|
Tech Succession: Apple’s CEO to Hand Reins to Deputy After Record-Setting Run (Bloomberg)
Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook will hand the reins to hardware boss John Ternus later this year, capping a 15-year tenure that turned the company into a business worth $4 trillion that spans watches, video streaming and financial services.
Ternus will become CEO on Sept. 1, when Cook will transition to executive chairman, the company said in a statement Monday.
Ternus, 50, has served as head of hardware engineering since 2021 and spent 25 years focused on product development at the iPhone maker. Bloomberg News previously reported that Ternus was Cook’s heir apparent.
President
Trump posted on Trump Social this morning regarding Apple's succession plans: "I have always been a big fan of Tim Cook, and likewise, Steve Jobs, but if Steve was not taken from the Planet Earth so young, and ran the company instead of Tim, the company would have done well, but nowhere near as well as it has under Tim."
Art of the Refund: Trump Administration to Begin Refunding $166 Billion in Tariffs (New York Times)
When President Trump unveiled his sprawling global tariffs last spring, he boasted that they would generate windfall profits and “make America wealthy again.”
But after suffering a significant Supreme Court defeat, Trump is about to pay the money back.
The Trump administration on Monday is set to take its first steps toward returning more than $166 billion collected from tariffs that were struck down in February. Just over a year after imposing many of the duties, the government is expected to begin accepting requests for refunds, surrendering its prized source of revenue — plus interest.
By Monday morning, companies could begin submitting documentation to the government to recover what they paid in illegal tariffs. In a sign of the expected demand, more than 3,000 businesses, including FedEx and Costco, had already sued the Trump administration in a bid to secure their refunds before the application website launched, with some cases filed even predating the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Mideast Deal Clock: Trump Aims to Seal Iran Deal, Says Truce Extension Unlikely (Bloomberg)
President Trump said he’s not likely to extend the two-week ceasefire with Iran, increasing the urgency for negotiators to conclude a deal to end the war.
Trump said in a Monday phone interview that the truce, which he announced April 7, expires on “Wednesday evening Washington time” — possibly buying more time for negotiations. But the president also said it’s “highly unlikely that I’d extend it” if no deal is reached before then.
“I’m not going to be rushed into making a bad deal. We’ve got all the time in the world,” the president said.
In the interview, Trump reiterated that the Strait of Hormuz would stay blockaded for now, saying “the Iranians desperately want it opened. I’m not opening it until a deal is signed.” Iran previously said it would open the critical waterway for energy supplies to international shipping, but reversed that decision in light of Trump’s refusal to follow suit.
Details about the next negotiating session, expected to take place in Pakistan, started to come into focus on Monday. Iran is also sending a team, although it is not clear who would lead the delegation. Earlier, Tehran said it was hesitant to participate in further peace talks with the US.
Poll: Majority Of Voters Blame Trump For Recent Rise In Gas Prices (Quinnipiac University)
If You Can't Measure It, You Can't Manage It: Lagarde Says War’s ‘Double Uncertainty’ Calls for More Data (Bloomberg)
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said two main factors around the Iran war are hampering efforts to map out a monetary-policy response.
The length of the disruption and the potential spillover of energy prices to broader inflation are complicating the ECB’s job, Lagarde said Monday in Berlin.
“This double uncertainty about the duration of the shock and the breadth of pass-through argues for gathering more information before drawing firm conclusions for our monetary policy,” she told the annual reception of the Association of German Banks.
Today on Capitol Hill: Fed
Pick Kevin Warsh to Face Senate Grilling With Confirmation in Limbo (Bloomberg)
Big Tech Move: Amazon to Invest an Additional $5 Billion in Anthropic (Bloomberg)
Future of Venezuela: Machado Says She’ll Return This Year, Testing Venezuela’s Leader (Bloomberg)
María Corina Machado said she will return to Venezuela this year, a move that will test acting President Delcy Rodríguez’s tolerance for dissent and the US commitment to back the opposition leader it once pledged to protect.
MAGA Bots: Hundreds of Fake Pro-Trump Avatars Emerge on Social Media (New York Times)
In the months leading up to the US midterm elections, hundreds of accounts have emerged on social media featuring A.I.-generated pro-Trump influencers posting at a rapid pace about the “radical left” and “America First.”
They tend to appear as ordinary — if very good-looking — men and women, gazing flirtatiously at the camera while pontificating about the war in Iran, abortion or Bad Bunny. President Trump has reposted content from at least one of the accounts — a platinum blond avatar making
unfounded claims about California’s governor.
The New York Times began tracking MAGA-boosting, A.I.-generated TikTok posts in January and discovered at least 304 accounts sharing the content, some of which have since disappeared. Several accounts have already amassed more than 35,000 followers. Some of the posts have more than half a million views.
The emergence of the A.I.-generated political avatars, researchers said, suggests a sweeping effort to hook conservative voters, a demographic primed by the president and his circle to accept memes,
influencers, deepfakes and other digitally packaged messaging.
UK Transit Alert: London Workers Brace for Travel Chaos in Latest Tube Strike (Bloomberg)
London commuters are facing significant travel disruption again this week with drivers on the city’s Underground train network poised to walk out in a dispute over working hours.
Staff on the Tube will push ahead with industrial action after talks failed on an agreement over Transport for London’s plan to allow drivers to condense their five-day week into four days by working longer hours.
Walkouts will take place over two 24-hour periods this week, with the first starting at 12 p.m. on Tuesday. More are planned for next month and also for June.
Record Performance: Boston Marathon Sets Men’s Course Mark as 30,000+ Runners Turn Out (NBC Boston)
Monday marked the 130th Boston Marathon,
the world's oldest and most prestigious annual marathon. More than 30,000 runners from around the world competed in the 26.2-mile race from Hopkinton to Copley Square.
Kenya's
John Korir won his second straight Boston Marathon in the men's division, finishing at 2:01:52 and setting a new course record for Boston. Fellow Kenyan Sharon Lokedi, the defending women's winner, also repeated as champion with a time of 2:18:51.
|
