Goma, DR Congo – Children across the Democratic Republic of the Congo are returning to school on Tuesday as the country battles its largest Ebola outbreak on record, prompting concern among parents and teachers in the worst-hit province of Ituri.
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Government figures showed 6,041 confirmed cases and 2,911 deaths as of August 31, surpassing the previous worst outbreak, which ran from 2018 to 2020.
Six of the country’s 26 provinces are affected. Ituri, in the northeast, remains the epicentre, with 4,802 confirmed cases recorded as of August 26.
Where are parents’ fears coming from?
In Bunia, Ituri’s provincial capital, parents are questioning whether schools should reopen while the outbreak continues to spread.
“As a parent, I am concerned about the announcement that schools are reopening, especially as we are facing the Ebola outbreak in our region. We are asking the government what measures they will put in place to protect children from this disease,” said Dieudonne Lotsima, a father of three and resident of Bunia.
Lotsima believes classes should be postponed until a vaccine specifically effective against the virus causing the outbreak becomes available.
Pupils in Goma return to school as authorities introduce measures to limit the spread of Ebola in affected parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo [Prosper Heri/Al Jazeera]
“Children are children,” he told Al Jazeera. “They may not wash their hands at the washbasins, and if they become infected, they risk infecting the whole family. This return to school is uncertain, and if we do not take steps to protect the children, I do not know what we can do.”
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a species of ebolavirus different from the Zaire ebolavirus, which has caused most previous Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
There is currently no approved vaccine or treatment specifically for Bundibugyo virus disease. Ervebo, the vaccine approved against Zaire ebolavirus, is being given to front-line health workers, but its effectiveness against Bundibugyo has not been established. The World Health Organization is supporting a clinical trial to assess whether it can protect against the strain responsible for the current outbreak.
How is the government reopening schools?
Rather than impose a nationwide closure, the government is using different arrangements according to the level of Ebola risk.
In the highest-risk areas, pupils will study from home using printed materials and radio programmes, according to the Ministry of Education. Workbooks and learning sheets covering essential parts of the curriculum will be distributed, while local and community radio stations will broadcast programmes to accompany them. Families without radios may also be provided with them.
Raissa Malu, the minister of education, said on August 18 that 40 of the country’s 138 educational subdivisions in Ebola-affected provinces were affected by the outbreak. Eighteen were classified as high risk.
The government has divided areas into three categories: green, where there is no reported Ebola transmission; orange, where areas are affected but can continue with additional precautions; and red, where the risk is considered highest.
“We are, in fact, going to introduce a system of worksheets that will be produced in line with the curriculum, focusing on essential knowledge, and distributed to children to enable them to continue their work at home,” Malu told Al Jazeera.
She stressed that the arrangement was not online or internet-based teaching.
But Catherine Neema, a mother of two in Bunia, remains unconvinced.
“I’m not sure I’ll send my child to school. When the children start school, there will be too many people. People may come into close contact with one another and become infected,” she said.
Neema said her eldest child began the holidays when confirmed Ebola cases stood at about 1,500, with 470 deaths.
Why are teachers still worried?
The Ituri 1 Teachers’ Inter-Union Committee says the epidemiological situation is not conducive to a safe return to school.
Budju Lobo Isaac, a trade union member, said schools needed basic health measures before children and teachers returned.
Students gather in a school courtyard with school officials as the new academic year begins in the Democratic Republic of the Congo [Prosper Heri/Al Jazeera]
“We cannot sacrifice the lives of children and teachers just to stick to a timetable. Before reopening schools, we must ensure minimum health and safety standards are in place: handwashing facilities, hand sanitiser, thermal scanners, and monitoring and support for teachers,” he told Al Jazeera.
Education officials have also been training staff in Ituri to identify risky behaviour, promote preventive measures, and educate pupils about Ebola.
“We have trained inspectors, senior officials from the provincial directorate, and other members of teachers’ unions,” said Jean-Baptiste Ngona Kivi, acting head of the General Education Service in the Ituri 1 educational province. “They will be deployed to the sub-districts to pass on this training on Ebola protection techniques to headteachers and teachers.”
Can schools also help fight Ebola?
Professor Yap Boum, incident manager at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention for the response to the Bundibugyo outbreak, sees the return to school as an opportunity to reach families with information about Ebola.
