Daily Brew // Morning Brew // Update

April 21, 2026

Hello there. The trailer for Hungry, a horror movie about people being attacked by a hungry hippo, has dropped. And while it’s not technically based on Hungry Hungry Hippos…it’s close enough to get us thinking about other beloved childhood games that could get turned into scary movies. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that someone will develop:

Operation about a ruthless organ harvesting ring
Candy Land, in which kids have to escape from Mr. Mint
Mouse Trap–-you don’t actually have to change this one, it’s already Saw, but for mice

—Molly Liebergall, Sam Klebanov, Matty Merritt, Neal Freyman, Abby Rubenstein

In today’s newsletter, we’ll get into:

Trump’s Fed chair pick facing lawmakers
Tim Cook stepping down as Apple CEO
Corporate merch featuring the founder’s face

MARKETS

Nasdaq

24,404.39

-0.26%

S&P

7,109.14

-0.24%

Dow

49,442.56

-0.01%

10-Year

4.250%

+0.0 bps

Bitcoin

$75,987.96

+2.59%

American Airlines

$12.24

-4.23%

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: Stocks acted like your friend who always leaves the party early and dipped yesterday, ending the Nasdaq’s longest winning streak since 1992 as traders fretted over the impact of the Iran war. With the current ceasefire set to expire tomorrow and tensions high over the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump said an extension was unlikely if a peace deal is not reached. Airline and cruise stocks, in particular, took a dive amid worries about fuel costs and travel.

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WARSH WATCH

What to expect from today’s Fed confirmation hearing

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Go fetch the Senate’s “SMOKIN’ HOT” apron because they’re about to start grilling in there. Today, lawmakers are set to question Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh in a confirmation hearing that carries exceptional weight amid both geopolitical tensions and President Trump’s feud with current Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Expected topics include: Warsh’s takes on monetary policy (e.g., how the Fed handles inflation, the labor market, and interest rates), Fed independence (the hottest-button issue), and Warsh’s own finances.

Warsh has strongly argued in favor of rate cuts, saying the Fed would “have to make a bet” on expected productivity gains from AI, though Fed officials are reportedly skeptical of that reasoning. But he could change his tune today—it’ll be Warsh’s first comment on interest rates since the war in Iran spiked oil prices, potentially undermining the case for cuts.

Possible pain points

Warsh will likely be asked how he’d handle pressure from Trump, and for his opinion on Trump’s pursuits of Powell and Fed Governor Lisa Cook. Democrats may mention that Warsh started calling for rate cuts once Trump returned to office in 2025, after previously gaining a reputation as a supporter of high interest rates.

Warsh’s planned opening remarks, released yesterday, may shed light on his Fed independence responses:

“I do not believe the operational independence of monetary policy is particularly threatened when elected officials—presidents, senators, or members of the House—state their views on interest rates,” his statement said.
He also wrote that “Fed independence is placed at greatest risk when it strays into fiscal and social policies,” referencing times when the Fed took interest in climate change risks and racial inequity.

Meanwhile…Senate Democrats hope to rally “nay” votes in part by zeroing in on Warsh’s financial disclosures of $100+ million in assets, which they say don’t meet transparency standards, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

There’s also a game of chicken afoot: Republican Senator Thom Tillis has vowed to block Warsh’s confirmation until the DOJ ends its investigation into Powell, but Trump hasn’t indicated any willingness to drop the unpopular probe. Powell has said he’ll continue to lead if a new chair is not installed by the time his term in the top job ends in May.—ML

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WORLD

Tour de headlines

Nic Coury/Getty Images

Tim Cook to step down as Apple CEO. The man who took over for Steve Jobs in 2011 is now passing on the reins at Apple himself. Apple said yesterday that Cook will step back from the CEO role to become the company’s executive chairman on Sept. 1, with the company’s current senior vice president of hardware engineering, John Ternus, to succeed him as the chief executive. Like Jobs, Cook is a tough act to follow: Apple’s value increased ~24x during his time at the top.

US labor secretary resigns amid scandals. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is leaving the Trump administration to “take a position in the private sector,” the White House said yesterday. According to the New York Times, her decision to go comes amid an investigation into whistleblower claims of misconduct, including that she had an affair with a member of her security team and misused government funds. Keith Sonderling, the deputy secretary of labor, will be acting secretary.

