Donald Trump “may decide he needs to take further action” to stop Iran enriching uranium, vice-president JD Vance said on Tuesday.

Trump was “only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people’s goals”, said Vance, who has taken a more isolationist stance on foreign policy than many other Republicans, in comments on X.

Vance also wrote that the president “may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian [uranium] enrichment”, referring to the process that can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons-grade material. “That decision ultimately belongs to the president,” he added.

His comments came less than an hour before Trump called for Tehran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” on his own Truth Social network and boasted that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was an “easy target”.

Trump also highlighted the US’s contribution to Israel’s war effort, associating Washington with the country’s claim to have established air superiority over Tehran.

French President Emmanuel Macron, however, has warned that it would be the “biggest error” to seek regime change in Iran, warning that the ousting of the Iranian leaders would lead to “chaos”.

Washington has adopted a defensive posture in the conflict, according to US officials, but this has included helping Israel to shoot down incoming Iranian missiles and drones using American naval ships in the Mediterranean. 

If the US were to intervene directly, it might deploy B-2 stealth bombers deployed in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities.

One such target could be the uranium enrichment facility at Fordow near the city of Qom, which is dug into a mountainside under dozens of metres of reinforced concrete.

Iran has said it will only agree to negotiate an end to the conflict and resume talks over its nuclear programme if Israeli forces halted their bombing campaign, according to diplomats.

Israel has launched waves of missiles into Iran since it began its attack on Friday. Iran has retaliated with volleys of missiles across Israel. Both sides have sustained casualties.

“Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers, will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company,” he wrote in a company-wide email that was also published on Amazon’s corporate blog.

But no matter how geeked Amazon employees get over new AI tools, Jassy also made a point to note that there’s not room on the bus for everybody: “We expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”

As I read this note – and I recommend reading the whole thing – some questions quickly came to mind. Are some parts of Amazon’s vast organization highly resistant to the new technology and perhaps in need of a public nudge (or, kick in the butt), in Jassy’s view? Seems likely. Is the public memo a wink-wink to Wall Street that the company’s heavy AI investments will eventually pay off by delivering significant cost reductions? I suppose.

Is the note meant to provide some glossy AI cover for imminent or future mass layoffs that may have nothing, or just something, to do with AI actually eating some corporate tasks? I guess that’s possible too, though I find it less likely. 

And are the parts of the essay where Jassy methodically outlines the various ways Amazon already uses Gen AI (a ritutal he has performed publicly on more than one occasion this year), designed to thrust Amazon into AI-dominated news cycles that often feature many other companies not named Amazon? Perhaps. 

No matter the exact goal or impetus, and Amazon isn’t saying what exactly the impetus for this public memo was, Jassy seems like the right leader for the current job – especially on the cost-cutting or, as he referred to it in his annual shareholder letter in April, the “cost avoidance and productivity” bucket of Gen AI impact. 

I don’t mean to discount Jassy’s ability to lead on the innovation front. He transformed and led Amazon Web Services after all, from its infancy, into the behemoth cloud provider it is today.

But ever since taking over as CEO from Jeff Bezos in 2021, Jassy has also become the company’s chief cost-cutter and has appeared comfortable in the role. 

He has overseen the largest corporate layoffs in company history in recent years (joining other Big Tech companies like Meta, Alphabet, and Salesforce which all slashed headcounts after over-hiring in the pandemic).

His logistic teams have rejiggered the U.S. warehouse network and inventory systems to reduce the cost of getting each product to a customer. 

And he’s also pushed teams to accelerate the automation of some warehouse tasks, which over time could allow the company to do more with less—or at least more with the same. 

Some of these moves were necessitated by Bezos handing over to Jassy a bloated and sometimes wasteful company when the CEO transition happened nearly four years ago. But it also appears to this close observer of the company that Jassy is quite comfortable in the role; though whether he enjoys it or simply accepts it I don’t know. 

So, whether Amazon’s AI jobs shakeout turns out to be a painful retrenching, a gradual recalibration, or something else entirely, recent history seems to suggest the company, if nothing else, has the right man for the job.

Europe’s competition watchdog – the European Commission – revealed in April that it was preparing to investigate Universal Music Group‘s proposed acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings.

UMG was required to formally notify the EU about the deal, which would kickstart a Phase 1 investigation, at the end of which we’ll find out if the deal has been approved or raises serious competition concerns.

We won’t have long to wait.

An update filed by the regulator on Monday (June 16) confirms that UMG has notified the EC about the deal. The EC has set a provisional deadline of July 22 to make its decision in the Phase 1 investigation.

UMG’s Virgin Music Group revealed in December that it had agreed to buy Downtown Music Holdings LLC in a $775 million deal.

The UMG-Downtown deal did not meet the EU’s standard turnover thresholds that would typically require notification to Brussels, bit it did trigger notification requirements in both the Netherlands and Austria based on their respective national thresholds.

The EC decided to look into the deal because the Netherlands triggered a legal mechanism in EU competition law called Article 22. Austria subsequently joined the referral.

The competition authority has 25 working days to conduct its Phase 1 investigation, examining whether the alleged “concentration” raises serious competition concerns.

The formal Phase 1 notification period represents a crucial milestone in the regulatory process.

If the Commission identifies serious competition concerns during its initial review of the proposed deal, the case could progress to a more extensive Phase II investigation lasting up to 90 working days.

According to European Commission statistics, “more than 90% of all cases are resolved in Phase I, generally without remedies,” which implies that less than 10% of cases proceed to Phase II.

At the conclusion, the Commission can either clear the merger (with or without conditions), or prohibit it entirely if competition concerns cannot be adequately addressed.

Read MBW’s recent Article 22 explainer for a detailed breakdown of how the investigation process works.

The acquisition would significantly expand UMG’s artist and label services capabilities through Virgin Music Group, adding Downtown’s portfolio of companies including FUGA, CD Baby, and Curve Royalty Systems to Universal’s global operations.

“We are confident that we will close this acquisition in the second half of the year, on its original timeline.”

UMG statement issued in April

Independent label representatives have criticized UMG’s proposed deal to buy the company. In April, Brussels-based IMPALA, which represents over 6,000 independent music companies in Europe, welcomed the European Commission’s decision to investigate the proposed deal.

UMG remains confident about the deal’s prospects, stating in April: “We look forward to continuing to co-operate with the European Commission in the weeks ahead. We are confident that we will close this acquisition in the second half of the year, on its original timeline.”Music Business Worldwide