Associate Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday was absent from oral arguments without explanation.
John Roberts said Thomas would take part in the day's cases via transcripts and briefs, per The AP.
Thomas, 75, is the eldest member of the court and a key member of its influential conservative bloc.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday was absent from oral arguments and the court didn't offer an explanation as to why he wouldn't be present.
After the court sat for arguments in the morning, Chief Justice John Roberts said Thomas would be absent and would take part in cases through transcripts and briefs, according to The Associated Press.
Thomas, 75, did not take part in arguments remotely, an option that justices sometimes use when they're sick or are unable to physically come to the Supreme Court building, per the report.
Business Insider has reached out to the Supreme Court for comment.
Thomas is the longest-tenured associate justice on the court, having been nominated in 1991 by then-President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate later that year.
With the appointments of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Thomas has also seen his judicial influence catapult as the eldest member of the court's six-member conservative bloc.
Last year, ProPublica first reported that Thomas had taken luxury vacations funded by the billionaire real estate developer Harlan Crow for more than 20 years without disclosing the trips.
In response, Thomas said at the time that he was advised that it wasn't necessary to report "this sort of personal hospitality."
California's newly enacted fast food wage hike is already having an effect, though not one lawmakers likely had in mind when writing the law: bagels are back at McDonald's in the state.
The Golden Arches brought the popular menu item back to Golden State restaurants earlier this year as one of several levers the company is pulling to drive sales and offset the cost of the pay increase.
A group of franchisees and corporate employees, known as the "Rise and Dominate" team, proposed the idea of reintroducing bagel sandwiches to the state along with a $15 million ad blitz to boost traffic and digital sales, Bloomberg reported.
McDonald's told Business Insider that the team's recommendations were based on best practices from other locations where restaurant operators have had to navigate local wage hikes.
Scott Rodrick, who owns 18 McDonald's locations in the state, told Business Insider he's already raised menu prices between 5% and 7% since January, but there is a limit to the prices his customers will pay.
Kerri Harper-Howie, who owns 21 McDonald's restaurants in California with her sister, told KTLA News that "the truth of the matter is you can't raise prices enough" to offset the wage increase.
The return of bagels to the breakfast menu — along with a few other moves — could boost top-line sales by 10%, Bloomberg reported, while a higher proportion of digital sales would mean better profitability as well.
President Joe Biden joins family caregivers, care workers, early childhood educators, and advocates to celebrate progress made by care champions while calling for additional legislative action at a rally in Union Station on April 09, 2024, in Washington, DC.
Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Care Can't Wait Action
President Joe Biden began his presidency with a 57% approval rating, according to Gallup.
It's been on a mostly downwards trajectory ever since.
Biden's not alone: Many presidents' approval ratings decrease over time.
President Joe Biden entered the White House in January 2021 with a 57% approval rating. Unfortunately for him, his popularity has never passed that mark, and it's been mostly downhill for his approval rating in the years since.
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Examining Biden's approval rating as he approaches the end of his four years as president, it's difficult to say with certainty which, if any, events directly correlated with his slide in popularity.
Even when major events in his presidency have occurred under his leadership, there haven't been notable spikes or falls tied to them, with one possible exception: the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
The president's approval rating began to drop steeply around June 2021, a few months into the US withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
Biden was heavily criticized for the withdrawal, though it largely followed a deal President Donald Trump made with the Taliban in 2020.
Biden's approval rating first dropped below 50% support in Gallup's August 2021 survey, the same month the withdrawal violently ended.
The lowest Biden's approval rating fell to in the first half of his presidency was 38% in July 2022, around a month after gas prices spiked to over $5 a gallon.
His approval rating didn't stay there for long. A month later, in August, it shot back up to 44% when he signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law.
Compared to past presidents
It's not uncommon for the approval rating of US presidents to drop throughout their time in office.
Republican former President George W. Bush' approval ratings while in office.
Gallup
Former President George W. Bush experienced a tremendous spike in approval — jumping from around mid-50% approval to over 80% — after the September 11 terrorist attacks. But by the time he left office, his approval ratings were below 40%.
Democratic former President Barack Obama's approval ratings while in office.
Gallup
Former President Barack Obama ended his presidency with a slightly lower approval rating than he had when he took office.
Republican former President Donald Trump's approval ratings while in office.
