Clarence Thomas took in his grandnephew and raised him like a son. Mark Martin now faces more than 25 years on drug and weapons charges. The Thomas' guardianship is part of the scandal surrounding the Supreme Court justice's failure to disclose gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow.
Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI
The odds of an interest rate cut this year just got slimmer.
On June 12, the Federal Open Market Committee announced that it would hold interest rates steady as the nation's central bank continues to work to lower inflation to its 2% target.
Notably, alongside the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, the FOMC also released its Summary of Economic Projections — and the committee now has just one interest rate cut penciled in for 2024, with further cuts expected in 2025.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said during the Wednesday press conference that when looking at the FOMC's projections, they should be viewed as just that: projections. There's still time for them to change based on upcoming economic data, he said, and it's "plausible" that a rate cut could happen as soon as September.
"We want to gain further confidence. Certainly, more good inflation readings will help with that," Powell said.
"It's going to be the totality of the data, what's happening in the labor market, what's happening with the balance of risks, what's happening with the forecast, what's happening with growth," he added. "You look at all of that, and you ask, 'Are we confident? Have we reached an appropriate level of confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably to 2%, or alternatively, do we see really unexpected signs of weakness in the labor market?'"
The Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation, rose 3.3% year over year in May, a slight decrease from April's 3.4% reading, showing the economy is headed in the right direction. While Powell said the latest reading is a positive sign, it's not sufficient to allow the Fed to loosen its restrictive monetary policy.
However, some Democratic lawmakers have urged Powell to cut rates sooner rather than later, given the financial strains Americans continue to face under high inflation. Powell acknowledged those pains but reiterated that it's most important for the Fed to hold off on cutting until it gets more data rather than cutting too soon and having to raise rates again at a later date.
"In the meantime, it's going to be painful for people, but the ultimate pain would be a long period of high inflation," Powell said. "It is people who have lower incomes, people at the margins of the economy who have the worst experience, who experience the most pain from inflation. So you know, it's for those people, for all Americans, but particularly for those people, that we're doing everything we can to bring inflation back down under control."
The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information.
Rachel Chang
When I first started drinking coffee, I was intimidated by every café that had its own long menu with unique drink names and too many ways to personalize a drink.
Soon, I found comfort in Starbucks: No matter where in the world I was, I could order the exact same thing and know what to expect.
As a travel journalist, I began searching for the familiar logo everywhere, from Bali and Morocco to Barcelona and Buenos Aires. It wasn't hard — Starbucks is the largest coffee chain in the world, on track to have 55,000 stores by 2030.
But about four and a half years ago, I was on my way to claim my free Starbucks birthday drink when a lightbulb went off in my head.
I was in San Francisco, and as I passed one adorable little coffee shop after another, I wondered why I was overlooking so many small businesses so I could get coffee from a megacorporation that netted $36 billion in the 2023 fiscal year.
That day, I sipped my last drop of frozen coffee through a green straw (OK, technically a sippy top since the chain had stopped offering plastic straws by then) and quit Starbucks.
Rachel Chang
Though I live a block from a Starbucks, I started forcing myself to walk past it in search of local options.
My self-imposed ban began in 2020 during the peak days of the coronavirus pandemic, so I quickly realized the spending power I had with my daily coffee.
Many independent coffee shops closed during or shortly after the height of the pandemic. Even now, smaller cafés depend on every customer's support.
Starbucks doesn't need my money as much, even though it had actually been cheaper for me. At the time, I'd been spending $3 to $5 for my Starbucks drinks. At local shops, my drinks were closer to $4 to $7.
After happily paying extra for milk substitutes and gratuity at small businesses, the cost of my typical coffee order eventually started inching closer to double digits. Still, I felt better knowing the dollars were going back to my community.
Giving up Starbucks also meant I'd have to break some old habits.
Instead of rotely going to the closest Starbucks, I began to pull up Google Maps to search for a new coffee shop every time. In the beginning, I often landed at mediocre cafés.
But as I started traveling again, I realized what felt like a chore at home started to feel like a delight when I was abroad. After all, traveling is all about discovering new finds.
