Appointments and Executive Changes

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      Vietnam Revives Power-Sharing Arrangement With New President

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      The move restores a “four pillar” government structure that divides top-level duties to avoid the rise of a single strongman.Vietnam’s National Assembly approved a new president on Monday, restoring a power-sharing arrangement among four high-level leaders that has defined the country’s approach to Communist government for decades.The assembly’s announcement that Luong Cuong, a Vietnamese Army general, would be president calms speculation about the country’s top leader, To Lam, and whether he would try to retain the presidency after rising to become general secretary of the Communist Party in August.Under the country’s “four pillar” structure, established in part to avoid the rise of a single strongman, decision-making roles are split among the general secretary, president, prime minister and head of the National Assembly.Vietnam’s president typically oversees the military and usually comes from within its ranks. But from 2018 to 2021, Nguyen Phu Trong, who was general secretary from 2011 until his death in 2024, also served as president.Mr. Lam had been named president in May and initially held both roles. As minister of public security before that, he helped lead an anti-corruption campaign that pushed out several high-level figures, including two presidents and three deputy prime ministers.It was unclear whether he would seek to keep two positions and consolidate power ahead of the National Party Congress scheduled for 2026, when the country’s next leaders will be chosen.In a speech opening the assembly’s session on Monday, Mr. Lam praised his Communist Party colleagues for reaching an agreement at a moment when “the global and regional situation has had many complex developments, with unprecedented and unpredictable issues, posing many significant challenges to the task of building and defending the nation.”“The passing of comrade general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is a great loss, leaving deep sorrow among the people and soldiers across the country,” he said. “In this context, our party has shown steadfast resolve, maintaining a unified bloc in will and action, quickly consolidating the leadership of the party and state with high consensus.”In his own introductory speech, Mr. Cuong promised to “resolutely and persistently safeguard national independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.”Analysts said a return to Vietnam’s four-pillars arrangement could help minimize political infighting as another generation of leaders seek to fulfill Vietnam’s long-held ambitions of becoming a wealthy nation with high-end manufacturing and a larger role on the world stage.“This could help mitigate factional tensions by ensuring that the military has a prominent role in the nation’s leadership,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, a research organization in Singapore.He added, “This will help stabilize the system after a period of significant turbulence.” More

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      CVS Ousts Karen Lynch as C.E.O. and Shares Fall

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      Shares of the health care conglomerate dropped after the sudden departure of Karen Lynch and a downbeat update on the state of the company’s finances.CVS Health abruptly ousted its chief executive, Karen S. Lynch, on Friday as the pharmacy and health care conglomerate struggled with sluggish growth and faced pressure from investors.The company appointed David Joyner, the head of CVS Caremark, its successful unit overseeing prescription drug benefits, as the new chief. The management change was accompanied by a dour financial update, with the company scrapping its previous forecasts because of “elevated medical cost pressures.” Shares of CVS fell sharply in early trading.The company’s earnings have disappointed investors in recent quarters, in part because of rising costs at Aetna, the company’s insurance arm. Activist investors have pushed the company for changes, prompting CVS to explore breaking itself up, potentially by separating its pharmacy business from its insurance unit.CVS employs about 300,000 people. Its sprawling portfolio includes the branded pharmacy chain, with more than 9,000 retail locations; Aetna, which it acquired in 2018, which has nearly 40 million policyholders and other customers; Caremark, the country’s largest pharmacy benefit manager, hired by employers and governments to oversee prescription drug benefits; and Oak Street Health, which runs more than 200 primary care centers for Medicare recipients.Ms. Lynch took over as the group’s chief executive in February 2021, after running Aetna. “I don’t want people to think about CVS Health as just that drugstore,” she told The New York Times in 2022. “I want them to think about it being a health care company.”Roger Farah, the chairman of CVS Health, said in a statement on Friday that “the board believes this is the right time to make a change.” He added that Mr. Joyner’s “deep understanding of our integrated business” would help steer the company through its challenges.During his tenure at Caremark, which he rejoined in 2023 after a few years away from the company, Mr. Joyner faced increased scrutiny of pharmacy benefit managers. He appeared at a Congressional hearing this summer, facing questions from lawmakers about the role of pharmacy benefit managers in rising drug costs for millions of Americans.This month, CVS said it would cut almost 3,000 jobs, mostly corporate employees. Its rival chains are also under pressure to cut costs: This week, Walgreens said it would close about 1,200 stores over the next three years.Shares of CVS, which dropped 7 percent on Friday, have fallen more than 25 percent this year. More

