📊 World Food Programme, Tupac Shakur Verdict, and John Ternus

Relief funding, murder conviction, and new Apple CEO.

Sep 01, 2026

Greetings! Happy National Forgiveness Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

Forwarded this email? Subscribe to PM Daily below:

SPONSORED SECTION

Sponsor PM Daily! Unlike other free daily newsletters, PM’s ad model works differently: 1. one single sponsor slot per issue; 2. 100% share of voice (SOV) guaranteed; 3. higher return on ad spend (ROAS) from your first placement.

No-brainer, little risk, high upside. Q3 slots are filling up quickly! Reach our rapidly scaling, high-intent, vetted premium audience by replying to this email right now.

🌎 GLOBAL NEWS

🇵🇸 WFP halves West Bank food aid as Gaza cuts loom. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) will halve food assistance in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as funding shortages threaten deeper Gaza cuts. This month, WFP will reduce support from 400K people to 200K. In Gaza, where it supports 1.5M people, cash assistance fell 40% for 375K recipients. WFP needs another $386M over six months to assist about 2M food-insecure people. Its latest assessment counts 900K food-insecure West Bank residents. Food needs there have doubled since 2023. About 76% of households report major income losses. One-third cannot afford a nutritious diet. One in five Gaza families recently ate one meal a day. Half ran out of food at least once during the prior month. The Palestinian crisis also carries annexation, apartheid, blockade, collective punishment, displacement, embargo, ethnic cleansing, famine, genocide, illegal occupation, irredentism and settler-colonialism across findings and descriptions by international bodies and rights groups. WFP director Shaun Hughes says assistance must prioritize the most vulnerable. Funding shortages shrink aid where hunger remains severe. Editor’s Note: The polycrisis afflicting Gaza is officially considered a genocide by the United Nations (UN) and International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), with famine declared formally by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), confirmed by UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNICEF, World Food Program (WFP), and World Health Organization (WHO), along with Global Sumud Flotilla eyewitnesses.

🇦🇷 Messi retires from Argentina after 125 goals. Lionel Messi has retired from international soccer at 39, ending 21 years with Argentina after a career capped by the 2022 World Cup title. Messi finishes with 207 national-team appearances and an Argentina-record 125 goals. Twenty-one of those goals came in World Cups. Only Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more in men’s international soccer, with 146. Messi played in a record-tying six World Cups. He led Argentina to the 2014 final and again to this year’s final, where Spain won in extra time. His defining national-team triumph came in Qatar in 2022. Argentina also won Copa América titles in 2021 and 2024 with Messi as captain. The eight-time world player of the year had briefly retired from Argentina duty in 2016 after another final defeat. He later returned and reversed the central criticism of his international career by winning its biggest trophies. Messi said the decision to retire from national play hurts. He wrote his retirement letter on July 21st, two days after the latest World Cup final. He delayed publishing it while his father, Jorge Messi, was ill before dying on August 8th. Messi will continue playing for Inter Miami in Major League Soccer (MLS). Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni called him history and a legend, a verdict now fixed by numbers as much as memory.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

⚖️ Jury convicts Duane Davis in Tupac Shakur murder. A Las Vegas jury has convicted Duane “Keffe D” Davis of first-degree murder for orchestrating the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur. Jurors deliberated for less than three hours after a weeks-long trial. Davis, 63, was convicted of murder with a deadly weapon and could face life in prison. Prosecutors said Davis obtained the gun used in the drive-by attack. They argued he ordered retaliation after Shakur and others beat Davis’ nephew earlier that night. Shakur was shot while stopped at a red light in Las Vegas on September 7th, 1996. He died six days later at 25. Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight was wounded but survived. Prosecutors said Davis placed himself inside the white Cadillac from which the shots were fired. They argued that he did not need to pull the trigger to bear responsibility for directing the attack. Defense attorney Michael Sanft said prosecutors lacked physical evidence tying Davis to the murder. He argued Davis exaggerated his role in interviews and a memoir to make money. The jury heard 24 prosecution witnesses and three defense witnesses over nine days. Davis is the only surviving member of the four men prosecutors say were inside the Cadillac. Sentencing is scheduled for October, nearly 30 years after one of hip-hop’s defining unsolved killings.

🗽 Times Square stabbing kills one before police shoot attacker. A random stabbing in New York City’s Times Square left one woman dead, one man wounded and the alleged attacker fatally shot by police. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the attacker was a 49-year-old woman from Queens. The violence began just before 4:30 p.m. beside a New York Police Department (NYPD) substation near One Times Square. Police say the woman pulled two large knives from a shopping bag. She stabbed a 68-year-old man in the abdomen after he emerged from the subway with his wife. Seconds later, she stabbed a 32-year-old woman, also in the abdomen. Both victims were taken to a hospital. The younger woman died while the man remained in stable condition. At least 10 officers confronted the knife-wielding woman, according to video from the scene. Officers spent several minutes ordering her to drop the weapons. Police then used a Taser, which did not incapacitate her. Tisch said the woman advanced toward officers while waving the knives. Two officers fired, fatally wounding her before rendering first aid. Police say the woman had documented prior mental-health contacts with the department but no NYPD arrest history. Investigators found no evidence of terrorism as they examine an attack in one of the city’s busiest public spaces.

🗂️ MISC

🍎 John Ternus replaces Tim Cook as Apple CEO. John Ternus has taken over as CEO of Apple ($AAPL), ending Tim Cook’s 15-year run atop the world’s most valuable consumer technology company. Cook moves into the role of executive chairman. Apple’s market value reached about $4.6T during his tenure, powered heavily by the iPhone. Ternus arrives as Apple faces its most consequential technology transition since Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007. AI has reordered competition across the industry. Apple has struggled to deliver some AI features on the schedule it originally promised. The company has since introduced new Siri upgrades centered on privacy and everyday use. Ternus spent years leading Apple’s hardware engineering organization. His résumé includes work on the Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Vision Pro. He will headline next week’s latest iPhone launch in Cupertino, California. The new CEO must also manage Apple’s vast Asian manufacturing supply chain. President Trump’s trade and tariff policies remain a major business variable. Cook built a close working relationship with Trump while managing those pressures. Apple expects Cook to help preserve that relationship from the chairman’s office. Ternus inherits a company at extraordinary scale, but his first test is whether Apple can translate hardware discipline into stronger AI execution.

📈 Bond sell-off deepens as oil and inflation rise. A global government-bond sell-off is accelerating as persistent inflation and rising oil prices push borrowing costs higher. The two-year Treasury yield rose to 4.35%, up from about 3.50% at the start of 2026. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.79%, its highest level since January 2025. Japan’s 10-year government yield touched 3% for the first time since 1996. Germany’s equivalent yield also reached 3%, a 15-year high. Investors are demanding greater compensation as inflation stays elevated and public debt expands. American federal debt passed $40T last month. Stock futures weakened alongside bonds. Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) futures fell 0.6%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dropped 0.8%, while Nasdaq futures lost 1%. Oil added another source of pressure after renewed fighting around the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude rose 1.7% to $92 per barrel after gaining 2.7% the previous session. American benchmark crude climbed 2.2% to $87.67. Average American gasoline prices stayed above $4 a gallon throughout August, a first for the month. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh has left open another rate increase if inflation fails to improve, keeping bonds, oil and monetary policy locked together.