It has been 14 years since Apple CEO Tim Cook replaced company founder Steve Jobs, a legendary figure, and then led the company to even greater financial heights. Now reports say Cook is contemplating retirement next year.

Apple is “stepping up its succession planning efforts” ahead of Cook’s possible retirement, said the Financial Times. Cook turned 65 this month and is looking to “hand over the reins” to a new company leader. The tech giant has “very detailed succession plans,” he said in 2023 to singer Dua Lipa on her podcast. While Cook has overseen a massive increase in its market valuation, from $350 billion to $4 trillion, the company has more recently “struggled to break into new product categories” and fallen behind competitors in the artificial intelligence race, said the Financial Times.

What did the commentators say?
Business challenges could prompt Cook to “think about stepping down and letting fresh young blood take over, said Macworld. So could challenges like the massive tariffs that President Donald Trump has levied on countries where Apple produces its products. But Apple is still experiencing “unprecedented success,” recently reporting quarterly earnings of more than $100 billion. That means his replacement will have “very big shoes to fill.”

Apple’s failures on AI show Apple is a company “clearly in need of some changes,” said M.G. Siegler at Spyglass. That makes it “pretty clear” Cook will retire soon. “It’s just a question of when.”

Cook, along with Disney’s Bob Iger and Walmart’s Doug McMillon, are “stars of the business set” who are “preparing to leave the stage,” said Ben Berkowitz at Axios. Their expected departures come at a “fraught moment for the American economy” and involve companies that touch every aspect of life. Such transitions will complicate “what was already certain to be an uncertain 2026.”

What next?
The leak of Cook’s retirement plans looks like a “deliberate test” of investor reaction, said 9to5Mac. Cook is probably “eyeing his retirement,” but his loyalty to Apple means he would “only leave at a point when the market is ready for it.”

John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, is the “most commonly mentioned” name to replace Cook, said Fast Company. And Cook will likely retain some involvement with Apple, perhaps on its board of directors. “I don’t see being at home doing nothing,” he said in January to the “Table Manners” podcast.

Thousands of Americans vacation overseas each year, and many of them are confronted with a key question when arriving in a new country: How do they feel about President Donald Trump? During his second term, when many of his actions, including wide-ranging tariffs, are creating global friction, some American travelers are reportedly being received in a chilly manner. And some think being American now means having, according to at least one news outlet, the “world’s most toxic passport.”

How are Americans being confronted overseas?
“We were having a pleasant conversation at the hotel breakfast. They were very nice to talk to,” traveler Angie Roach, a Trump supporter, said to CNN of a recent vacation to New Zealand. Then the man “sort of groaned and said, ‘What about Trump?’” 

It appears that many Americans are being subjected to these feelings, regardless of their political affiliation. Some travel agents have had clients “cancel or postpone travel plans” amid “fears that they will receive an icy reception in other countries that are put off by Trump, his policies and his commentary,” said TravelPulse. As contempt for the Trump administration continues, a “small anxiety is emerging among Americans with wanderlust: how to travel with the world’s most toxic passport,” said Mother Jones.

What can people do when traveling?
Some argue that Americans shouldn’t change anything they do. Most foreigners “know who our president is, especially when he’s as headline-grabbing as Trump,” said The Hill. But the “idea that everyday Americans are routinely shunned, judged or made to feel unwelcome abroad because of Trump is a fantasy born of our own political obsessions.” 

But others say that Americans should just be kind abroad, politics aside. Be “more empathetic to people and their surroundings. Be a little bit more soft-spoken,” travel reporter Amy Tara Koch said to Mother Jones. 

Any American “traveling abroad right now should prepare to have confrontational conversations,” traveler Nicole Hernandez said to CNN. Americans should “just be ready for people to push the question. And if you are not comfortable talking about it, have a response ready.” 

People wait to receive food at Shiloh Mercy House today in Oakland, California. Food banks are in crisis mode despite the government shutdown ending, with tens of thousands of Bay Area households turning to emergency groceries after the temporary halt in SNAP benefits increased food insecurity.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Pitch-black comedy has been one of the defining features of 21st-century television, as the industry moved from the earnest family sitcoms of the 1970s and ’80s — think “Family Ties” — to shows that feel like those programs’ antitheses in both spirit and tone. While this can be a delicate balance to strike, TV’s best dark comedies can be genuinely funny while offering sharp critiques of politics and society.

‘You’re the Worst’ (2014-19)
Even for a genre whose stock-in-trade is repellent characters, FX’s “You’re the Worst” tests the audience’s tolerance. Its protagonists, Gretchen and Jimmy, are “photonegatives of saccharine rom-com protagonists” in a show that deftly mixes bleak humor with “moments of surprising tenderness,” said Slant. (Hulu)

‘Fleabag’ (2016-19)
Despite its short two-season run, “Fleabag” was an enormously influential and successful series. Phoebe Waller-Bridge delivered an Emmy-winning performance as the fourth-wall-breaking title character, a thirtysomething London cafe owner nursing a bitter secret about her role in her best friend’s suicide. A show with “almost feral energy,” it combines “naked confessionalism and comic artifice” to “tap veins of honest emotion,” said The New York Times. (Prime)

‘Beef’ (2023)
Lee Sung Jin’s devastatingly funny black comedy (pictured above) follows the fallout from an escalating feud between struggling contractor Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) and gilded girlboss Amy Lau (Ali Wong). A “thought-provoking and insidious character study,” the show is propelled by a “daring script elevated by flawless performances from both actors,” said The AV Club. (Netflix)