🌍 Bitcoin politics

Good morning, Quartz readers!

Here’s what you need to know

Former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump made many campaign vows about Bitcoin. He promised to establish a strategic national Bitcoin reserve and fire U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler if he is re-elected.

Warner Bros. Discovery sued to keep NBA games on TNT and Max. The media giant filed the lawsuit after the NBA rejected its offer to match a deal the league made with WBD’s streaming rivals.

OpenAI’s Apple deal may be a bigger threat to Google than SearchGPT. Google’s parent Alphabet saw its stock fall after OpenAI’s search engine was announced last week, but it won’t majorly affect Google Search’s revenue, analysts said.

Not even Southwest Airlines wants to be Southwest Airlines right now. The carrier’s most recent earnings weren’t great, and with hedge fund Elliott Management mounting a takeover campaign, a new identity may be on the horizon.

Boeing’s Starliner is getting closer to a return date. The spacecraft has been stuck at the International Space Station for more than a month.

A Neuralink rival wants to give people their voices back

Imagine if the only way you could communicate your thoughts to others was by manually selecting each character of a word, one at a time, on a keyboard — just like using your television remote to login to a video streaming service.

For people who have lost the ability to speak and have limited hand mobility due to a disorder like ALS or a spinal cord injury, that’s their reality. But Paradromics — a brain chip rival to Elon Musk’s Neuralink — is currently developing a device that can read the brain signals of people who have lost their ability to speak and interpret those signals into their intended speech.

Here are some key facts about Paradromics, by the digits:

2015: Year Paradromics was founded

$87 million: Venture capital investment Paradromics has raised

421: Microelectrodes, thinner than a strand of human hair, that stick out from the bottom of Paradromics’ brain chip

1.5 millimeters: How far the microelectrodes go into the brain

How close is Paradromics to getting its brain chip to market? Quartz’s Bruce Gil talked to the company’s CEO to get the scoop.

Quotable: Fight or flight

“The flight attendants are fired up. On top of the CrowdStrike operational meltdown, an email was sent out in violation of the contract requiring absence certificates for any sick calls over the weekend. It’s a very stark representation of the disrespect that we have seen at the negotiating table. If flight attendants weren’t already fired up, that action made them crystal clear about what they need to do and what kind of message they need to send to this company.” — Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants, in an interview with Quartz about trying to work out its first contract in three years at United Airlines.

Nelson also talked about the union’s views on pursuing its first-ever contract at Delta Air Lines, and how it’s feeling about Kamala Harris.

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🌮 Taco Bell is turning one of its signature menu items into gelato

Surprising discoveries

All Olympic swimmers pee in the pool. Seriously.

One of the world’s most extensive bogs is now a World Heritage site. It’s unclear if people pee in that body of water in northern Scotland, but it’s probably not a good idea now.

Freud wasn’t actually that obsessed with sex. Many of his theories were lost in translation, one scholar argued in a new book.

A dog lost in Las Vegas nine years ago was reunited with his owner. Welcome home, Gizmo! We’re definitely not crying!! Definitely not!!!

The potato may be getting a makeover. A healthier chip or french fry? In this Ozempic economy?? OK!!!

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Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, heart-warming dog stories, and healthy potato chips to [email protected]. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.