Daily Brew // Morning Brew // Update

June 29, 2026

Buongiorno. Over 10,000 Vespas buzzed around Rome on Saturday to celebrate the iconic scooter’s 80th anniversary. Fun fact: Vespa is Italian for “wasp.” You can see an encore swarm this week here in the States by leaving the watermelon uncovered outside for five seconds.

—Holly Van Leuven, Brendan Cosgrove, Neal Freyman

In today’s newsletter, we’ll get into:

International drama brewing over AI models
Medicare expanding access to weight loss drugs
The guy who made aging well a laughing matter

MARKETS: YEAR-TO-DATE

Nasdaq

25,297.62

+8.84%

S&P

7,354.02

+7.43%

Dow

51,876.11

+7.93%

10-Year

4.372%

+20.9 bps

Bitcoin

$59,982.14

-31.46%

Alphabet

$334.69

+6.80%

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 11:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: It may be a holiday-shortened week on Wall Street, but don’t fire up the grill just yet. Jobs data and continued unrest in the Middle East could weigh on investors in the coming days (more on that below).
Stock spotlight: Alphabet may have lost some AI talent recently, but it’s gaining a spot in the Dow Jones Industrial Average today, taking Verizon’s place.

WORLD WIDE WEB OF INTRIGUE

Stalled at home, US AI models face global competition

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at a G7 meeting earlier this month. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The capability gap between the US’ AI models and China’s is now approximately equal to the distance between your desire for a long weekend and the impending July Fourth holiday.

That’s the vibe after researchers announced over the weekend that China’s AI can, in some scenarios, match Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, which the US government forced offline earlier this month. Zhipu AI, which matches Mythos on some tasks, is available to the public worldwide.

Doing their level best. China hasn’t leveled up to Anthropic and OpenAI yet, but its rise highlights the social and financial perils of AI being governed differently around the world:

Some industry watchers say that the US banning AI models while continuing to sell semiconductor chips to China enables it to create competitive models.
US businesses are turning to Chinese models, like those from Zhipu and DeepSeek, to get powerful tools more cheaply.
Even Microsoft is reportedly exploring how to offer Chinese models to consumers on its platforms.

Accelerated braking

On Friday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick allowed Anthropic to restore Mythos access to “certain trusted partners,” according to Semafor. The same day, Anthropic rival OpenAI released its newest model, GPT-5.6, to a small number of recipients approved by the government:

In a blog post, OpenAI wrote that this process should not “become the long-term default. It keeps the best tools from users, developers, enterprises, cyber defenders, and global partners who need them.”

Next up: The Trump administration will soon allow Anthropic to bring its Fable 5 model, the weaker “cousin” of Mythos, back online after also forcing it off, per Axios. Earlier this month, Fable 5 was offered via Claude for three days, during which it was the most powerful AI model available to the public.

An immodest proposal. Austria declared that Anthropic should move to the EU, where it would receive “legal certainty, market access, capital, and a set of values that suits this company.”—HVL

READER POLL

Would you use a Chinese AI model instead of an American one if it saved you money?

Yes.
No.
I don’t want to use any AI.

Sponsored By MiniMax

Building big ideas?

What you build can be just as important as how you build it. So go ahead and give MiniMax’s M3 a try. It’s their newest frontier AI model that was made for reasoning, coding, and AI agents.

This latest model is particularly suited for agentic tasks that require visual understanding, like computer use or video agents. Plus, M3 has a 1-million-token context window that allows it to process entire codebases, lengthy reports, and large projects in a single conversation.

See why more than 250 million users and 200,000 enterprise customers already use MiniMax to build tools that make work easier.

Try MiniMax M3.

WORLD

Tour de headlines

AFP/Getty Images

Iran and US agree to stop retaliatory strikes; talks expected to resume. At points this weekend, it looked like the ceasefire deal between the two nations might fall apart over ongoing disputes regarding the Strait of Hormuz. Yesterday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that his country was assuming full authority over the strait due to the wording of the memo of understanding between the two countries, saying it meant “management and full restoration of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz is Iran’s responsibility,” which US officials disagreed with. A second round of negotiations in Switzerland did not materialize as expected this weekend due to fighting over the strait that restarted on Thursday, although anonymous sources told the Wall Street Journal that the US has since offered to hold new talks in Qatar.

