August 19, 2026

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Happy National Potato Day. Today we honor perhaps our most versatile vegetable. Here’s a fun potato fact: President Thomas Jefferson is credited with helping to popularize French fries when he had potatoes served “in the French manner” at a White House dinner in 1802.

Tough call between fries and the Declaration of Independence for TJ’s greatest contribution to America.

—Matty Merritt, Sam Klebanov, Dave Lozo, Adam Epstein, Neal Freyman

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

Disney suing the FCC
The historic bond rout
American Airlines’ U-turn on seatback screens

Markets

Nasdaq

26,289.71

-1.33%

S&P

7,691.76

-0.69%

Dow

53,343.4

-0.22%

10-Year

4.706%

-2.0 bps

Bitcoin

$64,583.65

+0.38%

Klarna

$15.06

-22.81%

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 4:30pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: Stocks fell yesterday, as soaring bond yields weighed on markets (more on that later). Meanwhile, investors decided to sell now on the buy now, pay later company Klarna after it cut its outlook and announced the departures of its CFO and CMO.

HOW FAR I’LL GO

Disney, ABC file 1st Amendment suit against FCC

Illustration of a late night comedian wearing a blue suit, red tie, and holding a microphone, with a hand coming from off-screen to cover his mouth, but Mickey Mouse's arm is also coming from off-screen to tug that arm away.

Niv Bavarsky

Disney channeled the wrath of a child told they can’t have a fourth Mickey-shaped churro waffle and sued the federal government yesterday. Disney-owned ABC, along with eight of its stations, filed a First Amendment lawsuit against President Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC), alleging that the agency is illegally punishing the company over editorial coverage that Trump and his administration have tried to stifle.

The 46-page complaint details numerous accusations that the FCC is attempting to control the network and its content through regulatory threats.

It comes a few months after the agency requested that Disney renew some of its stations’ broadcast licenses early—something the FCC hasn’t done in nearly 50 years. The FCC claims it is looking into the broadcast company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion program, while Disney’s lawsuit alleges that the agency is trying to clamp down on content that Trump doesn’t like:

Last year, Trump-appointed FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr briefly succeeded in having Jimmy Kimmel Live! taken off the air after the comedian made a comment about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Following the ordeal, President Trump threatened to delicense TV networks that were critical of him. He also called on NBC to cancel Jimmy Fallon’s and Seth Meyers’ respective late-night shows.

A roundtable of complaints. ABC claims that the FCC is also targeting The View: After the daytime talk show invited on Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, Carr opened an investigation into the program, asserting that it did not qualify for an exemption from the agency’s “equal opportunities” rule, which requires most non-news broadcasts to offer equal time to competing political candidates.

The FCC argued in a statement yesterday that Disney is engaging in an “ongoing campaign of disinformation.” ABC, meanwhile, called the FCC’s actions an “existential threat” to its work.

Disney is not alone. The company’s allegations mirror complaints from law firms, universities, and some individuals who say that the administration is targeting them over protected speech. The White House has denied doing so.—MM

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World

Tour de headlines

Teenage boy wearing black beanie and sweatshirt sitting on couch looking at his phone

Unsplash

🤖 OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens. Just like how Saturday Night Live inspired Nickelodeon’s All That in the ‘90s, ChatGPT has led to ChatGPT...but for people who know what “skibidi” means. OpenAI announced that it’s rolling out ChatGPT for Teens, a version of its flagship chatbot for users aged 13 to 17 that comes with a number of safeguards, including content restrictions on topics like suicide and sex and study support that guides students rather than spits out easy answers. The AI is also blocked from saying it has personal feelings toward users to lessen the chances they develop relationships with the chatbot. OpenAI’s moves come as the company fends off several lawsuits alleging that ChatGPT has put children in danger.

🌍 Trump says the US is not in talks with Iran. “There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” President Trump wrote in a Truth Social post yesterday. He also insisted that the Strait of Hormuz is “open and operating,” although the US’ naval blockade remains in effect, and traffic levels in the key waterway have plummeted. In a separate post, Trump posted a graphic of the strait with the title “New US Territory,” but did not elaborate.