“Once they have been made aware of the Ebola virus disease, when they return home, they also help to raise awareness amongst adults,” he told Al Jazeera. “So this is another opportunity we see in children returning to school.” %!s()
Terminator meets Kill Bill in director Adam Wingard's new grindhouse slasher
The nastiest horror movie of 2026 is also the most important
Image: A24
Onslaught, Adam Wingard’s gnarly action thriller (and covert sequel to his cult 2014 film The Guest), checks all the boxes of a grindhouse throwback. I hooted and hollered as a trio of zombified super-soldiers faced off against a chainsaw-wielding Adria Arjona. But maybe most unexpectedly, for a last-days-of-summer romp, I also thought deeply about the state of the world.
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Wingard’s movie flays off its fair share of skin, but also gets underneath its viewers’. Hold on: we’re going for a ride.
Onslaught is oozing with brain matter
According to a 2025 report published by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, roughly one-third of Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel are military veterans. In that context, ICE's violent invasion of U.S. cities and murder of multiple citizens over the last 19 months can be seen as our foreign military strategy suddenly pointed back at the civilians it's presumably meant to defend. This may seem jarring — because it is — but for a certain type of political history junkie, it's not even the slightest bit of a surprise.
Imperial Boomerang theory was first proposed by Afro-Martinican poet, author, and politician Aimé Césaire in his 1951 book, Discourse on Colonialism. In it, he argues that the policies and techniques a government employs against other countries in the name of imperialism will eventually be used against that country's own citizens. Césaire went so far as to argue that the rise of the Nazi party was simply European colonialism boomeranging back against its own people.
The same goes for plenty of modern American history. In 1985, when the Philadelphia Police Department dropped a bomb out of a helicopter onto the headquarters of Black revolutionary group MOVE, that was the boomerang effect from methods developed a decade earlier bombing the jungle in Vietnam. The Imperial Boomerang’s elliptical arc has returned to us in the form of ICE’s warfare-like approach, which makes Onslaught feel like the perfect movie for our extremely jarring times.
Image: A24
Onslaught is Imperial Boomerang theory made cinema and then filtered through the dark camera lens of sci-fi horror master John Carpenter (with a sprinkle of James Cameron's Terminator franchise and a healthy splash of Kill Bill's bright-red blood). Wingard and his longtime screenwriting collaborator Simon Barrett open on Arjona alone in the desert shooting pumpkins with her sniper rifle. In just a few seconds, Wingard unsubtly announces the various genres and tropes to expect: horror, guns, violence, and Adria Arjona.
A moment later, the title card and credits roll over a series of pulsating images and videos depicting various wars, military violence, coups, etc. Subtlety is thrown out the window. This isn't that kind of movie.
Arjona shines in an eclectic ensemble cast
Image: A24
Arjona plays Celeste, a former military sniper struggling with PTSD. She works as the manager of a trailer park in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico and spends most of her time drinking, cleaning her guns, and collecting rent. At the start of the film, Celeste's ex-husband shows up unannounced with their very young daughter and leaves her there for the night, claiming some sort of work emergency. It's terrible timing, not just because Celeste is out of food and her house is full of illegal firearms, but because a secret military facility nearby has been experimenting with super-soldiers and three of those soldiers just broke loose.
Dan Stevens, who's appeared in multiple Wingard projects including his MonsterVerse movies and The Guest, gets just the right amount of screen time as a completely unrecognizable German mad scientist. He's collected three completely irredeemably American soldiers and transformed them into unstoppable killing machines. A demonstration of their abilities, overseen by sci-fi legend Michael Biehn as a shady government operative, goes horribly long and the super-soldiers are unleashed on the nearby population, leading to a confrontation with Celeste and a few of her neighbors.
Vulnerable but thick-skinned, unpredictable and calculating, Arjona is a perfect lead in Onslaught. We get just enough backstory of her experience as a military sniper to explain why she's so clearly traumatized. Some of that is told directly in flashbacks, while other details are layered into the story more subtly — like the way she has to jab at a wound in her arm so she can steady herself before lining up a shot with her rifle. Also, Arjona looks damn good wielding a blood-soaked chainsaw.