Gallup
Trump began his time in the White House with an approval rating of just over 40%. For the most part, his popularity actually slowly increased during his one term in office. His election denialism and the January 6 riots at the Capitol appear to have impacted polling respondents, and in his final month in office his approval rating dropped below 40%.
Lauren Boebert just had her worst fundraising quarter in years.
She's facing a tough primary and accusations of carpetbagging after moving to a redder district.
But some of her House GOP colleagues are donating to her. George Santos even gave her $400.
Rep. Lauren Boebert just had her worst fundraising quarter in years, bringing in roughly $462,000 in the first three months of 2024.
It was the Colorado Republican's first full quarter since she announced in late December that she would be switching congressional districts. After winning by less than 600 votes in 2022, Boebert moved across the state to run in a more conservative district vacated by Rep. Ken Buck.
To put Boebert's poor fundraising quarter into perspective: It was a significant drop from the roughly $540,000 that she raised in the last 3 months of 2023, and far below the nearly $764,000 haul that she brought in this time last year. In 2021 and 2022, she had several quarters where she raised between $800,000 and $1 million.
Boebert's campaign filings show that she's continued to receive financial support from her Freedom Caucus colleagues since switching districts, including donations ranging between $1,000 and $3,300 from campaign accounts tied to Reps. Mary Miller of Illinois, Ronny Jackson of Texas, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Andy Biggs of Arizona.
Several GOP establishment figures have lined up behind Jerry Sonnenberg, a former state lawmaker who has emphasized his low-key style over Boebert's bombast.
Leafhoppers (left) are a common backyard insect that secrete amazingly complex nanoparticles called brochosomes (right).
Lin Wang and Tak-Sing Wong
Leafhoppers are the only species that secrete brochosomes: rare nanoparticles with invisibility properties.
But for the first time, a group of scientists has created their own synthetic brochosomes.
They hope their brochosomes will one day be used for invisible cloaking devices and other technologies.
We tend to think of invisibility cloaks as science fiction. But one group of scientists has taken a big step toward making them a reality.
For the first time, scientists at Pennsylvania State University have created synthetic replicas of brochosomes, naturally occurring nanoparticles that could one day be used to make invisibility cloaking devices.
Invisibility cloaking isn't the only application for synthetic brochosomes. In the next few years, they could find their way into a range of commercial applications — from solar energy to pharmaceuticals, according to lead investigator Tak Sing Wong, professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering at Penn State.
Solving a 70-year-long geometric mystery
Leafhoppers secrete and coat themselves in brochosomes, probably to help them blend in with their surroundings. But scientists aren't totally sure why they produce these nanoparticles.
Lin Wang and Tak-Sing Wong
Brochosomes are bucky-ball-shaped, hollow nanoparticles covered in holes — known as through-holes — that go all the way through them. This complex structure allows them to absorb or scatter certain wavelengths of light, depending on the size of the brochosome and its holes.
The only place in the world where you can find naturally occurring brochosomes is on the back of a leafhopper — a common backyard insect. Their brochosome coats were first discovered in the 1950s, and they probably help them blend into their surroundings.
Scientists aren't sure why leafhoppers secrete and cover themselves in brochosomes. Until now, they didn't even understand the purpose of the nanoparticles' intricate geometry.
"This is really the first study to understand how the brochosome's complex geometry interacts with light," Wong said.
To reach that understanding, Wong and his colleagues had to figure out how to make a replica of a brochosome. After almost a decade of research, they managed to 3D print the world's first synthetic brochosomes.
The invisibility properties of brochosomes
Brochosomes are hollow, bucky-ball-shaped nanoparticles covered in through-holes. Their complex geometry allows them to interact with light in unique ways.
Lin Wang and Tak-Sing Wong
There are two important elements of brochosome geometry: the diameter of the particle, and the diameter of its through-holes.
If a wavelength of light is the same length as the diameter of the brochosomes, it will be scattered in all directions when it hits the particle. But if the wavelength of light is the same length as the diameter of the brochosomes' through-holes, it will pass through the particle and get absorbed by it.
This absorption coupled with light-scattering means that brochosomes have very limited light reflection — and can be invisible over certain electromagnetic ranges. Covering an object in them could, in theory, work as an invisibility cloak.
The beauty of synthetic brochosomes is that they could be made at different sizes, and thus tailored to absorb and scatter different wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum. That means that engineers can customize brochosomes for specific functions, such as invisibility to infrared radiation to help with military defense.
