This is what happened, what the government ordered, and what Anthropic is saying about it.

What Is Claude Fable 5?

Anthropic launched Claude Fable 5 on June 9, 2026. It was the first publicly available model in the company’s new “Mythos-class” tier, one level above the previous Opus-class lineup. Anthropic described it as the most capable model it had ever released to the public.

Fable 5 was built to excel at software engineering, code analysis, and identifying flaws inside existing codebases. That specific capability is exactly where the Fable AI security concerns would later take root.

The model came with a layered safety design. When a query touched high-risk areas like cybersecurity, biology, chemistry, or AI model distillation, Fable 5 would silently pass the request to a weaker model, Claude Opus 4.8, instead of answering directly. Anthropic reported that more than 95% of all Fable 5 sessions never triggered this fallback.

Alongside the public model, Anthropic operated Mythos 5. That version ran with fewer guardrails and was limited to vetted cybersecurity researchers and government partners only. It was never open to general users.

Those earlier Anthropic model milestones that built up to this launch are covered in our report on Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4 release and its coding advances.

How the Fable AI Security Concerns Began

The Fable AI security concerns surfaced within 24 hours of launch. A researcher going by “Pliny the Liberator” posted on social media claiming to have bypassed Fable 5’s safety classifiers the day after the model went live.

The method reportedly did not involve a traditional software bug. Based on cybersecurity reports, the approach used Unicode character substitutions, look-alike Cyrillic letters, multi-agent task decomposition, and narrative framing to trick Fable 5’s keyword classifiers into ignoring flagged requests.

Screenshots that circulated publicly appeared to show step-by-step instructions for stack buffer overflow exploits on x86 Linux systems. The researcher also claimed to have extracted Fable 5’s 120,000-character system prompt during the attempt.

These Fable AI security concerns spread quickly through the security research community. Debate started immediately over whether this counted as a real jailbreak or a demonstration of weaknesses that already existed in every major model.

The timing of the Fable AI security concerns made things worse. Anthropic had acknowledged at launch that Fable 5’s capabilities in identifying software vulnerabilities “exceed those of any model we’ve ever made generally available.” Security professionals had already warned before release that a model this capable in vulnerability identification could be weaponized if its safeguards were bypassed.

The pattern fits into what our team has been watching across AI-adjacent security incidents, including the supply chain security threats that hit organizations throughout 2026.

What Anthropic Said About the Jailbreak

Anthropic disputed the claim that a real jailbreak had occurred and conducted a wider review of recent usage, finding no evidence that its safeguards had been successfully bypassed to generate genuinely dangerous content.

After reviewing the reported technique, Anthropic found only a small number of previously known, minor vulnerabilities. Critically, the company said those same vulnerabilities were already discoverable using other publicly available models without any bypass at all.

Anthropic validated that the level of capability displayed in the underlying report was widely available from other models, including OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 cybersecurity evaluations.

This was Anthropic’s core argument: the Fable AI security concerns raised by this jailbreak did not represent any unique risk that did not already exist elsewhere in the market.

External red teams working before launch found no universal jailbreaks on long-form agentic tasks, though Anthropic conceded it is likely impossible to fully prevent universal jailbreaks in the future. The company’s stated goal was to make them slow and costly enough to detect before they could be used at scale.

Still, the Fable AI security concerns had already reached Washington by then.

The US Government Directive

The Fable AI security concerns triggered a government response on June 13, 2026. The directive, received at 5:21 PM ET, prohibits any foreign national, whether located inside or outside the United States, from accessing the two models, including foreign national Anthropic employees.

The letter came from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick under the authority of the US Department of Commerce.

Because Anthropic had no real-time way to verify each user’s citizenship, the company disabled both Fable 5 and Mythos 5 globally for all customers to ensure full compliance. Access to every other Anthropic model remained unaffected.

According to CNN’s reporting, the government cited national security concerns but did not provide specific details to Anthropic, though the company believes the government became aware of a method of jailbreaking Fable 5.

You can find our full breakdown of the immediate fallout in our dedicated report on the US government’s decision to block Anthropic’s Fable 5 access.

What Export Controls Now Apply

Under the Commerce Department directive, a license is now required for the export, re-export, or domestic transfer of Fable 5 and Mythos 5 to any foreign person. Anthropic must also submit applications for individually validated licenses. Failure to comply would result in financial and civil penalties.

This places the Fable AI security concerns in a regulatory category normally reserved for military hardware and advanced dual-use technology. It is one of the most sweeping actions the US government has taken against a commercially deployed AI model.

Experts warned before launch that Fable 5 was particularly effective at identifying software vulnerabilities, and the model’s capabilities posed a risk of being used in cyberattacks.

The type of breach risk that prompted this response is something security teams have been confronting across all fronts this year. Our reporting on the GitHub breach that hit 3,800 repositories after a hacked coding tool shows just how fast a single vulnerability can escalate.

How Anthropic Is Pushing Back

Anthropic complied with the directive immediately but made its disagreement public. In its official statement published on June 13, the company argued that if this standard were applied across the industry, it would effectively halt every new frontier model deployment.

On the specific Fable AI security concerns cited by the government, Anthropic stated the jailbreak demonstrated essentially involved asking the model to read a codebase and identify software flaws, a task security professionals perform with publicly available tools every single day.

Anthropic’s position is that the vulnerability was benign. According to Anthropic’s own reading of the government’s underlying concern, the demonstration essentially consisted of asking the model to read a specific codebase and fix any software flaws.

Anthropic’s full position on the Fable AI security concerns rests on its defense-in-depth strategy. This security framework focuses on confining non-universal jailbreaks to an exceptionally narrow scope, making developing universal jailbreaks economically prohibitive, and deploying continuous telemetry monitoring to rapidly detect and shut down active attacks. The company also enforces a 30-day customer data retention policy for Mythos-class models to support continuous threat hunting and patch development.

The company ended its statement by saying it believes this is a misunderstanding and is working to restore access as soon as possible.

What This Means for Developers and Users Right Now

The Fable AI security concerns have had a direct and immediate practical impact. Anyone who had built workflows or production pipelines on Fable 5 or Mythos 5 lost that access without warning on the evening of June 13.

All other Anthropic models are still live. Claude Opus 4.8, Claude Sonnet 4.6, and the rest of the lineup remain fully operational. Only Fable 5 and Mythos 5 are offline.

The broader lesson the Fable AI security concerns carry for developers is a serious one. Frontier AI capabilities are now formally treated as national security assets by the US government. Access can be pulled with minimal notice and without detailed public explanation. Building critical workflows on the most advanced AI models now carries a regulatory risk that simply did not exist at this scale a year ago.

For teams tracking what Anthropic’s intermediate model tier can still do while Fable 5 remains offline, our earlier report on Claude Opus 4.7’s expanded agentic capabilities covers the full picture.

Where Things Stand on June 15, 2026

Fable 5 and Mythos 5 remain disabled globally as of today. According to an administration official, the model needs to remain locked down until the US government’s national security apparatus is hardened, and that could happen within the next few weeks.

Anthropic has said it is actively working with the government on a path to restore access under terms that address the Fable AI security concerns without permanently blocking the models. No specific date has been given.

The core dispute comes down to one question. Does a narrow, non-universal jailbreak in a heavily guarded commercial AI model justify a full recall and export control designation? Anthropic says the Fable AI security concerns raised here do not meet that bar. The US government concluded otherwise.

For now, developers should plan around Anthropic’s other available models and monitor Anthropic’s official channels for updates on Fable 5’s return.

The post Fable AI Security Concerns: US Blocks Anthropic Models appeared first on Tomaro Group.

This is breaking news. Here is every confirmed fact you need to know right now.

What Is the Anthropic AI Models Ban?

The Anthropic AI models ban is a formal export control directive issued by the Trump administration on June 12, 2026. The US government, citing national security authorities, issued the directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees. The net effect is that Anthropic must abruptly disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all customers to ensure compliance, while access to all other Anthropic models will not be affected.

Because the company cannot reliably separate foreign nationals from the rest of its user base in real time, the practical result is a hard shutoff of Fable 5 and Mythos 5 worldwide.

This Anthropic AI models ban came just days after both models launched publicly, making it one of the most abrupt model pullbacks in AI history.

If you follow news across the artificial intelligence category, this is one of the most significant government interventions into commercial AI we have seen.

Who Issued the Order and Why?

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sent a letter to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei saying that the Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models would be subject to export controls to any location outside of the US and to all foreign persons within the country. An administration official told Axios the Commerce Department decided to take action after another company claimed it was able to jailbreak Mythos, alarming the administration about possible national security risks. The administration tried to get Anthropic to pause releasing the latest models but was unsuccessful, the official said, prompting the export control letter.

The official added the model needs to remain locked down until the US government’s national security apparatus is hardened, and that could happen in the next few weeks.

The Anthropic AI models ban is also linked directly to a longer dispute between Anthropic and the federal government that dates back months. You can read more about how AI leadership pressures have been escalating for CEOs throughout 2026.