Celeste's neighbor Reginald VelJohnson is another standout, and Wingard weaponizes our nostalgia for the actor as a beat cop in both Die Hard and Family Matters to make us instantly sympathize with this aging, chain-smoking, shotgun-wielding hero. Not to downplay VelJohnson's performance. He's a total badass, but it helps that you love him before he ever opens his mouth to ask for another cigarette.
The only real weak spot in Onslaught is Drew Starkey as a drugged-up government agent who gets pulled onto the case but never does much of anything. Starkey is fine in the role, coolly conveying both his steely resolve to get the job done and the MDMA coursing through his bloodstream, which yields some much-needed comic relief. The scariest reveal of the film is that he's not here to stop the killers, but to take out any survivors they leave behind. Starkey still doesn't really have much to do, unfortunately, and his scenes feel more like an attempt to pad the 92-minute runtime than anything particularly additive to its plot or themes.
John Carpenter meets Quentin Tarantino
The main draw is the action, and Wingard doesn't disappoint. It's gross, violent, and gleeful, mixing the relentless horror of slashers like Halloween and Terminator with the stylized visuals of Quentin Tarantino's best work. Wingard even tweaked the fake blood recipe to match the bright-red palette of Kill Bill. Onslaught isn't quite as bloody, but it comes close.
The super-soldiers themselves mostly feel anonymous and interchangeable, despite each getting their own blood-curdling backstories narrated early on by Stevens. They start out with machine guns, but by the end they're wielding whatever they can get their hands on, including a massive butcher knife and a chainsaw. The trio moves like a well-trained military unit, communicating with sparse hand signals and executing each kill with startling precision, but they're also not above wildly chasing down a small girl with a giant knife if it comes down to that. It's like if Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees went through military training together and then came back home to kill all those annoying teenagers once and for all.
Image: A24
The soundtrack is another example of the way Wingard mixes his influences to create something new. The score by Matt Pusti riffs directly on John Carpenter's Halloween theme, taking that iconic keyboard riff and infusing it with techno and rock guitar when a scene calls for it (and also links it spiritually to composer Steve Moore’s work in The Guest). But Wingard also leans heavily into needledrops — with a twist. Most of the movie's recognizable songs are played as German covers that Steven's character listens to via Bluetooth headphones.
Most of Onslaught feels like a tribute to something: Tarantino's stylish violence, Carpenter's relentless killers, and the entire generation of grindhouse cinema that inspired them both. But what makes Wingard's movie more than just a remix is the brutally relevant message sitting right on its surface. Characters like Beatrix Kiddo and Michael Myers kill out of some sense of twisted vengeance. Hell, even the T-800 had a mission in Terminator. But the monsters in Onslaught don't need a reason to maim and murder. They're just following their programming and doing exactly what the U.S. government wants them to: kill its own civilians.
By combining those horror and action influences with the terrors of the military-industrial complex and the ways it often boomerangs back on its own people, Wingard forges a new type of movie. One where the violence isn't random at all. It's intentional. We're all the target. And the only culprit is our own government.
Onslaught releases in theaters on Sept. 4, 2026.%!s()
The number of women working as TV creators and directors on original U.S. shows airing on streaming services has declined, in addition to female characters in major roles, according to the latest “Boxed In” study released Tuesday.
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The report, which tracked over 2,500 characters and more than 3,600 behind-the-scenes credits during the 2025-26 television year, was penned by Dr. Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
She found that the amount of women creating shows across streaming plummeted from 36 percent in 2024-25 to 24 percent in 2025-26, which was a stark contrast to the increase the year prior (27 percent in 2023-24 to 36 percent in 2024-25). The new findings indicate that last year’s increases were a momentary surge, rather than the beginning of a positive trend. As for broadcast, women creators also declined slightly from 20 percent in 2024-25 to 19 percent in 2025-26.
“The numbers of women creating shows on both platforms are now lower than they were almost a decade ago in 2017-18,” Lauzen said.
When it came to the percentage of women directing streaming projects, the report found that number also dropped from 32 percent in 2024-25 to 22 percent in 2025-26, following the temporary increase after 2023-24 (23 percent). Women directing broadcast programs also dipped from 18 percent in 2024-25 to 16 percent in 2025-26.
