Quartz Daily Brief—HK heats up, Netflix gets Adam Sandler, Rocket’s IPO fizzles, neighborhood drone defense
Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Will Turkey join the fight against the Islamic State? The country’s parliament will vote on whether to augment the firepower currently being supplied by the US and its allies. The Syrian town of Kobani—right on Turkey’s border—is about to be captured by IS fighters.
The European Central Bank tries to save the day (again). The ECB is expected announce details of a bond-buying plan at its monthly meeting, its latest attempt to jumpstart the euro zone’s moribund economy. The euro hit a two-year low against the dollar on Wednesday, partly due to disappointing manufacturing data.
Brazil’s presidential candidates get their last chance to shine. Dilma Rousseff and Marina Silva have one more debate before the first round of elections on October 5, though a run-off vote between the two on October 26 will almost certainly be needed.
A US labor market check-up. Yesterday’s ADP employment figures demonstrated a steadily improving job market, and weekly jobless figures due today have already fallen so far that some analysts think they can’t go any lower.
While you were sleeping
Hong Kong’s protests got tense. Pro-democracy demonstrators who have shut down central Hong Kong for five days are calling for CY Leung, the city’s chief executive, to step down, and have vowed to storm government buildings if he doesn’t leave by midnight local time. But Beijing is pledging its support for Leung and police are warning of serious consequences if protesters don’t stand down.
Netflix got into the Adam Sandler business. The actor’s Happy Madison production company will produce four feature films to premiere exclusively on Netflix, which seems to be making a surprising foray into action movie sequels and lowbrow comedies. Many of Sandler’s latest films have tanked at the box office and been savaged by critics.
Rocket Internet’s IPO misfired. The German technology incubator’s shares fell 12% on their first day of trading in Frankfurt. Rocket, often accused of cloning other online business ideas, priced the 1.6 billion-euro sale at the top end of its expected range, giving the company an initial value of €6.7 billion ($8.5 billion).
Is China finally choosing reform over growth? The central government said it would begin capping local governments’ borrowing levels to encourage accountability—though it didn’t specify the amount of the quota. The move could mean a short-term drop in infrastructure spending and is unlikely to help China reach its 7.5% annual GDP growth target.
Sierra Leone’s Ebola outbreak is accelerating. The West African country reported 765 new cases of the disease last week—about five per hour—and its health care shortfalls are having horrific results. Separately, US officials are ramping up plans to produce the anti-Ebola drug ZMapp by growing it on tobacco leaves, but that will only result in a few dozen courses of treatment per month.
Hyundai workers returned to the factory floor. Staff voted by a slim 51.5% margin to end to a strike that was expanded after Hyundai paid $10 billion for a trophy plot of land in Seoul’s Gangnam district. The company’s workers, who will each receive payments of 8.9 million won ($8,400), have gone on strike in all but four of the union’s 27 years.
Quartz obsession interlude
Gwynn Guilford on why the US anti-vaccine movement is scarier than the Ebola virus. “The 592 cases [of measles] reported thus far in 2014 are a far cry from the measles incidence before the vaccination campaign started, in 1963. Back then, about 550,000 Americans came down with the virus each year; around 500 of those people died. But it’s still the highest number of cases since measles was ‘eliminated.’ … As a study last year of a 2010 California whooping cough outbreak found, more people declined to vaccine their children for ‘non-medical reasons’ than any year since 1947, when the vaccine was introduced.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Modern parenting is killing the modern marriage. The “parenthood religion” leaves no room for adult relationships.
Vice broke US law with its Islamic State documentary. It arguably gave material support to a terrorist organization.
Mars is humankind’s insurance policy. Elon Musk promises the first colony will be operational by 2040.
Facebook feeds our addiction to justice. We love sharing ridiculous articles that make us mad.
Celebrities who take nude selfies are idiots. “Stupidity is something you can only partly save people from,” says the new EU digital chief.
Surprising discoveries
A New Jersey man shot down his neighbor’s drone. It was taking images of another property nearby.
Contact lenses used to be made out of glass. You couldn’t close your eyes while wearing them.
Tom and Jerry comes with a racism warning. Amazon points to racial prejudices that were “once commonplace in American society.”
Those little blue pills could make you blind. One in 50 men carry a gene that makes them susceptible to Viagra blindness.
CrossFit for kids is a thing. The notoriously hard-core exercise company says it wants to make pre-school fitness fun.
Click here for more surprising discoveries on Quartz.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, tickets to Mars, and neighborhood drone defense plans to [email protected]. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day.