Every coffee shop has its own menu, system, and style. Instead of being an old pro in a familiar place, I became the constant newbie in a strange setting, asking for WiFi passwords and bathroom keys.
Eventually, trying new spots became a mini daily adventure stirred up into my coffee break.
Rachel Chang
The bottom line is that my coffee budget has gone up — I recently paid $12.69 for a vanilla oat latte at a local shop, about $5 more than it would've cost at Starbucks — but now I see more than a cup of joe.
I see coffee time as an experience, a moment to connect with a slice of a community that I wouldn't normally have been immersed in.
Plus, at local coffee shops, I'm one of few customers instead of one of many in a long line. I'm more likely to get doted on with top-notch service instead of just feeling like a name on a cup.
Sometimes, I still end up at coffee chains — but my self-imposed ban means I'll opt for smaller ones like Blank Street or Gregory's Coffee instead of mega-global franchises.
I still feel like a bit of a jerk when I have business meetings scheduled at a Starbucks and ask to go somewhere else. But it's a pretty good conversation starter, and I've even had colleagues tell me they're also steering away from the chain.
I don't have a personal vendetta against Starbucks. It's just that by quitting, my coffee world has opened up beyond the limitations of one company — and forever hunting for a new coffee shop has become my ultimate pick-me-up.
Getty
Elon Musk and Sam Altman lead rival AI firms and now take public jabs at each other — but it wasn't always like this.
Years ago, the two cofounded OpenAI, which Altman now leads. Musk departed OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, in 2018 and recently announced his own AI venture, xAI.
Their was enough bad blood that Musk even sued OpenAI and Altman, accusing them in the suit betraying the firm's founding principles, before dropping the lawsuit.
Here's a look at Musk and Altman's complicated relationship over the years:
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Carina Johansen/Getty Images
Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images
JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images
Susan Walsh/AP
Frederic Brown/Getty Images
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Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
NurPhotos/Getty Images
Slaven Vlasic, Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images
Brian Ach/Getty Images for TechCrunch
Drew Angerer/Getty
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
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Issei Kato/Reuters
Andrius Banelis for BI
This article is part of "Workforce Innovation," a series exploring the trends and leaders shaping enterprise transformation.
Work doesn't work like it used to.
Remote and hybrid work setups are standard — and likely here to stay. Generative artificial intelligence is making its way into many offices, bringing opportunities but also concerns that, as these bots get better, demand for workers might drop.
In the C-suite, the rise of roles like chief digital officer and chief data officer reflects the need for diverse skills, from digital transformation to employee wellness and sustainability.
Meanwhile, many employers are paying more attention to how employees are feeling. Some leaders are openly discussing mental-health challenges and ways to manage stress and fight burnout.
And despite political pushback against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, many young people entering the workforce say they care about DEI.
Business Insider's "Workforce Innovation" series will explore how our jobs are changing by digging into four themes: AI, the changing C-suite, worker well-being, and DEI.
As part of the series, we're also convening a Workforce Innovation Board, which will be announced in August. The board will be composed of C-suite leaders from HR, strategy, technology, and DEI. The Board will convene regularly to share insights on the forces driving innovation where we work.
Artificial intelligence will be a job killer. AI will become your digital assistant. AI will take over everything. The variety of predictions about what AI will mean for the workplace — and beyond — is wide. And while it's too early to say with certainty how the technology will remake our 9-to-5s, many experts say there will be big changes.
AI could help train workers. And it could help weaker performers get better at their jobs. It could help boost overall productivity. As a result, companies are fighting for workers who can develop AI models.
Daron Acemoglu, an institute professor in the economics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told BI he agreed with the notion that AI could represent one of the biggest changes since the rise of the internet. Yet he said it's unclear how reliable the technology would be at doing parts of — or all of — people's jobs.
Cody O'Loughlin
Acemoglu said that some employers rushing to swap people for bots might realize that some AI tools lack the versatility of humans.
"These models have very limited capabilities," he said. "So if you adopt them too quickly and without enough thought, you might actually not get anything like the productivity boosts that you were expecting."
Acemoglu said it's likely some workers — particularly at the high end of the pay scale — would have AI assistants to help them get more done. For others, especially office workers earning middle-class or lower-middle-class incomes, it's unknown how AI might help or hurt.
