Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Pakistan’s parliament elects a new prime minister. Ruling party member Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is expected to be named interim PM until the brother of Nawaz Sharif—ousted by the Supreme Court over corruption charges last week—becomes eligible to take over in about two months.
Apple’s quarterly earnings will hinge on iPhone details. It’s going to be a relatively fallow quarter—by Apple’s standards at least—as customers and investors alike wait for news on its next smartphone. If the 10th anniversary iPhone launch date slips to October, it wouldn’t be tallied in the current fiscal year.
A deadline in bitcoin’s civil war. Users are considering a controversial proposal to increase the number of transactions that the cryptocurrency can handle, with the final decision due at 12:20pm UTC. If enough miners opt in, it could create a new variant, known as “bitcoin cash.”
While you were sleeping
Donald Trump dumped his foul-mouthed communications director after only 10 days. Anthony Scaramucci was reportedly ousted (paywall) at the request of the new White House chief of staff, John Kelly. The latest round of musical chairs comes just days after Kelly’s predecessor, Reince Priebus, resigned in the face of Scaramucci’s profane rants.
South Korean exports continued their rally in July. Thanks in part to strong demand for semiconductors, they were up 19.5% from a year ago, marking the ninth-straight month of increased shipments, and the seventh in a row of double-digit growth. Economists had predicted a rise of 16%. Exports to India were particularly strong, surging 79% on-year.
Sony bought a Texas-based anime distributor for $143 million. The purchase of Funimation by Sony Pictures Television Networks will help works like Cowboy Bebop, Dragon Ball Z, and Attack on Titan reach a wider audience. Funimation also exposed Americans to Your Name, which has generated over $350 million in theaters worldwide.
Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics in 2028, not 2024. That will give it more time to do something about the horrible traffic. The city reached a deal with the International Olympic Committee to let Paris go first and host in 2024, reported the Los Angeles Times, and gained various concessions from the IOC in the process.
Quartz obsession interlude
Lila MacLellan on the use of shame as a management tactic. “In most offices, employees want to hide or minimize gaffes, lest they impact a performance review, get them fired, or—and this is a big one—tarnish their reputation among peers… So we protect ourselves by not asking questions, and by not admitting to slip-ups.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Robots are coming for the managers, too. Running a team is just another workflow to be automated.
Putin’s bet on Trump has backfired. Moscow has painted the US president into a corner (paywall), making it impossible for him to lift sanctions.
China needs more tourists. Despite efforts to develop “soft power,” unfriendliness toward foreigners is taking an economic toll.
Surprising discoveries
A UK airport has declared a “Marmite amnesty.” London City is offering passengers a travel-sized version of the salty spread.
Billionaires are flocking to a trailer park in the Hamptons. A beachside mobile home is perfect for storing your surfboards.
Honolulu is banning pedestrians from texting at crosswalks. “Distracted walking” fines start at $35 for first-time offenders.
Too much sleep could give you nightmares. An exhaustive study found a link between bad dreams and more than nine hours of sleep a night.
Saturn’s largest moon could support life. The discovery of vinyl cyanide means alien cells could be viable despite Titan’s frigid temperatures.
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