☕ Long train runnin'

Rupert Murdoch steps down from Fox... [Advertisement] September 22, 2023 [View Online]( | [Sign Up]( | [Shop]( [Morning Brew]( PRESENTED BY [LiquidPiston]( Good morning. Before you scroll down, do one thing for us: Say the word “crisp.” Feel how it starts at the way back of your mouth and ends at the front. Pretty neat! —Matty Merritt, Molly Liebergall, Cassandra Cassidy, Adam Epstein, Neal Freyman MARKETS Nasdaq 13,223.99 -1.82% S&P 4,330.00 -1.64% Dow 34,070.42 -1.08% 10-Year 4.496% +8.2 bps Bitcoin $26,552.50 -2.04% Fox $29.59 +2.99% *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 2:00am ET. [Here's what these numbers mean.]( - Markets: Stocks [dropped]( for the third straight day after Fed officials said they plan to keep interest rates higher for longer than they previously thought. Meanwhile, Fox shares jumped 3% on the news Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chairman of the mass media company (much more on that below).  MEDIA [Rupert Murdoch steps down from Fox]( [Rupert Murdoch]( Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The head of a massive entertainment empire that also shaped US politics has officially stepped down, and no one has pointed out that it’s just like that HBO show: The Righteous Gemstones. Rupert Murdoch [handed]( the sole chairmanship of Fox and News Corp to his oldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, yesterday. If you’re more of a PBS-head…Rupert Murdoch is the founder and former head of one of the largest media companies in the US. After inheriting a small Australian newspaper in the 1950s, Murdoch hoovered up struggling British papers, which eventually congealed into a global media empire. His crown jewel is the right-wing Fox News Channel, which commands the highest ratings in cable news. Murdoch, 92, has a net worth of ~$8.3 billion and seems to have finally grown tired of dangling the keys to the kingdom in front of his six children. The eldest boy wins In a memo to staff yesterday, old man Murdoch announced the change and said his son Lachlan is “absolutely committed to the cause” of “freedom” and will continue Fox’s legacy. Rupert had signaled this would be the ultimate succession plan when he named Lachlan CEO of Fox News in 2019. But the hardest part is not over. Lachlan is inheriting an empire riddled with gas fires that no one has a thick enough towel to put out. In April, Fox agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems [$787.5 million]( to settle a defamation lawsuit—the largest known media defamation settlement in US history. And there’s a similar lawsuit from another voting tech company still percolating, as well as two lawsuits from Fox shareholders alleging that company directors, including Rupert and Lachlan, failed to perform their duties by getting the company caught up in defamation cases. Phew. Plus, the succession drama is just getting started. After Rupert’s death, his shares will be divided among Lachlan and three of his five siblings—Elisabeth, James, and Prudence. And, based on previous [brotherly tension]( between James and Lachlan, the top job could still be up for grabs.—MM   PRESENTED BY LIQUIDPISTON [An engine-ious family]( [LiquidPiston]( Alexander and Nikolay Shkolnik, the MIT grad and physics dad behind [LiquidPiston]( are delivering the first major innovation to the internal combustion engine in over 100 years. And guess what? [They’re giving you the chance to become a shareholder](. They’ve patented a new thermodynamic cycle to power a redesigned rotary engine that’s up to 10x lighter than comparable piston engines of the same power. Best of all, the engine is compatible with a variety of fuels, including hydrogen. This could unlock a 100% green energy solution for the combustion engine market. No wonder this (thermo)dynamic duo has secured $30m in contracts from the US Army, the Air Force, and more [Invest in LiquidPiston today](. WORLD [Tour de headlines](#) [Commuters walk in New York City]Spencer Platt/Getty Images US jobless claims fell to an eight-month low. Applications for unemployment benefits dropped 20,000 to 201,000 last week, according to Labor Department data released yesterday. That was both the fewest number of claims [since January]( and also among the fewest in the last 50 years. But it may not last for long: The ongoing United Auto Workers strike could force car manufacturers to temporarily lay off more workers, leading to a reversal of what one analyst called “rock bottom levels” of job cuts. Mr. Zelensky goes back to Washington. The Ukrainian president huddled with Joe Biden at the White House and met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to [shore up support]( for Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia. But, unlike during his 2022 visit, Zelensky’s request to address a joint session of Congress was denied by the