"Whether that person is ever going to have any type of help from AI or whether it's going to be his replacement being trained by AI, we'll have to see," he said.
The C-suite is getting more crowded, and jobs like chief growth officer and chief AI officer are becoming more common.
The rapid evolution of technology requires corporate leaders to elevate more players to the C-suite to help manage it all, according to Ty Wiggins, the global lead of the CEO- and executive-transitions practice at the recruiting firm Russell Reynolds Associates.
Increasing amounts of data and the emergence of AI, Wiggins told BI, require companies to have roles beyond chief information officer or chief technology officer. It wasn't long ago, he said, that tech functions might have simply fallen under a chief operating officer or a chief financial officer.
Georgie Clarke
Corporate chiefs now need to have closer connections to different aspects of the business — especially emerging ones like AI, Wiggins said.
"If that function is not reporting directly into you, you are two steps away from something that's moving so quickly that has a significant impact on the organization and your performance as CEO," he said.
Wiggins, the author of "The New CEO," said the C-suite continues to shift away from a place focused on reporting about various aspects of a company to becoming the "top team" tasked with helping the CEO solve the biggest problems facing an organization.
"The C-suite is no longer just a reporting body," he said. It's not enough for CFOs to pump out financial reports or the head of human resources to lobby for increased hiring, Wiggins said.
"There is an enormous pressure now on C-suite executives to really move from being a technical expert to a technical leader of other experts and to join the C-suite in a way that means that they can contribute to the other functions," he added.
The well-being of workers has drawn greater attention since the pandemic. Many employees report feeling stressed out. And various mental-health challenges are hitting workers — and businesses, as a result. Depression and anxiety alone sap the global economy of an estimated 12 billion productive workdays each year, the World Health Organization says, adding that the annual cost of that reduced output totals almost $1 trillion.
Carly Holm, the founder and CEO of Humani HR, a consulting firm, told BI that challenges around workers' mental health are bigger than ever. Yet, as the problems grow, more companies are looking at narrower interventions over a one-size-fits-all program, like offering counseling services that not everyone will want to use.
"A gym membership may be great for some people, but other people may not be interested in going to a gym," she said.
Leah Smith
A better approach, Holm said, is talking to employees about their needs. Often, this involves something that's not expensive or even difficult to implement, such as flexible work schedules. Or it could involve offering wellness days in addition to vacation days.
Business leaders often consider extra days off a major expense, she added. But that extra time away, Holm said, is correlated with improved productivity and business performance.
"Having that flexible workplace so that people can kind of merge life and work, I think, really goes a long way," she said.
Employers also can adjust policies that might not be working, Holm said. Unlimited paid time off sounds great, but if workers don't use it, they lose the chance to recover. Instead, she said, setting a minimum PTO might be a better approach. Some employers, Holm said, are telling workers they need to take a week or two in a row — and not just a day or two here and there.
"They see the value and getting their employees to unplug," she said.
"The data is clear: When your employees are healthy, when they are happy, they're going to work better," Holm said.
DEI feels like a buzzword gone bad. Companies that a few years ago were happy to talk about their efforts to make their workplaces more equitable are now far less likely to mention DEI in quarterly earnings calls. Some companies have also been cutting DEI jobs.
It's a notable about-face. DEI initiatives rose toward the top of many corporate to-do lists after George Floyd's murder in 2020 and the racial reckoning that followed. Between 2020 and 2021, the role of chief diversity officer was the fastest-growing title in the C-suite. But by 2022, hiring started to slip for such jobs, according to LinkedIn data. In the years since, DEI has become a political wedge.
"There's a clear backlash right now," Regina Lawless, the former head of DEI at Instagram and author of "Do You," told BI.
Charles Schoenberger
She said companies would have to choose how they want to continue to do this work. Lawless said companies were right to ask about the impact of their DEI efforts because some initial steps, like creating coursework on race, could amount to little more than papering over a problem.
"A lot of companies just went at it in a performative way," she said. "We just throw in an employee resource group and think that's going to solve the very real issues of people from different backgrounds not having equitable experiences in the workplace."