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      York Theater Artistic Director Out After ‘Hurtful’ Diversity Comments

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      James Morgan, who has been with the small New York theater company for 50 years, blamed the effects of a stroke for his behavior.The longtime leader of the York Theater Company, a small New York nonprofit known for its emphasis on musical theater, is acknowledging making “hurtful” comments about diversity that he says prompted his abrupt departure from the organization.James Morgan, who has served as producing artistic director of the York since 1979, and who has been with the company for 50 years, issued a letter on Monday saying that he had suffered a stroke in 2022, and attributed his behavior to that medical incident.“During a recent staff meeting, I responded to a colleague’s concerns about the diversity of our audiences in a way that was inappropriate and hurtful,” Morgan wrote in the letter. “The words came out — at a raised volume that has been one of the side effects of the stroke — differently than I intended them.”The York is a niche company, founded in 1969, that operates out of a church on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. During fiscal 2023, it had an annual budget of $2.2 million, according to a filing with the Internal Revenue Service; Morgan was paid a salary of $95,000.On Friday at 5 p.m., the company issued a news release saying that Morgan had “resigned from his duties, effective immediately.” Jim Kierstead, the board’s president, raised the diversity issue in his statement in the news release, saying, “We will soon be announcing plans for a future filled with diversity, talent, and musical theater in order to continue our long legacy of supporting artists of all backgrounds.”It quickly became clear that Morgan’s departure had been preceded by the resignation of Gerry McIntyre, the theater’s associate artistic director.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sheena Wright, Eric Adams’s Deputy Mayor, Resigns

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      Sheena Wright, the first deputy mayor of New York City, became the seventh senior leader to leave the administration in the past few weeks.Sheena Wright, a longtime ally of Mayor Eric Adams, has resigned from her post as first deputy mayor, according to people with knowledge of the matter, making her the seventh senior official to leave the administration during a time of crisis in New York City government.Ms. Wright is expected to be replaced by Maria Torres-Springer, the mayor’s current deputy mayor for housing, economic development and work force, according to those people. One of the people said Ms. Wright planned to serve until the end of the month. Mr. Adams is expected to make the announcement before his regular Tuesday media availability.“We are grateful for First Deputy Mayor Wright’s years of service to the city and all she has done to deliver for children, families, and working-class New Yorkers,” Mr. Adams said in a statement that was expected to be circulated on Tuesday. “She is an exceptional leader who assembled a strong team and constantly demonstrated a bold vision for this city.”News of Ms. Wright’s departure comes two weeks after federal prosecutors unsealed a five-count corruption indictment against the mayor.It also follows the resignation announcements of her brother-in-law, Philip B. Banks III, the deputy mayor for public safety, and her husband, David C. Banks, the schools chancellor.On Sept. 4, federal investigators seized the phones of both men, Ms. Wright, and several other senior administration officials. With Ms. Wright’s resignation, all of those people have since stepped down or announced plans to.Tracking Charges and Investigations in Eric Adams’s OrbitFour federal corruption inquiries have reached into the world of Mayor Eric Adams of New York. Here is a closer look at the charges against Mr. Adams and how people with ties to him are related to the inquiries.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      U.K. Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, Sue Gray, Resigns

