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April 20, 2026 
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Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Monday.
- Apple’s next C.E.O. is John Ternus
- Vance is expected to head to Pakistan
- Plus, the Ferrari of espresso machines
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| Tim Cook in 2023. Jim Wilson/The New York Times |
Apple’s C.E.O. will step down
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said today that he would step down later this year. His nearly 15-year tenure as the head of the iPhone maker was one of the most successful management runs in American history. Annual profits quadrupled to more than $110 billion under his leadership.
Cook, 65, will become Apple’s executive chairman in September. He will be replaced by John Ternus, the 50-year-old head of hardware engineering. Ternus, who joined Apple in 2001 and oversaw the development of Macs and iPads, is known for his knowledge of Apple’s vast supply network and for being an even-tempered collaborator. Read more about Apple’s next leader.
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| Vice President JD Vance, center, in Islamabad earlier this month. Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin |
U.S. and Iran prepare for another round of peace talks
As the U.S.-Iran cease-fire nears expiration, Vice President JD Vance is expected to travel to Pakistan tomorrow along with a team of American negotiators. Iranian officials also said that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, would attend a second round of peace talks if Vance showed up.
Those plans indicated that both the U.S. and Iran were still expecting to sit down this week and discuss potential diplomatic offramps, even after President Trump and Iranian leaders traded threats over the past few days.
The war’s two-week truce is being tested in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran threatened to retaliate after U.S. forces seized a sanctioned Iranian cargo ship near the strait, calling it “piracy.” The U.S. has now turned back 27 ships heading for or leaving Iranian ports, officials said, and only five ships passed through the strait today.
In other news from the Middle East:
In the U.S.:
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| A memorial by one of the homes where children were killed in Shreveport, La. Gerald Herbert/Associated Press |
Relatives and locals struggle to process the killing of 8 children
The authorities in Shreveport, La., are still investigating yesterday’s shooting spree, in which a 31-year-old man killed eight children, seven of whom were his own, and wounded two adults, including his wife. The police, who said the victims were shot execution-style, have not yet offered a motive. Here’s what we know.
The gunman, Shamar Elkins, had mental health problems and had recently expressed suicidal thoughts, family members said in interviews. Elkins, his relatives said, had also recently been stressed about his relationship with his wife and described himself as being haunted by “dark thoughts.”
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| Ukrainian soldiers with an unmanned ground vehicle in the Donbas region last year. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times |
Ukraine, short on troops, is turning to robots
As Ukraine’s war against Russia stretches into its fifth year, Kyiv has been seeking new ways to defend itself without risking heavy losses of soldiers. Increasingly, it is using unmanned ground vehicles, which can look like a mix between a wagon and a miniature tank, armed with bombs, guns or rockets. President Volodymyr Zelensky recently released video that showed robots forcing Russian troops to surrender their position.
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| Central Park hit 90 degrees on Wednesday, the hottest temperature for the date since records began in 1869. Jeenah Moon/Reuters |
A brisk day in the Northeast, for the weather and runners alike
Last week, parts of the Northeast hit 90 degrees. Today, as temperatures in the region are expected to fall into the 30s, I saw a number of jackets on my morning commute. Even for the spring, that’s a big swing.
The windier conditions benefited the competitors at today’s Boston Marathon. With strong gusts at their back, John Korir and Sharon Lokedi both defended their titles, and Korir broke the course record. (Korir’s 2:01:52 time is among the five fastest marathons ever, but Boston times do not qualify for world-record lists because the course ends 400 feet lower than it starts).
More top news
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| The New York Times |
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| Roe Ethridge |
How to be cultured
One of the great things about my job is that I get to constantly learn from my colleagues, who are experts in their fields. Yet there is so much that I still don’t know — about the world and the culture that shapes it. That’s where T Magazine’s new project comes in handy.
They created more than five dozen guides that explain many of the most important cultural influences in the worlds of film, literature, art, food, music, theater, architecture and fashion. They also created a quiz so that you can test your knowledge of culture.
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| Ayden Spellman at chess camp. Sara Naomi Lewkowicz for The New York Times |
Elite youth chess is booming in New York
This spring break, Ayden Spellman, an 11-year-old from Brooklyn, wanted to play chess. He had recently attained a 1900 rating — just below expert level — and he was glad to get more of his coaches’ undivided attention during his week away from school.
Chess became his obsession after he played in his first tournament in 2023, and there are many others like Ayden. The game has exploded in popularity since the pandemic, and kids from New York City schools are consistently winning national chess championships.
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| The New York Times |
Dinner table topics
- Bruce the parrot, who has no top beak, become the alpha male of his group by learning to joust.
- To play a man with Tourette’s, in “I Swear,” Robert Aramayo set aside the script and improvised his tics.
- Scam or not: Does dry needling actually relieve pain?
- The phenomenon known as Earthset was captured on video for the first time by the Artemis II astronauts. Take a look.
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