The Backstory: This Ban Did Not Come Out of Nowhere

The Anthropic AI models ban on Fable 5 and Mythos 5 is not the first confrontation between Anthropic and the Trump administration. The conflict goes back to early February 2026.

The Trump administration ordered federal agencies to stop using technology from Anthropic immediately after the company refused to comply with a demand for unrestricted access to its technologies. Anthropic declined out of fear that its services would be used for mass domestic surveillance and the development of lethal weapons that trigger without human control. The Trump administration responded by initiating the process to eliminate Anthropic’s government contracts.

The Department of Defense then declared Anthropic a supply chain risk, a label historically reserved for foreign adversaries, which required defense contractors to certify that they would not use Anthropic’s Claude models in their work with the military.

A US judge told the Trump administration to back off Anthropic in March 2026, ruling that the Pentagon had no legal ground to label the AI company a supply chain threat and block its technology across federal agencies.

That court injunction slowed things down temporarily. But now the Anthropic AI models ban has returned through a different legal mechanism: export controls.

What Are Fable 5 and Mythos 5?

To understand the full weight of this Anthropic AI models ban, it helps to know what these models actually are.

The unexpected move came just days after Anthropic announced Fable 5 and Mythos 5, two powerful models that the company touted as state-of-the-art across a number of different industry benchmarks. Fable 5, in particular, marked the first time that Anthropic released such an advanced offering to the public, thanks to new safeguards that block responses in specific high-risk areas.

Built on the same underlying architecture, the two models differ primarily in their output controls. Fable 5 includes classifiers designed to block responses in high-risk areas such as cybersecurity, while Mythos 5, available to a separately vetted set of organizations, operates with some of those constraints removed. Before launch, Anthropic subjected the models to thousands of hours of red-teaming by the US government and the UK.

Claude Mythos is a large language model developed by Anthropic to find software vulnerabilities, and is used by a consortium of companies to secure software systems.

Anthropic Disagrees With the Ban But Is Complying

The Anthropic AI models ban placed the company in a difficult position. Anthropic is following the legal directive, but it has been direct and public about disagreeing with it.

Anthropic’s position is that it instituted strong safeguards that greatly reduce the likelihood that Fable is misused for tasks related to cybersecurity. In fact, the safeguards are so strong that many users have complained they are overly broad. In the weeks leading up to the launch of Fable, Anthropic worked with the US government, the UK AISI, multiple private third-party organizations, and internal teams to red-team Fable’s safeguards for thousands of hours in total.

Anthropic reviewed a demonstration of the specific jailbreak technique and confirmed that the level of capability displayed is widely available from other publicly available models, including OpenAI’s GPT-5.5, and is used every day by defenders who keep systems safe.

In its statement, Anthropic said it believes the government should have the ability to block unsafe deployments as part of a statutory process that is transparent, fair, clear, and grounded in technical facts, but that this action does not adhere to those principles.

Anthropic stated: “We disagree that the finding of a narrow potential jailbreak should be cause for recalling a commercial model deployed to hundreds of millions of people.”

This latest chapter in the Anthropic AI models ban story closely mirrors what is happening across the broader cybersecurity landscape in 2026, where governments are treating AI tools as strategic security assets rather than just commercial software.

Is This the First Time a Government Has Pulled a Live AI Model?

Yes, according to available reporting. Anthropic’s decision to suspend user access appears to be the first time a leading AI company has taken a publicly deployed model offline due to intervention from the federal government.

That makes this Anthropic AI models ban historically significant, not just for Anthropic, but for every AI company building and deploying frontier models. If the government can pull one model citing a narrow, non-universal jailbreak, it can theoretically do the same to any model in the industry.

What the Tech Community Is Saying

Reactions to the Anthropic AI models ban have been sharp across the tech industry.

Dean Ball, an AI policy expert who briefly served in the Trump administration but is highly critical of its recent decisions around Anthropic, said on X that he cannot tell if this is lawfare against Anthropic in particular or extreme national-security hawkery. He added that an administration whose posture supports exporting advanced AI chips to China, while also wanting to ban Britain and every other non-American on earth from using the best US models, left him with “no words.”

Others argued Anthropic contributed to this outcome. When Anthropic first launched Mythos Preview through Project Glasswing, it publicly highlighted the model’s advanced and potentially dangerous cybersecurity capabilities. The government cited those same capabilities as justification for the Anthropic AI models ban now in effect.

What This Means for Anthropic’s IPO Plans

The timing of the Anthropic AI models ban is a serious problem for the company financially.

The company has been preparing for an IPO amid all of this chaos. Blocking foreign access to its most powerful models potentially cuts off a meaningful revenue stream and undermines the global reach that makes an AI company attractive to public market investors.

Anthropic’s customer base had surged to over 300,000 business users, with large accounts generating at least $100,000 in annualized revenue multiplying over seven times in the past year.

An abrupt forced shutdown of the company’s two newest and most capable models, with no firm timeline for restoration, adds a significant layer of regulatory risk that investors will now have to price in. This also has ripple effects across the broader startup funding environment in 2026, where AI companies are watching this case closely as a precedent.

What Happens Next?

The administration official indicated the models need to remain locked down until the US government’s national security apparatus is hardened, and suggested that could happen in the next few weeks. Axios

Anthropic has said it is working to restore access as soon as possible and plans to share more technical details within 24 hours of the directive.

Anthropic apologized to customers for the disruption and called the action a likely misunderstanding, stating it is working to restore access as quickly as possible.

The Anthropic AI models ban also creates a broader question for the industry: what does responsible AI deployment look like when governments can use export control mechanisms to pull models offline, bypassing any transparent regulatory process?

For those tracking how AI skills are reshaping careers and hiring in 2026, developments like the Anthropic AI models ban also serve as a reminder that regulatory risk is now a real factor for businesses building on top of frontier AI tools.

What Users Should Do Right Now

If you had Fable 5 or Mythos 5 set as your default in Claude.ai or through the API, those sessions have been disabled. According to Anthropic’s developer account, new sessions will run on your selected default model or Opus 4.8, and access to all other Claude models remains completely unaffected.

No manual action is needed beyond switching your active model. The Anthropic AI models ban applies only to Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Claude Opus 4.8, Sonnet, and Haiku continue to operate normally.

You can follow live updates directly on Anthropic’s official news page as the company releases more information.

The Bigger Picture

The Anthropic AI models ban is not just a story about one company and two AI models going offline. It signals that the US government is now willing to use export control law, tools historically applied to semiconductors, military hardware, and physical technology, against commercial software AI models.

For infrastructure teams and enterprises, the issue is not only whether Fable 5 comes back quickly. The issue is that frontier model availability can now become a compliance event, a vendor-risk event, and a production-continuity event all at the same time.

Every AI company building frontier models must now factor government intervention into their deployment strategy. The Anthropic AI models ban has made that reality undeniable.

The post Anthropic AI Models Ban: US Blocks Fable 5 and Mythos 5 appeared first on Tomaro Group.

This will be at least the fifth major round of Xbox layoffs since Microsoft completed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023.

Asha Sharma’s Memo Lays Out the Problems

Sharma and Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty co-signed an internal memo on June 10, 2026, titled “Next 100 Days: Xbox Reset.” The company posted it publicly on Xbox Wire the same evening Bloomberg published its report. The Xbox layoffs were first confirmed by Bloomberg before Sharma went public.

The financial numbers Sharma shared are hard to spin positively. Xbox will close fiscal year 2026 at just a 3% “accountability margin,” the internal Microsoft metric for profit. That figure was 12% back in fiscal year 2022. Excluding Activision Blizzard King from the equation, the division spent over $20 billion across content, platform, and hardware subsidies over five years. Despite that, annual revenue declined by close to $500 million during that same period.

“Going forward, this cannot continue,” Sharma wrote.

She identified three root problems. The studio system was stretched too thin trying to support subscriptions, streaming, and device sales at the same time. Hardware component costs have surged badly, with Xbox projecting storage prices will be more than five times higher by the 2027 holiday season compared to two years prior. And internal platform systems have grown too complex to support fast decision-making.

The financial pressure at Xbox is part of a broader drop in executive confidence across major companies in Q2 2026 that has pushed leadership at multiple organizations toward hard restructuring decisions.

What Bloomberg’s Report Confirms

According to Bloomberg, Xbox layoffs are set to begin shortly after June 30. Multiple sources described the cuts as “significant,” though no specific headcount has been officially released. Marketing budgets and other areas of the business will also be slashed alongside the headcount reductions.

Xbox declined to comment to Bloomberg. Microsoft has issued no public statement beyond the memo Sharma posted on Xbox Wire.

Xbox layoffs in past rounds have hit corporate, support, and publishing functions hardest. That same pattern may play out in July, though the full scope will only become clear once Microsoft makes an official announcement.

A Consistent History of Xbox Layoffs

The upcoming cuts are not an isolated event. Xbox layoffs have come at regular intervals since the Activision Blizzard merger closed in late 2023.

In January 2024, around 1,900 employees were cut, mostly from Activision Blizzard King. In May 2024, Microsoft shut down three Bethesda studios, including Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin. September 2024 brought another 650 job cuts targeting corporate and support functions.

