPhone is still expected to debut later this year, but the company may already be looking beyond its first attempt. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is planning a second-generation foldable iPhone for release in 2027, just one year after the original model is expected to arrive. The device is reportedly codenamed V78 and will launch alongside the 20th-anniversary iPhone model. It looks like Apple might be going all in on foldables as a long-term product category rather than a one-off experiment.

The Cupertino giant has spent years watching rival smartphone makers refine foldable hardware. Samsung, Google, Honor, Oppo, and others have gone through multiple generations of designs, experimenting with everything from narrow book-style devices to wider tablet-like formats. Apple appears to have waited until the category matured before making its move.

Apple may have learned from Android’s foldable experiments

Based on leaks and replica models that have surfaced in recent months, Apple’s foldable iPhone is expected to use a relatively short and wide design rather than the tall, narrow form factor seen on earlier Samsung Galaxy Z Fold devices. The device is rumored to feature a 5.5-inch cover display and a 7.8-inch inner panel with a 4:3 screen format.

That layout mirrors much of Apple’s iPad lineup and could provide a more natural and familiar experience for multitasking, reading, and running apps side by side. At 7.8 inches, the inner display would also come close to the iPad mini‘s 8.3-inch screen, potentially giving users a tablet-like experience when the device is unfolded. Apple appears to be preparing the software side as well, encouraging developers to ensure their apps adapt smoothly to different screen sizes and display formats.

Even Samsung appears to be moving in the same direction

Interestingly, Samsung may be arriving at a similar conclusion. Rumors suggest the company is preparing a wider foldable design for next year’s lineup, with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide potentially becoming the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8. A taller version could reportedly be positioned as the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra instead.

Whether Apple’s foldable strategy pays off remains to be seen, but the company does not appear to be treating the device as a one-year experiment. A second-generation model already in development suggests Apple expects the iPhone Ultra to establish itself as a permanent tier within the iPhone lineup, with enough demand to support regular annual updates.

Monitor Audio has launched the Radius Series 4G, a redesigned compact speaker range aimed at listeners and installers who need serious sound without large cabinets taking over the room.

The new lineup includes the Radius 1, Radius 3, and Radius On-Wall, supported by matching floor stands, desk pads, and wall bracket options. That gives the Radius Series 4G a broader role than a typical small speaker refresh. It can be configured for two-channel listening, desktop audio, multi-room systems, home theater, and commercial installations where space, appearance, and mounting flexibility matter almost as much as sound quality.

Monitor Audio is positioning Radius Series 4G around its Transparent Design Philosophy, but the bigger story is practical: compact loudspeakers that are designed to look finished in modern residential and commercial spaces, while still being flexible enough for stereo, surround, and near-field applications. Small speakers are often treated like compromise products. Radius 4G looks more like Monitor Audio trying to make the category useful again.

Compact Speakers, Smarter Engineering

The Radius Series 4G is still a compact speaker range, but Monitor Audio has put meaningful engineering into this generation rather than simply updating the cabinets and calling it a day.

The core driver technology remains Monitor Audio’s C-CAM cone material, which uses a ceramic-coated aluminium/magnesium structure designed to be light, rigid, and resistant to unwanted flexing. For Radius 4G, that driver platform now incorporates RST III cone geometry, a surface pattern developed to reduce breakup and resonance across the frequency range. In a small speaker, that matters. There is only so much cabinet volume to work with, so driver control becomes a much bigger part of the performance equation.

The tweeter has also been redesigned. Radius Series 4G uses a new C-CAM Gold Dome tweeter with an external magnet motor system, bringing it closer in concept to a full drive unit rather than relying on a more conventional internal puck magnet design. Monitor Audio says the goal is greater control and cleaner high-frequency performance, which should help the Radius models sound more open without becoming bright or thin.

The crossover networks have also been reworked with new measurement, listening, and component selection. That is not the flashiest part of the story, but it is often where compact speakers either come together or fall apart. Good drivers still need to be integrated properly, especially when the speaker is being used for desktop listening, wall-mounted applications, or home cinema channels.