This new study follows a report from The Hollywood Reporter in June that spotlighted the lack of progress in women-held below-the-line positions after a behind-the-scenes video of Sydney Sweeney on the set of Euphoria season three started circulating on social media. At the time, fans were quick to point out that the majority of the crew members seen in the clip were men, while Sweeney was sitting in a suggestive pose.
As for roles in front of the camera, the number of female characters in major roles also declined last year, per the study. For streaming, women comprised 44 percent of major characters in 2025-26, down from 49 percent in 2024-25, and on broadcast, females accounted for 46 percent of major characters, down slightly from 47 percent in 2024-25.
The report also found that male characters continue to have an easier time aging on television compared to female characters. On both streaming and broadcast shows, the majority of women in speaking roles were in their 20s and 30s, while the majority of men were in their 30s and 40s. The number of female characters also experienced a steep decline as they aged from their 30s into their 40s, while their male counterparts didn’t experience a substantial drop until their 50s.
“The emphasis on youth for the majority of female characters foregrounds their appearance, whereas males are able to credibly age into positions of personal and public power, normalizing the perception that men are naturally more powerful than women,” Lauzen added. “The fully-realized characters played by Kathy Bates on Matlock or Jean Smart on Hacks remain the exception, not the rule, for women on television.”
The “Boxed In” report has monitored over 65,000 characters and more than 80,00 behind-the-scenes credits on original dramas, comedies and reality television programs over the last 27 years, starting in 1997-98. It aims to provide a comprehensive historical record of women’s representation and employment in television. %!s()
House to vote on stopgap funding bill as lawmakers scramble to avoid government shutdown
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
House speaker Mike Johnson will launch a floor vote to pass the stopgap funding bill designed to keep the federal government fully funded through early December, removing the possibility of a shutdown before the midterm elections.
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“The first thing is we’ve got to make sure this government gets funded and we don’t have another Democratic shutdown,” he told reporters as he prepared to open the chamber for business.
The short-term funding bill underwent some significant changes in the Senate, which made it more palatable for Democrats.
It delays a proposed rule from the Office of Management and Budget that would give political appointees more power over the distribution of federal grants. It also includes language to ensure the administration cannot transfer funds to the Border Patrol.
But a provision that delays for one month a federal ban on intoxicating hemp THC products has prompted criticism from many GOP lawmakers.
As a result, GOP leaders will probably place the bill on a fast-track process that avoids a separate procedural vote, bypassing any Republican efforts to block or stall the legislation.
Suspension bills require a two-thirds vote to pass, meaning a significant number from both parties need to support the measure for it to pass and advance to Trump’s desk. The funding vote will most likely take place later today.
In other developments:
The Supreme Court allowed Donald Trump to continue building his $400m White House ballroom project. In a 5-4 decision along political lines, the justices found that a group issuing a legal challenge against the ballroom did not have standing to bring their case. Trump celebrated with a post on his Truth Social platform while Democrats criticized the decision.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is stepping down from his role after 18 months on the job, leaving another top military position vacant. Driscoll and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had reportedly butted heads for some time.
Trump vowed further strikes on Iran and called it a “failed nation”. The remarks came as Washington and Tehran exchanged their first military strikes in a month.
JD Vance gave a speech in Michigan that included an attacked against Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. “There’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil,” Vance told the crowd.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney of turning their trade dispute into a “political shouting match”. Carney had rejected the Trump administration’s terms that would have given the US government extensive power over Canada’s trade policy.
California Governor Gavin Newsom vowed to block the appointment of election denier Tina Peters, who was convicted in 2024 in relation to a plot to chase pro-Trump election conspiracies. Newsom announced he would take measures to prevent Peters from working as an election consultant for Northern California’s Shasta county.
Key events
2h ago
Massachusetts primaries test Democratic appetite for generational change
3h ago
House to vote on stopgap funding bill as lawmakers scramble to avoid government shutdown
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer downplayed the potentially disastrous impact of a trade war with Canada, telling Politico: “It’s more their emergency than ours.”
“There are no negotiations happening on trade right now,” Green also told the website.
Greer’s comments come just over one week after US-Canada trade talks imploded. The US instituted 50% tariffs on $20bn in Canadian goods.
Canada, the US’s second-largest trading partner, announced it would impose retaliatory tariffs on $20bn of American goods starting on 8 September. Now, US residents are poised to feel extreme pressure from Trump’s tariffs and Canada’s retaliatory measures, including on day-to-day items.