The Xbox layoffs from July 2025 were the most sweeping yet. That round was tied to a broader Microsoft company-wide cut. Studios including King, ZeniMax, and The Initiative were affected. The Initiative was permanently shut down, taking the troubled Perfect Dark reboot with it. Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 reportedly lost around half its staff in that same period.

This series of Xbox layoffs has raised consistent questions about whether Microsoft’s studio acquisition strategy has ever been financially grounded enough to sustain itself.

The challenges Xbox leadership faces are not unique to gaming. Other major CEOs have openly warned about the pressure of restructuring large organizations in 2026, as financial accountability demands have risen sharply across industries.

Game Pass Decline and Hardware Struggles

Xbox has been dealing with two separate problems at the same time. Game Pass saw more than eight months of subscriber decline before Sharma’s team started reversing the trend. Hardware sales have also been on a consistent downward path since the Activision acquisition.

The incoming Xbox layoffs partly reflect the gap between what Microsoft spent building out its gaming division and what that investment returned. The company expanded its studio network to support subscriptions, cloud gaming, and console hardware simultaneously. With all three underperforming at the same time, the business model became unsustainable.

For workers in the gaming and tech industries watching this unfold, how tech companies are rethinking their hiring priorities in 2026 is becoming directly relevant as job stability continues to shift across the sector.

What the Reset Covers Beyond Layoffs

Sharma’s restructuring plan goes well beyond Xbox layoffs. The reset involves cutting marketing budgets significantly, rethinking which products and services the division continues to fund, and rebuilding internal infrastructure that she described as not ready for the challenges ahead.

The memo also highlighted real early wins under Sharma’s first 100 days. The platform team shipped more updates in the past 100 days than in the entire prior year. Game Pass growth has resumed. The Xbox Games Showcase introduced exclusives including Gears of War: E-Day in 2026 and Clockwork Revolution in 2027. Playground Games also posted strong commercial results that Sharma pointed to as proof the division can still deliver.

Those gains have not been enough to fix a business running at a 3% margin. While Xbox is tightening its spending, other parts of the tech sector are expanding aggressively, as shown by the recent $5 billion AI infrastructure deal between Google and Blackstone, which shows where capital is actively moving in 2026.

Who Could Be Most Affected

The scale of the upcoming Xbox layoffs has not been officially confirmed. Bloomberg’s sources used the word “significant,” but no headcount figure has been made public.

Prior rounds of Xbox layoffs offer some guidance on where the risk falls. Corporate teams, marketing departments, and publishing support functions have historically taken heavier cuts than development studios actively working on titles close to release. Studios with recently canceled projects or those in early stages of development tend to be more exposed.

Microsoft has stayed quiet on specifics. Xbox has not commented publicly beyond the Sharma and Booty memo.

Gaming professionals navigating this uncertainty may find that identifying which tech skills are opening the most new career opportunities right now is a practical priority as the job market in the sector becomes less predictable.

What Comes Next

Xbox layoffs are expected to be officially announced in the weeks following June 30. That is when Microsoft closes its current fiscal year and when Bloomberg’s sources indicated the cuts will begin. The details behind the Xbox layoffs will likely become clearer as that date passes.

Whether this reset changes the financial trajectory of Xbox depends on what follows the job cuts. The division still holds major studio assets, a recovering Game Pass service, and a pipeline of first-party exclusive titles. But the latest wave of Xbox layoffs makes clear that Microsoft’s enormous investment in gaming has not yet delivered the returns the company expected.

More updates are expected after June 30 once Microsoft moves into its next fiscal year.

The post Xbox Layoffs Expected in July 2026 After $500M Decline appeared first on Tomaro Group.

But with several apps available, it helps to know which one fits your needs and what each one actually does. Here is a clear breakdown of the top SNAP mobile app options in 2026, what features they offer, and why staying on top of your benefits matters more than ever right now.

Why a SNAP Mobile App Matters More in 2026

SNAP is going through big changes this year. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act changed who is eligible, updated work requirements, and shifted more of the cost of administering the program to individual states. Starting January 1, 2026, several states also began restricting SNAP benefits from buying items the USDA labels as “non-nutritious,” like sodas and candy, with at least 18 states expected to have these restrictions in place by year-end.

Over the next decade, the program faces an estimated $187 billion cut, with some projections suggesting that more than 22 million U.S. families could lose some or all of their SNAP benefits.

With all this happening, keeping close track of your benefits using a reliable SNAP mobile app is more useful than ever. You want to know your balance, watch your spending history, and get alerts before anything slips through the cracks.

If you want to stay current on how the job market and financial landscape are shifting for everyday Americans, the career growth updates on Tomaro Group offer solid context.

The Three Main SNAP Mobile App Options

1. Propel (Formerly Fresh EBT / Providers)

Propel is the most popular third-party SNAP mobile app available right now.

More than 5 million people trust Propel to manage their EBT, WIC, Social Security/SSI, and other benefits. The app works in 53 states and territories, covering SNAP, WIC, and Summer EBT programs across the country.

Here is what Propel offers:

You can use Propel to monitor your EBT balance, track transactions, and see your SNAP deposit history in detail. It also provides access to special offers, discounts, and updates on benefits, while helping you find ways to save money and get more support.

Security is a strong point for this SNAP mobile app. Propel lets you lock your card, block fraudulent transactions outside your home state, monitor suspicious transactions, and prevent EBT theft before it happens.

Propel connects to your state’s portal with your permission, then gathers your EBT balance and transaction history, makes it easier to read, and displays it in the app. This means you do not need to call a 1-800 number or log in to a state website.

Propel is free to download on both iOS and Android and is not affiliated with any government entity.

2. ebtEDGE (The Official State-Contracted App)

If you want the official option, ebtEDGE is the go-to SNAP mobile app endorsed by FIS (Fidelity Information Services) and contracted directly with state agencies.

With the ebtEDGE mobile app, you can check your EBT balance, view recent deposits and benefit schedules, and review your transaction history without calling an automated phone line. The app also lets you locate SNAP retailers and ATMs near you using built-in location services, set your preferred language (English, Spanish, or Haitian Creole), and manage security settings including card disputes.

The app also includes card management tools to help you reset your PIN, order a replacement card, and manage multiple EBT cards. Security features such as biometrics are built in. There is no fee to download or use ebtEDGE.

This SNAP mobile app is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. According to Tennessee’s SNAP program guidance, some dishonest developers have created fake apps imitating ebtEDGE, so always verify that FIS is listed as the developer before downloading.

3. ConnectEBT and State-Specific Apps

Some states go a step further with their own locally-built SNAP mobile app options.

Texas offers “Your Texas Benefits,” where you can check your Lone Star Card balance, manage SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, and CHIP benefits, update your information, and upload documents. New York City residents can use ACCESS HRA to check SNAP balances, submit documents, recertify benefits, and get alerts. Louisiana offers “LifeInCheck EBT” for balance checks, recent purchases, benefit schedules, and card locking and unlocking.

If you live in a state with its own dedicated SNAP mobile app, that is usually the most accurate source for your specific balance and program rules.

Key Features to Look for in Any SNAP Mobile App

Whether you use Propel, ebtEDGE, or a state app, here are the features that actually matter:

Balance checking. Instead of calling a customer service hotline or keeping paper receipts, you can use an app to see your EBT balance instantly on your phone, anytime and anywhere, even if you do not have your EBT card on hand.

Transaction history. A solid SNAP mobile app provides a detailed view of spending history, showing how much you have spent and the current balance, so you can monitor and manage your benefit usage effectively.

Deposit predictions. Apps like Propel show when your next SNAP payment will arrive and allow you to view your EBT transaction history up to two years back.

Security tools. In an effort to reduce fraud, cardholders now have the ability to lock and unlock their EBT card to prevent purchases, including online purchases. Any reliable SNAP mobile app should include this feature.

For broader context on how digital tools are changing how people manage money and find work, the AI skills and career growth coverage on Tomaro Group is worth reading.

How to Get Started With a SNAP Mobile App

Getting set up is straightforward regardless of which SNAP mobile app you choose.

Getting started with the Propel app is straightforward. You can set up your EBT balance-checking in four simple steps: download the Propel app from your phone’s app store, then follow the registration prompts.

For ebtEDGE, if you are not yet registered, select “register here” on the login page. You will need to provide your name, email address, and phone number, then create a unique user ID and password.

One important warning: some dishonest app developers may create imitation apps to mislead EBT card users. EBT cardholders should avoid downloading apps that charge for use or download, do not list FIS as the developer, or have alternative name spellings to ebtEDGE. Tennessee Department of Human Services

Sticking with a verified SNAP mobile app from a trusted developer protects your benefits from scams.

If you are also tracking news around food supply and farming conditions that affect grocery prices, the farming and agriculture updates on Tomaro Group cover that beat closely.

What Is Changing for SNAP Users Right Now

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 has introduced changes to SNAP work requirements and non-citizen eligibility. The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Administration, which replaced the Food and Nutrition Service as of June 1, 2026, is currently updating its guidance to reflect these changes.