Cabinet construction has received attention as well. Monitor Audio uses Through-Bolt Driver Bracing to lock the drive units to the rear of the cabinet at a specific torque, improving rigidity while reducing unwanted chassis resonance. Each model also includes Monitor Audio’s HiVe II port design, created to improve airflow and bass control. On the new Radius 3, the port is 50 percent larger than the previous generation, which should help it deliver more low-frequency output from a still-compact enclosure.

The accessory range is also part of the story. The Radius 4G Floor Stand uses wooden tripod legs with internal cable routing, giving the speaker a more furniture-friendly presence. The Desk Pad is made from vibration-isolating rubber and gives the speaker a slight upward tilt for near-field listening. Add in the wall bracket options, and Radius 4G starts to look less like a single-use compact speaker and more like a flexible system for stereo, desktop, surround, multi-room, and commercial installation use.

Monitor Audio Radius Series 4G Product Lineup

Monitor Audio Radius 1 4G

The Radius 1 4G is the smallest model in the new Radius Series 4G lineup, designed for discreet AV, surround, multi-room, desktop, and compact stereo applications. It uses a 4-inch RST III bass/mid driver with Monitor Audio’s C-CAM cone technology and a 19 mm C-CAM Gold Dome tweeter in a sealed 2-way cabinet.

Key specs and options:

• Price: $525 per pair
• System: 2-way compact speaker
• Drivers: 4-inch RST III bass/mid driver, 19 mm C-CAM Gold Dome tweeter
• Frequency response: 100 Hz to 35 kHz, in-room, -6 dB
• Sensitivity: 82 dB
• Nominal impedance: 8 ohms
• Minimum impedance: 3.8 ohms at 950 Hz
• Power handling: 50 watts
• Recommended amplifier power: 25 to 50 watts into 8 ohms, 50 to 100 watts into 4 ohms
• Bass alignment: Sealed
• Crossover frequency: 3.2 kHz
• Dimensions: 5 5/16 x 5 5/16 x 6 1/8 inches
• Weight: 3 lb 15 oz each
• Finishes: High Gloss Black, Satin White
• Sold as: Pair
• Compatible mounts: MASM, FIX-M

Monitor Audio Radius 3 4G

The Radius 3 4G is the larger mini-monitor in the range and the most flexible choice for stereo, TV, gaming, desktop, multi-room, and small commercial installations. It steps up to a 4.5-inch RST III bass/mid driver, a 25 mm C-CAM Gold Dome tweeter, and a ported cabinet for deeper bass extension than the Radius 1 4G.

Key specs and options:

• Price: $725 per pair
• System: 2-way compact mini-monitor
• Drivers: 4.5-inch RST III bass/mid driver, 25 mm C-CAM Gold Dome tweeter
• Frequency response: 44 Hz to 35 kHz, in-room, -6 dB
• Sensitivity: 84 dB
• Nominal impedance: 8 ohms
• Minimum impedance: 4 ohms at 250 Hz
• Power handling: 75 watts
• Recommended amplifier power: 40 to 75 watts into 8 ohms, 75 to 150 watts into 4 ohms
• Bass alignment: Ported
• Port tuning frequency: 53 Hz
• Crossover frequency: 2.7 kHz
• Dimensions: 10 1/16 x 5 7/8 x 7 15/16 inches
• Weight: 8 lb 3 oz each
• Finishes: High Gloss Black, Satin White
• Sold as: Pair
• Compatible mount: FIX-M
• Placement options: Desktop, floor stand, or wall mount

Monitor Audio Radius On-Wall 4G

The Radius On-Wall 4G is the TV and home cinema model in the Radius 4G range. It is designed for horizontal or vertical wall placement around a screen and uses two 4.5-inch RST III bass/mid drivers with a 25 mm C-CAM Gold Dome tweeter in a slim ported cabinet. A wall bracket and fixing template are supplied.

