Quartz Daily Brief—CIA torture, Spain bans Uber, French hostages no more, very moist towelettes
Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
France tackles unemployment and the 35-hour work week. ”Either the country choses to move backwards, to look inwards, or we decide to choose the future and to be open to the world,” said prime minister Manuel Valls earlier this month. He was talking about the labor reforms economy minister Emmanuel Macron is unveiling today.
Wall Street prices a peer-to-peer lending company. LendingClub’s stock will be priced before trading starts on Thursday. The firm, the largest of its kind, has enabled $6 billion of loans since 2007, and expects to raise as much as $929 million.
Jakarta grinds to a halt. Four trade unions representing millions of employees are staging a two-day strike over seven demands, including raising the country’s minimum wage and getting rid of outsourcing for state-owned companies.
India’s online shopping bonanza gets going. The third annual three-day shopping festival run by Google India kicks off. The search giant has partnered with 400 local players to make sure everything goes according to plan. No one wants to order a Samsung phone and get a bar of soap in the mail.
Malala Yousafzai picks up her Nobel Peace Prize. The 17-year old who was shot for daring to advocate for a woman’s right to an education will be the youngest recipient of the prize. She’s sharing it with Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi. The Nobel committee got both praise and scorn for choosing an Indian and a Pakistani as co-winners.
While you were sleeping
The US Senate published its report on CIA torture. The “brutal” interrogations often produced “fabricated” information, said Senate intelligence committee chair Dianne Feinstein, presenting the report (pdf), which describes some pretty gruesome practices and says the CIA repeatedly misled the president, Congress, and the public.
Spain became the latest country to ban Uber. A rape allegation shut Uber down in India earlier this week. Now a judge in Spain has decided to axe the car-sharing service because it’s ”unfair competition” for local cab drivers. Over on the other side of the pond, the US city of Portland sued Uber less than a week after going live.
Abercrombie & Fitch let its CEO go. Effective immediately, Michael Jeffries is out as both CEO and as a board member of the clothing maker with a reputation of hiring only beautiful people to work at its retail stores. Jeffries’ successor hasn’t been named, but the board said it’s begun looking at both internal and external candidates.
France freed its final hostage. It took three years, but Serge Lazarevic is coming home. He was captured in Mali in Nov. 2011 along with Philippe Verdon, who was executed last year. President François Hollande says there are now no more French hostages anywhere in the world; that, Barack Obama has peevishly said (paywall), is because France pays ransoms.
Citigroup has some pretty expensive lawyers. The firm said it will swallow an uncomfortably large $3.5 billion charge in its fourth quarter, all but wiping out any profit. That sum includes a $2.7 billion bill for the legal case brought against Citigroup—and several other banks—alleging that they rigged interest rates and foreign-exchange markets.
Cheap credit will keep aircraft makers busy next year. Boeing predicted aircraft financing will hit $124 billion in 2015 as companies place orders for more than 1,300 planes (paywall). This year, Boeing and Airbus together built over 1,200. A diverse market—China holds the most aircraft debt, while the US has only 9%—is helping keep lending prices down.
Quartz obsession interlude
Gwynn Guilford on the environmental impact of your next vacation. “Some 20 million people board cruise ships every year. And while they might return to land with fond memories of umbrella drinks and shuffleboard, they leave a lot at sea. About a billion tons of sewage, in fact.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
The conflicts in Sudan aren’t quite hopeless. At least the peace talks are now all happening in the same city.
Someone should take over Tesco. British supermarkets could use some consolidation.
The Hunger Games trilogy is sending the wrong message. It’s telling young people to violently overthrow the people in power.
Income inequality isn’t just bad for the poor. It lowers overall GDP growth, says the OECD.
Publishing the CIA torture report was reckless and cynical. It was just an attempt by Democrats who originally supported torture to look like they opposed it.
Surprising discoveries
Be careful what you wish for. When a Hungarian mayor proposed mandatory annual drug tests for teenagers, several showed up to his office with jars of urine in hand.
Want a nice little earner? Become a bricklayer. The UK has a serious shortage, forcing companies to import workers from Portugal at double market rates.
Social media saves lives. The World Food Program was able to restart a food voucher program for Syrian refugees after raising $1.8 million in three days via the #ADollarALifeline hashtag.
Drugs will find a way. New Zealand authorities caught two men importing moist towelettes soaked in $1 million worth of liquid methamphetamine.
Soda taxes work. Mexico’s sugar tax made soda sales decline by 10% and bottled-water sales grow by 13%.
Click here for more surprising discoveries on Quartz.
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