🧅 The Onion plans to take over Infowars. That headline is real even though it comes from The Onion (we promise, we checked). The satirical publication—whose earlier attempt to purchase Alex Jones’s Infowars website was nixed by a bankruptcy court—is now asking a bankruptcy judge to let it license the site from its court-appointed manager, who has agreed to the deal. The license will cost The Onion’s parent company $81,000 a month. It looks like the site will be run as a parody, with The Onion vowing it “will democratize psychological torture, welcoming brutal and sadistic ideas from everyone, even the very stupidest among us.”—AR

READER POLL

Will Apple stay on top without Tim Cook at the helm?

Yes, it’s all about the iPhone, and Ternus is a hardware guy
No, its era is over
Maybe, depends if it can become an AI power player

SEE YOU IN COURT

FBI boss sues The Atlantic over drinking story

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

FBI director Kash Patel sued The Atlantic magazine yesterday for $250 million, alleging defamation in a recent article claiming that he drinks excessively and that his “erratic” behavior has officials worried about national security.

Journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick, who authored the article based on over two dozen anonymous sources, is named in the lawsuit—which The Atlantic called “meritless” and vowed to fight.

Damaging light

The lawsuit seeks damages for allegations in Fitzpatrick’s article that Patel’s lawyers assert were fabricated to destroy his reputation. The lawsuit claims that The Atlantic’s story falsely portrays Patel as “a habitual drunk, unable to perform the duties of his office” who is “unreachable in emergencies” and once required a “SWAT-style breach” of his office, and that it claims he used his position to target president Trump’s personal enemies.

Patel vehemently denies the assertions, saying that the FBI notified the magazine they were “100% false” when it reached out to him less than two hours before publication. But establishing defamation is especially difficult for public figures, who must prove that a publication acted with “actual malice” by knowingly making false claims or recklessly disregarding the truth.

It’s not a first…as the Trump administration has sued several media outlets. A judge recently dismissed Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the publisher of the Wall Street Journal over an article about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.—SK

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FROM THE LAB

A breakthrough in mRNA cancer treatment

Getty Images

A pancreatic cancer diagnosis is typically grim, with just 13% of patients living for more than five years after being diagnosed. But new data from a clinical trial showed that seven out of 16 patients who were given personalized mRNA vaccines responded to the treatment—and are still alive six years later.

How it works: The vaccine works like immunotherapy. After cancerous tumors are surgically removed from an early-stage pancreatic cancer patient, they’re used to create a vaccine that trains the patient’s immune system to fight off lingering (or future) cancer cells. It’s the same mRNA technology that was used in the Covid vaccine, which studies estimate saved millions of lives:

Scientists warn that mRNA still needs to be studied more as a cancer treatment. A larger Phase 2 trial is in progress.
Earlier this month, Revolution Medicines also reported that a separate treatment, a pill called daraxonrasib, has nearly doubled a pancreatic cancer patient’s life expectancy compared with chemotherapy.

Big picture: Despite doctors saying mRNA technology is safe, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other Trump administration officials have questioned the technology, and put research dollars in limbo. In February, the FDA said it wouldn’t review a new flu vaccine that used mRNA technology, but quickly reversed its decision following backlash.—MM

STAT

Prime number: Paying to wear the boss’s face

Nick Iluzada

There was a time when showing devotion to the company’s leader as a tech employee meant wearing a hoodie to your all-night coding session. But now, things are headed in a more pricey fashionable direction. The Wall Street Journal reports that Nvidia’s annual conference’s merch tables boasted a $178 sweater featuring CEO Jensen Huang’s face. And according to the WSJ, it’s not the only company cashing in on its founder’s look:

In addition to top-secret government software, Palantir hawks a $75 t-shirt with CEO Alex Karp’s visage on it.
And defense tech maker Anduril sold out of a $79 Hawaiian shirt inspired by those worn by its honcho Palmer Luckey.

The founder-forward fashion offerings come at a time when CEOs are being increasingly called upon for marketing efforts even outside the tech realm—like the recent bite-taking viral videos from McDonald’s and Burger King.—AR

Sandwich trivia

Jersey Mike’s, a soon-to-be public company, is the third-largest sandwich chain in the US by number of locations. What are No. 1 and No. 2?

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ANSWER

Subway and Arby’s, according to restaurant industry publication QSR.

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: visage, meaning “face.” Thanks to Melissa from Philadelphia for a suggestion to help us face the day. Submit another Word of the Day here.

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