SNAP recipients can expect more paperwork to continue receiving benefits. Some legal residents who are not U.S. citizens may no longer be eligible for SNAP food benefits. States will also need to cover a higher share of SNAP administrative costs beginning in October 2026.

Using a SNAP mobile app that pushes benefit updates directly to your phone is one of the best ways to stay ahead of these changes without relying on mail notices or waiting on hold with your local office. A good SNAP mobile app keeps you informed with regular updates on any important changes to your food stamps, Summer EBT, disability, and other benefits across all states.

For people tracking the broader financial news landscape, including how fiscal policies are affecting everyday Americans, the finance coverage on Tomaro Group has relevant context.

Bottom Line

A good SNAP mobile app does more than just show your balance. It tracks your spending, alerts you to deposits, helps you lock your card if something looks wrong, and keeps you updated on program changes. With SNAP going through significant policy shifts in 2026, having that information in your pocket matters.

Propel works for most people in most states. ebtEDGE is the official option backed by the state contracts. And if your state has its own app, that is worth using too. All three are free.

Download the SNAP mobile app that covers your state, set up your account, and turn on your security features. That is the fastest way to stay in control of your benefits in 2026.

The post SNAP Mobile App: Best Tools to Manage EBT in 2026 appeared first on Tomaro Group.

This year has already seen a wave of real attacks affecting major organizations. The lesson is clear: you cannot just protect your own systems anymore. You have to think about everyone connected to you.

What Is Supply Chain Security and Why Does It Matter Now?

Supply chain security focuses on protecting not just your own systems, but the vendors, software providers, and service partners that your organization trusts. Instead of attacking victims directly, threat actors compromise one upstream supplier and then use that access to reach dozens or even hundreds of downstream organizations through legitimate integrations, OAuth tokens, and shared infrastructure.

In other words, the attacker does not need to break down your front door. They just need to compromise someone you already trust, like a software library, a CI/CD tool, or a third-party vendor.

According to the World Economic Forum, over half of large organizations now identify supply chain complexity as the single greatest barrier to cyber resilience, ranking it above concerns about direct attacks.

That is a significant shift. Boards and security leaders can no longer treat supply chain security as a niche problem for developers to solve alone.

The Biggest Supply Chain Security Incidents of 2026 So Far

This year has already produced several serious attacks that show how fast these threats move.

The TanStack / TeamPCP Campaign

The most significant software supply chain incident of 2026 involved the compromise of popular TanStack packages used extensively across modern development environments. Threat actors associated with TeamPCP distributed malicious versions of trusted packages designed to steal GitHub credentials, cloud secrets, SSH keys, and CI/CD tokens.

OpenAI was among the organizations affected. After the Axios incident, OpenAI accelerated the deployment of specific security controls, including further hardening of sensitive credential materials used in their CI/CD pipeline, deployment of package manager configurations, and additional security software to validate the provenance of new packages.

The cybersecurity community was watching these events closely, and many organizations rushed to review their own exposure.

The Checkmarx Breach

On March 23, 2026, Checkmarx identified a cybersecurity supply chain incident affecting certain developer artifacts distributed through third-party channels. Attackers gained unauthorized access to Checkmarx’s GitHub repositories due to the Trivy Supply Chain Attack. This access enabled the publication of malicious code to VS Code extensions, GitHub Actions workflows, and a Jenkins plugin.

This one is a stark reminder that even security companies themselves are not immune to supply chain security failures.

The Red Hat npm Namespace Attack

On June 1, 2026, a new supply chain attack compromised at least 32 packages published under the @redhat-cloud-services npm namespace. The attacker bypassed code review entirely, pushing a payload named Miasma.

This attack followed a pattern that security teams had been warning about for months.

If you follow recent cybersecurity developments, you may have also noticed a similar trend with the GitHub breach that hit 3,800 repositories earlier this year, another example of how attackers target the tools developers rely on daily.

How AI Is Making Supply Chain Security Harder

Artificial intelligence is changing both sides of this equation. Defenders use AI to detect threats faster. But attackers are using it too, and so far the attackers seem to be moving faster.

Group-IB’s 2026 forecast warns that AI-assisted tooling will compress attack timelines from weeks to hours, identity will overtake malware as the dominant intrusion mechanism, and multi-tenant breaches through CRM, ERP, and marketing automation platforms will become more common.

There is also a growing risk from AI-generated code. Only 1 in 5 AI-suggested dependency versions were safe to use, with 80% containing risks from hallucinations or known vulnerabilities. In addition, GPT-5 hallucinated 27.8% of component version recommendations and in some cases suggested actual malware packages.

That is a serious problem when 39% of developers accept AI-generated code without any revision, according to the same data.

The JFrog 2026 Software Supply Chain Security report found that AI-driven development is accelerating malicious package activity, insecure AI tooling, and software supply chain governance gaps across enterprises. Researchers also identified nearly 500 malicious AI models in public registries capable of credential theft.

For companies building or integrating AI tools, this adds a whole new layer to supply chain security that many teams are not yet equipped to handle. The growing conversation around AI leadership and what it means for business operations is directly connected to how organizations respond to these threats.

What Governments Are Doing About It

Regulators are not sitting still. In May 2026, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), alongside G7 partners including Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and the European Union, released new joint guidance aimed at strengthening transparency and cybersecurity across artificial intelligence supply chains. The guidance document outlined minimum elements for implementing an SBOM for AI to improve transparency and cybersecurity along the supply chain.

An SBOM, or Software Bill of Materials, is basically a full ingredient list for your software. It tells you every component, library, and dependency in your system so you can quickly identify what is at risk when a vulnerability surfaces.

For businesses that work with federal contracts or operate in regulated industries, this kind of regulatory push has real compliance implications.

The Top Supply Chain Security Risks to Watch

In 2026, supply chain security campaigns have matured beyond one-off vendor compromises into sophisticated operations that exploit every layer of the tech stack, from tampered software to compromised hardware and breached service providers. Attackers target places where visibility is thin and trust runs high, including package repositories, collaboration tools, service providers, and third-party add-ons that nobody properly vets.

Here are the specific risk areas getting the most attention this year:

Dependency confusion attacks. Rather than scattershot attacks, 2026 attacks are now researched. Attackers scrape job postings, GitHub repositories, error messages in public issue trackers, and even Docker layer metadata to identify internal package names before registering malicious public packages with the same name.

Shadow IT. The proliferation of cloud-based tools and remote work platforms has made shadow IT a persistent blind spot. Employees adopt unvetted SaaS solutions to improve productivity, and these applications operate outside formal procurement and security reviews, creating invisible attack surfaces.

CI/CD pipeline compromise. Once inside a build pipeline, attackers move beyond just stealing secrets. They clone repositories the runner has access to, modify build artifacts before they are signed, and persist through self-hosted runner configurations that survive pipeline reruns.

These risks are tightly connected to the broader cybersecurity vulnerabilities that businesses are dealing with in 2026, including the recent Coinbase breach and others affecting enterprise software.

How to Strengthen Your Supply Chain Security Today

You do not need to solve everything at once. But there are practical steps that reduce risk significantly.

Build and maintain an SBOM. Maintain an up-to-date Software Bill of Materials and inventory of open-source and third-party components. Scan codebases and container images for known vulnerabilities as part of the CI/CD pipeline. Use software composition analysis tools early in development to block high-risk libraries before they enter production.

Monitor vendors continuously. Rather than relying on point-in-time questionnaires, adopt continuous monitoring of critical suppliers. This can include shared threat intelligence feeds, API integration with vendors’ security tools, or ongoing scanning of their exposure including open ports and patch levels.

Apply least privilege everywhere. Apply least privilege access controls, MFA, and environment segmentation across developer systems, repositories, and CI/CD infrastructure. Also conduct secure code reviews and validation processes for AI-generated code, third-party packages, and externally sourced AI models before deployment.

Practice your response. Responding to supply chain incidents, especially those involving compromised software updates or hardware, often requires costly forensic investigations, mass patching programs, and legal or regulatory settlements. Preparation before an incident can significantly reduce the damage and cost.

The supply chain security posture of your organization is directly tied to your overall business resilience. Leaders who want to build strong teams and resilient operations need to treat this as a board-level priority, not just a technical checkbox.

The Bottom Line

Supply chain security in 2026 is not optional. Attacks are more targeted, more automated, and hitting organizations of every size. The good news is that most of the defenses are not complicated. They require discipline, visibility, and the willingness to treat your vendors as part of your security perimeter.

The organizations that avoided the worst of this year’s incidents were the ones that already had layered defenses in place: signed artifacts, pinned dependencies, short-lived credentials, and continuous vendor monitoring. That is the standard to aim for now.

The post Supply Chain Security Threats and Fixes in 2026 appeared first on Tomaro Group.

If you are shopping for Amazon Alexa gadgets right now, you have more options than ever. The tricky part is sorting the useful ones from the clutter. Some devices fix a daily annoyance. Others sit in a drawer after a month. Here is what changed, what to buy, and what to skip.

Alexa+ changed the picture

The headline story is Alexa+. Amazon launched the upgraded assistant across the country on February 4, 2026, after a year of early access. According to CNBC’s coverage of the nationwide release, the service runs $19.99 a month on its own. It is free for Prime members, who already pay $139 a year.

