☕️ Smokin'

• Markets: It was a new week but not a new narrative for investors yesterday with stocks falling as bond yields and oil prices rose. Companies with an AI connection, like chipmakers Nvidia, AMD, and Intel, took a hit amid calls from CEOs of the companies making the models to slow down development (more on that below).

CHANGE IS IN THE AIR

Jon Cherry/Getty Images

Reports early yesterday speculated that the Trump administration would roll back carbon pollution standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants…and it turns out that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. With the G20 energy summit in Houston as a backdrop, the EPA announced the controversial moves later in the day, saying the changes will save the energy industry more than $300 billion and “unleash” American energy.

What’s changing:

• Essentially, all Obama and Biden-era climate-protection measures that required gas plants to burn cleaner fuels and coal plants to capture most of their emissions by 2039 will be eliminated. These changes will take effect shortly after the agency officially publishes them.
• In a separate rule proposed yesterday, the EPA will also argue that greenhouse gases do not endanger human health or the environment. This could prevent future administrations from reinstituting the restrictions.

The science: If the US power sector were a country, it would be the world’s sixth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, according to an NYU analysis of 2022 emissions data. The regulations being wiped away could prevent ~30,000 deaths, according to Associated Press research. Even a partial unraveling, per the AP, would lead to more smog, mercury, and lead in the air (though some restrictions on mercury and other contaminants will remain in place even if all the climate rules go).

With great power…

…comes great (or at least more) AI data centers. Coal plants said that capturing and storing carbon underground, as required by the EPA’s old regulations, was so cost-prohibitive that they had to close. Since 2010, 330 coal plants have retired and another 60 have announced plans to shut down by 2031, according to the Sierra Club.

Making it cheaper to use fossil fuels coincides with the push from the tech sector to build more data centers that have been straining grids and driving up energy prices for consumers.

Looking ahead…The new rules are expected to face legal challenges from environmental groups hoping to block them.—DL

      

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World

Tour de headlines

Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

📺 Widow’s Bay dominated at the Emmys. The horror-comedy scooped up 14 statuettes at the 78th Emmys, making the tech giant Apple the night’s biggest winner and setting a new high for a comedy. Its star, Matthew Rhys, not only won for best actor in a comedy series for the show, he also won the trophy for best actor a limited series for The Beast in Me—breaking two records, the first for winning two lead actor categories in one night and the second for having won for drama, comedy, and limited series during his career. He wasn’t the night’s only record-setter: Jean Smart became the first to win best actress in a comedy for all five seasons of a show for Hacks. Plus, Smart and Allison Janney both won their eighth acting Emmys, tying an existing record. The Pitt won for best drama. Last night’s Mariska Hargitay-hosted award show even managed to get in a pre-taped sketch featuring Taylor Swift and still end on time. Finally, here’s what everyone wore.

🇺🇸 The 10-year Treasury yield briefly topped 5%. The yield for the bonds, which is used as a benchmark for US mortgage and other loan rates, briefly reached 5.01% yesterday as rising oil prices due to the Iran war spurred inflation fears. It was the first time since 2023 and only the second time since 2007 that the yield breached 5%, a psychological milestone for investors. However, the yield (which moves inversely to bond prices) quickly dropped back below the threshold as oil price pressures eased somewhat and bond buyers emerged. High bond yields are one of the reasons all eyes are on the Fed’s interest rate-setting announcement tomorrow. The central bank is expected to raise rates—also for the first time since 2023.

✉️ SCOTUS rejects Trump’s limits on mail-in voting for the midterms. The Supreme Court yesterday rebuffed the Trump administration’s request that it overturn a federal judge’s order barring the Postal Service from implementing new restrictions on mail-in voting in the upcoming November election. In a short, unsigned order, the high court said the administration was unlikely to win its challenge to the judge’s injunction—though conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented and Justice Kavanaugh said the Postal Service might have the necessary authority. With some states having already begun to send out ballots, the decision means that the mail-in voting curbs President Trump wants won’t impact the midterms, allowing states to use the same rules that they have for years rather than having to quickly grapple with new ones.—AR

AI BRAKING STOCKS

Niv Bavarsky

Just like that essay that tanked your GPA, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s weekend essay calling for a slowdown in AI innovation to address civilizational risks pummeled tech stocks yesterday.

Amodei’s sentiment was seconded by OpenAI leader Sam Altman and Elon Musk, the CEO of xAI’s parent company, SpaceX. The news sent shares of companies that profit from the AI boom into a tailspin:

• The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index was down almost 6% yesterday. The world’s most valuable company, AI chipmaker Nvidia, shed more than 3% of its market capitalization.
• Shares of one of OpenAI’s largest investors, Softbank, plummeted nearly 11%.

Some analysts noted that chipmakers could rebound, as their products will be needed to run an increasing number of AI agents—even if the training of new models slows.

