📬 OpenAI aims at Google

Good morning, Quartz readers!

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The CDC thinks it has found the culprit behind the McDonald’s E.coli outbreak. Shed a tear for the fast food chain’s slivered onions.

Elon Musk has been demoted from a Trump cabinet that doesn’t exist yet. Instead of an official post to cut government spending, surrogates say the tech billionaire will instead just provide some computer code.

The latest Gen Z status symbol is groceries. The cash-strapped cohort is spending on treats what it can’t afford to spend on traditional luxuries.

OpenAI is getting into the search business. It thinks that ChatGPT can be a worthy competitor to Google.

Comcast might ditch some channels in a reorganization effort. Bravo, E!, Syfy, Oxygen True Crime, and USA Network are on the chopping block.

Airline takes fiscal hit on land

Allegiant Air is an airline, which makes most of its money from flying planes through the air. It also tries to make some money on land through a resort it owns. One problem: That resort is a hurricane magnet.

The Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor has been through almost as many storms as it has seasons, with Hurricanes Helene and Milton providing the latest wallops. But at least it’s making a tidy business serving FEMA workers.

How did Allegiant paint the latest difficulty for its beleaguered hotel project? Quartz’s Melvin Backman pulls out the company’s comments on the matter.

Here’s to channeling new business

Starbucks is hoping that customers will grant it a bit of their screen time. The screen in question? Televisions.

As it tries to streamline its business and menu in a bid to capture some of its lost magic, the company is rolling out a series of new TV ads. Starbucks hopes that customers wink-wink “across age groups” will tune in and start showing up again.

Quartz’s Francisco Velasquez previews the coffee giant’s latest media strategy and spells out what it says about how the company sees itself these days.

MORE FROM QUARTZ

📉 AI darling Super Micro Computer might get delisted from Nasdaq amid an accounting scandal

💲 US companies are preparing to pass along possible Trump tariffs to their customers

🏗️ Microsoft can’t build data centers fast enough to keep up with AI demand

👎 Stellantis executives say that things are going from bad to worse

🚃 Rich people are attaching their own private cabooses to Amtrak trains

🤖 Meta is on an AI spending spree amid the technology’s growing potential as an ad market

SURPRISING DISCOVERIES

Tesla is making a lot of second-hand sales in Uruguay. Customers don’t have a dealership they can go to, so they’re importing the cars from China.

An entire nunnery was once possessed by demons. After a public-square group exorcism, they said a local priest and church critic had bewitched them — he was burned at the stake.

New York City’s Meatpacking District will soon have no meatpackers. The last processing facility in the neighborhood is picking up stakes.

A growing specialty in divorce law is influencer social media accounts. Whose followers will follow whom after a split is a question with a lot of money on the line. (paywall)

Donald Trump’s childhood home has been taken over by feral cats. Neighbors say an absentee landlord has left the Queens tudor a cobwebbed, stinky mess. (paywall) 

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Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, tainted onions, and influencer asset split suggestions to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Melvin Backman and Audrey McNamara.