Key specs and options:

• Price: $575 each
• System: 2-way on-wall speaker
• Drivers: Two 4.5-inch RST III bass/mid drivers, 25 mm C-CAM Gold Dome tweeter
• Frequency response: 69 Hz to 35 kHz, in-room, -6 dB
• Sensitivity: 90 dB installed
• Nominal impedance: 8 ohms
• Minimum impedance: 4.4 ohms at 700 Hz
• Power handling: 100 watts
• Recommended amplifier power: 50 to 100 watts into 8 ohms, 100 to 200 watts into 4 ohms
• Bass alignment: Ported
• Port tuning frequency: 62 Hz
• Crossover frequency: 2.3 kHz
• Dimensions: 29 1/2 x 6 1/16 x 3 1/16 inches
• Weight: 14 lb 2 oz each
• Finishes: High Gloss Black, Satin White
• Sold as: Single
• Installation: Horizontal or vertical wall mounting, supplied bracket and fixing template

Monitor Audio Radius Floor Stand 4G

The Radius Floor Stand 4G is designed for the Radius 1 4G and Radius 3 4G. The stand uses wooden tripod legs, a single-bolt speaker attachment, and integrated cable routing that lets speaker cable exit cleanly at the base.

Key specs and options:

• Price: $395 per pair
• Compatibility: Radius 1 4G and Radius 3 4G
• Design: Wooden tripod legs
• Cable management: Internal cable routing through the stand
• Speaker attachment: Single-bolt fixing
• Dimensions: 30 11/16 x 20 1/16 x 17 7/16 inches
• Weight: 3 lb 5 oz
• Finishes: Black, White
• Sold as: Pair

Monitor Audio Radius Desk Pad 4G

The Radius Desk Pad 4G is made for Radius 1 4G and Radius 3 4G desktop placement. It uses rubber with a specified hardness for vibration isolation and adds a slight upward tilt to aim the speakers more effectively in near-field setups.

Key specs and options:

• Price: $40 per pair
• Compatibility: Radius 1 4G and Radius 3 4G
• Material: Rubber
• Purpose: Desktop stability, vibration isolation, and upward speaker tilt
• Dimensions: 15/16 x 4 1/2 x 5 7/16 inches
• Weight: 14 oz
• Finish: Black
• Sold as: Pair

Monitor Audio FIX-M Speaker Mount

The FIX-M is the more adjustable wall-mount option for Radius 1 4G and Radius 3 4G. It allows 0, 15, or 30-degree angle settings from center, and the rotating front section creates 14 possible positions.

Key specs and options:

• Price: $55 each
• Compatibility: Radius 1 4G, Radius 3 4G, Bronze 50 6G
• Angle settings: 0, 15, or 30 degrees from center
• Positioning: 14 possible positions
• Finishes: Black, White

Monitor Audio MASM Mount

The MASM Mount is a smaller wall or ceiling mount for users who want to get compact speakers off the desk or furniture. It uses a ball-joint connection for positioning and is listed as compatible with Radius 1 4G.

Key specs and options:

• Price: $35 per piece
• Compatibility: Radius 1 4G, Bronze 1, MASS Satellite, Radius 45 3G, Radius 90 3G
• Installation: Wall or ceiling
• Adjustment: Ball-joint positioning
• Finishes: Black, White, Silver

The Bottom Line

The Monitor Audio Radius Series 4G is not trying to replace a full-size hi-fi speaker system, and that is the point. Its appeal is the combination of compact cabinets, real Monitor Audio driver technology, flexible mounting options, and a cleaner design language that works in rooms where traditional speakers are either too large or too visually intrusive.

What makes Radius 4G different is the range of applications. Radius 1 4G can handle discreet surround, desktop, and multi-room duties; Radius 3 4G is the more capable compact stereo, TV, gaming, and near-field option; and Radius On-Wall 4G gives installers and home theater users a slim horizontal or vertical speaker for screen-based systems. Add the dedicated floor stands, desk pads, and wall brackets, and this becomes less of a small speaker refresh and more of a flexible compact audio system.

This is for apartment dwellers, design-conscious listeners, desktop users, custom installers, and anyone building a living room, media room, retail, hospitality, or office system where sound quality matters but big boxes are a non-starter. Bass obsessives and large-room listeners will still want a subwoofer, but for modern spaces that demand compact speakers with legitimate hi-fi intent, Radius 4G makes a lot of sense.

For more information: https://www.monitoraudio.com

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Elementary school is tough.

There are playground politics, multiplication tables and learning to read.

Imagine dealing with all that in a new language — or even a whole new country.

That’s the added challenge for kids who are learning English at the same time they’re learning everything else as their peers.