In fact, Wong's brochosomes are the right size to do that. They're about 40 to 50 times larger than naturally occurring ones, and they only interact with infrared radiation. Wong's future research will partly focus on making smaller synthetic brochosomes to target the shorter end of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The commercial potential of brochosomes
In three to five years, brochosomes could find their way into a variety of markets, such as solar energy generation. A brochosome coating could help solar panels absorb more light.
Yaorusheng/Getty Images
Although Wong's synthetic brochosomes mark a major step towards invisibility-cloaking technology, scientists are still decades away from bringing anything to market.
"I think in my lifetime, it's possible," said Hao Xin, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the study. It will take at least 50 years, he said.
But in just three to five years, Wong hopes to produce brochosomes on a large enough scale to use them in pigments, pharmaceuticals, and solar panels.
The Stickney Water Reclamation Plant in Illinois is one of the largest wastewater-treatment facilities in the world, serving about 2.3 million people and cleaning an average of 700 million gallons of wastewater a day. During rainfall, the facility can handle a whopping 1.44 billion gallons of wastewater in a single day — that's a million gallons every minute.
The clean water is released into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the sludge that is removed from the water is converted to biosolids, which are a sustainable alternative to chemical fertilizers.
He built landmark New York hotels like the Astoria Hotel and the St. Regis.
Astor's wife, who was 30 years younger than him, was pregnant aboard the Titanic and survived.
John Jacob Astor IV was one of the wealthiest people in the world when he perished in the Titanic sinking.
His life was marked by amazing innovations and wealth, but scandal as well. Astor's wife, who was 30 years younger than him when they married, was pregnant aboard the Titanic and survived. Astor reportedly planned to make their child his heir, but his fortune ended up being left to Vincent Astor, his son from his first marriage.
Here's a look at the life of John Jacob Astor IV, one of the most famous Titanic victims.
John Jacob Astor IV was born on July 13, 1864, in New York into one of the most affluent families in the world.
The first John Jacob Astor.
Stock Montage/ Getty
The Astor family dates back to the early 1700s when the original John Jacob Astor (pictured) came to the Americas from a small village in Germany to make a name for himself. According to Biography, he started making money in the fur-trading businesses, but his real fortune began when he entered the world of real estate.
One of his first big purchases was a plot of land in the middle of Manhattan, modern-day Times Square. Quickly, Astor bought land all around Manhattan, becoming one of the richest men in the world and creating a dynasty.
When John Jacob Astor IV was born to William Astor and Caroline Webster Schermerhorn in 1864, the Astor name was already well-respected in high society, and the family's fortune was one of the world's largest.
As an heir to the family fortune, John Jacob Astor IV received an education at the finest schools in the US.
John Jacob Astor IV in 1890.
Bettmann/ Getty
According to the New Netherland Institute, he first attended St. Paul's School in Concord and then went on to Harvard University, but there is no official record of him graduating from the college. After schooling, Astor went abroad for a few years before returning to New York to take up the family business: real estate.
In 1897, Astor used his fortune to build the Astoria Hotel in New York.
Waldorf Astoria Hotel in 1907.
ullstein bild Dtl./ Getty
In 1893, William Waldorf Astor built the Waldorf Hotel on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street. Reportedly, he built the hotel to spite his cousin, John Jacob Astor IV. In retaliation, Astor built a competing hotel in 1897 on the adjacent corner and named it the Astoria Hotel.
When the cousins were finally convinced that joining both hotels would be a smart business decision, a 300-foot marble corridor was built between them, according to Architectural Digest. The famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was born.
For the next few decades, the hotel became a symbol of luxury, wealth, and class in New York. It was considered one of the best hotels in the country and even in the world.
The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel closed in 1928 and was demolished, making room for the Empire State Building. The new Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was built farther uptown in 1931, long after Astor's death.
Astor also built another New York landmark hotel: the St. Regis.
The St. Regis.
Bettmann/ Getty
In 1904, Astor opened the St. Regis Hotel, which The New York Times called "the finest hotel in America" at the time.
According to the St. Regis Hotel, Astor aimed to make the hotel technologically advanced and ensured that each room had a telephone, making the hotel's rooms as practical as they were glamorous. Some historians call the hotel Astor's "greatest achievement," according to Biography.
While developing some of New York's finest hotels, Astor still had time for his hobbies, like writing.
"Journey in Other Worlds."
Amazon
In 1894, Astor published his first and only science-fiction novel, "Journey in Other Worlds."
