Quartz Daily Brief—Another plane crash, Japan’s inflation, Kiev elections, near-fatal solar storm
Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Subianto challenges the Indonesia election results. After Joko Widodo was declared the victor of the country’s presidential elections with 53% of the vote, candidate Prabowo Subianto raised questions about the validity of the votes, and said his team would submit a court claim (paywall) by the end of the week.
Japan’s inflation may dip. Japan will probably report that its consumer price inflation rose to 3.3% in June, a slight slowdown from May as the impact of the weak yen on higher import costs fades, but economists say inflation should pick up in line with Bank of Japan’s economic outlook.
The UK has some high expectations to achieve. The Office for National Statistics is expected to give its first second-quarter GDP estimate for the United Kingdom. Although the International Monetary Fund cut the global growth forecast yesterday, they upgraded their UK’s economic growth rate expectations for the fourth time in nine months.
Africa will help Danone’s earnings. French food group Danone will post its quarterly earnings, which are likely to be boosted by this month’s announcement of buying 40% of Kenya’s Brookside, East Africa’s top dairy producer, as part of the company’s expansion to Africa.
While you were sleeping
Israel hit a UN shelter. A UN-run school used as a shelter for Palestinians to escape fighting in Gaza was shelled by Israeli tanks, killing 15 and injuring 200 and marking it the fourth time UN facilities have been hit in the 16-day long conflict so far.
Another plane crashed. Air Algerie Flight 5017 disappeared over northern Mali en route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algiers after the company asked the plane to reroute because of bad weather. French troops found the crashed plane, which was carrying 110 passengers and 6 crew members, in Tilemsi, Mali, making it the third airline disaster this week. There is still no indication of the cause or casualties.
Ukraine’s prime minister resigned. Arseniy Yatsenyuk resigned abruptly as Ukraine’s prime minister after the ruling coalition in parliament collapsed; the two major parties who stepped in after president Petro Poroshenko was ousted announced their departure, allowing the president to call elections this fall.
Barclays tried to get rid of its “dark pool” lawsuit. The UK lender tried to dismiss New York attorney general’s lawsuit that accused the bank of lying to clients about operating a high-speed trading venue. The bank said the lawsuit was flawed in the sense that it failed to identify fraud.
GM profits plunged. In its quarterly report, General Motors announced an estimated $400 million needed to compensate families who died in cars with faulty ignition switches, and saw a 85% drop in net income from last year because of huge recall and repair costs, but surprisingly saw a rise in revenue, despite bad press.
A good day for Sodastream, Zillow and Trulia investors. The Israeli maker of home soda machines saw its shares soar after the announcement that it was in possible talks about a sale with an investment firm, while the announcement of a possible deal that would combine the two real estate websites led to a jump in their shares.
Quartz obsession interlude
Adam Epstein on American cable channels blending into an indistinguishable swamp of reality TV. “TLC is not the only one abandoning its roots. Dozens of basic cable networks no longer adhere to any core identity or defined genre of programming. MTV (which stood at one time for “Music Television”) infamously airs very little music programming. Two of the most popular shows on The History Channel (now just called History) are Pawn Stars and Ice Road Truckers. Animal Planet’s most watched program last year was a pseudoscience “mocudrama” on mermaids.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
India’s Arvind Kerjiwal can learn a few things from Indonesia’s president-elect. The two men have a lot in common, but Kerjiwal is struggling to find his feet.
Israel’s airports should have remained open. ” [C]losing down access to major infrastructure networks in the face of terrorist threats can be self-defeating,” says former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Iraq needs to define their ethnic identity, and address the black population (paywall).
Asia should worry about Xi Jinping. China’s leader has far too much power for any one man.
Russia shouldn’t host the World Cup in 2018, unless Putin offers some answers on MH17.
Surprising discoveries
A solar storm almost destroyed Earth. The most powerful solar storm in more than 150 years just missed our planet in 2012.
Vogue is getting skinnier. The famously-thick September issue is slimming down.
Surgeons removed 232 teeth from a teen in India. They believe it was a world-record operation.
Powerful people have a distorted perception of time. Their feelings of control spill over onto their sense of time, making them think they have more of it.
Star Wars characters are more favorable than U.S. Congress members. Darth Vader polled higher than all US potential 2016 candidates.
Electric guitars and the human voice aren’t too far off from each other. They use the same patterns of sound (paywall).
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, baby teeth, and favorite Star Wars characters to [email protected]. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day.