Alexa+ is built on generative AI. It handles natural back-and-forth, follow-up questions, and longer tasks. It can book a repair, order takeout, plan a trip, and juggle a shared family calendar. Amazon also added a web version at Alexa.com and a redesigned mobile app.

This matters for buyers. Newer Amazon Alexa gadgets are built for Alexa+ from day one. Older models still run classic Alexa, but several will not get the full AI features. The shift lines up with a wider move toward AI helpers. We looked at how AI assistant apps shot up the App Store charts earlier this year, and Alexa+ is Amazon’s answer to that wave.

Under the hood, Alexa+ leans on large language models, including technology from Anthropic. That partnership is part of why the assistant feels more capable, and you can read more about the agentic skills in Anthropic’s Claude lineup.

The new Echo lineup

Amazon refreshed its Echo hardware in late 2025. These four products sit at the center of the new Amazon Alexa gadgets story: the Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 11.

The official Amazon hardware breakdown lays out the details. Two custom chips run the lineup. The Echo Dot Max uses the AZ3 chip. The Echo Studio and both Echo Show models use the faster AZ3 Pro. These chips run AI tasks on the device and improve wake-word detection by more than 50%.

Prices start at $100 for the Echo Dot Max, $180 for the Echo Show 8, and $220 for both the Echo Studio and the Echo Show 11. Every new Echo ships with Alexa+ access in the box.

The Echo Show 8 and 11 add a sensor system Amazon calls Omnisense. It mixes a 13MP camera, audio, ultrasound, Wi-Fi, radar, and motion data. The point is that Alexa can react to your room, not just your voice. It can dim the lights when a space goes dark or pause music when you walk away.

The best Amazon Alexa gadgets to buy in 2026

So which products earn a spot at home? A recent BGR roundup tested devices for reliability, value, and how well they pair with Alexa. Here are the standouts, with the reasons each one made the list. These are the Amazon Alexa gadgets I would recommend to a friend.

Echo Dot Max. This is the easy starting point. It sounds better than past Echo Dots, with stronger bass for small and medium rooms. It also works as a smart home hub with Zigbee, Matter, and Thread support, so you may skip a separate bridge. It holds a 4.4-star average from more than 3,400 Amazon reviews.

Amazon Echo Show 8. The 8.7-inch touchscreen makes it one of the more flexible Amazon Alexa gadgets here. You get video calls with a 13MP camera, smart home controls, a photo display, and a Home Monitoring mode that turns it into a security camera. It also carries 4.4 stars across more than 4,700 reviews.

Amazon Fire TV Cube. This is Amazon’s fastest streaming box, and it doubles as an Alexa speaker. You can turn the TV on with your voice, run a movie-mode routine, and control connected gear over HDMI. With over 15,300 reviews, it averages 4.4 stars.

Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium. Alexa is built right into this thermostat. It has motion sensors, a Follow Me feature that heats the rooms you actually use, and a clear touchscreen. It earned 4.3 stars from more than 3,900 reviews.

Sonos Era 100. For people who care most about sound, this is the pick. Alexa is built in, and the audio is rich and full. It cannot act as a smart home hub, but it shines as a speaker. It holds 4.4 stars from 2,500 ratings.

Kasa Smart Plug Mini. Simple but handy. A four-pack runs about $30. Plug in a lamp or a fan, link it to Alexa, and control it by voice or schedule. With 40,000 reviews and a 4.5-star average, it is one of the most affordable Amazon Alexa gadgets you can buy.

Blink Video Doorbell. A budget doorbell that works with Alexa. It records 1440p video, offers two-way audio, and sends alerts to your Echo devices. With an Echo Show, you can see who is at the door. It averages 4.2 stars from more than 13,400 reviews.

Govee Table Lamp 2. A color-changing lamp with a clean look. It reacts to music and supports Alexa, though it needs an Echo nearby since it has no built-in microphone. It carries a strong 4.7-star rating from more than 2,100 reviews.

If you want a wider view beyond the Alexa world, our roundup of the best new gadgets to buy this spring covers more picks across categories.

How to choose

Buying Amazon Alexa gadgets comes down to a few simple checks. First, decide if you need a hub. Devices like the Echo Dot Max and Echo Show 8 support Matter, Thread, and Zigbee, which cut down on extra bridges. Second, think about sound. The Sonos Era 100 and Echo Studio lead there.

Third, watch the reviews. The strongest Amazon Alexa gadgets hold ratings above 4.2 stars across thousands of reviews. Off-brand products often look cheap and fail within months. Fourth, check Alexa+ support if you want the AI features.

The push toward agentic AI is not limited to Amazon. Browsers are joining in too, as we saw when Chrome added WebMCP so sites can hand tools to AI agents. Alexa+ fits that same direction, where assistants take actions instead of only answering questions.

Are Amazon Alexa gadgets worth it in 2026?

For most homes, yes. The mix of cheap smart plugs, capable speakers, and useful screens makes it easy to start small and grow. Amazon Alexa gadgets also tend to work well together, which is a clear advantage over piecing together products from different systems.

The free Alexa+ upgrade for Prime members adds value without a new bill. And with more than 100,000 compatible products, Amazon Alexa gadgets give you room to grow at your own pace.

Just avoid the trap of buying flashy items you will never use. Stick to devices that solve a daily problem. That is how Amazon Alexa gadgets earn a spot instead of gathering dust.

Amazon Alexa gadgets are in a good place as 2026 continues. Alexa+ made the assistant smarter. The new Echo hardware gave it better speakers, screens, and sensors. And the wider catalog still has something for every budget. If you are new to all this, start with an Echo Dot Max and a smart plug. If you want sound, look at the Sonos Era 100 or Echo Studio. Build from there. The best setup is the one that fits how you live, not the one with the most blinking lights.

The post Best Amazon Alexa Gadgets to Buy in 2026 for Your Home appeared first on Tomaro Group.

The flaw was disclosed on May 28, 2026 by security researcher Asim Manizada, who posted full details and a working proof-of-concept to the oss-security mailing list. The CVE was assigned on June 1. Patched kernels reached production repositories on June 2.

There is a second piece of news worth knowing. In early June, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency added a separate Linux kernel vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list and gave federal agencies until June 5 to fix it. So this is a busy stretch for anyone running Linux.

What this Linux kernel vulnerability actually does

CIFSwitch lives in the Linux kernel’s CIFS client, the part that lets Linux mount and read Windows-style network file shares. The bug sits in the SPNEGO authentication path. In short, the kernel fails to properly check a key description before it acts on it. The root cause is missing validation in the cifs.spnego key type, according to a security alert published by CUHK’s IT services team.

Here is the part that makes people nervous. This Linux kernel vulnerability has been in the code since 2007. That is 19 years. It sat there, unnoticed, until someone took a close look at how the kernel trusts these authentication requests.

An unprivileged user can forge a key request and trick the kernel into running a helper program as root. From there, the attacker controls what that program loads and runs. The result is a root shell.

This is a local flaw, not a remote one. An attacker needs a way to run code on the machine first. That foothold can come from many directions: a stolen developer login, a compromised web process, a malicious build job, or a container with too much access. We have seen how quickly one weak point spreads. A hacked coding tool recently reached thousands of GitHub repositories before anyone caught it.

Not the first Linux kernel vulnerability of 2026

CIFSwitch is the fifth Linux kernel vulnerability of its kind reported this year. The list now includes Copy Fail (CVE-2026-31431) on April 29 with a CVSS score of 7.8, Dirty Frag (CVE-2026-43284) on May 7, Fragnesia (CVE-2026-46300) on May 13, ssh-keysign-pwn (CVE-2026-46333) on May 21, and now CIFSwitch on May 28.

So why so many at once? It is not that the kernel suddenly got worse. The Linux kernel team became an official CVE Numbering Authority in 2024. Since then, it has started assigning CVE numbers to old, undocumented bugs. Researchers are also digging through code paths that no one had reviewed in years. CIFSwitch is a good example. The flaw dates to 2007 and went unexamined for nearly two decades.

For administrators, the routine is familiar. Apply the quick mitigation now, then schedule the kernel update and reboot. It is the same steady patch work IT teams handled during Microsoft’s May patch cycle.

CISA flags a separate Linux kernel vulnerability

The CISA warning is about a different bug, CVE-2022-0492. It is an improper authentication flaw tied to the cgroups v1 release_agent feature. Cgroups handle resource limits and isolation, and they are everywhere in containers and cloud setups.

A local attacker can abuse the release_agent function to run commands with elevated privileges. In a container, that can mean breaking out and taking over the host. CISA placed this Linux kernel vulnerability in the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which signals credible evidence that attackers are using it. Federal agencies had until June 5 to patch under Binding Operational Directive 22-01. Private organizations are not bound by that deadline, but the message is the same: do not wait.

CISA has raised this kind of alarm before, including for five zero-days under active attack flagged last month.