"A 'Journey in Other Worlds' races far ahead of the nineteenth century to imagine what life would be like in the year 2000," the Amazon synopsis reads. "At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Earth is effectively a corporate technocracy, with big businesses using incredible advances in science to improve life on the planet as a whole. Seeking other planets habitable for the growing human population, the spaceship Callisto, powered by an antigravitational force known as apergy, embarks on a momentous tour of the solar system."
Astor was also an accomplished inventor.
John Jacob Astor IV.
Library of Congress/ Getty
In 1898, he patented a brake for the bicycle, invented a vibratory disintegrator, and created a pneumatic road-improver. He also helped invent a turbine engine.
Astor married Ava Lowle Willing in 1891, but they divorced in 1909.
Ava Lowle Willing.
Universal History Archive/ Getty
Ava Lowle Willing and Astor had two children together, Vincent and Alice.
Although they seemed like the perfect, upper-class family, the marriage was largely unhappy. The couple got divorced in 1909, setting Astor up for one of the family's biggest scandals.
At 47 years old, Astor met Madeleine Talmage Force, who was 18.
John Jacob Astor IV and Madeleine Talmage Force.
George Rinhart/Corbis/Getty Images
When Astor and Madeleine Talmage Force married in 1911, it became a scandal — at the time, divorce was rare and remarrying was even more so.
"His little wifey there Madeleine is my age and in delicate condition. See how she's trying to hide it? Quite the scandal," she says.
When Madeleine fell pregnant in 1912, they decided to return to New York from Europe. Astor booked them a room on the Titanic.
John Jacob Astor IV.
Bettmann/ Getty
At the time, Astor was one of the world's richest men, and he certainly was the wealthiest aboard the Titanic.
He had a fortune worth somewhere between $90 and $150 million, CNBC reported, when he boarded the fateful ship. Today, he would be worth between $2.9 and $4.8 billion when adjusted for inflation.
After the Titanic hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912, Astor calmly brought his wife, Madeleine, to the second-to-last lifeboat.
The Titanic.
AP
According to Biography, Astor was among the first few people who knew the ship was sinking.
He woke his sleeping, pregnant wife and told her to get dressed in her warmest clothes. He then put all of the couple's jewelry on her, took her to the deck, and placed her in a lifeboat.
She clung to her husband and wanted to stay with him, but he reportedly said, "The sea is calm. You'll be alright. You're in good hands. I'll see you in the morning."
The New York Times reported that Astor was last seen smoking a cigarette on the deck. He was wearing a dinner suit and holding a personalized pocket watch.
Nearly two weeks after the Titanic sank, The New York Times reported that Astor's body had been recovered by a search team from Halifax, Canada.
A grave at the Fairview Lawn cemetery in Halifax, Canada, where 121 Titanic victims are buried. Astor's body was sent back to New York.
AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis
Astor was among the 306 bodies found by the crew of the Mackay-Bennett in the weeks after the tragedy, according to the Nova Scotia Archives, but only one of 59 bodies that were claimed by victims' relatives and returned home.
He was reportedly identified by the initials sewn into his jacket. His pocket also contained a solid gold watch engraved with the initials JJA, according to The New York Times.
Many of the Titanic's victims were buried in a cemetery (pictured) in Halifax, but Astor's son, Vincent, traveled there to claim his father's body and bring it home to New York.
Astor's wife, Madeleine, survived the shipwreck and gave birth to their son, naming him John Jacob. But most of his fortune went to his son from his first marriage, Vincent.
John Jacob Astor's first son, Vincent.
Library of Congress/ Getty
If Astor made it to the US, it's reported that he would have made his and Madeleine's unborn child the heir to his fortune, according to Biography. However, most of his money went to his first son, Vincent (pictured), from his first marriage.
John Jacob Astor VI received only a small portion of his father's fortune, but Vincent went on to donate a large sum of his father's money and became a philanthropist in New York City.
John Jacob Astor IV's legacy has lasted long after his death.
Eric Braeden as John Jacob Astor IV.
Paramount Pictures
As the most famous person to die in the tragedy, Astor's name and reputation have survived through the years.
In fact, he has been portrayed in a number of TV shows and movies. Most notably, Eric Braeden played Astor in "Titanic."
MosaicML Co-founder Naveen Rao and Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi speaking to journalist Eric Newcomer at the Cerebral Valley AI Summit
Darius Rafieyan/Business Insider
The conference is a gathering place for influential investors and founders across generative AI.