Canada has threatened to impose a 25% to 50% tariff on “toilet paper or face tissue stock,” for example. As the US imported $328m in toilet paper from Canada in 2024, per the World Bank, the country is by far the largest exporter of this product to the US. Major retailers source many of their paper products from Canada.
Greer placed the escalating trade war on the US’ northernmost neighbor, insisting “it’s not clear Canada wants a deal.”
“If Canada believes that prohibiting and banning American goods and services is appropriate, then obviously that’s something that the United States should consider as well,” he reportedly said.
The US will aim to persuade G20 members to take a hands-off approach to regulating AI, according to a Trump White House official, at a gathering of industry titans and commerce ministers that begins on Tuesday in North Carolina.
Leaders are convening at a key moment in the AI sector’s development and the global debate over how to govern it, and as the US faces an increasing threat from China for AI supremacy, Reuters reported.
The two-day meeting will be hosted by US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and White House tech adviser Michael Kratsios, formerly of data and evaluations provider Scale AI. Kratsios will push for a “pro-growth vision for the future of emerging technologies,” he said in a statement.
A United Nations panel recently warned that AI’s developments are outpacing scientific understanding and government policy. Recent events, including a hack triggered by a rogue OpenAI agent that compromised the infrastructure of AI company Hugging Face, added to concerns about how closely leading AI companies are monitoring tests of their products.
AI agents are programs that run with minimal human supervision.
Dharna Noor
Donald Trump this month announced plans to rescind a landmark rule that has protected old-growth forests in the US for 25 years. If finalized, the rollback is expected to benefit the companies that Tom Schultz, chief of the US Forest Service, represented in his previous roles as a timber industry lobbyist and executive, according to research by consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen.
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, more commonly known as the “roadless rule”, was adopted in 2001 to limit development in roughly 45m acres of national forest. Industry interests and Republican representatives have long lobbied for the rule’s rescission, which would open up those swaths of untouched land to road construction, drilling and logging.
In a statement, Schultz described the move as “the best way to restore the balance, reduce wildfire risk, and secure the long-term health of our forests and neighboring communities”. But studies suggest it could put 400 threatened and endangered species at risk and imperil ecosystems.
Industry interests will be the main beneficiaries of the change, advocates fear.
In an emailed statement, a Forest Service spokesperson, who did not provide their name, noted that Schultz had also held positions in Idaho and Montana government.
“Chief Schultz’s appointment reflects the administration’s recognition that the Forest Service’s current challenges require leadership with broad federal land management experience, not just internal tenure,” the person said.
Schultz is the first-ever Forest Service chief who did not previously work within the agency itself. Before Trump tapped him for the job, he served as president of the Federal Forest Resource Coalition, a trade association representing companies that purchase timber from the federal government, and was also vice-president of resources and government affairs at Idaho Forest Group, a major lumber manufacturer.
Michael Sainato
House Republicans are investigating several US labor unions based on claims from far-right nonprofits alleging union dues are being used for illegal political funding.
Republicans on the House’s education and workforce committee opened the investigation this summer after multiple reports from the conservative thinktanks targeted unions and their spending, claiming that unions are using member dues to support Democratic causes.
While unions are allowed to advocate for political causes, they are prohibited from using union dues to directly fund specific candidates or political action committees (Pacs). Union members can voluntary donate to labor union’s political action committees.
The unions under investigation include the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), United Auto Workers, United Steelworkers, Smart Transportation Division (Smart-TD), Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division (BMWED).
The allegations come from research reports by the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a “dark money” nonprofit that counts Project 2025 architect the Heritage Foundation as a donor, and the Freedom Foundation, a conservative thinktank whose chairman once protested against Labor Day, claiming “I can’t think of a problem in society that can’t be traced in some way back to the abuses of organized labor.”
Thousands of American service members are about to descend on eastern Thailand, as the USS Abraham Lincoln makes a port call near the city of Pattaya.
The aircraft carrier sailed past Singapore over the weekend on its way back to the US after a lengthy deployment in the Middle East as part of the US war against Iran.
The Lincoln is expected to dock at a port in Chonburi province this week, according to Thai officials.