new House Speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, who said there wasn’t time for it. Biden recently asked Congress for an additional $24 billion to help Ukraine, but in the meantime used Zelensky’s visit to announce a new aid package that includes significant air defense capabilities. Cisco bought cybersecurity firm Splunk for $28 billion. The all-cash deal, worth 13% of Cisco’s market cap, is by far the largest in the company’s history. Splunk, which helps businesses monitor their data and avoid hacks, adds to Cisco’s [growing ambitions]( in cybersecurity as the public cloud corrodes its traditional computer networking business. Before Splunk, Cisco’s biggest purchase was cable-box-maker Scientific Atlanta for $6.9 billion in 2006. INTERNATIONAL [Why there’s so much India–Canada tension]( [Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Justin Trudeau.]( Illustration: Francis Scialabba, Photos: Getty Images Growing friction between the strategically partnered countries spiked this week when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of assassinating a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil. Trudeau announced Monday that Canadian intelligence has investigated “credible allegations” of the Indian government’s involvement in the June killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh activist who [rallied for an independent Sikh state]( in Punjab, India. India called the murder accusation “absurd and motivated.” An escalating ice-out ensued between the two nations: - Canada expelled India’s top intelligence diplomat. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government responded by expelling a senior Canadian diplomat from India and has called for more Canadian diplomats to leave. - India suspended all new visas for Canadian citizens, who were the South Asian country’s fourth-largest group of tourists in 2021. India is Canada’s biggest source of immigrants and was its 10th-largest trade partner in 2022, but tensions have been [brewing for years]( over Canada’s sympathy for the Sikh separatist movement, which India considers a terroristic threat. Before Trudeau took the claims public, he brought them to Modi at the [G20 summit]( earlier this month, and the two countries paused trade talks shortly after. Tightrope mode: The US, UK, and Australia are taking their ally Canada’s allegations seriously while also [trying to maintain]( their diplomatic relationships with India.—ML   TOGETHER WITH CISCO SECURE [Cisco Secure]( Fire up your confidence. Need a firewall you can trust? [Cisco Secure]( commissioned Forrester Consulting to take a completely unbiased look at their operational efficiency and threat efficacy over a 3-year period—and they uncovered some pretty sweet results. Sneak peek: a 195% return on investment. [Read the full report](. TRANSPORTATION [New high-speed rail line just dropped]( [Photo of Brightline train]( Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images The new Brightline rail route opens today, linking Miami and Orlando in the first major city-to-city private US train line [in four decades](. The trip takes 3.5 hours—about 30 minutes faster than driving—and a round-trip fare costs between $158 and $298. Aside from being huge news for people who want to start their day at the Magic Kingdom and end it dancing at E11EVEN, the new route represents significant progress in the push for more high-speed rail in a country that is still very fond of its autos: - After expanding transit in the Sunshine State, Brightline is now working on another route for especially tan people—a train connecting SoCal and Las Vegas that could be ready as soon as 2028. - Amtrak is testing a faster train for its Acela line as part of the New Jersey High-Speed Rail Improvement program. - The state of California and a company in Texas want to build high-speed rail lines of their own, though both projects have encountered problems with land ownership and funding. Move over, Vanderbilt. While Amtrak has long dominated the US railway system, a wave of privatization could soon take over. Brightline has made rapid headway since it started operating in 2018, and many other pending projects consist of public-private partnerships.