Lawless said that as Gen Z took on a larger role in the workplace — they're expected to outnumber boomers among full-time US workers in 2024 — employers would have to be more thoughtful about addressing DEI. That's what many young workers are expecting, she said.
To progress and move beyond performative measures, companies will need to look under the hoods of the systems they use to hire, develop, promote, retain, and pay workers, Lawless said. Some of these procedures are leading, even if unintentionally, to inequitable outcomes, she said. In other cases, some people in charge simply have undue power, Lawless added.
"When you give your managers too much discretion, and there aren't checks and balances, that's when bias has the opportunity to creep in," she said. Lawless added that managers needed training on inclusive leadership to get the most from diverse teams.
To move forward, Lawless said, more employers will need to dig deeper into the data and ensure that DEI teams are not the only ones tasked with promoting equitable experiences within an organization. It will have to become a shared responsibility, she said.
"The future of DEI," Lawless said, "does need to be more diffuse."
Netflix; Fox; Paramount
No, you're not imagining it: Glen Powell is everywhere.
The actor's status has skyrocketed in the last few years, arguably starting in 2022 with his appearance in the long-awaited "Top Gun: Maverick." His supporting role in that movie — and Tom Cruise's sometimes terrifying mentorship — seemed to be what set Powell on the path to leading man.
He capitalized on that success with hits like the Sydney Sweeney rom-com "Anyone But You" and more recently, the Netflix comedy "Hit Man," his third collaboration with director Richard Linklater.
The latter is getting glowing reviews, but Powell has been around for years and has more than a handful of credits to his name. Here's a rundown of every Glen Powell movie and TV show ranked from worst to best, according to critics.
Note: For the purposes of this list, we're only including projects with a Rotten Tomatoes critic score. The list only includes movies and shows in which Powell has an on-screen role as a named character.
Lionsgate
Universal Pictures
Lionsgate
Netflix
Sony
MarVista Entertainment
Fox
Columbia Pictures
Netflix
The CW
Paramount Pictures
Netflix
Netflix
Netflix
20th Century Studios
Paramount Pictures
Matt Lankes / Netflix
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Daniel Radcliffe admits he avoids "heavy, hour-long" TV shows at all costs.
The "Harry Potter" star, who lends his voice to the Netflix animated series "Mulligan," recently spoke with Comic Book Resources about his TV-watching habits.
"Honestly, I watch cartoons, and I watch reality TV," said Radcliffe. "I've never seen 'Breaking Bad.' I've never watched 'The Sopranos' or 'The Wire.' All the sort of heavy, hour-long stuff. Just, I can't."
Radcliffe's love of animation is evident in his list of credits: he's voiced roles in animated series like "The Simpsons," "Robot Chicken," "BoJack Horseman," and Rick and Morty."
"I think it does probably in part stem from growing up on 'The Simpsons,'" Radcliffe said of why he loves the genre. "I was watching 'Jeopardy!' the other night, and one of the contestants credited a ton of his trivia knowledge to 'The Simpsons.' That's absolutely true of me as well. There are so many weird facts and things, from my general knowledge of the world to my sense of humor, [that] were formed in some way by 'The Simpsons.'"
Fox
Radcliffe has appeared three times on "The Simpsons" to date. In the season 22 "Treehouse of Horror" episode, he played a young vampire named Edmund; in season 25, he played Diggs, a transfer student with a love for falconry who befriends Bart; and in season 29, he voiced himself in an episode.
He went on to explain why cartoons that touch on mature themes wouldn't work if they were live-action.
"I think a lot of 'BoJack Horseman' would be just too fucking bleak and sad if it wasn't a talking horse," Radcliffe said. "The classic example is Homer strangling Bart in 'The Simpsons.' In a live-action [series], that's just like a horrendous act of child abuse that there's nothing funny about whatsoever, whereas it's a running gag in 'The Simpsons,' and it's funny because of what Bart's neck does."
ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP via Getty Images
One of Russia's most concerning new submarines has pulled up off the coast of Cuba ahead of planned military exercises in the area.