Heat wave to engulf much of US until at least Thursday. The National Weather Service said 142 million people in the central and eastern US will experience dangerous high temps this week. New York City’s weather service office issued an extreme heat warning beginning today through Wednesday, and said the “feels like” temperature could reach 108. Heat index readings by Thursday could exceed 100 in Philadelphia and reach 112 in the nation’s capital. The high temperatures may persist through Saturday in some areas.

Summer box office serves up surprises. If you think a cute dog can drive sales, people are sick of movie series, and Oppenheimer is the biggest biopic ever—take our advice and think twice. On that last point, Michael superseded Christopher Nolan’s epic about a theoretical physicist to become the highest-grossing biopic ever, with a global haul of $977 million. Elsewhere in the cinematic universe, Supergirl (and co-star Krypto the Superdog) earned only $38 million at the domestic box office this weekend for its debut. But Toy Story 5 maintained its No. 1 slot for its second weekend in theaters. Looks like the toys are all right.—HVL

GLP-1, OBESITY-0

Obesity drug access is about to expand via Medicare

Ucg/Getty Images

For many seniors, the weight is almost over: Starting on Wednesday, Medicare will begin covering obesity drugs for the first time, allowing millions of Americans to obtain popular medications like Wegovy, Zepbound, or Foundayo for a $50 monthly co-pay.

What’s changing? Medicare already covers GLP-1 drugs for the treatment of some health conditions, like cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes, but the new rules apply specifically to weight loss treatments. To be eligible, participants need to be enrolled in the Medicare Part D drug plan and meet certain weight and health requirements.

The program is currently slated to run through 2027, though there are talks to extend it.

Why haven’t I heard about this? Drugmakers have done everything but hire a town crier to advertise weight loss drugs, but there hasn’t been as much buzz about the Medicare change. That’s in part to allow for a kind of soft launch that lets physicians and pharmacies work out the kinks. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has also said it doesn’t want to go the Grand Theft Auto VI route and get everybody hyped about something that’s not available yet.

But make no mistake, drugmakers are jockeying for position, because even though their drugs are being discounted, they expect to make up the difference through volume. According to the federal government, more than 56 million Americans have Medicare Part D, and about 38% of seniors have obesity.—BC

State superlatives

As we gear up for America’s 250th, here are some questions about the states that make up the United States.

What is the third most populous state, after California and Texas?
Which state has the highest life expectancy?
What state produces the most apples?
What state has the most lighthouses?

SHARE THE BREW

Share the Brew, watch your referral count climb, and unlock brag-worthy swag.

Your friends get smarter. You get rewarded. Win-win.

Your referral count: 0

Click to Share

Or copy & paste your referral link to others:
morningbrew.com/r/?kid=71df84e8

ANSWER

Florida
Hawaii
Washington (by far)
Michigan

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: superseded, meaning “took the place of.” Thanks to Linda from Duxbury, MA, and several other readers for a suggestion that’s a tough act to follow. Submit another Word of the Day here.

✳︎ A Note From EnergyX

Energy Exploration Technologies, Inc. (“EnergyX”) has engaged Morning Brew to publish this communication in connection with EnergyX’s ongoing Regulation A offering. Morning Brew has been paid in cash and may receive additional compensation. Morning Brew and/or its affiliates do not currently hold securities of EnergyX.

This compensation and any current or future ownership interest could create a conflict of interest. Please consider this disclosure alongside EnergyX’s offering materials. EnergyX’s Regulation A offering has been qualified by the SEC. Offers and sales may be made only by means of the qualified offering circular. Before investing, carefully review the offering circular, including the risk factors. The offering circular is available at invest.energyx.com.

Comparisons to other companies are for informational purposes only and should not imply similar results. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Market shortfall are forward‑looking estimates and are subject to substantial uncertainty.

✤ A Note From MFS Investment Management

This paid content was created with our sponsor and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or point of view of Morning Brew.

ADVERTISE // CAREERS // SHOP // FAQ

Update your email preferences or unsubscribe .
View our privacy policy .

Copyright © 2026 Morning Brew Inc. All rights reserved.
22 W 19th St, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10011

☕ Accelerated braking