—CC   GRAB BAG [Key performance indicators](#) [An NFT going through a shredder]Francis Scialabba Stat: We have some bad news for your one NFT friend: The digital collectibles are pretty much worthless now. Using data from NFT Scan, the crypto platform [dappGambl]( found that 95% of the 73,257 non-fungible token collections (e.g., Bored Ape Yacht Club) it analyzed are worth 0 ether. In other words, if NFTs were physical objects, it’d be time to put them on the same garage shelf where your Beanie Babies went to die. The report estimates that 23 million people are now the owners of worthless digital files. The crash is mainly for one reason: There just isn’t enough demand to keep up with supply. Quote: “The practice of equine tail docking was discontinued earlier this year.” The Clydesdales can stop watching their backs, because Budweiser [no longer]( cuts off the tails of the iconic horses, the company said in a statement this week. The beer brand had been under pressure from animal rights activists to end the practice, which was done for cosmetic reasons and to keep the tails from interfering with carriage equipment. Budweiser has used Clydesdales as a marketing tool [since 1933]( when August A. Busch Jr. and Adolphus Busch gifted their father a dozen horses to celebrate the end of Prohibition. Read: AI models portend a potential sea change in how weather forecasts are made. ([The Washington Post]( QUIZ [The last quiz of the summer]( [New Friday quiz image]( The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz has been compared to how perfectly Matt Damon jumps through that window in The Bourne Ultimatum. It’s that satisfying. [Ace the quiz](. NEWS [What else is brewing](#) - [Michael Bloomberg]( outlined the succession plan for Bloomberg LP, saying that when he dies, the company will go to his foundation and then be sold within the first five years. - [Google]( was sued by the widow of a man who died after driving off a collapsed bridge while following the company’s GPS directions, which had not been updated. - [The Biden administration]( is granting temporary legal status to 472,000 Venezuelans already in the country following Democrats’ calls to provide more aid to asylum-seekers. - [ChatGPT]( can now generate “shockingly detailed” images using OpenAI’s DALL-E art tool. - [WWE’s SmackDown]( will move from Fox to USA Network in 2024 as part of a new five-year, $1.4 billion rights deal with NBCUniversal. - [IPO update]( Shares of chip designer Arm fell below their initial price just a week after debuting, as investors cooled from the early excitement. RECS [Friday to-do list] Watch: A deeply satisfying YouTube channel devoted solely to videos of a [hydraulic press]( smooshing household items. Eat: Lose some carbs but keep that signature taste with this [recipe]( for an everything bagel salad (with lox). Behold: Whale sharks, mobula rays, and more [creatures of the deep]( in Ocean Photographer of the Year’s 2023 winners. Read: Succession showrunner Jesse Armstrong’s [column]( on how his team made the hard decision to end the HBO series at the peak of its acclaim. Learn: Our Difficult Conversations at Work course is back on Sept. 25, but if you can’t make the live session, we’ve made it available on-demand. [Register today](. Investing: Everyday people investing in multimillion-dollar paintings by artists like Banksy and realizing impressive returns? Check—thanks to Masterworks. Morning Brew readers [skip the waitlist]( *A message from our sponsor. GAMES [The puzzle section](#) Jigsaw: Remember when the James Webb Space Telescope spotted a question mark in space? We turned that photo into a digital jigsaw puzzle. [Play it here](. Friday puzzle Arrange the numbers from 1 to 15 in a row such that the sum of every two adjacent numbers is a square number. (A square number is 1, 4, 9, 16, etc.—just any number multiplied by itself.) SHARE THE BREW [Share Morning Brew]( with your friends, acquire free Brew swag, and then acquire more friends as a result of your fresh Brew swag. We’re saying we’ll give you free stuff and more friends if you share a link. One link. Your referral count: 0 [Click to Share]( Or copy & paste your referral link to others: [morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=a905682a]( ANSWER 9, 7, 2, 14, 11, 5, 4, 12, 13, 3, 6, 10, 15, 1, 8 [Source]( Word of the Day Today’s Word of the Day is: hoovered up, meaning “to consume something quickly and eagerly.” Thank you to Pam from Trenton, Georgia, for the suggestion. [Submit another Word of the Day here](. ✢ A Note From LiquidPiston This is a paid advertisement for LiquidPiston’s Regulation A+ Offering. Please read the offering circular at [invest.liquidpiston.com](. ✤ A Note From Masterworks See important disclosures at [masterworks.com/cd](. Written by [Adam Epstein]( [Neal Freyman]( [Matty Merritt]( [Molly Liebergall]( and [Cassandra Cassidy]( Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. Take The Brew to work - Marketers: [Marketing Brew]( - Corporate: [CFO Brew](  [HR Brew]( - Tech: [IT Brew](  [Tech Brew]( - Retailers: [Retail Brew]( - Healthcare: [Healthcare Brew]( Get smarter in just 5 minutes - Money & Career: [Money Scoop](  [Money With Katie](  [Raise]( Business education without the BS - Programs in [Business Essentials]( [Analytics]( and [Leadership]( Interested in podcasts? - Check out ours [here]( [ADVERTISE]( // [CAREERS]( // [SHOP]( // [FAQ]( Update your email preferences or unsubscribe [here](. 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