🌍 A chaotic 44 days

GOOD MORNING, QUARTZ READERS!*

Here’s what you need to know

A new Tory leader will be confirmed on Oct. 28. Liz Truss’s resignation makes her the UK’s shortest-serving prime minister after a chaotic 44 days in power (more below).

The EU met to discuss an energy price cap. The bloc aims to reach an agreement at a summit ending today (Oct. 21) amid an ongoing energy crisis. Meanwhile, member states have agreed to place new sanctions on Iran over drones supplied to Russia. The UK has done the same.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi launched his 1 million jobs initiative. An initial 75,000 new government positions will be filled in a bid to tackle a 7% unemployment rate ahead of next month’s elections.

Tesla lowered its target for vehicle deliveries. CEO Elon Musk downplayed concerns about weak demand, stating the EV maker is “recession-resilient.”

Hyundai is investigating reports of child labor in its US supply chain. The South Korean car maker has promised to cut ties with suppliers in Alabama that used underage workers.

India slapped Google with a $162 million fine. Antitrust regulators in the tech giant’s largest market by user base found it engaged in anti-competitive practices with its Android devices.

What to watch for

The year is 2022 and Taylor Swift is banking on potentially record-setting vinyl sales.

Taylor Swift is releasing four different vinyl editions of her new album Midnights for $29.99 each. Each edition features art that, if combined together, forms a clock—and Swift is selling a $49 kit for super-fans who want to spend close to $200 assembling the clock-as-wall art.

Vinyl is undoubtedly having a moment. Streaming subscription services such as Spotify rake in about 68% of industry revenue, but vinyl is the most popular format for people purchasing music. In 2021, vinyl outsold CDs for the first time in three decades. CDs sales also increased last year, and Swift took notice. She’s releasing four editions of her album on CD, too.

Taylor Swift’s new album, Midnights, is likely not just another blockbuster for Miss Americana herself, but also a bellwether for a music industry where everything old is new again.

Loss in Truss

The UK is about to undergo its second prime minister switch in less than four months. There’re a lot of questions that remain unanswered, with the big one being who’ll succeed Liz Truss. Ex-chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak is a favorite, but a Boris Johnson boomerang isn’t impossible.

We’ve compiled a reading list to get you ready for next week’s leadership contest:

📅 Recap: A six-week timeline of turmoil under Truss

🗳 Why the UK can’t easily call a general election

📉 In freaking out, the UK markets did their job

🧐 What the UK should do instead of tax cuts

🥬 Will the next PM outlive a head of lettuce? 

✦ That’s not all—Quartz members will get an exclusive deep dive into the aftermath of Truss’s rise and fall in our next Weekend Brief. Sign up for a membership today to get the email this Saturday, along with a 50% discount, on us.

“Make in India” has a long way to go

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has pushed his “Make in India” initiative for the past eight years, trying to wean the country off its dependence on China-made goods. But even after billions of rupees in investments, Modi’s hard sought self-reliance has failed to materialize as China’s trade surplus with India has now exceeded $1 trillion.

India is still a long way off from its target, which seems to only be moving farther away.

30%: Increase in India’s imports from China in the past five years

$125.6 billion: Bilateral trade in 2021, which crossed the $100 billion threshold for the first time

$97.5 billion: Portion of 2021 bilateral trade that constituted India’s imports from China

Quartz’s most popular

💩 US home buyers and sellers are facing the worst market in a decade

🛒 The Kroger-Albertsons merger raises one big question: Why now?

🥫 An aluminum bellwether’s unexpected loss adds to recession concerns

🔒 Ghanaian traders are locking shops to protest 37% inflation

🤑 COP27 is all about the money

👑 India’s festival-time gold obsession hasn’t lit up yet

Surprising discoveries

2,700-year-old rock carvings were found in Iraq. They were unearthed by the city gates to the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh.

McDonald’s toys have $300,000 price tags on eBay. Collectors are really lovin’ the new adult Happy Meal items.

Students in the Philippines made some A+ anti-cheating headgear. Egg carton caps are the hottest thing this fall/winter exam season.

A Victorian railway tunnel has become a motorsports hotspot. It’s the perfect place to test out aerodynamics.

Bionic noses are nothing to sneeze at. The neuroprosthetic could help people recover their sense of smell.

Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, Grimace dolls, and Victorian tunnel maps to [email protected]. Reader support makes Quartz available to all—become a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Sofia Lotto Persio, Scott Nover, Julia Malleck, Niharika Sharma, and Morgan Haefner.

*We hope you have a wonderful INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY this Saturday (Oct. 22). May you write both AGGRESSIVELY and EXPRESSIVELY.