🇺🇸 🇨🇦 Trump pauses planned 50% tariffs on Canadian goods. Hours before 50% levies on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports were scheduled to kick in last night at 12:01am, President Trump said on Truth Social he was pausing them. The president said he would delay the tariffs for three days “based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!” The announcement followed trade talks between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday. Trump threatened the tariffs last month in response to what his administration asserted was discriminatory treatment of US goods in the auto, alcohol, and dairy industries.—AE

BOND, TREASURY BOND

Bond selloff pushes yields to 19-year high

Unsplash

Wall Street increasingly sees Uncle Sam as that friend at risk of ignoring your Venmo requests, so investors are becoming more hesitant to lend it money by buying bonds. The 30-year government bond yield—which moves in the opposite direction to price—briefly hit 5.34% yesterday, the highest level since 2007.

What does that mean for Main Street? Aside from increasing government borrowing costs, higher long-term bond yields make mortgages and auto loans more expensive.

Why are times tough for America’s IOUs?

Investors are worried because the 60-day ceasefire with Iran expired without a long-lasting peace deal, threatening higher oil prices that would reignite inflation. They’re also side-eyeing the government’s spendthriftiness: Federal spending exceeded revenue by $432.3 billion last month, the highest monthly deficit since 2021.

Plus, there’s more competition for fewer investor dollars:

Tech giants are flooding the market with corporate bonds to fund the AI buildout.
Pension funds that traditionally hoovered up government debt are retreating from the asset class. And price-sensitive private bond investors are replacing government buyers.

Meanwhile…some analysts say new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s decision to no longer hint at plans for interest rate changes leaves investors in the dark and makes them demand higher compensation for uncertainty.

This is a global trend: Concerns about government debt and inflation have pushed bond yields to multi-year highs in recent days in France, Germany, the UK, and Japan.—SK

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SCREENING PROCESS

American Airlines is bringing back screens on seats

Seatbacks on an American Airlines airplane with no screens

Al Drago/Getty Images

American Airlines will begin installing screens in the seatbacks of every plane in its fleet in 2028, once again allowing passengers to experience the joy of watching a movie without sound on a screen in the row ahead of them.

This corrects what was widely viewed as a mile-high flub, when American removed the devices for nodding off during a Vin Diesel movie about a decade ago. The airline felt that flyers would prefer to consume content on their personal screens, while also seeing it as a way of saving on fuel costs by lightening the aircraft and erasing repair expenses when screens break. But, since then, American has fallen behind rivals Delta and United.

Along with ~~moving into 2013~~ modernizing to match competitors, American flights will have other new amenities to lure high-end customers:

Planes will be retrofitted with Bluetooth connectivity and USB-C charging ports.
More first-class seats and extra legroom are coming, too.
Starlink wi-fi will be offered on 500 of its planes starting next year.

Most of these upgrades won’t be complete until the early 2030s, according to an American executive who spoke to CNBC.

Screens mean dollars: Screens allow airlines to show personalized ads to a captive audience, something United started doing in 2024.—DL

Reader Poll

How do you typically spend a short flight?

Using the screen (if there is one)
Going on my phone
Reading
Sleeping
Working
Contemplating the meaning of life

Sam’s stock of the week

European stocks are finally hot again

Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images

On Wednesdays, the Brew’s Sam Klebanov highlights a fascinating stock, commodity, or other asset that’s worth your attention.

Europe’s stock market is waking from its long slumber. For the first time since the Iran war began in February, investors bought European stock index ETFs more than they sold them last month, per Bloomberg data.

Despite fears of rising energy prices undermining the continent’s economy, Europe Inc. is blowing it out of the water:

European companies are on track to report one of the strongest quarterly profit growth in years for Q2.
It’s even outperforming the US in some parts of the market. EURO STOXX Bank index gained 20% this year, beating the 12% rise in its S&P 500 banking counterpart.

It’s also a hot hedge against the AI trade. BlackRock said $4.4 billion flowed into its European ETFs in July as cash was taken out of volatile chip stocks. And BNP Paribas said that while European companies might not be leading in developing AI, they could get a boost from using it.

But overall Europe still trails the US: Stoxx 600 is up 9% this year, slightly behind the 12% gain in the S&P 500.—SK

Box office trivia

Spider-Man: Brand New Day became the eighth movie to reach $2 billion in global ticket sales. Can you name the other seven?

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Answer

Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, Avatar: The Way of Water, Ne Zha 2, Titanic, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avengers: Infinity War

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: spendthriftiness, meaning “the habit or quality of spending money in a reckless, wasteful, and careless way.” Thanks to Brandon from London for the suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.

✢ A Note From Walmart Marketplace

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Written by Adam Epstein, Matty Merritt, Sam Klebanov, Dave Lozo, and Neal Freyman

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