Morning Brew - ☕ British invasion

Why are there so many Brits leading US news outlets?
June 10, 2024 View Online | Sign Up | Shop

Morning Brew

Masterworks

Good morning. Reminder to surreptitiously find out from your dad what single-malt he prefers or which of his tech gadgets could use an upgrade—Father’s Day is less than a week out.

—Neal Freyman

MARKETS: YEAR-TO-DATE

Nasdaq

$17,133.13

S&P

$5,346.99

Dow

$38,798.99

10-Year

4.430%

Bitcoin

$69,656.18

Microsoft

$423.85

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close. Here's what these numbers mean.

  • Markets: The stock market is like an album with a couple of bangers but the rest are skips. Just three stocks—Microsoft, Nvidia, and Apple—account for more than 20% of the value of the S&P 500, the first time that’s happened since at least 2000, per Dow Jones Market Data. Meanwhile, the five biggest stocks have accounted for more than half of the index’s gain this year. Investors say the bottom of the order will have to start producing for the rally to continue.
 

TECH

Adobe uproar shows no one trusts Big Tech

Adobe HQ Lisa Werner/Contributor via Getty Images

An update to Adobe’s terms of service from February sparked widespread outrage from its customers last week, highlighting the trust deficit between companies rushing to roll out AI features and the people who fear their content is unwittingly being used to train those systems.

What happened: PhotoShop-maker Adobe recently sent out a notification informing its users updates to its TOS that the company said “clarified that we may access your content through both automated and manual methods.” Though the language changed months earlier, in February, screenshots of the updates and other sections of the TOS went viral on X, prompting Adobe customers like TV food personality Alton Brown to say they were suspending use of the company’s products.

Their concerns appear to be that Adobe would train its generative AI model Firefly on user content, or be able to access proprietary projects that are under an NDA with a client.

Adobe says it’s a nothingburger

Facing the prospect of a mass boycott, Adobe responded swiftly that user content is not used as training data for its generative AI models and that the language around this topic in its TOS had barely changed for more than a decade, which outlets like The Verge and The Register confirmed was the case.

Still, Adobe’s Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky acknowledged the language in the notification is “unclear” and that “trust and transparency couldn’t be more crucial these days.”

He’s right. People are on edge. As tech companies attempt to ride the AI wave, they’ve been accused of using surfboards made from materials they didn’t pay for, or ask permission to access (see: Scarlett Johannson’s spat with OpenAI over its Her-sounding voice assistant). And Adobe, which already doesn’t have the best reputation for its dominance in the creative software space, is under a particularly harsh spotlight for any moves, real or perceived, that would slight its customers.

   

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Masterworks

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Offerings can sell out in minutes, but Morning Brew readers can skip the waitlist to join with this exclusive link.

WORLD

Tour de headlines

Emmanuel Macron Kiran Ridley/Getty Images

Macron announces surprise new elections after stinging EU defeat. French President Emmanuel Macron sent shockwaves across France when he announced he would dissolve the country’s parliament and hold fresh elections in a few weeks. In the European Parliament vote revealed last night, Macron’s party was routed by Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, showing that voters are dissatisfied with France’s status quo. Macron’s wasn’t Europe’s only governing party to lick its wounds—German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats posted their worst result ever in another rebuke of the political mainstream.

Netanyahu’s top rival steps down. Centrist Benny Gantz said he was leaving Israel’s three-person war cabinet, charging PM Benjamin Netanyahu with “preventing us from achieving true victory.” With the move, Gantz hopes to topple Netanyahu’s governing coalition but could also grant more power to hard-line, ultranationalist ministers, the WSJ reports. The announcement came one day after an Israeli raid in central Gaza freed four hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 but killed at least 274 Palestinians during the operation, per Gaza’s health ministry. Here is what we know about the raid.

Landslide takes out key route to Jackson, WY. Part of the winding Teton Pass road that links eastern Idaho to Jackson collapsed in a landslide, closing the road indefinitely, authorities said on Saturday. It’s a major setback for an area that relies on tourism to fuel its economy, especially at the beginning of the summer travel months. Teton County, WY, received $1.7 billion in travel-related spending in 2022, per the Jackson Hole tourism board. Officials said they weren’t sure when the road would be back in action. One detour option adds more than an hour of driving time.

MEDIA

Brits are taking over American news

Austin Powers reading a magazine Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery/New Line Cinema

Cricket isn’t the British export sweeping the US—many of America’s top newsrooms are now led by people who drive on the wrong side of the road. The British newsroom invasion could add a different flavour to your news at an inflection point for the business, with the US presidential election heating up but many outlets suffering financially.

The list of British news executives in the US is long: The Washington Post is now led by Daily Telegraph vet Will Lewis, Emma Tucker is the WSJ’s editor-in-chief, Mark Thompson is the CEO of CNN, John Micklethwait (definitely British) is the editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, and Daisy Veerasingham leads the AP.

Why is this happening? Their accents make them sound smart. Perhaps more importantly, struggling American news orgs may see British editors, known for an aggressive style of reporting with less financial support, as potential disruptors.

Not all that disruption has been welcomed. The Washington Post is in chaos after CEO Will Lewis overhauled the newsroom last week and reports emerged that he tried to kill negative stories about him in the press.

