🌏 Warren Buffett's trillion-dollar hurrah

Plus: A new meat on an old McDonald's sandwich

Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett
Photo: Kevin Dietsch (Getty Images)

Good morning, Quartz readers!


HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway just hit a really big milestone. The company’s market cap reached $1 trillion and is America’s first non-tech company to do so.

Abercrombie stock took a big dive on a bad omen. Shares dropped precipitously after the company’s CEO warned that an “increasingly uncertain environment” could threaten its growth.

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United Airlines flight attendants are ready to strike. Members of their union approved the move with 99.99% voting in favor.

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Bitcoin got devalued 5% overnight. The cryptocurrency’s “whale” owners are behind the drop.

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Super Micro Computers got a super major ding. Short seller Hindenburg Research says the scandal-plagued company is a “serial recidivist” that will burn shareholders again soon.


HOW MUCH JET FUEL HAS TO BURN TO FUEL BURNING MAN?

Anywhere from 800 to 3,000 private planes are descending into the Nevada desert this week to ferry participants to the cultural festival.

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There are so many of them that a temporary airport is constructed in “Black Rock City” to accommodate the incoming air travel.

Quartz’s Madeline Fitzgerald takes a look a the logistics necessary to air drop burners into the annual outsider event — plus how much it costs (hint: a lot).

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IF THAT’S NOT BEEF IN YOUR BIG MAC THEN WHAT IS IT?

McDonald’s would say that it’s a “Chicken Big Mac.” The burger giant is slated to rumored to be bringing back the sandwich that was a fan favorite when it had a limited 2022 run.

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The offering is part of a push to lure back customers who had been turned off by high prices among other reasons.

Quartz’s Francisco Velasquez examines how the cock-a-doodle-double-patty sandwich will sit alongside its cow-meat big sibling.

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MORE FROM QUARTZ

🚀 SpaceX just delayed its Polaris Dawn for a third time because of bad weather.

đź’µ Nearly three in four Americans think inflation is erasing their hard work.

🔋BYD’s latest earnings show that it continues to pose a big threat to Tesla.

đź’Š Kamala Harris wants a $35 cap on the price of a monthly supply insulin.

🗣️ Ryanair’s CEO is yelling at Boeing again for the same reason as always.


SURPRISING DISCOVERIES

There’s some black hole puffery afoot. Scientists believe that some galaxies appear bigger than they are due to their proximity to the collapsed star formations.

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Summer can’t end fast enough for some schools. More than 10,000 of them nationwide lack air conditioning to cope with increasingly hot back-to-school seasons.

Americans are loving unions again. The labor organizations notched their second-highest approval rating since the 1960s.

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Private equity has a new foothold in your life. The National Football League’s owners will now allow the investment-flipping firms to purchase stakes in your favorite team.

Ozempic is a boon to plus-size fashion fans. The resale platform Poshmark says that it’s seeing a surge in larger-size listings as more people begin using weight-dropping GLP-1 drugs.

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Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, black holes, or fast food sandwich ideas to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Melvin Backman.