Daily Brew // Morning Brew // Update

May 18, 2026

Mornin’. Yesterday’s Washington Post profile of Rachel Entrekin, who won this year’s Cocodona 250-mile ultramarathon in Arizona, featured some wild details:

Entrekin, 34, finished the race in 56 hours, nine minutes, and 48 seconds.
Over that time, she slept just 19 minutes.
She stayed hydrated with “precision-crafted electrolyte drinks and gels,” but also had “a Coke or two” and “a ton of mashed potatoes.”

Congrats to Rachel on her record-breaking finish, and also to mashed potatoes, which got one step closer to superfood status.

—Holly Van Leuven, Brendan Cosgrove, Neal Freyman

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

The strike snarling the nation’s busiest passenger rail service
President Trump’s suggestion for ending the Iran war
Auditions beginning for the next James Bond

MARKETS: YEAR-TO-DATE

Nasdaq

26,225.14

+12.84%

S&P

7,408.50

+8.22%

Dow

49,526.17

+3.04%

10-Year

4.595%

+43.2 bps

Bitcoin

$77,003.70

-12.00%

Ryanair

$53.36

-25.59%

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 10:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: Rising oil prices and bond yields have some investors feeling a little jittery about the inflation situation. If retail earnings come in soft this week, it could make them jitterier.
Stock spotlight: Budget airline Ryanair is expected to offer some details on how it’s navigating fuel prices when it reports earnings this morning. The stock is down ~26% so far this year.

LABOR

LIRR strike extends into today’s commute

Adam Gray/Getty Images

Over a quarter of a million NYC-area commuters are having a much worse Monday than usual, as the Long Island Railroad’s (LIRR) first strike since 1994 continues.

The dispute between five LIRR employee unions and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the state agency that operates the LIRR, which began on Saturday at 12:01am, didn’t come out of the blue. Contract negotiations proceeded, unsuccessfully, over three years, and two federal interventions also failed to move the needle on a deal, according to the New York Times.

What workers want: The ~3,500 engineers, signalmen, machinists, and other employees in the striking unions have not received a raise since 2022. They are seeking a 9.5% retroactive raise—3% for 2023, 3% for 2024, and 3.5% for 2025. The MTA agreed to that.

The sticking points

The LIRR unions involved in the strike also asked for a 5% raise for 2026.

The MTA said no can do, as it would exceed deals it has made with other unions in its jurisdiction.
To avoid drawing the ire of the 80 other unions, the MTA countered with a 3% raise and a lump-sum cash payment, which they rejected. The MTA said that the cash compensation for workers in the five striking unions for 2025 averaged $136,000.
Workers’ proposed changes to healthcare premiums went unanswered.

“The raises weren't really raises, when you factor in inflation,” Steve Ammirati, a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union, told CBS.

Additionally, the MTA sought to abolish several work rules that result in higher pay for the unionized employees. An example provided by the New York Times: If a worker started the day driving a diesel train but is asked to switch to an electric train on the same day, that worker must receive two days’ pay.

Zoom out: More than 270,000 passengers use the LIRR trains daily, especially weekday commuters going to and from work. At a news conference yesterday, NY Gov. Kathy Hochul said striking workers would erase their gains from a new contract by staying on strike for three days. There are currently no further negotiations scheduled.—HVL

Sponsored By Vanta

Oh, look! Another security blind spot

Or maybe you wouldn’t even see it if it’s a blind spot…but you catch our drift.

For example: An employee just added their 67th AI tool. Cool! This also just created the 67th vendor with potential access to your data, code, and customers (that you know nothing about). Not so cool.

The good news: The Vanta Agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk, and flagging what matters.

Ramp, Cursor, and over 16,000 other fast-moving companies already use it. So don’t scramble before an audit. Tap into calm-pliance with Vanta.

Watch their on-demand demo to see Vanta in action. No sales call required.

WORLD

Tour de headlines

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Trump warned Iran to “get moving” or “there won’t be anything left of them.” In a post on Truth Social yesterday, the president wrote, “the Clock is Ticking” on an Iran peace deal, and “TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!” While the current ceasefire has no firm expiration date, tensions between the two nations continue to simmer while they remain at odds on a long-term solution. On his way home from China on Friday, President Trump told reporters that Iran offering a 20-year moratorium on its nuclear program would be sufficient for him to end the war, saying, “Twenty years is enough, but the level of guarantee from them is not enough. In other words, it’s got to be a real 20 years.” But the Trump administration denied that anything less than a complete and permanent end to the program would be sufficient.

Jury to begin deliberations today in Musk v. Altman. The advisory jury, made up of six women and three men, will begin deliberating at the federal courthouse in Oakland today, although District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will have the final say over whether OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman, and its president Greg Brockman are found liable for unjustly enriching themselves by converting OpenAI from a nonprofit to a for-profit organization. The remedies phase will also begin today, during which Judge Rodgers will hear arguments about what should be done in the event that Musk prevails (the jury will not take part in that phase).

New filing reveals how Greg Abel is rebalancing Berkshire Hathaway stocks. The new CEO, in his first quarter as Warren Buffett’s successor, signaled that he’s adding a chapter of his own in the BH playbook by discontinuing Buffett’s two-year Apple sell-off and going big on Alphabet. The company’s quarterly 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that under Abel, it more than tripled its position in Alphabet and sold off Amazon, Visa, Mastercard, Domino’s Pizza, and UnitedHealth Group. It also cut its stake in Constellation Brands, the alcoholic beverage producer, by 95%. Watchers say Abel isn’t demonstrating Buffett’s aversion to investing heavily in technology.—HVL

Britain’s got talent: James Bond edition

Justin Tallis/Getty Images

Someone’s going to have some big, knife-concealing shoes to fill. The casting process for the next James Bond has officially begun. And even though the franchise has survived plenty of turnover in the past, this time, 007 has a new handler: Amazon MGM Studios.

Golden eye: Famed casting director Nina Gold (Game of Thrones, The Crown, Star Wars) will have the honor of finding the next Bond. Besides acting chops and a passable Bri’ish accent, the actor must “ooze sex appeal,” Gold said, and be young enough to portray the character in at least three to four movies, per Deadline. Jacob Elordi, Callum Turner, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Tom Francis have all been rumored to be potential candidates.

Prime time: Amazon ~~stirred~~ shook things up last year when it purchased full control of the Bond character from its longtime producers for about $20 million, though things like earnouts, bonuses, and stock options may have brought the total value of the deal much higher, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Amazon could make a lot of moneypennies: Over the last six decades, the Bond films have raked in about $6 billion at the domestic box office. Plus, Amazon and its Prime Video service have already trialed an extended 007 universe with the comedy series Bait, which has a familiar premise: an actor dealing with the consequences of a James Bond audition.—BC

READER POLL

Who has been the greatest James Bond to date?

Daniel Craig
Pierce Brosnan
Sean Connery
Roger Moore
Timothy Dalton
George Lazenby
David Niven

Very animated trivia

On this day 25 years ago, a movie was released that would become the first film to win the Academy Award for best animated feature. What was the film?

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

Shrek. Happy anniversary, big guy!

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: aversion, meaning “desire to avoid something.” Thanks to Steve from Hudsonville, MI, for never shying away from sending a good suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.

✳︎ A Note From United States Tungsten

This is a paid advertisement for United States Tungsten Corp.’s Regulation CF offering. Please read the offering circular at https://invest.unitedstatestungsten.com/.

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

☕ Incoming