The 2023 conference in San Francisco became famous for producing one of the biggest AI deals.
Cerebral Valley New York will be Newcomer's first east coast event.
The Cerebral Valley AI Summit, the generative AI conference created by tech journalist Eric Newcomer and AI startup Volley, will be hosting its first New York event on June 27th. Cerebral Valley New York as the event is being called, will bring together investors and founders for a one day conference to discuss the future of this booming industry.
The original Cerebral Valley Summit, held in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco in 2023, made headlines for producing one of the largest generative AI acquisitions ever and effectively firing the starting gun on the AI arms race. Now Newcomer tells Business Insider he thinks the time is right for an eastward expansion.
"I definitely think San Francisco is the heart of the generative AI world," he said, "but I live in New York, I believe in the New York tech ecosystem."
He says Cerebral Valley will continue to host its San Francisco-based conference but with Cerebral Valley New York, the hope is to attract New York financial muscle as well as more attendees from Europe, which now boasts major AI research labs from both Google and Meta, as well as the headquarters of OpenAI rival Mistral.
"We're trying to bring together the actual people making the news and so if you're in the middle of AI, this is where it is, so that's where you should be," he said.
Newcomer anticipates that the conference will be dominated by questions of what AI investing looks like beyond foundation models, who's going to crack the killer app for generative AI, and what's in store for the 800 pound gorilla in the room.
"I think there'll be a lot of reckoning around OpenAI's position," Newcomer said. At the last Cerebral Valley Summit in November, 2023, it was a given that OpenAI had already won the AI battle. Just two days late of course, CEO Sam Altman would be out of a job and the company's future looked uncertain.
Today with Altman back at the helm OpenAI continues to outpace competitors in LLM research, and the company will likely be top of mind for most of the attendees at the conference.
Cerebral Valley will be announcing this year's lineup of speakers over the coming weeks. Past speakers have included Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi, legendary investors such as Reid Hoffman and Vinod Khosla, and Anthropic co-founder Daniela Amodei.
At the very first Cerebral Valley AI Summit, Newcomer half-jokingly challenged someone to raise $100 million at the conference. What he got instead was the $1.3 billion acquisition by Databricks of MosaicML, negotiated over dinner at the summit.
"Clearly I thought too small," said Newcomer, who hopes to outdo himself this year. "I'm cheering for a multi-billion dollar deal now, and you know the activity level could certainly justify it," he said.
Ballistic missiles fired at al-Asad Air Base where the US soldiers are located in the Anbar province of Iraq displayed at Imam Khomeini Mosalla in Tehran, Iran on January 07, 2022
Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Despite the failed attack on Israel, experts warn of Iran's potential for a more effective strike.
Iran's retaliatory attack consisted of over 300 missiles and drones.
Analysts say that Iran's strategy mirrors Russian tactics in Ukraine.
Israel thwarted Iran's retaliatory missile attack, but experts said Iran can use this loss to learn and plan a more effective strike. Israel and its allies can't afford to get complacent they say.
"The attack probably helped Iran identify the relative strengths and the weaknesses of the Israeli air defense system," analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in an April 14 report.
ISW analysts Brian Carter and Frederick Kagan argued that "the Iranians will learn lessons from this strike and work to improve their abilities to penetrate Israeli defenses over time as the Russians have done in repeated strike series against Ukraine."
On April 13, Iran launched a barrage of roughly 150 missiles and 170 drones at Israel in response to Israel's attack on an Iranian consulate building in Syria earlier this month that killed several officials, escalating a years-long shadow war.
Iran's missiles and drones were overwhelminglyintercepted by Israel, its neighboring countries and allied forces, however, experts say this attack could offer Iran lessons for its next big hit.
While many of Iran's missiles and drones were intercepted, the number of weapons that were able to break through Israel's defenses is notable enough for concern. In the future, if Iran learns from its wins and losses in this exchange, these weapons "could cause significant civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure, including ports and energy."
"Russian strikes on Ukraine have demonstrated that even a small number of precise strikes against key nodes in energy or other infrastructure can cause disproportionate effects. Israel and its partners should not emerge from this successful defense with any sense of complacency," ISW said.
ISW analysts explained that Iran's strategy is in some ways similar to Russia's tactics targeting Ukraine. Iran's drones and cruise missiles were launched earlier in order to hit Israel's defense air system at the same time as ballistic missiles.
