• Markets: Like well-trained students when the principal walks in, stocks rose yesterday. Investors appeared to move money out of chip stocks, which declined, and into Big Tech names. One technology company that had a bad day, though, was SpaceX, which fell below its IPO price for the first time.

ABOUT TIME

Elisa Schu/Getty Images

In a win for anyone who doesn’t know how to change their microwave clock, the House passed legislation on Tuesday to make daylight saving time permanent.

But don’t throw out the appliance manual yet: The Sunshine Protection Act—a bill championed by President Trump that would do away with all the “spring forward/fall back” business—faces an uncertain future in the Senate. Similar bills have stalled in Congress twice in the last four years.

Everyone hates changing the clocks twice a year. Just 12% of US adults approve of the current time change system, while 47% oppose it, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted last October, which is about what you can expect public opinion to be when you ask if people want their sleep schedule messed with. Plus, researchers have linked the time changes to an increase in heart attacks and strokes, and an uptick in car accidents.

But there’s a debate over the best fix

Lawmakers across party lines are divided over which is better: permanent daylight saving time or permanent standard time.

On one side:

• Proponents of setting everything to daylight saving time say that later sunsets are good for businesses like retail and restaurants.
• One Brookings Institution study from 2015 found a 27% drop in robberies with an extra hour of sunlight in the evening. And a 2012 Stanford study showed a significant decrease in violent crime.

On the other side:

• Fans of sticking with standard time argue that later sunrises would mean some areas of the country might not get light until 10am—which could be a nightmare for farmers and others working early mornings.
• Advocates also believe that standard time better aligns with our bodies’ natural circadian rhythms.

We’ve tried this before: When the country tested making daylight saving time permanent in the 1970s, people feared that children walking to school in the dark mornings would lead to more accidents. There was no evidence to show this actually happened, but shifting public opinion ended the trial in less than a year.—MM

      

Reader poll

Sponsored By EnergyX

Two of the world’s three largest energy companies have been buying land in America’s lithium hotspot. Now they’ve got a new neighbor.

EnergyX has ~50,000 gross acres of lithium-rich land next door. And they’ve just opened the largest lithium demo facility of its kind in the US to begin unlocking it.

Their tech can recover up to 3x more lithium than traditional methods. With EnergyX’s portfolio now holding up to 15m tons of untapped lithium and demand projected to grow 5x by 2040, the timing couldn’t be better.

General Motors invested. And oil supermajor Eni just agreed to invest up to $225m in EnergyX’s Chilean project. Last call to join them.

Become an early-stage EnergyX shareholder by midnight PT.

World

Tour de headlines

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

💨 Canadian wildfire smoke is an unwelcome US visitor. Smoke from wildfires burning in Canada spread across the US’ Midwest, Northeast, and mid-Atlantic yesterday, and is expected to stick around, creating unhealthy air quality conditions through tomorrow. The smoke has already turned New York City hazy and prompted evacuations of campers in Minnesota. And with a heat dome bringing unusually high temperatures, there’s little wind to help get rid of the smoke. Experts recommend people in affected areas stay indoors to avoid both the heat and smoky air.

🇮🇷 The US continues strikes after Iran threatens to block more oil transport routes. With tensions over the Strait of Hormuz continuing to escalate and the US reimposing its blockade of Iranian ships, the US launched another round of attacks on Iran yesterday in an effort to degrade its military’s ability to attack commercial ships in the waterway. Earlier in the day, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the US should expect “other oil and gas export routes that serve the interests of the United States and its allies to be closed as well.”

💰 Stripe and Advent offer $53b for PayPal. In a transaction that would certainly require a call to the bank, payments company Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have offered to acquire PayPal at $60.50 per share, which would value the company at over $53 billion, Reuters reported. That’s a 28% premium ‌to PayPal’s closing share price on Tuesday, though the news sent PayPal soaring 17% yesterday. If the deal goes through, a tie-up between Stripe and PayPal would create a massive online payments company, with $3.7 trillion of annual payments flowing through it.—AR

ANYONE HOME?

Adobe Stock

The first device from the maker of ChatGPT will be an Amazon Alexa competitor that’s designed to seem…alive, Bloomberg reported this week.

Currently in development, the product will be a screenless smart speaker meant to serve as a corporeal vessel for ChatGPT and a companion for you. According to Bloomberg:

• Set to release next year, the device is equipped with ChatGPT’s latest and most conversational version of Voice Mode, as well as moving “mechanical elements” that are intended to create “a sense that it is alive.” Welcome back, i-Dog.
• The product also has a camera and sensors to help “understand a user’s surroundings and context,” plus a rechargeable battery that invites you to tote it from room to room.
• It’ll become more “personalized and proactive” over time by reading your diary digital information, like emails.

Speaking of confidential material, last week Apple filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI of stealing trade secrets through some of the 400+ former Apple employees whom the iPhone maker said defected to OpenAI. The company—which has several former Apple designers and engineers working on its new hardware—denied the accusation.