China and Trump respond

Amodei’s call to tap the brakes on AI model development—which included a caveat that US labs should still strive to maintain an AI edge against China—irked the country’s leaders. A Chinese government spokesperson said yesterday that “fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition” serve to disrupt global AI governance.

President Trump is also anti-slowdown. In a Truth Social post yesterday, he derided the Anthropic CEO, saying the only AI guardrail the US needs is a “strong” and “high IQ” president, and that it’s vital that the US stays ahead of China.

Looking ahead…experts say AI governance will be on the agenda when Trump meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington this month.—SK

      

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IS THAT ALLOWED?

Novig

Maybe this is what she wanted, but everyone is mad at Sydney Sweeney over an ad again. And this time she’s isn’t wearing jeans: Sweeney’s new scantily clad ad for sports betting company Novig has received pushback online from women’s sports stars.

The campaign, which ran on TV and social media last week, shows Sweeney almost completely naked talking about the sports prediction market platform, in which she owns equity and joined as a strategic partner. The only things that PG-13-ified the photos and videos were strategically placed sports equipment like a hockey stick, basketball hoop, and, yes, numerous balls.

Backlash was swift:

• American gymnast Gracie Kramer posted an Instagram highlight reel of herself competing overlaid with the words, “Idk what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what a woman in sports looks like.” It garnered over a million likes.
• Other athletes and Olympians, like Australian surfer Felicity Palmateer and swimmer Ariarne Titmus, also aired their frustration that women in sports were still being hyper-sexualized like an early 2010s ad from Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s.

Sweeney has not officially responded…but she did share Instagram stories of past covers of ESPN The Magazine’s now-discontinued “Body Issue” featuring stripped-down athletes.

No stranger to a hated ad: Last summer, an ad featuring Sweeney for American Eagle denim was criticized as having eugenic undertones.—MM

      

Reader Poll

Matty’s work-life balance

Not all job markets are equal

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On Tuesdays, the Brew’s Matty Merritt brings you the news you need to make life a little easier during your 9-5, 5-9, or OOO.

Workers aged 22 to 34 without college degrees are experiencing one of the best job markets in nearly two decades and one of the lowest unemployment rates since 2003, according to an analysis from think tank Burning Glass Institute. Researchers chalk it up to a drop in immigration and older blue-collar workers retiring without enough trained younger people to fill their jobs.

Meanwhile…the unemployment rate appears to be moving in the opposite direction for workers with bachelor’s degrees, amid fallout from a tightening white-collar job market with AI replacing some entry-level roles.

This is unusual because during both the pandemic and the aftermath of the 2008 recession unemployment rates for the two groups tracked each other.

Big picture: It’s still easier overall to get a job with a college degree: unemployment rates for workers with degrees aged 25 to 54 averaged 2.7% for the year ending in July, while sitting at 4.7% for workers with only a high school diploma. However, if you compare current rates of unemployment by professions with their rates since 2003, the more hands-on and in-person a job is, the more likely it is for the rate to be relatively low now, according to the Wall Street Journal.—MM

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News

What else is brewing

• Sen. Mitch McConnell returned to the Senate yesterday for his first vote since June after being absent due to health issues.
• Abbott Laboratories agreed to pay $385 million to settle claims from a government investigation of contamination at a baby formula factory in Michigan that led to large recalls. The company did not admit liability in resolving the claims.
• The Clarity Act, a high-profile crypto regulation bill, faces a key procedural vote in Congress today.
• Novo Nordisk is taking a page out of Madonna’s playbook and going mononymous. The Danish drugmaker behind Ozempic will now go by just “Novo” publicly, although it’s keeping its legal name the same.
• Donald Trump Jr. and his wife, Bettina Trump, confirmed that their wedding celebration was partially paid for by a Russian oligarch.
• Macklemore was dropped as an opener on Ed Sheeran’s tour following controversy over his comments and imagery in support of Palestine during a concert. The rapper said it came after Patriots owner Bob Kraft organized a boycott.
• Bob Mackie, a legendary costume designer who dressed Cher and other stars, has died at age 87.

recs

• A map of each US state’s favorite break-up song.
• What experts say your dreams about being back in school mean.
• The most exciting bakeries to visit across the US, according to The Infatuation.
• A near-perfect combination of chocolate, sweet, and salty.**

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Play

Brew Mini: Your sample clue from today’s snack-sized puzzle is, “Homeland of Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Rhys.” Play the Mini here.

Nutritional facts

Name the product from its ingredient list.

Enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, vitamin B1 [thiamin mononitrate], vitamin B2 [riboflavin], folic acid), vegetable oil (soybean, palm, canola and/or sunflower with TBHQ for freshness), cheese made with skim milk (skim milk, whey protein, salt, cheese cultures, enzymes, annatto extract color). Contains 2% or less of salt, paprika, yeast, paprika extract color, soy lecithin.

Answer

Cheez-Its

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: mononymous, meaning “going by one name only.” Thanks to Ellen from Asheville, NC, for the singular suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.