More than 5,000 American service members are onboard and many are expected to visit Pattaya, according to the city’s Mayor Poramet Ngampichet, who hopes the port call will boost the local economy. He said destroyer USS Frank E Petersen Jr will dock at a different port.
“For Pattaya to be seen as an important vacation spot is something that we have aimed for,” Poramet said. “We welcome more visits of the troops in the future, whether for a drill or a vacation, before they go back to the US.”
Massachusetts primaries test Democratic appetite for generational change
Generational change is on the ballot in Massachusetts on Tuesday as Democratic voters choose whether to renominate 80-year-old progressive senator Ed Markey or replace him on the ballot with 47-year-old representative Seth Moulton.
Markey, who has served in Congress for nearly 50 years, is backed by leading progressives such as senator Bernie Sanders and representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as most members of the state’s congressional delegation, including senator Elizabeth Warren.
No members of the delegation have endorsed Moulton, a moderate US Marine Corps veteran whose supporters include New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill and the Democratic organization VoteVets, Reuters reported.
The Boston Globe’s editorial board is also behind Moulton, casting him as a necessary agent of change with “proven leadership skills” and positions on key issues that align with most voters.
Markey has a nearly $2m fundraising advantage over Moulton, and Markey has led in recent polls by a double-digit margin. The primary winner is heavily favored to win in November.
Democrat Kamala Harris carried the state by nearly 25 percentage points in 2024.
A similar generational challenge is playing out in the Boston area, where moderate representative Stephen Lynch, 71, is facing progressive attorney Patrick Roath, 39.
House to vote on stopgap funding bill as lawmakers scramble to avoid government shutdown
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
House speaker Mike Johnson will launch a floor vote to pass the stopgap funding bill designed to keep the federal government fully funded through early December, removing the possibility of a shutdown before the midterm elections.
“The first thing is we’ve got to make sure this government gets funded and we don’t have another Democratic shutdown,” he told reporters as he prepared to open the chamber for business.
The short-term funding bill underwent some significant changes in the Senate, which made it more palatable for Democrats.
It delays a proposed rule from the Office of Management and Budget that would give political appointees more power over the distribution of federal grants. It also includes language to ensure the administration cannot transfer funds to the Border Patrol.
But a provision that delays for one month a federal ban on intoxicating hemp THC products has prompted criticism from many GOP lawmakers.
As a result, GOP leaders will probably place the bill on a fast-track process that avoids a separate procedural vote, bypassing any Republican efforts to block or stall the legislation.
Suspension bills require a two-thirds vote to pass, meaning a significant number from both parties need to support the measure for it to pass and advance to Trump’s desk. The funding vote will most likely take place later today.
In other developments:
The Supreme Court allowed Donald Trump to continue building his $400m White House ballroom project. In a 5-4 decision along political lines, the justices found that a group issuing a legal challenge against the ballroom did not have standing to bring their case. Trump celebrated with a post on his Truth Social platform while Democrats criticized the decision.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is stepping down from his role after 18 months on the job, leaving another top military position vacant. Driscoll and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had reportedly butted heads for some time.
Trump vowed further strikes on Iran and called it a “failed nation”. The remarks came as Washington and Tehran exchanged their first military strikes in a month.
JD Vance gave a speech in Michigan that included an attacked against Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. “There’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil,” Vance told the crowd.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney of turning their trade dispute into a “political shouting match”. Carney had rejected the Trump administration’s terms that would have given the US government extensive power over Canada’s trade policy.
California Governor Gavin Newsom vowed to block the appointment of election denier Tina Peters, who was convicted in 2024 in relation to a plot to chase pro-Trump election conspiracies. Newsom announced he would take measures to prevent Peters from working as an election consultant for Northern California’s Shasta county.
Tim Cook is out as Apple CEO. He gave a 15-year masterclass in succeeding a legend.
By
Theron Mohamed
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Tim Cook's final day as Apple CEO was on Monday, August 30.
Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images
Tim Cook has stepped down as Apple CEO, marking the end of one of the greatest tenures in business history.
Cook took on the daunting task of succeeding Steve Jobs, just weeks before his premature death in October 2011.
Vanishingly few people would have dared follow Jobs, Apple's iconic cofounder who reshaped how the world works with revolutionary devices such as the iPod and iPhone.
