Lebanon Ceasefire, Shakespeare’s Home, and Punch 2.0

 Need To Know 

Israel-Lebanon Ceasefire

Israel and Lebanon agreed to a 10-day ceasefire starting at 5 pm ET yesterday, which may aid efforts to extend the fragile US-Iran truce.

The Israel-Lebanon deal calls for US-mediated talks toward longer-term peace. The neighboring nations have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948. Amid the Iran war, fighting has intensified between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group widely seen as stronger than the national military. Hezbollah declined to engage in direct talks with Israel, so the Lebanese government negotiated the truce on its behalf, as in a 2024 ceasefire. Israel says it will not remove ground troops stationed in southern Lebanon, a move Hezbollah says could upend the ceasefire (see map).

Meanwhile, Pakistan is seeking to host another round of US-Iran peace talks before that ceasefire expires April 22. The truce has held so far despite a US naval blockade of Iranian ports aimed at applying economic pressure to the regime. 

Triumphal Arch, Triumphant

The US Commission of Fine Arts approved designs yesterday for President Donald Trump’s proposed white-and-gold Triumphal Arch. See renderings here.

Conditional on the results of pending lawsuits, the arch will sit on Columbia Island, a human-made island in the Potomac River separating Washington, DC, from Arlington, Virginia. The monument stands at 250 feet (nearly 100 feet taller than Paris’ Arc de Triomphe) and commemorates the US’ 250th anniversary. At the arch’s base are four gold lions. Capping the structure is a 60-foot-tall, Lady Liberty-like gold statue facing the Washington Monument, flanked by gold eagles. Visitors would be able to access the viewing deck via an internal staircase or elevator. See the world’s tallest arches here.

The Interior Department also got approval for two other proposed projects: an underground center to screen White House guests and painting for the exterior of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, part of the White House complex.

All’s Well That Maps Well

A newly uncovered map has pinpointed the exact site of William Shakespeare’s only known London home, a Blackfriars property he bought in 1613, solving a centuries-old mystery over the playwright’s city residence.

The 1668 precinct plan, discovered in the London Archives and drawn two years after the Great Fire of 1666, shows the property stood at what is now the eastern end of Ireland Yard, spanning 5 Burgon St. and 5 St. Andrew’s Hill, directly under an existing plaque. The map depicts an L‑shaped building, large enough to have been divided into two homes, carved from a 13th-century Dominican friary near the Blackfriars Theatre, which Shakespeare partly owned. Associated documents indicate the property later passed to his daughter and was sold by his granddaughter before being destroyed in the fire (watch video).

Over time, the site has housed a printing firm, carpet wholesaler, construction office, the National Book Association, and, most recently, modern offices and apartments.

Explore more Shakespeare via 1440 Topics here.

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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture

> Singer D4vd, real name David Anthony Burke, is arrested on murder charges and held without bail months after the body of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found in his abandoned Tesla (More)

> NHL regular season wraps with 16 teams heading to the Stanley Cup playoffs, which begin Saturday (More) | UEFA Champions League semifinals set after Bayern Munich beats Real Madrid; games resume April 28  (More)

> University of Southern California launches an AI institute for aspiring actors, focused on how the technology can be used to help their craft (More) | NPR receives two charitable gifts totaling $113M after federal budget cuts (More) 

Science & Technology

> President Donald Trump nominates retired Coast Guard officer and former deputy surgeon general Erica Schwartz to serve as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (More) 

> Paleontologists discover a new long-necked dinosaur dating back roughly 155 million years in Argentina; our understanding of long-necked dinosaurs to date has relied largely on finds in the Northern Hemisphere (More, w/photos) 

> Neurobiologists manipulate brain circuits linked to placebo pain relief, pointing to new possibilities for opioid-free pain management strategies (More) 

Business & Markets

> US stock markets close up (S&P 500 +0.3%, Dow +0.2%, Nasdaq +0.4%) after Israel and Lebanon agree to temporary ceasefire (More) | Europe could run out of jet fuel in six weeks due to Middle East war, International Energy Agency warns (More) | Where does the EU get its oil? (More) 

> Netflix shares drop 10.4% in after-hours trading after announcing its cofounder and chairman, Reed Hastings, who served as CEO for 25 years, will exit the streaming giant's board (More) 

> Brokerage Charles Schwab introduces cryptocurrency investing product, dubbed Schwab Crypto, which will make bitcoin and ether trading available to clients (More) 

Politics & World Affairs

> Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) kills his wife before dying by suicide amid divorce proceedings, police say (More) | How common are murder-suicides? (More)

> Analilia Mejia (D) wins special election to fill House seat after Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D, NJ-11) won gubernatorial election in November (More) 

> Russia carries out deadliest drone and missile attack in Ukraine so far this year, with at least 18 people killed and more than 100 wounded (More)

In-Depth

> The World's First LSD Trip

BBC | Greg McKevitt. Dr. Albert Hofmann accidentally discovered the hallucinatory effects of LSD during a routine lab experiment. In a 1986 interview, he recalls a disorienting bike ride home and the moment his neighbor turned into a witch. (Read) 

> How Secure Is Tap to Pay? 

Veritasium | Staff. One man uses a Tap to Pay device to steal $10K from his friend's locked phone. How did he pull it off, and what steps can you take to protect yourself from the same kind of scam? (Watch) 

> Every Apple Holds a Story 

Oxford American | Diane Flynt. Aunt Cora was born into slavery and later became a midwife for Black and white women. How did two apple varieties come to be named after her? (Read) 

> Bookstore Economics

Planet Money | Staff. What bookstores keep in stock and where they place those books on the shelves directly impact what you spend hours reading. Go behind the shelves to see who makes those decisions. (Listen) 

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