🌍 Rolls-Royce buckles down

Good morning, Quartz readers!

Here’s what you need to know

Rolls-Royce is axing 2,500 jobs. The UK-based engine maker’s decision is part of a cost-cutting drive championed by its new CEO.

Activist hedge fund Starboard Value is shaking up corporate America once again. Move aside Olive Garden, Starboard is coming for the Murdoch family’s News Corp .

Russia banned Japanese seafood imports. Like China’s before it, Russia’s boycott comes after Japan released treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into its waters.

In other fish news, Canada agreed to help the Philippines detect illegal fishing. The countries will share data from satellite surveillance technology that finds illegal boats even if their location trackers go dark.

Close to 60% of African healthcare workers have seen patients die waiting for medical care. That’s compared to 33% globally, according to a new study on workforce attitudes among healthcare workers around the world. In Nigeria, such an environment is causing a “medical brain drain.”

No, there is no BlackRock bitcoin ETF

$30,000: Price to which bitcoin jumped after Cointelegraph posted on X that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had approved BlackRock’s long-awaited bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF)

$28,000: Price to which bitcoin immediately fell once BlackRock denied the report

The world’s largest asset manager is indeed still stuck in the SEC’s waiting room. But, like the price jump indicates, regulatory approval of a bitcoin ETF would be a watershed moment when it comes to widespread acceptance of the cryptocurrency, legitimizing a contentious product for more investors—and such a moment could come as early as Jan. 10.

Pop quiz: The highest grossing Disney films

Disney is 100 years young—which of these films is among the studio’s top 10 highest grossing movies in the US, after inflation?

A. Finding Nemo

B. Toy Story

C. The Lion King

D. Frozen

The House of Mouse may be known for its animated features, but its top 10 list only features two cartoons. Let’s just say that acquiring Marvel and Star Wars was a solid financial decision for the century-old entertainment company.

Subway’s UK market share is getting sandwiched by Greggs

If you’ve had dreams of being a Subway franchise operator in the UK, you may want to consider the footprint of a certain 84-year-old homegrown bakery.

In the UK, Greggs has opened 82 net new stores this year, and now is outpacing Subway 2,400 to 2,300—and it’s not finished. Beating out its biggest rival, though, is more déjà vu for Greggs than uncharted territory. Quartz’s Ananya Bhattacharya assembled all the ingredients of Greggs’s latest expansion plans.

Quartz’s most popular

🥽 Microsoft thinks it can succeed where Google failed with AR glasses

🗞️ Meta’s Threads is unwittingly becoming a news hub in the face of the Israel-Hamas war

💉 Drug used in diabetes treatment Mounjaro helped dieters shed 60 pounds, study finds

🧺 ETFs: Easy trade, easy short

👀 Amazon’s October Prime Day sale is over, and here’s what we know

🤔 Dollar General’s boomerang CEO doubled its market cap during his first stint. Can he do it again?

Surprising discoveries

The man behind the Carolina Reaper made a pepper that’s three times hotter. When he ate “Pepper X,” creator Ed Currie felt “the heat for three-and-a-half hours. Then the cramps came.”

AI read an ancient scroll that was buried under ash from Mount Vesuvius. The software helped scholars decipher the word “πορϕυρας” or “porphyras,” meaning “purple.”

AI is also being used to determine when the Sun might decide to have a grid-frying storm. Just as surprising: We’re entering solar storm season.

Toy makers are embracing MESH. Not the fabric, but toys that help build resilience through mental, emotional, and social health.

Should people be allowed to dance and sing at the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie? Both have been encouraged by theaters and Swift herself, but etiquette sticklers are prepared to shushhh.

Did you know we have two premium weekend emails too? One gives you analysis on the week’s news, and one provides the best reads from Quartz and elsewhere to get your week started right. You can get those by becoming a member.

Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, ancient scrolls to decipher, and solar storm warnings to [email protected]. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.