Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Russia begins war games designed to rattle NATO. The Kremlin will mobilize troops in Russia and Belarus, near the borders of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, pitting “the Northern ones” against “the Western ones.” NATO says the war games will use more than 100,000 troops, in contravention of its agreements with Russia.
A formal inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire opens. The probe will focus on the causes of the fire, building regulations, and the actions of authorities in the run-up to the June tragedy, which killed at least 80 people in a London residential tower. An interim report is scheduled to be published by Easter next year.
The Bank of England announces an interest rate decision. The central bank is expected to hold rates steady, as recent data showed that wage growth remained sluggish even as unemployment improved—but higher-than-expected inflation could increase the number of dissenters who want an earlier rate hike.
Donald Trump visits Florida. The US president and first lady will survey the damage caused by Hurricane Irma. The storm ravaged the Caribbean and southern Florida, leaving more than 60 dead.
While you were sleeping
Martin Shkreli was sent to jail. A judge in Brooklyn ordered the “Pharma Bro” to go to prison while he awaits his sentence for securities fraud, due to a Sept. 4 Facebook post where he offered a $5,000 bounty for a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair. Shkreli was convicted in August of defrauding investors in two hedge funds that he ran, and his sentencing is scheduled for January.
Democrats struck a deal with Trump to protect DREAMers. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi said after a dinner with the president that the two sides agreed to enshrine into law “quickly” safeguards for some 800,000 young illegal immigrants who were protected by president Obama’s DACA program—which Trump recently ended. The agreement also includes more funding for border security, excluding the border wall.
Apple discussed a $3 billion investment in Toshiba’s chip unit. Apple is in talks to take an equity stake in Toshiba’s memory chips business as part of a consortium led by Bain Capital, Bloomberg reported. If successful, the deal would be Apple’s biggest since it bought Beats Electronics in 2014.
Tesla set a target date for the unveiling of its semi truck. CEO Elon Musk announced in a tweet that the Tesla Semi would be revealed next month. The truck can reportedly travel between 200 and 300 miles on a single charge.
Another city council in Melbourne scrapped Australia Day. Moreland became the third council in the Australian city to abandon official celebrations on Jan. 26, amid a long-running debate over the offensiveness of the date to the indigenous population. Montreal, meanwhile, also decided to add the symbol of the Iroquois to its flag.
Quartz obsession interlude
Thu Huong-Ha on the trolls who flooded Amazon with bad reviews of Hillary Clinton’s book. “Books get reviewed badly, and people leave reviews for books they didn’t read or products they’ve never used. These things happen. But of the book’s 1,600 or so reviews as of this morning, only 338 were from users with verified purchases of the book… A person could conceivably buy a book in a store and then hate it so much she runs home to review it on Amazon, but that’s probably not what happened here.” Read more here.
Markets haiku
Bad day to be Swatch / Which got taken down a notch / By the Apple Watch
Matters of debate
Warren Buffett broke American capitalism. At its heart, “Buffettism” is about avoiding competition (paywall) and limiting capital investment in the real economy.
Young employees are better at solving problems. More “entrenched” workers, on the other hand, tend to look for solutions in how things have always been done.
The tech titan backlash is coming. Frustrations over globalization, automation, and corporate consolidation will come to a head for companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon.
Surprising discoveries
A British museum wants a piece of London’s massive fatberg. The Museum of London’s director said that displaying the sewer-clogging mass of oil, fat, diapers, and baby wipes “would raise questions about how we live today.”
Two variants of infinity are actually the same size. A breakthrough in mathematics settled a longstanding question about whether one infinity can be smaller than another.
Apple Park smells like leather, wood, rubber, and manure. Tuesday’s iPhone event marked the first time anyone outside of select employees had a chance to see smell Apple’s new HQ.
The US has more female bartenders than male ones. Since 1950, occupations like optician, HR professional, and bill collector have also shifted to majority-female from majority-male.
Dogs can sniff out child pornography. “Electronic-detection forensic K9” units are taught to smell small hidden electronics in suspected predators’ homes.
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