The Kazan, a nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine, is one of a relatively new class of subs that has worried the US and Western militaries for years due to its stealth and strike capabilities.
Three Russian ships, as well as the Kazan, arrived in Cuba on Wednesday for a five-day official visit before a large, simultaneous air and maritime exercise in the Caribbean. The deployment includes the Admiral Gorshkov frigate, which is armed with Zircon hypersonic missiles, another challenge for Western militaries.
While US officials have said they're monitoring the vessels and don't anticipate any imminent danger in the region, the Kazan's arrival is notable. US and NATO officials have long expressed anxiety over the capabilities of the Kazan and other subs like it.
Lev Fedoseyev\TASS via Getty Images
Russia's Yasen-class submarines, like the Kazan, are formidable threats within Russia's navy, which has long boasted a rather capable submarine fleet. The Russians began work on the class during the Cold War, and the first sub in the class, the Severodvinsk, was commissioned late in 2013.
Around the time the Severodvinsk came about, Naval Sea Systems Command's program executive officer for submarines said at a naval symposium that going forward, the US would "be facing tough potential opponents," adding that "one only has to look at the Severodvinsk."
After the Severodvinsk was commissioned into the Russian navy, later submarines featured updated designs, designated as part of the Yasen-M class. The Kazan was the second sub of the class but the first of the new upgraded subs. It is noticeably smaller and features a quieter nuclear reactor.
The subs' newer, more advanced features make them quiet, difficult to track, heavily armed, and capable of attacks against land- and sea-based targets with little to no notice. These warships can carry Oniks and Kalibr cruise missiles and, at a later date, the new Zircon missiles.
Lev Fedoseyev\TASS via Getty Images
The shift in capability with the emergence of the Yasen-M class submarines suggested a change in use. Per a 2021 Royal United Services Institute analysis, the Kazan's "capacity to launch a range of anti-ship and land attack missiles" suggests that "long-range strike missions appear to be superseding sea lines of communication (SLOC) interdiction as a primary task."
In 2021, US Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of US Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, said that the subs "are designed to deploy undetected within cruise-missile range of our coastlines to threaten critical infrastructure during an escalating crisis."
VanHerck, along with other US officials, have said the Yasen-class subs are "on par with ours" and repeatedly warned about the increasing presence of these vessels off of the US coast.
Russia plans to build at least nine Yasen submarines in total, but there are indications that more could be on the way in the future.
YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images
Russia's deployment in Cuba serves multiple purposes. It comes before Caribbean air and maritime exercises, the first Russia's held in the area since 2019. It serves to strengthen Russia-Cuba ties. And it demonstrates a show of force to the US amid the war in Ukraine.
Tensions are particularly high after the US hesitantly agreed to allow Ukraine to use its long-range weapons to strike targets in Russian territory.
US officials have said that movement of these vessels into the area is not a direct response to these developments or an escalation, noting that Cuba has hosted Russian ships every year from 2013 to 2020, and the Russian exercises are routine.
The vessels in this group, however, are notably among Russia's more advanced or carrying newer weapons. In the past, NATO officials have flagged the Yasen-class submarines, for instance, as "one of the big strategic challenges" the alliance faces.
MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images
Amazon Fresh is giving customers who stop by to make a return an incentive to use the store for its intended purpose: buying groceries.
The stores are offering a series of coupons for patrons who use the stores to drop off items that they ordered on Amazon.com, including $10 off a purchase of at least $40 and a slice of pizza with a soda for $3.
Signs at Amazon Fresh stores read "Package return customers save big" and include QR codes so that customers can claim the coupons, according to a photo seen by Business Insider.
A website advertising "up to $12 off $40 at Amazon Fresh" for customers who make a return mentions that the offer is valid between April 17 and June 30 of this year or until Amazon runs out of codes for the promotion.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the discounts, adding that they apply when customers make a return at any of the chain's roughly 40 locations. "We see many of the customers who return or pickup packages in store each week also combine it with a shopping trip," the spokesperson said.
Amazon is likely trying to accomplish two things with the coupons, said Phil Lempert, a food industry analyst and editor of the website Supermarket Guru.
