Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Brace yourself as Donald Trump makes a “major” announcement. The president said he will make an announcement about North Korea, trade, and other issues that came up during his 12-day Asia tour. He didn’t get more specific than that.
Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron stand up for the environment. The French and German leaders are on a diplomatic offensive at the UN climate conference in Bonn, Germany, especially in light of the US delegation’s behavior: the White House hosted an event pushing the use of fossil fuels on Monday.
Cisco reports quarterly earnings. Investors will want to see how the company is doing with its push into cloud software. It announced Monday that it was collaborating with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to build next-generation data centers.
While you were sleeping
The military seized control in Zimbabwe. Although it released a statement saying this was not a coup, the army seized state TV and put soldiers and tanks onto the streets of the capital, Harare. An army spokesman said president Robert Mugabe, in power since 1980, is safe and in custody. Army chief Constantine Chiwenga is believed to back vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was sacked recently by Mugabe in favour of his wife, Grace.
Airbus nailed the largest commercial jet deal in history. It bested rival Boeing at the Dubai Air Show, after US investor Indigo Partners bought 430 of its planes for nearly $50 billion. Indigo will use the planes to boost the low-carrier fleets in its Frontier Airlines investment portfolio.
Tencent is on a tear. The Chinese tech giant posted a 69% rise in profit for the last quarter thanks to its expanding ad business and the success of games like Honor of Kings. The owner of WeChat acquired 12% of Snap this month, and last week two of its affiliate companies, search firm Sogou and e-book specialist China Literature, had blockbuster IPOs.
Rex Tillerson spoke about the Rohingya in Myanmar. The secretary of state arrived in Myanmar on Wednesday and met with the head of the armed forces and, separately, with de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He called for an investigation into human-rights abuses against the Rohingya Muslims—more than 600,000 have been driven out of Myanmar in what the UN described as “ethnic cleansing.”
Australians said yes to same-sex marriage. More than 60% said they were in favor of it in a national postal survey that saw strong participation. Following the results, lawmakers pledged to make same-sex marriage a legal reality in the country before the end of the year.
Quartz obsession interlude
Leah Fessler on how your company’s Slack is probably sexist. “I noticed that some people seemed untroubled by any such self-doubt—the ones who posted blunt statements, or dropped in links with no context. They responded to others’ statements with sharp critiques, ‘no,’ or radio silence. This behavior—standoffish at best, boorish at worst—conveyed power. Many of these people, I noticed, were men.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Visionary founders make the worst CEOs. The talents necessary to conceive and launch a product are different to those needed to manage and grow a company.
Building new homes on existing rooftops can fix London’s housing crisis. New geospatial mapping software has identified locations for 41,000 new dwellings on unused roofs.
Touching the art in museums is only natural. Museum guards may be exasperated by our inability to keep our hands to ourselves, but touching connects viewers with creators.
Surprising discoveries
Metalheads are the most loyal music fans. Spotify data show that they are up to 50% more devoted to their genre than followers of hip-hop, country, or rock.
The world has up to 20% more farmland than previously thought. Assessments of previously mapped areas were inaccurate, and some places were simply unmapped, said the US Geological Survey.
People watch Netflix in unlikely places. Two-thirds of users stream video in public, 26% watch at work—and 7% watch in public bathrooms.
Smog-fighting helicopters in New Delhi were foiled by too much smog. The Indian capital is in the throes of life-threatening air pollution—but the ‘copters may not have helped much anyway.
A shortage of saline bags is wreaking havoc in the US health-care sector. Disrupted factories in Puerto Rico and a federal investigation are causing big problems in the supply chain.
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