What to watch for today
EU leaders tackle the refugee crisis. European Council president Donald Tusk visits Turkey and Greece to try to find a solution for the 25,000 migrants trapped at Greece’s borders. British prime minister David Cameron also meets with French president François Hollande in Amiens, in northern France, to discuss migration and security.
The Geneva International Motor Show begins. Automakers unveil their latest high-performance cars as they look to navigate a rapidly changing industry. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, arriving early in Switzerland, suggested that Apple should hire a traditional carmaker to build its long-rumored vehicle.
Hints from a meeting of China’s leaders. The Communist Party’s legislature begins its annual session in Beijing. The focus is China’s next five-year development plan, and we can expect to find out how the government intends to tackle the economic slowdown.
Brazil’s woeful GDP. The economy is expected to post a 3.7% decline for 2015—the biggest annual drop since 1990. Brazil is struggling with low demand for its natural resources, government austerity programs, and stagnant consumer spending.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise reports earnings. The corporate hardware and services business is expected to show low profits on weak IT spending. Investors will likely hear about some cost-cutting plans.
While you were sleeping
Toshiba sought another $1.8 billion to continue restructuring. The struggling Japanese electronics company approached three lenders for the loan, according to Reuters. The news sent shares up 7.1%; they had been previously hammered by an accounting scandal.
French authorities investigated UBS. The bank is accused of witness tampering after a complaint by a former employee. The group’s woes keep mounting; Belgian authorities launched a formal investigation (paywall) last week into whether the bank helped its clients there evade taxes.
North Korea lashed out at new sanctions. The isolated nation fired short-range projectiles into waters off the peninsula, said South Korea’s defense ministry, which earlier reported the objects as “missiles.” The defiant act followed the UN issuing stringent sanctions against the country yesterday.
Samsonite edged closer to buying Tumi. The luggage maker could pay up to $2 billion for its luxury rival, which makes high-end luggage and other cases, reported the Wall Street Journal (paywall). Both companies have seen their share price decline due to the strong US dollar and a slowing Chinese economy.
Uber launched a motorbike service in India. It announced the offering for tech hub Bangalore hours before Ola, a domestic competitor, announced a similar launch. Uber’s pilot motorbike project launched in Bangkok last week; its autorickshaw service in Delhi in 2015 failed after just seven months.
Adidas released a positive forecast. The German sports-shoe maker expects a 12% increase in net income this year, thanks to a jump in consumer spending around the Euro 2016 soccer tournament this summer. Raising prices allowed it to offset higher Asian manufacturing costs, it said.
Quartz obsession interlude
Adam Pasick on the anonymous hipsters helping Spotify find hot new tracks. “The music streaming giant is taking a new approach with the expansion of its Fresh Finds playlists. They come out once a week, just like Discover Weekly. But Fresh Finds playlists aren’t personalized—instead they rely on the tastemakers among Spotify’s 100 million users, using them like an early-warning system for music.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
The cold, hard truth: it’s game over for Bernie Sanders. He needs to face up to his defeat.
There’s yet another upside to plunging oil prices. It puts pressure on autocratic regimes.
Mozart won’t make your baby smarter. The persistent parenthood myth is completely unsupported by science.
Surprising discoveries
The first shot at Tiger Woods’s new golf course was a hole-in-one. The player was only 11 years old.
There’s a new record for world’s longest non-stop flight by distance. Emirates flew between Auckland and Dubai in 16 hours—and landed an hour early.
Osama bin Laden cared more about climate change than most politicians. He called for Barack Obama to save the world from “harmful [greenhouse] gases.”
South Korean lawmakers set a new global filibuster record. They spent almost nine days reading aloud from George Orwell’s novel 1984 as well as internet comments.
A team of refugees will take part at the Olympics. More than 40 high-performance athletes have been identified as candidates.
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