The discounts are meant to get customers making returns to stick around and buy groceries, he said. But they also save Amazon money processing returns — having customers bring items to an Amazon-owned location is cheaper for the company than sending them return packaging and a shipping label.
"It's a combination of reducing costs as well as trying to get new people to shop at Amazon Fresh," Lempert said.
Beyond the discounts, Amazon is still struggling to find a strategy for Fresh that works.
Amazon, which also owns Whole Foods, has made several changes to Fresh stores over the last year. Most recently, it pulled out its cashier-less Just Walk Out technology from Fresh stores in favor of its Dash shopping carts, which keep track of shoppers' selections and charge them accordingly. Amazon has also renovated a handful of the stores, adding Krispy Kreme doughnut shops and more major food brands.
"They're really not resonating," Lempert said of the stores. "I am a major Amazon.com shopper. I could not live without Amazon.com. I can live without Amazon Fresh."
Do you work or shop at Amazon Fresh and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com
Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI
Android and iPhone owners have plenty to celebrate after Apple's big WWDC keynote, which revealed changes to how messaging between the two rivals will improve in iOS 18.
But Apple is still holding out on getting rid of the much-hated green text bubbles, according to a first glimpse from Apple.
Apple previously announced that it would support the Rich Communication Services, or RCS, protocol in its Messages app, but now we know more about how it will work and when it's launching. It's a big improvement over SMS, and the changes will roll out in the fall with iOS 18.
If you're an iPhone owner, Apple's RCS adoption means your Android friend won't receive a grainy compressed video or photo the next time you send one over. It will also introduce read receipts between the two devices.
Apple
RCS also makes it possible for emoji reactions to be more in line with the iMessage experience, ditching the written-out descriptions of an emoji reaction ("John loved your message" rather than the literal heart emoji reaction) and adding typing indicators. Apple didn't specifically highlight if those features will be available in the fall, but it's possible they could be.
Google spent years pressuring Apple to adopt RCS.
Apple finally caving is certainly a victory for Android users, but there's just one catch: Android bubbles are staying green.
While it may be easy to write off green bubbles as a superficial differentiator, the visible divide between Android and iPhone text bubbles has faced criticism from smartphone users. In August 2022, Google launched the #GetTheMessage campaign, which specifically highlighted the blue-green bubble issue.
"Texting between iPhone and Android is broken. It's time for Apple to fix green and blue bubbles, and texting for everyone," the social text said.
Apple, for its part, has said it's important to denote when someone is texting with someone else on the iMessage protocol because there's added security via end-to-end encryption that isn't present in SMS texts between iPhones and Androids (green text).
But the green bubbles are also something that can convince people to jump ship from Android to Apple — and keep iPhone users in its ecosystem. If an iPhone user switches to Android, they'll have to get used to green text bubbles when messaging with iPhones.
In 2021, legal documents revealed that Apple decided against developing an Android version of iMessage.
"The#1 most difficult [reason] to leave the Apple universe app is iMessage . . . iMessage amounts to serious lock-in" said a former Apple employee in 2016.
Phil Schiller, an Apple executive in charge of the App Store, later said, "Moving iMessage to Android will hurt us more than help us."
The Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit against Apple specifically calls out the green messages. The filing claims that it "signals to users that rival smartphones are lower quality" and causes "social stigma, exclusion, and blame for 'breaking' chats where other participants own iPhones."
Neither Apple nor Google immediately responded to Business Insider's request for comment ahead of publication.
The green bubble stigma is very real, especially for younger consumers. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2022 the experience of several college students as non-iPhone users, with one even saying that "people don't seem to like green text bubbles that much and seem to have this visceral negative reaction to it."
It's a sentiment that continues to be loudly expressed, like this tweet that received over 70,000 likes.
idc how much better any other phone is i’m not texting in green bubbles https://t.co/56G3C3u7m7
— juju 💰 (@ayeejuju) January 26, 2024
And there are signs Apple's strategy is working. A 2021 survey conducted by Piper Sandler found that 87% of teens own an iPhone.
So while RCS will definitely bring some improvements come fall when iOS 18 launches, it will still be glaringly obvious for iPhone users when they're messaging with Android users.
For Apple, that's good for business.