It’s an issue that Sarah Walters and her colleagues were determined to tackle in Troy City Schools, a public school district made up of nine campuses roughly an hour north of Cincinnati. The area is home to an automotive manufacturer that brings some employees — and their families — over from Japan.

Roughly 3 percent of the 4,000 students have primary languages like Spanish, Ukrainian and Japanese, a relatively small population compared to the most recent national average of 11 percent.

But that small group is making big gains. Looking to close the literacy gaps that have plagued schools since the pandemic, the district took a big swing to increase literacy among its English learners. It trained 116 staff members — including every elementary teacher, intervention specialist, paraprofessional and principal — in the Orton-Gillingham approach, which folds movement and touch into reading instruction.

They say it’s paying off.

Walters, a literacy instructional support specialist, says that helping multilingual students master their grasp on English is vital. Like any other student, the foundation that they lay in reading and math will affect their learning from that point on.

“We want to help the students continue to thrive, and really everything that we’re thinking about with our student services is equitable learning opportunities,” Walters says.

Moving Toward Equity

Federal data shows that English learners’ achievement scores lag far behind their peers on average, and have made little improvement over the past two decades.

Troy City Schools was eager to close widening literacy gaps that surfaced after the onset of the pandemic, Walters says, which was particularly hard on English learners like those at Concord Elementary. A big hurdle was phonics, the letter sounds that make up words.

“We were seeing a lot of student frustration and wanting to give up,” Walters recalls. “Students being very withdrawn, those social-emotional impacts.”

Back in 2020, English-language instruction was inconsistent and fragmented across classrooms.

Yet, even with the desire to boost English learner scores, the program took some time.

Following the pandemic, Troy City Schools mulled over the changes for three years before it had enough funding to deliver on it, according to Danielle Romine, director of elementary teaching and learning for the district. The effort was funded through post-COVID relief grants and budget allocations made by the district’s leaders.

As a literacy specialist, Walters became certified in the Orton-Gillingham method through the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education. She’s now responsible for supporting and training staff to successfully use the techniques.

Walters says teachers and staff were trained to utilize drills that connect literacy concepts through visuals, sound and movement. Students might use flash cards as a visual element or tap their fingers to each letter as they spell out a word. Students also learn the origin and history of words to strengthen their ability to decode them. For example, a “red word” is one that does not follow phonics rules.

“Our multilingual learners love it because no longer are they being told, ‘That’s just the way it is,’” Walters says.

After an initial summer training on the Orton-Gillingham approach, teachers spoke so highly of the method that requests for training grew among staff.

Initial Promise

“In a school district, if you want to get something out, just tell a teacher, because it [will] spread like wildfire,” Romine says.

And the data are showing promising results, Walter says. The district-wide third grade reading proficiency had plummeted to 56 percent in 2021-22 but had risen to 81 percent by 2023-24 — slightly higher than its pre-COVID achievement rate. The most recent state data shows Concord Elementary far surpassed its target goal for English proficiency among multilingual students.

Walters has heard from teachers who say that the approach has helped some English learner students make lightning-fast gains in reading. One educator told her that two students from Japan who joined the elementary school in the fall were conversing in English by December. Another student’s phonics diagnostic score shot up by 38 points in the same timeframe.

Now, the district is working to spread the method beyond its own campuses.

“Eventually, our goal is to support the entire community, or the entire county because Sarah having that training [enables her] to support teachers from other districts, as well,” Romine says.

But for English learners, ensuring they’re on grade level in reading goes beyond measuring their success in the classroom.

Walters says that the district is thinking about long-term learning for children who, for example, may be in the U.S. for a few years before returning to Japan.

Now, the district is working to spread the method beyond its own campuses.

“Eventually, our goal is to support the entire community, or the entire county because Sarah having that training [enables her] to support teachers from other districts, as well,” Romine says.

But for English learners, ensuring they’re on grade level in reading goes beyond measuring their success in the classroom.

Walters says that the district is thinking about long-term learning for children who, for example, may be in the U.S. for a few years before returning to Japan.

“We want students to have success across math, science, everything,” Walters says. “So it’s important that we get them up to speed as quickly as possible, because those long-term impacts could really be harmful for them. That early literacy is key.”

