Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Markets brace for a Fed rate hike. Chairman Jerome Powell is due to announce the first rise in the US central bank’s benchmark rate this year. Markets are waiting for signals about how many hikes will follow, and the Fed’s updated view on economic growth and inflation.
Pratt and Whitney delivers spare engines for India’s stranded jets. IndiGo was forced to ground 11 Airbus SE A320neo aircraft due to safety concerns, wiping $600 million off its market value.
Two low-level Facebook staffers brief angry US lawmakers. The company’s associate general counsel and deputy chief privacy officer will tell Congress why it allowed Cambridge Analytica—a marketing firm used by the Trump presidential campaign—to harvest the information of tens of millions of users.
While you were sleeping
Cambridge Analytica suspended CEO Andrew Nix. The chief executive of the political consulting firm was captured on hidden-camera footage by the UK’s Channel 4 bragging about extorting and bribing foreign officials. Separately, UK regulators are seeking a warrant to seize the firm’s servers and other data.
Mark Zuckerberg was AWOL at an all-hands Facebook crisis meeting. The CEO, who has been notably silent since damning reports about the social media company’s interactions with Cambridge Analytica, was not present at an internal meeting open to all employees to discuss the scandal. Lawmakers in the US and UK are also pressing for Zuckerberg to answer questions directly.
A gunman shot two fellow students at a Maryland high school. Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17, armed with a handgun, injured a 16-year-old female and a 14-year-old male before he was killed in a shootout with a school police officer. Students from Great Mills High School had marched only days earlier in a nationwide walkout to protest school shootings.
Donald Trump can’t dodge a defamation suit. A Manhattan judge ruled that a US president must face a lawsuit from a former Apprentice contestant, Summer Zervos, who accused Trump in 2016 of sexual assault. Her suit claims that he defamed her by saying her statements were “fiction” and made “for personal gain.”
Quartz obsession interlude
Tim Fernholz on how a startup launched satellites after the US said no: “Security experts have already been sounding the alarm about how easier access to space could have bad effects, too, warning that it could quickly create a space traffic management issue. This time around, the worst case scenario is an accidental collision, but future sneaky satellites could be operated by people with more pernicious aims.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Tell your boss about your weaknesses. They’ll help you reinforce your desire to keep learning and improving.
Deleting Facebook improves happiness. Whether or not you’re sending the company a message, you’ll increase your appreciation of what’s actually important in life.
Race affects economic mobility more than class. In the US, black males make substantially less than whites, even if they have similar backgrounds.
Surprising discoveries
South Korea is using K-pop diplomacy with North Korea. More than 150 artists will travel to Pyongyang, where no South Korean has performed since 2005.
Jeff Bezos has a terrifying robot dog. Boston Dynamics’ door-opening Spot Mini strolled casually next to the world’s richest man at a robotics conference.
Child abuse images could bring down bitcoin. Unidentified users have been using the blockchain to store and distribute disturbing images of minors.
Gerhard Schroeder has inspired a new word for “corruption.” The German ex-chancellor’s relationship with Vladimir Putin has inspired the useful term “Schroederization.”
Alabama sheriffs skim money from jail food budgets, and it’s all legal. A landscaper blew the whistle, and now he’s locked up too.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, K-pop ambassadors, and non-threatening robodogs to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our apps for iPhone and Android. Today’s Daily Brief was written and edited by Susan Howson and Adam Pasick.