Direct negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, mediated by Pakistan, began in Islamabad on Saturday, according to a White House official.
Why it matters: While the meeting itself is historic — the highest-level engagement between U.S. and Iranian officials since 1979 — the chances for success appear low. Both sides know the risk of failure is renewed war, but have clashing visions for peace.
32-year-old Marques Brownlee — often referred to by his handle, MKBHD — is arguably the most influential consumer tech reviewer on the planet. He has become the trust layer for an entire generation's technology purchasing decisions.
Why you need to take notice: If MKBHD doesn't like your product, you're screwed. (Just ask Humane AI or Fisker.) He has more sway over purchase intent among those under 35 than any trade publication or ad campaign. A product launch that doesn't earn his approval might as well be DOA.
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Apple let John Ternus, its hardware chief — not Tim Cook — unveil the MacBook Neo. And a sweeping Bloomberg Businessweek profile made a pretty strong case that John Ternus is up next in Cupertino.
His philosophy: On noticing 35-groove screws in Apple's Cinema Display instead of the specified 25: "I distinctly remember stepping back for a minute and thinking to myself, 'What the hell am I doing? Is this normal?' ... I realized it might not be normal, but it's right." (UPenn commencement address)
His idea of fun: "A cycling and car-racing enthusiast, Ternus is known to take his colleagues to upstate Washington for off-road rally car racing." (Bloomberg)
His "favorite child" at Apple: AirPods. "That was enabled by technology that we built in-house, and I think — I don't think, I know — it fundamentally changed how people use earphones." (CNBC)
His big fumble: He "was a driving force behind the Touch Bar, which replaced the top row of physical keys on MacBook Pro keyboards with a touchscreen. 'He shoehorned it in ... ,' says someone familiar with the work." (Bloomberg)
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As high as those oil prices flashing on TV are, underlying market conditions are even worse — and so is the unfolding global economic pain.
Why it matters: Headline-grabbing futures prices — bets on where oil prices are headed — are far below the cost of increasingly scarce physical shipments.
A humanoid robot made by Figure AI strolled alongside First Lady Melania Trump into the East Room last month — the first time, almost certainly not the last, that one has strolled the White House.
It delivered opening remarks at Trump's Fostering the Future Together Global Coalition Summit with first spouses from 45 countries, then welcomed guests in 11 languages with flawless pronunciation before walking itself back down the Cross Hall.
The nation's top trade court said on Friday that the legality of President Trump's latest tariffs comes down to one question — what counts as a "balance-of-payments deficit" — but no one had a satisfactory answer.
Why it matters: The case will determine the staying power of tariffs underpinned by an obscure, never-before-used trade law — the authority that Trump fell back on after the Supreme Court struck down his sweeping global tariffs.
Tomatoes are suddenly one of the biggest drivers of grocery inflation — even as other food prices cool.
Why it matters: The spike shows how tariffs, war-driven energy costs and real-time supply shortages can collide — pushing up prices for a single staple even as overall grocery inflation stays muted.
I'm going to share intel picked up from top officials in government, AI and business. It was shared confidentially, but with the knowledge I'd use it without sourcing it.
🚨 High alert: I've learned that Anthropic is very close to unveiling the breakthrough AI update, which I told you about last weekend. The new Claude model, Mythos, has stunning power to detect and exploit holes in the cybersecurity of businesses and nations.
I'm going to share intel picked up from top officials in government, AI and business. It was shared confidentially, but with the knowledge I'd use it without sourcing it.
1. Democratic hit list. If Dems win the House (highly likely), they'll use oversight and subpoenas to target monopolies, AI, social media and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).
You've probably heard all about podcast bros' shifting sentiment on Trump. Andrew Schulz's "Flagrant" podcast is ground zero for that trend. His 2024 episode with then-candidate Trump pulled down almost 10 million YouTube views. But his subsequent pullback from the president became the top for a splashy piece in The Atlantic, "The Manosphere Turns on Trump."
Why you should care: Your under-30 male employees are more likely to form political opinions from Schulz than from any cable network or newspaper. A taste of some of his politically-minded guests from last year: Zohran Mamdani, Ro Khanna and Ezra Klein.