Who needs to pay attention

CIFSwitch does not hit every machine. Three conditions have to line up at the same time. The system needs cifs-utils installed (version 6.14 and higher is the main concern). It needs unprivileged user namespaces turned on. And it needs the CIFS kernel module loaded. On several popular distributions, those three sit there by default.

The list of affected distributions is broad. Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, Oracle Linux, and Amazon Linux can all be exposed to this Linux kernel vulnerability, depending on how they are set up. Red Hat rates the issue as Important and notes that products built on its enterprise kernel, including OpenShift, may also be affected, per its vulnerability advisory.

The bigger risk is patch speed. The Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report found that organizations take a median of 43 days to fix critical bugs. With a public exploit available, that window is plenty of time for an attacker who already has local access. The same lesson showed up when an insider attack cost Coinbase about $400 million: once someone has access, damage moves fast.

What to do now

Start by checking exposure. See whether cifs-utils is installed, whether the CIFS module is loaded, and whether unprivileged user namespaces are enabled. If you do not mount Windows or SMB shares, you likely do not need CIFS at all.

My advice is simple: break one of those three conditions today. Remove the cifs-utils package, blacklist the CIFS kernel module, or disable the cifs.spnego request-key rule. Breaking any single condition stops the attack chain. Turning off unprivileged user namespaces also helps, and it limits other kernel flaws too.

Then do the real fix. Patching the kernel is the only lasting fix for this Linux kernel vulnerability. Apply the patched kernel from your distribution. The upstream fix is already merged, and vendor updates have been rolling out since June 2. Reboot when your maintenance window allows.

For the CISA-listed cgroups flaw, the steps rhyme: update to a patched kernel, restrict access to cgroup settings, and turn off unprivileged user namespaces where you can. Watch container environments for odd activity around cgroup changes.

We will keep tracking these privilege-escalation flaws and breach reports as patches and details land.

The short version

A 19-year-old Linux kernel vulnerability, CIFSwitch, now lets a local user grab root in one command, and a working exploit is public. CISA has flagged a separate kernel flaw as actively exploited. Patches exist for both. Check your systems, apply the quick mitigation today, and schedule the kernel update. Linux runs much of the internet’s plumbing, so a few hours of patch work now can save a lot of cleanup later.

FAQs

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He joined the Trump administration in late 2024 as one of the most prominent tech industry voices in government. Now, after roughly 18 months, he’s heading out on his own terms.

If you’ve been following the latest AI leadership developments or the broader push around AI skills in the workforce, this story matters to you. It signals how U.S. AI policy is evolving and who’s steering it.

Who Is Sriram Krishnan?

Born in January 1984 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Krishnan is a tech executive, entrepreneur, and investor. He holds a B.Tech from SRM University and is married to Aarthi Ramamurthy.

Krishnan has led product teams at Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo, Facebook, and Snap, and was most recently a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a firm whose founders threw their support behind Trump during the 2024 election.

He and his wife Aarthi rose to additional prominence in 2021 as hosts of the podcast “The Aarthi and Sriram Show,” and he has a close relationship with Elon Musk, having worked with him to rebuild Twitter following Musk’s acquisition of the company in 2022.

When Trump picked him, it was a clear sign the administration wanted serious tech talent inside the building, not just outside advising from a distance.

How He Got the Role

President-elect Trump confirmed that Krishnan would serve as senior policy advisor for AI at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, stating that Krishnan would “help shape and coordinate AI policy across government, working with the president’s council of advisors on science and technology.”

A former Andreessen Horowitz partner, Krishnan was tapped by President Donald Trump to help shape AI policy during his second term. He was a key partner in the administration’s AI action plan, including policy initiatives and international diplomacy, as part of efforts to ensure “American AI dominance,” White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks noted.

He worked closely alongside David Sacks, who holds the broader “AI and crypto czar” title in the White House.

What Krishnan Actually Built in 18 Months

This is where it gets interesting. His tenure wasn’t just a title on a business card.

Among the accomplishments he highlighted were helping develop and publish the American AI Action Plan, advancing AI acceleration partnerships designed to strengthen the U.S. AI technology ecosystem globally, and contributing to the National AI Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence executive order.

The Stargate initiative, a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle announced in January 2025 with Trump present at the announcement, represented the administration’s most visible early commitment to maintaining U.S. leadership in frontier AI development. Krishnan’s role in building the policy architecture around it was central to his value to the White House.

He also pointed to his role in promoting American AI interests internationally through engagements with allies, including participation in AI summits in France and India, as well as state visits to the United Kingdom and the Middle East.

That’s a lot of ground covered in a relatively short time. The American AI Action Plan alone reshaped how companies and policymakers approach AI regulation, prioritizing data center expansion and easing regulatory friction on emerging technology.

For context, this kind of international AI diplomacy work matters because competition with China over AI dominance is a core part of the current U.S. strategy. We covered some of that tension when looking at the startup funding surge in AI and quantum technologies.

Why He’s Leaving

Krishnan has informed administration officials that he plans to leave his post as the White House senior policy adviser for AI to start an outside institution that will influence technology policy, according to a person familiar with his plans.

He didn’t spell out every detail publicly. Krishnan posted on social media that he intends to help “tackle some of the large challenges facing America” related to AI, though he did not give a specific reason for leaving his current post.

The White House didn’t treat this as bad news. White House spokesman Kush Desai said that Krishnan’s role has been vital, calling him “a critical asset for the White House and President Trump’s push to cement American dominance in technology and innovation,” and adding that “We look forward to continuing to work with Sriram in his new venture.”

That’s a warm goodbye by Washington standards.

What This Means for U.S. AI Policy

He also moved into a focused position at the National Economic Council in early 2026, signaling a maturation of the administration’s approach to AI from a collection of discrete technology initiatives into a more structured economic framework.

The groundwork he laid isn’t going anywhere. The American AI Action Plan, the executive order framework, and the international partnerships he helped build are all active. His departure creates an opening, but Reuters reported that Krishnan is expected to remain an influential voice outside government.

David Sacks continues to hold the senior AI and crypto czar role inside the White House, so there’s still a dedicated seat at the table for AI policy. But Krishnan was the one doing much of the detailed technical and diplomatic legwork.

This also fits a pattern. His exit follows a string of high-profile resignations this year, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent.

It’s worth watching whether the administration moves quickly to fill his specific role or consolidates it under Sacks.

What Krishnan Said on His Way Out

In a post on X, Krishnan said, “I’ll be leaving my role at the White House at the end of this month. After a break, I’ll be working on helping tackle some of the large challenges facing America on AI. It is hard to express how big a privilege it has been to serve the American people and how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to do so.”

He called his government service “the privilege of a lifetime” and credited David Sacks, saying: “His continuing advocacy for America winning on AI has been and continues to be crucial.”

Krishnan also noted broader challenges ahead: “Whether it is energy, data centers, or a clear path for Americans to experience the benefits of AI, there are many tough issues we all need to navigate together.”

That’s a fair summary of what’s still ahead. The policy foundation is there. The hard execution work is just beginning, whether inside government or from the outside.

If you’re following how AI is changing career paths and workplace expectations, you’ll also want to read about how hiring managers are now weighing AI skills against traditional degrees. The policy Krishnan helped build has real ripple effects on the job market.

The post Trump’s Top AI Adviser Sriram Krishnan Is Leaving the White House appeared first on Tomaro Group.

WebMCP is an open web standard, announced at Google I/O 2026, that lets websites expose structured tools to in-browser AI agents. Its experimental origin trial opens in Chrome 149 on June 2, 2026.

What Is WebMCP, in Plain English

WebMCP lets a website tell an AI agent exactly what it can do, instead of forcing the agent to guess. Google introduced it at I/O 2026 as a proposed open web standard that lets sites expose JavaScript functions and HTML forms as structured tools that browser-based AI agents can invoke directly.

The name stands for Web Model Context Protocol. Think of it as a menu. The site lists its actions, search, checkout, book a flight, file a ticket, and the agent orders from that menu through a clean interface. The browser handles the rest.

Why This Matters Right Now

For about two years, AI agents have “browsed” the web in a clumsy way. An agent loading a page has to read pixels and DOM nodes, guess what the UI is, plan a click sequence, hope nothing shifts, and pray the form submits. It looks fine in a demo. It breaks in production.

WebMCP flips the model. Rather than having an agent simulate human clicks through a website, WebMCP enables it to call machine-friendly functions to complete tasks with greater reliability and speed. The payoff for you is real: Google Chrome is getting a major upgrade that lets websites talk directly to AI agents, making online booking, shopping, and research much faster and more reliable. Anyone tracking the rise of AI assistant apps in 2026 should see WebMCP as the plumbing that makes those assistants actually useful.

How Developers Use WebMCP: Two Paths

WebMCP ships with two ways to add support, and the easier one takes minutes.

The declarative API is for simple cases. You annotate an existing HTML form with a few attributes, and the browser builds the tool schema for you. No JavaScript required. A search form gets a and a short description, and it becomes a typed, discoverable tool an agent can call.

The imperative API handles harder cases: dynamic data, multi-step flows, stateful operations. You register tools in code through. A feature check keeps things safe in browsers that do not support WebMCP yet. The tools simply do not register, and nothing breaks.

