The Information Briefing newsletter

Oct 19, 2026 The Briefing By Nick Wingfield Supported by Thanks for reading The Briefing, our nightly column where we break down the day’s news. If you like what you see, I encourage you to subscribe to our reporting here. Greetings! Apple sure takes its own sweet time. On Monday, the company sent out invitations to a product announcement happening next Wednesday, which the company’s marketing chief teased in a message on X: “Can’t wait to pro and tell next week.” That’s likely a reference to a new MacBook Pro from the company, which Bloomberg has reported will be Apple’s first touchscreen laptop. Apparently pigs really do fly. For over a decade, Apple has treated touchscreen laptops like some kind of mutant offspring of computers and tablets, a category it had zero interest in. On a 2012 earnings call, Apple’s then-CEO Tim Cook had a memorable response to a question about the growing number of touchscreen Windows laptops coming on the market: “You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going to be pleasing to the user.” “We’re not going to that party,” Cook added. A number of things have changed since then. Touchscreens have become somewhat normalized as laptop features. About one in every five notebook computers sold has such capabilities, by one estimate. More recently, Cook handed off the Apple CEO baton to John Ternus, a longtime hardware engineering executive who is much more of a product guy than his predecessor. Clearly, a new touchscreen laptop had to have been in the works long before Apple’s leadership transition. Still, it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that Ternus’ rising stature within the company had something to do with it. Whoever was behind the decision, the first wave of products from the Ternus administration—the iPhone Duo foldable smartphone, HomeView smart display and now possibly a touchscreen MacBook—seems to be sending the message that Apple is ready to embrace categories it previously ignored. That’s a good thing. In Other News Elon Musk pledged to give every child in the U.S. one share of SpaceX stock next year, a gift that could be worth almost $11 billion in total. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security ordered all federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek from their computer systems and bars those agencies from making future purchases from DeepSeek. Federal prosecutors accused the former OpenAI employee who allegedly bugged the company’s offices of having ties to the Saudi royal family. Today on The Information’s TITV Check out today's episode of TITV in which Akash Pasricha speaks to the CIO of Palo Alto Networks Meera Rajavel about the company’s AI agent security strategy. Recommended Newsletter Start your day with Applied AI, the newsletter from The Information that uncovers how leading businesses are leveraging AI to automate tasks across the board. Subscribe now for free to get it delivered straight to your inbox twice a week. A Message from Western Alliance’s Innovation Banking Group, Member FDIC Helping Build the Blueprint for the Future Industry expertise matters when companies are building something new. The right banking relationship starts with understanding where that vision is headed. Hear how Hadrian's CFO found a bank whose industry experience helped grow the company's vision and long-term goals. Read the story and watch the video. New From Our Reporters Exclusive Altman Describes Three Endgames for AI, Including One Where a Single Firm ‘Melts Everyone Else’s GPUs’ By Stephanie Palazzolo and Amir Efrati Exclusive Pentagon’s Emil Michael Vows Export Controls if AI Labs Don’t Cooperate With Government By Leo Schwartz and Amir Efrati Exclusive How DeepSeek Is Shaping Huawei’s AI Chips in a Growing Challenge to Nvidia By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa Upcoming Events Tuesday, October 27 – Wednesday, October 28 — The Information’s 2026 WTF Summit The Information's WTF Summit returns to Napa Valley, bringing together t