Daily Brew // Morning Brew // Update

April 28, 2026

Mornin’ folks. We learned a new word today: thigmotactic. It’s the term for social creatures that like to cuddle, and it applies to Chonkers, the 2,000-pound seal who’s been delighting locals and tourists alike by thwomping onto the docks made for a smaller seal species at San Francisco’s Pier 39. In fact, he's gotten such a high profile in San Francisco that he’s already got beef with Elon Musk, and OpenAI is considering paying him in the low hundreds of millions for his podcast.

—Dave Lozo, Sam Klebanov, Molly Liebergall, Neal Freyman, Abby Rubenstein

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

A Supreme Court pesticide showdown
OpenAI and Microsoft recalibrating their relationship
A royal visit to the US

MARKETS

Nasdaq

24,887.10

+0.20%

S&P

7,173.91

+0.12%

Dow

49,167.79

-0.13%

10-Year

4.336%

+3.0 bps

Bitcoin

$76,885.87

-1.98%

Domino's

$335.30

-8.93%

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: Call the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Ariana Grande, because they just keep hitting high notes. Both indexes closed at record highs again yesterday, even as oil prices rose amid stalled US–Iran peace talks.
Stock spotlight: Domino’s failed to deliver after the pizza chain reported weak sales. Its CEO said to expect the same from other fast-food chains due to a cold winter and declining consumer sentiment.

TAKING A -CIDE

SCOTUS tries to get to the root of weedkiller case

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Can Monsanto, the manufacturer of the popular weedkiller Roundup, be held responsible for failing to apply a cancer warning to its label? That’s the question at the heart of arguments heard by the Supreme Court yesterday that could decide the future of the agriculture industry, the fate of settlements in pending lawsuits, and the outcome of the midterm elections. (So, you know, not that big of a deal.)

The justices reportedly asked the company’s lawyers tough questions but didn’t tip their hand on how they might ultimately rule. The case boils down to federal vs. state authority:

The EPA has never deemed the active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, cancer-causing. Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018, says that means Roundup doesn’t need the warning label required by state laws.
However, the World Health Organization found a link between glyphosate and cancer in 2015, prompting a wave of suits against the company.

There are thousands of legal cases against Bayer over Roundup, but the one before the high court involves John Durnell, who claims decades of using Roundup resulted in his blood cancer. In 2023, a Missouri jury awarded Durnell $1.25 million, and Bayer is appealing. A decision is expected by June.

A favorable ruling from SCOTUS on the Durnell case would limit Bayer’s liability in current and future lawsuits, as would the $7.25 billion class-action settlement proposed by the company in February.

Glyphosate saves farmers $21 billion annually, according to SCOTUS Blog, and is the most widely used herbicide in the US. CEO Bill Anderson said Bayer may stop selling Roundup due to lawsuits that he considers an “existential” threat to farmers.

The MAHA quandary: The Trump administration is defending Bayer and supporting a farm bill that includes new protections for glyphosate, rankling MAHA advocates who helped Trump get elected in 2024. Some protested outside the court yesterday, and one wellness influencer told CNN that glyphosate “is going to be a midterm issue” in November.—DL

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WORLD

Tour de headlines

Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

OpenAI gets more freedom from Microsoft. Like your friend who finally got up the nerve to force the “what are we” conversation with their situationship, Microsoft and OpenAI are redefining the relationship. Their revamped partnership does away with Microsoft’s exclusive rights to sell OpenAI’s AI models, giving OpenAI the ability to work with Microsoft’s rivals amid a fight among tech companies to dominate the AI space. On the flip side, Microsoft will stop sharing revenue with OpenAI. OpenAI will still share revenue with major investor Microsoft through 2030—though the amount will be capped.

Iran offers to stop blocking the Strait of Hormuz—but with conditions. Although peace talks between the US and Iran in Pakistan were canceled this weekend, negotiations appear to be ongoing. Iran has offered to allow ships through the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure has spiked global energy prices, but only if the US ends its blockade of Iranian ships and the war while postponing nuclear talks, officials told multiple news outlets yesterday. President Trump’s national security team discussed the proposal, and officials later suggested that Trump was not satisfied with the offer. Ending Iran’s efforts to get a nuclear weapon has been a key concern for the president.

Trump says Disney should fire Jimmy Kimmel. The White House is feuding with the late-night TV host again, with the president calling on ABC and its parent company, Disney, to fire Kimmel over a joke he made last week that described First Lady Melania Trump as looking like “an expectant widow” in a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech. With the actual dinner subsequently disrupted by a shooter who prosecutors allege was trying to assassinate Trump, both the president and the first lady criticized Kimmel on social media yesterday. Kimmel’s show was briefly suspended from the air in September after pressure from the Trump administration over comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s murder.—AR

CHINA’S CTRL-U

China blocks Meta’s $2b takeover of AI startup Manus

Morning Brew Design

Meta is in a pickle like someone who booked a vacation only to learn that their boss won’t grant their PTO request. A Chinese regulator yesterday blocked its acquisition of the AI startup Manus, halting a $2 billion corporate tie-up that was already underway.

Meta acquired Manus after the China-founded AI company moved to Singapore last year. Experts say China’s nixing of the deal is aimed at curbing the transfer of homegrown AI know-how to the US—and discouraging other AI companies from relocating abroad in order to seek foreign investment.

Minus Manus

China has reportedly banned two Manus top executives from leaving the country. Meanwhile, other Manus employees moved into Meta’s Singapore office and reportedly already began ~~learning to use the coffee machine~~ working alongside Meta staff.

Losing Manus would be a hit to Meta as the Facebook parent counted on the deal to bolster its own AI competitiveness:

Manus’s AI agents wowed users last year by completing multi-step tasks like research and data analysis.
The startup surpassed $100 million in annual subscription revenue last December.

Meta said yesterday the purchase was legal and that it hopes to resolve the issue.

Looking ahead: The deal’s status could come up when President Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping meet next month to talk trade and geopolitics.—SK

Marathon trivia

Two people have now run a marathon in under two hours. What was the men’s world-record marathon time in 1908?

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ANSWER

2:55:18.4, run by Johnny Hayes at the Olympics in England.

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: cinephiles, meaning “movie lovers.” Thanks to Niall from Miami for the cinematic suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.

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