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      Ms. Gray said intense media scrutiny of her role meant she “risked becoming a distraction” to the new Labour government. Sue Gray, the chief of staff to Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, resigned abruptly on Sunday after weeks of speculation about turf wars in Downing Street, a media storm over her pay and questions over responsibility for a series of political errors.Ms. Gray, a career civil servant with decades of experience at the heart of government, said in a statement that it had “become clear to me that intense commentary around my position risked becoming a distraction to the government’s vital work of change.”Mr. Starmer thanked Ms. Gray in a statement for “all the support she has given me, both in opposition and government, and her work to prepare us for government and get us started on our program of change.”Ms. Gray has been appointed as the prime minister’s envoy for regions and nations, while the role of chief of staff will be taken by Morgan McSweeney, who masterminded the successful election campaign this summer for the Labour Party, and had served as Mr. Starmer’s chief adviser.The changes bring to an end a turbulent period of several months in which the presence of both Ms. Gray and Mr. McSweeney in Downing Street created two centers of power, prompting rumors of a fierce rivalry between them, although both denied any hostility.Ms. Gray’s departure also heralded a wider shake-up. The political director at Downing Street, Vidhya Alakeson, and the director of government relations, Jill Cuthbertson, have been promoted to deputy chiefs of staff. James Lyons, a former journalist who worked in communications for the National Health Service, and more recently at TikTok, will head a new strategic communications team.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Pope Names 21 New Cardinals, Reaching Far Beyond Europe

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      The appointments cement Francis’ imprint on the group that will choose his successor, and reflect his vision of a more truly global Roman Catholic Church.In announcing on Sunday that he would appoint 21 new cardinals, Pope Francis once again elevated clerics from far beyond Catholicism’s traditional centers of power, in line with his vision of a more global, less Eurocentric church. It also further cemented his imprint on the men who will one day choose his successor.Four of those he selected were from South American countries: Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru. Also on the list were archbishops and bishops from Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia Iran, and two from Africa: the archbishop of Algiers, Jean-Paul Vesco and Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Only one North American was selected, Archbishop Francis Leo of Toronto.Francis read the list of cardinals during his Sunday Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square.The new cardinals will be installed at a ceremony known as a consistory on Dec. 8, a feast day on the Catholic calendar.It will be the 10th such ceremony since Francis was elected in 2013. Before Sunday, he had already named 92 of the 122 cardinals under 80, the age cutoff for voting in the conclave to elect his successor. Of the others, 24 were named by Pope Benedict XVI and six by St. John Paul II.Francis, the first pope from South America, has diversified the College of Cardinals more than any of his predecessors, installing cardinals from more than 20 countries that had never been represented before. He has shifted membership away from Europe, acknowledging the growth of the Roman Catholic church in Africa, Asia and Latin America, even as church attendance has gradually declined in parts of Europe.The shift was perceptible in two almost back-to-back trips last month: a tour in the Asia-Pacific region where adoring crowds greeted Francis, in some cases after walking through jungle for days to see him, and a trip to Luxembourg and Belgium, where the reception was more fraught.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      David Banks, N.Y.C. Schools Chancellor, Moves Up His Departure

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      The chancellor, who previously announced that he would step down at the end of December, will instead leave the job on Oct. 16. Melissa Aviles-Ramos, a top deputy, will succeed him.David C. Banks will step down as the New York City schools chancellor on Oct. 16, months earlier than he had previously said he would, City Hall announced on Wednesday.In recent weeks, Mr. Banks has been swept up in a wide-ranging corruption scandal, which has resulted in the indictment of Mayor Eric Adams and has also involved Mr. Banks’s brothers Philip Banks III and Terence Banks, and his wife, Sheena Wright, the first deputy mayor, as well as other members of the mayor’s inner circle.The Banks brothers and Ms. Wright had their phones seized by federal agents in early September as part of an investigation into a consulting firm run by Terence Banks.The announcement on Wednesday came just hours after federal prosecutors told a judge that they might bring additional charges against the mayor and that charges against other people were likely. The chancellor has not been charged with any crimes and has maintained that he has done nothing wrong.In a statement on Wednesday, he did not address the change in timing of his departure from the role, but he reiterated that he had been told that he was not a target of the federal investigation involving the mayor.“I have conducted myself with integrity for almost 40 years, educating New York City’s young students,” he said. “My record and my reputation speaks for itself.”Tracking Charges and Investigations in Eric Adams’s OrbitFour federal corruption inquiries have reached into the world of Mayor Eric Adams of New York. Here is a closer look at the charges against Mr. Adams and how people with ties to him are related to the inquiries.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More