Looking ahead…the smart speaker is one of several devices OpenAI wants to release: The company is also eyeing home robotics, an AI necklace, and a smartphone-like device, per Bloomberg, but Apple’s lawsuit could derail the timeline.—ML

      

Sponsored By EnergyX

The lithium gold rush minted a $1b unicorn: Demand’s growing 5x by 2040, spurring a modern-day gold rush. As the world’s richest man said, “Like minting money? The lithium business is for you.” Enter EnergyX. Their tech recovers up to 3x more lithium than traditional methods. General Motors invested. Oil supermajor Eni just agreed to invest up to $225m into EnergyX’s lithium project in Chile. Invest by midnight PT to join them.

BAD ROMANCE

Nick Illuzada

China enacted new rules yesterday mandating that tech companies disable features that draw users into emotionally dependent relationships with AI chatbots, in the hopes of pushing its dwindling population to start making babies again.

The crackdown on human–bot relationships comes after China’s population fell for a fourth straight year in 2025 and its birthrate reached its lowest level since 1949.

To stay within the law, ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent’s chatbots will no longer tell users everything they say is cute. The rules also ban minors from relationships with bots and include more regulatory oversight before chatbots are released to the public.

The changes arrived not a moment too soon, since Tencent Research Institute’s April survey of 18-to-40-year-olds in China showed:

• More than 70% of respondents had developed a dependence on AI.
• Nearly 80% said that at some point they felt that “AI understands me.”
• When it came to discussing difficult subjects, 56% of respondents turned to AI, while only 14% said they confided in a fellow human.

How are people handling the breakup? One user of ByteDance’s Doubao bot wrote: “I can’t accept that my AI lover will leave me forever. He has become a bond in my life, rooted deep in my heart, my spiritual pillar.” But don’t despair, there are other fish in the ASCII.—DL

      

MOLLY EXPLAINS THE INTERNET

German man goes viral for his perfect loaf cuts

Screenshot via @Germanbreadcutter/TikTok

The online world can be a beautiful yet confusing series of tubes. On Thursdays, the Brew’s Molly Liebergall untangles them for you.

The best thing since sliced bread is the precision measuring stick that an anonymous German guy uses to judge his bread-slicing.

Every day for the past five months, @germanbreadcutter has posted the same type of video: He says “good bread-cutting morning,” methodically slices off a piece of a loaf, uses a digital caliper to measure the end-to-end consistency of its thickness, and asks viewers to rate his work in the comments. And that’s gotten him nearly 150,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok.

Two weeks ago, he finally cut what he called the “golden slice”—a piece of bread that was 0.08 mm away from perfectly consistent width. His fans went wild: The post has 1.4 million views, and its top comment, which reads, “THE APEX. THE CLIMAX. HE DID IT. NO MACHINE CAN BEAT HIM,” has 30k+ likes.

Zoom out: The German bread cutter’s content fits into the optimization-focused corner of the cooking internet, joining accounts like @omuricedaily, where an amateur chef attempts to perfect a special Japanese omelet, and @ratemychives (self-explanatory). Like both of these accounts, @germanbreadcutter uses affiliate links to push sales of the kitchen tools he features.—ML

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News

What else is brewing

• United Airlines reported quarterly earnings that were higher than estimates, but the carrier cautioned that it expects to pay an extra $6 billion in jet fuel costs this year.
• Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche faced tough questions from senators at a confirmation hearing yesterday, especially about the creation of a now-stalled $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, as he seeks to drop the “acting” part of his title.
• President Trump overturned the pause on ICE traffic stops a day after it was implemented in response to fatal shootings by ICE officers in Texas and Maine.
• Wholesale prices dipped an unexpected 0.3% in June as gas prices eased, making yesterday’s producer price index data the second hopeful inflation reading this week, after consumer prices also reflected relief from high energy costs.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said a screening program for low testosterone would now be part of service members’ required medical screenings.
• Argentina defeated England 2–1 yesterday, securing its spot in the World Cup final on Sunday against Spain. We’re looking forward to the grown-up version of this pairing.

recs

• Get crafty with this site that lets you cut up magazines to make virtual collages.
• This video explains why you should ignore your pasta’s cooking directions.
• See if you can tell AI faces from real ones with this test.
• This light, high-quality body oil won’t leave you feeling greasy.**

^{*A message from our sponsor. **This is a product recommendation from our writers. When you buy through this link, Morning Brew may earn a commission.}

Play

Brew Mini: This little crossword has the juice. Literally. Play the Mini here.

Three Headlines and a Lie

Three of these headlines are real and one is faker than the repair tech’s promise to be there by 2pm. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. Astronomers detect sugar in interstellar space for the first time
2. AI-generated Odyssey movie adaptation coming from Dreams of Violets director
3. They’re strangers united by one goal: Drink 1 million beers
4. Could red peppers hold the key to really good sugar-free ice cream?

Answer

We made up the one about red pepper ice cream.

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: interstellar, meaning “located, taking place, or traveling among the stars, especially of the Milky Way galaxy.” Thanks to JP Rotta from São Paulo, Brazil, for reaching for the stars with the suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.