Lewis thinks change is necessary after the Post lost $77 million last year and its traffic plunged by half since 2020. During a contentious meeting on Monday, he told one staffer, “People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”

   

TOGETHER WITH FINANCEBUZZ

FinanceBuzz

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CALENDAR

The week ahead

Tim Cook speaks at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference Josh Edelson/Getty Images

Apple’s big summer event is here: And the company is under immense pressure to show it’s got a strong AI hand to play. Later today, during Apple’s WWDC keynote, execs will reveal a new AI system that integrates with its devices and a new partnership with OpenAI on a ChatGPT-infused chatbot, Bloomberg reports. Apple has typically adopted the strategy best described as “You don’t have to be first as long as you’re the best,” but as it’s fallen far behind its peers in the AI race, investors will need to be wowed.

Elon Musk’s massive pay package is up for a vote: At Tesla’s annual meeting on Thursday, shareholders will vote on whether CEO Elon Musk should be awarded a $56 billion pay package that was voided by a Delaware judge earlier this year. Musk and his supporters have been getting out the vote on social media, telling investors that the financial incentives will keep his energy focused on the automaker. Some of Tesla’s large institutional investors, such as Norway’s $1.7 trillion wealth fund, say they’ll vote no.

Inflation data, Fed meeting on tap: If you’re into macroeconomics, Wednesday can’t come soon enough. Inflation data for May arrives in the morning, and it’s expected to show price growth held steady at 3.4% annually. In the afternoon, the Fed will wrap up its meeting with a Jerome Powell press conference. The Fed is pretty much a lock to hold interest rates at their current level.

Everything else…

  • World leaders, including the pope, will convene at the G7 summit in Italy beginning on Thursday.
  • In hockey, the Edmonton Oilers are hoping to become the first Canadian NHL team to win the Stanley Cup in 31 years, but they’re down 1–0 in the series against the Florida Panthers. Game 2 is tonight.
  • The Celtics and Mavericks continue the NBA Finals, with the Celtics up 2–0.
  • Golf’s US Open begins Thursday at Pinehurst in North Carolina.
  • It’s not the World Cup, but it’s the next best thing: The Euro 2024 soccer tournament begins on Friday.

STAT

Prime number

Proposed legends tower in Oklahoma City AO

How goofy would it be if the world’s sixth-tallest building was located in…Oklahoma City? Extremely goofy—but also not out of the realm of possibility after the Oklahoma City Council approved the removal of height restrictions last week, allowing the development of a 1,907-foot tower to proceed. If constructed, the Legends Tower, the brainchild of developer Matteson Capital and architecture studio AO, would be the tallest building in the US and stick out like a beautiful sore thumb in Oklahoma, where it’d be more than double the height of the state’s current tallest building.

NEWS

What else is brewing

  • Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in for a third term, though his party won by a much slimmer margin than expected.
  • Kia is recalling nearly 463,000 Telluride SUVs in the US over front seats that could start burning. It’s telling owners to keep their Tellurides parked outside and away from buildings.
  • The FDA warned consumers about Diamond Shruumz-brand Microdosing Chocolate Bars, which have been linked to severe illnesses in eight people across four states.
  • Carlos Alcaraz won his first French Open title and his third Grand Slam overall. On the women’s side, Iga Swiatek hoisted her third-straight French Open trophy.
  • Caitlin Clark was left off Team USA’s women’s basketball roster for the upcoming Paris Olympics.

RECS

Monday to-do list image

 Watch: SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster landing gently in the Gulf of Mexico.

 Cooking inspo: This website lets you search 2 million recipes.

 Think: Can you solve the martini glass puzzle? (YouTube)

 Listen: Charli XCX’s new album will have you dancing at your desk.

Shop: It’s that time of year—Morning Brew’s summer sale is on. Get up to 50% off some of our best-selling merch like t-shirts, sweatshirts, and mugs.

Pamper your pets: You probably consider your pet a member of your family, so why not feed them like one? Keep your dogs healthy and happy with The Pets Table, a personalized pet food brand from the makers of HelloFresh.*

*A message from our sponsor.

GAMES

The puzzle section

Turntable: It might not seem like it, but there are 35 words hidden in this jumble of letters. See how many you can find here.

Lucrative movie quotes trivia

Log on to Etsy and you won’t find any shortage of merch tagged with iconic movie quotes.

But a new report by QR Code Reader identified one quote that is the most profitable of all time when applied to fan-made merchandise, with nearly 4,000 Etsy items bearing this quote.

What is it?

Hint: It was first spoken in a 1962 movie and has appeared in numerous films since.

SHARE THE BREW

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We’re saying we’ll give you free stuff and more friends if you share a link. One link.

Your referral count: 2

Click to Share

Or copy & paste your referral link to others:
morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=303a04a9

ANSWER

“Bond. James Bond.”

Source

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: surreptitiously (yep, right at the top), meaning “in a way that attempts to avoid notice or attention.” Thanks to Rick in Miami and many others for the subtle suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.


✢ A Note From Masterworks

The content is not intended to provide legal, tax, or investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Investing involves risk.

Aggregate net investor proceeds returned back represents the total liquidation proceeds distributed back to investors, net of all fees, expenses, and proceeds reinvested in Masterworks offerings, of all works Masterworks has exited to date. This metric is not considered a presentation of performance but rather a mathematical figure that displays a platform metric on size, scale, and operation of platform.

No money is being solicited or will be accepted until the offering statement for a particular offering has been qualified by the SEC. Offers may be revoked at any time. Contacting Masterworks involves no commitment or obligation.

See important Reg A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.

         
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