A man with ALS has been using a brain implant to speak independently for more than 3,800 hours over the past two years, producing nearly 2 million words with an average speed of 56 words per minute. The study, published Monday in Nature Medicine by researchers at the University of California, Davis, represents the longest sustained demonstration that a brain-computer interface can function as a practical daily communication tool outside a laboratory. Casey Harrell, the 47-year-old participant, has used the system to return to full-time work as an environmental advocate.

The implant consists of four microelectrode arrays placed in Harrell’s left precentral gyrus, the brain region that coordinates speech, recording activity from 256 cortical electrodes. Machine learning algorithms built into a software platform called BRAND, developed by UC Davis postdoctoral fellow Nicholas Card, translate that neural activity into English-language phonemes, then map those phonemes to words and sentences. The system reads out the decoded text in a synthesised version of Harrell’s pre-ALS voice.

In controlled testing with a 125,000-word vocabulary, the system scored over 99% word accuracy. In daily use outside the lab, Harrell rated 92% of sentences as accurate or mostly correct. During the study period, he communicated more than 183,000 sentences.

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“The key thing to me is that it’s enabling everyday communication for a guy who wants to talk but can’t,” neurosurgeon David Brandman, who implanted the device in 2023 and co-led the study, told The Register. “Despite being paralysed, he has gone back to work full time and has meaningful conversations with his daughter who’s never heard the sound of his voice.”

The study’s significance lies not just in accuracy but in independence. Previous BCI systems required researchers to be present in the patient’s home whenever the device was in use, or required the patient to travel to a lab. Harrell’s system is operated by his home care team, with no researcher support needed.

Based on the study’s timeline, he averaged more than five hours of daily use.

The UC Davis team is part of BrainGate, the consortium of universities and the US Department of Veterans Affairs developing brain-computer interfaces for speech restoration, computer control, and movement recovery. The hardware itself is not custom-built, using existing microelectrode arrays produced by Blackrock Neurotech. The breakthrough is in the software, specifically the BRAND platform’s machine learning algorithms that decode attempted speech from neural signals in real time.

Brandman compared the current state of BCI technology to early pacemakers, which in the 1950s required external wiring to large batteries or wall power. Seventy years later, pacemakers are implanted in outpatient procedures. “We’re at the early stages of this kind of technology,” Brandman said.

Harrell is still wired to external computers, but the UC Davis team’s AI advances combined with hardware miniaturisation work at companies like Neuralink, Synchron, and Paradromics point toward a future where the setup is far less cumbersome.

The competitive landscape in BCI is accelerating. Neuralink has implanted devices in at least 21 patients under research protocols but lacks commercial approval. China approved the first commercially available invasive BCI earlier this year.

Other approaches to restoring speech for people with ALS use AI voice conversion rather than brain implants, but those methods require the patient to retain some vocal ability.

What distinguishes the UC Davis work is its demonstration that a BCI can cross from laboratory experiment to sustained, practical daily tool. The 3,800 hours of brain recording also constitute the largest individual neural dataset with single-neuron resolution ever collected, according to co-principal investigator Sergey Stavisky, which will inform future improvements to the decoding algorithms.

The system remains an investigational device, limited by federal law to research use, and has been tested on a single patient. Whether the results generalise to other ALS patients, or to people with different neurological conditions, is not yet known. Scaling the technology from a clinical trial to a prescribed medical device will require regulatory approval, hardware miniaturisation, and cost reduction that could take years.

“I want desperately to not be unique or special, because that will mean I no longer have the disease or that everyone that has the disease like me can get this prescribed to them,” Harrell said through his BCI system.

SYSTEMS

Running low on memory, can’t afford more? The House of Zen’s latest acquisition puts an AI spin on flash-based memory expansion

With no end in sight to the memory crunch, AMD thinks that AI, the main cause of the shortage, could be part of the solution. This week, the House of Zen acquired predictive memory startup Mext for an undisclosed sum, setting the stage for a world where bots decide which data to put into RAM and which to store in less-expensive flash.

Founded in 2023, the Mext proactive memory platform uses machine learning algorithms and learned heuristics to proactively offload “cold” memory to flash storage, and, based on data access patterns, restore it before its needed again.