Yet Cook pulled off what few thought possible: taking Apple to the next level. During his 15 years in charge, Apple roughly quadrupled its annual net sales and net income to over $400 billion and $100 billion, respectively, catapulting its market capitalization from around $350 billion to $4.6 trillion.
Adjusted for stock splits, Apple's stock price rose by nearly 2,300% during his tenure, from about $13 to $317 at the close of Cook's last day as CEO on Monday.
Now that Cook has made way for his own successor — Apple's hardware chief John Ternus — there are clear lessons to be learned from his success in following a legendary CEO.
1. Keep what works
Cook safeguarded the core values that Jobs instilled at Apple.
He told "CBS Sunday Morning" earlier this year that he protected principles such as focus, collaboration, obsession with the user experience, "insanely great" execution, and creating "magic" by owning the intersection of hardware, software, and services.
Cook said he always saw Apple as Jobs' baby. "His DNA is deep in this company," he said. "We revere him."
The now-departed CEO also said of Jobs that his "greatest invention wasn't a product — it was Apple itself."
2. Blaze your own trail
Cook wasn't cowed by Jobs' remarkable legacy, but instead ran Apple as he saw fit.
He told "CBS Sunday Morning" that when Jobs informed him that he would be Apple's next CEO, he also advised him: "Never ask what I would do. Just do the right thing."
Jobs told Cook that he'd witnessed Disney become frozen by indecision after founder Walt Disney died, and he didn't want Apple to suffer the same "paralysis."
"I'll never forget that," Cook said. "It was such a gift for me because he took off of my shoulder this question of 'What would Steve do?'"
"I just put my head down and thought, 'I'm going to be the best version of myself,'" he added.
While Jobs was in charge, he "made every major decision" at Apple, Tripp Mickle, the author of "After Steve," a book about the decade at Apple after Jobs' death, told Business Insider in April after Cook revealed he was stepping down.
Cook restructured Apple to be "more democratic," with Apple executives making collective decisions and team leaders developing products instead of individuals reporting to Jobs, Mickle said.
He also placed greater emphasis on operations and financials. Cook's Apple expanded into China to scale up manufacturing and cater to the country's rapidly growing middle class. The strategy allowed him to "make the iPhone ubiquitous," Mickle said.
Cook grew services into a $100 billion business, and created a wearables category with products such as AirPods and Apple Watch. He also introduced Apple-designed silicon, which "breathed new life into its Mac business," Mickle said.
His approach was "method over magic," Mickle said. "Where Jobs became regarded as a great innovator, who introduced products that upended industries, Cook became known for steering Apple's business success, as it became the world's largest company for a decade."
On the other hand, Apple's reputation for innovation took a hit under Cook, Mickle said. He pointed to disappointing product launches such as the HomePod and the Vision Pro headset, and the canceled plan to build a self-driving car.
3. Play to your strengths
Instead of trying to be Jobs, Cook applied his different skillset at Apple with great effect.
"Cook's genius wasn't in designing the next iPhone; it was in building the most efficient supply chain on the planet and turning a hardware company into a recurring-service juggernaut," Chris Ballard, the managing director of Check Capital Management, told Business Insider.
"There is a very small club of people who are able to successfully take over for a business legend without the company missing a beat," Kevin Carpenter, the author of an investing Substack named Kingswell, told Business Insider.
"Cook certainly did so for Apple — in large part because he embraced his own strengths rather than trying to be a poor imitation of Steve Jobs."
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Theron Mohamed
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Theron Mohamed is a London-based correspondent on the International team at Business Insider. His coverage spans finance, investing, wealth, markets, and the economy.Theron joined BI in 2019 as a reporter at Markets Insider and rose to the rank of correspondent before moving to the Trending team then the broader International team. He previously covered tech, media, and telecom stocks for Investors Chronicle magazine and had a brief stint on the Financial Times' Data team. He interned at the Wall Street Journal in New York where he primarily wrote for Heard on the Street.Theron has freelanced for The Independent, The Telegraph, WIRED, and several smaller publications. He holds an undergraduate degree in geography from the London School of Economics, and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.Theron often covers Warren Buffett, Michael Burry, and other elite investors. He also writes about the world's wealthiest people and shares financial advice from all manner of rich and successful people.Email Theron at [email protected] and follow him on X @theron_mohamed.
Image: A24
Image: A24
Image: A24
Image: A24