"The Russians have used such an approach against Ukraine repeatedly," the ISW report said. "The purpose of such a package is to have the slower cruise missiles and drones distract and overwhelm air defenses in order to allow the ballistic missiles, which are much harder to shoot down, to reach their targets."
With Iran mirroring its partner's strategy, experts said that it could report its findings from the attack back to Russia and help inform Russia's military as to how it can better challenge defense systems that NATO and the US have provided Ukraine.
That said, the worsening conflict between Iran and Israel could also hurt Russia's relationship with Iran as Moscow may not be able to adequately support Tehran, which also would be unable to offer the same level of support it has been were it to find itself in a wider war.
This picture released by the official website of the Iranian Defense Ministry on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015, claims to show the launching of an Emad long-range ballistic surface-to-surface missile in an undisclosed location.
Iranian Defense Ministry via AP
At least one ballistic missile hit an Israeli airbase during Iran's attack on Israel last weekend.
There was minimal damage to the facility, which hosts F-35 fighter jets, according to the IDF.
Weeks before the attack, Iran practiced hitting a mock Israeli airbase with ballistic missiles.
Just weeks before Iran launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, it practiced blowing up an Israeli airbase housing F-35 fighter jets with ballistic missiles.
Iran and its proxy militias attacked Israel on Saturday with more than 300 one-way attack drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. Nearly all the enemy threats were intercepted by Israeli and partner forces, including the US military, across the Middle East, marking a resounding air-defense success.
A few of the 120 ballistic missiles that were launched did manage to bypass the air defenses, including Israel's sophisticated Arrow 2 and 3 systems, and cross into Israeli territory.
At least one munition impacted at the Nevatim Airbase, which hosts F-35 stealth fighters, causing minor damage to infrastructure near the base's runway, according to the Israel Defense Forces, which said the functionality of the base had not been affected.
Israeli Air Force F-35 Lightning 'Adir' fighter jet lands at a location given as Nevatim Airbase after an aerial defense mission, in Israel, in this screen grab taken from a handout video released on April 14, 2024.
Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
"Iran hoped to incapacitate the base and thus impair our aerial capabilities, but it failed," Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesperson, said on Sunday, adding that "AF aircraft continue to take off and land from the base and depart for offensive and defensive missions."
Iran made no secret of its intention to attack an Israeli F-35 base prior to Saturday's barrage.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in mid-February fired two extended-range ballistic missiles at a target that "mirrored the features and conditions" of Israel's Palmachim airbase, according to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC.
The report claimed that Palmachim, which is just south of Tel Aviv, was selected as the simulated target because it's the main base housing Israel's F-35s and also because of prior remarks delivered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the airfield.
An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military personnel walks next to an Iranian Emad Surface-to-Surface missile in downtown Tehran during a rally commemorating the International Quds Day, also known as the Jerusalem day, on April 29, 2022.
Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Iranian state media said that the mock airbase, which was built in the Iranian desert, was three times smaller than the actual size of the facility. It claimed that the IRGC "successfully" hit the mock targets with "Emad" and "Qadr" ballistic missiles that had modified structures and improved warheads.
While Iran's mock strike on the Israeli airbase failed to translate during the actual attack last weekend, it has been presented domestically as a success, according to an expert report.
"What was an abject military failure — and the first time that Israel's phenomenal air defenses have been proven at this scale — is being communicated in Iran as a success, and misinformation is being deliberately spread," Urban Coningham, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said on Monday.
Damage from a missile impact at an Israeli airbase.
IDF
"Indeed, reports and images on social media have been circulating in both Farsi and Arabic which fabricate a version of events of Sunday morning in which the Israeli Air Force base is completely reduced to rubble," Coningham wrote in an analysis.
Videos and photos from Nevatim, however, reveal minimal damage to the airbase as fighter jets continue to conduct operations there.
Saturday's massive barrage was historic, in that it marked the first-ever direct attack on Israel from Iranian soil. Prior to this, Tehran had facilitated military action against Israel through its robust network of proxy forces across the Middle East.
The attack came less than two weeks after an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic facility in Syria earlier this month killed several military officials, including two IRGC generals. Tehran vowed revenge, stirring fears across the region as it braced for a potential retaliation. Its response on Saturday was met with widespread international condemnation.
Meanwhile, the Middle East continues to be on edge as it remains to be seen whether Israel will retaliate over the Iranian attack.