Modern flash arrays are already approaching main memory in terms of aggregate bandwidth, but swapping to disk still imposes a stiff latency penalty.

Mext claims it can expand the effective memory of a system by 2 to 4x using flash, which gig for gig is still vastly less expensive than DRAM.

This flash memory is exposed to the operating system like regular memory simply by running the Mextd daemon.

Memory tiering is nothing new and has seen various reincarnations over the years with some being software based and others, like Intel Optane persistent memory, using special 3D XPoint memory tech co-developed by Micron.

Mext stands out for its use of machine learning to migrate data from hot memory to cold storage almost like a branch predictor — something AMD has an awful lot of experience with.

Mext isn’t using one model to decide when to shuffle your data. Instead it uses a series of heuristics, long short term memory, and modern transformer architectures depending on which combination renders the best results.

“This approach has the potential to reduce infrastructure costs, improve resource utilization, and help customers more effectively scale general-purpose and AI workloads,” Dan McNamara SVP of AMD’s compute and enterprise AI biz wrote in a blog post this week.

Beyond enterprise applications, the technology could have implications for AI serving.

Modern mixture of experts (MoE) models are, as their name suggests, comprised of multiple sub-models.

For each token predicted, a different selection of experts may be used. In practice an LLM may use some experts more frequently and others rarely.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see AMD use Mext’s prediction algorithms to offload infrequently utilized experts from HBM to slower system memory, enabling enterprises to take advantage of larger more capable models with fewer resources.

That’s just speculation of course, but we’ve reached out to AMD for comment; we’ll let you know if we hear anything back. ®

After multiple delays, Shrek is back, and he is bringing the whole family time! DreamWorks has released the first trailer for Shrek 5, and it is exactly as chaotic as you would hope. The film marks the franchise’s return after 17 years since Shrek Forever After in 2010, and it hits theaters on June 30, 2027.

The wild moments in the Shrek 5 trailer

Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz are all back as Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona. The trailer opens with a storybook recap of the original story, before Donkey interrupts to announce it is time for a makeover.

The gang, now joined by Shrek and Fiona’s three grown-up kids, head to a new city called Further Further Away, which is sketchier than Far, Far Away ever was.

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The trailer wastes no time in serving up a Gingerbread Man with two gumdrops strapped to his butt, proudly declaring he is “caked up like a friggin’ bakery,” followed by some very enthusiastic twerking.

There is also a melting, grimy snowman lurking in a back alley asking, “Wanna date a snowman?” taking a dig at Frozen’s Olaf.

Where is Zendaya’s character Felicia in the Shrek 5 trailer?

Zendaya voices Felicia, Shrek and Fiona’s daughter, and her involvement in Shrek 5 has been confirmed. However, she is completely absent from the trailer footage. Shrek can be seen in the jail cell with Fiona and his two sons, Fergus and Farkle, but Felicia is nowhere to be found. Whether Felicia got kidnapped or simply had better weekend plans is anyone’s guess.

Why are fans upset about the Shrek 5 trailer?

Not everyone is thrilled with how the trailer looks, though. Many fans have taken issue with the updated animation style, which makes Shrek and Donkey look noticeably more detailed and lifelike than in the previous films.

its actually insane that a movie from 15+ years ago has infinitely better lighting, skin textures than movie coming out in 2027. how did technology regress this badly?? they need to throw out the new assets and bring back the classics. #fixourshrek #shrekisnotminions #notmyshrek

— Lol Hekek (@LHekek99269) June 16, 2026

Comments on Universal’s Instagram ranged from “we want the old Shrek back” to “do what they did with Sonic,” a reference to how Paramount famously redesigned Sonic the Hedgehog after fans revolted over his original movie look. It’s too early to say if Universal would be forced to do the same.

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If animated trailers are your thing right now, Pixar also just dropped the first trailer for Gatto, and Disney unveiled its first look at Hexed, the studio’s most exciting original film in years.

On Wednesday morning, workers poured hydrogen peroxide into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC.

The treatment is the latest attempt by the Interior Department to control an algae bloom that has turned the pool bright green, despite President Donald Trump’s costly renovation to make it “American flag blue” in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary. Hot temperatures and climate change are among the risk factors that could be driving the outbreak.