WebMCP Is Not the Same as MCP

WebMCP is a complement to MCP, not a replacement. The difference comes down to where each one runs.

Server-side MCP lives outside the browser, with its own process, infrastructure, and authentication. WebMCP runs inside the browser tab. That means it can use the user’s live session, cookies, and current page state. No extra sign-ins. No API keys to juggle. The practical split is straightforward: use MCP for backend and headless agent work, and use WebMCP for actions inside a page where the user is already logged in.

Where Things Actually Stand

Support is early, and the browser picture is mixed. Microsoft co-authored the spec and shipped Edge 147 support in March 2026. That gives WebMCP two major browser makers behind it. The gaps are real, though. Firefox and Safari have made no commitments, and Anthropic’s 2026 MCP roadmap doesn’t mention WebMCP.

The spec is not ratified yet either. The spec lives in the W3C Web Machine Learning Community Group, not yet on the W3C official Standards Track. Still, scale is on Google’s side. Chrome holds roughly 65% browser market share, Edge adds another 5%, and a pattern supported by 70% of browsers backed by both Google and Microsoft is not a niche bet. You can read the full proposal and API details in Chrome’s WebMCP documentation for developers.

This launch fits a wider pattern of browser-based AI agents reshaping daily tasks, and it lands the same week other major Chrome AI updates from Google I/O reached users.

What You Can Do Before Chrome 149 Lands

You do not need to wait for June 2 to start. Right now, WebMCP is available in Chrome 146 Canary behind the “WebMCP for testing” flag at chrome://flags.

Map your site’s tool surface first. List the actions an agent would legitimately want: search, filter, submit, navigate. The declarative API is cheap enough that adding it before the trial costs almost nothing. For testing, enable the flag, install the Model Context Tool Inspector extension, and confirm your tools show up correctly. The tooling is rough at this stage, but the programming model is stable enough to build against. Developers watching how AI skills drive career growth in 2026 have a clear reason to learn this one early.

The Takeaway

WebMCP is infrastructure, not a feature. It answers a question every browser agent has been brute-forcing for years: how does an agent know what a page can do? Starting June 2, 2026, Chrome 149 gives that question a real answer. The standard still needs Firefox, Safari, and W3C sign-off to become truly universal. But with Google and Microsoft already shipping it across most of the browser market, the direction is set. If you build for the web, this is the moment to start mapping your tools.

The post Google’s WebMCP Goes Live in Chrome 149: How Websites Will Talk to AI Agents appeared first on Tomaro Group.

WebMCP is a proposed open web standard that lets websites expose structured tools to in-browser AI agents. It enters a public origin trial in Chrome 149 on June 2, 2026, replacing fragile screen scraping with direct, declared tool calls.

What Is WebMCP, in Plain Terms?

WebMCP lets a website hand an AI agent a set of ready-made tools instead of forcing the agent to scrape the page. The full name is Web Model Context Protocol. Think of a labeled control panel a browser agent can operate directly.

Today’s browser agents work the hard way. They take a screenshot, ask a model to find the “Add to cart” button, click, wait, and screenshot again. That loop is slow, costly, and breaks the second a designer renames a CSS class.

WebMCP swaps the guessing for a stable contract. Your site declares what it can do. The agent calls those functions with user permission. No pixel hunting required.

Why Google Made This Move at I/O 2026

Google announced WebMCP at its I/O 2026 developer keynote on May 19, with the companion documentation posted the day before by Chrome’s Alexandra Klepper. The announcement marks the first time the proposed web standard has been made testable on production traffic.

The timing is not random. Google framed the whole event around what it calls the agentic web, where AI agents act as first-class users of the internet. WebMCP is the plumbing that makes that vision work without breaking existing sites. It sits alongside Google’s broader push into agent tooling, the same direction driving its multi-billion-dollar AI infrastructure spending over the past year.

Gemini in Chrome will support WebMCP APIs, with Gemini Spark, Google’s cloud-based personal agent, expected to be among the first to call these tools. That puts a real consumer agent behind the standard, not just a spec on paper.

How WebMCP Actually Works

WebMCP gives developers two ways to expose tools. Both are thin layers on patterns the web already supports.

The Declarative Surface

You annotate existing HTML forms. A search box, a checkout form, a booking field. The agent reads those annotations and knows exactly what each input expects. No new framework needed.

The Imperative Surface

You register JavaScript functions as callable tools. An agent can invoke a function like or and get a structured result back. This handles the logic that a plain form cannot.

Right now the feature lives in Chrome 146 Canary behind a “WebMCP for testing” flag. The origin trial opens with Chrome 149 on June 2. Developers can register a domain and ship WebMCP support to real users during the trial window.

Microsoft Co-Wrote It, but Apple and Mozilla Are Quiet

Microsoft co-authored the WebMCP spec and shipped Edge 147 support back in March 2026. That matters. Chrome holds roughly 65% browser market share, and Edge adds another 5%, so a pattern backed by both Google and Microsoft covers around 70% of browsers.

The gap is on the other side. Firefox and Safari have made no commitments, and Anthropic’s 2026 MCP roadmap does not mention WebMCP. The spec currently sits in the W3C Web Machine Learning Community Group, not on the official W3C Standards Track. So this is a strong proposal with heavy backing, not a ratified standard yet.

That distinction is fair to keep in mind. A Chromium-preferred pattern is not the same as a universal web standard. Still, 70% browser support out of the gate is a serious starting position.

The agent-tooling space has been crowded lately. Anthropic has pushed hard on the same theme with its agentic coding upgrades in Claude Opus 4.7, and the broader coding gains across the Claude 4 line show how fast this category is moving. WebMCP is Google’s answer at the browser layer.

What Site Owners Should Do Before June 2

Start by reading the spec and testing one tool on a staging branch. You do not need to rebuild your site. The smart first step is annotating a single high-value form, like search or checkout, and registering for the origin trial token.

The strategic shift is the real headline. For most of early 2026, site owners asked how to stop agents from breaking their pages. From Chrome 149 onward, the question flips to how to become the site an agent prefers to use. As more shoppers lean on the AI assistant apps now topping the charts, being agent-readable starts to look like basic SEO for a new era.

There is a security upside too. Structured tool calls with explicit user authorization beat blind automation that mimics clicks. After incidents like the GitHub breach tied to a compromised coding tool, a model where sites declare exactly what agents may do is a cleaner trust boundary.

You can follow the trial details on the official Chrome for Developers documentation and track the standardization status through the W3C community group.

My Read on This

Faster AI models ship every few months. That is a cadence, not a story. WebMCP is different because it is infrastructure. It changes how websites and agents talk to each other at the protocol level.

The June 2 origin trial will not flip the web overnight. Adoption depends on Gemini in Chrome actually calling these tools at scale, and on Safari and Firefox eventually showing up. But the direction is clear. Sites that get agent-readable early will be the ones agents reach for by default. The ones that wait may spend the back half of 2026 wondering why a competitor keeps getting recommended instead.

The post WebMCP Lands in Chrome 149: Google’s Bid to Rewire How AI Agents Use the Web appeared first on Tomaro Group.

Fortnite returned to the Apple App Store worldwide on May 19, 2026, except in Australia. In its first week back, it racked up 3.4 million downloads globally, making it the game’s fourth-best week on mobile since its 2018 launch.

Fortnite iOS App Store Return: What Happened on May 19

Fortnite came back to the App Store in every country except Australia on May 19, 2026. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney announced the move on X, calling it the start of the “final battle” in the company’s years-long legal standoff with Apple.

This wasn’t a soft relaunch. Epic framed the global rollout as a strategic victory in its ongoing antitrust war with Apple, and excluded Australia specifically because Epic claims Apple is defying a local court ruling there.

The timing was calculated. Epic said the decision was prompted by Apple’s own words to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Apple acknowledged that regulators around the world are watching the case to determine what commission rate Apple may charge on purchases in major markets outside the United States. Sweeney seized on that admission publicly.

3.4 Million Downloads in the First Week

The player response was massive. According to analytics firm AppMagic, as reported by PocketGamer, Fortnite was downloaded 3.4 million times between May 19 and May 26, 2026.

That figure represents the game’s fourth-strongest week ever on the iOS App Store and its most successful seven-day stretch since its original launch month back in 2018. To put that in perspective: Fortnite’s launch week in 2018 saw 3.7 million downloads. Week 2 of its original mobile run hit 3.1 million. This comeback week cleared that mark.

That’s the kind of pent-up demand that builds over six years of absence from most iOS devices worldwide.

A Six-Year Battle That Reshaped App Store Rules

How Did Fortnite Get Removed From the App Store?

The controversy started in August 2020, when Apple required all iOS developers to use Apple’s payment system for in-app purchases, with commissions reaching up to 30% on digital transactions. Epic pushed back by offering players a cheaper direct-payment option inside the app, which violated Apple’s terms. Apple pulled Fortnite immediately.

What followed was one of the most closely watched antitrust cases in tech history. Fortnite first returned to the U.S. App Store in May 2025, after District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers threatened to require an Apple official overseeing app decisions to appear in court.