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Jamie Dimon told me CEOs need to step up and do a lot more beyond running their company. We have platforms others don't to push new ideas to staff and beyond. Shoot me ones others should consider. Here's mine ...
EVERY college — and ideally every high school, too — should mandate that all students complete an AI Basics course starting this fall. Teach the different models, prompting, agents and some basic safety and ethics tips.
After speaking to students at several top universities, I was alarmed at the skepticism and fear — even ignorance — about AI.
One bright young woman articulated to me why she'll never even consider using AI. I told her: "I'm gonna tell you what your teachers and apparently your parents aren't. Don't ever say that again or think it again, or you'll never get a job anywhere."
🧠 You can be cautious about AI. But you can't be oblivious or incapable of using it.
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RidgeGate in Lone Tree has grown into one of the Denver metro's most ambitious master-planned communities — but it lacks the commercial infrastructure to support its planned density.
The solution: Regency Centers is developing Lone Tree Village to fill that gap, bringing a new ground-up, open-air, commercial hub to the rapidly expanding corridor.
A 123,000-square-foot King Soopers with a fuel center will anchor the development alongside a mix of shops, dining and neighborhood services designed for everyday needs.
The first evidence of how Americans view the economy in April is in: People hate it.
The big picture: Americans are remarkably down on the state of the economy, even though headline measures of conditions like unemployment and inflation are not that bad.
Sazerac, the maker of Buffalo Trace bourbon and cinnamon-flavored Fireball, reportedly has made a takeover approach to Brown-Forman, the Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey maker that's been in talks to be acquired by Pernod Ricard.
Why it matters: Booze brands are in decline, thanks to a sober-minded Gen Z, and are hoping the scale and synergies can reverse the skid. Particularly when a merger-friendly White House is in power.
U.S. inflation surged in March as the effects from the Iran war hit consumer wallets: The Consumer Price Index rose 0.9%, the biggest monthly increase since 2022, while the annual measure climbed to its highest level in two years.
Why it matters: The first inflation report of the war era captures the higher costs Americans faced last month — with knock-on effects still reverberating through the economy.
The fate of the "petrodollar" hangs in the background of the energy shock from the Iran war.
How it works: The term refers to the fact that oil trades globally in dollars: billions and billions of them spent every day all around the world.
The oil market creates a permanent, built-in global demand for dollars.
It's a big reason the U.S. currency sits at the center of the world financial system.
"When you think about the dollar as the world's dominant currency, the petrodollar is right at the heart of that," says Edward Fishman, author of "Chokepoints" and director of the Center for Geoeconomics at the Council on Foreign Relations.
The intrigue: There are a few risks now. Iran currently sells oil priced in the Chinese currency, the yuan, and if sanctions lift, it could start selling even more oil that is not denominated in dollars.
Plus, Iran is also seeking to charge a toll on traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
There's talk of the toll being charged in yuan or crypto.
A non-dollar toll would be a threat to the petrodollar system, says Fishman.
Zoom in: There's a lot of nervousness among global companies trying to navigate the situation in Iran, says Safiya Ghori-Ahmad, senior director with APCO Worldwide, a public affairs and strategic communications firm.
"What that leads to over time is diversification away from the dollar."
Yes, but: It's something that economists have warned about for a long time, but for the moment the dollar dominates the oil market and economy. No one is saying this would change overnight.
Iran may even be seeking to toll the strait in order to get more dollars, Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, tells Axios.
The bottom line: This is a defining moment for "Pax Dollar," says Ken Rogoff, the Harvard economist and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund who warned that the U.S. ripping up trade agreements could destabilize the dollar in a recent book, "Our Dollar, Your Problem."
What's happening now, he says, is more momentous: "This is really bigger than 'Liberation Day.'"
The energy shock from the Iran war may drive long-lasting change in how the global multitrillion-dollar oil market operates — turning a relatively open and smoothly functioning system into something weaponized and fractured.
Why it matters: Such a reordering would mean, at a minimum, higher energy prices and inflation, and in the long term could even shake the foundations of the dollar-based global economy and with it, U.S. power.
