The Brutalist Report

Fortune

• Hillhouse-backed Ascentium buys fellow business services firm Dezan Shira, as the platform tries to ride China’s surge in outbound investment [4h]
• Trump insists there’s no pressure to end the war in Iran that he started, but ‘it will all happen, relatively quickly!’ [5h]
• This Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree: Tim Cook is leaving at a peak and John Ternus is exactly the right CEO for the AI era [5h]
• Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer leaves Trump’s Cabinet after allegations of having an affair with a subordinate and drinking on the job [7h]
• Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin grounds New Glenn rocket after a bad engine put a satellite in the wrong orbit [7h]
• Nike’s ‘Walkers Tolerated’ sign at the Boston Marathon was meant to fire up runners. Instead, it insulted them. [8h]
• Struggling AI power startup Fermi loses its CEO and CFO for ‘2.0’ reset [8h]
• ‘Tethered to a galaxy far, far away’: former diplomats doubt Trump’s Iran talks can deliver in final 48 hours [8h]
• $166 billion in tariff refunds just became available, but small businesses may already be at a disadvantage [9h]
• Meet John Ternus, the 51-year-old former swimming champ who will succeed Tim Cook as Apple CEO [9h]
• Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down, and hardware boss John Ternus will be new CEO [9h]
• White House-backed USA Rare Earth makes $3 billion acquisition into South America to combat Chinese dominance [10h]
• Palantir wants to bring back the draft just as the Selective Service preps for automatic registration [10h]
• Two Southwest Airline planes narrowly avoided a collision in Nashville on Saturday [10h]
• Half of all new electricity demand in the U.S. last year came from data centers—just as public opinion of them plummets [11h]
• Ford’s CEO says Tesla doesn’t have an ‘updated vehicle,’ and now he’s pivoting to catch up with his real competitor: China’s BYD [12h]
• This talent CEO says laid-off tech workers are ignoring a $300K ‘white-collar trade job’ with 81K openings a year [14h]
• FBI Director Kash Patel sues The Atlantic over ‘malicious hit piece’ alleging excessive drinking [14h]
• Billionaire Connie Ballmer just donated $80 million to support NPR after Trump cut $1.1 billion from public broadcasting [14h]
• UAE officials reportedly warned they may be forced to use yuan or other currencies if they run low on dollars amid the Iran war [14h]
• Italian court rules every Netflix price hike from 2017 to 2024 unlawful and orders the company to refund subscribers up to 500 euros [14h]
• Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says AI assistants will act more like overbearing managers rather than job destroyers: ‘They’ll be micromanaging you’ [15h]
• French prosecutors summon Elon Musk over X’s alleged “complicity” in spreading child abuse materials [15h]
• Rubber bullet carnage as 1,000 animal welfare activists storm beagle breeding lab in Wisconsin [16h]
• Spirit Airlines looked it was in the clear of reemerging from bankruptcy, but rising fuel costs threaten its exit [16h]
• At first meeting of Obama, Mamdani, they read to preschoolers and led a singalong [16h]
• It’s crunch time for Kevin Warsh: Here’s how he might begin selling the idea of rate cuts—it requires some complex economic gymnastics [17h]
• Current price of oil as of April 20, 2026 [17h]
• The AI layoff trap: How cutting headcount could backfire on corporate America [18h]
• The AI layoff trap: How cutting headcount could backfire on corporate America [18h]
• Warren Buffett’s favorite market indicator is flashing a warning [18h]
• The crypto industry and prediction markets share a mission of disruption—but it’s not clear where crypto fits in [18h]
• The hidden ROI of AI: What leaders should actually measure [18h]
• How Carvana survived a 99% stock plunge: ‘We’re very comfortable being the underdog’ [18h]
• Private markets have soared to $10 trillion in AUM. But why have they underperformed public markets? [19h]
• U.S. stock futures tumble as Iran refuses Trump’s ‘deal’ and Strait stays shut [19h]
• Cisco’s John Chambers lived through the dot-com crash. He says the AI bubble is harder to navigate [20h]
• Southeast Asia’s short-term solution to the global energy crunch? Russian crude. [20h]
• Exclusive: Your delivery robot will now offer the blind real-time, on-the-ground eyes around sidewalk hazards [23h]
• The director of the Congressional Budget Office—known for its gloomy national debt data—is very optimistic that a crisis will be avoided entirely [23h]
• Kalshi’s fight over sports betting is hurtling towards the Supreme Court—and the future of gambling is at stake [23h]