The Fortnite vs. Apple saga is now in its final legal chapter. In late April 2026, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a stay that had allowed Apple to pause compliance with rulings on App Store fees, sending the case back to Judge Gonzalez Rogers to determine what commission Apple can charge on purchases made through external links.

Why Australia Was Left Out

Why Can’t Australian Players Download Fortnite?

Australian players are blocked because Epic says Apple is actively defying a court order there. Epic claims Apple is ignoring a local ruling in Australia, which is the specific reason that country was excluded from the global rollout.

It’s the one market where the legal dispute hasn’t resolved to Epic’s satisfaction. Every other major market got access on May 19.

The App Store Landscape Fortnite Returned To

The mobile app environment in May 2026 looks nothing like 2020. Three AI assistants, specifically ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, now hold three of the top five free app positions on the App Store, a structural shift that has redrawn category competition entirely.

Fortnite walked back into a busier, more competitive environment. Global app releases grew 60 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026 across both the App Store and Google Play, with iOS app launches up 80 percent during that same period. Early April data showed an even steeper jump, with total releases up more than 100 percent.

The surge in AI assistant apps dominating the charts has changed what “top of the App Store” even means now. Gaming still matters, but it shares real estate with AI tools in a way it never did before.

For more on how AI is reshaping mobile, the mobile apps category on tomarogroup.com covers the ongoing shifts week by week.

What the Numbers Mean for Epic vs. Apple

3.4 million downloads in one week is more than a comeback story. It’s a proof point Epic will use in court.

Epic argues that Apple’s fee structure is unsustainable under global regulatory pressure, and the company wants long-term changes to how the App Store operates. Strong download numbers reinforce the argument that Fortnite belongs on iOS and that there is genuine consumer demand Apple was blocking for years.

App Store algorithm volatility has also been significant in May 2026, with Paramount+ jumping 45 positions overnight and Netflix Game Controller spiking 49 positions the previous weekend, reflecting an unpredictable ranking environment. Fortnite landed in that environment and still pulled historic numbers.

The AI-driven changes across the software industry are also pushing developers to reconsider how they build and distribute apps. Epic’s push against Apple’s 30 percent commission fits into a broader developer frustration with platform gatekeeping.

What Comes Next for Epic and Apple

The Supreme Court angle is the one to watch. Apple’s own admission to the court, that international regulators are watching the commission rate question closely, gave Epic exactly the leverage it needed to make this global move now.

Sweeney framed the return as heading into the final battle of Epic vs. Apple in court. The Ninth Circuit’s April 2026 ruling keeps the fee question alive. A ruling from Judge Gonzalez Rogers on what Apple can charge through external links could set a precedent that changes how every app developer monetizes on iOS.

For context on how tech companies are managing legal and AI-related pressures right now, Jamie Dimon’s AI leadership warnings for CEOs in 2026 cover some of the same platform-disruption themes playing out across the industry.

My Read on This

Six years is a long time for any game to stay relevant without mobile access. That Fortnite pulled 3.4 million iOS downloads in its first week back tells you two things. First, the brand held up. Second, there was real demand Apple’s policies suppressed for years.

The legal fight isn’t over. But for the first time since 2020, players in almost every country can open the App Store, search for Fortnite, and download it on their iPhone or iPad. That alone is a meaningful shift, regardless of how the court battle ends.

The post Fortnite Hits 3.4 Million iOS Downloads in One Week After Global App Store Return appeared first on Tomaro Group.

Quick Answer: As of May 2026, AI assistant apps including ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini hold three of the top five free app positions on the Apple App Store, marking the first time AI tools have collectively dominated the charts at this scale.

What the App Store Charts Look Like Right Now

The numbers are hard to argue with. Three of the top five free apps on the App Store as of May 2026 are AI assistants: ChatGPT at number one, Claude at number four, and Gemini at number five.

That concentration at the top is unlike anything the App Store has seen before. Social media giants and streaming platforms used to own these positions. Now they’re being pushed down by AI tools.

May 2026 has been one of the most eventful months for app developers and marketers in recent memory, with AI-powered discovery and structural chart changes demanding attention across the industry.

This isn’t a temporary spike. Analysts tracking app store data describe it as a permanent realignment of what users reach for first on their phones.

Why AI Assistant Apps Are Winning Downloads

Is this just a trend, or is something deeper happening?

It’s deeper. Contrary to earlier predictions that artificial intelligence would reduce reliance on mobile apps, new data suggests the opposite: the app ecosystem is seeing a sharp rise in activity, with AI playing a key role in driving a new wave of development.

People predicted AI chatbots would kill the app economy. Instead, they became the app economy’s biggest stars.

AI-powered apps ranging from chatbots and image generators to productivity assistants are dominating download charts and revenue rankings across both iOS and Android platforms, with many of the most popular AI apps worldwide reaching millions of users within weeks of launch.

There’s a feedback loop at work here. More users download AI apps. More developers build AI apps. More AI apps flood the charts. The cycle accelerates.

The technology and mobile apps space hasn’t seen competitive pressure like this in years.

The App Release Surge Behind the Charts

How fast is the overall app market growing in 2026?

Extremely fast. According to market intelligence provider Appfigures, worldwide app releases in Q1 2026 were up 60% year-over-year across both Apple’s App Store and Google Play, with the iOS App Store alone showing an 80% increase. In April 2026, total app releases were up 104% across both stores compared to the same period last year.

That’s a doubling of output in a single year.

AI tools are making it easier for individuals to build apps, even without formal coding skills. Platforms using AI-assisted development are lowering the barrier to entry, enabling creators to quickly turn ideas into functional software.

The apps being built also look different now. While games still lead in absolute volume, Utilities has climbed to second place, Lifestyle to third, and Productivity plus Health and Fitness are entering the top five. In some markets, four of the top six free apps are AI-related.

For anyone tracking artificial intelligence trends in tech, this is the clearest sign yet of where the industry is heading.

Google Play Is Changing Too

Apple isn’t the only platform being reshaped. Google is moving fast on its own side.

Google is rapidly moving from keyword-based discovery toward AI-powered curation, deepening its AI-powered discovery tools within Google Play in May 2026.

The Ask Play feature introduced with Google Play Store v49 enables users to find apps by speaking with an AI assistant inside the app store. This assistant can summarize user reviews, compare app features with competing apps, and answer specific questions from users.

That changes how apps get found. It puts more pressure on developers to optimize not just for search keywords but for how an AI summarizes their app to a potential user.

Google’s May 2026 system updates also added new developer features to support Utilities-related processes in apps, along with expanded language support for in-app gaming discussions, now available in Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Fortnite’s Return Adds Another Layer to the Story

The AI story isn’t the only big mobile news this month.

Fortnite is back on the App Store in every country except Australia, Epic Games announced on May 19, 2026, as the company declared it is entering the “final battle” of its long-running legal dispute with Apple.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney declared the return marks “the beginning of the end of the Apple Tax worldwide,” with the move prompted by Apple’s own statements to the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledging that regulators around the world are watching the case.

This legal fight matters beyond Fortnite. The outcome could permanently change the mobile gaming industry by reducing platform restrictions and giving studios more freedom over payment systems and storefront distribution.

The Fortnite worldwide App Store return in May 2026 is a story worth following closely as Apple’s court case reaches its final stages.

What This Means for App Developers

The competitive landscape in May 2026 is brutal if you’re building a traditional app. And it’s wide open if you’re building something with AI at the core.

AI-native apps are pulling rankings away from traditional categories, and the competitive dynamics within the AI vertical are intensifying rapidly. Developers in adjacent categories need to account for AI apps in their competitive analysis and keyword strategies.

A new meta-category is effectively emerging: AI apps that compete across productivity, education, and utilities simultaneously, blurring traditional category boundaries. Category ranking is no longer siloed; a competitor may come from an entirely different category serving overlapping user needs. For companies watching how AI skills are reshaping career and tech hiring in 2026, the App Store charts are real-time evidence of where demand is concentrated.

Security is also a rising concern. Apple has already reported large-scale enforcement actions, including rejecting hundreds of thousands of submissions and blocking tens of thousands of potentially harmful apps. Analysts argue platforms need systems that track rising apps in real time, especially those gaining rapid popularity, to prevent harmful or misleading apps from reaching users.

Anyone who read about the Coinbase insider data breach in 2026 already knows how quickly trust can erode when platforms drop the ball on security. The same risk applies to app stores if vetting doesn’t keep pace with volume.

My Read on This

The App Store charts in May 2026 tell a simple story: AI won mobile. ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini sitting in the Top 5 isn’t a coincidence. It’s the result of years of investment, user behavior change, and a tech ecosystem that bet heavily on conversational AI.

The app release surge, the Google Play AI overhaul, and the Fortnite legal endgame are all part of the same bigger picture. The mobile platform wars are entering a new phase, and the winners this time around are the ones who built AI into their core product from day one.

If you’re a developer, a marketer, or just a phone user, the app on your home screen is about to look very different a year from now.

The post AI Assistant Apps Are Taking Over the App Store in May 2026 appeared first on Tomaro Group.