The Trump administration spent more than $14 million to update the pool ahead of celebrations across the US capital. The work was done under a no-bid contract by a company that has never worked for the federal government. (It has, however, worked on President Donald Trump’s golf courses, according to The New York Times.)

Algae began forming less than a day after the updated pool was unveiled last week. An Interior Department spokesperson told CNN that the bloom was due to “residual algae from the supply lines, which have been sitting dormant for eight weeks.”

One of the issues appears to be the water source. The Reflecting Pool usually draws water from the nearby Tidal Basin, which is often filled with algae. During periods with high amounts of algae, the water supply switches to municipal drinking water. The US Interior Department didn’t immediately respond to questions from WIRED about which water source is currently feeding the pool.

Another issue is the weather. High temperatures create “a perfect storm for [algae] to bloom,” says Hans Paerl, a former professor at the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Sciences. Stagnant water, Pearl says, makes the problem even worse. “Lakes and reservoirs around the world—they all have this problem during this time of year.” Hotter-than-normal weather is expected to hit Washington, DC, to end the week, which could make controlling the bloom more challenging.

Paerl also points out another, related driver that the Trump administration has shown it’s not in a rush to resolve: climate change.

“It’s just getting hotter, and these blooms are expanding globally—they’re moving up into higher latitudes,” he says. “It’s clearly a temperature effect allowing them to optimize their growth.”

Beyond the hydrogen peroxide, the Interior Department is “deploying high-tech nanobubble ozone technology” to keep algae at bay, an agency spokesperson tells WIRED in an email.

Trump has touted the work on the pool, which includes painting it blue and fixing leaks, while also saying the company the government hired would be able to do repairs “in much less time, for much less money.”

After alleging that Apple supplier Tata contaminated farm water and threatening to close its iPhone factory, Indian regulators have now dropped the matter altogether.

As a result of Apple’s supply chain diversification plans, which aim to reduce reliance on China, a quarter of all iPhones sold worldwide are now made in India. Tata, which manufactures iPhone backplates, is a relevant factor in the process, but its production efforts have come under scrutiny.

In 2025, farmers near Tata’s facility in Tamil Nadu complained to authorities that factory wastewater was contaminating their land and open wells. After conducting five inspections from December 2025 through May 2026, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) threatened to shut down Tata’s factory.

On Tuesday, however, the regulator seemingly backpedaled. In a statement to Reuters, Tata explained that it had addressed all contamination concerns and that its facility in Tamil Nadu was no longer under TNPCB scrutiny.

As the company “satisfactorily addressed all queries” made by the Tamil Nadu regulator, it has now “dropped any further course of action on this issue.” Neither Apple nor the TNPCB commented on the matter, though.

Initially, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board argued that “groundwater in the open wells located in the adjacent agricultural lands” was contaminated. It was alleged that Tata’s rainwater harvesting pond ended up overflowing because of wastewater discharged from the factory.

Tata was reportedly made aware of the contamination on December 23, 2025, but the company did not respond.

On Saturday, however, Tata revealed it had conducted an independent sample analysis, which indicated the company was in full compliance with regulations. All parameters were reportedly within the prescribed limits.

Now, the company says the TNPCB has reached the same conclusion, as “the reports of its own analysis of recently collected water samples from Tata Electronics’ manufacturing facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, do not indicate any contamination”.

Though the regulator ultimately conceded, it’s still unclear if farm water in the Tamil Nadu region was actually contaminated.

It’s unclear how and why Tata’s findings differed from the results of the initial tests conducted by the TNPCB. Either the regulator somehow made the same mistake five times in a row, or it was pressured into dropping its threat against Tata.

Tata’s role in the Apple supply chain

While Apple’s most significant supply chain partner, Foxconn, assembles the iPhone in India, parts for the devices also come from Tata.

In 2024, the company entered into a $1B partnership with Pegatron, another key Apple supplier, to expand iPhone manufacturing in Tamil Nadu. The year prior, Tata purchased Wistron’s Karnataka facility.

With its Tamil Nadu plant now receiving an all-clear from regulators, Tata’s iPhone component production will continue. Its manufacturing efforts may even increase, as Apple seeks to reduce its long-standing reliance on China.